Posts tagged with horror
Eh, maybe
This movie adaptation of Iain Reid's 2019 novel Foe looks like a modern, big-budget Twilight Zone episode. Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal are both pretty buzzy young actors, so I'm assuming they wouldn't sign up for something terrible, but I'm...
Hard pass
This year's San Diego Comic-Con might be devoid of big-name stars, thanks to the ongoing writers' and actors' strikes, but it's still a good time of year for studios to release trailers for their most nerd-friendly content. This includes a trailer for Adult Swim's upcoming adaptation of Junji Ito's classic horror manga Uzumaki. I'll be...
If only it starred anyone else...
And despite my intense dislike of Kenneth Branagh, I have to admit that at least the trailer for his upcoming adaptation of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novel Hallowe'en Party looks pretty solid. (They're calling it A Haunting in Venice.) As ever...
Spooky on a budget #2: Hit up your local library
Idea #2: Hit up your local library
Forget classic horror and the lists of spooky new releases, those books are going to be checked out until December. Instead, wade through the comments here. There are...
Creepy animals galore
The trailer is out for Briarpatch, the TV series adaptation of the Ross Thomas novel of the same name. It looks super David Lynchian in style; I'm a little surprised it's going to be a TV series, rather than a feature film...
Dress for success
If you're a big Halloween fan (or just nostalgic for the diet horror of one's middle school years), there is a Goosebumps t-shirt on sale at Urban Outfitters for $34. Beware: it's cropped. (Also, Urban Outfitters...
The Grand Dark, by Richard Kadrey
Richard Kadrey's The Grand Dark reads like he took the little-seen but super fun 2012 film Premium Rush (bike messengers! Crooked cops! Underachieving young adults!) and filtered it through a Grand Guignol-inspired lens. His protagonist is a young man named Largo, who relies on drugs and macabre entertainment to muffle his intense anxiety about the rapidly crumbling world around him...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Grand Dark, by Richard Kadrey
This week's Book Giveaway is The Grand Dark, a recent standalone fantasy from Sandman Slim author Richard Kadrey. The official premise sounds a little clichéd, but I have faith in Kadrey to transform it into something memorable. A full review will follow shortly...
Hard pass
If you (unlike me) are anxiously awaiting Guillermo del Toro's upcoming film adaptation of Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, apparently there's a documentary about Schwartz's work freshly out on DVD. Needless to say, I'll be skipping that, too...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Shelter in Place, by Nora Roberts
Our latest Book Giveaway is Nora Roberts's Shelter in Place. It's definitely one of her more impressive recent offerings (which, admittedly, isn't saying much), but skip it if you are in any way triggered by scenes of mass shootings. A full review will follow shortly, and this review will run through 7/5/19...
That'll be a no
The trailer is out for the upcoming movie version of Stephen King's Doctor Sleep, the sequel to his classic novel The Shining. Ewan McGregor plays a grown-up Danny Torrance, 40 years after his terrifying stay at the Overlook Hotel. He's a solid actor, but they're clearly making a lot of references...
It's not all about lake monsters, though. (Alas.)
According to Lithub, Hulu has ordered a series based on Nathan Ballingrud’s Shirley Jackson award-winning short story collection North American Lake Monsters. The book has great reviews and an even better cover...
We Have Always Lived In the Castle, by Shirley Jackson
A recent film adaptation has renewed interest in Shirley Jackson's 1962 novella We Have Always Lived in the Castle. As a scary-movie weenie, I stuck to reading the synopsis... which ended up irritating me in its own right, because Jackson's story didn't actually need a bunch of tacked-on action/horror sequences to be creepy as hell...
Weekly Book Giveaway: We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson
Our current Book Giveaway is Shirley Jackson's 1962 gothic novel We Have Always Lived at the Castle, the inspiration for the recent film of the same name. A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 6/8/19...
SCARY
The trailer is out for We Have Always Lived in the Castle, the upcoming adaptation of Shirley Jackson's horror/suspense novel of the same name. I tend to get this title confused with Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle...
The Casket of Time, by Andri Snaer Magnason
More books are published in Iceland per capita than anywhere else in the world. A disproportionate number seem to be indistinguishable gloomy thrillers, but a few stand out. Admittedly, Andri Snaer Magnason's The Casket of Time is both thrilling and frequently gloomy, but in an impressively idiosyncratic way...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Casket of Time, by Andri Snaer Magnason
Our latest Book Giveaway is The Casket of Time, written by Icelandic author Andri Snaer Magnason and translated by Björg Árnadóttir and Andrew Cauthery. A full review will follow shortly, but the cover art offers an excellent sense of the contents: 70% prettily imaginative, 30% creepy. This giveaway will run through 5/15/19...
NO THANK YOU
If you are a braver person than I am, feel free to check out the teaser trailer for Guillermo del Toro's upcoming film adaptation of Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark...
Aggressive quirk
And also on The Hollywood Reporter, Endeavor Content (the company that makes Killing Eve) has picked up the film rights to My Best Friend’s Exorcism, a horror novel by Grady Hendrix (of Horrorstor fame)...
No, thank you
In honor of Halloween, I've been reading several article about The Haunting of Hill House, Netflix's miniseries adaptation of Shirley Jackson's novel. I'm way too much of a chicken to actually watch the series (even still shots give me the heebie-jeebies), but...
Year One, by Nora Roberts
If you've ever thought: Man, The Stand sounds interesting, but I'm just not into Stephen King's writing, congratulations, you're in luck! Year One is The Stand, as written by Nora Roberts...
Not a new idea
In very different adaptation news, Deadline reports that Syfy is developing a TV series based on Clive Barker’s short-story collection Cabal. The material has been filmed before (as the 1990 movie Nightbreed), and sounds a little like the recent movie Bright...
Timely!
Paste Magazine recently compiled a list of the 30 Best Dystopian Books of All Time. I have some questions (the books are very English-language heavy; surely there are some great dystopian novels that haven't been translated yet?), and...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Grey Sister, by Mark Lawrence
This week's Book Giveaway is Mark Lawrence's Grey Sister, the second installment in his Book of the Ancestor series. I was unexpectedly impressed by the first book in this series (so good, despite a lot of stomach-churn-y bits), so I'm looking forward to this sequel. A full review will follow shortly...
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Vol.1, by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Robert Hack
Following the success of the recent H.P. Lovecraft-inspired Afterlife with Archie series, Archie Comics decided to follow it up with a Sabrina the Teenage Witch-inspired title, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. The two series don't seem to exist in the same world, but they have one major thing in common: both are remarkably effective horror stories...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Vol. 1, by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Robert Hack
This week's Book Giveaway is the first volume of the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, which combines the first six issues of the much more horror-focused reboot of the Archie comic Sabrina the Teenage Witch. I'm only halfway through it, but I can already attest to the excellence of the art and the unpleasantness of the story. A full review will follow shortly...
Rivers of London: Body Work, by Ben Aaronovitch
Ben Aaronovitch has many of the same strengths and weaknesses as Janet Evanovich: his Rivers of London mysteries rarely make much sense, but they don't need to. His fans read them for the characters, his distinctive sense of humor, and setting, not the cleverly-laid clues...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Rivers of London: Body Work, by Ben Aaronovitch
This week's Book Giveaway is Body Work, the first graphic novel spin-off from Ben Aaronovitch's highly entertaining (if occasionally problematic) Rivers of London series. Body Work is co-written by Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel, and illustrated by Lee Sullivan. A full review will be posted soon...