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Author Profile: Brian Moreland’s Fiction is Seriously Scary

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I have this amazing job.  You have no idea.  In the last year of writing for iHorror, I have had the opportunity to review amazing films, introduce our readers to the work of brilliant authors and filmmakers, and I’ve even had the opportunity to piss off the internet a couple of times.  (You have no idea how fulfilling that last one is.)  But, my favorite part of writing for iHorror has been meeting and interviewing some of the most talented people in the horror business.  Brian Moreland was recently added to that list.  We had a great interview about his writing and upcoming projects.  If you haven’t read his work, yet, you really must put him in your queue.

A native Texan, Moreland is a graduate of the University of Texas in Austin.  It was there, while taking a class on screenwriting, the he began to develop his voice as a writer..

“It turned me onto more scene driven fiction.  Someone taught me once that everyone can imagine what a castle or the forest looks like so you don’t have to spend a lot of time on description.  All you have to say is the character approached the castle or was walking through the woods and the reader’s mind can build that.”

The result is quick paced story telling that draws you in almost immediately.  What keeps you turning the page, however, is the blend of mythology, folklore, and family relationships that invariably speaks to the primal facet of our natures.

Take, for instance, Shadows in the Mist.  Taking place primarily in the Hurtgen Forest during World War II, Shadows is the tale of a small platoon a small platoon of American soldiers battling a Nazi army heavily influenced by the occult.  The book has everything.  Runic magic, Jewish mysticism, and a seemingly unstoppable army of supernatural German soldiers.  It’s the wraparound story, however, that first grabs you.  A young man named Shawn is given a letter by his grandfather to deliver to a high ranking officer in the U.S. military.  The letter and accompanying journal opens Shawn to the a mystery he had never imagine about his grandfather’s tour of duty.  It’s a story inspired by  Brian’s own life and his grandfather.

“My grandfather was a war hero and he would never talk about.  As a kid I walked down into the cellar and found an army box with a padlock on it.  He said he could never open that chest because it would bring up too many painful memories.  That curiosity was really the set up for Shadows in the Mist.  My grandfather read the book when it was published.  A short while later, there was a family gathering and he was sitting on the couch in the living room.  Suddenly, to everyone’s surprise, he opened up and started telling stories about the army, about his missions.  It was amazing because somehow the book had made it possible for him to talk about what he had seen and experienced.”

These themes inform much of his work.  In The Devil’s Woods, my personal favorite of his novels, Moreland presents us with a fantastic tale involving the Cree Nation in Canada, Dutch immigrants,  and an ancient race of shapeshifting demons, an archetype drawn from cave paintings and lore from around the world.  When I asked him about the incredible amount of research that must go into a piece like that, he admitted that his research style is a very organic process.

“I research as I go,” he says.  “As I get into the writing of something, my imagination writes it first, but I want everything to be authentic.  And, I want three sources for anything before I use it.  Shadows in the Mist, all the Norse stuff came from my study of the Nazis and the Third Reich’s interest in the occult and I built a mystery around that. If I’m creating Dutch characters, I want it to feel real. I like that there is something primordial in the feeling of that kind of ancient belief and cultures. ”

Primordial is an excellent word for Mr. Moreland’s monsters.  They terrify as they slowly slip into your consciousness.  What you don’t realize is that fear is the same our ancestors felt during the hunt for food when they, in turn, realized something was stalking and hunting them.  You are never fully in control in Mr. Moreland’s stories, and just when you think you have figured out the ending, he is waiting to gleefully pull the rug from under you, and he’s not done, yet.

“I’m working on another historical story, probably a novella, and it’s set in Egypt 1935.  It’s called Tomb of Gods, and at first it seems to be a mummy story, but I don’t want to give too much away about that.  I hope to release it next Spring.  I’m also working on a collection of short stories, as well, though I’m still deciding how to put it all together.  I’ve always wanted to do my own Books of Blood like Clive Barker, so that’s what I’ve been working on bringing together.”

There’s plenty more you can jump into before these new stories arrive, however.  All of his work is available via Amazon and the official website for Samhain Publishing.  And, if you are on the go and don’t have time to read them on your own, they are all available as audiobooks, as well.

If you want to read more about Mr. Moreland’s work, you can visit his website and you can also read my review of his most recently published work, Darkness Rising, here.

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Melissa Barrera Says ‘Scary Movie VI’ Would Be “Fun To Do”

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Melissa Barrera might literally get the last laugh on Spyglass thanks to a possible Scary Movie sequel. Paramount and Miramax are seeing the right opportunity to bring the satirical franchise back into the fold and announced last week one might be in production as early as this fall.

The last chapter of the Scary Movie franchise was almost a decade ago and since the series lampoons thematic horror movies and pop culture trends, it would seem they have a lot of content to draw ideas from, including the recent reboot of slasher series Scream.

Barerra, who starred as final girl Samantha in those movies was abruptly fired from the latest chapter, Scream VII, for expressing what Spyglass interpreted as “antisemitism,” after the actress came out in support of Palestine on social media.

Even though the drama wasn’t a laughing matter, Barrera might get her chance to parody Sam in Scary Movie VI. That is if the opportunity arises. In an interview with Inverse, the 33-year-old actress was asked about Scary Movie VI, and her reply was intriguing.

“I always loved those movies,” the actress told Inverse. “When I saw it announced, I was like, ‘Oh, that would be fun. That would be so fun to do.’”

That “fun to do” part could be construed as a passive pitch to Paramount, but that’s open to interpretation.

Just like in her franchise, Scary Movie also has a legacy cast including Anna Faris and Regina Hall. There is no word yet on if either of those actors will appear in the reboot. With or without them, Barrera is still a fan of the comedies. “They have the iconic cast that did it, so we’ll see what goes on with that. I’m just excited to see a new one,” she told the publication.

Barrera is currently celebrating the box office success of her latest horror movie Abigail.

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Thrills and Chills: Ranking ‘Radio Silence’ Films from Bloody Brilliant to Just Bloody

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Radio Silence Films

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, and Chad Villella are all filmmakers under the collective label called Radio Silence. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett are the primary directors under that moniker while Villella produces.

They have gained popularity over the past 13 years and their films have become known as having a certain Radio Silence “signature.” They are bloody, usually contain monsters, and have breakneck action sequences. Their recent film Abigail exemplifies that signature and is perhaps their best film yet. They are currently working on a reboot of John Carpenter’s Escape From New York.

We thought we would go through the list of projects they have directed and rank them from high to low. None of the movies and shorts on this list are bad, they all have their merits. These rankings from top to bottom are just ones we felt showcased their talents the best.

We didn’t include movies they produced but didn’t direct.

#1. Abigail

An update to the second film on this list, Abagail is the natural progression of Radio Silence’s love of lockdown horror. It follows in pretty much the same footsteps of Ready or Not, but manages to go one better — make it about vampires.

Abigail

#2. Ready or Not

This film put Radio Silence on the map. While not as successful at the box office as some of their other films, Ready or Not proved that the team could step outside their limited anthology space and create a fun, thrilling, and bloody adventure-length film.

Ready or Not

#3. Scream (2022)

While Scream will always be a polarizing franchise, this prequel, sequel, reboot — however you want to label it showed just how much Radio Silence knew the source material. It wasn’t lazy or cash-grabby, just a good time with legendary characters we love and new ones who grew on us.

Scream (2022)

#4 Southbound (The Way Out)

Radio Silence tosses their found footage modus operandi for this anthology film. Responsible for the bookend stories, they create a terrifying world in their segment titled The Way Out, which involves strange floating beings and some sort of time loop. It’s kind of the first time we see their work without a shaky cam. If we were to rank this entire film, it would remain at this position on the list.

Southbound

#5. V/H/S (10/31/98)

The film that started it all for Radio Silence. Or should we say the segment that started it all. Even though this isn’t feature-length what they managed to do with the time they had was very good. Their chapter was titled 10/31/98, a found-footage short involving a group of friends who crash what they think is a staged exorcism only to learn not to assume things on Halloween night.

V/H/S

#6. Scream VI

Cranking up the action, moving to the big city and letting Ghostface use a shotgun, Scream VI turned the franchise on its head. Like their first one, this film played with canon and managed to win over a lot of fans in its direction, but alienated others for coloring too far outside the lines of Wes Craven’s beloved series. If any sequel was showing how the trope was going stale it was Scream VI, but it managed to squeeze some fresh blood out of this nearly three-decade mainstay.

Scream VI

#7. Devil’s Due

Fairly underrated, this, Radio Silence’s first feature-length film, is a sampler of things they took from V/H/S. It was filmed in an omnipresent found footage style, showcasing a form of possession, and features clueless men. Since this was their first bonafide major studio job it’s a wonderful touchstone to see how far they have come with their storytelling.

Devil’s Due

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Perhaps the Scariest, Most Disturbing Series of The Year

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You may have never heard of Richard Gadd, but that will probably change after this month. His mini-series Baby Reindeer just hit Netflix and it’s a terrifying deep dive into abuse, addiction, and mental illness. What is even scarier is that it’s based on Gadd’s real-life hardships.

The crux of the story is about a man named Donny Dunn played by Gadd who wants to be a stand-up comedian, but it’s not working out so well thanks to stage fright stemming from his insecurity.

One day at his day job he meets a woman named Martha, played to unhinged perfection by Jessica Gunning, who is instantly charmed by Donny’s kindness and good looks. It doesn’t take long before she nicknames him “Baby Reindeer” and begins to relentlessly stalk him. But that is just the apex of Donny’s problems, he has his own incredibly disturbing issues.

This mini-series should come with a lot of triggers, so just be warned it is not for the faint of heart. The horrors here don’t come from blood and gore, but from physical and mental abuse that go beyond any physiological thriller you may have ever seen.

“It’s very emotionally true, obviously: I was severely stalked and severely abused,” Gadd said to People, explaining why he changed some aspects of the story. “But we wanted it to exist in the sphere of art, as well as protect the people it’s based on.”

The series has gained momentum thanks to positive word-of-mouth, and Gadd is getting used to the notoriety.

“It’s clearly struck a chord,” he told The Guardian. “I really did believe in it, but it’s taken off so quickly that I do feel a bit windswept.”

You can stream Baby Reindeer on Netflix right now.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.

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