As a day after Horror Month treat, here’s Grahame with one more scary insight to close out the month.
Editorials
In Which Disney Nearly Ruins Superman III
When I was younger, one of the most terrifying films I’d ever seen was a late ’70s sci-fi flick, and it was not Alien. Apologies in advance for any spoilers about the 1979 film I’m about to discuss, but seriously guys, this movie is older than I am. If you’re going to watch it, you probably would have done so by now.
Zombies and You: Overload of the Living Dead
So zombies… I can’t think of anything in pop culture that I have more of a love/hate relationship with than zombies. The concept is deceptively simple: the dead rise from the grave and want to eat brains. You can really layer whatever other story elements you want on top of that core concept. You can have zombie war movies, zombie love stories, zombie comedies; pretty much anything works. It’s such a broad concept that casual fans can tune in and out without having to worry about any complex mythos, but still malleable enough that horror buffs can argue the merits of fast zombies versus slow zombies, or comet zombies versus radioactivity zombies (I like my zombies slow and of unknown origin).
Which Wytch do I Switch?
This post is part of a series on horror fundamentals, exploring the monsters and the reasons we fear them.
It’s a little tough to pin down what exactly a witch is, because everyone has a slightly different perception of who and what a witch really is; a cursory example would be the fact that the Wikipedia disambiguation page for the word is one of the longest I’ve encountered. Digging even slightly deeper, we learn that witches are divided into good and bad camps from the Wizard of Oz universe. Joss Whedon tells us that the girl next door, on whom literally everyone has a crush, could well be a witch. MacBeth’s run-ins with the witches shook the royal courts of Scotland. Closest to home, at least for this writer, a small Massachusetts down forever defined the phrase “witch hunt” by burning a group of innocent women at the stake.
Broken Glasses and Wytches: Dumbledore Won’t Save You Now
Editor’s Note: Welcome our newest ICBIS staff member Grahame Turner! As a part of Horror Month, we’re going to be recommending horror media we think you should check out. Here’s Grahame with some creepy comics.
Welcome to Horror Month!
We’ve been building up to it for a few weeks, but now that October is in full swing, we can officially kick of Horror Month on ICBIS!
Oversaturated Magic Pulp
Hey everyone. Gedge here. In a recent podcast episode John, Dana and I recapped our adventures at Dragon Con 2015. If you haven’t listened to it yet, strap down your ears for a listen (Episode 6: Dragon Con: Fury Road).
In the podcast, I brought up my experience at a couple publisher panels, which included Titan Books and Ace/Rock. The panel description included something along the phrase of “free swag.” In honesty, I wanted new books, so I showed up to see what they had—no shame, man.
Remember that time urban fantasy became a big deal? Not me. I haven’t kept track of trends in genre fiction in years. So yeah, apparently urban fantasy is a big thing now.
Wes Craven 1939 – 2015
Well, this is a bummer. Wes Craven has passed away at the age of 76. Apparently he was fighting brain cancer, which was also news to me.
Craven was a fascinating staple of the horror genre: a college professor who quit his job to direct movies, starting with porn, moving to exploitation flicks, and moving into one of the most recognizable faces in cinema.
I Broke Wet Hot: A Review
Editor’s Note: Welcome our newest ICBIS team member: Ryan Brooks!
So Netflix is slowly buying up real estate on the pop culture landscape. I for one welcome our new streaming overlords- and it wasn’t this year’s excellent made-for-Netflix Daredevil show that won me over. It was Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp.
It's Cool, But It Sucks. 