August 2018 Horror Movie Releases

There's a litany of teen slasher/zombie apocalypse/bloodfest movies being released in August. However, there are a few movies that sound as though they might be a cut above. I haven't checked out their ratings in Rotten Tomatoes: I'll leave it to you to decide if they sound interesting.

The Little Stranger tells the story of Dr. Faraday, the son of a housemaid, who has built a life of quiet respectability as a country doctor. During the long hot summer of 1948, he is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall, where his mother once worked. The Hall has been home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries. But it is now in decline and its inhabitants – mother, son, and daughter – are haunted by something more ominous than a dying way of life. When he takes on his new patient, Faraday has no idea how closely, and how disturbingly, the family’s story is about to become entwined with his own.

See the trailer.

Down a Dark Hall

Kit (AnnaSophia Robb), a difficult young girl, is sent to the mysterious Blackwood Boarding School when her heated temper becomes too much for her mother to handle. Once she arrives at Blackwood, Kit encounters eccentric headmistress Madame Duret (Uma Thurman) and meets the school’s only other students, four young women also headed down a troubled path. While exploring the labyrinthine corridors of the school, Kit and her classmates discover that Blackwood Manor hides an age-old secret rooted in the paranormal.

See the trailer.

Marrowbone

Four siblings seek refuge in an old home after the death of their mother, only to discover that the house has another, more sinister, inhabitant in this haunting directorial debut from Sergio G. Sánchez, screenwriter of The Orphanage and The Impossible.

See the trailer.

May and June 2018 Horror/Crime Fiction Novel Releases

Here's three you might want to look for:

An unspeakable crime. A confounding investigation. At a time when the King brand has never been stronger, he has delivered one of his most unsettling and compulsively readable stories.

An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is found in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens. He is Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon add DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad.

As the investigation expands and horrifying answers begin to emerge, King’s propulsive story kicks into high gear, generating strong tension and almost unbearable suspense. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy, but is he wearing another face? When the answer comes, it will shock you as only Stephen King can.

(May 22nd release day)

Award-winning author Laird Barron makes his crime fiction debut with a novel set in the underbelly of upstate New York that's as hardboiled and punchy as a swift right hook to the jaw--a classic noir for fans of James Ellroy and John D. Macdonald.

Isaiah Coleridge is a mob enforcer in Alaska--he's tough, seen a lot, and dished out more. But when he forcibly ends the moneymaking scheme of a made man, he gets in the kind of trouble that can lead to a bullet behind the ear. Saved by the grace of his boss and exiled to upstate New York, Isaiah begins a new life, a quiet life without gunshots or explosions. Except a teenage girl disappears, and Isaiah isn't one to let that slip by. And delving into the underworld to track this missing girl will get him exactly the kind of notice he was warned to avoid. (May 29th release date)

The Bram Stoker Award-winning author of A Head Full of Ghosts adds an inventive twist to the home invasion horror story in a heart-palpitating novel of psychological suspense that recalls Stephen King’s Misery, Ruth Ware’s In a Dark, Dark Wood, and Jack Ketchum’s cult hit The Girl Next Door.

Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin on a quiet New Hampshire lake. Their closest neighbors are more than two miles in either direction along a rutted dirt road.

One afternoon, as Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears in the driveway. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen but he is young, friendly, and he wins her over almost instantly. Leonard and Wen talk and play until Leonard abruptly apologizes and tells Wen, "None of what’s going to happen is your fault". Three more strangers then arrive at the cabin carrying unidentifiable, menacing objects. As Wen sprints inside to warn her parents, Leonard calls out: "Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world."

Thus begins an unbearably tense, gripping tale of paranoia, sacrifice, apocalypse, and survival that escalates to a shattering conclusion, one in which the fate of a loving family and quite possibly all of humanity are entwined. The Cabin at the End of the World is a masterpiece of terror and suspense from the fantastically fertile imagination of Paul Tremblay. (June 26th release date)

Source: Amazon.com

A Quiet Place

Released on April 6, 2018, in the United States and Canada, this film has already garnered an almost perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes with excellent reviews from critics and movie-goers alike.

The film is directed by John Krasinski, who also stars in the movie along with his real-life wife, Emily Blunt. It has an intriguing premise: in a dystopian world, a family must flee to the woods, where creatures hunt their targets by sound. If they hear you, they hurt you.

In addition to considering his film a metaphor for parenthood, Krasinski compared the premise to US politics in 2018, "I think in our political situation, that's what's going on now: You can close your eyes and stick your head in the sand, or you can try to participate in whatever's going on." (Source: Wikipedia)

To view the trailer, please click here.

INNER GHOSTS: Part 2

Here's some additional information on the film we showcased last week:

THE FILMMAKERS

 JOÃO ALVES (Director) is a multi-talented writer, illustrator, designer, animator, and VFX artist. After four years working professionally in animation, he wrote, directed, and pretty much everything else, the short horror/western BATS IN THE BELFRY (2010). The animated short did a worldwide festival run that lasted four years, and won several awards (MOTELx, Fantasporto and others) and was sold to Fearnet.com before getting a theatrical release in 2013. INNER GHOSTS is João

Alves' first feature. However, the director has more upcoming projects.

PAULO LEITE (Writer/Producer) is an EAVE graduate with over 15 years of professional experience. He has worked in Production roles in Film, TV, Commercials and Fashion. Paulo also has experience in Development, having helped many international producers with their projects, either as a writer, consultant, mentor or simply as a friend. Paulo regularly attends all the main film festivals and markets devoted to genre films in Europe, North and Latin America. Paulo has several other horror projects in development, including THROUGH THE EYES OF A CHILD that was selected to the Frontières Co-Production Market.

MIGUEL SALES LOPES, A.I.P. (Director of Photography/Editor) is one of Portugal's leading cinematographers with almost 40 film and TV projects in the last 15 years. He has worked in some of the most successful Portuguese films in recent memory and is well-known for the quality of his work. For INNER GHOSTS, Miguel went to the extreme of building himself the light equipment demanded by the film’s complex final scene.

 GABRIEL AUGUSTO (Producer) was born in Macao. He is an IPAM graduate with over 10 years of experience in Digital Marketing, Social Media and Branding, having worked with some of the biggest Portuguese companies today. He is one of the leading names in the business and a constant presence in markets and events. He has worked twice with the Portuguese sponsors of Cannes Lions. Gabriel won't miss a horror film. His personal taste goes for Asian horror as he is a connoisseur of

virtually everything ever produced.

 THE CAST

CELIA WILLIAMS is a British actress born and brought up in England. She studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama before spending two years living in Brazil, since when she has been living and working in Lisbon. She performs in English and Portuguese, and also, once, in French. Her work has taken her very often to the UK, to London and to Edinburgh, to places all over Portugal from Bragança in the north, to the Algarve in the south, to Madeira in the Atlantic, and also to India. She has performed in a variety of genres including tragedy, drama, mystery, comedy, musicals, opera, radio, television series and feature films. Among many major roles on stage are Jean Cocteau's THE HUMAN VOICE in London's West End, THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK, DON'T WALK ABOUT WITH NOTHING ON, and BE MY BABY, also in London; Paulina in DEATH & THE MAIDEN, Elizabeth I in MARY STUART, Nora in A DOLL'S HOUSE, Stephanie in DUET FOR ONE, Gertrude in HAMLET and Judith Bliss in HAY FEVER IN LISBON. Celia's work in Portuguese includes various roles in TV soaps and series, for example EQUADOR and UMA FAMÍLIA AÇOREANA, O ÚLTIMO DOS MARIALVAS, APANHADOS NO DIVÃ and AUTO DA BARCA DO INFERNO for the stage, and the films PASSAGEM POR LISBOA and A MORTE DE CARLOS GARDEL. Her first venture into horror was ten years ago when she played the protagonist in MRS. DEVENPORT'S THROAT, a short film, part of a series written and produced by horror icon David McGillivray. She is now excited, and a little afraid, to take on the role of Helen in INNER GHOSTS.

ELIZABETH BOCHMANN was born in Lisbon in 1989 to British parents and was brought up in Portugal. As a result, she is fluent in both English and Portuguese. She has a degree in Drama and Theatre Arts from Goldsmiths College, University of London, as well as short courses on Technical Voice Production and the Method. She has worked mostly in theatre, performing in Portugal, England and at the Edinburgh Fringe. Since completing her degree, she has played major roles in PYGMALION, HAY FEVER, THE MOUSETRAP, RELATIVELY SPEAKING, THE PROVOKED WIFE, THE THREE SISTERS and ROMEO AND JULIET. She has appeared on TV in Portuguese soap operas, most recently JARDINS PROIBIDOS for TVI and in short films, including THE HUNCHBACK, written and directed by award-winning director Gabriel Abrantes and Ben Rivers. INNER GHOSTS is her first experience working on a feature film, ironically in a genre that she finds terrifying to watch. Her passion is, and always has been, acting. The feeling of being able to bring another character to life is an extraordinary sensation, and the challenge is to embody that person with as much truth and honesty as possible. Elsa is a tough woman with a complicated life. She has seen ghosts and demons for most of her life - so much that she turned that curse into a profession, designing demonic visuals for games and horror films. One of the demons she sees has become too violent as it demands something from her - something she will be forced to deliver.

IRIS CAYATTE was born in Lisbon in 1986 from a Portuguese/French father and a Finnish mother. She spent her childhood and teenage years moving from place to place (from the vast Finnish forest, to the desert of Alentejo, to Luxembourg and back to Lisbon where she completed the International Bachaleaureat at an international school. She is bilingual and works in Portuguese, English and is fluent in French. At the age of 17 she moved to London where she graduated from The Central School of Speech and Drama in 2008. Since then she has been busy working in major theatre productions. Currently she is preparing two different plays to be presented at the National Theatre in Lisbon. She has performed in major roles in plays by Arthur Miller, Brecht, Shakespeare, Sarah Kane, George Orwell, Paú Miró, Simon Stephens, Dostoyevsky, amongst others. On Film she has worked with directors such as Roberto Faenza in SOSTIENE PEREIRA, the infamous Fanny Ardant in CADENCES OBSTINÉE, Rob Marshal in NINE, Francisco Lobo in ELA and Paulo Furtado (aka The Legendary Tiger Man) in OBLIVION, amongst others. She also participates in television productions such as series and tv movies. On INNER GHOSTS, she plays Rachel, a woman with a keen connection with the other side.

WHO IS OUR AUDIENCE?

We feel INNER GHOSTS is a film for the audience who crave fresher horror concepts and is looking for films that try to give them a fuller emotional experience. With this in mind, we feelINNE R GHOSTS will be closer to the audience who loved THE ORPHANAGE and THE OTHERS (two stories of mothers whose love propels them to do the unthinkable) than the audience who is looking for the average zombie virus flick. Here are some of the films with whom we share creative elements: THE ORPHANAGE, THE OTHERS, POLTERGEIST.

HOW HAVE WE CONNECTED WITH OUR AUDIENCE?

We started tweeting about the film in 2015 as the film got financed and we started writing the script. We told very little about the film (nothing was spoiled) because we did not want to spoil the great twists that take place towards the end of the story. However, we wanted everybody to know that INNER GHOSTS is actually a horror film about love and the crazy things some people can do for it and because of it. So we started tweeting about the film’s theme, about the horror genre in general, about passion for it and some small creative tips we felt were relevant to those who wish to develop their horror stories. We managed to maintain an engaging relationship with our audience and as of March 2017 we reached some 25K organic followers on Twitter. We tweet to them every day. Find us here: https://twitter.com/InnerGhosts

CENTRAL CREATIVE ELEMENT

INNER GHOSTS explores themes and creative elements we are further developing into more horror films. We love writing horror stories and we will not stop.

For more information on INNER GHOSTS, please click here.

BEST OF LUCK TO ALL OF YOU IN YOUR KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN. THIS LOOKS LIKE A VERY INTERESTING FILM.

StokerCon 2017 Registration Is Open

The Horror Writers Association's second annual convention will be held aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California, from April 27-30, 2017.


Many well-known horror/dark fantasy writers will attend, including the following:


George R.R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones
Elizabeth Hand, Wilding Hall, the Cass Neary series
Chuck Wendig, Star Wars: Aftermath, the Miriam Black thrillers
Peter Crowther, the Forever Twilight cycle
Bill Bridges, White Wolf’s World of Darkness, The Silver Crown
Tananarive Due, Ghost Summer, the Tennyson Hardwick mystery series
Gretchen McNeil, Possess, Ten, I’m Not Your Manic Pixie Dream Girl
Stephen Graham Jones, Mongrels, When the People Lights Go Out
Becky Spratford, The Reader’s Advisory Guide to Horror (Second Edition)
Nancy Holder, five-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award®, will serve as the event’s Toastmaster.


In addition to attending the prestigious Bram Stoker Award® dinner on Saturday, April 29, attendees can enjoy panels, presentations, Horror University classes, The Lucky 13 Film Festival, a mini-academic conference coinciding with the convention, special programming for librarians on Librarian’s Day (Thursday, April 27), high tea with your favorite horror authors, ghost tours and a harbor excursion for early arrivals.


For more information on how to register for the convention, please click here.

Christmas Gifts for Horror Lovers

Horror is a billion-dollar industry, so I like to devote a post each year to Christmas gift suggestions that won't cost a (severed) arm and leg. Here are a few suggestions:

Buy a plain Christmas stocking at a dollar store and draw a skull and crossbones on it with a black felt pen or attach one made of black felt or paper. (The one pictured above costs $27 U.S.on a horror gift site so you're much better off designing your own.) Then fill the stocking with bags of gummy worms and leftover chocolate foil-covered "eyeballs" from Halloween. You can also get packages of insects/toy spiders from the toy section of a dollar store. Be inventive! If you're not an artist, follow these simple how-to instructions for drawing a skull and crossbones:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NifLJK1EJc

Plan a post-holiday horror-themed party and send your horror-loving friends a personal invitation as a Christmas gift. This is a fun way to beat the winter doldrums and the post-Christmas feeling of let-down. Plan a party for late January or February and invite your friends to dress up as their favorite horror characters. Consider having a treasure hunt for severed limbs (dollar store purchases) followed by watching Night of the Living Dead or the Evil Dead series. If you make this a BYOB event and come up with some creepy snacks (for example, bowls of popcorn with dollar-store fake fingers and crackers with soft cheese garnished with "eyeballs"), you and your friends will have a great evening at a reasonable cost.

There are lots of great horror movies coming out in 2017. Why not send out a home-made coupon good for a movie and popcorn and redeemable in the new year? You can then choose a non-peak time when tickets are lower-priced to go to the movie theatre. Not sure what's coming up? Check out http://moviepilot.com/p/horror-movies-2017/3920803.

Any other suggestions you'd like to share? Please leave me a comment. I'd love to hear from you...

A Review of The Devil Will Come by Justin Gustainis

I received an ARC of this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program in exchange for an honest review.
 
Back Cover Blurb

Twenty-one stories that will scare you to death. 

You may or may not believe in the old gentleman known variously as Lucifer, the Prince of Darkness, Satan, or simply the devil – but it is impossible to deny the existence of evil in the world. And all those arguments about whether evil originates in the fires of Hades or in the smoldering heart of humankind don’t change the fact that evil has always been with us – and, most likely, always will be.

The stories you are about to read are about evil, in one form or another. Several of them give evil a supernatural origin, but others place it squarely in the lap of ordinary (or maybe not so ordinary) human beings. Some of the people you are about to meet will overcome the evil that confronts them, while others won’t be quite so fortunate. Either way, all of them are going to be changed by the encounter.
These stories are best read late at night, preferably while you’re alone in the house. I recommend leaving only a single light on. Try to use a reading lamp that illuminates the page while throwing the rest of the room into shadows – shadows where anything might be hiding.

Anything.

Later, as you lie in the iron dark, waiting for sleep, perhaps you’ll start to wonder if there really is a Devil, and if this is the night he might choose to come – for you.

I wish you pleasant dreams.

Well, no – not really.

Author Bio

Justin Gustainis has been an Army officer, speechwriter and professional bodyguard. He is currently a college professor living in upstate New York. He is the author of The Hades Project, Black Magic Woman, Evil Ways, Hard Spell and Sympathy for the Devil. He has also published a number of short stories, two of which won the Graverson Award for Horror in consecutive years. He is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop. 
  
Publisher Info

EDGE-Lite and EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing publish thought-provoking full length novels, collections and anthologies of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. Featuring works by established authors and emerging new voices, we are pleased to provide quality literary entertainment in both print and pixels.
"Enjoyable in Print and Pixels"
Website: http://www.edgewebsite.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EDGEfbpage
Twitter: EDGEpublishing

Amazon Buy Link

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/search/ref=x_gr_w_bb?keywords=9781770530904&index=books&linkCode=qs&tag=x_gr_w_bb_ca-20


Review

This is an entertaining collection of short stories that examines the Devil in his various guises. 

The author uses both historical and literary references--Jack the Ripper, Nazi Germany, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, and Stephen King's Carrie, to name a few examples--as backdrops to his depictions of evil.

I especially enjoyed the stories in which the author combines the paranormal with crime fiction, as well as those with plot twists.

This collection will appeal to readers of supernatural, paranormal, and horror fiction.

Second Installment of Summer Viewing

Continuing with the theme of science fiction/horror series on DVD and Blu-Ray for summer viewing, you might like to check out Falling Skies, a very classy science fiction production with Steven Spielberg as executive producer.  It is a post-apocalyptic drama that follows the resistance mounted by humans against alien invaders who have conquered the earth. The special effects are well-done and the acting is top-notch. Fans of the Star Wars movies will no doubt enjoy this series with its exotic array of extraterrestrials and its classic battles between good and evil.

Extant, another Steven Spielberg production, combines the themes of space travel, alien incubation in

humans, and artificial intelligence.  Although the series lasted only two seasons, it has a very interesting dual story line and features Halle Berry in the lead role as an astronaut who discovers upon her return to earth that she is pregnant. The series has overtones of the Alien franchise, as well as Spielberg's AI movie.


Stay tuned for more suggestions next week.

Goodreads Book Giveaway for The Accusers

The Goodreads giveaway is up and running for my new book, The Accusers, and it is now available on Kobo as well as Kindle (and in paperback through Amazon).

Here's a brief excerpt from the book:

. . . Rebecca Anderson, affectionately known as Becca by family and friends, was a pleasant-faced woman, short and a bit plump, with curly grey hair. She was usually quick to smile, but today her expression was one of sadness. She turned on a reading lamp as she sat in her living room. It was February: the shortest, yet longest month of the year. The last rays of the winter sun had already died, and it was only 5 pm. According to the local news channel, there was heavy snow in the forecast.

Becca didn’t understand the depression she’d been experiencing lately. She’d lived in this house on Berwick Street for forty years and had raised three children here with the help of her beloved husband Jack, dead of cancer for five years now. She’d always tried to see the best in people and circumstances. . . .

She headed for the kitchen to begin preparing her supper. Her constant shadow, Mooch the cat, was nowhere to be seen.

He must be sleeping somewhere.
 
Becca pulled the cutting board from the cupboard and started assembling ingredients for a salad. She searched for the knife she always used to cut vegetables, but it wasn’t in the butcher’s block or the dishwasher.

Strange. I’m only sixty-five. I hope I’m not starting to get forgetful and misplacing things.

She selected another knife and began to slice the lettuce and tomatoes, trying to pinpoint when exactly this depressed feeling had started. . . .

Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud thump outside on the porch. Becca wiped her hands on a dish towel and hurried to the door. When she opened it, she found a note pinned there with her missing knife.Her hands shaking, she removed the knife and read the note.

You have been marked.

She spotted Mooch under the living room couch. The cat was hissing violently in fright, but there was no one to be seen on the street nor were there footprints in the crusted snow. . . .

Horror for a Good Cause

Scares that Care! Inc. is a charitable organization that donates its proceeds in support of sick children and their families. It is comprised solely of volunteers.

From July 24 - July 26, 2015, the organization will be hosting a horror convention in Williamsburg, Virginia. Similar to ComicCon, the convention will feature a number of celebrities, as well as vendors, and attendees can dress up as their favorite characters. (Please see the weapons policy.)

There is a full schedule of events including seminars, discussions, author readings, makeup wars, and a filmfest. For the complete schedule, please click here.

If you're a horror fan--and who isn't?--this is an ideal way to support a good cause and have fun doing it!

New Horror Releases

Halloween may be over, but for fans of the horror genre there's always something to look forward to. Here are two new releases.

  The Halloween Mask and Other Strange Tales

This is a collection of 18 short stories by David Stuart Davies, the editor of Sherlock Magazine and the Crime Writers' Association's Red Herrings magazine.

According to the publisher, the stories are designed to shock and surprise you by taking you into the "misty world of the supernatural where all kinds of dark mischief takes place." (Release Date: November 1, 2014)

The Deep

Written under the pseudonym Nick Cutter, The Deep tells of a plague that is decimating the globe: it causes people to forget little-by-little until their bodies forget how to function involuntarily. A possible cure is being investigated by a research lab eight miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean ... but the lab has become incommunicado.

The Deep is described as part horror and part psychological nightmare in the tradition of Stephen King and Clive Barker. Nick Cutter is the pseudonym of Craig Davidson, an acclaimed Canadian novelist and short-story writer. (Release Date:January 13, 2015)


Stay tuned to Behind the Walls of Nightmare for news and reviews of other upcoming horror/supernatural releases.

What's up for Horror in September and October?

First up, it's Resident Evil week at http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3307615/pack-jill-sandwich-next-week-resident-evil-week/.

Fans of The Walking Dead should mark October 12 on their calendar so they won't miss the first episode of the show's fifth season on AMC. You'll recall that Season 4 ended with the revelation that Terminus wasn't much of a refuge after all. It will be interesting to see who survives this season. The show seems to have a particularly high character mortality rate. If you'd like to see a trailer for the new season, please visit http://www.hypable.com/2014/07/25/walking-dead-season-5-air-date-trailer/.

And the Horror Writers Association will once again host a month-long Halloween Haunts event in October on its Dark Whispers blog site. Stay tuned for more information on this annual event.

In the meantime, please feel free to share news of your favorite horror novels, films, television series, and websites as we start the countdown to Halloween 2014.

Book Review of The Terminals by Michael F. Stewart

Behind the Walls of Nightmare is pleased to participate in another Tribute Books blog tour as we welcome Michael F. Stewart, author of The Terminals (Episode 1: Spark).


             The Terminals: Book Summary 

Sometimes the dead don’t want to talk.

You need Terminals to make them.

Terminals solve crimes in this realm by investigating them in the next.

Lt. Col. Christine Kurzow, fresh from a failed suicide attempt after she cost 11 of her soldiers their lives, is recruited into the covert unit of Terminals as a handler. It's an easy sell. If she's really determined to die, it’s a chance to give her death meaning.

But her first case—convincing a monk to chase Hillar the Killer into the afterlife to find the location of a missing bus and the children it carried—has her wondering how to make a dead psychopath talk.

Christine must follow the clues sent back by the shotgun-toting monk, who tracks Hillar through the seven deeps of hell, so she can find eleven kids before it’s too late.

Maybe this time killing a man will give Christine a reason to live.

Format: ebook
Pages: 229
 Amazon buy link:
http://www.amazon.com/Michael-F.-Stewart/e/B003GUK4X4/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
 
Barnes and Noble buy link:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/michael-f-stewart



 Michael F. Stewart's Biography: 

Michael F. Stewart is the author of the Assured Destruction series, which sprawls across three books, two websites, one blog, seven Twitter accounts, Tumblr, Facebook, and six graphic origin stories. He likes to combine storytelling with technology and pioneered interactive storytelling with Scholastic Canada, Australia and New Zealand’s anti-cyberbullying program Bully For You. He has authored four graphic novels with Oxford University Press Canada’s award-winning Boldprint series. Publications of nonfiction titles on corruption and children’s rights by Rubicon Publishing, as well as early readers with Pearson, are all forthcoming in 2014 and 2015.

For adults, Michael has written The Sand Dragon, a horror about a revenant, prehistoric vampire set in the tar sands; Hurakan, a Mayan-themed thriller which pits the Maya against the MS-13 with a New York family stuck in the middle; 24 Bones, an urban fantasy which draws from Egyptian myth; and The Terminals—a covert government unit which solves crimes in this realm by investigating them in the next. This series has already been optioned for film and television with production rights having been sold to Jim Donovan (Best Director 2013, Canadian Screen Awards) and on to his partners of Sudden Storm Entertainment.

Herder of four daughters, Michael lives to write in Ottawa where he runs free writing workshops for teens and adults.

 Our Review of The Terminals

Michael F.Stewart has chosen an intriguing theme for his new series of adult novels entitled The Terminals.  The premise is that those who are dying can be enlisted to solve crimes in this world by connecting with previously departed individuals in the next. (Imagine, for example, being able to communicate with a suicide bomber to learn the targets of future attacks.) The link between the two worlds is the psychic Atilla, who is able to receive information sent back by the terminal. Terminals are carefully chosen based on their religious and spiritual beliefs in order to enter into the realm that the criminal or terrorist inhabits in the next world. In the first episode of The Terminals, the criminal is a vicious killer named Hillar who has been killed in a police shootout after kidnapping a busload of children. The job of the Terminals Unit is to track down the location of the missing children, who are facing death without food and water to sustain them. Chosen as the terminal is Charlie, a monk who is well-versed in Gnosticism, to which the killer adheres, and who must undergo an epic battle with the forces of evil to find out the children's location.

Michael F. Stewart has written a dark thriller that explores the themes of guilt, suicide, illness and suffering, spirituality, and the underlying need for human beings to believe that their lives (and deaths) serve a greater purpose. At the same time he has woven the quest motif and the universal struggle between good and evil into the novel.

The Terminals will appeal to adult readers of speculative fiction.

Best of luck with this imaginative series, Michael!


Related Sites

Rafflecopter GIVEAWAY ($25 Amazon gift card or PayPal cash & 39 ebooks):
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Michael F. Stewart's Web Site:
http://www.michaelfstewart.com/

Michael F. Stewart's Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Story.Extension

Michael F. Stewart's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/MichaelFstewart

Michael F. Stewart's Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2969126.Michael_F_Stewart

The Terminals Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20743049-the-terminals

Tribute Books Blog Tours Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tribute-Books-Blog-Tours/242431245775186

The Terminals blog tour site:
http://theterminalsblogtour.blogspot.com/

The Award-Winning Works of Peter Straub

When I first began researching Peter Straub for this series of posts on past Bram Stoker Award winners, I associated him primarily with his 1979 novel Ghost Story. I was surprised to learn just how prolific a writer he is. In fact he has been nominated for and won the Bram Stoker Award many times. His novels The Throat, Mr. X, Lost Boy Lost Girl, In the Night Room, and A Dark Matter received Bram Stoker Awards in the years 1993-2010. His short story collection entitled 5 Stories also received an award in 2007. 

He has collaborated with Stephen King in the writing of two novels: The Talisman, which won a World Fantasy Award, and Black House, which was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. He has also written poetry, novellas, and essays, and has edited numerous anthologies, including Poe's Children.

Straub is particularly adept in writing horror involving past memories and events that shape an individual's future identity, and in the use of the story-within-a-story technique to draw out the fears and confessions of the characters who inhabit his novels. 

If you're interested in learning more about Peter Straub and his work, please visit his website at http://www.peterstraub.net/. You'll enjoy his tongue-in-cheek humor as he “answers” FAQs about himself.

Black Spot: A New Short Thriller from Luther Bhogal-Jones

Behind the Walls of Nightmare is pleased to showcase the talent of Britain's Luther Bhogal-Jones, who has just released the new short thriller Black Spot. This short film was shot with a 3D camera that was a Christmas gift from his brother, and features a local Brighton cast. 

Excerpt from Black Spot Press Release

This February the Sussex-based film maker Luther Bhogal-Jones invites you to six minutes of mayhem, delirium and violence in the short roadside thriller Black Spot.

Paul is stranded on a lonely country road when his car fails to start. He walks through a melancholic landscape of missing person posters and floral tributes to roadside deaths, before chancing upon another car, but one which ironically is also broken down. Not only will this car provide Paul with salvation and suffering, but force him to face his own recent past actions and provide him with a potential chance to redeem himself...

Shot on a miniscule budget, with a £28 3D camcorder a little larger than a Blackberry, Black Spot is another short, sharp, shocking ride following the success of Creak, his previous horror short from 2012....

“I’ve always had a love of 3D films even though they’re tarnished with being gimmicky,” explains writer/ director Bhogal-Jones. “The red/cyan 3D imagery is such an iconic image from cinema’s history--as well as related so closely with the world of horror and sci-fi--and I’ve always wanted to make a film with that classic look.”

Three versions of Black Spot are available to view: a 3D version requiring the classic red/cyan 3D glasses; a stereoscopic 3D version for viewing on 3D TVs; and a standard 2D version for those who cannot view the 3D, although Luther recommends a 3D version, as that was the main reason for making the film. To view the film, please visit https://vimeo.com/fasterproductions.

 Biography of Luther Bhogal-Jones

Originally hailing from Sutton-in-Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, Luther Bhogal-Jones has been making films for over half his life. With only a college qualification behind him, he is mostly self taught in film making, learning more with each project he undertakes. His short film Creak, released online in 2012, was extremely well-received by horror bloggers worldwide, leading to the short films Black Spot and Knock Knock (currently shooting).

 

Luther plans to return to feature films in the near future, with several horror-themed features in development.

You can follow Luther's Faster Productions on Twitter @fastermovies and read his blog at www.fasterproductions.blogspot.com.



 Thanks to Luther for providing us with his press release and bio. Best of luck in your future productions!

The Lifetime Achievement of Rick Hautala

Prior to his premature death in March 2013, Rick Hautala had written over 90 novels and short stories (including four novels under the pen name A.J. Matthews), as well as screenplays. In 2011 he earned a Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award from the Horror Writers Association. His short stories are widely anthologized, and his short story entitled "Knocking" was included in the 1999 Bram Stoker Award-winning anthology, 999: New Stories of Horror and Suspense.

Like his fellow Maine author Stephen King, Hautala is able to imbue the everyday with a sense of underlying threat and horror, and he tackled and gave new life to diverse horror themes from the werewolf to the evil doll. His novel Night Stone was an international bestseller. Another of his extremely popular novels, Little Brothers, tells the story of the "untcigahumk"--hideous forest creatures who feed every five years on human flesh. His short story collection Bedbugs was named by Barnes and Noble as one of the best horror works of 2000.

For more information on Rick Hautala, his works (including those published posthumously), interview links, and a video link to his acceptance speech for the Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award, please click here.

The Southern Maine Community College, where he taught for a number of years, will be hosting a "Celebration of Rick Hautala" on Thursday, March 27, 2014, at 7:00 pm.

Horror Writers Association Announces Preliminary Ballots for 2013 Bram Stoker Awards

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has announced its preliminary ballots for the 2013 Bram Stoker Awards:

Superior Achievement in a Novel 
Michaelbrent Collings – Darkbound (Amazon Digital Services)
Michaelbrent Collings – The Colony: Genesis (Amazon Digital Services)
John Harwood – The Asylum (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Joe Hill – NOS4A2 (William Morrow)
Stephen King – Doctor Sleep (Scribner)
Lisa Morton – Malediction (Evil Jester Press)
Fuminori Nakamura – Evil and the Mask (Soho Crime)
Sarah Pinborough and F. Paul Wilson – A Necessary End (Shadowridge Press)
Christopher Rice – The Heavens Rise (Gallery Books)
Gord Rollo – Only the Thunder Knows (JournalStone) 

Superior Achievement in a First Novel 
L.C. Barlow – Pivot (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform)
Michael Bray – Whisper (Horrific Tales Publishing)
J. Lincoln Fenn – Poe (47North)
Geoffrey Girard – Cain’s Blood (Touchstone)
Kate Jonez – Candy House (Evil Jester Press)
Christian A. Larsen – Losing Touch (Post Mortem Press)
John Mantooth – The Year of the Storm (Berkley Trade)
Rena Mason – The Evolutionist (Nightscape Press)
Jonathan Moore – Redheads (Samhain Publishing)
Royce Prouty – Stoker’s Manuscript (G.P. Putnam’s Sons) 

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel 
Charles Day – The Adventures of Kyle McGerrt: Hunt for the Ghoulish Bartender (Blood Bound Books)
Patrick Freivald – Special Dead (JournalStone)
Kami Garcia – Unbreakable (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Geoffrey Girard – Project Cain (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
Hannah Jayne – Truly, Madly, Deadly (Sourcebooks Fire)
Tom Leveen – Sick (Harry N. Abrams)
Joe McKinney – Dog Days (JournalStone)
Cat Winters – In the Shadow of Blackbirds (Harry N. Abrams) 

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel 
Ed Brubaker – Fatale Book Three: West of Hell (Image Comics)
Caitlin R. Kiernan – Alabaster: Wolves (Dark Horse Comics)
Brandon Seifert – Witch Doctor, Vol. 2: Mal Practice (Image Comics)
Cameron Stewart – Sin Titulo (Dark Horse Comics)
Paul Tobin – Colder (Dark Horse Comics) 


Superior Achievement in Long Fiction 
Dale Bailey – “The Bluehole” (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May/June 2013)
Gary Braunbeck – “The Great Pity” (Chiral Mad 2, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform)
James Chambers – Three Chords of Chaos (Dark Quest Books)
Benjamin K. Ethridge – “The Slaughter Man” (Limbus, Inc., JournalStone)
Gregory Frost – “No Others Are Genuine” (Asimov’s Science Fiction, Oct./Nov. 2013)
Greg F. Gifune – House of Rain (DarkFuse)
Eric J. Guignard – Baggage of Eternal Night (JournalStone)
Dustin LaValley – The Deceived (Thunderstorm Books)
Rena Mason – East End Girls (JournalStone)
S.P. Miskowski – Astoria (Omnium Gatherum) 

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction 
Colleen Anderson – “The Book With No End” (Bibliotheca Fantastica, Dagan Books)
Michael Bailey – “Primal Tongue” (Zippered Flesh 2, Smart Rhino Publications)
Max Booth III – “Flowers Blooming in the Season of Atrophy” (Chiral Mad 2, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform)
Patrick Freivald – “Snapshot” (Blood & Roses, Scarlett River Press)
David Gerrold – “Night Train to Paris” (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan./Feb. 2013)
Lisa Mannetti – “The Hunger Artist” (Zippered Flesh 2, Smart Rhino Publications)
Samuel Marolla – “Black Tea” (Black Tea and Other Tales, Mezzotints)
Helen Marshall – “The Slipway Grey” (Chilling Tales, EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing)
John Palisano – “The Geminis” (Chiral Mad 2, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform)
Michael Reaves – “Code 666” (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March/April 2013)

 Superior Achievement in a Screenplay 
Fabien Adda and Fabrice Gobert – The Returned: “The Horde” (Ramaco Media I, Castelao Pictures)
Brad Falchuk – American Horror Story: Asylum: “Spilt Milk” (Brad Falchuk Teley-Vision, Ryan Murphy Productions)
Bryan Fuller – Hannibal: “Apéritif” (Dino De Laurentiis Company, Living Dead Guy Productions, AXN: Original X Production, Gaumont International Television)
Daniel Knauf – Dracula: “A Whiff of Sulfur” (Flame Ventures, Playground, Universal Television, Carnival Films)
Glen Mazzara – The Walking Dead: “Welcome to the Tombs” (AMC TV) 


Superior Achievement in an Anthology 
R.J. Cavender and Boyd E. Harris (ed.) – Horror Library: Volume 5 (Cutting Block Press)
Marc Ciccarone (ed) – Blood Rites: An Invitation to Horror (Blood Bound Books)
Eric J. Guignard (ed.) – After Death… (Dark Moon Books)
Michael Knost and Nancy Eden Siegel (ed.) – Barbers & Beauties (Hummingbird House Press)
Ross E. Lockhart (ed.) – Tales of Jack the Ripper (Word Horde)
Lori Michelle (ed.) – Bleed (Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing)
Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. (ed.) – The Grimscribe’s Puppets (Miskatonic River Press)
Jeani Rector (ed.) – Shadow Masters: An Anthology from the Horror Zine (Imajin Books)
Anthony Rivera and Sharon Lawson (ed.) – Dark Visions: A Collection of Modern Horror, Volume One (Grey Matter Press) 

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection 
Nathan Ballingrud – North American Lake Monsters: Stories (Small Beer Press)
Laird Barron – The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All and Other Stories (Night Shade Books)
Max Booth III – They Might Be Demons (Dark Moon Books)
Kenneth W. Cain – Fresh Cut Tales: A Collection of Dark Fiction (Distressed Press)
James Dorr – The Tears of Isis (Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing)
K. Trap Jones – The Crossroads: A Collection of Narrative Horror (Hazardous Press)
Caitlin R. Kiernan – The Ape’s Wife and Other Stories (Subterranean)
Chantal Noordeloos – Deeply Twisted (TMH Publishing)
Gene O’Neill – Dance of the Blue Lady (Bad Moon Books)
Reggie Oliver – Flowers of the Sea (Tartarus Press)
S. P. Somtow - Bible Stories for Secular Humanists (Diplodocus Press) 


Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction 
Barbara Brodman and James E. Doan (ed.) – Images of the Modern Vampire: The Hip and the Atavistic (Fairleigh Dickinson)
Gary William Crawford (ed.) – Ramsey Campbell: Critical Essays on the Modern Master of Horror (Scarecrow Press)
William F. Nolan – Nolan on Bradbury: Sixty Years of Writing about the Master of Science Fiction (Hippocampus Press)
Jarkko Toikkanen – The Intermedial Experience of Horror: Suspended Failures (Palgrave Macmillan)
Robert H. Waugh (ed.) – Lovecraft and Influence: His Predecessors and Successors (Scarecrow Press)
Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock (ed.) – The Works of Tim Burton: Margins to Mainstream (Palgrave Macmillan) 


Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection 
Vincenzo Bilof – The Horror Show (Bizarro Pulp Press)
Bruce Boston – Dark Roads: Selected Long Poems 1971-2012 (Dark Renaissance Books)
G.O. Clark – Scenes Along the Zombie Highway (Dark Regions Press)
David C. Kopaska-Merkel – Luminous Worlds (Dark Regions Press)
Helen Marshall – The Sex Lives of Monsters (Kelp Queen Press)
Marge Simon and Sandy DeLuca – Dangerous Dreams (Elektrik Milk Bath Press)
Marge Simon, Rain Graves, Charlee Jacob, and Linda Addison – Four Elements (Bad Moon Books/Evil Jester Press)
Bryan Thao Worra – Demonstra: A Poetry Collection (Innsmouth Free Press)
Stephanie M. Wytovich – Hysteria: A Collection of Madness (Raw Dog Screaming Press) 


If six or more works appear on a preliminary ballot, voting proceeds by active and lifetime members of the HWA to determine a final ballot. If there are five or less works appearing on a preliminary ballot, as is the case with the graphic novel and screenplay categories above, these works progress automatically to the final ballot, but are NOT considered nominees until the final ballot results are announced by the HWA on February 23, 2014.

Over the next month or so, we'll look at past recipients of the Bram Stoker Awards.

And stay tuned for the HWA announcement of the final ballot results!
 

 

What's on the Horizon for 2014?

A discussion of “best bets” for science fiction, fantasy and horror for January 2014 appears in an article by John DeNardo in Kirkus Reviews. There are a number of social science fiction and dystopian novels listed, as well as “off-planet” action novels. Also mentioned is a collection of essays on science fiction and fantasy entitled What Makes This Book So Great by Jo Walton, a Hugo award-winning author.

On the horror front, two books are mentioned (with the promise of a future article highlighting more horror selections). Sarah Pinborough's Mayhem transports readers to Victorian England at the time of Jack the Ripper. Scotland Yard must now deal with the "Torso Killer", who dismembers his victims and leaves behind “neatly-wrapped packages” of body parts for the police to discover. Also featured is Snowblind by Christopher Golden, his first new horror novel in more than a decade, which is set in the New England town of Coventry where a snowstorm brings supernatural figures threatening the town's inhabitants.

For the complete article by John DeNardo, please click here. And for a more detailed list of upcoming 2014 horror novels, you might want to visit the listings published by Powell's Books at http://www.powells.com/section/horror/coming-soon/2/.

Coming Down the Horror Pike: Doctor Sleep

For fans of Stephen King's The Shining, the countdown is on for the September 24^th release of its sequel, Doctor Sleep, featuring a 25-year-old Dan Torrance. The protagonist is still battling his memories from the Overlook Hotel and his father's legacy of alcoholism and violence. Torrance must take on a new challenge in saving the young Abra Stone, who has “the brightest shining ever seen,” from a wandering band of murderous paranormals.

It sounds like vintage King with all the action and excellent story-telling we have come to expect from his novels. The sequel also appears to have a good dose of King's sardonic humor thrown in, and we may never look at those seemingly innocuous RVs in the same light again!

I'm looking forward to reading the sequel but, regardless, The Shining will remain one of my favorite King novels where everything works together: excellent characterization, an extremely good story, and a setting that enhances the psychological horror of the novel.

There's Something in the Fog

It's hard to believe, but John Carpenter turned 65 this year. He has both delighted and scared generations of movie-goers who grew up watching his films in the 70s and 80s and is now appealing to a new generation, including my son, through DVD releases of his classics. He is noted as the director of Halloween, which started the slasher sub-genre in horror movies, as well as such cult classics as The Thing, The Fog, and Escape from New York, the last two being my personal favorites. Moreover, in an age of multi-million dollar movie budgets, it's amazing that many of Carpenter's most popular movies were made for well below one million dollars. Halloween was produced with a budget of $320,000 while it grossed over $65 million. On the other hand, his big-budget movies were often commercial failures. Carpenter had a budget of $15 million for The Thing, but it was not a commercial success when it was released in 1982, although it is now regarded as a horror classic.

One of my favorite stories of early married life involves Carpenter's The Fog. It was in the early 80s, and my wife and I had just left university and joined the exodus out west to find jobs. We were living in a high-rise apartment building in Calgary and were watching the movie on our portable black and white TV (I think the screen was all of 11 inches). My wife, who is very easy to scare, was watching the scene in which someone (something?) knocks at the door of the lighthouse in which they've taken refuge. If you're a Carpenter fan, you probably remember the sequence: Adrienne Barbeau opens the door, there's nothing there, but then … one of the creatures suddenly lurches forward from the fog. At this point, my wife screamed (rather loudly, I might add).

Once she settled down again, we continued to watch the movie. About ten minutes later, there was a knock at the door. It was Calgary's finest responding to a call that someone heard a woman screaming in distress in the building. After assuring the officer there was no woman in distress, I returned to The Fog, hoping there was nothing else in the fog that would set my wife off again!

What is Carpenter's legacy? Like Hitchcock, he's a master of the still camera and wide angle lenses, and he is adept at setting a tableau: the moment of calm before the horror descends. And like Stephen King, he grew up reading Lovecraft and other horror masters, and he is able to combine elements of horror and science fiction to tell a tale that's downright scary. 

Do you have a favorite Carpenter film you'd like to comment on?