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T. Kingfisher’s ‘The Hollow Places’ is an Unsettling, Quirky Read

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The Hollow Places

T. Kingfisher’s The Hollow Places hits bookstores and online retailers today. It’s an entertaining tale of alternate realities, friendship, and perhaps the oddest museum of curiosities known to man.

Kara aka Carrot is not really living her best life as the novel opens. Her marriage has ended, and she’s faced with moving in with her parents to make ends meet until she can get back on her feet when an unexpected call comes in from her eccentric uncle, Earl.

Earl isn’t the healthiest he’s ever been and he extends an invitation for her to stay with him and help run his museum, humorously called The Glory to God Museum of Natural Wonders, Curiosities, and Taxidermy. Overcome by nostalgia and seeking what seems a safer shelter than living with her overbearing mother, Kara quickly agrees.

She soon finds herself running the shop on her own while Earl recuperates from knee surgery, and everything is running smoothly until she finds a hole in the drywall upstairs. The hole isn’t the real problem, however, as she soon discovers what appears to be a hidden hallway on the other side of the wall that should not exist.

With the help of her new best friend, Simon, who runs the next-door coffee shop for his sister, the wall is soon opened up and when they pass through it, they find themselves in a terrifying new world where nothing is what it seems, everything is deadly, and a scrawled message on the wall “Pray they are hungry” has them running for their lives.

Kingfisher is an excellent and enviable storyteller.

From the first page, she draws us to Kara with wry wit and a feeling that she is someone we know, someone we can care about and root for as she faces the road ahead. In fact, there are moments when the reader is having so much fun that they are expertly lured into forgetting that horrors could and are lying around the corner.

Moreover, those horrors are fantastically unique. I won’t say much more than that, but among other things, you will never look at willow trees the same way ever again.

Yet even then, Kara is completely relatable, especially in 2020, in her approach. Of course she’s terrified, but there is a sense of “Oh, so this is what we’re doing now?” in her reactions that I can honestly say I seem to have on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis this year.

Speaking of character work, it would be a huge oversight on my part to not speak to the character of Simon. I love him a lot in this book, and honestly, would love an entirely new book just based around him. He’s a gay character in a horror novel that is so much more than a stereotype. In fact, he actively defies some while embracing others much like most of the real life gay men in my life, myself included.

It was utterly gratifying to see this man working together with Kara, becoming her friend, helping her and being helped by her. Could the character arc have used some more fleshing out? Sure. But there is still plenty to sink your teeth into with Simon and I want to thank Kingfisher for the gift of this character.

Throughout The Hollow Places there is frivolity among the horror. Kingfisher invites us to hold her hand and skip toward certain doom and by God, we’re going to skip and probably sing a song or two along the way. I was reminded more than once of the giddy glee of watching The Evil Dead or Tales from the Crypt for the first time. It’s not an easy balancing act, but one that the author pulls off with alacrity.

You can order your copy of The Hollow Places by CLICKING HERE, and I cannot recommend enough that you do so. It’s the perfect read as we inch toward Halloween!

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Brad Dourif Says He’s Retiring Except For One Important Role

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Brad Dourif has been doing movies for nearly 50 years. Now it seems he is walking away from the industry at 74 to enjoy his golden years. Except, there is a caveat.

Recently, digital entertainment publication JoBlo’s Tyler Nichols talked to some of the Chucky television series cast members. During the interview, Dourif made an announcement.

“Dourif said that he’s retired from acting,” says Nichols. “The only reason he came back for the show was because of his daughter Fiona and he considers Chucky creator Don Mancini to be family. But for non-Chucky stuff, he considers himself retired.”

Dourif has voiced the possessed doll since 1988 (minus the 2019 reboot). The original movie “Child’s Play” has become such a cult classic it’s at the top of some people’s best chillers of all time. Chucky himself is ingrained in pop culture history much like Frankenstein or Jason Voorhees.

While Dourif may be known for his famous voiceover, he is also an Oscar-nominated actor for his part in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Another famous horror role is The Gemini Killer in William Peter Blatty’s Exorcist III. And who can forget Betazoid Lon Suder in Star Trek: Voyager?

The good news is that Don Mancini is already pitching a concept for season four of Chucky which might also include a feature-length movie with a series tie-in. So, Although Dourif says he is retiring from the industry, ironically he is Chucky’s friend till the end.

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Editorial

7 Great ‘Scream’ Fan Films & Shorts Worth a Watch

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The Scream franchise is such an iconic series, that many budding filmmakers take inspiration from it and make their own sequels or, at least, build upon the original universe created by screenwriter Kevin Williamson. YouTube is the perfect medium to showcase these talents (and budgets) with fan-made homages with their own personal twists.

The great thing about Ghostface is that he can appear anywhere, in any town, he just needs the signature mask, knife, and unhinged motive. Thanks to Fair Use laws it’s possible to expand upon Wes Craven’s creation by simply getting a group of young adults together and killing them off one by one. Oh, and don’t forget the twist. You’ll notice that Roger Jackson’s famous Ghostface voice is uncanny valley, but you get the gist.

We have gathered five fan films/shorts related to Scream that we thought were pretty good. Although they can’t possibly match the beats of a $33 million blockbuster, they get by on what they have. But who needs money? If you’re talented and motivated anything is possible as proven by these filmmakers who are well on their way to the big leagues.

Take a look at the below films and let us know what you think. And while you’re at it, leave these young filmmakers a thumbs up, or leave them a comment to encourage them to create more films. Besides, where else are you going to see Ghostface vs. a Katana all set to a hip-hop soundtrack?

Scream Live (2023)

Scream Live

Ghostface (2021)

Ghostface

Ghost Face (2023)

Ghost Face

Don’t Scream (2022)

Don’t Scream

Scream: A Fan Film (2023)

Scream: A Fan Film

The Scream (2023)

The Scream

A Scream Fan Film (2023)

A Scream Fan Film
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Movies

Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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