BUFFY, THE LOST BOYS, What Scares NEIL GAIMAN, and More!
In this Issue:
- Horror History: Forever Young
- Image of the Week: Marvel Madness
- Tiny Bites – This Week’s Best Horror Headlines
- The A to Z of Subgenres: R is for Rat
- Things We Love: Monster Party
HORROR HISTORY: FOREVER YOUNG
By Joshua Lyon
The Lost Boys and Buffy the Vampire Slayer both celebrate anniversaries today, their 31st and 26th respectively. The movies aren’t quite in the same league, but each horror/comedy has name-brand recognition as paragons of how to use bloodsuckers as supernatural stand-ins for teen angst.
In 1987’s The Lost Boys, new boy in town Michael is lured into a too-cool gang of hunky punk vampires. The poster’s tagline reads, “Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old,” a mantra which resonates with any teenage rebel. Only here, vampirism represents the deadly allure of drugs, a point helpfully hammered home when Jim Morrison’s face is superimposed over Michael’s during his first peer-pressured blood sampling. “Just Say No” never stood a chance.
Five years later, Joss Whedon’s vision of a vapid cheerleader fulfilling her destiny as destroyer of the undead — thus subverting the horror trope that teen bimbos are slaughter fodder — got bastardized in the film Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The movie ended up being a careless wreck, with none of the original script’s nuances about how, for a teenager, the stress of staking vamps can hold equal weight with planning a school dance.
Still, one good thing came from the film: It frustrated Whedon so much that he leapt at a second chance to give Buffy eternal life, and he drew inspiration for the show from the Santa Clara crew in The Lost Boys. “The idea of them looking like monsters, then looking like people … that was very useful for us,” he toldSalon. Plus pack-leader David’s fashion sense was the model for Spike’s signature black leather duster. With that much influence, it’s too bad we never saw Buffy square off against an evil oiled-up sax man. There’s something to be scared of, no matter how old you are.
IMAGE OF THE WEEK
Marvel Madness
This cover for the horror comic Tower of Shadows #1 by writer/artist Jim Steranko was rejected by Marvel editor Stan Lee for being too scary in 1969. The rejection offended Steranko so much he quit working for Marvel until Lee later phoned the artist and asked him to return.
TINY BITES
THE LOTTERY MOVIE, SLENDER MAN TRAILER & MORE
Shirley Jackson’s controversial horror story “The Lottery” is about to be made into a movie. Rock on!
Dan Simmons, Neil Gaiman, and 11 other writers reveal the books that scared them the most. (Hint: Put The Haunting of Hill House on your to-read list.)
We finally get to see the Slender Man (well, some of him, anyway) in the new trailer.
Tired of cliched jump scares? Then check out 19 horror movies that will terrify you without them. (If youreally hate jump scares, this site tells you when to close your eyes so you don’t have to watch.)
A lot of pundits say horror movies are making a comeback, but here’s a list of 10 films from the last decade that prove horror has always been popular.
Check out the unexpectedly sweet trailer for the Brazilian lesbian werewolf movieGood Manners.
There’s a reason Stephen King is undergoing another cinematic renaissance and it has more to do with us than it does with him. (Though that creepy clown Pennywise probably has something to do with it, too.)
Some horror movie victims make us sad when they die. And then there are these 13 who got what they deserved.
In between watching all the latest big-budget horror blockbusters, make sure to leave time for 10 indie gems from 2018.
THE A TO Z OF SUBGENRES: R IS FOR RATS
“The Rats Are Coming!” threatens the first half of the title to cult auteur Andy Milligan’s 1972 werewolf horror flick. That’s right, it isn’t a rat movie, but the mere implication it might be is enough to make one shudder. Because, well, rats are gross, and that’s one thing everyone can agree on and the one thing most fright films about them want to exploit. Likely aided by the legend that rats helped spread the Black Death, the rodents have been thought filthy and unwelcome for centuries — even before you find out their teeth keep growing throughout their lives. Rats are generally so disturbing they can make a Bruno Mattei movie eerie, or transcend being played by otherwise adorable Dachsunds (Deadly Eyes). That’s power.
Favorites: Willard, Of Unknown Origin, Deadly Eyes, The Food of the Gods, Mulberry Street
THINGS WE LOVE: MONSTER PARTY
We’ve eaten so many bowls of Boo Berry, Franken Berry, and Count Chocula cereals over the years our sugar buzz has yet to subside. Good thing we’ll soon be able to put down that spoon and pick up the strategy card game in which our favorite breakfast monsters compete to see who can gobble the most cereal.