HORROR MOVIE HEROES

I'm happy to report that Rue Morgue Library Vol 2: HORROR MOVIE HEROES came out a few months ago and I have finally received my author's copies. This is the follow up to Rue Morgue's hugely successful 200 Alternative Horror Films You Need To See, where I wrote about A SERBIAN FILM.

"Heroes" in this edition are giants of horror film - primarily directors, with some actors and EFX masters added to the mix - that have left their mark on this genre. They are presented through interviews, or at least through words of their prominent and famous colleagues.

HORROR MOVIE HEROES spotlights some of favourite personalities in genre cinema. Includes new and classic interviews with CHRISTOPHER LEE, TOBE HOOPER, ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY, STUART GORDON, ALEXANDRE AJA, DAVID CRONENBERG, VAMPIRA, RAY HARRYHAUSEN and many, many more.

In this book, my contribution is much more substantial, accounting for nearly 10% of content! Specifically, out of 144 pages, my texts occupy a full 12! Specifically, here you can read my interview with a horror legend like Christopher Lee (2 pages), whom I met at the Grossmann Film & Wine Festival.

In addition to Lee, there is also my interview with STUART GORDON (5 pages), with whom I talked at Fantasia in Montreal in 2010, followed by my mini-essay: 5 REASONS WHY I LOVE STUART GORDON.

There you can also find my interview with Jaume Balaguero (3 pages), interviewed at Grossman two years ago, and  my conversation with the Italian master of make-up and visual effects, SERGIO STIVALETTI (2 pages) whom I caught in Belgrade.  

There's really some good stuff to read here; what I personally enjoyed the most are interviews with Wes Craven, Paul Verhoeven, H.G. Lewis, A. Jodorovsky and Richard Stanley, and it is worthwith a special mention for the words of Peter Bogdanovich about working with Boris Karloff on TARGETS.

The full contents are here:

This book is printed in full color, with a great and inspired design that is one of the trademarks of Rue Morgue magazine. So, this is a book that is nice to have and above all it is a useful read.

You can order your copy if you click HERE.

 

And while I'm at Rue Morgue magazine, here's what I wrote about for them this year. From January to December 2014, these are my contributions to Rue Morgue:

# 141

book review: Rural Gothic

film review: Angst (CLASSIC CUT)

# 142

book review: The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters;

book review: Torture Porn: Popular Horror After Saw

# 144

book review: The Lord Came at Twilight

# 145

book review: Ana Kai Tangata

 

# 146

book review: Searchers After Horror

# 147

article + interview (Laird Barron) "Staying Strange": Year's Best Weird Fiction

book review: The Children of Old Leech: A Tribute to the Carnivorous Cosmos of Laird Barron

# 148

article: Robert Aickman: THE MAN FROM A STRANGER TIME

film review: Michele Soavi's StageFright (CLASSIC CUT)

# 150

book review: The Spectral Link

book review: The Spectral Book of Horror Stories

# 151

book review: A Companion to the Horror Film
book review: A Darke Phantastique

Stuart Gordon – a True Master of Horror

I was happy to meet Stuart Gordon at Fantasia film festival in Montreal, 2010. My interview with him is coming soon to Rue Morgue's special edition book, HORROR MOVIE HEROES (together with interviews I did with Jaume Balaguero, Sergio Stivaletti and Christopher Lee). Here's, briefly, why I love & respect Stuart Gordon.

Stuart Gordon has a unique talent to unite the things which are either considered too disparate (like sex and horror) or those which are rarely blended with such an unmitigated success (like horror and humor). Nowhere is this mixture so successful as in his debut, Re-Animator, a timeless classic which is at once sick, depraved, hilarious and utterly what-the-funny. Many directors aimed for that particular rainbow, but only a few (like The Return of the Living Dead /1985/ and Braindead /1992/) can parallel the insanity and unpredictability of Re-Animator's inspired splattstick.  

Unity of opposites? Hell, yeah! Rooted in literature and theater (where his productions were nominated for many important awards), Gordon mastered B-movie entertainment of the horrific and provocative kind. The same man who conceived the gleefully sadistic The Dentist (1996) also wrote the kiddy fantasy hit Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989). 

With equal wit he adapts Lovecraft and Mamet (in Edmond, 2005); he is as inspired by the most outrageous fantasy of From Beyond (1986) as he is by the gritty reality of Stuck, 2007 (based on a true event). From the depths of the Charles Band and Brian Yuzna produced exploitation he is struggling to be political, socially conscious and subversive.

Gordon represents the true spirit of the independents which reigned in the bygone (?) days. His ability to join the unjoinable and make it enjoyable is all but forgotten in this day and age where young horror directors can barely concoct a story worth telling – far from imbuing it with wit, energy and subtext like Gordon so effortlessly could. 

As such, he is both a relic from the past and a lasting inspiration to all those who can see beneath the surface right into the bloody beating heart of B-moviemaking.

Mutant sex and horror (NSFW)

Here is a gallery of recent works by Serbian artist and director Vanja Čanković. As can be seen, his main inspirations are H. R. Giger and Carpenter's THE THING. Enjoy – if you can!

If you want to buy his prints or just tell him how sick he is, or something, here's his mail: vcankovic at yahoo dot com

Click on each pic to see it bigger!