Dark Discussions Podcast

Welcome to Dark Discussions podcast. Your place for the discussion of horror film, fiction, and all that's fantastic. In 2004, a little known author by the name of Jeff Lindsay had his latest novel published. Darkly Dreaming Dexter went on to win the Dilys Award as 2005’s best mystery novel of the year. Having won and therefore now appearing along side such past winners as Dennis Lehane’s Mystic River, the novel brought the attention of Hollywood producers. As the publication of a 2005 follow up book entitled Dearly Devoted Dexter hit print, Showtime’s television series based on the character went into production. With its success, Jeff Lindsay became a best selling author and Dexter, the television show, became a sensation. The show stars Six Feet Under alum Michael C. Hall as Dexter Morgan, a CSI bloodstain pattern analyst employed by the Miami Police Department. While working some of the most bloody crime scenes of a very violent city, the real Dexter hides behind a façade of normalcy and stability

Welcome to Dark Discussions podcast. Your place for the discussion of horror film, fiction, and all that's fantastic. From its 1898 publishing, H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds had been a best selling novel but also a forerunner to the pulp and science fiction stories and movies to come. After a 1938 successful radio theater adaption by Orson Welles followed by George Pal’s 1953 Hollywood extravaganza, the story about Martians invading Earth had become part of the fabric of the culture of not only the United Kingdom but the entire world. With heat rays, tripods and hovercrafts, Martians invaded London, New Jersey, and Los Angeles. With the success of science fiction on television including such shows as Star Trek and the X Files, a new adaption of H.G. Wells’ story by Stephen Spielberg and Tom Cruise went into development which resulted in the 2005 War of the Worlds, a new interpretation of the famous novel where the alien ships were brought to life as described in the novel; a three legged 100’ tripod m

Welcome to Dark Discussions, your place for the discussion of horror film, fiction, and all that’s fantastic. In 2006, English director/screenwriter Simon Rumley became a sensation on the genre festival circuits with his film The Living and the Dead. Oddly folks weren’t quite sure where to categorize this amazing film. Having dramatic and literary elements yet dark and kinetic components, indy fans embraced the film and discovered a new and amazing talent within genre and horror circles. Simon Rumley is a director that seems to stand on the frontier between the dark dramas of Paul Schrader, Cormac McCarthy, and Martin Scorsese while relishing in the intensity of the films of Jee-woon Kim, Chan-wook Park, and Xavier Gens. In 2010, he released the film Red, White, and Blue, a story of three people who’s lives collide head on when their dark secrets come crashing down upon them. Horrific, disheartening, and violent, Red, White, and Blue remarks on issues ranging as wide as social disenfranchisement while

Welcome to Dark Discussions podcast. Your place for the discussion of horror film, fiction, and all that's fantastic. When one hears the name Jack Ketchum they think of splatter punk, extreme horror, and outrageous violence. With such a reputation his books have never been found on best sellers lists. An avid cult following however has arisen that has made his novels and short stories hugely popular. Five feature length films have been made out of his works and his writings have brought such prestigious honors as multiple Bram Stoker Awards and the World Horror Convention Grand Master Award. In 1995, Jack Ketchum released a novel that would seem more apt to have been written by someone other than a speculative fiction author. The novel Red, with elements that seem out of a Cormac McCarthy novel, twists a tale that should lead to vengeance into a story filled with forgiveness and love. Avery Ludlow, a widower and senior citizen from Maine, lives a quiet life with his dog Red. His daily routine includes suc

Welcome the newest episode of Dark Discussions, your place for the discussion of horror film, fiction, and all that’s fantastic. Produced by Joss Whedon and directed by Drew Goddard, Cabin in the Woods has a strong pedigree behind it which zeroed it in for critical if not financial success. Originally filmed in 2009, the movie got caught up in the MGM financial crisis which caused it to be shelved until 2012. Since then, actor Chris Hemsworth has become a successful star and supporting actor Richard Jenkins has been nominated for an Academy Award. The long journey of a troubled trip has finally ended. When a group of five college friends head out to a tranquil cabin in the woods, what should be a typical weekend of fun, relaxation, and love in the sun turns out to be anything but. As their worst nightmares become real, their survival, unbeknownst to them, may have nothing to do with their own choices. What appears to be a typical horror antagonist may actually be part of something much larger and sin

Welcome the newest episode of Dark Discussions, your place for the discussion of horror film, fiction, and all that’s fantastic. Actor Bill Paxton who has starred in such genre favorites as Aliens, Near Dark, and A Simple Plan takes a turn behind the camera and directs the 2002 psychological horror film Frailty. Besides directing, he also stars along with Matthew McConaughey and Powers Boothe. The movie is based on a script by fellow Texan Brent Hanley. One night when a mysterious man walks into an FBI building stating that he knows the identity of a notorious serial killer, a complex and intricate tale is presented that leads back to the 1970’s. The lives of two young brothers and their single parent father are turned upside down when a mysterious turn of events leads to the serial murder of a number of ordinary citizens. What may be a fight between good versus evil, God versus Satan, could actually be nothing more than mental illness and unwarranted abuse of children. Bill Paxton directs an ela

Welcome the newest episode of Dark Discussions, your place for the discussion of horror film, fiction, and all that’s fantastic. While authors like Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clark brought to the page some of the greatest hard science fiction stories during the heyday of the genre in the 1950’s, movie producers like George Pal, Ray Harryhausen, and Howard Hawks were presenting films that would be remembered for years to come. The Forbidden Planet, Them!, and The Thing from Another World paved the way for others such as Stanley Kubrick, John Carpenter, and Stephen Spielberg. In 1953, George Pal took H.G. Wells’ novel, The War of the Worlds, and brought it to film with spectacular vision. The movie became one of the towering points in genre cinema and today remains an all time classic. With a reimagining of the novel, the film brings the story to Los Angeles, California and the rural areas outside the city. The Martian invading tripods are presented as hovercraft saucers that turn out to be some of

Welcome the newest episode of Dark Discussions, your place for the discussion of horror film, fiction, and all that’s fantastic. Released on dvd the first week of April, 2012, the new film Terror of Dracula brings the nostalgia of Hammer horror films back to life. Dark Discussions was able to interview some of the folks behind the 2012 film including Anthony D.P. Mann (star/director/co-screenwriter), Bill Bossert (co-producer/co-screenwriter), and Matt O’Neill (poster work and artist). With an upcoming article in May issue #313 of Fangoria magazine, the movie has been highly anticipated by folks who have been waiting for a vampire film that brings back the Bram Stoker Dracula that horror fans are passionate about. Anthony, known best as co-host Tony of the HorrorEtc podcast, with the help of Bill Bossert bring to screen an adaption of Stoker’s menace that hasn’t been seen since Frank Langella’s Dracula. Matt O’Neill discusses his vision for the poster art and dvd cover for the film, his inspiration

Welcome to Dark Discussions podcast. Your place for the discussion of horror film, fiction, and all that's fantastic. Well, fifty episodes! Dark Discussions reaches a milestone of some significance but just like prior weeks we are here once more to discuss genre cinema intelligently, in depth, and like fans should: with passion. This week your four co-hosts come together once more and decided on a topic that happens to be thirty-three years old. Unlike the age of the film itself, the movie is once more about to have relevance that could determine the fate of big budget R-rated horror films for decades to come. Alien, 1979’s science fiction masterpiece, came together with an odd mix of talent and luck. Screenwriter Dan O’Bannon, suffering from crohn’s disease, came up with an idea of an alien entity using human hosts as incubators. He turned his personal discomfort from his illness into one of the most iconic scenes in film history. Director Ridley Scott, film scorer Jerry Goldsmith, and artist H.R

Welcome to Dark Discussions podcast. Your place for the discussion of horror film, fiction, and all that's fantastic. A little known director from Australia named Jon Hewitt has been making a number of fine independent productions for some time. However, in 2008 he brought his latest film Acolytes across the world presenting it at film festivals everywhere. After viewers had seen the film, it is no surprise that one of the movie’s biggest triumphs was winning the silver medal for the best film at Austin’s 2008’s Fantastic Fest (beating out such films as Martyrs, The Chaser, and Left Bank; losing only to Let the Right One In). Acolytes merges horror, thriller, coming-of-age, and teenage angst together into a bleak tale of three young adults discovery of what may be a serial killer that lives in their midst. When our protagonists decide to take an unorthodox way of using their findings, their lives change where dark secrets emerge that will shake the very foundations of not only their community but their

Welcome to Dark Discussions podcast. Your place for the discussion of horror film, fiction, and all that's fantastic. The month of February was named Women in Horror month and what better way to reflect on the prior month with a film festival devoted to women and horror. The second annual Stiletto Film Festival featuring women in horror and their work including acting, screenwriting, producing, and most certainly directing came to Boston. Megan Sacco, a New England based film maker, came up with an idea to celebrate women and their accomplishments in film and the horror genre. But even more importantly, up and coming indy film makers of the female persuasion get an opportunity to show their films to fans and critics alike. Dark Discussions was able to attend and view many of the films and interview some of the fantastic talent both behind and in front of the cameras. Feature length films such as Susan Adriensen’s Under the Raven’s Wing and Julie Ufema’s Caveat were shown to an audience that was highly rewa

Welcome to Dark Discussions podcast. Your place for the discussion of horror film, fiction, and all that's fantastic. The novel, The War of the Worlds, written in 1898 has been in print from first publication until today without interruption. H. G. Wells, author of such other novels as The Invisible Man and The Time Machine, presents a story about a war where an alien race of beings from the planet Mars turns their eyes towards Earth, a planet filled with resources and natural beauty, still untainted by pollution and toxins. Writing in journal format, Wells turns a simple science fiction story into a fearful prophecy of total war where civilians would become targets while burnt earth strategies would become the norm. Man’s dependence upon technology and communication would be nullified and humanity’s dominance of the world they live in would be no more. The tale is a foretelling of things to come that peculiarly showed how an alien invasion was a figurative metaphor of how man’s inhumanity upon man would

Welcome the newest episode of Dark Discussions, your place for the discussion of horror film, fiction, and all that’s fantastic. It’s been over half a year but finally a second volume of Bits, Pieces, and Body Parts arrives. Yet with this edition we have a bit of a change. Unlike the prior episode, Episode 014, where your cohosts were live discussing genre news and reviewing a film immediately after viewing it at the local theater, this new volume is a mish mash of various subjects and topics. First off cohosts Gordon and Philip discuss some of your favorite horror icons as was the case in Episode 038, Iconic Characters in Horror. Here a short conversation on Friday the 13th’s Jason Voorhees commences before moving on to a detailed talk of the somewhat overlooked Tony Todd larger than life monster, The Candyman. Next, fantasy and zombie author Elaine Isaak and thriller author K.D. Mason are interviewed, discussing their novels and what’s coming next. Both will autograph any copies of their novels that

Welcome to Dark Discussions podcast. Your place for the discussion of horror film, fiction, and all that's fantastic. As discussed in Episodes 021, 023, and 029, The State of Vampires episodes, vampires in film and literature have been a staple in media for a very long time. From such novels as John Polidori’s Vampyre, Sheridan LeFanu’s Carmilla and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, never mind the penny dreadful serial Varney the Vampire, all from the 1800’s, vampires have appeared as both the main character as well as the barely seen threat in genre fiction. After the written story, next came the impressively done stage plays followed by movies. Culturally, vampires became a large part of visual entertainment that made them larger than life, in some cases as a monstrous and ugly villain as seen in Nosferatu yet in other cases as a charming yet sociopathic individual as portrayed by Bela Lugosi. But whether literature, stage play, or film, the historical monster from folklore and myth has been twisted and redefined

Welcome to Dark Discussions podcast. Your place for the discussion of horror film, fiction, and all that's fantastic. After directing such a wide range of films as The A-Team, Smoking Aces, and Narc, Joe Carnahan takes a story the story Ghost Walker by Ian MacKenzie Jeffers to the big screen. Re-titled as The Grey, the film, starring Liam Neeson in arguably a career defining performance, shows why Mr. Neeson has been considered one of the greatest actors in the past twenty years. Having already starred in Star Wars Episode 1 and Schindler’s List, Neeson’s turn as John Ottway, an employee of an Alaskan oil company, brings a complexity to a character at a crossroads in life where living and dying may be one and the same. When a plane crashes in the middle of the wilderness of Alaska, a group of survivors band together in a struggle for their lives. Having miraculously survived the unsurvivable, the group swiftly become aware of the fact that the elements and starvation are not the only things they should

Welcome to Dark Discussions podcast. Your place for the discussion of horror film, fiction, and all that's fantastic. In 2007, a low budget film made with a price of $15,000 USD began to make the film festival circuit to astonishingly high praise. One horror website, Dreadcentral, spoke highly of it two years prior to its 2009 general release to film audiences in. The movie, Paranormal Activity, seemed to bring back the feel of the old ghost story that had been missing in genre film since the Nicole Kidman vehicle, The Others. But unlike the usual tale of the apparition, Paranormal Activity was both done as found footage and cinéma vérité with a twist. What may be haunting the residents may be more than a ghostly presence. When the film was picked up by Paramount Pictures and Dreamworks for a price of $350,000, an original marketing campaign began which brought the film to the attention of audiences before going on to gross $193,000,000 USD. With such a success, in 2010 a follow up was made that was a

Welcome to Dark Discussions podcast. Your place for the discussion of horror film, fiction, and all that's fantastic. In 2002 a little seen gem of a film appeared with the generic title of Below. This itself may in part be partially to blame for the film having been overlooked. The movie was directed two years later by the Pitch Black helmed director David Twohy. The story takes place in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II focusing on an American submarine that begins to have what seems to be supernatural phenomena occur within its metal shell. With the tragic death of its lead officer, with the rescuing of three mysterious bombing survivors, with unexplained happenings of sound and site, the crew begin to wonder whether or not the submarine has a sociopathic saboteur aboard, whether it has been hexed by a long line of supernatural sailing lore, or whether the ship may actually have some sort of unexplainable malevolent entity within its hull. Having done the huge success Pitch Black, David Twohy once

Welcome to Dark Discussions podcast. Your place for the discussion of horror film, fiction, and all that's fantastic. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, Stephen King’s prominence brought about a flood of mass market paperbacks to bookstores, libraries, and supermarket checkout lines. Horror reading had become the fad and anyone who had a manuscript seemed to have their books published. Unfortunately most of them were horrible or mediocre at best and by the end of the 1990’s the horror market completely collapsed leaving only a handful of the early authors having their books published for a mass audience. Today a handful of great authors are still about including Jonathan Maberry, Gord Rollo, and Brian Keene. Others have dabbled within horror such as Douglas Preston, Michael Crichton, Lincoln Child, and Scott Sigler, but many of their books cross genres into techno-thrillers and science fiction. But for those looking for a throwback to the writings of Stephen King, a new novel from 2011 entitled The Equinox by M.J.

Welcome to Dark Discussions podcast. Your place for the discussion of horror film, fiction, and all that's fantastic. With a large fan base for genre animated films such as Heavy Metal, Fire and Ice, and Beowulf, the West has been denied the variety of product that such nations as Japan has. The land of the rising sun has filled their fanbase with series after series of science fiction, horror, and fantasy animated films both based off of original material and graphic novels. Though Western fans have graphic novels, Japanese manga, and Heavy Metal magazine, cinematic animation has been very limited. Fortunately for decades Japanese anime has been imported and dubbed into many different languages bringing with them fantastical worlds and horrific visuals. Such series as Gantz, Texhnolyze, Ergo Proxy, Mardock Scramble, and Rin have been giving an alternate yet very fulfilling experience equally as Fringe, Dexter, and True Blood have to genre fans. Dark Discussions focuses on one of the more popular Japanese

Welcome to Dark Discussions podcast. Your place for the discussion of horror film, fiction, and all that's fantastic. The best of the year: 2011. The definition of what makes a film a 2011 film is pretty tough with genre movies. Many were released in 2010 through the festival circuit but were not available for anyone not in a major metropolitan area. Others were foreign films and due to distribution rights they never made it to cinemas in other nations and were instead released directly to DVD but months after their initial release in their home country. As a result, our definition of a 2011 film is a movie which was rolled out to thousands of theaters or released to DVD for the first time for mass consumption. Since the films discussed are horror, to define a horror film can be a bit tough too. Each of your co-hosts had their own ideas. Horror comedy, dark thriller, supernatural suspense, exploitation, and of course slashers were considered. Even one film that was released years ago but has a new