GOLDEN GHOUL AWARDS for Achievements in Horror during 2012

           2012 was not apocalyptic, but it was certainly grim: it brought yet another slim, forgettable year in terms of horror cinema. Horror films, especially American, are getting dumber and dumber, and those few which try to be different are fundamentally misguided, limited by their authors' misunderstanding of the genre. 
          Anyway, below you'll find some titles which had at least something going for them. There are also some good books listed (at least in that department we had some truly excellent stuff)!    

GOLDEN GHOUL
for BEST HORROR OF THE YEAR
BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO

GOLDEN GHOUL
for CREEPIEST HORROR
 LIVIDE

GOLDEN GHOUL
for MOST BRUTAL HORROR
 HIDDEN IN THE WOODS

GOLDEN GHOUL
for BEST ARTY HORROR
 BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW

 

GOLDEN GHOUL
for BEST HORROR EXPLOITATION
THE AGGRESSION SCALE

GOLDEN GHOUL
for BEST CREATURE FEATURE
DEAD SUSHI

GOLDEN GHOUL
for BEST FOUND FOOTAGE
 V/H/S

GOLDEN GHOUL
for BEST HORROR COMEDY
 NEW KIDS NITRO

GOLDEN GHOUL
for BEST HORROR DOCUMENTARY
 WEST OF MEMPHIS

GOLDEN GHOUL
for BEST DOCUMENTARY ON HORROR
 HORROR EUROPA WITH MARK GATISS

 

GOLDEN GHOUL
for LOVECRAFTIAN MERITS

---no one---

GOLDEN GHOUL
for MOST HORRIFIC NON-HORROR
 COMPLIANCE

GOLDEN GHOUL
for SERBIAN CONTRIBUTION TO HORROR
 VIR (THE WHIRL)

GOLDEN GHOUL
for BEST DIRECTOR

Adrián García Bogliano, Ramiro García Bogliano

PENUMBRA

GOLDEN GHOUL
for BEST SCREENPLAY

Alberto Marini
SLEEP TIGHT

GOLDEN GHOUL
for BEST ACTOR

Luis Tosar
SLEEP TIGHT

GOLDEN GHOUL
for BEST ACTRESS

Cristina Brondo
PENUMBRA

GOLDEN GHOUL
For SUPPORTING ACTOR

Michael Fassbender
PROMETHEUS

GOLDEN GHOUL
For SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Iris Almeida

SLEEP TIGHT

GOLDEN GHOUL
for BEST SCORE

BROADCAST
BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO

GOLDEN GHOUL
for BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Laurent Barès
LIVIDE

 

GOLDEN GHOUL
for MAKE UP EFFECTS

Neal Scanlan
PROMETHEUS

GOLDEN GHOUL
For SET DESIGN

Bob Bottieri, Antonio Colin
BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW

GOLDEN GHOUL
for MOST PROMISING NEW DIRECTOR 
Panos Cosmatos
BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW

 

GOLDEN GHOUL
for SERBIAN HORROR BOOK OF THE YEAR

(Fiction)

Goran Skrobonja (ed)
U ZNAKU VAMPIRA 
(IN THE SIGN OF VAMPIRE)

Paladin

GOLDEN GHOUL
for HORROR BOOK OF THE YEAR
(Unclassified) 

Milenko Bodirogić

O BILJKAMA, ŽIVOTINJAMA I PREDELIMA
(ON PLANTS, ANIMALS AND LANDSCAPES)

Orfelin

GOLDEN GHOUL
for HORROR BOOK OF THE YEAR
(Fiction)
Laird Barron

THE CRONING

Night Shade Books

GOLDEN GHOUL
for HORROR BOOK OF THE YEAR
(Anthology)

Anne & Jeff VanderMeer (eds)

THE WEIRD

TOR

GOLDEN GHOUL
for HORROR BOOK OF THE YEAR
(Non-Fiction: THEORY)

Daniel Olson (ed)
THE EXORCIST: STUDIES IN THE HORROR FILM

Centipede Press 

GOLDEN GHOUL
for HORROR BOOK OF THE YEAR
(Unclassified)
John Landis

MONSTERS IN THE MOVIES

DK: Dorling Kindersley

The beautiful GOLDEN GHOUL ™ statuette was sculpted by Tijana Jevtić based on the design by truly yours, Dejan Ognjanović

A SERBIAN FILM director talks to Girls and Corpses!

 Srđan Spasojević, director of the (in)famous A SERBIAN FILM gave a nice interview for the summer issue of the Girls and Corpses magazine. The questions were quite spirited, and so were the answers, so it certainly deserves your attention. I came accross scans of these pages and decided to share them with those of you who missed this issue.

How to read it? The best way is to save these JPG scans to your computer and enlarge them more than blogger allows here.

Enjoy!

Ghoulish RUE MORGUE!

            The new, December issue of the RUE MORGUE magazine is on stands, and has several articles and reviews by yours truly. Yes, there are even more pages of my texts than in the notorious SERBIAN FILM-inspired focus on Serbian horror cinema which I wrote for the #106 (see details on that HERE).

            It's a real Ghoul's OCCUPY THE MORGUE STREET! Here are my contributions to #129:

 

             

DARKLANDS:

My article on the first Nort American release of the long-in-limbo occult thriller which premiered 1996. I met its director, Julian Richards (Last Horror Movie) at this year's Grossmann film festival in Slovenia, and he explained the reasons for the delay and talked about his influences (Arthur Machen, THE WICKERMAN...), about merging of urban environment and paganism etc.

MUSIQUE FANTASTIQUE:

This book earned the Spotlight in THE NINTH CIRCLE section dedicated for book reviews. More than a mere book, this is a huge, unique study of music scores in SF, Fantasy and Horror films by the leading expert in the field, Randall D. Larson. He explains the background of this endeavor and provides an exclusive list of undeservedly neglected, lesser known, unsung masterpieces of horror scores which are not so often invoked in the discussion of the best ever. 

The very same NINTH CIRCLE also contains my review of BOOK OF CTHULHU II: the latest, and certainly one of the very best Lovecraftian anthologies out there! The second volume of The Book of Cthulhu (edited by Ross E. Lockhart) exemplifies the richness of Lovecraft's legacy: gloomy terror, mystery, thrills, vivid action, chilling visions, satire, SF, humor... all of that, and then some, is crammed into more than 400 large pages awaiting readers eager for some apocalyptic horror! See the review for the best titles singled out!

            Among the book reviews you'll also see one devoted to SPEAKING OF MONSTERS, an anthology of essays about monstrosity in horror fiction and film. My essay on HIGH TENSION is selected for this prestigious book from Palgrave Macmillan. Therefore, I did not write the review, but its review in this issue remains Ghoul-relevant. More details re: this book are to be found HERE.

            Just when you thought there's too much Ghoul in this issue, on the very last page the regular CLASSIC CUT is devoted to a somewhat forgotten or at least neglected, unsung near-masterpiece, THE OTHER (1972) by Robert Mulligan. In this essay I'm pointing towards the timeless qualities and influences this film has had on further development of horror, especially when it comes to the "creepy kids" subgenre, and even more – to the "big twist" horrors...

            Talking about my contributions to RUE MORGUE, here's what I wrote about for them in 2012, in reverse order (latest first):

 

#128: PRINCE OF DARKNESS

=== Popular Revenants: The German Gothic and Its Internationcal Reception, 1800-2000

#127: 100 Years of Universal

=== European Nightmares: Horror Cinema In Europe Since 1945

#126: ANTIVIRAL

THE NINTH CIRCLE

=== The Vampire Film: Undead Cinema,

===Stefan Grabinski's On the Hill of Roses

#125: RAY BRADBURY

===Laird Barron's The Light is the Darkness

CLASSIC CUT

===The Literature of Terror (1980)

#124: THE ENTITY

===Laird Barron's The Croning

#123: THE LOVED ONES

===Film Violence: History, Ideology, Genre

Here are the full contents of #129, whose highlight & cover story is devoted to the "CABAL cut" of Clive Barker's studio-butchered NIGHTBREED.

RUE MORGUE, Issue #129

MIDIAN CALLING

Two decades ago Clive Barker's Nightbreed was taken out of his hands and butchered by the studio. Now, thanks to a dedicated fanbase, the visionary Cabal Cut takes form.
PLUS: Interviews with actors Simon Bamford, Hugh Ross, Anne Bobby and Nicholas Vince.

RESTLESS SPIRITS

Genre legend Lance Henriksen taps Native American folklore for his first comic series, To Hell You Ride.

PLUS: Dark Horse editor-in-chief Scott Allie on building the company's horror line, and more!

HO-HO-HOMICIDE

Two of the men behind Silent Night, Deadly Night gift us with their fond - and not-so fond - memories of the scandalous 1984 slasher flick.

PLUS: Director Steven C. Miller on the remake.

FROM ANVIL TO ALFRED

Hitchcock director Sacha Gervasi explains how making a rock doc got him behind the camera on a star studded biopic about the Master of Suspense.

NOTE FROM UNDERGROUND

"What is this place?"

DREADLINES

30 Days of Night creators Niles and Templesmith reunite; Gregory Lamberson spearheads new eBook format with upcoming novel; "Sleepy Hollow" to get biker makeover in Chopper Movie.

THE CORONER'S REPORT

Weird stats and morbid facts. Sick Top Six: Barker's Beasts and Bad Guys

NEEDFUL THINGS

Day of the Dead Corkscrew, Nevermore Body Company Three Witches Line, Frankie And His Bride Salt and Pepper Shakers, and Ouija Shoes.

CINEMACABRE

CineMacabre features Julian Richard's Darklands, plus reviews of Frankenweenie, Wrong Turn 5: Bloodlines, The Hole, Airborne, FDR: American Badass, Werewolf: The Beast Among Us, Bloody Tease, Blood Oath and Tied In Blood. Reissues reviews They Live (1988), The Night of the Devils (1972), The Complete Bob Wilkins Creature Features, House of Dark Shadows (1970) and Night of Dark Shadows (1971).

THE LATE-NITE ARCHIVE

In The Vault: Gifts that Keep on Killing.

BOWEN'S BASEMENT

Dug Up: Hard Rock Zombies.

BLOOD IN FOUR COLOURS

Features Haunted Horror, plus reviews of Ghost #1, The Pound: Ghouls Night Out #1, Sleepy Hollow #1, Rachel Rising #11 and Billy The Kid's Old Timey Oddities and the Orm of Loch Ness #1.

THE NINTH CIRCLE

Spotlight: Musique Fantastique: 100 Years of Fantasy, Science Fiction & Horror Film Music. Library of the Damned finds a new Christmas horror classic in Brom's Krampus: The Yule Lord. Plus, reviews of The Forrest J Ackerman Oeuvre, Speaking of Monsters: A Teratological Anthology, The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia: Volume 2, The Book of Cthulhu II, Hunter Shea's Swamp Monster Massacre, Mark Morris' Vampire Circus, Nicholas Vince's What Monsters Do and R.L. Stine's Red Rain.

THE FRIGHT GALLERY

On Display: Marc Hagan-Guirey's Horrorgami.

THE GORE-MET

Menu: Frank 'N' Flesh.

AUDIO DROME

Featuring the strange sounds of Corpusse. The Devil's Playlist explores the Darker Side of Christmas. Plus, reviews of Silent Hill: Revelation OST, Truth or Dare OST, Dead Souls OST, Alain Leonard and Alex Wank, Cradle of Filth, Swamp Thing, Theologian, Malignancy, and Satan's Wrath.

PLAY DEAD

Features reviews of Resident Evil 6 and You Are The Maniac!

CLASSIC CUT

The Other (1972)