Welcome to the premiere horror literary convention presented by the Horror Writers Association. This year the convention is being hosted by the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the legendary origination of zombies and ghouls.
They're taking over the Sheraton Station Square from June 15 to 18, 2023.
This year will feature Lisa Morton as their Keynote Speaker! The Horror Zine is pleased to offer a story by Lisa for free reading HERE
Go HERE to learn more and buy tickets.
If you are closer to California than Pennsylvania this month, why not visit Jeani Rector in person, who will have a booth representing The Horror Zine at the Sinister Creature Con this month!
Details HERE
‘Beetlejuice 2’ – Willem Dafoe Joins Keaton, Ryder, Ortega and Bellucci!
By John Squires
Casting continues this week on Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice 2, and THR reports todaythat Willem Dafoe (The Lighthouse) is the latest big name actor to join the impressive ensemble.
THR reports, “While plot details are being kept six feet under, it is understood that Dafoe is playing a law enforcement officer in the afterlife.”
Warner Bros. brings the sequel to theaters on September 6, 2024.
Jenna Ortega (“Wednesday,” Scream VI) is joining Michael Keaton in the long-awaited sequel, with Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara also returning.
Monica Bellucci (Irreversible) will be playing Beetlejuice’s wife!
No word yet on plot details, but it’s known that Jenna Ortega will be playing the daughter of Lydia Deetz, the character Winona Ryder is of course returning to play.
Justin Theroux has also joined the cast of Beetlejuice 2, we recently learned, with frequent Burton collaborator Danny Elfman coming back to compose the film’s score.
The original Beetlejuice was directed by Burton in 1988 and has become a cult favorite. It starred Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis as ghosts who haunt their old home. When a little girl (Winona Ryder) accidentally unleashes a mischievous ghost (Michael Keaton), the ghosts try to drive the homeowners (Catherine O’Hara and Jeffrey Jones) out of the house.
See more HERE
Ten things you might not know about the movie Jurassic Park
It's been 30 years since Jurassic Park first arrived in theaters, but director Stephen Spielberg's blockbuster is still as innovative today as it was back in 1993. Here are 10 fast facts you might not have known about the film, which generated roughly a billion dollars at the box office.
1. Spielberg found out about Jurassic Park while working on ER.
When director Steven Spielberg and author Michael Crichton were working on a screenplay that would eventually become the television seriesER, Spielberg asked the writer about the plans for his next book. Crichton told him about Jurassic Park, and Spielberg immediately tapped Universal to buy the film rights in May 1990—before the book was even published. He was so excited that he began storyboarding scenes from the book, even though there was no screenplay written yet.
2. Jurassic Park almost took a backseat to Schindler's List.
Though excited about Jurassic Park, Spielberg wanted to direct his dream project—Schindler’s List—first. But MCA/Universal President Sid Scheinberg would only green-light Spielberg’s Holocaust film if the director agreed to make his dinosaur picture first. Both films were released in 1993; Jurassic Park in June, and Schindler's List at the end of the year.
3. Jurassic Park broke new CG ground.
Spielberg wasn’t 100 percent happy with the wide test shots of the dinosaurs—they just weren't photorealistic enough. So Muren and his ILM team, spurred by their revolutionary experience in designing and incorporating fully computer-generated characters into films like The Abyss and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, showed Spielberg an early CGI dino test of a group of Gallimimus skeletons running through a field. Spielberg was in awe of the ease of movement and realism of the effects, but he was still wary that they wouldn’t hold up under intense scrutiny—and he didn’t want to scrap Tippett’s practical animation talents altogether. So the director urged Muren and ILM to go further. When they came back with a CG test of a fully rendered T. rex walking across a field in broad daylight, the director decided to go full CGI for some shots.
4. One Ian Malcolm line was inspired by a member of the effects team.
While viewing Muren’s complete CGI test with Spielberg and the other members of the effects team, Tippett said, “I think I’m extinct.” Spielberg incorporated Tippet's comment into the film in an exchange between Sam Neill's Alan Grant and Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm, when Grant says, "I think we're out of a job." Malcolm replies, "Don't you mean extinct?"
5. Other big names were up for roles in the film.
Casting is everything: Other possible candidates for the roles in the film included William Hurt and Harrison Ford as Alan Grant, Christina Ricci as Lex, Sean Connery as John Hammond, and Robin Wright or Juliette Binoche as Ellie Sattler.
6. Jurassic Park brought Richard Attenborough out of retirement.
Richard Attenborough, who plays InGen CEO John Hammond, was on a 15-year hiatus from acting when Spielberg approached him about taking a role in Jurassic Park. Attenborough had been directing—in fact, his film Gandhi beat Spielberg’s E.T. for Best Director and Best Picture at the 55th Academy Awards—but said he agreed to end the semi-retirement because Spielberg had “the charm of the devil.”
7. A huge hurricane hit the set during production.
Jurassic Park shot on location in 1992 on Hawaii’s Kauai Island. Hurricane Iniki—the most powerful hurricane to hit Hawaii in recorded history—struck during filming. Attenborough apparently slept through the worst of it. When asked by cast members how that was possible, he replied that it was nothing—after all, he had survived the London Blitz during World War II.
8. Spielberg had paleontologists serve as consultants on the film ...
Famed paleontologist Jack Horner was used during production to ensure the dinosaurs exhibited scientifically accurate behavior, and Robert T. Bakker—also a paleontologist—gave animators information about the dinosaur's physical characteristics.
9. ... but he didn't always take their advice.
Still, Spielberg insisted on using dramatic license when it came to some of his prehistoric stars’ appearances. Take, for example, those T. rex teeth. Bakker sent over diagrams of the chompers—which, in reality, were banana-shaped— but "the powers that be didn't like the real tooth shape," Bakker told Popular Mechanics. "The CGI rex and the robot had their fangs sharpened."
The most famous example is probably Spielberg's Velociraptor, which more closely resembles the Deinonychus. A major source for Crichton’s book was Gregory Paul’s Predatory Dinosaurs of the World, which labeled the Velociraptor as a Deinonychus subspecies; real Velociraptors weighed less than 50 pounds and had feathers.
10. It took many different animals to create the T. Rex's roar.
The sound design of the T. rex's roar was reportedly a composite of tiger, alligator, and baby elephant sounds. The deadly Dilophosaurus roar was created by combining howler monkeys, hawk screeches, rattlesnake hisses, and swan calls.
For an expanded list of facts about Jurassic Park, go HERE
THE HORROR ZINE IS PUBLISHING BOOK REVIEWS
The Horror Zine welcomes book review requests.
To learn how to submit your book for review, go HERE.
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