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Horror Pride Month: Author Hailey Piper

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Hailey Piper

Hailey Piper writes original scary books. No, really, I’m serious. She has a way of writing scary that is both refreshing and a bit disarming, especially once you’ve had a conversation with her.

Soft-spoken and thoughtful, Piper was not what I expected when we sat down for an interview for iHorror’s Horror Pride Month series celebrating LGBTQ creatives in the genre especially as I’d just finished reading her novella Benny Rose The Cannibal King.

Piper’s love of horror began with monster movies when she was a kid. She grew upon a steady diet of Godzilla and the Universal Monsters from the time she was around four years old. Access to horror books, however, was a little harder to come by until she decided to do a little snooping.

“My mom was a big Dean Koontz fan and I wasn’t supposed to be reading those books but it’s not like there was a lock on her bedroom door,” she said. “When you’re a little kid, your books are all tiny paperbacks, but she had these giant, meaty hardcovers. I kind of went in and I kept seeing a face on the back and I didn’t know it was Dean Koontz and the book said Mr. Murder so I thought that’s who it was. So I opened that and just started reading.”

In a way, she never looked back. Of course, her mother soon discovered that she was reading the books and so they began reading them together. The rest, as they say, was history or herstory as is more apropos. Hailey was soon writing stories of her own which brings us back to her most recent novella Benny Rose.

The story takes place on a lonely cul de sac in a little retirement community where a terrifying creature born from the urban legends told about him rises up against a group of teenagers. For Piper, the story began with Glade Street, the story’s setting.

“The town grew out of there,” Piper explained. “I wasn’t sure who the monster would be at first. I had a ton of ideas and that kind of ballooned into the concept that he was all of them. He’s the stories that these kids tell. And of course, there was going to be one answer at the center of that, but that’s where the genesis was.”

Benny Rose emerges as a dark, twisted tale that is perfect for the Halloween season, but it’s far from Piper’s only offering.

The author has had numerous stories published in a wide range of anthologies. You can also read her previous novella The Possession of Natalie Glasgow.

When it comes to representation of the LGBTQ community in the horror space, Piper points out that for her, it resonates as a feeling of absence.

“I do notice the absence after a time,” she said. “Like you watch enough movies and you don’t see anybody who represents you, you start to feel it before you notice it. I see representation better in writing. Not because it’s great but because it sticks out. If I’m reading a short story collection and one of the characters happens to be gay, it immediately is like, ‘Oh they did that!’ I especially notice when the writer is not LGBT.”

As for her own writing, she says there have been moments when she has asked herself if her work will be rejected by audiences and publishers if a character is a member of the LGBTQ community. For her, inclusion became a matter of confidence as much as anything. There was the fear that perhaps, because she was not yet established as an author, the risks were higher.

Eventually, however, she came to the realization that she will never please everyone with her writing, which is freeing in its own way.

“If you have a character who is gay in there or any form of queer person in there and the story has nothing to do with being queer then they’re like why is this character even in here? That’s not important. But if it’s a story where there are gay themes, then another group of people will dismiss it saying that it’s just a statement story or it’s just politics or whatever. You can’t win with people.”

She goes on to point out, however, the importance of different perspectives in storytelling.

“Someone from a different perspective is going to have different ways of telling a story,” the author explained. “Everyone should want that. It just benefits everyone. Fans say they want new horror, but not genuinely new where they have to try or maybe it doesn’t feel the same. They want something that feels new the way that it did for them when they were like fifteen and they read an adult book for the first time. They want it to be like that but only for them and no one else.”

Horror Pride Month was born out of exactly that sentiment. New perspectives, new storytelling, invigorates and elevates the genre. It adds layers of nuance and incorporates an entirely new spectrum of experience within a narrative.

Hailey Piper is an example of that change and her voice is an exciting addition to the tapestry that is horror literature.

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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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Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released

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In true Shyamalan form, he sets his film Trap inside a social situation where we aren’t sure what is going on. Hopefully, there is a twist at the end. Furthermore, we hope it’s better than the one in his divisive 2021 movie Old.

The trailer seemingly gives away a lot, but, as in the past, you can’t rely on his trailers because they are often red herrings and you are being gaslit to think a certain way. For instance, his movie Knock at the Cabin was completely different than what the trailer implied and if you hadn’t read the book on which the film is based it was still like going in blind.

The plot for Trap is being dubbed an “experience” and we aren’t quite sure what that means. If we were to guess based on the trailer, it’s a concert movie wrapped around a horror mystery. There are original songs performed by Saleka, who plays Lady Raven, a kind of Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga hybrid. They have even set up a Lady Raven website to further the illusion.

Here is the fresh trailer:

According to the synopsis, a father takes his daughter to one of Lady Raven’s jam-packed concerts, “where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider.

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