Haunting Question: What’s Your Go-To Scary Movie for Halloween?

 

If you’re a horror buff you undoubtedly have a go-to film when the Halloween spirit drifts in on cool autumn air. You know, that one you find yourself glued to the instant it pops up on the cable horror marathon.

In my case, it’s The Shining. I find it impossible to resist its calling. Stanley Kubrick’s camera bestows the haunted hotel with an unsettling beauty and Jack Nicholson’s performance is a brilliant tightrope walk between hammy and terrifying.

I asked other writers — some who specialize in horror and others who don’t — what fright flicks they’re most likely to throw on the DVD player this time of year. Here’s hoping the answers send you exploring creepy new cinematic territory or revisiting old nightmares.

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Lee Thomas: Lee Thomas is the Lambda Literary Award and Bram Stoker Award-winning author of more than 20 books, including The Dust of Wonderland, In the Closet, Under the Bed, The German, Torn, Ash Street, Like Light for Flies and Butcher’s Road. Writing as Thomas Pendleton and Dallas Reed, he is the author of the novels Mason, Shimmer and The Calling from HarperTeen. He is also the co-author (with Stefan Petrucha) of the Wicked Dead series of books for young adults.

One of the nightmarish creatures that emerges from The Mist.

While season-specific titles – Halloween (1978) and Trick ‘r Treat (2007) – always make for great viewing this time of year, I have a – relatively – new seasonal favorite in Frank Darabont’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Mist (2007). Great performances from the cast and a nihilistic ending that will piss off grandma, The Mist is a modern creature-feature classic. I watch it in black and white, which ups the nightmare vibe considerably.

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Yvette Benavides: Yvette Benavides is an author of literary fiction, often set on the U.S.-Mexico border, and an associate professor of English at Our Lady of the Lake University. She teaches composition and literature courses as well as courses in the combined MA/MFA program in literature, creative writing and social justice.

Let’s Scare Jessica to Death. I guess it’s the first one that comes to mind because it is the scariest — at least the early imprint of it. (It was made in 1971.) I watched it on late-night TV a few years after it was made, when I was maybe 8 or 9. An emotionally/mentally fragile woman feels unsafe in her home. That’s scary. The psychological vampires won’t leave.

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The atmosphere of British film The Innocents earned high marks from Steve Rasnic Tem.

Steve Rasnic Tem: Steve Rasnic Tem’s short fiction has been compared to the work of Franz Kafka, Dino Buzzati, Ray Bradbury and Raymond Carver, but to quote Joe R. Lansdale: “Steve Rasnic Tem is a school of writing unto himself.” His 300 plus published pieces have garnered him a British Fantasy Award, and nominations for the World Fantasy and Bram Stoker Awards.

It varies over time, but again and again I find myself returning to Jack Clayton’s The Innocents. It’s wonderfully atmospheric, and explores very well the idea of how the past can maintain a terrible hold on the present.

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Joe R. Lansdale: Champion Mojo Storyteller Joe R. Lansdale is the author of over forty novels and numerous short stories. His work has appeared in national anthologies, magazines, and collections, as well as numerous foreign publications. He has written for comics, television, film, newspapers, and Internet sites.

The Haunting, the original version. Why is because it truly creeps me out and edges between psychological and possible supernatural.

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Elizabeth Bourne: Writer and photographer Elizabeth’s fiction has been published in Black Lantern, Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine, Interzone and Clarkesworld. She loves writing genre and is currently working on a second-world fantasy novel and a mystery set in prohibition era San Francisco.

My #1 go-to Halloween movie is The Haunting, based on Shirley Jackson’s phenomenal, and phenomenally creepy, book The Haunting of Hill House. This is one of those wonderful instances where the book and movie are equally good. What higher praise can there be than that Stephen King wrote Rose Red (shot in Tacoma’s Thornewood Castle) as an homage to this masterpiece.

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William F. Nolan: William F. Nolan writes mostly in the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres. Though best known for coauthoring the acclaimed dystopian science fiction novel Logan’s Run with George Clayton Johnson, Nolan is the author of more than 2,000 pieces (fiction, nonfiction, articles and books), and has edited twenty-six anthologies in his fifty-plus year career.

Alien and The Fly (1986) – and Blood of Dracula. All damn scary.

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Stina Leicht: Stina Leicht is a sf/fantasy writer living in central Texas. Her latest novel is titled Cold Iron, a new secondary world flintlock fantasy series for Simon and Schuster’s Saga Press. The next book in the series, Blackthorne, will be released in 2017. Her second novel And Blue Skies from Pain was on the Locus Recommended Reading list for 2012.

Things get scary in the 1976 Carrie.

Because of my love of good horror I can’t limit myself to one film. So, here are my four favorites. The first is The War of the Worlds (2005). It has layers beyond the main plot. It talks about the transition from boy to man. Both Ray and his son, Robbie, demonstrate this growth forced upon them by tragedy. (Too bad the women don’t.) The scene in the basement of the farmhouse packs a wallop. Also? The tripod animation just rules. My next pick is Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978). Like WotW, Body Snatchers has been remade quite a bit, but the team of Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum and Veronica Cartwright did it best. The film is extremely creepy, particularly the end. I’m a huge Stephen King fan, and I’m torn between The Mist (2007) and Carrie (1978), but I’ll pick Carrie today. Sissy Spacek captures Carrie’s frail vulnerability perfectly. And that’s the important thing to remember about Carrie, I feel — it’s that transition from victim to perpetrator that is so relevant today. It says a lot about extremist Christianity and misogyny. My last pick is between American Werewolf in London and Cabin in the Woods (2012). Joss Whedon isn’t perfect — no one is — but Cabin is a gem from the first scene to the last. Price of admission is the merman scene.

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Josh Rountree: Josh Rountree’s short fiction has been published in a variety of magazines and anthologies, including Realms of Fantasy, Polyphony 6 and Happily Ever After. His short fiction collection, Can’t Buy Me Faded Love, is available from Wheatland Press. His first novel, Alamo Rising, was co-written with Lon Prater and is now available from White Cat Publications.

The Shining. It’s different than King’s book but just as amazing in its own way. Both the movie and the book still scare the crap out of me every time.

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Derek Austin JohnsonDerek Austin Johnson has lived most of his life in the Lone Star State.  A member of the Turkey City Writer’s Workshop, his work has appeared in Rayguns Over Texas! edited by Rick Klaw, Nova Express, Moving Pictures, Her Majesty’s Secret Servant, and Revolution SF.  His film column “Watching the Future” appears each month on SF Signal.

Pontypool (2009, d. Bruce McDonald). There’s much to love in this suspenseful movie, from the claustrophobic setting to a surprising amount of humor. Combining elements of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and director Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later, Pontypool stands as one of the most intriguing of zombie movies.

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Scott A. Cupp: Scott A. Cupp is a writer from San Antonio who has been associated with the science fiction community for more than 40 years. He has been a regular reviewer at Mystery Scene magazine, where he reviewed western and horror novels, and at the Missions Unknown blog, where he did columns on Forgotten Books and Forgotten Films.

The more recent film Pontypool puts a new twist on zombie invasions.

When the Halloween season comes around I love catching up on great horror films. Among those I remember fondly this time of year are William Castle’s 13 Ghosts which I saw when I was 8 or 9. You had a special viewfinder to see or not see the ghosts when they appeared. Of course, I watched them all, then I had to walk home in the dark. Every shadow haunted me on that trip. As more of an adult, I loved the original Lugosi Dracula, particularly when Van Helsing and crew kill Lucy Westenra in the crypts of London. It was a creepy scene heightened by my memory of that particular passage in the novel, which is one of my favorites. Of course, my forgotten film this week, The Leopard Man, has a scene where a young girl afraid of the dark has been sent out for corn meal to make her father’s tortillas. On her way home she encounters a leopard that has escaped its leash. She runs home screaming to be let in but the door is bolted and her mother feels she is shirking her duties. The cries and beatings get more frantic and suddenly the screams are visceral and there are other, animal sounds. Then there is silence as blood seeps under the door. All in chilling black and white. This is noir horror at its best. I also love all of the 1963 version of The Haunting for its psychological terror.

Countdown to Armadillocon

It’s almost time, sports fans.

This weekend, I’ll be participating — along with a ton of other Texas speculative fiction writers, artists, editors and fans — in the 37nd annual ArmadilloCon in Austin.

Guests this year include Ken Liu, James Morrow, L. Timmel Duchamp, John DeNardo, Stina Leicht and Rocky Kelley. San Antonio is well represented with John Picacio, Scott A. Cupp, Peni Griffin, Justin Landon, Juan Manuel Perez, Sherlock, K.B. Rylander and myself in attendance.

The convention runs Friday, July 24, through Sunday, July 26, at the Omni Southpark hotel, 4140 Governors Row. If you’re there, come say “Howdy,” as Texans are wont to do.

Here’s what my schedule looks like:

Reading: “Rattlebone Express”
Friday, 6:30 p.m.
Conference Center

Panel: The Art of the Short Story
Friday, 8 p.m. w/ Lou Antonelli, Matthew Bey, Peni Griffin, Julia Mandala and Susan Wade
Ballroom E

Panel: SF TV Shows We’re Anticipating
Friday, 9 p.m. w/ Rick Klaw, Bill Frank, Gloria Oliver and Josh Rountree
Ballroom F

Panel: What Sciences Haven’t Been Used
Saturday, 10 a.m. w/ William Ledbetter, John Moore, Adrian Simmons and Caroline M. Yoachim
Conference Center

Autographing
Saturday, 5 p.m. w/ Matthew Bey, Lillian Stewart Carl, Scott A. Cupp, Henry Melton and Patrice Sarath
Dealer’s Room

Panel: Food in SF
Saturday, 8 p.m. w/ Steven Brust, Julia Mandala, Sherlock and Skyler White
Ballroom F

LoneStarCon 3 and Rayguns Over Texas

For those of you attending LoneStarCon 3 (a.k.a. WorldCon) in San Antonio this week, here’s my schedule. Please drop by and give me a good ol’ Texas “howdy.”

I’m particularly excited to be participating in the launch events for Rayguns Over Texas, a new FACT-published anthology of Texas science fiction which includes my story “Pet Rock.” Be sure and check out my interview with the book’s editor, Rick Klaw, over at the Missions Unknown blog.

Texas Roadhouse Blues: Speculative Fiction and Rock and Roll
Thursday 3-4 p.m. w/ Bradley Denton, Peggy J. Hailey and Josh Rountree
Convention Center: 006A

Rayguns Over Texas launch event
Thursday 6:30-8:30 p.m. w/ Rick Klaw, Josh Rountree, Stina Leicht, Joe R. Lansdale, Scott Cupp, Rhonda Eudaly Simpson, etc.
San Antonio Public Library, Downtown

Music and Science Fiction
Friday 2-3 p.m. w/ Vincent Docherty, Catherine Asaro, Lauran Schiller and H.G. Stratmann
Convention Center: 102A

How SF Fandom Made the Sixties Happen: Origin of Rock Journalism
Friday 5-6 p.m. w/ Christopher J. Garcia, Jason Heller, Mike Ward and David G. Hartwell
Convention Center: 007B

Writing about Music and Art
Saturday Noon-1 p.m.
Diana G. Gallagher, Leslie Fish , Tanya Huff and Seanan McGuire
Rivercenter: Conference 12

Autographing session
Saturday 2-3 p.m.
Convention Center: Exhibit A

Rayguns Over Texas Group Reading & Signing
Saturday 5-7 p.m.
Convention Center: 007A
w/ Rick Klaw, Josh Rountree, Stina Leicht, Chris N. Brown, Don Webb, Derek Johnson, Jessica Reisman, Marshall Ryan Maresca, Rhonda Eudaly, Matthew Bey, Scott A. Cupp, Mark Finn, Nicky Drayden, Rocky Kelley, and possibly others.

Recapping World Fantasy 2011: Blues, Bourbon and Blood Drives

Neil Gaiman talks craft. Photo courtesy of Folly Blaine, www.follyblaine.com.

I spent more money than I’d hoped, probably drank more booze than I should have, but the past weekend’s World Fantasy Convention 2011 in San Diego was a worthwhile trip.

This was my second World Fantasy, and more productive than the first, where I spent much of the time like a deer in the headlights. This time, I managed to make new friends while grabbing solid advice on pitching to editors and insight on what short story markets are getting attention. Yeah, I was still overwhelmed, but this time I seemed to be wandering with some direction.

One of the con highlights was a conversation between Connie Willis and Neil Gaiman about what it means to be a writer. The hour-long discussion — at times both inspiring and funny — touched on their own journeys as writers while offering insight into why all of us who put pen to paper stick should stick to it, even when everyone around us voices doubt. Definitely the kind of pep talk that made me want to get up the next morning and churn out 1,000 words. I only hit 400, but considering my hangover, that was an accomplishment.

I got to bask in the wisdom of the great Jeffrey Ford and talk about classic trash cinema including the Alamo City-lensed “Race with the Devil.” Jeff’s reading of “Blood Drive,” a short story that will appear in an upcoming anthology of YA dystopian fiction, was the best reading I attended. A funny and scathing critique of American gun culture and politics, it contained all the wit and grit characteristic of Jeff’s best work.

I enjoyed sharing some beers and talk about old-timey blues with John Hornor Jacobs, author of the thoroughly entertaining Southern Gods. If you haven’t grabbed the book — part Southern period novel, part cosmic terror and part hard-boiled detective yarn — you’re missing out on one of the year’s best horror reads.

Between the readings and panels, I found time to tip back bourbon (and probably too much of it) with old pals including John Picacio, Nancy Hightower, Joseph McCabe and Sophia Quach McCabe. Sorry for the hangovers, folks. I also got to know the Austin writer Katy Stauber — and her patient non-writer husband Chet — a little better. Fine folks.

As an added treat, my roommate Jeremy Zimmerman and I also caught up with fellow attendees of KU’s Center for the Study of Science Fiction writers workshops, Amy Treadwell and Judith Herman.

Although WFC 2011 was largely a good time, it was disturbing to learn that one attendee played grab-and-grope with several female guests. Thankfully, the organizers sent him packing, but as Stina Leicht points out in her blog, he’ll probably just end up trying it again at another con. It certainly raises questions about how prepared conventions in general are to deal with sexual harassment.

World Horror 2011: Well run and lotsa fun

Hats off to everyone that made Austin’s World Horror 2011 such a fun, friendly and downright productive con.

It was my first World Horror, and certainly not my last. I can only hope future organizers follow the lead of Lee Thomas and Nate Southard, who managed to bring in a collection of great panelists (Joe Hill was especially insightful, even if I didn’t care all that much for “Heart Shaped Box”) and kept things running smoothly. Even the busload of braindead frat boys who showed up at the hotel couldn’t ruin the mood.

Rhodi Hawk did a commendable job putting together the pitch sessions. She did her best to take the fear and apprehension out of the process and managed to match up publishers, agents and authors with a minimum of muss and fuss. I’m happy to say I had some degree of interest in the novel I’m shopping. We’ll see if any of those three-chapters-and-a-summary requests actually bear fruit. Stay tuned.

As usual, it was great to catch up with the usual Texas con folk like Joe R. Lansdale and family, Stina Leicht, Mikal Trimm, John Picacio, Vincent Villafranca, Joe McKinney and John DeNardo of the spectacular SF Signal blog. Hell, I even think my buddy Thomas McAuley (who I dragged along even though he’s more of a fantasy writer than a horror guy) found it worthwhile.

And, yeah, yeah, I know it’s been more than a week since the con, but cut me some slack for this late post. As soon as I got back from the con I had to dig myself out of an end-of-semester grading Hell.

It’s about the Books: Reflecting on last weekend’s ArmadilloCon

The bar scene at ArmadilloCon: Not quite as odd as the bar scene in "Star Wars," but still full of strange characters. Among them (left to right), SF Signal's John DeNardo, author Joe McKinney, Adventures in SciFi Publishing's Brent Bowen, and author/scholar Matt Cardin.

I attended my first ArmadilloCon three years ago, after decades of staying clear of the SF convention circuit. My memories of cons past were of people in badly fitting Star Trek costumes haggling over toys and packing into hotel rooms to watch sixth-generation copies of anime shows.

If that’s also your memory of SF cons, listen up: ArmadilloCon is not that. Not by a long shot. It’s a con for writers, aspiring writers and people who love SF, fantasy and horror literature and art. Sure, there are a handful of people walking around in steampunk duds and few toys on sale in the dealer’s room, but mostly it’s about the books.

ArmadilloCon 32 was last weekend, and I spent a good portion of it hanging with author and Missions contributor Joe McKinney, podcaster and whisky expert Brent Bowen and the brilliant horror scholar and writer Matt Cardin (who also records eerily beautiful music, it turns out). The three of us put down unhealthy amounts of booze and spent quite a bit of time talking about our favorite obscure horror films. I also enjoyed hooking up with old friends Nicole Duson, an up-and-coming Austin writer, and John DeNardo of the brilliant SF Signal website.

This was the first year I participated in panel discussions, and they turned out to be a blast. During a panel on the New Weird, Neal Barrett Jr. and I agreed that there probably isn’t a New Weird, per se, since many writers — including Neal — have been weird for a long, long time. I also enjoyed my panel on the challenge of writing short stories, where I ended up between luminary authors Michael Bishop and Howard Waldrop (how the hell did I end up so lucky?). Finally, I ended up on a panel about H.P. Lovecraft’s enduring legacy with Matt Cardin and Don Webb, who displayed amazing knowledge of the author’s work. The always witty Joe R. Lansdale made a great case (and one I agreed with) that horror authors can learn far more from writers like Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch and Flannery O’Connor.

Between all the panelizing, socializing and drinking, I managed to fit in a few readings. Stina Leicht read from her upcoming novel, which mixes Celtic mythology and the complicated politics of Northern Ireland. Can’t wait for that one to hit the stands. Joe McKinney’s Sunday afternoon reading of his story “Survivors” proved a great capper to the con.