ATLRetro

By Lucas Hardwick
Contributing Writer

 

Welcome to Apes on Film! This column exists to scratch your retro-film-in-high-definition itch. We’ll be reviewing new releases of vintage cinema and television on disc of all genres, finding gems and letting you know the skinny on what to avoid. Here at Apes on Film, our aim is to uncover the best in retro film. As we dig for artifacts, we’ll do our best not to bury our reputation. What will we find out here? Our destiny.

 

CREEPING HORROR – 1933 – 1946
4 out of 5 Bananas
Starring: Lionel Atwill, Randolph Scott, Charlie Ruggles, Rondo Hatton, Bela Lugosi, Dick Foran, Robert Lowery, Virginia Grey, Fay Helm, Leo Carrillo
Director: A. Edward Sutherland, Ford Beebe, George Waggner, Jean Yarbrough
Rated: Not rated
Studio: Eureka Entertainment
Region: BBFC: 12
BRD Release Date: April 17, 2023
Audio Formats: English: LPCM 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
Video Codec: Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
Run Time: 263 minutes total runtime
CLICK HERE TO ORDER

 

MURDERS IN THE ZOO – 1933

You can turn on your TV to just about any channel today and hand pick your brand of depravity. Almost anything goes on basic cable and network TV isn’t far behind. But there was a time in entertainment when torture and wild animals was as shocking as the first bare ass on NYPD Blue. Of course, I’m talking about those rascally edge lords of pre-code Hollywood, where filmmakers worked relatively regulation-free in a cinematic Wild West.

And in the case of Eureka Entertainment’s CREEPING HORROR collection, the first film in the lineup is the pre-code 1933 film MURDERS IN THE ZOO, which opens with a man being hog-tied and having his mouth sewn shut for making out with the wife of wealthy big-game hunter Eric Gorman (Lionel Atwill). And when Gorman isn’t grinding an axe over other men making eyes at his wife Evelyn (Kathleen Burke), he’s in the business of being the sole curator of a struggling zoo, bringing in his big game specimens for exhibition.

The zoo’s press agent Peter Yates (Charlie Ruggles) collaborates with Gorman to host a fundraising dinner where the local money can come and dine in the zoo surrounded by exhibits. The zoo’s new highly venomous mamba specimen is all the talk and works out conveniently for Gorman as he plots the murder of his wife’s latest fling, rich guy Roger Hewitt (John Lodge). Gorman secretly acquires the deadly mamba venom from zoo veterinarian Dr. Jack Woodford (Randolph Scott), and when Roger turns up dead at the fundraiser with a leg full of mamba venom, not a soul is the wiser; that is until Evelyn discovers the weird snakehead device in her husband’s office that leads Dr. Woodford to perform some astute detective work. It’s not long before everyone starts putting the pieces together about poor Mr. Hewitt’s demise.

The film clips along at a feverish pace, never really giving anyone time to ponder for very long about exactly how Gorman used his little snakehead device to kill Hewitt. Instead, MURDERS IN THE ZOO is more occupied with being wrapped up in its frantic narrative that will have hearts racing up to the feature’s final moments. The film’s pre-code tendencies also amp up the excitement, subverting any ideas we have about the quaintness of early filmmaking.

Randolph Scott’s Dr. Woodford is basically the hero of the film, but he’s about as much fun as a snakebite. However, very little could ever compete with Atwill’s abusive and squirmy performance as “third rail” guy Eric Gorman.

Pre-code Hollywood films always deliver some grisly goods typically with some violating sexual tension up to and including brief nudity as well as most likely the unethical use of exotic animals. It makes for some damn thrilling entertainment and not necessarily for what’s happening narratively, but in a “hold my beer” kind of way. The titillation of pre-code movies is in the unsavory things that would eventually come to be censored. If you cut out the horrific opening, Gorman’s lack of “Me Too” awareness, and the alligator feeding that drives the plot along, you don’t have much of a movie left.

MURDERS IN THE ZOO has just enough of a humorous streak to keep things light, and just enough shock to feel dangerous, making for easy thrills that let you go on about your day.

 

NIGHT MONSTER – 1942

Italian giallo films are some of the very best instances of the old red herring trope. When they’re done right, you’ll never guess who the killer is, and the killer is almost always the person sitting in a wheelchair for the entire film. Throw in a lecherous, hulking limo driver, a creepy butler, a ghoulish gatekeeper, and a Middle Eastern mystic who can telepathically teleport dead bodies from the other side of the world, and the line between Universal horror and Italian giallo gets a little fuzzy. The difference here in Ford Beebe’s 1942 film NIGHT MONSTER is, it’s learned doctors who are turning up dead instead of pretty Italian girls.

NIGHT MONSTER packs a gothic estate full of colorful characters in what essentially amounts to a remake of the 1932 Warner Bros. horror classic DOCTOR X. In the film, the affluent and paraplegic Curt Ingston (Ralph Morgan) invites his team of doctors to his home to demonstrate a new exotic treatment that could allow him to walk once again. These unconventional methods are performed by the mysterious Agar Singh (Nils Asther) who falls into a trance and conjures a skeleton from a grave on the far side of the world. Singh suggests Ingston could employ these methods to eventually cure his paralysis.

In the meantime, Ingston’s nutty sister Margaret (Fay Helm) is seeing blood all over the house and blaming it all on unpleasant housekeeper Miss Judd (Doris Lloyd) while dead bodies are showing up at the nearby swamp; the scenario is not a good look for butler Rolf (Bela Lugosi) who spends most of his time slinking around the house and being nasty to the rest of the staff.

NIGHT MONSTER is a story that can’t help but be disjointed as it becomes a victim of its own convoluted plot. It may be hard to follow, but it’s important to trust your instincts—in spite of what it tries to tell you, you’ve likely guessed the killer by the second act. But regardless of its numerous characters and rambling structure, the film is soberly self-aware, making it the most fascinating and entertaining film in this set.

Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill get top billing, but don’t be fooled—their roles are mostly incidental and only briefly divert our suspicions. The cast overall seems charged with an angry, paranoid energy that goes against the fact that we’ve already guessed the killer at this point, but they fulfill their roles implicitly, holding true to the film’s spirit of mystery.

Films like this are always a pleasant surprise, and being one of the lesser Universal horror films, there’s no time like the present for audiences to discover or rediscover NIGHT MONSTER in all its deranged glory.

 

HORROR ISLAND – 1941

The old saying goes that a one-legged man knows the shortest distance between two places, and it’s peg-legged Tobias Clump (Leo Carrillo) who is the key to the fastest way between sailor Bill Martin (Dick Foran) and a twenty-million-dollar treasure in George Waggner’s 194 film HORROR ISLAND.

 Clump is rescued from drowning by Martin and his business partner “Stuff” Oliver (Fuzzy Knight) after being shoved into the ocean by a man known as The Phantom (Foy Van Dolsen) who’s been lurking about the local docks. Clump is in possession of a portion of a map that possibly leads to a hidden fortune that once belonged to notorious buccaneer Sir Henry Morgan. And Morgan’s treasure just so happens to be located in a castle on an island inherited by Martin, called “Morgan’s Island.”

After rejecting a twenty thousand dollar offer from his cousin George (John Eldredge) to purchase the island, Martin exercises his entrepreneurial spirit and concocts a plan to assemble an ensemble of treasure hunters at fifty bucks a pop to buy in to venture to the island and uncover Morgan’s riches. The Phantom man in tow becomes public enemy number one as bodies begin piling up upon arrival to Martin’s abandoned gothic abode.

The story culminates into the typical “old dark house” scenario as cast members begin dropping like flies leaving those who remain scratching their heads. Obviously The Phantom is the prime suspect, but no one really gets more than a glimpse of him. Just because a guy wants to run around in a black cloak and wide-brimmed hat may just make him stylish. It’s important to take stock of everyone’s reasons for being there in the first place: dirty pirate treasure. A number of red herrings throw Martin and company off the trail; including a sleepwalking professor and peg-leg tracks out in the yard that divert murderous blame to other members of the group.

HORROR ISLAND is certainly an exciting film, especially executed so efficiently within a brisk sixty-minute window, but the excitement falls tepid as reactions to dead bodies are consistently met with about as much concern as someone might have to finding a dead mouse. The lack of fright from the characters don’t exactly instill much fear in the rest of us murder mongers.

The big reveal comes as a bit of a surprise, but at that point, we’re no longer worried about anyone, and we’re just glad to be closing in on that sixty-minute mark.

Writers Maurice Tombragel and Victor McLeod inject a good amount of humor into the film, imbuing the narrative with a sense of farce that plays to the actors’ chemistries but there is almost no foreboding presence about the film. People are murdered and everyone goes about the business at hand.

HORROR ISLAND is no-pressure, light-hearted fun that borrows horror tropes to do almost nothing with them. While enjoyable and energetic, audiences shouldn’t expect anything more than sub-par Abbott and Costello business.

 

HOUSE OF HORRORS – 1946

Eureka’s final film in the CREEPING HOROR set is arguably the most ambitious in terms of attempting to stake a claim amongst the likes of DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN. Jean Yarbrough’s 1946 feature film HOUSE OF HORRORS sets up Rondo Hatton as The Creeper in what was supposed to be the character’s introduction for a series of films to fall in line with Universal’s legacy horror figures.

In the film, sculptor Marcel De Lange (Martin Kosleck) discovers Hatton’s Creeper floating in a river as the artist contemplates suicide upon having his recent expressionistic work coldly rejected by the big-time newspaper art critic F. Holmes Harmon (Alan Napier). De Lange laments to The Creeper about being at the mercy of critics like Harmon and expresses his desire to see the man be forced off this mortal coil. De Lange is also so taken with Hatton’s strangely striking visage, and commits to creating a larger than life-sized sculpt of the afflicted man. And as any murderous art subject is wont to do, The Creeper returns the favor by exacting De Lange’s death wishes on the local art critics that have made the lives of artists like himself and advertising creator Steve Morrow’s (Robert Lowery) a living hell.

From here, the film is basically a whodunit that the audience knows the answer to. Viewers will likely find the most thrills in the suspense of “who’s next” along with the thoughtful, confounding question of the muddled motives of The Creeper himself. Not to mention, Hatton cuts an alarming form, stealing every scene he’s in.

Sassy newspaper reporter Joan Medford (Virginia Grey) goes about sticking her nose in a lot of business to not only try to help out her pals De Lange and Morrow, but eventually to aid in apprehending the creeping killer who’s running all over town snapping the spines of art critics and pretty girls.

The film ends as troubling as one might expect. But the real tragedy is that The Creeper never had the chance to make his way in the Universal horror realm. Hatton previously portrayed The Creeper in Universal’s Sherlock Holmes picture THE PEARL OF DEATH (1944). It wasn’t until his appearance in HOUSE OF HORRORS that The Creeper was the star of the show. Hatton appeared as The Creeper once more in THE BRUTE MAN, released the same year as HOUSE OF HORRORS, but sadly passed away due to complications of his disfiguring condition, known as acromegaly, before either film saw the light of a projector bulb.

Hatton’s Creeper is certainly something to behold on screen. The laconic character’s stoic, stalking disposition is quite chilling, but the use of deformity as genre entertainment raises ethical concerns that today’s more sensitive audiences would find disapproving.

Screenwriter George Bricker moves the story along at an efficient pace, peppering the film’s vibrant characters with refreshingly florid, crackling dialogue, especially when compared to other Universal B-pictures of the day. After reporter Joan Medford defends her pal, artist Steve Morrow, F. Holmes Harmon rather eloquently and unpleasantly expresses his distaste for the man’s work while also berating the rest of society: “Unfortunately, the general public’s appreciation of art is limited to billboards and magazine covers. The morons wallow in a sea of girls, girls, unbelievably beautiful and well-proportioned girls.” We may cut The Creeper a little slack for offing this guy.

HOUSE OF HORRORS is also atypical of the early B-horror film because it seems to suggest a subtext regarding the contentious relationship between artists and their critics. The entire narrative is predicated on F. Holmes Harmon rejecting De Lange’s art. From there, art critics become the antagonist’s antagonist. It’s hard to call anyone besides Joan Medford a protagonist. Artist Steve Morrow seems to fit that role too along with the obligatory police detective, but Morrow is really only collaterally involved. The main characters, De Lange and The Creeper, have no morally redeemable motives whatsoever. The film is truly a psychotic, anti-hero story; De Lange is just a different version of a mad scientist with a “monster” at his disposal to help exact his every whim.

This film is a fascinating glimpse at a new Universal legacy character that never really had the chance to fully explore its potential. HOUSE OF HORRORS works as a different kind of horror tale that borrows a template from those that came before, but also attempts something even more chilling than the usual monster film. The Creeper is genuinely terrifying beyond his malformed appearance. He’s something that cannot be reasoned with and arguably one of the most menacing creations of the period.

Eureka Entertainment presents these four creepy classics on high-definition Blu-Ray in its two-disc CREEPING HORROR collection. Special features include trailers for each film and a limited-edition booklet with writing by Craig Ian Mann and Jon Towlson. Film author Stephen Jones and author/critic Kim Newman provide commentaries for NIGHT MONSTER and HOUSE OF HORRORS. And film historians Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby offer commentaries for MURDERS IN THE ZOO and HORROR ISLAND. The set is packaged in a limited-edition slipcover.

Universal sought relentlessly to recapture the spirit of horror so prevalent in films like FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA in the years following those films, and did so with varying degrees of success. Eureka’s CREEPING HORROR collection is a refreshing sampling of films that endure within the Universal horror legacy.

 

 

When he’s not working as a Sasquatch stand-in for sleazy European films, Lucas Hardwick spends time writing film essays and reviews for We Belong Dead and Screem magazines. Lucas also enjoys writing horror shorts and has earned Quarterfinalist status in the Killer Shorts and HorrOrigins screenwriting contests. You can find Lucas’ shorts on Coverfly.

By Lucas Hardwick
Contributing Writer

 

Welcome to Apes on Film! This column exists to scratch your retro-film-in-high-definition itch. We’ll be reviewing new releases of vintage cinema and television on disc of all genres, finding gems and letting you know the skinny on what to avoid. Here at Apes on Film, our aim is to uncover the best in retro film. As we dig for artifacts, we’ll do our best not to bury our reputation. What will we find out here? Our destiny.

 

 

 

 

 

THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI – 1920
5 out of 5 Bananas
Starring: Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher, Lil Dagover
Director: Robert Wiene
Rated: Not rated
Studio: Eureka Entertainment
Region: Region Free
BRD Release Date: December 5, 2022
Audio Formats: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, LPCM 2.0
Video Codec: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Run Time: 78 minutes
CLICK HERE TO ORDER

 

In the last decade, it seems like anything in film that’s a little weird or unsettling gets slapped with the label of being “Lynchian,” as in David Lynch–ian. But if you do your homework, you’ll find out that what those people really mean to say is “expressionistic,” which not only sounds less like someone trying to be the coolest person in the room, but is also closer to the actual truth.

While German Expressionism only has a short tenure in the timeline of art history (lasting from around 1910 until the mid-1920s), filmmakers continue to refer to it today, constantly finding new and exciting ways to disturb us. The reality is that anything in film that’s given us the wim-wams in the past century or so most likely has the psychological frustration of a socio-economically battered war-torn country to thank. And those films that so adequately evoke troubling nightmarish moods are particularly indebted to Robert Wiene’s 1920 expressionist masterpiece, named by Roger Ebert as the first horror film, DAS CABINET DES DR. CALIGARI (THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI).

What Caligari (Werner Krauss) is a doctor of, we don’t really know at first. His title suggests a level of expertise beyond the common man that permits him to do things like set up at the local fair with his somnambulist sideshow partner Cesare (Conrad Veidt) and solicit people to ask the sleepwalker spooky questions like “How long will I live?” only to receive frightening answers like, “Till the break of dawn.” According to Caligari, Cesare is twenty-three years old and has been asleep for his entire life, awakened only in short spells to exhibit his clairvoyant proclivities to the morbidly curious masses. Oddly enough, Caligari and Cesare’s arrival in the German town of Holstenwall, where our story takes place, conveniently coincides with a string of mysterious murders that include one victim who had been particularly inquisitive about his own fate.

The story unravels in a bit of a cat-and-mouse fashion that culminates in the lead character Franzis (Friedrich Feher) following Caligari to an insane asylum where it is revealed that the doctor is a madman executing a grand experiment in murder. Or is he? The narrative is made all the more refreshingly grim by the framing story that sets up Franzis as the narrator, subsequently suggesting that the account of Dr. Caligari is Franzis’ own mad ravings. This insinuation is fortified by the wild, dreamlike sets and makeup that form the world Franzis speaks of, tying the film up with a big expressionistic bow.

Franzis may be the one telling the story, but it’s Caligari who is in charge of what happens. Whether Caligari is the maniacal mad scientist experimenting with the extremely pliable will of a somnambulist, or the seemingly benevolent asylum director, the film’s conclusion belongs to the doctor either way. And whatever audiences choose to believe about the movie’s final seconds, the doctor — and in this case, the authority — is never held accountable for the actions of which he is accused. Although film scholars throughout history theorize that THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI is a reflection and a comment on the authoritarianism that ran rampant in Germany through World War I, screenwriters Carl Mayer and Hans Janowitz claimed no conscious parallel was made to the context of the sociopolitical state of Germany at that time.

Whatever the contextual case may be, a kind of statement on the abuse of authority is apparent, imparting upon audiences the dire consequences inflicted upon those in its wake — in this case, a state of unbalance and disorder as reflected in the movie’s expressionistic style. The people are at the mercy of their leadership, and some are “Cesares” that are manipulated into enacting the questionable will of those in charge, and some are “Alans” and “Franzises” who wind up dead or insane as a result of unhinged corruption and desire for control.

When Franzis is first seen telling his account of Dr. Caligari, his audience is an elderly man who appears half awake as his eyelids droop and his eyes roll back in his head. A case can be made that the story we see unfold in the expressionistic realm isn’t from inside Franzis’ head but rather the dreams of the man to which he’s telling the story. The thematic implications are the same, but the idea that the story seen could be from either man’s mind provides the audience with a maddened experience shared with the characters in the film. We are as baffled by how the story is told as by the story itself. The entire narrative becomes fluid by the end of the movie, as multiple resolutions from multiple perspectives become possible. It is pure subjectivity, and the experience is as unsettling as the imagery of the film itself. And of all art movements, expressionism arguably relies the most on the subjectivity of its participants.

The film’s striking imagery and unnerving narrative combine in a moment of ghastly perfection when Cesare eerily creeps into the home of Jane Olsen (Lil Dagover) — Franzis’ love interest — as she sleeps. Cesare, in a strange bit of action with his gaunt, ghostlike performance, removes part of Jane’s windowpane and stalks through her bedroom with a knife in his hand, intent on murdering her as she sleeps. The sequence plays out at an ominous and lengthy pace, and is the most haunting and immediately threatening moment in the film. The scene is a sublime instance of the beauty and beast dynamic that will drive the motivations of monsters for decades to come.

Eureka Entertainment’s Masters of Cinema imprint presents THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI on 4K UHD. This presentation is the same as the Blu-ray release from 2014, with a few notable new features. Eureka’s limited-edition set includes a 100-page booklet, exclusive box art, a new commentary by film historians Jonathan Rigby and Kevin Lyons, and a new score by composer Uwe Dierksen and Hermann Kretzschmar. And for anyone needing a crash course in Weimar Era art history, look no further than the 52-minute documentary “Caligari: The Birth of Horror in the First World War” included in this set. Other features include a video essay by film critic David Cairns and an interview with film critic and author Kim Newman.

THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI is so influential, and continues to be, that to see it for the first time now presents nothing “new.” It’s tropes and imagery have been referenced for over a century in films. And whether filmmakers realize they’re cribbing this movie or borrowing from some other influence, the truth is that all roads lead to CALIGARI. Expressionism, Impressionism, post punk, goth, Lynchian, whatever you want to call it, this film is more than the result of an art movement, it is a movement in and of itself inspiring multiple genres across generations. It is ground zero for filmmakers like Christopher Nolan and David Lynch, and punk rock would be remiss to not acknowledge appropriating elements of its disjointed, gloomy aesthetic.

CALIGARI’s timeless effect is the result of our response to it. It burrows into our brains and knows right where to hit us. It knows how to trick us in the ways we want to be tricked without ever cannibalizing its narrative. CALIGARI, rather grows its narrative with the questions it conjures within us. It knows unanimously what gives us the willies, suggesting its moral superiority, and alleging our own proclivities for depravity. It never tells us what to think, but rather infers what we might. Through its audience, the film perpetuates its own existence, and over a hundred years later, we remain astounded by its purity and perplexed by its moral accuracy.

 

 

When he’s not working as a Sasquatch stand-in for sleazy European films, Lucas Hardwick spends time writing film essays and reviews for We Belong Dead and Screem magazines. Lucas also enjoys writing horror shorts and has earned Quarterfinalist status in the Killer Shorts and HorrOrigins screenwriting contests. You can find Lucas’ shorts on Coverfly.

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By Lucas Hardwick
Contributing Writer

 

Welcome to Apes on Film! This column exists to scratch your retro-film-in-high-definition itch. We’ll be reviewing new releases of vintage cinema and television on disc of all genres, finding gems and letting you know the skinny on what to avoid. Here at Apes on Film, our aim is to uncover the best in retro film. As we dig for artifacts, we’ll do our best not to bury our reputation. What will we find out here? Our destiny.

 

 

 

MANIACAL MAYHEM: THE INVISIBLE RAY, BLACK FRIDAY, and THE STRANGE DOOR — 1936, 1940, 1951
4 out of 5 Bananas
Starring: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Frances Drake, Stanley Ridges, Anne Nagel, Charles Laughton, Richard Stapley, Sally Forrest
Director: Lambert Hillyer, Arthur Lubin, Joseph Pevney
Rated: PG
Studio: Eureka Entertainment
Region: B
BRD Release Date: October 17, 2022
Audio Formats: English: LPCM 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
Video Codec: Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
Run Time: 230 minutes total
CLICK HERE TO ORDER

 

Anytime the name Karloff is blasted across a film’s title card in big, scary letters, audiences can pretty much count on a degree of the macabre to grace their forthcoming entertainment.

“Karloff” is such a fitting name to correlate with horror, it seems strange that it was devised before the fame of Universal’s FRANKENSTEIN came to Boris Karloff. If it weren’t for the name belonging to the actor, “Karloff” could very well be its own title for a horror film; in fact, it is sometimes seen before or bigger than the titles of the films it’s featured in. The name evokes the exotic and mysterious, and is strange enough to warn viewers that they’re not in Kansas anymore. The name so easily rolls off the tongue that it seems a miracle of marketing; a perfect conceit designed to transmit its associations exactly.

William Henry Pratt chose the Boris Karloff pseudonym at the beginning of his acting career with the very intent to assert an exotic sensibility. The name Karloff is said to be derived from the Pratt family’s Slavic roots; however, this is just one of many theories regarding the moniker. At any rate, “Karloff” was good enough for Universal to bill the actor for several years so garishly. The final instance of Karloff’s singular label occurred in 1936 with the movie THE INVISIBLE RAY, which is the first of three Boris Karloff films in Eureka Entertainment’s new MANIACAL MAYHEM collection.

THE INVISIBLE RAY is the textbook mad scientist tale of Dr. Janos Rukh who is intent on harnessing the power of an ancient element known as Radium X. Rukh invites a group of colleagues to his gothic laboratory, and using a powerful telescope and the ancient light rays of the Andromeda galaxy, demonstrates that Radium X exists in the form of a meteorite that crashed in southern Africa millions of years ago. There are probably less convoluted ways to go about discovering an ancient radioactive element, but where’s the fun in that?

Once Rukh is able to exploit the power of Radium X, he’s not only melting rocks and scaring the local natives, but he’s also glowing in the dark and losing his temper. Rukh’s precarious condition becomes compounded by a little IP infringement and good-natured infidelity, sending him into a murderous mindset. Upon pursuing his colleagues to a conference in Paris, the maddened doctor becomes hellbent to use his rock-melting ray gun to dispatch the expedition team that did him so wrong.

As if “Karloff” alone wasn’t enough to get asses into seats, Universal doubles down in THE INVISIBLE RAY and casts Bela Lugosi as Rukh’s contemporary, Dr. Benet. Playing against type, Lugosi’s Benet is cool and collected and only wants to help his comrade. Benet is one of Lugosi’s most reserved and mature performance, demonstrating what he could be capable of aside from the usual demented heavies and crazed monsters. And despite being equipped with the kitschy traits of a Batman villain, Karloff never takes his performance over the top, but does convey an elevated sense of the maniacal. He’s frantic and harried, but never as nutty as rubbing his hands together in anticipation of the next step of his scheme. Rukh comes across more troubled than downright evil.

With more plot than the story needs, THE INVISIBLE RAY is a brisk account of too much science in the hands of an emotionally driven individual, which is usually bad for characters but great for entertaining. And showcasing just the right amount of weirdness with impressive special effects, this Karloff vehicle is a thrilling entry in Eureka’s MANIACAL MAYHEM collection.

The title BLACK FRIDAY may evoke some sort of interstitial holiday-themed horror about a bloodthirsty mob of Christmas shoppers. Instead, the 1940 film is a switcheroo tale that has little to do with the penultimate weekday aside from an unfortunate accident involving a carload of gangsters and a literature professor occurring on a Friday the 13th.

Karloff is Dr. Ernest Sovac, seen at the very beginning of the movie being escorted to his execution. On his way to the chair, Sovac shares his final notes with a newspaper reporter, retrospectively permitting the audience to learn how the good doctor arrived at this mortal predicament.

Essentially told in flashback, BLACK FRIDAY is more a story about Sovac’s colleague than Sovac himself. The doctor’s journal reveals the tale of how his friend, literature professor George Kingsley (Stanley Ridges) suffers severe brain injuries after being on the business end of a carload of gangsters

in hot pursuit of rival thug Red Cannon (also Stanley Ridges). Cannon and Kingsley are both injured in the accident, and Sovac being the doctor on scene, tends to the two men.

Once Sovac learns that Cannon is privy to a hidden pile of cash to the tune of five-hundred thousand bucks, the doctor starts daydreaming about the kind of laboratory that amount of money could buy. This, of course, steers Sovac into concocting a little surgery, transplanting the good parts of Cannon’s brain into the dying parts of his friend Kingsley’s in hopes that the mixing of minds will reveal the location of the gangster’s secret stash.

Sovac’s procedure saves Kingsley’s life, but before long, the dweeby, good-natured professor begins to exhibit unsavory proclivities. Sovac gets more than he bargained for as Cannon’s personality sporadically takes over Kingsley and sets about exacting revenge on the group of gangsters that ran him down. From this point on, Sovac is not only desperate to achieve his original motives, but he’s at the mercy of a gangster gone wild. And much like Dr. Frankenstein, Sovac has created a monster.

Karloff basically plays second fiddle to Ridges for the rest of the film, which unfolds like a Jekyll and Hyde story. There’s hardly any redeemable characters, especially since Karloff’s motives are so misguided to begin with. He doesn’t perform crazy experimental brain surgery to save his friend, he does it in hopes to uncover a gangster’s ill-gotten gains. What’s more, is Sovac had to anticipate some degree of identity crisis in order to learn where Cannon hid his money. This puts Sovac in an even more diabolical role for risking his friend’s mental state. Yet, somehow, the film seems to want to audience to sympathize with Sovac. Sure, he’s in a mess, but it’s a mess of his own making under the guise of a really troubling rationale.

BLACK FRIDAY pairs Karloff with Bela Lugosi in the credits once again. This time, Lugosi is one of Cannon’s adversaries and never really engages Karloff in the sense audiences might expect. The role of Sovac was originally written for Lugosi, but Karloff showed interest, so the part went to him instead. Lugosi, however, may have been better suited as Sovac considering the scheming nature of the part. Lugosi’s Marnay is a pretty stale character, and doesn’t demonstrate the actor’s strengths. Lugosi is fine in the role, but any actor would have been just as suited for it.

BLACK FRIDAY is another example of science gone mad; however, the film doesn’t know quite know what it wants from its audience. It’s easy to sympathize with poor professor Kingsley who never asks for anything that happens to him. Meanwhile, Karloff’s reserved disposition doesn’t villainize him, yet his dubious motives are the driving force of conflict in the film. And while Karloff and Lugosi may be enough to get the audience’s attention, it’s Stanley Ridges’ cracking performance as he darts between the mild-mannered Kingsley and the disreputable Cannon that viewers won’t want to miss.

The third and final film in Eureka’s collection is the 1951 gothic period thriller THE STRANGE DOOR. Based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s short story “The Sire de Maletroit’s Door,” Universal’s adaptation stars Karloff in a supporting role next to the scene-devouring Charles Laughton who portrays the film’s heavy.

In yet another story of elaborate revenge, Sire Alain de Maletroit (Laughton) entraps local high-born scoundrel Denis de Beaulieu (Richard Stapley) in a barroom brawl that stages him as a murderer. Beaulieu makes a break for it, and in his escape from the pursuant mob, he happens across the de Maletroit estate secured by its “strange door.” Beaulieu finds more than the refuge he bargained for inside, falling right into de Maletroit’s trap.

In the spirit of big gestures, it’s revealed that Alain’s snare is part of a much larger, longer grudge against his brother Edmond (Paul Cavanaugh) who he’s secretly locked up in a dungeon for the past 20 years. The duplicitous Alain intends to force his niece Blanche (Sally Forrest) into marrying de Beaulieu as an insult to her father Edmond, with the underhanded arrangement of holding the couple prisoner on the de Maletroit estate. This is all part of Alain’s over-baked revenge directed at Edmond for marrying his unrequited love who died giving birth to Blanche. It’s a lot to process.

Karloff plays the family servant Voltan, who spends most of his time tending to Edmond and sneaking around the mansion peeping through holes in the walls. At one point, Edmond asks Voltan to kill de Beaulieu, but de Beaulieu isn’t quite the scum everyone thinks he is, and he and Blanche eventually fall in love causing big problems for Alain’s once air-tight plans for vengeance.

THE STRANGE DOOR is a wonderful show of excess on several fronts, with a scene-chewing Charles Laughton leading the way. Laughton picks this film up and runs away with it; it’s a shame he didn’t have a mustache to twirl to make him all the more devious. From sets and costumes to Laughton and his band of bloused bullies and their meticulous scheming, this movie is a delightful cartoony extravagance that will give viewers a heart-racing case of the wim-wams in its final anxiety-inducing moments.

Eureka Entertainment presents these three Universal horrors in high-definition as an exciting two-disc, Blu-ray set, packaged in a limited-edition slipcase. Special features include three chatty and insightful commentaries from film historians Stephen Jones, Kevin Lyons, Kim Newman, and Jonathan Rigby, along with three radio adaptations of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Sire de Maletroit’s Door.” A limited-edition booklet with new essays from film writers Andrew Graves, Rich Johnson, and Craig Ian Mann is also included in the first 2000 copies.

Invisible rays, a gangster with two brains, and a ruthless patriarch, MANIACAL MAYHEM never falls short of deranged individuals making everyone’s life a living hell, yet Karloff’s performances throughout evoke a quieter madness: something more troubling that greed or revenge. These films boast Karloff’s subtle abilities as a performer, oddly with roles that are seemingly more fit for an over-the-top talent. This Eureka collection offers a revelation of Karloff as he taps into the internal, tortured aspects of these disturbed characters, and conveys the unspoken human elements of maniacal movie monsters.

 

 

 

When he’s not working as a Sasquatch stand-in for sleazy European films, Lucas Hardwick spends time writing film essays and reviews for We Belong Dead and Screem magazines. Lucas also enjoys writing horror shorts and has earned Quarterfinalist status in the Killer Shorts and HorrOrigins screenwriting contests. You can find Lucas’ shorts on Coverfly.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

The horror! The horror! Atlanta kicks off its Halloween celebrations with a bang! Spook up the weekend with a whole lotta horror classics by haunting on down to the fifth annual Monsterama Convention invading the Atlanta Marriott Alpharetta and haunting all your senses this weekend (Oct. 5-7)! From legendary actors to spookshows to monstrous sightings, here are our top reasons to get your classic monster fix at MONSTERAMA!

1)  200th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF FRANKENSTEIN. Valentine Wolfe is back for another year with the release of their new creation,THE HAUNTING OF MARY SHELLEY,providing an eerie auditory experience as they accompany Thomas Edison’s 1910 classic silent horror film, FRANKENSTEIN, on Saturday at 1pm, featuring narration by Kool Kat Madeline Brumby!

2) SILVER SCREAM SPOOK SHOW. Kool Kat Shane Morton, a.k.a. ghost host with the most, Professor Morte and the Silver Scream Spook Show featuring the Go-Go Ghouls will terrify with a live spook show featuring special guest Luciana Paluzzi at 4pm, followed by a spook-tacular screening of Kinji Fukasaku’s THE GREEN SLIME (1968) on 16mm, Saturday beginning at 4pm!

3) FANGTASTIC FILM. It’s monster movie madness with screenings of horrorific classics (mostly screening in 16mm) including Jules Bass’ MAD MONSTER PARTY (1967), Don Dohler’s FIEND (1980), Howard Ziehm’s FLESH GORDON (1974), Kinji Fukasaku’s THE GREEN SLIME (1968), Thomas Edison’s FRANKENSTEIN (1910), Paul Annett’s THE BEAST MUST DIE (1974), Mel Welles’ LADY FRANKENSTEIN (1971), Paul Naschy’s NIGHT OF THE WEREWOLF (1981), Val Guest’s WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH (1970), Sam Irvin’s ELVIRA’S HAUNTED HILLS (2001), Jim O’Connolly’s THE VALLEY OF GWANGI (1969)
and more!

4) CINEPROV RIFFS THE FIEND. Madness, monsters and corpses OH MY! Hilarity ensues as New MST3K writer Larry Johnson and CINEPROV riffs Don Dohler’s FIEND (1980) in 16mm, Friday at 10pm!

5) SPOOKTACULAR GUESTS. Catch some killer guests, including our Kool Kat of the Week, Director Jeff Burr (FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM), Sam Irvin (ELVIRA’S HAUNTED HILLS; OBLIVION), Mark Goddard (LOST IN SPACE; THE RIFLEMAN), Luciana Paluzzi (THUNDERBALL; THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN), Rachel Talalay (FREDDY’S DEAD: THE FINAL NIGHTMARE; TANK GIRL), Ken Sagoes (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3), creaturific artist Kool Kat Mark Maddox, Kool Kat Shane Morton, ghost host with the most, a.k.a. Professor Morte, glamour ghoul Kool Kat Madeline Brumby and so many more!

6) MONSTER MAKEOVERS.  Get gore-gous with monster make-up galore as part of this year’s Makers Track! Kevin Moe delivers a monstrous “Mask Making” panel, Fri. at 9:30pm! Bethany Marchman-Arriagada apes it up with her “Girl Makes Gorilla” panel, Sat. at 10am! And win some monstrous prizes with the annual FACE-ON make-up contest, Sat. at 5:30pm! And don’t forget to stick around for a creeping cornucopia of frightful faces and monster masks!

7) WARPED WRITERS & LITERARY PANELS. Writers make the monstrous world go ‘round, so check out guest authors, Dacre Stoker, Bram Stoker’s great grand-nephew (DRACUL; DRACULA THE UN-DEAD), Nancy A. Collins (VAMPIRELLA; SUNGLASSES AFTER DARK), Georges Jeanty (BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER Comics), James A. Moore (THE LAST SACRIFICE; BLOOD RED), Charles Rutledge and vampire aficionado J. E. Browning (GRAPHIC HORROR: MOVIE MONSTER MEMORIES), and so many more!

8) SCARE-TASTIC SHOPPING. Horror cons are the perfect place to stock up on both classic horror memorabilia, cult classics on DVD and creepy clothing, costumes and accessories. So come on down to the dealer’s room and check out all the toys, collectibles and monstrous goodies you can get your ghoulish little hands on!

9) MONSTER PROM. Hey all you boils and ghouls, get frightfully funky at this year’s Monster Prom, Saturday at 8pm! Dust off the old rat-infested tux, clear out the cobwebs, shine up your shoes and get ready to do the Monster Mash, and maybe even Time-Warp into the wee hours of the morning!

MONSTERAMA main con hours are Fri. Oct. 5 from 2 to 12 a.m.; Sat. Oct. 6 from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m.; and Sun. Oct. 7 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more info, visit the MONSTERAMA official website here.

 

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

The Women in Horror Film Festival kills it at Crowne Plaza Atlanta & Conference Center – Peachtree City this Thursday-Sunday Oct. 4-7. Festival creators Kool Kat Vanessa Ionta Wright and Samantha Kolesnik showcase one helluva line-up of creative kickass female minds in every aspect of the horrorific cinematic and filmmaking experience, contemporary and retro alike, with over 70 short films to whet your most nightmarish appetities!. The festival has much to offer all the genre cinephiles in your life, from slasher gore-fests to comedic catastrophes, check out our top reasons to get your spine tingled at the WIHFF!

1) BOOGIE DOWN AND BRING OUT THE DEAD. The gals of WIHFF throw some hellacious parties! So guys and ghouls, why not VIP it up and make your way to the fest on Thursday night, get your photos taken on the Dead Carpet and get hell-bent at the VIP Party (Oct. 4/7:30pm (photos); 8pm (party)). Or get horrorfied on Friday at the After Party, hosted by HorrorPack (Oct. 5/11:00pm). And the rest of the fest wouldn’t be the same without after parties on Saturday (Oct. 6/10:30pm) and Sunday (Oct. 7/9:00pm), so why not monster mash it up with the best of ‘em!

2) MARIANNE MADDALENA. One killer genre Producer, Marianne Maddalena has produced 26 plus films and television series including THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS (1991), WES CRAVEN’S NEW NIGHTMARE (1994), SCREAM (1996), DRACULA 2000 (2000), THE HILLS HAVE EYES (2006) and more!

3) TRINA PARKS. Best known for her role as Thumper in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER (1971), Parks’ career spanned the ‘70s with appearances in an episode of Rod Serling’s NIGHT GALLERY (“The Phantom Farmhouse” – 1971); DARKTOWN STRUTTERS (1975); THE MUTHERS (1976) and more. She came back deadlier than ever in David DeCoteau’s IMMORTAL KISS: QUEEN OF THE NIGHT (2012).

4) ELM STREET GORE-GAL, HEATHER LANGENKAMP. Langenkamp won our horror hearts with her portrayal of nightmare-filled teen Nancy Thompson in Wes Craven’s ‘80s classic spawning its own hellacious franchise, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984).

5) FRIGHTENING FILMS! The WIHFF has heads rolling with three days of non-stop action filled to the bloody brim with films galore! Friday’s (Oct. 5) schedule includes an Experimental Horror Block, a Horror Comedy Shorts Block, a Features Screening (SHE WAS SO PRETTY: BE GOOD FOR GOODNESS SAKE, dir. Brooklyn Ewing), a Sci-Fi Shorts Block, an International Shorts Block, a second Feature Screening & World Premiere (BUGS: A TRILOGY, dir. Simone Kisiel), and a Macabre Thrills Block! Saturday (Oct. 6) terrifies with a Psychological Shorts Block, a Thriller Shorts Block, and a Feature Screening (ECHOES OF FEAR, dir. Brian and Laurence Avenet-Bradley)! And Sunday (Oct. 7) gets gory and kicks off the day with a Feature Screening (ALL THE CREATURES WERE STIRRING, dir. Rebekah and David Ian McKendry), a Regional Horror Shorts Block (including Kool Kat Dayna Noffke’s 2018 “Teaser”), an Animation Horror Shorts Block, a Feature Screening (RELICT: A MESOPOTAMIC TALE, dir. Laura Sanchez Acosta), a Student Horror Shorts Block and a Body Horror Shorts Block! So, come on out and discover some new terrifying talent!

6) KILLER PANELS. WIHFF offers several killer panels including “From Indie to Studio – Making the Leap” featuring one helluva line-up with Gillian Albinski (THE WALKING DEAD; THE STRANGERS), Mark Simon (ONE MISSED CALL; NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET III), and Marianne Maddelena (Oct. 6/12:30pm). Or catch the Diversity & Visibility panel featuring Trina Parks and horror author Mylo Carbia (Oct. 6/4pm).

7) WARPED WRITERS. There wouldn’t be films without writers, and of so WIHFF offers up highly acclaimed horror/thriller/suspense writer Mylo Carbia, a.k.a. Hollywood’s No. 1 horror film ghostwriter turned author (THE RAPING OF AVA DESANTIS / VIOLETS ARE RED). Carbia will be selling and signing during the festival.

8) SCARE-TASTIC SHOPPING.  You won’t want to miss out on the horrorific wares the festival vendors have to offer, from handmade horrors, to gothic gifts. During your stay, why not stock up on macabre movie memorabilia, cult classics and creepy clothing, costumes, accessories and more. Keep your eyes peeled for our fiend and horror filmmaker, Lynne Hanson and her spooky horror art! Vendors will be selling/meeting guests from daily during the festival.

Women in Horror Film Festival main festival hours are Fri. Oct.5  from 11 a.m. – 12 a.m.; Sat. Oct. 6 from 11 a.m. to 12 a.m.; and Sun. Oct. 7 from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. For more info, visit the Women in Horror Film Festival official website here.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

BLACKTASTICON 2018 shouts “Welcome to the Future!” as co-founders Kool Kat Balogun Ojetade and Milton Davis bring you, Atlanta’s top-notch spec-lit convention (formerly The State of Black Science Fiction Con), this  Saturday and Sunday (June 16-17) at GA Tech’s Ferst Center. This event is chock full of Afro-futurism, steamfunk, cyberfunk, dieselfunk, sword and soul, rococoa, Afrikan martial arts, and then some! Come see why we think you should come on out and celebrate the diverse and ultra relevant voices of current Black writers, artists, filmmakers, and creators of all kinds delivering some of the most dynamic and ground-breaking speculative fiction today!

1) THE MAHOGANY MASQUERADE. Get your steamfunk, dieselfunk, Afrofuturism fix as BLACKTASTICON kicks off the weekend with a night of funktastic shenanigans! Get gussied up cosplay-style (or don’t, your choice) and boogie down to the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture & History Friday, June 15 from 6-9pm!

2) PATTERNMASTER: THE LEGACY OF OCTAVIA BUTLER. Multi prestigious award-winning (Hugo and Nebula Awards to name a few) “Grand Dame of Science Fiction”, Octavia Butler’s life and legacy is the sole focus of this much-anticipated event. Come celebrate one of the most influential Black Science Fiction writers with poet and author Linda D. Addison, Guest of Honor/author Sheree Renee Thomas, Guest of Honor/artist John Jennings, author Troy L. Wiggins and author/screenwriter Kenesha Williams, Saturday at 12pm.

3) WOMEN IN BLACK SPECULATIVE FICTION. The WBSF panel, a.k.a. “2016’s most popular panel” (standing room only!) returns and with good reason. Explore the roots of Black Women in Speculative Fiction while celebrating the Black women authors, publishers and more with one helluva line-up featuring author/publisher Kool Kat Nicole Givens Kurtz, poet/author Linda D. Addison, author Sheree Renee Thomas, author Valjeanne Jeffers, author/screenwriter Kenesha Williams and author Christine Taylor-Butler, moderated by Kool Kat and BLACKTASTICON co-creator Balogun Ojetade, Saturday at 4:30pm!

4) THE RENAISSANCE: FROM HARLEM TO SATURDAY MORNINGS. Who doesn’t love comics, cartoons and animation? Roosevelt Pitts Jr., a thirty-plus year comic book industry vet and creator of PURGE, hosts this riveting exploration of the Black independent comic book scene, along with Guest of Honor/artist Mshindo Kuumba and Author Heru. Get ready to dig deep into the industry’s checkered past of Black representation in the animated medium and the exciting future that awaits generations to come, Saturday at 4:30pm!

5) FROM BLACK PANTHERS TO THE BLACK PANTHER. If you missed the historic event this past March, now’s your chance to experience a powerful discussion on the history, impact, importance and need for Creative Resistance and Heroic Black Imagery in film, fiction and artwork. Join authors, activists, actors and Hip Hop icons along with hosts and BLACKTASTICON co-creators Balogun Ojetade and Milton Davis, Saturday at 2pm!

6) LINDA D. ADDISON. Guest of Honor, Linda Addison is a poet and writer of horror, fantasy and science fiction. She is the first African-American winner of the HWA Bram Stoker Award, which she won four times for her collections CONSUMED, REDUCED TO BEAUTIFUL GREY ASHES (2001); BEING FULL OF LIGHT, INSUBSTANTIAL (2007); HOW TO RECOGNIZE A DEMON HAS BECOME YOUR FRIEND (2011); and FOUR ELEMENTS (2014). She was also recently announced the winner of the HWA Lifetime Achievement Award.

7) FROM ROMANCE TO THE VAMPIRE HUNTRESS. Celebrate the life and legacy of author L.A. Banks, known for creating diverse perspectives in horror, sci-fi, fantasy and romance. She was also involved in the creation of the popular television series, TRUE BLOOD. Catch this riveting panel discussion of the life and continuing influence of Banks with author K. Ceres Wright, author B. Sharise Moore, Diane Williams, author Stafford Battle and William Jones, Saturday at 3pm.

8) IRON-AUTHUR. Let the wild rumpus start! Witness five authors compete for the title of IRON-AUTHOR, in the vein of IRON-CHEF (5 authors. 5 rounds. 5 minutes. 5 stories). Authors will have a chance to turn five Mystery Ingredient Words into a Science Fiction, Horror, or Fantasy short story in less than five minutes per round. Who will reign supreme? Get competitive on Saturday at 12pm!

Blacktasticon main con hours are Sat. June 16 from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sun. June 17 from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. For more info, visit the BLACKTASTICON official website here.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Vanessa Ionta Wright, local filmmaker, co-founder and Director of the Women in Horror Film Festival, and horror aficionado helps dish out a night of terror, alongside fellow Atlanta indie filmmakers, with a screening of her short film, RAINY SEASON (2017), during the first ever Attack of the Fifty Foot Film Fest! Hosted by HORROR HOTEL producer and Kool Kat Debbie Hess, the fest features quality shorts created by local filmmakers (HORROR HOTEL episode “Sleep Tight” by Kool Kat Ricky Hess et al; ATTACK OF THE FACE MELTERS co-directed by Blake K. Swell and Tyler Weddle; and MR. LOCKJAW PREQUEL: EPISODE ONE directed by Byron Erwin)! So if you’re looking for a bloody fangtastic time and want to chat it up with some killer local filmmakers, make your way to The Plaza Theatre on June 27 at 7pm!

Wright, both writer and director of RAINY SEASON received full authorization by the King of Horror himself, Stephen King, to adapt his short story, “Rainy Season,” (first published in the Spring 1989 issue of MIDNIGHT GRAFFITI), into a live-action piece of bloody art, for the sole purpose of screening at film festivals in 2015. By way of King’s Dollar Babies program, Wright invested her blood, sweat and tears along with her WIHFF co-founder and Executive Producer Samantha Kolesnik and they are excited to bring the film to Atlanta’s horror film-loving audience!

ATLRetro caught up with Vanessa to chat about her film, the Attack of the Fifty Foot Film Fest, women in genre filmmaking and her upcoming Women in Horror Film Festival. While you’re takin’ a gander at our little Q&A, why not take a peek at RAINY SEASON’s official 2017 trailer, here.

ATLRetro: Attack of the 50 Foot Film Fest! Sounds exciting and right up ATLRetro’s alley! Can you tell us a little about the event, what inspired it, and how you got involved?

Vanessa Ionta Wright: The organizer of the event, Debbie Hess, wanted to put together a ‘mini’ fest of horror/sci-fi/suspense themed films produced by local Atlanta filmmakers that were either world premiere films or first time in Atlanta proper premieres. She wanted to curate a selection of quality indie films that would showcase and celebrate the talent and production capabilities of Atlanta filmmakers themselves. The world knows Atlanta as a premium destination for studio filmmaking with big budgets but Atlanta also has some excellent and creative filmmakers right here that can deliver the goods on an indie level as well. Collaborating with multiple filmmakers made it feasible to bring these short films to the big screen. The Plaza Theatre seemed the perfect venue with its historic background for such films. She put out a call to submit films for consideration. RAINY SEASON was a good fit.

Care to share a little about the other featured films and their directors?

I haven’t personally met any of them yet, but am very much looking forward to it, as well as seeing their films. Here is all the information I was able to gather with my spy skills: The Hesses (Ricky, Al and Debbie) produce the HORROR HOTEL series filmed in Atlanta. Ricky is the creator and primary director of the series with the first season streaming on Hulu, an anthology feature film of the 2nd season episodes which are available on Amazon Prime and coming soon to DirectTV. Their festival film, “Sleep Tight” is the pilot episode of the 3rd season and promises to creep it up with attack bed bugs! ATTACK OF THE FACE MELTERS, written by Blake K. Swell and co-directed by Tyler Weddle and Swell, features Jack, a lovable comic geek that enjoys his comics more than his girlfriend. Life takes a turn when Jack’s comic book comes to life. And LOCKJAW PREQUEL: Episode One, directed by Byron Conrad Erwin, written by Justin Craig, features a ventriloquist with mundane aspirations of becoming a children’s entertainer who becomes subject to his dummy’s more sinister desire: interrogating and torturing criminals for the mob.

We’re excited to see that your short film RAINY SEASON, adapted from Stephen King’s short story will be screening at the fest. Can you tell us a little about the film and the making of? Any interesting or crazy tales to tell about filming your short?

I feel like the entire experience from beginning to end has been crazy and interesting. I secured the non-exclusive rights back in July 2015 and began work on the script. Once the script was basically locked — I say basically because I was doing rewrites up until a day before shooting — I started putting together a team to get this sucker produced. I

met Executive Producer Samantha Kolesnik at a film festival in Los Angeles and she was in the process of having her short film THE PRICE OF BONES (2016) produced and wanted to be more involved with production, so I asked if she wanted to jump on board RAINY SEASON.  She went from “Sure, I’ll help out,” to Executive Producer.  This film would not have happened without her. I then reached out to Director of Photography Mark Simon and was honored that he wanted to be a part of this project. Working alongside John Hughes, Mark began his career on some of the most iconic films in history (SIXTEEN CANDLES, THE BREAKFAST CLUB, FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF). We were so lucky to be working with so many talents in this industry.

One of our biggest challenges, being on such a tight and small budget, was the fact that our set had no electricity or running water and we were shooting nights in an isolated location during the hottest days of August.  Thank goodness for generators, port-a-potties and a healthy respect for bats.

And how cool that your adaptation is fully authorized by King. Can you tell us a little about that process and how long it took for you to get King’s blessing?

This wasn’t as daunting as I thought it might be. The process was fairly simple. “Rainy Season” is part of King’s Dollar Babies Program, which allows aspiring filmmakers to secure the non-exclusive rights to his work and adapt it for the screen. I looked at the list of available stories and filled out an application and waited. Two weeks went by and I received an email granting me permission to adapt the story. I signed the contract and mailed my dollar bill to the “Master of Horror.”  The completed film can in no way make a profit or be distributed. It is for festival use only. So many people have asked, “Why on earth would you make a film that can’t be distributed or make any money?” I look at this film as a very expensive resume. I felt like this film could be a great opportunity for everyone involved to take the next step. Plus it doesn’t hurt to have Stephen King’s name on your film.

Are there any other horror stories you’d like to adapt to film, those that have yet to hit the big screen?

I am always late to the party when it comes to reading. Generally, I’ll read a book and think, “That would make an awesome film!” and then I look it up and it’s already been done. I also read a lot of older books…I might need some book recommendations on new horror releases.

Can you tell our readers what drew you to filmmaking and which filmmakers would you say inspired you most?

I think I’ve been drawn to filmmaking my entire life, I just didn’t realize that it could be a career. I started writing stories at an early age, and the moment our family got a VHS movie camera I started bringing those stories to life. I have always been inspired by those who can take the seeds of an idea and grow it into a visual medium that can evoke an emotional response, be it laughter, tears or fear. I grew up on television and movies.  So much of it was still new. Premium cable television got popular in the early 1980s and I was front and center. I was always drawn to the scarier programs. I remember sneaking around to watch COMMANDER USA’s GROOVIE MOVIES and films like MY BLOODY VALENTINE , FRIDAY THE 13TH III, AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, CAT PEOPLE and more. I was also an avid watcher of the early TWILIGHT ZONE series and the films of Alfred Hitchcock. I loved suspense more than anything. Gore was fun, but the anticipation of terror got me every time. And the horror of the 1970s and 1980s is so iconic. I watched films by John Carpenter, Wes Craven and Tobe Hooper and thought, “I want to do that!”

As an independent female filmmaker working in the horror genre, what challenges have you personally faced that seem to be a common theme amongst women in the industry?

I don’t know that I have faced any challenges in the industry due to being a woman. I think the challenges I have faced are common to all independent filmmakers regardless of gender. There is an audience for every film and I think as filmmakers we are all trying to find the most effective route to get our films in front of those audiences. Filmmaking is expensive, time consuming and extremely competitive. I think for years this industry has been dominated by men at the top, but we are seeing more and more women in these top creative and executive roles. And I certainly don’t think that I, or any other woman, should be given opportunities simply based on our gender. If I get hired as a director it should be because I am the best director for the job, not because I’m a good female director.

It seems that little by little, women are finally getting the attention they deserve when it comes to film, especially within the horror genre, which brings us to your Women in Horror Film Festival coming up in September. Can you give us a sneak peek into that venture and why you think it’s important that these types of events take place?

Samantha Kolesnik and I are very excited to be bringing this event to the Atlanta area. As genre filmmakers, we have noticed an unbalanced representation of women at horror film festivals and at the box office. We decided to create a platform to showcase female genre filmmakers and screenwriters. Not to create a women only event, but to promote those women who are currently creating films and screenplays and to get them noticed in an otherwise saturated market. We are striving for more equality in the industry, a balanced representation of talented filmmakers and writers. We are very excited to be welcoming some very special guests to the event that many horror fans will recognize: Heather Langenkamp, Amanda Wyss, Jen and Sylvia Soska, Horror Producer Marianne Maddalena, Lynn Lowry, Horror authors Mylo Carbia and Meg Hafdahl and famed zombie from AMC’s THE WALKING DEAD, Sonya Thompson.  These trailblazing women have been hugely supportive of what Samantha and I have created and we’re thrilled to be working alongside them. The festival will be accepting submissions through July 15, 2017, and the fest will take place September 21-24, 2017, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel & Conference Center in Peachtree City, just down the street from Pinewood Atlanta Studios and Raleigh Studios, home of THE WALKING DEAD.  Your readers can go here for more information.

Who are your favorite women horror directors and why?

Some of my favorites would be Kathryn Bigelow (NEAR DARK), Jennifer Kent (THE BABADOOK), Mary Lambert (PET SEMATARY), Mary Harron (AMERICAN PSYCHO). I am quickly becoming a fan of some amazing up and coming indie directors like Heidi Hartwig (WONDER VALLEY), Justine Raczkiewicz (WASTE) and Audrey Cummings (BERKSHIRE COUNTY). Why I like these particular directors? They know how to tell great stories. They are able to scare and disturb audiences while also creating thought provoking subject matter. I like them because they make great films. It’s why I like any director. I know I’m leaving people off of my list. I could create a spreadsheet of my favorite horror films and directors and you could offer a centerfold-type fold out for your readers. -Ha!-

Can you give us five things you’re into at the moment that we should be watching right now— past or present, well-known or obscure?

I love lists! I’m limited to only 5?! WATCHING: THE KEEPERS (Netflix Docuseries); MAKING A MURDERER (Netflix Docuseries); submissions for WIHFF – even though Sam and I are not judging the work, we are watching and enjoying all of the films, so that has been taking up a lot of my screen time; and some of my all time favorite films and TV shows in no particular order: RUSHMORE (Anderson), RAISING ARIZONA (Cohen Bros), HALLOWEEN (Carpenter), PSYCHO (Hitchcock), PULP FICTION (Tarantino), GOODFELLAS (Scorsese), A BRONX TALE (DeNiro), BACK TO THE FUTURE (Zemeckis), SLING BLADE (Thorton), ROCKY (Stallone), DIE HARD (McTierman), ALIEN (Scott). Series that I love and have loved:  THE WALKING DEAD, HEROES, BREAKING BAD, FRIDAY THE 13th the Series, AMAZING STORIES, STRANGER THINGS, GREATEST AMERICAN HERO, V, THE TWILIGHT ZONE, DARK SHADOWS, etc. There are so many more that I will remember after this is printed!

Any advice for women filmmakers out there trying to get their foot in the door?

This advice is for all filmmakers. Get out there and make your films. Find good talented people to work and collaborate with and get your film made.  There are so many resources for funding now. Get your hands on a good script or write one yourself and do it. There is no career in film without the film. And surround yourself with good, creative, talented people. You never know who you might meet, so network like crazy. Go to film festivals, get involved with the local indie film scene, and offer to help out on set even if you don’t get paid. Favors get repaid, so support each other, and treat your cast/crew with respect and kindness.

Getting back to what brought us here, Attack of the 50 Foot Film Fest! Anything exciting planned for fest-goers? Can we expect this to be an annual event, something we all can look forward to in years to come?

I’m not sure if this will become an annual event, but I do hope so! I love that Debbie Hess is giving an opportunity to local filmmakers to screen their films. This is about sharing our work. It’s not a competition and we are all there to cheer each other on and give audiences a chance to see some films they might not otherwise have the opportunity to see. And the Plaza is just a super cool venue, so much history there! Friends, fans and moviegoers will have the chance to meet the filmmakers and even the cast of some of these films, which is pretty exciting in my book.
And last but not least, what’s next for Vanessa Ionta Wright? Any other films in the works we should know about?

Right now I am enjoying the RAINY SEASON ride. It’s currently hitting festivals and I want to enjoy the success of the film before I jump into the next one. And WIHFF is keeping me pretty busy as it’s the first year! My plan is hopefully direct a feature in the next year or two so Samantha Kolesnik and I have been making a plan to make that happen. We are actually currently working on a screenplay together, which I am very excited about. I will be at the Attack of the 50ft Film Fest so please be sure to stop by and say hi, I love meeting people!

All photos courtesy of Vanessa Ionta Wright and used with permission.

 

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

What are you doing this weekend? We’re monster mashing it up with a helluva killer Kool Kat extravaganza and more at the 3rd Annual MONSTERAMA CONVENTION, creeping and crawling into town this weekend, Oct. 7-9 at the Atlanta Marriott Perimeter Center!

1) THE GOLDEN BRUNCH OF MONSTERAMA! Have an intimate and devilishly delicious brunch with Monsterama special guest and Hammer, Bond, Harryhausen film star Caroline Munro Friday from 10am – 1pm!

2) CTHULUAU! Cthula on down (If you dare!) to the hotel pool on Friday night at 7pm and get lei’d up with mermaids, music and dancing, oh my! Hosted by Mike Gordon and Peter Cutter creators of TIKI ZOMBIE!

3) SILVER SCREAM SPOOK SHOW! Kool Kat Shane Morton, a.k.a. ghost host with the most, Professor Morte and the Silver Scream Spook Show featuring the Go-Go Ghouls and Monsterama guest, Caroline Munro, a.k.a. “Stella Star” will get intergalactic with a live show followed by a screening of Luigi Cozzi’s STARCRASH (1978) on Saturday beginning at 4pm!

4) FANGTASTIC FILM!  It’s monster movie madness with screenings of horrorific classics including Mario Bava’s CALTIKI, THE IMMORTAL MONSTER (1959); William Witney’s THE CRIMSON GHOST (1946); E. Elias Merhige’s SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE (2000); F. W. Murnau’s NOSFERATU (1922) featuring a life soundtrack performed by Valentine Wolfe; Roger Vadim’s BARBARELLA (1968); Robert Rodriguez’ FROM DUSK TILL DAWN (1996), an adults-only screening of Denis Sanders’  INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS (1973) and so much more! Antonio Margheriti’s CASTLE OF BLOOD (1964) in 16mm and so much more slaying cinema!

5) SPOOKTACULAR GUESTS! Catch some killer guests including James Marshall (TWIN PEAKS – see our Kool Kat feature coming soon!); Zach Galligan (GREMLINS; WAXWORK); Caroline Munro (AT THE EARTH’S CORE; STARCRASH); Suzanna Leigh (LUST FOR A VAMPIRE); Trina Parks (DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER; THE BLUES BROTHERS); Kool Kat and monster artist extraordinaire Mark Maddox; horror novelist and filmmaker John Farris (THE FURY); horror history expert and documentarian, Kool Kat Daniel Griffith of Ballyhoo Motion Pictures; Kool Kat Shane Morton, ghost host with the most, a.k.a. Professor Morte; glamour ghoul Kool Kat Madeline Brumby and so much more!

6) TWISTED TELEVISION!  Get terrified T.V.-style  throughout the weekend and catch screenings of Gene Roddenberry’s made-for-TV movie, SPECTRE (1977); THE OUTER LIMITS – “The Sixth Finger”; STAR TREK – “The Man Trap” and “Cat’s Paw”; MAN FROM ATLANTIS – “Crystal Water” and “Sudden Death”; THE WILD, WILD WEST – “The Night of the Iron Fist”; made for TV movie, THE QUESTOR TAPES (1974); and you won’t want to miss a super rare Kolchak Double Feature (THE NIGHT STALKER/THE NIGHT STRANGLER) in 16mm and so much more!

7) MONSTER MAKEOVERS!  Get gore-gous with monster make-up galore as part of this year’s Makers Track! SFX man Kyle Yaklin, Kool Kat Shane Morton and Chris Brown share the secrets of the monster trade with their “Raising Cthulhu” event, where they’ll build a Lovecraftian Creature costume and promise a true teaching moment when they pass on their knowledge of the Necronomicon and how to summon the Old Ones! Get spooktacular with a “Gore Gore Girls – Special Effects for Kids” event featuring mom/daughter duo, filmmaker Dayna Nofke (Tiltawhirl Pictures) and ultra spooky Vivi Vivian! And don’t forget to stick around for a creeping cornucopia of frightful faces and monster masks!

8) DEADLY DEALERS! Horror cons are the perfect place to stock up on both classic horror memorabilia, cult

classics on DVD and creepy clothing, costumes and accessories. Vendors this year include Creature connoisseur and effects artist, Kyle Yaklin (See our Shop Around feature on Kyle here), Cult TV Man, Eraserhead Press and all the toys, collectibles and monstrous goodies you can get your ghoulish little hands on!

9) MONSTER PROM! Hey all you boils and ghouls, get frightfully funky at this year’s Monster Prom, Saturday at 9pm! Dust off the old rat-infested tux, clear out the cobwebs, shine up your shoes and get ready to do the Monster Mash, and maybe even Time-Warp into the wee hours of the morning, hosted by Professor Morte!

Monsterama main con hours are Fri. Oct. 7 from 4 to 12 a.m.; Sat. Oct. 8 from 9 a.m. to 12 a.m.; and Sun. Oct. 9 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more info, visit www.monsteramacon.com.

DEMON (2015); Dir. Marcin Wrona: Starring Itay Tiran, Agnieszka Zulewska, Andrzej Grabowski; Opens Friday, September 16 at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema; Trailer here.

By Brooke Sonenreich
Contributing Writer

Before arriving to Landmark Midtown Art Cinema, Marcin Wrona’s DEMON had its Atlanta premiere at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. Intrigued by Jewish mysticism, body horror and my own Polish-Jewish roots, I went into this movie with a fresh curiosity. DEMON is set in contemporary Poland, but within a small village that is still recuperating from Nazi occupation. Before attending to the characters, Wrona posits the spectator in the abandoned parts of this Polish town. Before any indication of a character being possessed, Wrona privies us to the haunting of the location with opening images of rundown, abandoned ghettos.

DEMON is a dybbuk story, and the most complex and intriguing one I have ever followed. In Jewish mysticism, if a Jewish body has not been properly buried it remains in purgatory. However, the soul can latch onto a living soul in order to carry out its business. Quite literally, the word dybbuk means to cling.

For Piotr (Israeli Jewish actor Itay Tiran) the dybbuk attaches to his soul the night before he marries Zaneta, a Polish woman whose family is still a group of strangers to Piotr. As the possession takes over his ability to speak and his overall motor skills, questions about the village and its Jewish past bubble to the surface. However, the cling of the dybbuk only strengthens and the dybbuk’s Jewishness begins seeping out of Piotr through shared memories, language, and voice.

My first viewing of DEMON was followed by the realization that it would be in a cycle of festivals before being distributed for at least another year. But I left the theater feeling haunted myself and made it to the other screenings in hopes of retaining as much of this film as possible before it was passed to the next festival. The film’s arrival at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema should not go unnoticed. It is a film that resonates months after the first viewing and, much like how the dybbuk’s hold on the spirit only strengthens, DEMON has the ability to cling to its beholder.

On the day of the film’s screening in Poland, Wrona committed suicide, and even if the film is watched in a loop, there is an unanswerable question that continues to arise: Is Piotr the only haunted subject of DEMON?

Brooke Sonenreich is a film instructor and theorist. She likes sitting in a dark room with a bunch of strangers and staring at a bright wall for an extended period of time, and she has somehow made that into a job.

The Mothership lands in Atlanta this weekend. No, it’s not a Funkadelic concert, but the first annual State of Black Science Fiction Convention (SOSBFC) at the Southwest Arts Center Saturday June 11 and Sunday June 12. For all the talk about accepting the diversity of the alien, science fiction’s early history is peopled by white super-men protagonists, and some today seem to want to keep it that way if recent controversies in fandom  are any indication. But black writers, artists and filmmakers have been emerging to create some of the most dynamic and innovative speculative fiction today, pushing boundaries and re-imaging earth’s future and space as diverse, complex, uncomfortable, beautiful and inspiring.

SOSBFC aims to bring together the most comprehensive celebration of black creators of science fiction, fantasy, horror and comics to date. Just a glance at the programming schedule is sure to cause sensory overload with the mix of panels, speakers, workshops, presentations and kids’ activities to nurture the next generation of creators and fans–something most cons neglect. There’s also a dealers room and art show, cosplay is encouraged, and there’s even going to be onsite food that’s more than pizza or burgers, we hear – something most cons neglect! Whether you’re into Afrofuturism, steamfunk, cyberfunk, dieselfunk, sword and soul, rococoa, Afrikan martial arts, or just what the find out what the funk is happening, SOSBFC is the place.

Needless to say, our choice of Kool Kat this week was easy. ATLRetro caught up with Atlanta-based writer Balogun Ojetade, co-founder with writer/editor/publisher Milton Davis, to find out more about how Atlanta’s newest spec-lit convention got launched, what’s planned and what’s next.

ATLRetro: To many, Samuel R. Delany and Octavia E. Butler lit the fuse on an African-American SF perspective, yet W.E.B. DuBois published an SF story back in 1908. Which SF/spec-lit authors were early favorites/inspirations for you?

Balogun Ojetade: My early inspirations were Charles R. Saunders, the Father of Sword and Soul and creator of the Imaro series of novels and the brilliant master storyteller and poet, Henry Dumas, whose short stories “Fon,” “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” and “Ark of Bones” were the greatest influences on my horror and fantasy writing style as a young man.

Atlanta’s been characterized as a center for Afrofuturism. Can you talk a little about the local community of black writers and publishers? Do you feel like you were part of a movement?

Atlanta is where the now worldwide State of Black Science Fiction author, publisher, artist, filmmaker, game designer and cosplayers collective was founded. As one of the founders of this collective and one of its most active members, I am certainly part of a movement, which is still very much alive. I am also one of the people who founded the Steamfunk Movement, along with author and publisher Milton Davis, who also resides in Atlanta.

What’s the specific origin story of SOBSFC?

The origin of the State of Black Science Fiction Convention, or SOBSF Con, began about four years ago. In the State of Black Science Fiction Facebook Group we had a lively discussion about the need for a convention that would not only showcase comic books by creators of African descent, but would also showcase novels, films, artwork, fashion design, cosplay, African martial arts and much more. We wanted to give con goers a full and enriching experience.

It was originally decided that each region would host a convention – one would be in Atlanta, one in the DC / Maryland / Baltimore area, one in New York City, one in Chicago and so on – on the same days and times. We would call this mega event Diaspora Con. Well, certain things happened that let Milton Davis and I know that Diaspora Con was not to be, so we scrapped the idea, but the desire to give the world a convention that showcased black speculative works continued to burn.

In early 2015, Milton and I decided we would host a con that would draw fans and creators of black speculative fiction, film, fashion and fabrication from around the country. We agreed on the name State of Black Science Fiction Convention and then started making plans. By mid-2015, we made our plans public and received positive feedback from hundreds of people who said they would attend such a con in Atlanta and here we are.

Do you think SOBSFC and a greater push for diversity in SF publishing is especially needed right now in light of the Sad and Rabid Puppies Hugo Awards controversy and Internet outrage about a black lead in the recent Star Wars movie?

These controversies and the outrage is nothing new. You have always had and will always have ignorant and fearful people in all walks of life. The science fiction and fantasy community is not exempt from this. There has always been a need for a SOBSF Con and for a constant push for diversity in SFF publishing. The more we push, the more people know we are here. The more people know we are here, the more that know there are alternatives to the racist, sexist rubbish they have had to endure for so long.

SOBSFC is billed as the “most comprehensive presentation of black speculative fiction ever.” There’s a lot going on for just $25 for both days (a bargain compared to DragonCon, most cons).  I know this is a hard question but what 3-5 pieces of programming should con attendees be sure not to miss and why?  

Yes, it is a hard question because the programming is so Blacktastic, but I will share a few that I know people will absolutely be blown away by.

1. The YOU are the Hero Cosplay Contest: Imagine hordes of black cosplayers of all ages and body types presenting mainstream, independent AND original characters from film, comic books, anime, manga, or of their own design. TOO cool!
2. The Future is Stupid Art Show: Dozens of Afrofuturistic pieces of artwork by Atlanta’s favorite artists will be found all over the exterior and interior of the convention facility.
3. The Big, Beautiful, Black Roundtable: At this “Town Meeting” we will present, discuss, listen to and put into effect strategies and collaborations to take black speculative fiction/film/fashion/fabrication to the next level!
4. The Charles R. Saunders Tribute: We will share stories about how this great man has influenced our writing, his history and great contribution to the advancement of speculative fiction and we will read excerpts from his works, all before presenting Charles with a much deserved award.

 Can you talk a little about the writer guests and how they reflect the variety and scope of black spec-lit today?

We have some great guests at SOBSF Con and the authors represent the entire spectrum of speculative fiction. Here are a few:

1. Valjeanne Jeffers: Writes horror, Steamfunk and Sword and Soul.
2. Zig Zag Claybourne: Writes action and adventure, Rococoa and Cyberfunk.
3. Derrick Ferguson: New pulp icon. Creator of black pulp heroes Dillon and Fortune McCall.
4. Cerece Rennie Murphy: Writes urban fantasy for adult, young adult and middle grade readers.
5. Brandon Massey: Master of horror and suspense.
6. Hannibal Tabu: Comic book writer and critic.

We also have authors of Cyberfunk, Dieselfunk, Dark Universe (Space Opera) Afrofuturistic fusions of hip-hop, jazz, blues, time travel, magic realism and urban fantasy and much more. Black speculative fiction is very broad and very deep. Con-goers are in for a powerful experience.

This is a really exciting time for black filmmakers in SF and horror. Can you talk a little about that and how that will be reflected in SOBSFC’s programming?

As a lifelong fan and creator of science fiction and fantasy with strong horror elements and straight up horror, too, I am very excited. The digital age has allowed filmmakers who would have otherwise been unable to tell their stories – stories in which the Black character doesn’t die within the first 10 minutes or die sacrificing himself or herself so the white hero can live on to save the day – to now tell stories in which Black people are the heroes, sheroes and even mastermind villains.

Many great independent films and web series have been developed, screened and gained massive followings and Hollywood has been paying attention, so now you have the Black Panther stealing the show in CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR and even getting his own movie. You have Idris Elba playing Roland in the film adaptation of Stephen King’s THE DARK TOWER and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Will Smith and Viola Davis starring in SUICIDE SQUAD as Killer Croc, Deadshot and Amanda Waller, respectively.

And television is even more progressive, giving starring roles to black people in several Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror-themed series and having very diverse casts on these shows.

But again, this all began with black indie filmmakers. To reflect this, SOBSF Con is featuring our Black Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Film Festival, which showcases short and feature films by independent creators. Many of the films creators will also be on hand to share their creative process and answer questions from the audience. Just a few of the films screening at the film festival are: PUMZI (award-winning science fiction short from Africa),  DAYBLACK (horror), BLACK PANTHER: STORMS OF CARNAGE Parts 1 & 2 (superhero / fantasy), REIGN OF DEATH (dieselfunk), DANGER WORD (horror; written and produced by master horror author Tananarive Due and science fiction icon Steven Barnes), RITE OF PASSAGE: INITIATION (steamfunk), and a special screening of the science fiction film RETURNED.

What about comics at SOBSFC? 

You cannot have a science fiction and fantasy convention without comic books! While comic books are not the focus at SOBSF Con – our focus is on all aspects of black speculative creation – most of the creators and fans at SOBSF Con were heavily influenced and inspired to “do” Science Fiction and Fantasy from our love of comic books, manga, animation and anime. Thus, there will be comic book vendors at SOBSF Con and some giants in the industry are distinguished guests, including Dawud Anyabwile, the co-creator and artist of the iconic blockbuster comic book series BROTHERMAN; Marvel Comics artist Afua Richardson, best known for her work in the award-winning and politically potent Image / Top Cow miniseries GENIUS; Tony Cade, comic book publisher and owner of comic book company, Terminus Media; and TUSKEGEE HEIRS creators Marcus Williams and Greg Burnham, just to name a few. The creators and publishers will share their knowledge and experience with con-goers on the Create Your Own Comic Book and Black Craft and Consciousness in Comic Books panels.

Atlanta is known for its cosplay community. Are you encouraging costuming and will there be activities for cosplayers?

We highly encourage cosplay and invite all the cosplayers in Atlanta to come out and join us! We are very excited about our YOU are the Hero Cosplay Contest I mentioned above, and we also have the Cosplay in Non-Canon Bodies panel, facilitated by popular cosplayers, TaLynn Kel, who will be joined by popular cosplayers, JaBarr Lasley and Dru Phillips.

What else would you like people to know about SOBSFC?

While SOBSF Con offers all the great things you expect from a great fan convention – awesome panels, cosplayers, genre films, a dealers’ room with all kinds of cool stuff for sale – we also have offerings you probably have never seen at any con before, such as Tiny Yogis, a yoga class for children; 5P1N0K10 (SPINOKIO), an Afrofuturistic, hip-hop puppet show by a master puppeteer named Jeghetto; Traditional Arms, Armor and Martial Arts of Afrika; Afrikan Martial Arts for Youth Workshop; traditional African artifacts and soaps, oils and fabrics sold in the dealers’ room; your questions answered through traditional Afrikan casting of lots by the Amazing Identical Ojetade Twins (one is a 13-year-old boy; the other a 6-year-old girl); gourmet pot pies; and, most importantly, a place where you can be yourself without judgment, without rude comments, but with love and appreciation. This is a fun event for the entire family you do NOT want to miss!

Finally, would you like to take a moment to talk about your own writing? What’s your latest work and what are you up to next? Feel free to add where we can find you at SOBSFC!

I am always happy to talk about my writing. For those who don’t know me, I write fiction, nonfiction and screenplays. I also direct films and choreograph stunts and fights for films. As a fiction writer, I am most known for my Steamfunk novels, MOSES: THE CHRONICLES OF HARRIET TUBMAN and THE CHRONICLES OF HARRIET TUBMAN: FREEDONIA; my Sword and Soul novel, ONCE UPON A TIME IN AFRICA; and for the STEAMFUNK anthology, which I co-edited with author Milton Davis. However, my novels cover the spectrum of black speculative fiction: Dieselfunk, Rococoa, Afrofuturism; urban fantasy; action-adventure and horror.

My latest work is BENEATH THE SHINING JEWEL, a horror novel set in Ki Khanga, a Sword and Soul world created by Milton Davis and me for our upcoming tabletop role-playing game, KI KHANGA. I am finishing up a Dark Universe (space opera) novel and have a horror short film I wrote slated to begin production in the fall. Finally, in August, comic book artist Chris Miller (Chris Crazyhouse) and I begin work on a graphic novel that is going to blow away fans of manga, comic books and black speculative fiction!

Thanks, so much, for this opportunity and I look forward to seeing everyone at the State of Black Science Fiction Convention June 11 and 12!