Horror belongs in our movies, not in our streets. This week’s issue of The Bite is dedicated to providing resources and information to help the horror community stand up and support organizations who are working to help bring an end to police brutality at the expense of Black lives and to make ours a more just world.
Black Lives Matter.
The tropes are familiar to everyone who loves horror; a rural setting, characters with recognizable lives and problems like teen pregnancy and family strife, all painting a landscape of brooding calm before the coming storm. We also have the requisite warning signs that fans demand; nature in discord, strange police reports, key information unnoticed. A nurse, played with quiet resolve by Elle-Máija Tailfeathers (The Body Remembers When The World Broke Open) saying, “What do you mean we’re out of Tetanus?!” as she rummages through a hospital medicine cabinet. While we scream, “Because they BITE!!!” With the film’s first frames, Jeff Barnaby, visionary Mi’qmaq writer and director, and his long-time cinematographer, Michel St. Martin, want to flip this familiar world on its head. Literally. Stomach-churningly.
A year ago, Shudder’s Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror trended on Twitter on the night of its red carpet premiere, which brought out Hollywood’s horror royalty: icons Tony Todd (Candyman), Rachel True (The Craft), Rusty Cundieff (Tales from the Hood), Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead), Ernest Dickerson (Demon Knight), Keith David (The Thing) and others who appeared in the documentary, alongside original Candyman director Bernard Rose, actress Heather Langencamp (A Nightmare on Elm Street) and all manner of horror heads in a feel-good event I’m still smiling about.
With a nearly six-decade-long acting career, the name Vincent Price is synonymous with horror. But the Master of the Macabre’s talent didn’t stop on the movie set — he was also a gourmet chef who published a number of best-selling cookbooks with his wife, Mary, hosted lavish dinner parties, and even had his own cooking show, Cooking Price-Wise.
With a nearly six-decade-long acting career, the name Vincent Price is synonymous with horror. But the Master of the Macabre’s talent didn’t stop on the movie set — he was also a gourmet chef who published a number of best-selling cookbooks with his wife, Mary, hosted lavish dinner parties, and even had his own cooking show, Cooking Price-Wise.
As most of us have learned recently, isolation kind of sucks. It grates on you in a way that most humans aren’t used to being grated on. Even worse, it gives us time to think, and we’re not so great at being left with our thoughts. We may gobble up every gruesome scene we can, but nothing holds a candle to the torment of the human mind.
