True Blood is back this summer and news on the news season, along with images of a crazy-looking Rutger Hauer, are trickling in.

The latest word is news of a new bad-gal vamp character, Dominika.  House’s Karolina Wydra will play the lady blood sucker.

“Wydra’s recurring character, Violet, is described as a strong, sexy, possibly dangerous vamp on par with the Eric Northmans and Bill Comptons of the world,” TVLine said.

Wydra can also be seen in Sebastián Cordero upcoming sc-fi film Europa Report alongside Sharlto Copley.

via TVLine.com

VHS boxes hold great nostalgic appeal for people who grew up staring at them in video stores. Many fans made decisions on what to watch based solely on the box – and some boxes boasted holograms, recordings of audio from the movie, or some sort of pop up effect.  Awesome website Freddy in Space has collaborated with artist Frank Browning to re-imagine new movies with a vintage '80s style VHS box art feel. Check out a few of them below and visit the Facebook page for all of them.Drag Me to Hell looks especially authentic with that rainbow cover.
 

 

 

Dust off your old sticker book and make room for these custom-designed beauties. Each pack includes an illustration of the main characters from some of the best horror films of all time including The Thing, Monster Squad, and of course, Evil Dead.

Details straight from the seller:

"We're going to get you, we're going to get you...not another peep, time to go to sleep..."

Resurrect your own Candarian demons with this pack of Evil Dead-ite stickers! Each pack comes with one Linda, one Cheryl, one Ed, one Crazed Deer, and one Evil Ash! Stickers are designed and hand cut by me, and measure roughly 3-4" on their longest side.
 

$7.58 on etsy.com

I first came across R. Thomas Riley's work when I read and reviewed the great collection The Monster Within Idea. Since then, R. Thomas has written several other collections and novels, and worked with some of the more well-known “small” press publishers.

From his bio: R. Thomas Riley is the author of the short story collection The Monster Within Idea (2009-2011), published by Hugo-nominated Apex Publications and re-released as a Kindle exclusive in 2011. His second story collection, Their Last Dying Acts, was released in July 2012; and Husks was released in August 2012. If God Doesn’t Show - a Gibson Blount novel (co-written with John Grover) - was published by Permuted Press and Audible.com in August 2012. The Flesh of Fallen Angels - a Gibson Blount novella (co-written with Roy C. Booth) - was published by Grand Mal Press in February 2012. Diaphanous (co-written with Roy C. Booth) is available now on Kindle. The Day Lufberry Won It All was adapted to short film by Frosty Moon Omnimedia in 2010.

R. Thomas Riley recently agreed to interview with FEARnet about his upcoming works.

You have a new collection being released soon. What's it about?

My newest collection is with co-author Lisa McCarthy. It’s called Of Flesh and Skin. Lisa previously released a novella, The Butterfly Waltz, and it is a well-written, thought-provoking, wrenching study of a disintegrating marriage and the fight to save it. The sex scenes were written with skill and attention to detail, and there was hardly a wasted word in the piece.

I loved the novella and during a conversation with Lisa, the idea of writing a series of darker, erotic fiction stories was broached. Why couldn't there be erotic stories that were well written, deeper, and thought provoking, with more than just hot sex scenes?

What started out as a seemingly harmless idea most writers toss out there, and then forget about, the idea began to ferment, take shape, and sound like a really viable idea. One conversation led to another, until we decided we would write just that type of erotic fiction ourselves.

I've dabbled in science fiction, thrillers, fantasy, and mystery, but my main publications have focused on horror and dark fiction for nearly 13 years now. One thing I’ve learned over my career is you've got to keep the writing fresh and interesting. Of Flesh and Skin was the result of that collaboration and it’s now available on Amazon Kindle under my pen name R.T. Riley.

So what aspects Of Flesh and Skin are in the horror/dark fiction realm, if any?

Of Flesh and Skin is a bit of an experiment for me. Since the dawn of horror fiction and films, sex and horror have always seemed to go hand-in-hand. I wanted to play up more on the exploration of the darker sexual fantasies lurking deep in the part of us we normally don't want to admit exists. For example, The Watcher explores the relationship and power play between the exhibitionist and the voyeur to a nightmarish conclusion. While, Gone is about how numb an experience leaves someone and the extremes it would take to feel anything, ever again. And finally, The God Machine deals with an invading race of aliens who’ve wiped out the male population and the fight of one girl’s quest to remain human. The collection contains seven tales and all the tales still have my “known for” darker exploration of how there’s a monster that lurks in all of us.

Speaking of monsters, one of your collections, Monster Within Idea, has done quite well since its release. How did that collection came about?

Writing has always been my personal therapy and my way of coping with what happens in my personal life. The bulk of the stories for this collection were written leading up to, in the middle, and the aftermath of my divorce. The stories were the first time in my career where I didn’t hold back and I wrote honestly. There was never a conscious intended theme to the collection, but readers and reviewers have noted there is a theme of loss, sacrifice, and regret throughout the stories, and how those have an impact on a person. Though I hadn’t intended a theme, I’m happy to agree with their sentiments. I merely set out to explore the “monsters” inside all of us. 



I met Jason Sizemore, owner of Hugo Nominated Apex Publications, at a writer’s convention in 2006 and he’d read my first collection and enjoyed the stories. We discussed working on something, and I eventually ended up being invited to submit a story to his Gratia Placenti Anthology. What I ended up submitting was a story called Only Spirits Cry, a modern day fantasy involving unicorns, a gorgon and practitioners of strange magic. We both had a good laugh when I told him I was submitting a story with unicorns, but I feel the story is one of the best I’ve written to date, and I certainly stepped out of my comfort zone for that one. A few months later, the publisher dropped my first collection and Jason approached me about republishing it with Apex Publications. We eventually decided to go with nearly all new stories, the ones I’d been writing during my divorce. I was extremely hesitant to release the collection at first, because the stories were so raw and personal to me, but Jason encouraged me and he made the right call.

The collection was with Apex Publications for two years and was reviewed favorably in multiple outlets and one of the stories received an honorable mention for Ellen Datlow’s Best Horror of the Year Vol. 2.  Another of the stories was adapted to short film by Frosty Moon Omnimedia. Despite our best efforts, the collection just wasn’t a commercial success and was dropped by Apex Publications. It was truly an honor to be published by such a well-respected press, but it was purely business.

In 2012, I self-published the collection on Amazon in Kindle and paperback, and after a year of hard, hard work, the book reached the Top 100 in paid Kindle sales in the horror category. To date, the collection has been downloaded nearly 70,000 times.

You've also worked on a number of anthologies. Can you talk a bit about those?

The past few years I’ve only submitted to anthologies to which I’ve been invited. Some of those included anthologies by Permuted Press, Apex Publications, Grand Mal Press, and others. Nearly all those stories have been included in my second story collection, Their Last Dying Acts, released this year.

In 2008, I made the decision to only submit to markets that paid professional rates, and so these days I am very particular in which markets I submit. Short stories are my love, but you’re not going to make much money on short stories these days. Novels are more cost-effective, in time and effort. I still write short stories, and usually have at least five or more in various stages of development, but at this point in my career, I normally don’t write a story unless I already have a market in mind.

How is the process different between working on the types of anthologies you've been in and a collection (besides the fact that the collection only features stories from one author)?

Most anthologies tend to be themed and those can be a challenge and I thoroughly enjoy those challenges. With anthologies, each experience is different depending on what the editor is looking for. Sometimes, a story I’ve already written might fit, but most of the time an anthology will require me to write and tailor the story to a specific set of requirements.

You're in the military as well, so how does your work influence your writing?

It definitely influences my work. My newest novel, If God Doesn’t Show, published by Permuted Press, is an apocalyptic-Cthulhu-mythos-military-horror/thriller, and I drew heavily on my military background to get certain details accurate and authentic (as much as I could without compromising, of course).

Apocalyptic-Cthulhu-Mythos-Military-Horror. I think that's a new genre! So what's the deeper story there? Can you reveal more about the plot and main character?

Here’s the publisher’s synopsis:
“Thaddeus Archer is an ex-police officer whose missing daughter holds the key to the mysterious force that threatens to lay waste to what’s left of our world. It’s a race against time for the broken and desperate Archer who must trust the only man who understands what’s happening, Gibson Blount, an agent of a secret government agency that doesn’t officially exist.

As their world spirals into chaos both men must overcome their differences and personal demons in a world besieged by the re-animated dead, natural disasters, and elder god set on destruction.”

There’s already plenty of apocalyptic novels out there dealing with zombies and the destruction of the world, and more being written every day. But John Grover and I wanted to explore this genre from a military perspective, rather than the average citizen fighting back angle. We wanted to really explore how the President of the United States, the military, and a secret Government organization that deals with the supernatural would fight a zombie outbreak, and then pair that with the Cthulhu Mythos.

Since If God Doesn’t Show is the second book in the Gibson Blount series, the book really delves into what makes Blount tick and explores even more of his shadowy history. I’ve been writing about Gibson Blount for nearly a decade now and it was only till a few years ago that I realized he was crying out for his own series of novels. Gibson is the only character I’ve written that even I still don’t know everything about and I still keep getting drawn back to. Gibson Blount’s third novel adventure will be published by Permuted Press sometime next year and it’s called At the Foot of the Mountains.

What other projects are you working on?

I currently have multiple projects in various stages. Those include Book 3 in the Gibson Blount series with co-author John Grover. The other Gibson Blount books are The Flesh of Fallen Angels, co-written with Roy C. Booth (Grand Mal Press) and If God Doesn’t Show (Permuted Press).

Then there's Jim O’Rear’s Mortuary of Madness, adapted from his original screenplay. Again co-authored with Roy C. Booth. The novel is currently with beta readers and will start the submission process with various publishers in the next few months.

Also, a requested paranormal werewolf erotic romance novella, co-authored with Lisa McCarthy, for Scarlet Petals Press, an erotica imprint for KHP Publishers, Inc. There's The Sorrow Cage, a police/thriller/action novel. Think “Die Hard in a ghost town.” Adapted from an original screenplay, co-written with Jake Lockrem.

I have another novel coming up, Powder Train, a historical WWII spy thriller/coming-of-age piece set on Oracoke Island, NC. And finally Strings, Gibson Blount novel #4, co-authored with John Grover and Roy C. Booth.

Anything else you want to add?

Support your indie and small press authors. “Like,” review, and share their work on all the various social media platforms. We rely heavily on the readers’ support. Don’t hesitate to contact your favorite authors and interact. Most have Facebook pages, and the like, and most are happy to talk about writing and the business.

Nancy O. Greene started writing at the age of nine. Her short story collection, Portraits in the Dark, received a brief mention in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2007. Other works have appeared or will appear in ChiZine; Lovecraft eZine; Cemetery Dance; Tales of Blood and Roses; Haunted: 11 Tales of Ghostly Horror; Shroud Publishing's The Terror at Miskatonic Falls; Dark Recesses; Flames Rising; Smile, Hon, You're in Baltimore!; and others. She has a BA in Cinema (Critical Studies) and a minor in English (Creative Writing) from the University of Southern California, and is a Fellow of Film Independent's Project:Involve.
 

People go nuts for March Madness. Everywhere it is brackets, brackets, brackets. Well, I'm not much of a basketball fan; I'm more of a monster fan. NBC understands, so for people like me, they have created the Wesen Face-Off: a bracket system where fans get to vote for their favorite Grimm Wesen. They will square off for ultimate bragging rights.

Not sure who to vote for? Then check out this exclusive video: 60 Wesen in 60 Seconds

If the new poster for Eron Sheean’s Errors of the Human Body tells us anything, it's that something isn’t right in the laboratory.

A scientist who has lost everything moves to Dresden, Germany to work on a new project which may hold answers to genetic questions that have alluded him and could have saved his son’s life. Sounds like a recipe for body horror.

Here’s the synopsis straight from the source:

Following divorce from his wife and the loss of his son to a rare genetic mutation, Canadian geneticist Geoff Burton relocates to the harsh, wintry scenery of Dresden, Germany to work on groundbreaking new project that might just be his key to redemption. When teamed up with his former intern and colleague Rebekka, he starts working on a human regenerative gene with direct ties to his personal tragedy, yet matters prove increasingly difficult: jealous co-‐workers’ feelings are ruffled, old flames are rekindled and personal demons become consistently harder to suppress in this new and oppressive work environment. Still haunted by the memory of his wife and his failures to have saved his deceased son, Burton finds himself maddeningly close to a medical breakthrough, yet quickly spiralling out of control. Collapsing his career and personal life into a dark and increasingly dangerous tunnel-‐vision of competitive genetics, delusions of all kinds and the terrifying potential of massive discoveries gone awry, Burton is quite literally the stranger in the strange land. The question remains: how far will Burton be willing to go to atone for the errors of his past?

Errors of the Human Body opens theatrically on April 19th and will also available on IFC Films Video on Demand, SundanceNOW and digital outlets: iTunes, Amazon Streaming, PS3 Playstation Unlimited, XBOX Zune, Google PLAY and YouTube from that date.
 

This should clear up some arguments amongst the film nerds out there. This handy infographic maps 100 zombie movies through history including titles like Hell’s Ground, The Horde, and Boy Eats Girl, as well as any other film your tasty brain can think of.

From the seller:
This graphical print showcases the top 100 Zombie films in chronological order by pin pointing their exact release date on a unique circular calendar. This print makes a great addition to your home decor and is a MUST for any true Zombie Fan. Hang it in your living room, den, basement, and especially in your man cave.
 

$20.19 at etsy.com

It’s no secret True Blood went off the rails quite a few seasons ago. This is not a criticism, the campy, totally over-the-top sex and gore is part of what makes the show so great, but this morning’s news may be a bit too much, even for True Blood.

Yesterday FEARnet updated you on a new vampire added to the cast, and now TVLine is reporting that Luke Grimes from Taken 2 and All the Boys Love Mandy Lane will be playing the “Jim Morrison of vampires.” Ugh.

More details from TV Line: Grimes will play “ … the recurring role of James, a circa ’70s-made vamp who is smart, spiritual and emotionally deeper than any other bloodsucker we’ve seen before … Picture a cross between Jim Morrison and Gary Clark Jr. with even more of a poet’s edge. The dude’s every women’s dream come true, and he doesn’t even know it.”

Double ugh. No one needs to hear vampire poetry. Let's hope they can turn this around.

What do you think about the new cast members?

via TVLine

I've seen all sorts of strange mashups before, but this is probably the strangest. But it's not really a mashup; it's a frighteningly astute observation of the parallels between Pixar's Toy Story films and our favorite zombie TV show, The Walking Dead. Redditor John Wray has dissected the similarities between the two distinct properties and discovers they are not that distinct after all.

And the similarities get creepier from there. Check out the entire gallery at Imgur.

• Hell Region: Pinhead vs. Pennywise and Freddy Krueger vs. Candyman
• Flesh Region: Michael Myers vs. Jason Voorhees and Dr. Hannibal Lecter vs. Leatherface
• Colossal Region: Predator vs. Hatchet's Victor Crowley and the Xenomorph vs. The Thing.
• Mysterious Region: Chucky vs. Trick R Treat's Sam and David of The Lost Boys vs. Marlow from 30 Days of Night.

This weekend is the season finale of The Walking Dead. Like many fans, I am looking forward to see how the season wraps up - but I am also dreading it because that means we won’t get any new episodes until October. To prepare myself, I spoke to producer Gale Anne Hurd about the character developments this season, that pesky showrunner business, and a sneak peek of the finale. [Editor’s note: this interview was conducted before last week’s episode, which had a very, very major character shift.]

This season of The Walking Dead has gotten much darker than previous seasons. I feel like this is due to the focus on human-on-human violence over zombie-on-human. Has the network been okay with that?

Absolutely. They approve the season before we even start writing it.

How much darker can the Governor really get?

Well, we are going to see in the next episode! If you’ve read the comic you know how dark he can get.

It’s been a while since I read the comics, but I seem to remember the Governor goes to some places that are pretty hard for television to deal with.

Yes. In the comic books, it is 2D. It is drawn. A TV series doesn’t just bring it to life, it brings it to life multi-dimensionally. The characters are real, played by actors. So there are things I think that are very appropriate for the comic book, but might be a bridge too far for television. That isn’t to say that we are holding back much.

From what I have seen this season, you certainly aren’t holding back much.

Not much!

How do the actors deal with the intensity?

It’s a really close-knit group with the cast as well as the crew and producers. They are also very aware [of the character development.] They come into the writer’s room and talk about their character arcs, where they are going, and what they’d like to see. As you may have heard, Andy [Lincoln, who plays Rick] said, “Take me to the limit.” So we have certainly done that with his character.

Andrea has really been a huge force this season. She keeps getting stronger but at the same time, that strength is putting her in more danger this season.

Yeah. In the comic book, Andrea goes from strength to strength. We’ve challenged her a great deal more in the series. Laurie Holden has taken it all and made Andrea her own. As much as Andrea would like to keep the peace, what she won’t do is murder someone in cold blood to do so. There are ethical boundaries that she won’t cross.

Which is nice to see. It seems that the longer these characters survive in this world, the stronger that moral ambiguity becomes.

Right. And I think that her character thought she was capable of killing the Governor when he was vulnerable, but thinking you can do something, and being able to follow through on it are two very different things.

It looked like she would have shot the Governor in episode 314 had Milton not stepped in.

Yeah, but she knew a lot more, too. Every episode she finds out more. When she finds out that the peace meeting she had brokered, that the Governor had no intention of following through with, that is when she realized that he could really spell the end of her friends back at the prison.

Does the Governor have an end game? Is he looking to be the ruler of the new world?

The world within his sphere, yes. He doesn’t want any challenges - that is why he dispatched the National Guard. He is happy to have his henchmen, but he doesn’t want to share with another leader. He doesn’t want to risk that whatever Rick - or someone like Rick - may have could potentially entice people who had been following [the Governor] into following [Rick]. He’s never going to put himself into that position.

The Governor walks a fine line between being a dictator and being a cult leader.

Right.

Will we get any more backstory on the Governor?

I can’t tell you that!

How has the showrunner situation affected the show? Has it caused any tensions?

No, absolutely not. Scott Gimple, our new showrunner, has been part of the series since the second season. The cast has a great relationship with all of the writers. They understand that sometimes things don’t work out. Glen [Mazzara] was at the end of his contract. It has been mischaracterized that Glen was fired, and that is simply not the case.

Is there anything you want to clear up about that? Speculation always runs wild...

No, he was just out of contract. There was this whole thing about “Oh, he’s not coming back.” Well, all contracts in the business have different lengths that they run, and no, he was not fired.

The season finale is coming up, and obviously we don’t want any direct spoilers, but can you tease anything for us? Let’s get everyone salivating even more than they already are.

I think that the last episode is incredibly intense. Shocking things transpire. I think the audience as well as the characters on the show won’t be the same after.

Will everyone make it to season four?

On this show? I don’t think there are ever any guarantees.

Yeah, when Lori died earlier this season, that was a big shock to a lot of people. Did you get a lot of flak for that, or were audiences appreciative that you kept things realistic?

In the comic book, Lori dies not long after giving birth, so I don’t think that people who follow the comic book were all that surprised. But I think people were very surprised at the timing because it was the fourth episode. Not the season premiere, or the season finale, or the midseason finale.

Do you guys plan for midseason breaks, or is that more of a network construct?

No, we plan for it. We have to plan for everything, knowing there will be months between those episodes.

Does breaking it up like that make it more difficult for you guys?

No, it’s part of what we have come to expect after the first season.

Every week, The Walking Dead seems to break new ratings records. Does it still surprise you?

You certainly never expect it.

Have you guys already started breaking out stories for season four?

Oh yeah, that has been going on since February.

Anything you can tease?

Nope, can’t do that. Sorry!

Fifty years ago this week, Alfred Hitchcock gave the world a terrifying glimpse at the secret evil that lurks behind the eyes of our avian friends in The Birds. It was the first time Hitchock fans caught a glimpse of Tippi Hedren sweater set-ed glory and is famous for a final attack scene that (reportedly) caused Hedren to have a near breakdown. Like all of Hitchcock’s films it experrtly intertwinines tension, interpersonal relations, desperation, and fear.

1986 brought us the cabin-in-the-woods, comedy-slasher flick, April Fool’s Day. Like other films I’ve mentioned in previous week’s posts, the April Fool’s Day VHS cover holds a special place in my heart and still remains on my list of Halloween costumes I mean to wear someday. I won’t bore you with a synopsis, when you can read a much better and more detailed one in Gregory Burkart’s post here.

Finally, 1979 ushered in the awesomeness that is Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm. Part boy action hero movie, part surreal gore-fest Phantasm combines The Tall Man, a killer sphere, a late ‘70s prog soundtrack, and one of horror’s all-time greatest sidekicks, Reggie, all in one epic battle of good against evil. It’s truly a masterpiece and spawned arguably the best sequel in genre history.

Title: April Fool’s Day
Released: March 27, 1986
Tagline: Don't let the joke be on you!
 

Title: The Birds
Released: March 28, 1963
Tagline: Suspense and shock beyond anything you have seen or imagined

Title:Phantasm
Released: March 28, 1979
Tagline: Beware the ball, beware the tall man, beware the never dead.

This spooky replica house costs less than the real thing, but is still worth a pretty penny. The amazing mini-haunted home is handmade, lit from the inside, and stands nearly two feet tall. It looks like a doll’s house made especially for Wednesday Addams.
 

The super-detailed replica even includes a tiny replica of Norma Bates staring out the window in her rocking chair, take a video tour here. Other replicas include the house from A Nightmare Before Christmas and the church from Jeepers Creepers.
 

$1000.00 on esty.com