You didn’t think the 2018 review posts were over did you? Maybe everywhere else on this world wide web we’re all tangled up in, but not here! I was shocked to look back at my posts this year to see that I didn’t do a single Halloween Scene post which means I didn’t write about horror AT ALL in 2018. That’s ridonculous. So, I’m making up for that here with a list of 10 newer horror flicks I dug last year.
Over the course of my reading in 2018, I found myself drawn to the dark corners of the library and my own book collection. As you can see from this photo of the books I read and gleaned from the first in this three-part series, darkness makes its way into a lot of my book selections.
With this post, I’m going to focus on two horror writers who captured my imagination repeatedly this year: Stephen King and Lauren Beukes. I may not have torn through the books as quickly as I’d hoped, but I still walked away from all six of these thankful that I’d stuck with them and gone on those rides.
In addition to making my way through a lot of films in the Great Chronological Slasher Franchise Project (which I will post an update on shortly), I also dug into a nice mix of purchased Blu-rays, gifted DVDs and streaming offerings in 2018! To my surprise and delight, I actually came across some movies that have become favorites easily making their way into my collection. You gotta hit that jump to find out what they are, though!
Last year I found myself in a strange place heading into the Halloween season, which for me usually starts sometime in September. In years past, I’d written posts about various movies and franchises for the dearly departed Topless Robot/Robot’s Voice site. I loved poring over these films, taking notes and then figuring out the best way to present them to an audience.
This past Halloween season I took advantage of a few different sales and ended the year with a stack of brand new movies to go through. One I couldn’t help but buy was a DVD four pack of Slither, Sssssss, Tremors and Tremors 2. It was under $10 and I already knew I liked the first and third flicks, so I rolled the dice. In an effort to go through said stack, I popped this disc in and gave Tremors another view.
Even though this week’s Trade Pile isn’t quite as robust as others, I still wanted to get a few thoughts down on three books that I read this week that I thought were pretty darn spiffy. One set an established character out on his own in a way that really worked for me while the other two featured brand new characters, one set in an equally new world an one rooted in a far more familiar one!
I call together this first meeting of The Midnight Comic Club in 2018 to order! This time around, I assembled a Frightful Five of gateway horror comics that are good for kids of various ages. As always, I recommend you read the books first before passing them to the young reader in your life, but I think there’s some solid options in here!
I watch a lot of horror movies, as you probably know. I stumble upon some of them on Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime, while others I’m given by friends or hear about on the fantastic Shock Waves podcast. In 2017, I also had the pleasure of writing for Blumhouse.com which lead to plenty of great viewings for fun and profit.
I’m pretty bummed that Blumhouse.com went through whatever changes they did because that means I can’t parlay my weird predilection for watching new Christmas horror films into cash. However, that hasn’t stopped me from continuing this yearly tradition. This year, I’ve checked out some classics like Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 and Gremlins, but also a few newer entries.
First off, I watched an Australian horror film called Red Christmas by writer-director Craig Anderson. I heard them talk about this one on the last episode of Shock Waves (#76 if you’re curious) with co-host — and my former BH.com editor — Rebekah McKendry saying it was bad and guest Brian Collins of Horror Movie A Day fame saying he kind of liked it.
Welcome to the tenth meeting of The Midnight Comic Club! After the extensive look at Frankenstein over the past three episodes (and a week off due to illness), we’re back with a new segment called The Sinister Sixpack wherein I grab a half dozen horror comics I’ve never read before and see how that goes.