EPISODE 34: Biting the Bit Vol. 08 – On Horror Literature
Please click the link below to listen:
EPISODE 34: Biting the Bit Vol. 08 – On Horror Literature.
This week Michael and Jason chat about the horror and dark fiction books they’ve been reading along with the books they want to read. They do so in a from the hip sort of style. It was lots of fun, and you’re invited to listen in.
**NOTE: The book by Greg F. Gifune I was trying to remember during this episode is titled THE RAIN DANCERS. Not sure why I keep forgetting that title.**
You will hear some music on this episode somewhere in the background.
The songs are:
Emotions by Clinic
Climbing Up the Walls by Radiohead
They are available wherever good music is sold.
Help spread the world! Please leave us a great review on iTunes.
And thanks for listening!
Darkness Dwells Welcomes Michael Schutz-Ryan
Anyone listening to the Darkness Dwells podcast should know by now that I’ve taken on a co-host. His name is Michael Schutz-Ryan, and he is the writer of the novel Blood Vengeance. I chose Michael because of a few different conversations we had about horror movies, especially the day he messaged me over Facebook to see if I had seen the movie Tusk or not. I have seen it, so we discussed what we both felt were strengths and weaknesses of the movie, which somehow led to our discussing a mutual love for Rob Zombie films.
As he’s been on the show before, I knew we could talk without any real barriers. In short, we get along just smashing!
My plans for the blog, however, do not end with Michael, though. I want to grow the Darkness Dwells blog into a small network of writers where we review horror movies and books and, more importantly, become a massive news source for horror literature, including reviews, release dates on novels, interviews, and whatever else our imaginations can conjure. This will create a need for a website makeover sometime in the future, but hey, this blog is now a year old. It took me this long to find Michael, so let’s take it one step at a time. Baby steps, my friends. Baby steps.
As for the podcast, I think Michael and I will do just fine as we discuss the macabre on the big screen of moving pictures.
What it comes down to is that I’ve had big plans for the blog, which includes the podcast, from day one. I want to share my love of horror literature and movies with the world. I also would like to create a place online where people can go to get the latest on horror literature news.
This will probably take some time, so if you’re getting excited I suggest you have a beverage and take a deep breath. Patience will be of virtue here.
So, please welcome Michael aboard as the first team member of Darkness Dwells. He’s an awesome writer and a great dude to talk with. And thanks,
Michael, for your enthusiasm and input. It will be fun, I’m sure.
Blood Vengeance by Michael Schutz-Ryan
Another Response to Horror Ignorance
Earlier this week, a silly article surfaced on Facebook titled What It Says About You If You Enjoy Horror Movies. On Facebook, I remember that it had the picture from The Babadook on it that’s at the top of the article itself. These two things were the reason I clicked the link, thinking, “Here we go.” With a title like that, you know that, as a fan of horror movies, you’re in for a flaming.
I wasn’t disappointed. The article went on to say that fans of horror movies lack empathy, are aggressive, and are generally men. I sighed, and perhaps by mistake I also dismissed the article as so much BS.
I say mistake because at the time I didn’t think of what kind of hatred this kind of thing spreads about people who enjoy a certain genre of popular culture. One could argue that fans of action movies hold the same characteristics because of the thrill seeking and the violence. Yet they are rarely, to my knowledge, attacked.
There was some backlash to this (In Response … by John Squires and An Open Letter to Alice Hobb by BJ Colangelo, both of which are great) which is what got me off my ass and made me realize that we, as horror fans, can’t just shrug this sort of thing off as nonsense, not even worth giving an ounce of our attention. The reason for this is that articles like this one will only affirm what people already believe in people like you and me, the fans of horror.
As an author, I get flack all the time for being a sick bastard because of the things I write about. Most of these people are not horror fans at all and they tend to look at me with a new kind of fear in their eyes after reading one of my stories. My own father, who holds deep Christian values and beliefs, thinks I’m going to burn hell. Someone I know even went to say to me, “I thought I knew you!” There was laughter in that comment, but there was also a real change of perspective.
I wanted to write this response not to join the ranks of people who are better at making arguments for this sort of thing, but more so because this is a subject that fascinates me: why are people like me drawn to horror?
What my friends and family don’t understand about me is that horror is part of my reality. All fans of horror come to it for different reasons, but I think that there is a core similarity for most horror fans. This similarity is fear and the remarkable fact that we are able to look into the abyss and face our fears.
I fear a lot of things. Death, aging, losing the ones I love, seeing terrible things done to the ones I love are all at the top of that list, but let tell you something. The list is long. Things, like dying and death, also disturb me deeply. So watching horror movies is a sort of healthy and vicarious way of dealing and preparing myself for these things.
For they will come. We all age, and we all die. Some of us way before our time.
I’m certain that I’m not alone in thinking about these things. The guys over at a Horror ETC, especially Ted, have discussed this topic on their podcast a few times, and they express similar feelings on the subject. I’ve been member of various horror related forums online and have discussed this topic with friends and came up with similar results. We, in fact, often marvel at how the horror community seems to be more compassionate and understanding of each other more so than non-horror fans. As far as I know it there are no statistics supporting my beliefs here. And, I do indeed understand that there are people out there who are exactly what Alice Hobb’s article describes. To the more intelligent and less judgemental, however, I don’t think that I have to explain how there’s a bad apple in every bunch.
My point is driven from experience, through friends both in real life and online. I’ve experienced both the good apples and the bad ones. I have to say that the good apples thrive, outnumbering the bad.
So then, if that’s the case, why do we enjoy movies like Friday the 13th so much? The good old slasher. That’s a fair question, but there is also the idea of having fun with the things that, if they were at all possibly real, would terrify the living shit out of us. Friday the 13th, and movies like it, are so far removed from reality, though, that it’s nothing but schlock. A fun thrill ride that fans of the Expendables movies, or Commando, Robo Cop or any of the Terminator films, experience. Yes, it is that thrill-seeking element, but I suppose snowboarders and bungee jumpers are also a bunch of sick fucks who can’t be trusted around children either.
Fun.
Who would imagine that safe, vicarious violence and thrill seeking can be fun?
Does anyone watch cartoons that are targeted at children, as John Squires mentions in his response? John also has a terrifying story about someone who lost his job working with children after his superiors found out he was a horror fan.
The fact is, Alice Hobbs wrote her article on a misunderstood topic that already has prevalent ignorance towards horror fans. We fear what we don’t understand and it’s funny, I think, how fans of horror would look into something that frightens them rather than simply write it off and insult the very person of the typical fan of whatever genre.
Oh, and I wanted to point out that The Passion of the Christ and Avatar are not horror movies as the beginning of Alice’s article might try to pass off. Granted, Passion is certainly horrifying. But it’s not horror.
In closing, I am thankful that this article was written, even though I passed it off at first as so much BS. For one, it gave some people, such as the response articles mentioned above, an intelligent and fact bearing retort. It’s also something that does fascinate me and I love to talk about.
At the same time, it’s sad that someone would use long outdated stats and articles as proof for their convictions.
Hopefully one day we’ll learn.
EPISODE 13: A Conversation with Timothy Johnson
Click to listen: EPISODE 13: A Conversation with Timothy Johnson.
Welcome to Darkness Dwells, Episode 13!
This week we have guest author Timothy Johnson where we discuss his debut novel, Carrier, which you could classify as sci-fi horror.
As such, there’s a theme this week to one of my favorite subgenres, sci-fi horror. This is the first, but you can bet that this probably won’t be the last.
So, along with my conversation with Tim, I have a top 5 list of favorite sci-fi horror, which is a mixed bag of both movies and books.
I also take a look at the 1981 Roger Corman produced film, Galaxy of Terror.
And we have some cool sci-fi horror themed music.
All music can be purchased at Amazon.com and/or iTunes.
Songs:
Chaosmongers by Voivod and Satellite 15 by Iron Maiden
You can reach Timothy Johnson online by visiting his website: http://timothyjohnsonfiction.com
Thanks for listening! You can reach the show online at:
Twitter: @darkdweller74
Facebook: Reach me or Darkness Dwells group
Email: darknessdwells74@gmail.com
Voice mail: 206-600-4257
Mutator by Gary Fry
Gary Fry is a new and prolific writer whose influence of Classic horror stores is almost transparent within his own writing. This is not a bad thing, however. Indeed, this gives a much needed spice to his stores that are lacking in a lot of today’s horror stories. In a way, you could say that an older style of story telling in today’s horror literature scene is refreshing is a strange thing. But I don’t think so. What makes it refreshing is Fry’s talent for crafting these stories so that they’re both modern and classic.
Mutator is no different.
James and his beagle, Damian, move into an old house in a new community. James is newly retired, if memory serves, and is looking to spend retirement gardening and spending time with his dog.
One morning soon after moving in he finds a hole in his yard that is a perfect circle with no evidence of anything having dug it – there’s no dirt around the edges. It’s just a perfect hole. This leads James into the basement where he finds a journal written by the previous owner along with a silver sphere.
The story moves along pretty fast and is a fun story with a unique monster. This one isn’t necessarily Lovecraftian, as some of Fry’s other works, but it still maintains the classic horror feel of Lovecraft along with Poe and Algernon Blackwood, among others. It’s a short and fun read, and I recommend it.
Four out of five Dweller Heads!
EPISODE 12: Biting the Bit Vol. 03 – Mutator by Gary Fry and Top 10 Found Footage Films
EPISODE 12: Biting the Bit Vol. 03 – Mutator by Gary Fry and Top 10 Found Footage Films.
Welcome to episode 12!
This week, I want to talk about my top ten 90s horror movie list and the surprising reaction it received on MoviePilot.com.
And in that spirit, I have for you this week my top 10 found footage films.
I also discuss Mutator, the DarkFuse novella by Gary Fry
There’s also have some cool tunes for your listening pleasure.
And Darkness Dwells first contest. You can win an Amazon.com gift card. Stay tuned until the end of the episode to see how you can win it.
You can reach the show online:
Twitter:@darkdweller74
Email: darknessdwells74@gmail.com
Voice mail: 206-600-4257
Deep Black Sea by David M. Salkin
One element that makes great horror so effective, at least for me, is isolation. I think it’s scary enough being somewhere so far out of reach from fellow humans that to have something go horribly wrong, such as a monster intent on destroying and/or assimilating you, can, if done well, make the atmosphere and dread of what’s already a dreadful situation even worse. Some of my favourite stories involve this kind of isolation and dread. Movies like Alien and John Carpenter’s The Thing come to mind first. Those movies really cemented my perception of horror.
But then in the late 90s, or there abouts, came a slew of deep sea movies like Leviathan, Deepstar Six, and The Abyss. The latter of these isolation stories reminds me of David Salkin’s novel, Deep Black Sea, for obvious reasons, but the actual story and intensity of the growing dread remind me more of the former. No disrespect to the mentioned deep water movies, but none of them have the staying power of the classic Alien and The Thing.
In Deep Black Sea we start the story with an introduction to all seven crew members as they discuss their mission: to stay in a new type of research submarine four miles below sea level for an entire year. The description of the living conditions down that deep, which also compares the differences of outer space, was fascinating and actually gave me nightmares. I’m not even claustrophobic. Or, perhaps I am and just haven’t been in a situation yet to show me that I am. If that’s the case, then my thanks to David Salkin for pointing this out to my unconscious mind.
I digress.
The seven crew members then head off on their mission. They make their slow descend into the deep. Along the way they catch fish and get to know each other better. Once they hit the ocean floor, things become immediately interesting. They bring aboard a bacteria that can enable flesh to live in extreme circumstances, such as seven-hundred degree water near a black smoker–which is sort of like an underwater volcano.
The story moves quickly after this as a terrible situation grows worse and worse with each passing scene.
Is Deep Black Sea so good as to become a classic and sit amongst greats? No, not necessarily. The book is really good with an ending that’s probably one of the best I’ve read in a long time, but to join the cannon of true classics is seriously tough. First, it would be great to see this one become a movie. If done well, I think it would offer some new things along with some great homages to said classics. But we’ll have to wait to see how the future remembers Deep Black Sea to see for sure.
Whatever the case, this is a great read and a lot of fun. Give it a go and see what you think! I really don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
Five dweller heads!
Nightcrawlers by Tim Curran
I first came to reading Tim Curran by taking the advice of my friends in the Goodreads group Horror Aficionados. The people there really know their stuff and I’ve found a ton of new favorites because of them. So, I read Dead Sea by Curran and was blown away. The imagination that went into the monsters of the story, and I can guarantee you that there are many, is something very rare in horror fiction.
I fell in love with the book and continued to read him. I have yet to read everything the man’s published, considering how slow I read and how fast he pumps them out every year, and of course I’ve read some things from Curran that I thought were bad (no author’s perfect). When I think of horror fiction written in today’s modern world, especially monster fiction, I would have to say that Tim Curran is the only one who can do it the way it’s supposed to be done.
I may have mentioned this top part before, but it really needs repeating. Every fan of horror fiction should be reading Curran.
When I came to Nightcrawlers for the first time, I have to admit that I didn’t like it and put it down. What can I say? I’m a moody reader sometimes. I went back to it recently and started again from the beginning. I figured out quickly the reason why I didn’t like it so much the first time around. It was because part of Tim Curran’s brilliance, in my opinion, is his ability to create deep, dysfunctional characters that mimic real life people we all have probably known or do know. The people who populate Nightcrawlers at first seem empty in comparison.
Time of Death: Induction by Jana Festa
When I met Jen, my wife, about twelve or thirteen years ago, I tried to find common ground with her. We were both avid readers, but different kinds of readers. She liked romance while I liked horror. So she found herself reading John Irving (not horror, but nonetheless a favourite of mine), while I, with no particular interest in tackling the romance genre, suggested chick-lit. Back then, the term chick-lit was making its first marketing waves and books, like Bridget Jones’s Diary and the Shopaholic series, were transparent in their new marketing schemes.
What does this have to do with Shana Festa’s debut novel, Time of Death: Induction?
That’s a good question. Picture chick-lit written for a guy like me. You have a woman protagonist, Emma, written in a somewhat light, comedic way with these horrible things happening around her, her husband, and her dog. A zombie virus hits and knocks out civilization pretty quickly and our protagonists find themselves on the run for their lives. All they want is to find a safe place to hold up.
The more they travel and the more people they meet, however, the more they learn that safe is an old-world term, and that to sit in one spot for too long results in tragedy.
As Time of Death: Induction is the first in a series of novels by Shana, it will be really interesting to see where she takes Emma’s character, the dark places she will visit not only within this violent new world, but also within Emma herself as a person.
What I really enjoyed about Induction was recognizing and remembering that chick lit feel to some of those books I read way back when first trying to impress the woman who would become my wife. I guess my scheming worked. I’m not sure how, though. Jen became a John Irving fan where as I left chick lit behind. It’s not that I didn’t like the genre. It’s more like it didn’t really hold anything of value for me.
Shana, however, puts the type of value that gives me my kicks when reading horror novels and fused it well with that old marketing scheme. It’s also a heck of a lot of fun to read. The action almost never stops and is well-written. There are also some pretty awesome gory scenes in here as well.
Well done!
Four Dweller Heads!
TS Alan is Guest over at Darkness Beckons.
Now, you can bet that I just love this blog’s name: Darkness Beckons. It’s close to Darkness Dwells, and so I think that the author of this site mite have some common interests with us over here indeed!
I will tell you something else I love. The cover to TS Alan’s book, THE ROMERO STRAIN. It’s kinda gross, and yet I can’t stop staring at it.
TS Alan was, as you may have guessed from the title and intro, to Darkness Beckons today, and I implore you to go over there and check it out!
Alan writes a good article entitled “Best Civilian Weapons for the Zombie Apocalypse.”
Carnival of Souls (1962)
I have to thank Ted and Tony from Horror Etc for this one. You can listen to their thoughts on Carnival of Souls on their Terror in Monochrome 2, episode 339. If you haven’t been listening to the Horror Etc podcast, then I highly recommend that you rectify this.
Within episode 339 they talk about Carnival of Souls, a black and white classic from 1962 directed by Jacques Tourneur, staring Candace Hilligoss. It was listening to this podcast where I considered watching this movie and, recently, I did indeed watch it. I actually watched it a couple of times, as it’s that freaking good!
It’s that good for a few reasons. While watching, I kept wondering about the seemingly strange descent into madness of our hero, Mary Henry. Or is it a descent into madness? One impressive thing is Candace Hilligoss’s performance. Through my first viewing, I thought that her performance was stilted and, well, just plain bad. The second time, though, I realized that it’s possible that the actress was pulling off a good performance as she’s portraying her character. It’s Mary, her character that’s flat and, to be honest, pretty cold. She’s also confused, scared, and contradicts herself all the time. And when the movie ends, her journey complete, you can’t help but to be on her side and feel bad for her.
We start the movie with Mary sitting in the passenger seat of her friend’s car. They’re at a stoplight when a group of guys pull up beside them. “Want to race?” the driver says. Mary’s driving friend, a young woman smoking a cigarette and looking fifties cool says that indeed, she does want to race.
And so they do.
The race ends badly when the women’s car car accidentally goes over a bridge into a rivers. No one seems to merge from the accident for some time until, low and behold, Mary crawls from the mud and the clutches of death upon the river shore.
An organist, Mary soon after takes on a job in another town , in church, where she can be the sole organist. (On a side note, let me tell you about this organ she plays. it’s huge, and I’m not sure how they fit inside the churches.) This is where the story begins to get strange.
From the beginning of this journey, we’re introduced to “the man,” a vision Mary keeps seeing in reflections of mirrors and windows. He is this creepy dude, apparently acted by Jacques–the director–himself, and represents not only the guilt of a sole survivor, but of something else so much deeper that this viewer was left, at the end, wondering what his role ever was in the first place if not the intoxicant to our journey’s very end.
The plot moves fairly quickly, and we’re introduced to Mary’s sudden obsession with a dead carnival of the town. Whenever she illegally enters this “dead carnival,” things get even weirder.
What we have, in the end, is a descent into madness, guilt, and/or something else entirely. It’s these qualities that makes this movie so enjoyable. It makes you think and guess and then second guess yourself. Along the way you find that you’re having some fun, which is never wrong when watching a movie. Although the ending isn’t completely unpredictable, you find yourself saying, “Huh,” at its end. Or at least I did.
Therefore, Carnival of souls gets 4.5 out of 5 CHUD-Dwellers, rounded up to five.
Intoducing:
Carnival of Ghouls!
Summer of Zombie 2014 Blog Tour, Guest post by Ian McCellan
I’m down with what’s said here. I was a big zombie fan before zombies became popular, so it’s very cool to have the sub genre blow up like it has. So check out this Summer of Zombie Blog Tour’s recent post by Ian McClellan. I agree with it so much it feels as though I wrote the piece.
Flying Zombies That Shoot Lasers
How do you like your zombies? Fast or slow? Intelligent or mindless? Flying or terrestrial-bound? Wait, do zombies fly? Well, I haven’t seen one fly yet, but I’m sure that it won’t be long. It seems like everyone is trying to come up with the next rung on the zombie evolutionary ladder. Don’t get me wrong, I love when something new is added to the genre, but I wasn’t complaining about zombies when all they did was shamble.
I’ve seen a lot of reviews lately that say things like, “not the same old zombie story,” or, “the zombies were different and interesting.” Personally, I love a good zombie book or movie, regardless of whether or not the zombies are capable of in-line dancing or curling. I don’t care what its 40 time is, a walking corpse that is trying to kill and eat living people…
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A World Torn Asunder by Derek Gunn
The Vampire Apocalypse book 1, A World Torn Asunder, by Derek Gunn, is a pretty fantastic book. I don’t say this often, but I think it is deserved here. The reason being is that it breaks a lot of standards in traditional publishing, but it does it in a way that tickles me.
Imagine, if you will, humanity devastated by a war with vampires. A war that humans have lost. The vampires control the world’s major cities and keep the human population under control with a serum that renders them sedated and unable to fight back. Within an unnamed city (If the city was named, I missed it), there’s an uprising occurring. Harris is among a group of rebels, you could call them, that have found a way to avoid the vampire’s serum and are building their army to fight back and retake their home. What results is a strange mix of Saving Private Ryan and the Underworld movies. Which, for a guy like me, means a very fun and exciting read. The battle scenes are brutal and violent and, sometimes, very realistic-feeling. Other times, the battle sways into the land of fantasy. However, these battle scenes, along with the evolution of the rebel army is the novel’s biggest strength, in my opinion. I don’t think this novel was really meant to be a serious character study rich with plot. It’s a war story. With Vampires.
Having said that, this book is not perfect. No novel is. My biggest problem came with the opening scene. It has some questionable motives in it, especially the part with the parents and their kids (I don’t want to spoil it). No parent, in my mind, would do that. My second biggest problem comes with the rules of the vampires themselves. I don’t like how they shape shift so much and into whatever they want. Or so it seems. If they’re to be shape shifters, they should have more barriers, in my opinion. Don’t let any of this spoil it for you, though. This is a fun book to read, and the best part? It’s just the beginning.
There is a new feature with this opinion piece/review. It is what I like to call the CHUD-Dweller rating. If you don’t know what C.H.U.D. is, then you need to educate yourself.
So, A World Torn Asunder gets my 4 out of 5 CHUD-Dwellers.
Guest Post: Melanie Karsak’s The Harvesting
Today, What Zombies Fear was host to a teaser from Melenie Karsak. What’s a teaser, you might ask. Why, it’s the first three chapters of her book THE HARVESTING. It looks pretty good. So here I am, reposting just for you!
I have the great pleasure of hosting Melanie Karsak on the Summer of Zombie Blog Tour. Her book “The Harvesting” is Available for Purchase Here. She has offered us the first three chapters, which is a huge sample of the book.
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More Summer of Zombie Blog
The Summer of Zombie Blog Tour 2014 is well underway and there have been some great posts so far. I reposted the first one because it was a lot of fun, and you can watch for Darkness Dwell’s guest for the tour coming June 13! I hope to see you all there, wearing reading glasses and hopefully drinking some fine malt scotch.
Here is a link to today’s entry, which I found uplifting to those of us who haven’t turned our backs on the undead. Stevie Kopas visited Richard Schiver’s blog, Nightmares Unleashed. Her article is Camaraderie of The Dead, and it’s a lot of fun to read.
And Don’t forget to come back June 13th to see who Armand has sent to visit Darkness Dwells!
Lot Lizards by Ray Garton
Reading Ray Garton novels is a lot like reading literary movies that are just plain fun. Lot Lizards is no different. As the description states, lot lizards are prostitutes that haunt truck stops, truckers being their target … um … market.
We begin the story with Bill, a trucker who’s stopped for the night at a truck stop and is feeling a little frisky. He hopes to hear the knock on his driver’s side door, indicating the solicitation of a lizard. One comes, but Bill is taken by how skinny and pale the girl is. I found this part very interesting. He takes her in but is no longer horny. He wants to feed her, warm her up, take care of her. He goes from wanting to do the dirty with a prostitute to becoming a caring father within a blink of the eye.
Which is good, in my opinion. It shows depth of character and makes us like Bill almost immediately.
Darkness Dwells 