So often do horror fans jump at the traditional classics like Black Christmas (the original), Silent Night Deadly Night and Christmas Evil but how often does one search out the lesser knowns? Krampus made a good splash into the seasonal spirits as did Better Watch Out over the past few years. However, in 2018, there were some new additions to the pack including All the Creatures Were Stirring.

How the new publication measures up to its legendary predecessor

Billed as “the first in fright since 1979”, Fangoria Magazine was a beloved publication that appealed to generations of genre lovers and gore hounds alike. It ran a darker tone than Starlog Magazine and seemed boundary pushing to the teenage (or child or pre-teen more likely) buyer since it felt like “Adult” magazine material. Eventually running to 10 months/issues per year, the slasher boom of the 80’s put Fangoria on the major map to all-time Horror greats. The directors of today often credit the magazine with inspiring them through its new coverage or retrospectives on horror media content. In 2015, the last of the Fangoria magazines, featuring the goddess herself, Elvira, hit shelves. Then, nothing….subscribers sat frustrated with promises of new or exclusive issues….and the rest sat without. The names commonly associated with the piece began dropping off and moving onto competitor brands.

Do filmmakers really set out to make a bad film? What constitutes a bad film? Perhaps in making a bad film, there is genuine time, value and workmanship put into it and would therefore be a good film. Canadian filmmaker Matt Frame has assembled a horror spoof piece that falls into all three of these. This film is Camp Death III in 2D which was completed in June 2018, having put four years time it with the hopeful outcome the viewer will put four minutes into it.

How the return of the novelization has brought more material for the fans to enjoy

Riding the success of John Carpenter’s 1978 original masterpiece, HALLOWEEN, Bantam Books released the first franchise novelization in 1979; penned by Curtis Richards (pseudonym of Richard Curtis: literary agent and author advocate). The novel elaborated on the story with focus on the Celtic rituals of the holiday origin and how they relate to Michael Myers and also got the reader a bit more intimate with the masked killer including touching upon the often-discussed relativity of the sexual motivations behind male slashers.

You’re not afraid of the bogeyman? You should be!

What can you say about a dream movie that no HALLOWEEN franchise fan thought would happen?

For all intents and purposes, the original saga of films ended following the poor feedback from Halloween: Resurrection in 2002 which saw the end of Jamie Lee Curtis’s titular character Laurie Strode. Rob Zombie did his take on the original story with two films that are held in mixed regard but they didn’t carry the weight that the original series had. Enter 2017, with Producer Malek Akkad (son of original producer Moustapha Akkad) getting the green light with Blumhouse Productions to bring on the team of director David Gordon Green with writers Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley to give a revitalized taste to the Michael Myers flavor. The key ingredient that sold the concept to many, including this writer, was in September 2017 when Jamie Lee Curtis announced she would be making her return for one final confrontation with Michael Myers. News sites lit up and fan base hearts starting beating. Not all was glorious when it was revealed that Halloween II (1981) through Resurrection were being completely discarded (there are Easter eggs though!); the story reverting back to the simplicities of an evil being committing a random act of terror on an innocent teenage girl and how, over 40 years, that girl’s post-traumatic repercussions have influenced her life.

Thank you, Jamie Lee Curtis.

She isn’t just my first final girl because, let’s face it, she was THE first final girl to hit a mainstream horror audience. With due kudos to final girls such as Marilyn Burns‘ Sally Hardesty in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Olivia Hussey’s Jess in Black Christmas, it was in 1978 that young starlet Jamie Lee Curtis first graced the screens as a 17-year-old babysitter who did not succumb to her attacker and continued to fight until the very end. This babysitter was named Laurie Strode in John Carpenter’s masterpiece, Halloween.