Novelist Scott Sigler's horror column appears every Thursday.

Welcome to Horror History class. Now put away your texting thingamajiggies, log out of Facebook, sit down and shut the hell up! It's time for some knowledge.

Here at AMCtv.com, we treasure the history of horror film. Treasure, I tell you, enough to educate you on the haps of the past thirty years. This week's column kicks off an irregular feature of mine, the history of horror thirty, twenty and ten years ago. Since I'm not really feeling up to creating a clever slogan for such an illuminative dissertation, therefore, dear column, I shall dub thee "Horror 30/20/10."

Readers, commence to learnin' ...

Continue reading "R-Rated Warnings - Don't Babysit (1978), Don't Sleep (1988), Don't Mix Pop Rocks and Soda (1998)" »

Novelist Scott Sigler's horror column appears every Thursday.

Zombies, werewolves, and ghosts can be downright frightening, and entice us to toss down $11 for a movie ticket, but we all know these creatures aren't real. We can watch those flicks and know we are safe -- Dracula isn't going to kick in the back door and feast on Aunt Mabel. There is, however, a certain strain of horror that gets us where we live, because it has happened before and will happen again.

Microbes. The Black Death whacked 75 million peeps. Let's see Jason beat that body count. The Spanish Flu of 1918 killed an estimated 100 million people -- around five percent of the entire world population. Bird Flu, SARS, flesh-eating bacteria; the media constantly tries to fire us up about "the next plague." I referenced microbial terror in Monster Taxonomy, Chapter Two, but only in the context of zombies. Here's a professional opinion:

"Microbes are probably related to somewhere around 25 percent of all fatalities worldwide, whereas the undead are probably only responsible for heart palpitations," says Dr. Kirsten Sanford, Ph.D. "Microbes are scarier than imaginary monsters because they are really here, and we don't know nearly enough about them to protect ourselves. The next big killer could be lurking in the shadows of the jungle waiting for its chance to spread. Or, it could be in your bathroom..."

That gestalt of fear makes for great movie terror. A comprehensive list of microbial horror movies would be too long to list, so I've thrown down a few interesting flicks along with a "plausibility rating" to show if the movie's concept could actually happen (that is, make you literally puke your guts out until you die a very nasty death).

Continue reading "Scott Sigler - Werewolves? No. Ghosts? No. Microbes? Now That's Real Horror" »

Novelist Scott Sigler's horror column appears every Thursday.

The Internet. The great equalizer for movie producers, or so we've been told. But if anyone can go out there and shoot a movie, throw it on YouTube and get instant, free, global distribution, why aren't we seeing more Eli Roths popping up out of the interwoodwork? The fact is, lowering the production and distribution bar allows an enormous amount of substandard content to be posted online. That said, there are also some cool success stories brewing online.

Original, Independent Content
Several filmmakers have abandoned the rat race of Hollywood and opted instead to build names for themselves by releasing creations online for free. So when it does come time to make that deal with Hollywood, these pioneers will come to the table with name recognition instead of just hat in hand. Project Breakout's "Master of the Macabre" contest allows you to watch some of these directors and vote on their efforts.

Continue reading "Scott Sigler - Sifting Through What's Worth Watching Online" »

Novelist Scott Sigler's horror column appears every Thursday.

Leave it to People Magazine to track down the child stars of yesteryear in yet another "where are they now" piece. And once again, they miss what is arguably the greatest child star in the history of horror film. No, not Drew Barrymore, were talking about Chucky.

Horror's little baby boy is all grown up. How grown? Chucky celebrates his 20th birthday this November -- and special edition Child's Play DVD will be released next week in celebration. The Chuckster burst onto back in the heyday of the slasher-icon industry. We had Freddy, Jason, Michael, Pinhead all tearing up the sequel track, but it was time for a new face, a fresh face -- the plastic face of Charles Lee Ray.

Sadly, like many child stars, Chucky saw little of the money earned by this franchise. Young, impressionable, gullible if not just plain stupid, Chucky let the industry chew him up and spit him out. And melt him. The experience left Chucky bitter and disillusioned.

Continue reading "Scott Sigler - All Grown Up: Celebrating Twenty Years of Chucky" »

Novelist Scott Sigler's horror column appears every Thursday.

Yes yes yes, Twilight is coming. We've heard. Author Stephenie Meyer has taken that well-trod Anne Rice vampire path to literary stardom, and the first movie from one of her books hits theaters November 21. Did I say well-trod? Why, I did say that. Why? Because it's not like the tortured supernatural romance genre took a siesta between Interview With the Vampire and Twilight.

Supernatural romance where girl falls for beastie (An American Werewolf in London); girl is beastie and falls for another (like in Underworld and the upcoming Underworld: Rise of the Lycans); or even girl is beastie and falls for some sappy normal dude (Blood & Chocolate, Ginger Snaps) always manages to find a home on the big screen.

The genre also has had -- and continues to have -- a nice hold on television. There is the True Blood series coming up on HBO, based on the novels of Charlaine Harris, Tanya Huff's Blood Ties series running on Lifetime, and we can't forget the Buffinator and her handsome, thirsty suitors. Nor can we forget the endless number of Buffy clones that continue to dominate the bookstore shelves that might be ripe for the pickin' as the next crop of girl-power supernatural flicks.

So if Twilight is a hit, what other book-to-movie vampire stories can we expect? The next big one is ...

Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian
The Historian is a big-time bestseller, and is scheduled for a 2010 movie release. It sold 500,000 copies in 2005 alone, the year it was released, and that same year the film rights were optioned for another $2 million. A historical look at Dracula's backstory might not have the same appeal as Twilight or Underworld, but hey, vampires are vampires right? More importantly, this movie has a serious Seinfeld pedigree.

Here is The Historian's movie's tagline from IMDB.com: "A young woman travels through Europe looking for her missing father and battles vampires along the way." And here is the tagline for "Rochelle Rochelle," a famous episode on Seinfeld: "A young girl's strange, erotic journey from Milan to Minsk." Coincidence? I think not! Get the popcorn, Kramer, we're going to the movies

So Twilight and The Historian are the two reigning champions of mega-bestelling books about to be movies. What else to look for on book-to-movie horizon? Based on the bestseller charts, you may want to look for exposed midriffs, stripper tats, and tight pants. (Not that you weren't looking for that already...)

L.A. Banks' Minion and The Awakening

These two novels are in development with PicturePlay, and let's see why -- stripper-tat, check! Exposed back, check! Tight pants, check! We have a winnnahhhh! And how about this rockin' tagline: "In an escalating war between Heaven and Hell, a budding music diva must choose between a normal life and a higher calling as a millennium slayer." Hey now, it may sound familiar but don't judge -- Buffy had to make choices, true, but she was not a budding music diva (unless you count the musical episode, of course). One can only hope they make that stripper tat even bigger when the movie hits.

PC & Kirsten Cast's House of Night Series
These New York Times bestselling authors just optioned their fiction series to Empire Pictures, producers of John Tucker Must Die, and possibly be the worst move of all time, Bandits. Here's the book/movie synopsis from IMDB.com: "The House of Night series (is) set in the school where young 'marked' students train to become adult vampires." Vamps meet Potter? How can you go wrong with that?

So we've got the butt-shot book-cover, but this one has a little black dress. I suspect there is stripper tat in there somewhere -- all part of the girl-power mystique.

Judging a Book By Its Cover
Here's some choice covers from bestselling chick-lit/vampire/romance/werewolf/witch authors that are ripe for the pluckin' as the next big movie. I'm not sure, but you miiiiiiight notice a little pattern here. And yes, these are all from different authors ...

The genre may grow bigger movie wings, it may not. Safe to say, a lot rides on the success of Twilight and True Blood. (Huff's Blood Ties series may not be renewed for season three.) Word is The Historian is getting DaVinci Code-esque promotion in 2010, so we can expect some butts in the seats there... And from the looks of things, a lot of those butts will be dressed in leather pants.

Scott Sigler writes tales of hard-science horror, then gives them away as free audiobooks at www.scottsigler.com. His hardcover debut, Infected, is available in stores now. If you don't agree with what Scott says in this blog, please email him scott@scottsigler.com. Please include all relevant personal information, such as your address and what times you are not home, in case Scott wishes to send someone to "discuss" your opinions.

Novelist Scott Sigler's horror column appears every Thursday.

A few blogs back I talked about people who just had to be serial killers. David Lightman, Ron Burgandy and "The Painter" made the list. Much to my surprise, the SPCA and PETA got in touch.

"What about the rights of animals?" PETA asked in an email. "The thumb-deficient can also be successful killers."

I had to agree with them, and not just because they had two people waiting outside my apartment door with buckets of pig blood (not only are the PETA supporters anti-fur, they are pro-Carrie). It got me to thinking -- there have to be some animal actors that have just had it up to here with being cute, cuddly and saving the day. How boooooring. Now there have been some world-class killer pets, from cyborg Rottweilers in Man's Best Friend to Satanic shepherds in Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell to Gizmo's little friends in Gremlins... but I think there is much more eee-vil to be had out there.

Lassie II: The Jugular
Don't lie, you want this. Those of us old enough to remember those disgustingly sweet Lassie episodes know that collie has some serious pent-up rage. Little Timmy is back in the well? Do you really think Lassie wants to save that idiot kid again? Any fool could see that well was dangerous. Maybe, just maybe, it's time to take Timmy out of the gene pool for the betterment of humanity. We can't make Lassie rabid (Cujo), a cyborg or possessed by Satan (see above) or a lycanthrope (just about any horror movie made in the past 10 years), so I think Lassie is going to go with the hardware. A nice, mouth-controlled chainsaw, and the well is the least of Little Timmy's problems.

Continue reading "Scott Sigler - Revenge of the Pet Sequels I'd Like to See" »

Novelist Scott Sigler's horror column appears every Thursday.

Now that M. Night Shyamalan, the former Elvis of horror, has clearly left the building with The Happening, we fans of the macabre are looking around for the next big thing. A strong contender for that title is Alexandre Aja, director of Haute Tension, P2, and the remake of The Hills Have Eyes. The 30-year-old Frenchman could really put himself on top with Mirrors, which stars Kiefer Sutherland and hits theaters tomorrow, August 15.

Mirrors is getting the promotional big-boy treatment. You've probably seen the ads, posters and the trailer, which is intriguing. What's really intriguing, though, is that the producers have released the first three minutes of the film as an R-Rated online trailer. Get out your raincoat, this piece of film is messy.

Sutherland, of course, is the kingpin of 24, the long-running thriller TV series (come on, say it with me, "WHERE IS THE BOMB!?"). I'm sure Sutherland's patented growly-scream will be out in full force for Mirrors. It's great to see him jump into a horror movie. He did Taking Lives in 2004, which cast him in the serial killer mode, but Mirrors is supernatural horror and looks spooky as heck (at least from that splattery three minutes above).

Continue reading "Scott Sigler - How High Should Expectations Be for Alexandre Aja's Mirrors?" »

Novelist Scott Sigler's horror column appears every Thursday.

I'm late to the Dexter bandwagon. This light-hearted horror series is heading into its third season on Showtime, and I'm just getting started on the Season One DVDs. I have to say, the concept is awesome: Imagine a child adopted by a cop. This cop sees all the horrors of humanity, and he knows how to spot damaged goods. When the family dog turns up buried in the back yard -- along with the bones of many other neighborhood animals -- the cop realizes that his adopted son is a serial killer in the making. Here's where the premise gets very, very clever: The cop knows pathological behavior, and knows damn well that no matter what he does, eventually the boy will follow an overpowering compulsion to kill. To keep his child safe, the cop teaches the boy how to blend in (and how to kill only those that deserve to be killed). Which got me to thinking: What other serial killers are hiding in plain sight? Perhaps there is a checklist of attributes: Handsome, engaging, funny but with a certain internal blankness that can't be defined. I sense a list coming on...

Continue reading "Scott Sigler - What Serial Killers Are Hiding in Plain Sight?" »

Novelist Scott Sigler's horror column appears every Thursday.

It's not every day you open your mail to find a test tube full of some random red fluid. Well, maybe not for you -- my fans send me their blood about every other day -- but I mean, in general, a test tube full of blood in your mailbox is weird. The vial in question was labeled "TruBlood" and had a piece of paper attached with all kinds of weird writing. Being a child of the Internet, my first reaction was "I have no idea what this pseudo-Sumerian writing is, I'll look it up online." And exactly 0.25 seconds later, my second reaction was, "Oh ... another viral marketing campaign."

True Blood
My instincts were right. The tube was part of a viral marketing campaign for HBO's new vampire series, True Blood. Based on a series of books by Charlaine Harris, the show is a clever new take on the hackneyed genre of vampires and nubile vampire hunters, where development of a synthetic human blood replacement allows vamps to come out of the shadows and live among us.

This post isn't about the series (which I haven't seen), but about the viral marketing of it. Are fake websites the future of horror movie marketing? If you are a blogger (and is there anyone left in who isn't?), you can prepare to be targeted at one point or another for a campaign like True Blood's. It's almost a horror movie concept unto itself -- the question isn't if you'll be targeted, but when. 

Continue reading "Scott Sigler - Are Fake Websites the Future of Horror Marketing? " »

Novelist Scott Sigler's horror column appears every Thursday.

One of the perks of writing this blog is I get pre-release DVDs under the guise that I am a legitimate journalist. Now I know what you're thinking, the terms "Scott Sigler" and "legitimate" don't belong together, and you're right, but what the movie companies don't know won't hurt them... at least until they read these reviews. This week, I bring you a wrap-up of three recent horror DVD releases: The killer plant flick, The Ruins: Unrated; the latest Asian horror remake Shutter; and a little humdinger called Asylum.

The Ruins: Unrated
It's a plant: Burn it. Sound simple? Well yes, it is, and yet never once does it occur to our intrepid Group of Good Looking Young People (that's right, the GGLYP) as they find themselves trapped atop a Mayan temple in dire need of some Weed-B-Gone. Despite the fact that the characters actually have a fire going on top of this Mayan temple, they don't try to burn this killer plant. Not even once. That kind of shoots the movie right in the keester. But if you can roll with such contrivances, I'd still call this DVD a must-rent. There is horror, and there is gore -- gore way off the charts. The amputation scene alone is worth the peeking-through-the-fingers rental; the rest is just gravy.

The special features add heavily to the rental factor. There's an excellent piece on how they developed the plant, from sketches to manufacturing, so even if you're not impressed with the killer plants, you will be impressed with the amount of work that went into them. The one drawback is under "Alternate Endings." One of the alternate endings is the ending you just watched, so the producers might need a little help with the definition of the word "alternate." To be fair, the actual alternate ending is worth viewing. 

Rent if: You like gore, Mayans, Gregor Mendel, botany and/or angry flowers.
My take: It's a must-rent both for the move and the special features.

Continue reading "Scott Sigler - Checking Out The Ruins, Shutter and Asylum on DVD" »