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How did The Horror Zine get its start?
The Home Page of the very first issue, back in July of 2009. Today it looks rudimentary in comparison to the modern issues. Back “in the day,” Jeani Rector used to write fiction and submit it to various magazines and ezines. Her work was accepted by many, with the exception of a wonderful zine called The Harrow. They rejected her work on a consistent basis. At the time, her biggest goal was to get published by The Harrow. Then the economy crashed at the end of 2008. A few months into 2009, almost all of the magazines and zines were going defunct. When even The Harrow closed its doors, Jeani said to herself: where does that leave writers? Someone had to take up the slack and open a new magazine to help make up for all those that closed. She thought: Why not have that someone be me? So in early 2009, Jeani learned how to create a website using Adobe Dreamweaver (there are much better options for websites nowadays), and in July of 2009, she launched The Horror Zine. She wasn't sure how many writers, poets and artists could learn about the brand new zine, so she named it The Horror Zine simply because she figured people would google the words horror, and maybe zine, so they would accidently stumble across it. Now Jeani knows that she could have named it anything and it would still turn out to be a success story because of the amazing talents of the writers, poets and artists who submit. This is all about YOU. As everyone knows, the economy has since recovered (so far). Today, new zines are popping up everywhere. And that’s a good thing. Even so, The Horror Zine strives to remain competitive. See more HERE
Ten things you might not know about Evil Dead II 1. Sam Raimi had hoped to send Ash back to medieval times in Evil Dead II’s opening minutes, but instead opted for the film’s cliffhanger ending to set the hero's medieval quest up as a possible third film. 2. Sam Raimi’s brother Ted plays the possessed Henrietta, the fruit cellar deadite. 3. Kassie DePaiva, who played Bobbie Jo, had a recurring role in the soap opera The Guiding Light. 4. Sam Raimi plays the first knight to raise his sword and give his speech before hailing to Ash. 5. The character of Bobbie Jo was inspired by Holly Hunter, who was a housemate of Sam Raimi in the early 80s, along with Joel Coen and Frances McDormand. 6. Stephen King was such a huge fan of The Evil Dead that he convinced producer Dino De Laurentiis to have his production company DEG finance Evil Dead II. 7. Freddy Krueger’s glove can be seen hanging above the door of the tool shed when Ash carves his girlfriend up with a chainsaw. 8. Most of the film was shot on a set built inside the gymnasium of the JR Faison Junior High School in Wadesboro, North Carolina. 9. One of the books on the can that traps Ash’s possessed hand is Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms. 10. To give the film a strange rhythm, the action scenes were shot at a greatly reduced frame rate.
‘Shocking’ and ‘gruesome’ horror that caused fainting and walkouts to get US remakeAcclaimed Japanese horror film, Audition, is set to get an English-language remake. Directed by Takashi Miike, the original 1999 film has been embraced as a classic of the genre, and is notorious for its shocking and gory final sequence. According to Deadline, the new project is being written and directed by Christian Tafdrup, the Danish filmmaker behind the original Speak No Evil (remade last year into an English-language film starring James McAvoy). The new film will adapt the Ryū Murakami novel that inspired the Japanese original. Audition follows a middle-aged widow who stages auditions for a fake film project in order to find a partner – only for the woman he picks to reveal a serious dark side. During a pre-release screening at the Rotterdam film festival of the original Japanese version, audience members walked out of the cinema, reportedly telling Miike, “You’re sick!” (according to The Guardian and Sight & Sound). The Mirror, meanwhile, reported that two people passed out in the screening during the film’s run in Dublin, with more than twenty people leaving the cinema before the end. To learn about the original, Japanese-made Audition, go HERE
A List of Horror Remakes That Turned Out to be Great Films in Their Own RightsThese are the horror remakes that reminded us why reboots can still matter. They didn’t just slap on new effects or younger casts; they reimagined, reinterpreted, and sometimes even outdid the originals. The Thing (1982) John Carpenter’s The Thing often gets cited as one of the best horror remakes ever made… and for good reason. While technically a remake of 1951’s The Thing from Another World, Carpenter’s version is a completely different beast. It ditches the Cold War sci-fi flavor of the original and leans hard into paranoia, isolation, and grotesque body horror. Rob Bottin’s groundbreaking creature effects still hold up over 40 years later, warping human bodies into unforgettable nightmares. But beyond the gore, The Thing is a masterclass in tension. The alien’s ability to imitate anyone turns a group of Antarctic researchers into a powder keg of suspicion. The original may have laid the groundwork, but Carpenter’s icy, brutal vision elevated it into something mythic. Initially panned and overlooked, The Thing has since become essential horror viewing, and it’s hard to imagine a better example of how a remake can refine and outshine its source. The Fly (1986) David Cronenberg’s The Fly is more than just a remake, it’s a total reinvention. Where the 1958 original was a classic slice of atomic-era horror (complete with a human-headed fly squeaking “Help me!”), Cronenberg’s version is all body horror and existential dread. Jeff Goldblum’s performance as Seth Brundle is the beating, twitching heart of the film. His transformation from eccentric scientist to monstrous hybrid is as tragic as it is horrifying. Cronenberg uses the story not just to gross out viewers (though it absolutely does that), but to explore decay, identity, and disease, especially resonant in the age of emerging health crises at the time. By turning the tale into a sad, slow descent rather than a monster-of-the-week shocker, The Fly proved that horror remakes don’t just have to rehash—they can deepen and disturb in entirely new ways. Evil Dead (2013) Remaking Evil Dead – a cult favorite drenched in low-budget charm – was always going to be risky. But Fede Álvarez didn’t try to copy Sam Raimi’s style. Instead, he took the franchise into darker, more vicious territory. Gone were the slapstick gags and cheeky one-liners. In their place: relentless violence, gallons of blood, and a cast of doomed young adults trapped in a cabin with something ancient and very angry. Jane Levy’s performance as Mia is a standout, especially once she goes full Deadite. The practical effects, brutal pacing, and sense of hopelessness give the film a nasty edge that set it apart from the zillion other cabin-in-the-woods knockoffs. Dawn of the Dead (2004) George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead is a legend in its own right, so remaking it was bound to draw skepticism. But Zack Snyder’s 2004 version didn’t try to imitate Romero’s slow-burn satire, it sprinted in the opposite direction, literally. The zombies in this version run, and from the moment the film’s iconic Johnny Cash-scored opening hits, the pace never lets up. Where the original focused on the slow collapse of society and consumerism, Snyder’s film leans into pure panic and adrenaline. It’s slicker and more action-driven, sure, but it also packs a solid emotional punch. Sarah Polley brings gravitas to the lead role, and a strong supporting cast (including Ving Rhames and a delightfully snarky Ty Burrell) keeps the tension grounded. This remake is one of the few that successfully balances homage with innovation. It keeps the mall setting and bleakness of the original, but adds a 2000s edge that made it feel vital for a new generation of horror fans. The Ring (2002) When Gore Verbinski took on The Ring, a remake of the Japanese cult horror Ringu, few expected it to become one of the defining horror films of the 2000s. But it did. Unlike so many remakes that fumble the cultural translation, The Ring nails the atmosphere. It swaps Tokyo for a rainy, grey Seattle, but keeps the essential dread: the feeling that something is always watching, waiting. Naomi Watts brings real weight to her role as a journalist unraveling the mystery of a cursed videotape, and the film’s cinematography and sound design elevate every creaky door and flickering screen into something truly menacing. Samara, with her wet hair and juddering movements, became an instant horror icon. Where Ringu was eerie and quiet, The Ring was stylish, polished, and deeply unsettling in its own right. It didn’t just ride the J-horror wave, it helped create it in the West. It (2017) Stephen King’s It was always destined for a big-screen resurrection, but few expected it to become a full-on cultural phenomenon. The 1990 miniseries had its charms – mostly in Tim Curry’s performance – but also suffered from network-TV limitations and an uneven tone. Andy Muschietti’s It refocuses the story on the kids, and that’s its secret weapon. The Losers’ Club feels real, messy, and lovable, and their chemistry grounds the supernatural horrors in something emotional and authentic. Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise is a different flavor of terrifying than Curry’s—less wisecracking menace, more uncanny predator with a taste for children and psychological warfare. Add in a nostalgic 1980s setting, tight pacing, and a keen sense of visual style, and you’ve got a remake that doesn’t just outperform the original, it reinvents it for a new generation. Maniac (2012) Frank Khalfoun’s Maniac is a remake that could have been a disaster. After all, the 1980 original was infamous for its sleazy, grimy tone and exploitative violence. But the 2012 version approaches the same story with a new visual and psychological lens, literally. Told almost entirely in first-person perspective, it places the viewer inside the killer’s mind, forcing an uncomfortable intimacy with his every thought and action. Elijah Wood, against all typecasting odds, delivers a haunting performance as Frank, a deeply broken man with a grotesque mannequin obsession and a mother-shaped hole in his psyche. The film is stylishly shot, drenched in neon and synths, with gore that feels disturbingly clinical rather than sensational. Where the original felt like a midnight movie designed to shock, the remake is almost arthouse in its approach – still brutal, but far more interested in examining the monster than just showing the carnage.
Jeani Rector queried folks on facebook (probably you!) to ask what their favorite horror movies of all time were. Below are the top 20 picks, in order according to the amount of votes they each received. Also listed is trivia about each film. The number ONE movie chosen by the most votes THE THING (1982)
John Carpenter's The Thing didn’t go over well when it was released in 1982. Ignored by movie-goers, it was a box office failure. Reviled by critics, it even saw Carpenter being labeled a pornographer of violence by some reviewers. It was such a disappointment for the studio, they took another project away from Carpenter as punishment. But it gradually found its audience, building up a cult following. And soon, a legion of fans and critics alike began calling it one of the greatest horror movies ever made. It didn’t take long for The Thing to go from being known as reprehensible trash to being considered an all-time classic. Actor Kurt Russell would take drags off of cigarettes to make his breath visible as though he were in cold temperatures. It has become a tradition in British Antarctic research stations to watch The Thing as part of their Midwinter feast and celebration held every June 21. TWO HALLOWEEN (1978)
The 1978 horror film Halloween was not an immediate success, but it eventually became one of the most successful independent films of all time. The movie, directed by John Carpenter and shot in Southern California on a budget of $325,000, had disappointing sales numbers during its first weekend. However, word of mouth helped the film gain popularity, with audiences telling their friends to see it. By the following weekend, sales had doubled, then tripled, and eventually increased tenfold. Because of the film's tight budget, the production designer Tommy Lee Wallace had to use whatever he had at his disposal, or had to buy materials cheaply. When he created the Michael Myers mask, he made two versions. The first was an Emmett Kelly smiling clown mask that they put frizzy red hair on. They tested it out but it didn't achieve the desired effect. The other mask was a 1975 Captain James T. Kirk mask that was purchased in a costume shop on Hollywood Boulevard for $1.98. It had the eyebrows and sideburns ripped off, the face was painted bluish white, the hair was spray painted brown, and the eyes were opened up more. After testing out the mask, the crew decided that it was much more creepy because it was emotionless. THREE JAWS (1975)
Jaws, the American suspense and horror film of 1975, was directed by Steven Spielberg and is considered the first summer blockbuster ever due to the fact that over 67 million people in the USA went to see this film when it was first released. Based on the 1974 novel of the same name by author Peter Benchley, the film not only broke box office records at the time of its release, but also changed the way Hollywood marketed and distributed films, especially those released during the summer. Peter Benchley himself can be seen in a cameo in the film as the news reporter who addresses the camera on the beach. Benchley had previously worked as a news reporter for The Washington Post before penning Jaws. Steven Spielberg also makes a cameo in the movie: His voice is the Amity Island dispatcher who calls Quint’s boat, the Orca, with Sheriff Brody’s wife on the line. FOUR THE LOST BOYS (1987)
As filming began, the comedic points in the movie were made up on the spot. The comedy confused Warner Brothers, and they would ask Joel Schumacher (the director) if he were making a horror film or a comedy. He responded with “yes” every time. The executives seemed confused about the combination of those two genres, and weren’t sure that a horror-comedy would work. The city of Santa Cruz, California, did not want to be connected to the crime that happens in the movie, so they asked the production to change the name of the town in the film. So the movie takes place in the fictional city of Santa Carla. See movie trivia about The Lost Boys HERE FIVE ALIEN (1979)
Certainly the character of Ripley, played by Sigouney Weaver, would have appealed to readers in the Golden Age of Science Fiction. She has little interest in her employer's orders that it be brought back home as a potential weapon. After she sees what it can do, her response to Special Order 24 (Return alien lifeform, all other priorities rescinded) is: "How do we kill it?" The blue laser lights that were used in the alien ship's egg chamber were borrowed from the rock band The Who. The band was testing out the lasers for their stage show in the soundstage next door. SIX HELLRAISER (1987)
Based on the Clive Barker book titled The Hellbound Heart, Hellraiser was an orignal film in an era of cliches. Famous critic Roger Ebert panned it HERE, but moviegoers loved it. The movie was originally going to be called Sadomasochists from Beyond the Grave or Hellbound, but producer Christopher Figg suggested Hellraiser instead. Since the movie was filmed in England, there was a law that stated that cockroaches of both sexes were not to be allowed on movie sets because they could cause an infestation. So, Barker decided to hire someone who could manage the cockroaches. He explained, “They were all male. And we had a fridge…we chilled the maggots and the roaches.” SEVEN THE FLY (1986)
Directed by David Cronenberg and starring Jeff Goldblum early in his career, the movie is about a scientist who accidentally merges with a fly during a teleportation experiment. Although most people prefer the 1986 version because of the lead character's charm and also because the film has great heart and soul, there can't help be some comparisons to the original 1958 version. The first The Fly (1958) was a film that surprised even its producers. They knew the original story was a little silly and expected only a modest return on the film from a mostly young audience. Even the film’s name stars, Vincent Price and Herbert Marshall, could not take The Fly seriously. The audience, on the other hand, found that there was much to respond to in the film. The Fly cost $350,000 in 1958 dollars and only took 18 days to make, yet it grossed $3,000,000 (also in 1958 dollars), considerably outstripping any expectation at the time. EIGHT THE HAUNTING (1963)
The 1963 horror film The Haunting had a budget of $1.05 million in 1958 dollars but only made $1.02 million at the box office. The film was shot at MGM-British Studios near London, with exteriors filmed at Ettington Park in Warwickshire. It was based upon Shirley Jackson's famous book The Haunting of Hill House. At the time it was released, The Haunting was considered to be a flop because it originally lost money. But over the years, it became a classic because of word of mouth and because of TV showings. There were some clever uses of lensing effects to heighten the strangeness of Hill House. By adjusting the props in the sets so that they are off by a few degrees, it helped to unsettle the viewer. NINE FRANKENSTEIN (1931)
Frankenstein is a Pre-Code film. Pre-Code movies are American films produced between the late 1920s and mid-1934, before the Motion Picture Production Code (Hays Code) censorship guidelines were strictly enforced. The term "pre-Code" is a misnomer because the Hays Code was adopted in 1930, but Hollywood filmmakers often ignored it, and oversight was poor until July 1, 1934. Before then, local laws, negotiations between studios, and popular opinion had more influence on movie content. Universal Pictures exists today because of the monster movies. In 1930, Universal lost $2.2 million in revenues (over $36 million adjusted for inflation). Then, in February 1931, Dracula was released and made $700,000 (1931 dollars) in sales. It was clear to Universal producer Carl Laemmle Jr. that horror movies were what the public wanted. By November of that same year, Frankenstein was released. Bela Lugosi, who had shot to stardom at the studio following Dracula, assumed he would be playing the Monster. However, makeup tests showed the actor didn’t have the right look. Instead, the studio went with English actor Boris Karloff, and the rest is history. TEN 28 DAYS LATER (2002 UK, 2003 USA)
28 Days Later took the traditional zombie movie horror formula and gave it a fresh coat of paint by changing the location, the tone, and of course, the monster in question. To properly give the feeling of a dead Britain shrouded in chaos, the filmmakers had to be careful with how and when they shot. Shots on the M1 motorway were done early in the morning between 7 and 9 AM under police guidance. A real hospital was used for the filming to create a sense of authenticity. The hospital in question was open during the week but shut on weekends which allowed Danny Boyle and his crew to rent the space for shooting when nobody was around. An extra benefit of this arrangement was that rental fees went directly towards the hospital's trust fund, representing one of the best kinds of business transactions one could wish for. Nothing like shooting a bloody horror movie and having a portion of the budget go towards a good cause. See more HERE ELEVEN NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)
Written by George Romero and John Russo, Night of the Living Dead only had a $114,000 budget. It changed the movie world of how zombies were portrayed by using dissociation. Since the film was shot in black and white and had a really low budget, the crew never had to worry what color the blood was, so chocolate syrup was used. For the scene in which Karen Cooper (Kyra Schon) begins eating her father’s corpse, the crew’s leftover lunch was employed. Both Romero and Russo played cameos in the film. Russo played one of the ghouls who managed to reach into the farmhouse only to be struck with a tire iron, while Romero can be seen in the Washington D.C. sequences as a reporter. TWELVE THE SHINING (1980)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick, it is widely known that this movie is not loved by its creator, Stephen King. But not many know why. According to David Hughes, one of Kubrick’s biographers, Stephen King wrote an entire draft of a screenplay for The Shining. However, Kubrick didn’t even deem it worth a glance, which sort of makes sense when you consider that the director once described King’s writing as “weak.” Instead, Kubrick worked with Diane Johnson on the screenplay because he was a fan of her book, The Shadow Knows. The two ended up spending eleven weeks working on the script and ignoring King's version. THIRTEEN PHANTASM (1979)
Phantasm (released as Never Dead in Australia) is a low-budget cult classic horror film produced in 1977 and released in 1979. The film was originally rated X by the MPAA because of the silver sphere sequence, and due to a scene involving a man urinating on the floor after going down dead. After Los Angeles Times film critic Charles Champlin made a telephone call in a favor to a friend on the board, the rating was changed from the (commercially non-viable) X-rating to R. This movie was number 25 on the cable and streaming channel Bravo's list of the "100 Scariest Movie Moments." FOURTEEN THE EXORCIST (1973)
William Peter Blatty’s novel is supposedly based on the real-life 1949 exorcism of a young boy, known by the pseudonym Roland Doe. The story became national news, and caught the interest of Blatty, who was a student at Georgetown University at the time (hence the change in location). For the 1973 movie The Exorcist, the possessed child was changed to that of a girl. Though it’s never stated in the film, the demon that takes possession of Regan MacNeil has a name: Pazuzu, which is taken from the name of the king of the demons in Assyrian and Babylonian mythology. Much of Regan’s moaning and grunting were created by remixing pig squeals. When the demon is finally exorcised from her body, the sound you hear is a group of pigs being led to slaughter. FIFTEEN CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1963)
Amateurish in many ways (the film does include some stilted performances, bad lip-synching, clunky editing and a few continuity errors), Carnival of Souls nevertheless continues to exert a strange fascination for many viewers. Not a conventional horror or ghost story, this film explores the psychological state of Mary Henry after a car accident as she emerges from the murky depths of a river. Carnival of Souls was the only feature film to be directed by industrial and educational filmmaker Harold (Herk) Harvey. After completing Carnival of Souls, Harvey was to return to making industrial and educational films before retiring in the late 1980s (he died in 1996). Assembling a crew of just five – himself, cinematographer Maurice Prather, editor Dan Palmquist, assistant director Reza Badiyi, and production manager Larry Sneegas (all of them his buddies at Centron), Harvey managed to generate a budget of $33,000 after approaching local Kansas businessmen, who invested in packs of the production’s stock. He found his lead in the form of up-and-coming actress Candace Hilligoss, who turned down a role in Psychomania (1963) to star in Carnival Of Souls. “I was paid $2,000 for doing the film,” she later recalled. “At the time, it seemed like a fortune.” SIXTEEN TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016)
Roger Ebert called Train to Busan "a wildly fun action movie, beautifully paced and constructed, with just the right amount of character and horror. In many ways, it’s what World War Z should have been—a nightmarish vision of the end of the world, and a provocation to ask ourselves what it is that really makes us human in the first place." Filming began in April 2015 and finished in August 2015, for a total of only four months. The movie is based on an original story created by Park Joo-suk. The film team tried to reference the movements of the zombies from the game 7 Days to Die, and also from the movies Ghost in the Shell and Silent Hill. Train to Busan received a 94% rating from Rotten Tomatoes, and British filmmaker Edgar Wright, director of the zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead, highly applauded the film. He personally recommended it on Twitter and called it the "best zombie movie I've seen in forever." SEVENTEEN ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968)
This wildly entertaining nightmare, faithfully adapted from Ira Levin's best seller, stars Mia Farrow as a young mother-to-be who grows increasingly suspicious that her overfriendly elderly neighbors are in a pact with Satan. With a comparatively small budget of just $3.2 million (1968 dollars), Rosemary’s Baby grossed over $33 million worldwide upon its release, making it by far the most commercially successful of Polanski’s ‘Apartment Trilogy’ films. According to Mia Farrow, the scenes where Rosemary walks in front of traffic were spontaneous and genuine. Director Roman Polanski is reported to have told her that "nobody will hit a pregnant woman." The scene was successfully shot with Farrow walking into real traffic and Polanski following, operating the hand-held camera since he was the only one willing to do it. EIGHTEEN RE-ANIMATOR (1985)
Re-Animator (also known as H. P. Lovecraft's Re-Animator) is a 1985 American comedy horror film that is loosely based upon the 1922 H.P Lovecraft serial novelette titled Herbert West: Reanimator. Originally devised by director Stuart Gordon as a theatrical stage production and later a half-hour television pilot, the television script was revised to become a feature film. Filmed in Hollywood, the film received an R Rating at the box office, but it garnered its largest audience through the unrated cut's release on home video. The special effects department went through twenty-four gallons of fake blood during the shoot, and makeup effects artist John Naulin said that Re-Animator was the bloodiest film he had ever worked on. In the past, he had never used more than two gallons of blood on a film. The building used for the Miskatonic Medical School is the same one as the Cyberdine Headquarters in Terminator 2: Judgement Day. NINETEEN PSYCHO (1960)
Psycho was seen as a departure from Hitchcock's previous film North by Northwest since it was filmed on a small budget in black-and-white by the crew of his then-television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Initially, the film divided critics due to its controversial subject matter, but audience interest and outstanding box-office returns prompted a major critical re-evaluation. Psycho was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Director for Alfred Hitchcock and Best Supporting Actress for Janet Leigh. When the cast and crew began work on the first day, they had to raise their right hands and swear an oath not to divulge one word of the story. Hitchcock also withheld the ending part of the script from his cast until he needed to shoot it. TWENTY NOSFERATU (1922 Germany, 1929 USA)
Nosferatu, also known as Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (German: Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens) is a 1922 silent German Expressionist vampire film directed by F.W. Murnau and starring Max Schreck as Count Orlock. Even with several details altered, Bram Stoker's heirs sued over the adaptation, and a court ruling ordered all copies of the film to be destroyed. However, several prints of Nosferatu survived, and would resurface through second-generation reels. The movie was banned in Sweden due to excessive horror. The ban was finally lifted in 1972. The vampire's unblinking stare was central to the unnerving effect the creature cause for audiences. Count Orlok is only seen blinking once on screen, near the end of Act One. Today, the film is regarded as an influential masterpiece of early cinema and the horror genre, as reported by Deadline. That’s Friday the 13th.
Jeani Rector’s Advice on Writing is a folksy, easy to comprehend step-by-step process that covers in detail such techniques as character development; substance, structure and style; pacing suspense; suggestions about promoting your work and other valuable information. It is on sale for a low price of $8.99 paperback and $2.99 kindle HERE
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