When I was hired to create and launch Fear Zone, I conceived it as a monthly magazine that would be doled out in daily doses. That being the case, you now "hold in your hands" what amounts to the Zone's final issue.

Traffic for this site remains exceptionally high (and we've shown a 40% increase over the last 3 months) and I know editors at other sites who would kill for our numbers. But this is a commercial venture, and advertising revenue on the web has dried up during the recession, and there's no stimulus money for horror websites...

I'll continue to post new content from our remaining contributors, who have loyally supported FZ to the end, through November. In December, all of the ... (more…)

To the casual observer, Sacramento doesn't exactly jump to mind when it comes to iconic horror names & places ,but the state capital of California actually has a rich history of supporting the genre. For over a decade spanning the early 1970's -1980's, one of the most fondly remembered Horror TV shows in history, CREATURE FEATURES, helped to raise a generation of "Monster Grandkids," myself included. The Sac-based show was hosted by the ever lovable Bob Wilkins, and later by John Stanley.

Let us not forget Sacramento's contribution to real world horror: Convicted necrophile Karen Greenlee who confessed to having had sexual relations with over 40 male corpses, or Sacramento's contribution to ... (more…)

Jovanka Vuckovic has announced that she's leaving her post as Editor-in-Chief of RUE MORGUE magazine to concentrate on personal creative projects and to start a family. Jovanka has worked at RM for seven years and has served in this position for three. She'll be succeeded by Dave Alexander, who has been contributing to the mag for four years.

Some of my favorite features in this great magazine were published during Jovanka's run, though she always stressed that the decisions made regarding content were made in a collaborative manner with er colleagues. Still, while publisher Rodrigo Gudino has been concentrating on film projects, Jovanka has served as the public face of RM, especially at ... (more…)

I know, I know - "Best of" lists can be silly, but I didn't want to wrap up Fear Zone (more on that another day) without drawing up a list of the 25 most influential figures in horror. I kept the list short - 100 or even 50 seemed too ambitious, and the more names you add to a list the less significant their accomplishments seem - and I restricted myself to writers, filmmakers, and special make-up artists (and one "other"). Had I made a longer list, I would certainly have included film composers and actors. I'd like to hear who you would have included as well - and what cuts you'd make to allow for them.

25. Dan Curtis

Dan Curtis was a producer and director who never met a spider web, ... (more…)

They say that lightning doesn't strike twice, but I beg to differ when it comes to jazzy Jeff Strand. His outstanding, hilarious, morbid and gruesome short story collection, GLEEFULLY MACABRE TALES, which was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award and sold out its Delirium limited edition - is now available as an affordable trade paperback from Dark Regions Press. I typically read four or five stories in single author collections and multi-author anthologies then put them down, but I burned through GLEEFULLY MACABRE TALES cover to cover and in record time. And look at that cover: the center kid looks just like the author! I'd recognize those empty, soulless eye sockets and bloody cheeks ... (more…)

November is here and soon, the slaughter of the turkeys will begin! That's right, October may have Halloween, the scariest time of year for us humans, but November has Thanksgiving, the most terrifying time of year for turkeys...imagine, having your friends pulled from your community, plucked, skinned and then having bread crumbs stuffed up their ass before being baked! Scary, right? Well, since it's a scary time of year, why not pile on with some cool horror DVDs? So, here's what hits shelves starting today!

First up, for you giant monster fans, it's SAND SERPENTS from Rhi Entertainment. A small group of Marines is stranded in a remote desert in Afghanistan...but it's not the Taliban ... (more…)

After the success of his first mass paperback novel, the outstanding PRESSURE (originally published as a limited edition hardcover and currently being developed as a movie), Jeff Strand is getting ready for his next Leisure title, a paperback original titled DWELLER.

DWELLER tells the story of a boy and his monster, then evolves in the story of a teen and his monster, and then matures into the story of a man and his monster. Yes, Strand is tracing the relationship between these two social misfits over a period of decades.

DWELLER is scheduled for publication in April, 2010, and promises to be the monster book "the year we make contact"! (more…)

MOORE "Guillotines And Angel Wings" CD
(USA, 2009, Nightwing Records)

It took a whole four years until bandleader Jim Moore (vocals) and his companions Joe Johnson (guitars), Chad Parsons (bass) and Haakon Sjoergren (drums) finally came up with a follow-up to MOORE's latest full-length album "Bleed" from 2005. The long wait, however, was definitely worth it 'cause in the year of 2009, MOORE are stronger than ever and totally rip your head off with their crushing new CD "Guillotines And Angel Wings"!

Heavier, faster and fiercer than ever, this neck-breaking, teeth-gnawing beast o' steel comes along as a near-perfect blend of rough'n'dirty US Thrash Metal ala NASTY SAVAGE and sleazy'n'greasy 80s ... (more…)

Back when Fear Zone first launched, one of our first author reading videos was Nicholas Kaufmann reading an excerpt from his Bram Stoker nominated novelette General Slocum's Gold, which we selected as our Best Short Fiction for that year (although Nick pointed out it wasn't all that short). For one year, this New York based author wrote "The State of the Genre", and he currently writes a similar column, "Dead Air," for The Internet Review of Science Fiction. This is a big year for Kaufmann: Chizine sold out the limited edition of his new novella, Chasing the Dragon, which will be published in December, and November sees his first published mass market novel, Hunt at World's End, one ... (more…)

Mary Bogle braces for action in SCM

With Mecenary Weekend out of the way, you'd think we'd have had a breather. Just the opposite was true: halfway through the 20-day schedule, we actually faced a series of pressing deadlines. "Shooting out" an actor means wrapping their scenes so they can leave town for their next job. One of the advantages of Jennifer Bihl being the lead - with the greatest amount of screen time - was that she had the most flexible schedule. Our other stars were visitors. The first person we needed to "shoot out" was Debbie Rochon. Debbie's next project was in Rochester, an hour away from Buffalo, and she had a couple of days' leeway. Kealan Patrick Burke was the ... (more…)