Connect with us

News

‘Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles: An Alphabettery’ in Bookstores Today

Published

on

Fans of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles have an all new reason to be excited today with a brand new companion book available in bookstores and from online retailers. Written by Rice’s longtime assistant, Becket, Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles: An Alphabettery is a repository of every name, every place, every vampiric gift, featured in the 15 novel (and growing) series.

Encyclopedic in scope, filled with details that even the most devout fans might have missed, and stunning illustrations by Mark Edward Geyer, the Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles: An Alphabettery is a masterpiece, and Becket sat down to speak with iHorror on just how it came to be.

“She [Anne] was talking to her agent right around the release of Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis and the agent told her that she loved the book but she was having trouble remembering details from the Chronicles,” Becket explained. “She suggested she needed some sort of encyclopedia to remember all the names and places and Anne turned to me and asked if I would write something like that and I said sure I’d love to.”

Outside of the author herself, Becket might have been the perfect choice for this project. He discovered Rice’s books while attending his Catholic high school and became a lifelong fan. Several years later, when he was living as monk in a Benedictine monastery in New Orleans, he had the chance to meet the author when she needed a harpsichord to decorate for a book signing at a local bookstore.

The two became friends, developing a relationship via email and when a few years later, he decided he wanted to leave the monastery, not having taken his solemn vows, he wrote to Rice asking if she had any jobs available.

He went to work in her library and soon began traveling with her to book signings and interviews, helping coordinate her calendar. Before long, he was her personal assistant and they’d known each other for 18 years.

However even knowing the author personally and having read the books numerous times, the task of compiling the information was a daunting one.

“My first draft was basically made up of the main characters,” Becket said. “I wrote down about 100 names and then wrote little entries for each of them based on my own memory. Then I went back through the books and re-read them. If I read a name, I wrote it down. If I read an ability, I wrote it down. I did the same with all of the places, the homes, and property.”

By the time the book had gone through its final edits, it had grown to an impressive 160,000 words. It was when we asked the author his favorite entry, that he gave us the rarest treat, a little Easter Egg hidden inside each of Rice’s novels that you might never have noticed before.

“In the “O” section, you’ll find an entry called One Fine Blow,” he said. “When Anne published her first book, she gave a copy to her father and among the things he commented on was the phrase “one fine blow”. He loved the phrase, and because of that, she included it in every single one of the books since then.”

Becket made sure, in the entry, to note where the phrase turns up in each book so that fans can search them out themselves.

In fact, one of the more interesting aspects of the 450 page Alphabettery is that each entry comes with annotations, pointing to other entries that relate to them, ultimately giving the reader three ways to use the book:

  1. One can simply sit down and read it cover to cover.
  2. You can use it as a reference so that when you encounter a name or place in the Chronicles that is vaguely familiar to you, the information can be looked up to refresh your memory.
  3. OR, and this is absolutely fascinating, you can actually choose a character, read their entry, then follow the references at the end of the entry. You can follow whole bloodlines this way. It’s a whole new way of discovering vampiric families, alliances, enemies, truces, etc. and I encourage you to spend at least a little time with the book in this way should you choose to pick it up.

Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles: An Alphabettery by Becket released today on Amazon and in bookstores nationwide!

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

News

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

Published

on

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.

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Continue Reading

Editorial

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

Published

on

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
Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Continue Reading

Movies

Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

Published

on

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.

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Continue Reading