This is Horror #3: Women in Horror and a Mutant Rainforest

This is Horror is a sampling of Horror Movies, Art, Fiction, and Gaming, and more. A little bit of everything to make the horror hound in you feel all fuzzy and warm. Or tingle with anticipation. Whatever works for you. Hope you enjoy!

Your Bi-Weekly Horror Quote

“Horror was rooted in sympathy . . . in understanding what it would be like to suffer the worst.”
― Joe Hill, Heart-Shaped Box

Horror Movies

Horror Movie Suggestion of the Week

This week’s horror movie suggestion comes to you from GracieKat! She chose The Fog to keep with the “Women in Horror Month” theme we’ve got going on in this post.  She says:

I love the atmosphere of the town itself. The isolation and creepiness of the lighthouse. The effects are A+ all the way around and John Carpenter knows how to tell a great story (most of the time).

The parts that always stick in my head are the old man on the beach telling ghost stories and the piece of wood that make her radio equipment go wonky and start talking all distorted. And they all do actual smart things. I think the only real cliche in it is the ‘car won’t start till the last minute’ cliche. I still have no idea what a stomach pounder is, though.

The sequel’s a mess with huge anachronisms and plot holes you could ride a whale through. 

Synopsis: Legend says that Antonio Bay was built in 1880 with blood money obtained from shipwrecked lepers, which no one believes. On the eve of the town’s centennial, many plan to attend the celebrations, including the murdered lepers.

Starring: Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh

Trailer to Watch:

The Blackcoat’s Daughter – Two girls must battle a mysterious evil force when they get left behind at their boarding school over winter break. This actually releases very soon! (February 16, 2017.)

Featured Horror DeviantArt

Rebirth by Glamist on DeviantArt

February is Women in Horror Month!

Presskit Image provided by Women in Horror

In case you haven’t heard about Women in Horror Month (now in it’s 8th year), I’ve shared some information directly from their press kit below.

“Women in Horror Month (WiHM) is an international, grassroots initiative, which encourages supporters
to learn about and showcase the underrepresented work of women in the horror industries. Whether
they are on the screen, behind the scenes, or contributing in their other various artistic ways, it is clear
that women love, appreciate, and contribute to the horror genre.

WiHM celebrates these contributions to horror throughout the year via the official WiHM blog, Ax Wound,
The Ax Wound Film Festival, and with the official WiHM event/project database in February. This database
(http://womeninhorrormonth.com/events)—in conjunction with the WiHM social media fan base—
actively promotes do-it-yourself annual film screenings, blogs/articles, podcasts, and any other form of
creative media with the ultimate goal of helping works by and featuring women reach a wider audience.

This inclusive and positive movement is open to everyone, just as we believe the horror genre should be.”

• Apex Publications is having a sale right now to celebrate this. I listed a few of the titles that you can get for .99 a piece at various retailers (Amazon, Kobo, etc.) Click on the links to check out the books on Goodreads: Let’s Play White by Chesya Burke | Sing Me Your Scars by Damien Angelica Walters | Desper Hollow by Elizabeth Massie
• Dread Central has an article focusing on Important Voices in the Genre for Women in Horror Month
• Horror Writer’s Association interviewed Mercedes M. Yardley as part of their celebration this month.
• All horror lovers know the name Shirley Jackson, right? Zombie Salmon has an interesting read about her.
• AddictedtoHorrorMovies gives a list of their Top Ten Female Horror Directors for Women in Horror Month.

Horror Books February 2017

New Releases

Infinite Chaos by William Vitka

Detective Jamie Murrow is the only person to confront the dark cult The Order and walk away with his sanity (mostly) intact. What left his colleagues babbling and insane? The awful cosmic truth is that there is something out there in the dark and —we are food cultivated on the garden Earth.

Now, he’s stumbled onto a new plot. One that suggests the very architecture of New York is designed to open a gateway between our world and the titans’. Worse still, the politicians who run the city have deep ties to the Order cult.

No matter what, Detective Murrow needs to make sure that gateway stays closed.

Release date: Feb 7, 2017
Purchase on Amazon

Visions of the Mutant Rainforest by Robert Frazier and Bruce Boston

The Mutant Rain Forest is nature’s revenge upon man’s despoliation.

Robert Frazier and Bruce Boston, SFPA’s first two Grandmaster Poets, created and began exploring the Mutant Rain Forest in the late 1980s with both collaborative and solo works.
Since that time, stories and/or poems set in the Mutant Rain Forest have appeared in Omni, Asimov’s SF Magazine, Amazing Stories, Weird Tales, Daily Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror (St. Martin’s), Year’s Best Horror (DAW), The Rhysling Anthology, and many other publications.

In the mutant rain forest it’s adapt or be redacted.

Their collaborative poem “Return to the Mutant Rain Forest” received first place in the 2006 Locus Poll for All-Time Favorite Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror Poem. Visions of the Mutant Rain Forest collects the best stories and poems from this world: two novelettes, four short stories, two flash fictions (nearly 40,000 words of fiction), and 38 poems, including two stories and five poems appearing here for the first time.

Release Date: Feb 10, 2017
Purchase on Amazon

The Final Reconciliation by Todd Keisling

Thirty years ago, a progressive rock band called The Yellow Kings began recording what would become their first and final album. Titled “The Final Reconciliation,” the album was expected to usher in a new renaissance of heavy metal, but it was shelved following a tragic concert that left all but one dead.

The sole survivor of that horrific incident was the band’s lead guitarist, Aidan Cross, who’s kept silent about the circumstances leading up to that ill-fated performance—until now.

For the first time since the tragedy, Aidan has granted an exclusive interview to finally put rumors to rest and address a question that has haunted the music industry for decades: What happened to The Yellow Kings?

The answer will terrify you.

Release Date: Feb 3, 2017
Purchase on Amazon

Women in Horror – Non-new releases from some awesome female horror writers
(links go to Goodreads)

This Week in Horror Gaming

The horror genre seems to be a little on the light side in February so here are the top 5 that I came up with for the first two weeks of February. Which is not meant to disparage what’s on the list here, there are some very good looking titles to choose from.

Awoken in the night by your doll. Speaking as if it possesses a mind of its own. The doll warns you of a monster that has come to take you away.

Release date: 02/07/2017

It Lurks in the Woods is a short first-person horror game based on French Canadian folklore.

Release Date: 02/08/2017

“All wrong.” Game consists of five stories that are connected with mysterious characters and events. The main character is trying to discover the meaning each of them. He gets sucked in the events that will lead him to the strange places where he meets strange people, fairy tale creatures and landscapes.

Release Date: 02/08/2017

Kult of Ktulu : Olympic immerses the player in the ocean depths, in search of the dark secrets of a mystical cult. Meet celebrities from the first quarter of the twentieth century on board and lead the investigation with Elena. Help her to survive in this adventure at the confines of darkness.

Release date: 02/09/2017

You know, my dear, it isn’t safe… To wander and creep while oh so weak. In the abandoned, the rotten, the decayed. Society has forgotten you; it won’t lift a finger for that which is tossed away. You’re just prey that the true prowlers who lay in shadows await to feast upon.

Release Date: 02/013/2017

The Boogeyman 2 and Kult of Ktulu: Olympic look very interesting. They went on my wishlist immediately.

Horror on the Web

• Star Wars Comic – The Screaming Citadel – is going Gothic Horror! Thus sayeth Matthew Funk of Blastr.
• DreadCentral has a list of David Lynch’s 5 Great Film Moments (for Horror)
• Here’s a good review of Bornless Ones from Horror Society.
• Vox talks about Stephen King’s hierarchy of scares and how it’s still one of the most relevant explanations out there.
• CinemaBlend says Split Just Topped an Impressive Horror Mark (I say: That mark was only made a few years ago!)
• Chicago’s Sun Times wasn’t very fond of the new movie Rings. Not very fond, at all.
• Vulture makes some interesting points on What J-Horror Loses When It Crosses the Pacific