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Author Spotlight: Roma Gray’s Gray Shadows Under a Harvest Moon

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One of the most difficult tasks for a new author is introducing their work to the reader.  For most, it’s a spin of the roulette wheel.  The book is published and you work with your publicist and publisher to run the best campaign possible to get people to crack open the covers or download onto their devices to read.  Generally, today, this means social marketing campaigns, interviews on various websites, and some even get video ads placed on YouTube.  There are authors out there who come up with much more creative ways of getting the word out, and Roma Gray is one of those authors.

In her anthology, Gray Shadows Under a Harvest Moon: Six Trick or Treat Thrillers, Ms. Gray has done something I have never seen before.  Quite simply, she gives you six short stories that introduce her ideas for brand new novels that will be headed to retailers near you, and then she takes it one step further.  In the second half of the anthology, Ms. Gray gives information about what will be coming in these novels by “interviewing” one or two of the characters from each story.  It’s a genius idea because you can introduce your brand of fiction to the public and generate interest for more.

So, what is Ms. Gray’s brand of fiction and who is her target audience?  As I finished up reading her book, I asked her that question, myself.  She responded, “My target audience is adult and young adult. The idea being that most of the Halloween-style books out there are aimed at children, but teens and adults like Halloween as well (it doesn’t have to be just for kids.) On the other end of the spectrum, many of us don’t like the hard core horror books, either. It’s seems to me that there is a huge gap between those two extremes and I’m trying to fill that gap.”

After reading her book, I can tell you that she hit her mark.  Her stories boast original ideas that are light-hearted while still boasting a host of standard horror creatures:  zombies, vampires, dark magic practitioners, and even sasquatch.  That’s right, guys, Bigfoot makes an appearance in a tale called “The Invisible Carrier” concerning an epidemic in the Pacific Northwest and the sasquatch is the outbreak monkey, carrying the disease from one small town to the next.

I have to be honest here.  Ms. Gray’s brand of fiction does not suit me.  The tone of the stories and the characters seem like fodder for a slew of movies on the Syfy network.  There is a time and a place and even a network for this type of story, but it just isn’t my cup of tea.  I do like the darker tales and I like my monsters a bit more monstrous. One story that did stick out for me, however.  In “Summer Vacation”, we are introduced to a young man named Sean who is spending the summer with his grandmother.  He is a bit of a recluse and has developed, at first as a joke to drive his mother crazy, an interest in dark magic.  When Sean begins to realize that his spells are actually working and that from across the country he has somehow set fire to his bed at home and made the water in his parent’s home run red as blood, he begins to get nervous.  Once again, the tone of the story is not my taste, but it would be one that I would sit down and read to find out what happens in the end.

I applaud Ms. Gray’s presenting a truly polished work.  It is difficult to find digitally published work that is edited this well, even among established authors like King and Rice.  It is something that just isn’t given as much time as it should be anymore.

So, to pull this all together, if you’re the kind of horror reader who enjoys your entertainment a bit on the lighter side, this is the book for you and I would urge you to get a copy of Ms. Gray’s anthology today.  You can follow the link here to Amazon and score it for only $2.99!

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Brad Dourif Says He’s Retiring Except For One Important Role

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Brad Dourif has been doing movies for nearly 50 years. Now it seems he is walking away from the industry at 74 to enjoy his golden years. Except, there is a caveat.

Recently, digital entertainment publication JoBlo’s Tyler Nichols talked to some of the Chucky television series cast members. During the interview, Dourif made an announcement.

“Dourif said that he’s retired from acting,” says Nichols. “The only reason he came back for the show was because of his daughter Fiona and he considers Chucky creator Don Mancini to be family. But for non-Chucky stuff, he considers himself retired.”

Dourif has voiced the possessed doll since 1988 (minus the 2019 reboot). The original movie “Child’s Play” has become such a cult classic it’s at the top of some people’s best chillers of all time. Chucky himself is ingrained in pop culture history much like Frankenstein or Jason Voorhees.

While Dourif may be known for his famous voiceover, he is also an Oscar-nominated actor for his part in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Another famous horror role is The Gemini Killer in William Peter Blatty’s Exorcist III. And who can forget Betazoid Lon Suder in Star Trek: Voyager?

The good news is that Don Mancini is already pitching a concept for season four of Chucky which might also include a feature-length movie with a series tie-in. So, Although Dourif says he is retiring from the industry, ironically he is Chucky’s friend till the end.

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Editorial

7 Great ‘Scream’ Fan Films & Shorts Worth a Watch

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The Scream franchise is such an iconic series, that many budding filmmakers take inspiration from it and make their own sequels or, at least, build upon the original universe created by screenwriter Kevin Williamson. YouTube is the perfect medium to showcase these talents (and budgets) with fan-made homages with their own personal twists.

The great thing about Ghostface is that he can appear anywhere, in any town, he just needs the signature mask, knife, and unhinged motive. Thanks to Fair Use laws it’s possible to expand upon Wes Craven’s creation by simply getting a group of young adults together and killing them off one by one. Oh, and don’t forget the twist. You’ll notice that Roger Jackson’s famous Ghostface voice is uncanny valley, but you get the gist.

We have gathered five fan films/shorts related to Scream that we thought were pretty good. Although they can’t possibly match the beats of a $33 million blockbuster, they get by on what they have. But who needs money? If you’re talented and motivated anything is possible as proven by these filmmakers who are well on their way to the big leagues.

Take a look at the below films and let us know what you think. And while you’re at it, leave these young filmmakers a thumbs up, or leave them a comment to encourage them to create more films. Besides, where else are you going to see Ghostface vs. a Katana all set to a hip-hop soundtrack?

Scream Live (2023)

Scream Live

Ghostface (2021)

Ghostface

Ghost Face (2023)

Ghost Face

Don’t Scream (2022)

Don’t Scream

Scream: A Fan Film (2023)

Scream: A Fan Film

The Scream (2023)

The Scream

A Scream Fan Film (2023)

A Scream Fan Film
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Movies

Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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