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Fangoria Rises From the Dead – Again – as New Buyers Save the Day

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Is Fangoria Still Published

It’s been months since the magazine went up for sale in June, and devoted horror fans have been asking “is Fangoria still published?” A disastrous 2020 wreaked havoc on the brand and culminated in the loss of some of its biggest stars. Fortunately, there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel. It appears as if Fangoria is rising from the dead again.

Is Fangoria Still Published?

Fangoria is a quarterly publication, and the next issue isn’t due out until October 2020. This leaves plenty of time for speculation that the magazine may have disappeared – again. This is especially the case after the Cinestate sexual assault scandal rocked the horror world earlier this year. The fears are further solidified by the fact that the Fangoria Twitter hasn’t posted in nearly three months.

Fans on the edges of their seats over whether Fangoria is still published can relax, though, we recently received the announcement that the iconic horror brand is under new management. In fact, it seems that our favorite publication is rising from the dead even stronger than before. Fangoria Digital, Fangoria Podcast Network and Fangoria Studios are all set to launch in 2021.

This was welcome news after the magazine’s editor in chief posted the following back in June:

Earlier this year, it had become increasingly apparent that Cinestate had failed to protect its employees. It got so bad, in fact, that Barbara Crampton and Joe Bob Briggs left Fangoria due to its association with the larger brand. In June 2020, the announcement came out that the horror publication was up for sale again.

The CEO and producer of Wanderwll Entertainment, Tara Ansley, teamed up with Abhi Goel to purchase the company. They also acquired Gorezone and Starlog, and all the brands will find their new home under the Fangoria umbrella. So, is Fangoria still published? Fortunately, it seems like there will be no interruption in the printing presses.

What’s Next for Fangoria?

While we know that the publication of Fangoria will continue uninterrupted and new digital content will continue to flow, it’s hard to know exactly how everything will turn out. The legendary publication managed to revive itself once – undoubtedly buoyed when Joe Bob joined Fangoria – so it’s very likely that the brand will manage to stay strong.

Unfortunately, the continued publication of Fangoria while it survives as a brand doesn’t change the mass of talent that left over Cinestate. Will they all be coming back? To be fair, Fangoria took the right steps from the start. As you can see below, the editor of the magazine said they wouldn’t work until Cinestate took steps to rectify the situation:

It was only when they felt their parent company wasn’t doing enough that Fangoria went up for sale. In a time when people are demanding change in the film industry, the brand took all the right steps in their response. Does this mean we’ll get Joe Bob and the other talented individuals back into the mix? We can only hope.

Fangoria’s Back From the Dead!

After months of hand-wringing and wondering, we now know that Fangoria is set to continue doing what it does best. We should’ve known that – after four decades – it wouldn’t be quite so easy to kill off the brand. With new ownership in place and the editor’s decision to stand up for what’s right, fans may never again have to ask whether Fangoria is still published. Well, at least for another 40 years.

Let us know what you think about the news in the comments!

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The Pope’s Exorcist Officially Announces New Sequel

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The Pope’s Exorcist is one of those films that’s just fun to watch. It isn’t the most terrifying film around, but there’s something about Russel Crow (Gladiator) playing a wise cracking Catholic priest that just feels right.

Screen Gems seems to agree with this assessment, as they have just officially announced that The Pope’s Exorcist sequel is in the works. It makes sense that Screen Gems would want to keep this franchise going, considering the first film scared up almost $80 million with a budget of only $18 million.

The Pope's Exorcist
The Pope’s Exorcist

According to Crow, there may even be a The Pope’s Exorcist trilogy in the works. However, recent changes with the studio may have put the third film on hold. In a sit-down with The Six O’Clock Show, Crow gave the following statement about the project.

“Well that’s in discussion at the moment. The producers originally got the kick off from the studio not just for one sequel but for two. But there’s been a change of studio heads at the moment, so that’s going around in a few circles. But very definitely, man. We set that character up that you could take him out and put him into a lot of different circumstances.”

Crow has also stated that film’s source material involves twelve separate books. This would allow the studio to take the story in all kinds of directions. With that much source material, The Pope’s Exorcist could even rival The Conjuring Universe.

Only the future will tell what becomes of The Pope’s Exorcist. But as always, more horror is always a good thing.

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New ‘Faces of Death’ Remake Will Be Rated R For “Strong Bloody Violence and Gore”

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In a move that should surprise absolutely no one, the Faces of Death reboot has been given an R rating from the MPA. Why has the film been given this rating? For strong bloody violence, gore, sexual content, nudity, language, and drug use, of course.

What else would you expect from a Faces of Death reboot? It would honestly be alarming if the film received anything less than an R rating.

Faces of death
Faces of Death

For those unaware, the original Faces of Death film released in 1978 and promised viewers video evidence of real deaths. Of course, this was just a marketing gimmick. Promoting a real snuff film would be a terrible idea.

But the gimmick worked, and franchise lived on in infamy. The Faces of Death reboot is hoping to gain the same amount of viral sensation as its predecessor. Isa Mazzei (Cam) and Daniel Goldhaber (How to Blow Up a Pipeline) will spearhead this new addition.

The hope is that this reboot will do well enough to recreate the infamous franchise for a new audience. While we don’t know much about the film at this point, but a joint statement from Mazzei and Goldhaber gives us the following info on the plot.

“Faces of Death was one of the first viral video tapes, and we are so lucky to be able to use it as a jumping off point for this exploration of cycles of violence and the way they perpetuate themselves online.”

“The new plot revolves around a female moderator of a YouTube-like website, whose job is to weed out offensive and violent content and who herself is recovering from a serious trauma, that stumbles across a group that is recreating the murders from the original film. But in the story primed for the digital age and age of online misinformation, the question faced is are the murders real or fake?”

The reboot will have some bloody shoes to fill. But from the looks of it, this iconic franchise is in good hands. Unfortunately, the film does not have a release date at this time.

That’s all the information we have at this time. Make sure to check back here for more news and updates.

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Movie Reviews

Panic Fest 2024 Review: ‘The Ceremony Is About To Begin’

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People will look for answers and belonging in the darkest places and the darkest people. The Osiris Collective is a commune predicated upon ancient Egyptian theology and was run by the mysterious Father Osiris. The group boasted dozens of members, each forgoing their old lives for one held in the Egyptian themed land owned by Osiris in Northern California. But the good times take a turn for the worst when in 2018, an upstart member of the collective named Anubis (Chad Westbrook Hinds) reports Osiris disappearing while mountain climbing and declaring himself the new leader. A schism ensued with many members leaving the cult under Anubis’ unhinged leadership. A documentary is being made by a young man named Keith (John Laird) whose fixation with The Osiris Collective stems from his girlfriend Maddy leaving him for the group several years ago. When Keith gets invited to document the commune by Anubis himself, he decides to investigate, only to get wrapped up in horrors he couldn’t even imagine…

The Ceremony Is About To Begin is the latest genre twisting horror film from Red Snow‘s Sean Nichols Lynch. This time tackling cultist horror along with a mockumentary style and the Egyptian mythology theme for the cherry on top. I was a big fan of Red Snow‘s subversiveness of the vampire romance sub-genre and was excited to see what this take would bring. While the movie has some interesting ideas and a decent tension between the meek Keith and the erratic Anubis, it just doesn’t exactly thread everything together in a succinct fashion.

The story begins with a true crime documentary style interviewing former members of The Osiris Collective and sets-up what led the cult to where it is now. This aspect of the storyline, especially Keith’s own personal interest in the cult, made it an interesting plotline. But aside from some clips later on, it doesn’t play as much a factor. The focus is largely on the dynamic between Anubis and Keith, which is toxic to put it lightly. Interestingly, Chad Westbrook Hinds and John Lairds are both credited as writers on The Ceremony Is About To Begin and definitely feel like they’re putting their all into these characters. Anubis is the very definition of a cult leader. Charismatic, philosophical, whimsical, and threateningly dangerous at the drop of a hat.

Yet strangely, the commune is deserted of all cult members. Creating a ghost town that only amps up the danger as Keith documents Anubis’ alleged utopia. A lot of the back and forth between them drags at times as they struggle for control and Anubis keeps continuing to convince Keith to stick around despite the threatening situation. This does lead to a pretty fun and bloody finale that fully leans into mummy horror.

Overall, despite meandering and having a bit of a slow pace, The ceremony Is About To Begin is a fairly entertaining cult, found footage, and mummy horror hybrid. If you want mummies, it delivers on mummies!

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