It’s inevitable. When this pandemic ends, Broadway will reopen, as will the West End in London and any theater where audiences want to sit in the dark and enjoy a live show. Some already are, albeit socially distanced, and people are buying tickets in droves. Let’s face it, people love the theater as an institution and as an experience. And after over a year stuck at home, they’re ready to give theater new life.
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And for that, I think the theaters should look at adapting and performing more horror stories.

Horror has actually had a decent enough track record on stage. Plenty of the classics have found success on the boards. Dracula was actually raised out of obscurity partly because of its stageplay. Sweeney Todd’s operatic tale of revenge and cannibalism is a beloved classic. The Grand Guignol Theater of Paris told gory and psychological tales for over sixty years to audiences’ terror and delight. And there are plenty of horror comedy stories, such as Little Shop of Horrors, The Addams Family, and, most recently, Beetlejuice.

But after this pandemic ends, audiences might be very much in the mood for horror stories. As Principal Hawkins notes in his song “We Look to You” in The Prom, an escape helps people heal, and many fans find horror to be therapeutic for real world horrors. And we’ve had our share of real-world horrors during this pandemic. Along with the horrific death toll and the changes we’ve had to our lives, there has been violence, political unrest, wildfires, and shootings, among others things. Some dramatized horror might not only be a welcome escape for theatergoers, but may help put some of these tragedies and events into perspective for them.

So, what shows should be performed? Obviously, the abovementioned stories should be considered. And there are many plays based on classic novels such as Frankenstein, Jekyll & Hyde, and others worth watching. The accused murderess Lizzie Borden has a rock musical based on her titled simply Lizzie, which I would love to see. And while the musical version of Carrie has had a spotty track record, Stephen King’s works have had wonderful adaptations, such as Misery and his collaboration with John Mellencamp, Ghost Brothers of Darkland County.
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And I hear there’s a theater in South Carolina that will be performing a play set in the house that inspired The Amityville Horror later this year. I certainly think plans for that should move forward.

As for new stories, I’m sure there are playwrights and composers coming up with scary stories for the stage right now. Perhaps Lin-Manuel Miranda is coming up with something involving a hidden room, a town with a sordid history, and a man trying to outrun his past. And if he’s not, or if anyone reading is looking for some inspiration, let me make some suggestions for stories that I feel would make for great stage shows.

I won’t include any of the classics or King’s work, as they’ve both had plenty of adaptations over the years. Nor will I include any of my own work, for all the obvious reasons (besides, if anyone wants to contact me, they know how to find me). I’m suggesting stories or subjects that are either lesser known or would find new life onstage.

So, without further ado, here are the stories I believe would make for great stage shows and musicals:

• The Deep by Alma Katsu. I read this Bram Stoker-nominated book last year and immediately thought it would make a wonderful stage show. A supernatural tale set aboard the Titanic, the tale follows several haunted souls dealing with the darkness inside themselves and in each other as something evil influences the doomed cruise. Done right, this story could be a beautiful and haunting tale to witness on stage.
• A Nightmare on Elm Street. After films like The Final Nightmare and the 2010 remake, we haven’t seen hide nor hair of Freddy Kreuger, and honestly, that feels like a waste. A musical version of the original film, with kick-ass musical numbers and plenty of laughs, would make for one hell of a show. Not to mention, we all secretly want Freddy to burst out into song, don’t we?
• The Work of Junji Ito. Since 1987, Ito has made a name for himself in horror and his work is no stranger to adaptation. I think some of his work would make for great theater. My top choice of his work would be Tomie, his story about the bewitching young woman who never dies. Musical or not, it would be a great tale of lust, obsession and how evil cannot be killed.
• The Life and Music of Robert Johnson. If you’re trying to place the name, Robert Johnson was the blues singer whom legend says sold his soul to the Devil for musical talent. But if you look deeper into his story, you’ll find there’s a much more complicated man, and a much more fascinating story, lost within the legend. I think a musical incorporating Robert’s work, as well as other blues classics, would be fantastic. It could tell the story of someone trying to rediscover who Robert was, so the audience would be learning who he was at the same time the characters are.
  Given that a 750-page book about America’s first Treasury Secretary became one of the most phenomenal musicals of all time, I think something similar could happen with as fascinating, as enigmatic, and as musical a man as Robert Johnson.
• The Works of HP Lovecraft. Lovecraft might have been an overly wordy writer and a reprehensible person, but his ideas have lasted through time and been adopted and adapted by writers of all types and backgrounds. Some of his stories, if approached right, might make for great shows. My top choices would be Herbert West: Reanimator, the inspiration for the hit cult 1985 film (which originally was meant to be a theatrical production), and The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Both seem the most suited for the stage, though I’m sure you could adapt some of the more fantastic with the right effects and puppetry.
• The Works of Paul Tremblay. One of the most well-known names of modern horror, Paul Tremblay’s novels have a lot of fans out there. And they’re well-suited to adaptation. I can see both A Head Full of Ghosts and The Cabin at the End of the World becoming very tense stageplays. And Survivor Song would make one hell of a musical (the word “song” is in the title, after all).

If you like some of these ideas or have ideas for other properties that could do well on stage, then talk about them. Write the scripts and music if you have the talent. Reach out to theaters in your area to let them know what you want to see. Discussion stays discussion if no action is taken, so why not say something and then get to work making it happen?

You never know. The story you love so much or the music you compose could someday end up being performed on a stage near you. It could inspire the next generation of storytellers, musicians and actors. It could end up being the healing audiences need after a difficult year and so many months.

To me, all those reasons seem worth the work, brainstorming, and effort. In fact, you could say it is worth all the drama.

9781789096811 | 15th June 2021 | Paperback & eBook | £8.99 | 336pp
www.titanbooks.com | https://www.facebook.com/titanbooks | @TitanBooks ​

Alessandra Jara Del Castillo has won the 2nd Annual Killer Shorts Horror Short Screenplay Competition.

The contest, now in its second year, awarded Alessandra as the overall winner out of 952 entries for her horror short screenplay, THIS HUNGER. Alessandra Jara Del Castillo’s script follows ‘an indifferent Hispanic housewife who grows infatuated with her husband—only after he returns from the dead, hungry for meat.” It’s a subtle story about the death, rebirth, and re-death of a marriage that works as both a zombie body horror and a compelling drama.

The Killer Short Contest celebrates horror short screenwriters from around the world, connecting them with managers, producers, and filmmakers. Season 1 third place winner, Chris Hicks, signed with a manager after the contest inspired him to adapt his viral short story THE BUTTER STREET HITCHHIKER, and increased his exposure to industry members on the screenplay submission platform, Coverfly.

COPY CAT by Vanessa Branch has been selected as the 2nd Place Winner and HIDE YOUR CRAZY by Austin Kase has been selected as the 3rd Place Winner.

Killer Shorts partners with female-led film groups to provide heavy discounts for submissions to their female-identifying and non-binary writers. With this discount, the contest saw an increase, from 1 last year, to 4 womxn placing in the Top 10 in Season 2.

“This year we focused on providing even more opportunities for women and POC,” says contest director Alison Parker, “Not only did we end up with two women of color in the Top 3, but I was excited to learn that Alessandra entered the contest because of the discount we provided.”

The Killer Shorts’ jury included: Julian Terry (Whisper, They Hear It, The Nurse), Chelsea Lupkin (Short of the Week, Lucy’s Tale), Barbara Crampton (Re-Animator, From Beyond, You’re Next), Joe Bob Briggs (The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs), Scott Stoops (Good Fear Film + Management), Glenn Cockburn (Meridian Artists), Sophie Carroll (ALTER), Scott Carr (Management SGC), Jason Tamasco (Bad Idea Films), John Zaozirny (Bellevue Productions), Zack Zucker (Bellevue Productions), Matthew Dartnell (Writ Large), Krista Sipp (First Friday Entertainment), and Jenn Wexler (The Ranger).

As a part of the prize package, the Top 3 winners receive circulation and recommendation to a network of Hollywood managers, agents, producers, and development executives, Final Draft 12 screenwriting software, Shudder subscriptions, waived entry to multiple other contests and festivals, increased rank on Coverfly’s The Red List, and swag from sponsors like Creepy Co and Rue Morgue. The third place winner receives coverage notes from The Script Butcher.

The newest addition to the list of prizes is a one-of-a-kind skull-shaped typewriter trophy, hand-sculpted and designed by Tyler Green of Tyler Green FX Studios (SyFy’s FACE/OFF).

“As always, we are looking for original short screenplays with captivating stories and unique voices in the horror genre. The amount of raw talent out there is staggering and we can’t wait to read next year’s scripts” said Parker.

Next year’s competition will reconvene with submissions opening on June 1, 2021 and closing on Dec 17th. The worldwide contest is open to anyone over 18 years old and accepts screenplays up to a maximum of 25 pages.

For more information visit: KillerShortsContest.com

David is, unwittingly, the person who brings about the political zombie uprising when an impassioned speech while on air with a grieving mother whose son has been killed in action during the ongoing war efforts, during which he states that, if he had one wish, he’d wish that her son could come back. The spin here is that he wishes he could come back to justify the ongoing war, a point that the soldier’s mother is clearly about to disagree on before she is taken off air. David’s speech goes down so well with voters that the President himself uses the same speech in a public address later that week, the only difference being that the wish actually comes true, and dead soldiers do begin coming back to life.

If you think you’re in store for a Day of the Dead style zombie apocalypse, then you would be wrong. The zombies are shown as being peaceful and intelligent and have come back in order to… vote in the upcoming election. The zombies actually get very little screen time too, and this is where the episodes greatest strength comes into the play. The focus is squarely on David, Jane and Kurt (played with aplomb by Robert Picardo) as they try and figure out how to put a positive spin on people literally rising from their graves in order to vote against their candidate. It helps that all three leads are fantastic, and fully committed to their larger-than-life characters. It’s a great choice to see the zombie uprising from the perspective of three people who take it as a personal affront to their jobs and the episode gets a lot of mileage out of it.

Although Jane and Kurt never waver from their views, we do see David slowly begin to have a change of heart as he begins to appreciate the consequences of the lies (which he refers to in one memorable outburst as ‘horseshit and elbow grease’) he has been telling in order to further his own political career. A subplot involving his older brother who seemingly died during the Vietman war, giving some weight and explanation to his shift in opinion.

It is as the episode progresses that we see more of the spin machine in action, as Jane starts to take centre stage. We see the undead soldiers on television being rounded up and placed in internment camps as she justifies them as ‘health checks’. The party’s previous stance of respecting the voice of these fallen heroes taking a complete 180 shift as they go back on the Marty Clark show questioning a dead person’s legal right to vote. While the zombies are ultimately allowed to vote, in a surprisingly prescient scene we see that the party suppress their votes, allowing the Republicans to win an election that they would have otherwise lost.

This obviously does not go down well with the undead voters, who have only come back to have their voices heard, only to have them ignored when it mattered the most. The opening scene of David and Jane being chased down by a horde of angry zombies makes a little more sense now and it’s revisited for the finale where David kills Jane and changes his political allegiance to the zombies cause when he is reunited with his decades dead brother, who turns him. The ending of the episode doesn’t feel as grand as it should considering the whole episode has been about the fate of the entire country, but I do admit that it plays to it’s strengths by maintaining it’s focus on the lead characters until the bitter end.

Overall, I got a lot more out of ‘Homecoming’ on my re-watch than I did when I saw the initial airing back in 2005. While I’ve commented on the episodes lack of subtlety, it’s perhaps this transparent agenda which made it easier to appreciate as a piece of entertainment, so blunt is the show's ultimate point. Conversely, perhaps the events of the recent US election have made some of the more outrageous parodies in ‘Homecoming’ feel uncomfortably plausible and the message is no less relevant today than it was fifteen years ago regardless of how indelicately it may be presented.
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Join me next time as I’ll be looking at episode seven of the first season, John Landis’s ‘Deer Woman’. See you then!

I’ll confess that, when I saw the title and artwork for this episode, it rang absolutely zero bells with me at all, and I had no recollection of watching Chocolate before now. I know I did watch it (and one I started watching for this article, it did come back to me a little) but it clearly didn’t leave much of an impression initially. This may be partly down to the fact that it follows ‘Jenifer’, which is nothing if not memorable, but watching Chocolate was liking watching a brand-new episode for me and I have to say that it was an episode I enjoyed a great deal.

Directed by the master behind Masters of Horror himself, and based on one of his own short stories, Chocolate opens with lead character Jamie talking directly to us, recounting the story of how he got where he is, which is covered in blood and being interrogated by the police. Consider me intrigued!

As Jamie begins telling his story we open on a laboratory where he works and we’re introduced to friend and co-worker, Wally (Matt Frewer). His easy back and forth with Wally being an episode highlight and helps set a light and fun tone early on. Jamie is shown as being good at his job but perhaps a little unfulfilled and discontent. Some conflict is then introduced when he visits his ex-wife and son on his way home. His love for his son is obvious and heart-warming but we sense there is tension here as his ex-wife seems none too pleased to have him there and is quick to usher him out.

Jamie returns to his bare and impersonal looking apartment and, lying in bed later that night, he begins to experience sounds, smells and tastes he does not recognise. The sensations start with the taste of chocolate but as things progress he begins to see through the eyes of a mystery woman and experiences what she experiences. These sensations begin to intrude on his day-to-day life as he has no control over when they occur, but Jamie seems content with this, happy to have the experience whenever and however his is able as he becomes increasingly infatuated with this woman he has never met, but feels he knows intimately.

We also find out that the object of his affections has a boyfriend, a fact we first learn when Jamie experiences her having sex with him. Hats off to Henry Thomas for going all out with the scene, where he is experiencing this, with an audience that includes a one-night stand, his ex-wife and his son! The fact that everybody seems disgusted with him as he writes half naked on the bed, and doesn’t stop to consider he may be having a medical emergency is a little unintentionally funny, but it does serve to escalate Jamie’s predicament whereby he’s left in the position of either cutting himself off from people, or finding help for these bizarre experiences before they can do further damage to his relationships. Poor smitten Jamie… Is there ever any doubt he’d pick the former?

So far things have built up slowly and we’re getting pieces of the puzzle, but we’re still a long way from the blood splattered Jamie we met in the opening scene. That changes when he witnesses his one sided, long distance love interest murder her boyfriend. The episode shifts pretty dramatically at this point as the subplot of Jamie’s strained relationship with his ex-wife and young son, and friendship with Wally are left as is, as Jamie travels to Canada to track her down, using the odd flashes of her going to work or walking down a busy high street to pinpoint broadly where she lives. I have to say it was a shame to so abruptly end the time spent with Wally, who was a bit of a scene stealer, and that his mysteriously tenuous relationship with his ex-wife and son weren’t used for more, but these are minor gripes, as what comes next is certainly different, but no less entertaining.

After arriving and doing some admittedly impressive detective work, Jamie finds the mystery woman, who we discover is named Catherine (played by Lucie Laurier). Jamie has become so hopelessly obsessed with her at this point that, when he introduces himself, he comes across as a little… unhinged, desperate to make a perfect first impression and failing spectacularly. Catherine is understandably wary of him and suspicious of his intentions but Jamie is able to convince her to go to dinner with him and, as he slowly reveals how he knows so much about her, they seem to connect and he finds himself invited back to her apartment, coincidentally around the time that he confesses that he knows that she is a murderer.

If you missed any of Richard's previous Revisting The Masters of Horror articles, you can find links to them all here on our handy landing page 

The Masters of Horror ​

May is Mental Health month. I’ve been struggling horribly for a while now with disabilities including PTSD, anxiety with panic attacks, bipolar depression, ADHD, dyslexia, agoraphobia, and more. Over, the last few years these have been impossible to manage, affecting every area of my life from my physical health to my relationships. I struggle with suicidal ideations everyday, wanting the ongoing pain to stop. Throughout my life, one of my primary coping mechanisms has been storytelling in the horror genre. I found myself creating fiction in the horror genre as a form of therapy and escape. Lately, I’ve been thinking of my struggles and how storytelling and the horror genre have been such an important part of my survival. I decided to write a series of articles based on my reflections, covering my experience on how a genre that some see as taboo has been a lifeline for me all my life. Below is the first article.


Stephen King once said, “we make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones in the world.”


Looking back on my life, seeing how horror has helped me cope with my own trauma and mental illness, I believe that King’s statement above may sum up why people are so drawn to horror. Horror allows us to escape real-life monsters, even if it’s for just a few moments. Horror is an important piece of our culture, helping us to cope with the dark side of humanity that is sometimes too hard for a person to face.

When I look back at all the horrible times in my life, I can see I was drawn to the horror genre as a way to deal with the all too real horrors I faced daily in my home at the hands of abusive and neglectful parents. 

My father was very abusive, taking the majority of his anger out on me from when I was a very young age. I was his outlet—he and my mother blamed me for everything that went wrong in their lives.

He even pushed my mother out of a moving car when she was in the late stages of her pregnancy with me. They thought they were going to lose me for a bit. When I was born he directed his anger towards me taking it out on me any chance he could. So from an early age, my maternal grandparents would take me as much as they could, inviting me to stay at their house in Rockwood, Michigan to spare me of the terror of my parents.

I grew up on horror in the late seventies and eighties. Everything was horror and the fantastic. My grandmother introduced to me to the genre. I still remember going to the theater with her to see Poltergeist shorty after my fifth birthday. The clown scene scared the crap out of me, along with the scene with the corpses in the water. Yet I loved the movie.

At the time, I wasn’t sure why my grandmother, an old-fashioned church-going woman, decided to introduce me to horror It was much later in life that I discovered that my grandmother had loved horror before any of her children were born, reading the old paperbacks when she could, or catching a creature feature at the drive in. She even introduced all three of her children to the horror genre, turning them on to it. I also found that she had had a very bad childhood herself, full of pain and possible abuse, and that she had lost her first child just days after she was born. My grandmother also struggled with depression and possible anxiety, though she never talked about it. My grandparents were from a generation that did not believe in therapy or talking about feelings. They believed in appearances, and what people went thought was meant to be kept inside. So, looking back, my guess is horror might have helped distract her from the real-world darkness. She might have even thought it might help me. I don’t know the real reason she introduced me to all the creepy fictions most grandmothers turn their noses up at. But I’m so thankful she did.

Whenever I stayed with my grandparents, I consumed anything I could related to horror and the strange—within reason. Which was pretty often, seeing as I grew up with very abusive parents. For a while, I basically lived there with my grandparents. So, I took in a lot of horror. Whether it was sitting on the old white wooden swing in my grandparents’ back yard, reading old horror comics. Or sitting in front of the big box television set on the 70’s style pea green carpet of their living room watching black &white reruns of the Twilight Zone, Creature of The Black Lagoon, the old Hammer Horror films, and many more. I collected any monster related items from my cherished Remco Monsters to the Crestwood Monster book series. I even had one of those large official Alien action figures that my grandparents found at a garage sale for me.

When not reading or watching horror on TV, Grandma and my babysitters would take me to the theater, (both the Jolly Rogers Drive in and South Gate in door theater) to catch the new scary movie releases. Some of my very few positive childhood memories are of me going to see movies with her, such as Poltergeist, Gremlins, Critters, Day of The Dead, The Evil Dead, The Hand, and  more. I was raised on everything science-fiction, Horror, or Fantasy-related, and I loved it. The escape to the different worlds took my mind off the horrible things that awaited me when my grandparents had no choice but to send me home.

Growing up, there was something special about scary stories that grabbed my attention. Don’t get me wrong, I also loved other fantastic genres such as fantasy and Science fiction, horror just connected with me more than any other gerne as well. I remember being scared to death, but not wanting to look away. I was fascinated with the monsters, yet I was rooting for the heroes at the same time. In those stories, anything was possible. The monsters brought together people of all types, no matter their differences. The heroes always had hope, even when everything around them was telling them they should just give up. In gernes like action, the heroes were almost always trained warrior types, rushing to try to keep something bad from happening. Working to keep the villain from making the world worse fears to happen by setting off a nuke or more. Yet in horror tales, the heroes were regular day people given no choice but to run toward or face their worse fear to survive. It was in these worlds that I learn the importance of surivial.  While in those worlds, I forgot the abuse I was going through at home and the real monsters that waited for me there. Instead, I had hope and was brave and thought anything was possible. I learned the importance of having hope, creativity and so much more from my beloved horror stories.  From a young age, horror and storytelling would become my main coping mechanism whenever I was going through a hard time.
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I have no doubt of this, as I look back at my life, which is filled with trauma and abuse. I lived through 15 years of every type of abuse you can think of, from two sick addicts who where supposed to love me, a drive-by shooting, the loss of both my grandparents, horrible health issues and disabilities,. The horror genre and storytelling have always been there to help me face the real-world pains that I could barely face on my own. Even now, as I struggle worse than ever with my disabilities, they are my primary coping mechanisms, third only to my faith and family. I definitely think Mr. King was on to something as I’m not sure what I would do without such an interesting genre such as horror as an outlet for all the real-life nightmares I have battled inside.

​Facebook:
Eugene Johnson 

Tales Of The Lost Volume Anthology series Facebook page

Amazon Author page:
Eugene Johnson 


Tales Of The Lost Volume 2
Amazon link
​

Edited by Bram Stoker Award Winner Eugene Johnson and Steve Dillon 


We lose many things during our time in this universe. From the moment we are born we start losing time, and loss becomes a part of our life from the beginning. We lose friends (both imaginary and real), loved ones, pets, and family. We gain stuff and lose stuff, from our socks to our money. We can lose our hope, sanity, passions, our mind, and perhaps even our soul! In the end when death finds us, we end up losing everything... Don't we?


Loss is part of who we are. We can't escape it. We learn from it, grow from it, and so much more. Some of the greatest stories ever forged come from loss. Within this book is some of those stories.


Featuring stories and poetry by an amazing lineup including: 
Tim Waggoner * Lisa Morton * Neil Gaiman * Joe Hill * Heather Graham *  Christopher Golden * Tim Lebbon *  Christina Sng * Vince Liaguno * John Palisano * Kaaron Warren * Chris Mason * Greg Chapman * Tracy Cross * Stephanie W. Wytovich * Alexis Kirkpatrick * Ben Monroe * Lucy A. Snyder and Matthew R. Davis.


Edited by Bram Stoker Award Winner Eugene Johnson and Shirley Jackson award nominated author Steve Dillon. Coming in 2020 from Plaid Dragon Publishing in association with Things in The Well. With cover art by the brilliant Francois Vaillancourt, and interior art by the amazing Luke Spooner. 


Money raised by the anthology will go to benefit the Save the Children Coronavirus response. 


"Tales of the Lost 2 could be called "Tales of the Dark Heart!" From a coming home story that ends in a not-so-typical cemetery scene to a couple of ultimate sacrifices driven by love, this is a book filled with stories to tear at your heart while making you shiver. There are macabre jack-in-the-boxes and soul-stealing virtual reality games and an apocalypse vision of a mother's love the likes of which I've never read before. These are stories of love and longing and selfless giving and aching loss ... with frequent visits from the monstrous things that inhabit the night. This is a volume of horrific heart and chilling beauty."


- John Everson, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Covenant and Voodoo Heart


"Comprising unnerving tales of loss from horror's best-loved writers, LOST 2 is haunting, uncanny, and deeply disquieting. Prepare to lose sleep while reading this one." - Lee Murray, award-winning author of INTO THE ASHES.


Copyright Plaid Dragon Publishing © 2020 
Published by Plaid Dragon Publishing in association with Things in The Well.