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Paranormal Asylum is inspired by the real-life story of Typhoid Mary - with a supernatural twist. Mary Mallon was an Irish immigrant to New York who, at the beginning of the 20th century, was discovered to be an asymtomatic carrier of typhoid. She was forcibly quarantined on two separate occasions, and she died in isolation in a state hospital. In Paranormal Asylum, aspiring filmmakers head out to discover the truth about Typhoid Mary, but "what starts as a simple investigation turns into a battle for survival, as they discover Mary may be dead, but she’s certainly not gone."
In these two clips, exclusive to FEARnet, the filmmakers start their journey into madness...
Paranormal Asylum releases on DVD and digital download on September 17th.
So here is a tie-in you don't often see with horror films: nail polish. To tie in with Insidious: Chapter 2 (which opens in theaters Friday, September 13th) Duri Cosmetics has teamed up with Film District to release a collection of six nail polishes, all done in shades inspired by the film.
"Steel Shadows" is a dark gunmetal grey shimmer. "Red Door" is a bright, creamy red. "Into the Further" is a deep dark black. "Nightfall" is a metallic midnight blue. "Shocking Twist" is a bright yellow-green. "Lady in White" is a ghostly, iridescent white.
$6 each at Duri.com
FEARnet is counting down to the release of Hunger Games: Catching Fire. The second installment in the blockbuster series hits theaters on November 18th - that is 11 weeks away. Lionsgate knows you can't wait, so they are counting down with you. Every week, visit The Hunger Games Explorer for a new #TickTock moment.
Even better FEARnet is giving away a pair of tickets to the world premiere! We are one of 75 outlets (because Catching Fire will mark the 75th Hunger Games / Quarter Quell) giving away tickets. One lucky winner will join the cast and crew of the record-breaking movie franchise for a star-studded red carpet premiere in Los Angeles on November 18th. The catch? All you have to do is Tweet #TickTock11 to @FEARnet now until September 23rd. A winner will be chosen at random, and tweeting to @FEARnet multiple times will not affect the decision. Not a winner? Need to see it many, many more times? Ticket presales begin October 1st.
It's the movie that everyone assumed would never get distribution. Escape From Tomorrow is a surrealistic neo-noir film about a father who starts to lose his mind while on a family vacation to Disney World. Shot almost entirely on location in Disney World's Magic Kingdom and the original Disneyland park, director Randy Moore shot the film guerilla-style: his cast and crew bought season passes; scripts were carried on smart phones; and the only equipment used was consumer-grade cameras so they could blend in with other tourists. Moore even did all the post-production in South Korea, all in an attempt to keep Disney off the scent.
Escape From Tomorrow premiered at Sundance to positive reviews and extreme secrecy, but it was generally thought that the litigious Disney Corporation would bring swift and costly legal battles upon the film that was shot for around $650,000. And yet here we are, eight months later. The film will screen at Fantastic Fest, and has been picked up for distribution (a limited theatrical and VOD release is currently slated for October 11th) and it seems that Disney has opted to ignore the film's very existence. Hey, whatever means that it will be around long enough for me to check it out.
Anyway, a trailer for Escape From Tomorrow was just released, and it is unmistakably Disney - if shot by David Lynch.
What is the price of working with evil in order to defeat evil? Featured in The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Four edited by Ellen Datlow, Simon Bestwick's “Dermot” raises this question, and unlike in many stories that deal with the same, the answer isn't so reassuring.
It starts off with the description of Dermot himself. The kind of man you want to avoid. Not because of his looks, but because of his essence – that incomprehensible evil that seeps off of him like a toxic leak. And you know you want no part of whatever he has planned.
From there, Bestwick takes us to a police unit called “Special Projects.” They deal with the things and the people not even the most jaded cops want to face. And this is Dermot's destination.
Throughout the story, there's the tension of anticipation. Dermot's, the officers' and the reader's. But each is a different type of anticipation. For Dermot, it's the giddiness and foul joy of knowing that his reward is waiting for him once his task is complete. For the officers, it's knowing that they are exchanging the reward for information they desperately need – and yet…. And for the reader, it's wondering what that reward is, how repulsive can it be, and if what the police officers get in exchange is worth the price?
Bestwick doesn't disappoint – Dermot's reward is as evil and reprehensible as expected. However, one is still left wondering if there was another way, if what the officers get in return is truly worth the sacrifice.
There's a lot of character description in this story, but some scenes (one in particular, thankfully) are glazed over. It doesn't take away from the story, but it does make one question motivations of the officers, and whether or not the exchange can be reasoned away (though, really, it can not).
Overall, “Dermot” is a well-written, disturbing and quick read, full of unanswered questions.
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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.
Horror movies far too often abide by the old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." These days it's no shock to see a sequel treading familiar ground. Whether the original director wants to return to his or her vision or a studio wants to strike gold twice, it's rare to see a sequel that really breaks the mold. But what's more exciting than a fresh take on an established franchise? We started thinking about all the times a sequel challenged our expectations and put together a list of our favorite sequels that veered from the course. They're nothing like their predecessors... and we love them for it!
Featured in The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, #20, “Through the Cracks” by Gary McMahon is, in a way, about what can be described as an idea virus. However, it's much more than that. Prentiss is a man that knows about the cracks, knows about the evil that lives there. And whether anyone believes him or not, the things in the cracks are real – and they want out.
His ex-girlfriend, Emma, is one who does not believe him. But she listens and she cares. And, despite what appears to be insanity and decrepitude on his part, she is drawn to him. Shortly before a visit to her sister's place, she gets a call. He wants her to visit. Even though her sister protests, she does.
What she finds is a man that has completely lost his grasp on the world in order to—as he believes—save it. Emma wants nothing to do with this. She wants him to seek professional help. Before she leaves, he gives her a scrap book. She discovers that it contains news articles about different types of monsters crawling from cracks in the earth and causing death and destruction. Of course, she thinks all of it is nonsense.
Before she finishes her stay at her sibling's home, she decides to visit Prentiss one last time, just to see if he's okay. What Emma sees changes her view on reality nearly as much as it changed his.
“Through the Cracks” is an interesting horror story, with just enough suspense to make you wonder about the dark crevices and the things that lurk just beneath the surface.
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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.
Legendary horror producer, writer, and director Sean Cunningham hasn’t produced anything since 2009’s Last House on the Left remake, but it doesn’t mean that he’s slowed down any. Not at all. Instead, he’s brimming with excitement as we connect over the phone on the heels of the Friday, September 13 release of Friday the 13th: The Complete Collection to discuss his thirty-three year old slasher series and his many upcoming projects. It’s almost as if Cunningham himself is just as (if not more) excited for fans to finally have the chance to grab all twelve Friday… films in one Blu-ray box set for the first time. So excited, it seems, we even got him to spill the beans on a possible new Freddy vs. Jason, another F13 entry, and a TV series called Crystal Lake Chronicles.
It’s been 33 years since the original Friday the 13th was released.
Oh, Jesus. Don’t say that.
Can you believe it?
No. No no no no. There was a time a few years ago – the 25th anniversary thing – and I was like, “Really?! Oh my god.”
Did you ever imagine you’d be talking to a journalist about a twelve-movie box set thirty-three years later?
No. God, no. [Laughs] Well, it was always part of my grand plan, you see. [Laughs] Now, I can finally rest. It’s like getting to the top of the mountain. [Laughs]
I’m delighted that they’re all actually going to be in one place and people can have them and work out the different genealogies and whatever. Then they can explain it to me. [Laughs]
For years, fans were making their own box sets and cover art in an effort to “complete” their collections. What finally led to this happening?
It started when Warner Bros. / New Line and Paramount decided to cooperate and co-finance the reboot of Friday the 13th, there was talk about putting all the discs together. I guess it took a couple of years, but they finally decided that it would be a good thing to have on the shelf and that it would be a win-win. I wasn’t in the room, but that’s how it was presented to me and it seemed like a really obvious, really good idea.
A lot of the extra features in the box set were already created for the previous Blu-ray and DVD releases. Was there ever a thought to go back and fully remaster the prints again with the new technology we have now, or is it just too cost prohibitive?
That was my thought for the original one. I think that would have been wonderful to be able to transfer to 4K and be able to do a complete color correction to deal with the blacks and the rain. It would be the same movie, but I just think it could be so much cleaner and nicer. I think that’ll just be a question of when it’s worth the money.
What’s the status of some of the harder-to-find items? Uncut Part 2 and all the other stuff. Is that really out there sitting somewhere or is it just gone forever?
I think it would probably depend on the stuff. Let me put it this way: I never kept track of any of it. The reason it was cut was because we didn’t think it was any good or worth anything. [Laughs] I don’t think anybody, at the time, was trying to “preserve their legacy” or anything. If there’s stuff out there, there’s not much of it. Keeping the film, or some scene that was cut, I think is the least likely because it would be predicated on keeping outtakes in really good condition and then being able to reconstitute them with sound and everything that goes with it. That would be really, terribly difficult.
Back then, I’m sure you guys weren’t thinking about living in this ecosystem of the Internet where everybody picks up on every single piece of everything.
No, not at all. That was hard to imagine even five years ago although it was starting to go on. The amount of information that we have at our fingertips, and we just take for granted, today is stunning. I marvel at it every day.
What’s your take on some of the more independent-minded studios like Scream Factory and Synapse, that are taking cult films and giving them special edition releases. Are you a fan of their work?
I’m a fan of the better quality. I think what’s going to happen is that horror films, in general, are going to find a primary location outside of movie theaters. It will probably be delivered by the broadband, in some way. Rather than delivering something that’s a stepchild, we have to think about delivering to a high-definition television set first quality because that’s going to ultimately be the place where most people will see this movie. That way, they’ll respect it and enjoy it and we’ll make better business if you can deliver the kind of experience that you would get in the movie theater.
Do you have a favorite memory, either on screen or off, from all your work on the Friday the 13th series?
The time, ultimately, when it all came together was when we started to screen the finished movie and watched the audience enjoy it. Especially the last three minutes. That was fun. The audience left with smiles on their faces. They’d paid their five bucks and they’d had a good time and they were laughing and punching each other and pointing at each other. It was a fun moment for them and, by extension, a fun moment for us.
It started when we were screening it for Paramount. We had screened it for two or three executives, and maybe their secretaries or someone else in the office, and all these hardened men and women (when the moment came) just got lifted out of their chairs, gasping. Within a week, they had scheduled a second screening, which was at a bigger theater with as many young people and women as the executives could get in the there. It was just for their fun so they could watch these people jump at the end. [Laughs] You could see the people who had already seen the movie and knew it, when that time came, they weren’t watching the movie. They were watching audience. That was a great deal of fun.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been ten years since Freddy vs. Jason. We’ve seen reboots of both franchises since then. What are the chances we’ll get another Freddy and Jason faceoff?
I think the chances are good, for a couple of reasons, but I think it will ultimately be a marketing concept. Right now, I think the audience would have to start getting bored with the Friday… movie by itself or the Freddy movie by itself. I don’t think it’s going to happen in the next short period of time. Conceivably in five years.
The other reason that I think it’s a possibility is that we spent so much effort in trying to find a way to get the two of them together in a movie that was action-packed and unpredictable that we had lots of material that was unused. It becomes possible to use it, or at least basic ideas or structural ideas that are already in place. We don’t have to start from scratch.
The last thing you produced is the Last House on the Left remake. Do you have anything else in the pipeline right now?
I do. There will be another Friday the 13th, which will probably get shot in the spring. If it all goes as I would like, it would then be released at the beginning of 2015.
Is that going to carry on some of the characters and cast from the reboot or is this going to be a completely new story?
That’s not likely, but it’s hard to know. It won’t be a continuation of that story, though. It’ll be a fresh story.
I think there will also be Friday the 13th: Crystal Lake Chronicles, which is sort of a Smallville. We’ve been on-again off-again with that for years and there are a bunch of great stories to be told, but I think the way that it’s finally going to get delivered is not through a conventional television network, but through the Internet. I can’t tell you who the delivery people will be, but it won’t be the traditional route. There’s also the possibility of webisodes, and I think we even have an idea for a terrificFriday the 13th video game.
There’s a bunch of stuff out there. And, of course, a gift shop. What says Happy Birthday better than a machete and a hockey mask? [Laughs]
Crystal Lake Chronicles sounds like something tailor-made for someone like Netflix.
Yeah, it does. It’s also more than just me saying, “You know, Friday the 13th would be a great series!” We’ve got a couple of really good writers that have been working and writing. It can’t be just Jason killing someone new every week. That’s not going to make it. [Laughs]
Friday the 13th: The Complete Collection hits stores on Friday, September 13.
Want to watch more scares on TV? We do to, so we’re asking for some help. What are you waiting for? It’s the 13th of the month and it’s time to tweet. Want more Thriller, Horror and Suspense 24/7? Tweet your cable provider now! Spread the word and come back next month to request FEARnet. Your ticket to horror is here – www.fearnet.com/iwantfearnet
Two of the greatest gifts that the 1980s pop culture gave the world are now, finally, together. That's right, Donkey Kong and Ghostbusters have been combined into one, glorious t-shirt. The Vigo Kong t-shirt, designed by Mike Handy, features all your favorite parts of Ghostbusters - Slimer, ectoplasm, Dana and Oscar, and of course, Vigo - set amongst the Donkey Kong outpost.
Want to watch more scares on TV? We do to, so we’re asking for some help. What are you waiting for? It’s the 13th of the month and it’s time to tweet. Want more Thriller, Horror and Suspense 24/7? Tweet your cable provider now! Spread the word and come back next month to request FEARnet. Your ticket to horror is here – www.fearnet.com/iwantfearnet
Dario Argento's Dracula 3D is getting a theatrical release - and with it, a beautiful new poster inspired by the classic European posters of the 1960s and 1970s.
Official Synopsis: Horror master Dario Argento returns with a bloody, luridly creepy 3D version of the classic vampire tale, drenched in gore and sex. An unsuspecting Englishman arrives in Transylvania, lured by a job with a local nobleman. But the undead Count Dracula’s real target is the man’s innocent young wife. Featuring the iconic Rutger Hauer as vampire hunter Van Helsing and the inimitable Asia Argento (the director’s own daughter) as a local all-too-eager to fall under the Count’s sway.
Argento's Dracula 3D will have a limited theatrical release, as well as distribution on VOD and digital download, beginning October 4th.
Gregory Maguire is probably best known as the author of Wicked. Featured in the anthology After, this somewhat adorable yet disturbing tale is about a young protagonist who writes about a world half-destroyed, and how that came to be.
While the future-world (mis)spellings are different, to say the least, it's easy enough to get through. And Hapless Joey—along with his teacher, Big Ant—move the story forward at an interesting, fast pace.
What Joey describes is a planet that dissolved, leaving the inhabitants in “The Cold Time.” Joey can't remember the time before that because he was just a baby, but his Grandfather told him stories. And he writes an essay to tell a special committee what he knows.
But what he doesn't know is that Big Ant and the committee have other plans for him and other promising children just like him.
What makes this story disturbing isn't so much that the world is only half of itself (that's a fascinating premise, but the story doesn't make that the central focus). What is unsettling is the system that rises up in the aftermath. Regardless of what happened, some people within that new world still chose to retain much of the corruption found in the previous one. It's an interesting read that can be expanded into a novella or novel, but works just as well as a short story.
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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.