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Horror Pride Month: Actor/Musician Daniel Newman

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Daniel Newman

Daniel Newman has, in some ways, lived out his dream numerous times.

The Georgia native was only 12 years old when he landed his first guest role on a TV series, and since that time he’s worked steadily as an actor on both the big and small screens.

The lifelong horror fan has even had the opportunity to step into dream roles along the way including 2012’s television adaptation of Stephen King’s Children of the Corn in which he took on the role of Malachai, the lethal enforcer and right-hand to crazed child preacher Isaac.

The actor called the experience a “magical” one that allowed him to just let go and have an amazing time among the rows.

It was his guest-starring turn in The Walking Dead, however, that really seemed to put him on the radar of many horror fans. It was an exciting role for him, but one that he also entered with a bit of trepidation.

“It was really crazy,” the actor told me in our interview, “because I expected it to be like a lot of hit shows that I’ve been on where it’s a tight group cast and you can’t really fit in, but on the first day Melissa McBride ‘Carol’ came up to me in the trailer saying, ‘Daniel! How have you been? I’ve missed you so much!’ I thought I was being pranked, but then I suddenly realized she was actually my casting director on projects when I was a kid! I totally forgot. So she really brought me into the cast and made me feel at home.”

And yet, through most of his career, perhaps his best acting went on off-screen. It was, in fact, in the wake of his success on The Walking Dead, he says, when reporters and journalists began to ask him about his personal life. Did he have a girlfriend? Was he in a relationship? What did he he look for in a potential girlfriend?

In those moments, the bisexual actor’s story became one that wasn’t so different from many actors. For years he was told if he came out it would kill his career, that it would destroy all the work his agents had done, and that it was just really “none of other people’s business anyway.”

Like so many before him, the actor bought into that lie until he found himself confronted by a far different reality.

Newman was volunteering at a shelter for LGBTQ youth when one of the young people there approached him and thanked him for being so nice to them. She said it in such a way that acknowledged the line that everyone on the queer spectrum knows exists.

In response, Newman told her that he was one of them.

“I thought she would be happy when I told her I also am part of the community,” he explained, “but she was furious and she said ‘why do celebrities and public people stay in the closet when they are successful! It hurts the whole community.’ I remembered thinking the exact same thing all throughout my youth being so mad that successful people weren’t out and proud representing all of us.”

When the actor left the shelter that day, he went home and came out publicly on Twitter and on YouTube saying he didn’t want to give himself an out to backtrack on his decision.

With the statement made, he sat down to await the career implosion that he’d be warned about his entire life. To his shock, however, the destruction never came. In fact, he says, he began to get more offers than he’d had before.

Today, Newman continues his work onscreen while also touring with his band and working in the technology industry. That has not stopped his activism, however, and if anything, it has more solidified his stance on representation in the entertainment industry.

“I think the mistake throughout the past in LGBTQ roles was to marginalize them and sexualize them,” Newman pointed out, “rather than to humanize them and base the characters and narratives on relatable human attributes. There are hundreds of millions of diverse LGBTQ people around the world and nothing could be broader than the personalities and character types of our culture.”

Personally, I couldn’t agree more.

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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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