Blu-ray Review: 80’s Anthology Horror Classic NIGHTMARES

Shock Till You Drop

Blu-ray Review: 80’s Anthology Horror Classic NIGHTMARES

SHOCK reviews classic 80’s anthology horror film NIGHTMARES on Blu-ray.

In many respects, director Joseph Sargent’s 1983 anthology horror film NIGHTMARES is the epitome of the 1980’s. Specifically, the early 1980’s. What I mean by this is that the first few years of every decade belong primarily to the previous one and cinematically, this is ever evident. In the case of NIGHTMARES, we have in fact 4 small films that exemplify the kind of craft and macabre quality of the best of the 1970’s telefilms (specifically the work of Dan Curtis) with a dash of slicker, pseudo-MTV, rock video style. Both aesthetics work together to create this unpretentious piece of vintage terror that many of this critic’s generation did indeed see on TV…

And famously, in fact, NIGHTMARES started its life as a TV movie, specifically as 4 episodes of the 1981/82 anthology series DARKROOM; when the network deemed those particular tales too extreme for prime-time, the producers pulled them and glued them together without any particular rhyme, reason or connecting thread as a feature film. Because of this, the only thing giving the stories any sort of cohesion is the style of director Sargent,a perfectly decent, no-bullshit filmmaker who had previously directed tons of TV before helming the crackerjack thriller THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE and then, a mere four years after this, literally jumped the shark with the legendary JAWS: THE REVENGE. But his work here is solid, stylish and tough throughout and really, the shot on glorious 35mm flick plays better today than ever.

The first story, “Terror in Topanga” stars THE SENTINEL’s Cristina Raines as a stressed out housewife who ducks out one night to get her nicotine fix, the same night that a murderer is reported to be on the loose. As she cruises around looking for a place to buy a carton of smokes, she becomes increasingly paranoid that the killer is stalking her. Some decent suspense and an appealing performance by the beautiful Raines (as well as an appearance by BLADE RUNNER star William Sanderson) make this episode work.

The second tale has achieved near mythical status in the small circle of fans who swear by NIGHTMARES; it’s called “The Bishop of Battle” and stars a young Emilio Estevez (years before THE BREAKFAST CLUB) as J.J, a punk-rock and video game addicted teen who hustles kids in arcades to get enough quarters to beat the holy grail of games, The Bishop of Battle. Breaking into the local game joint one night, J.J aims to beat The Bishop…with unexpected results. No doubt Adam Sandler saw this film prior to making his recent comedy PIXELS but “The Bishop of Battle” aint to gag-fest. It’s cool and scrappy, with a great turn by Estevez, decent pre-digital optical effects and great use of music, especially by punk band FEAR. A mini-masterpiece with a great script by Christopher Crowe (who wrote all but the final segment of NIGHTMARES).

A typically haunted-looking Lance Henriksen stars as a priest having a crisis of faith in “The Benediction”. The troubled padre hits the road to find himself and instead runs up againts a ghostly truck that aims to flatten him. A moody blend of THE CAR and DUEL, this is an artfully made suspenser with a strong central turn by a pre-ALIENS Henriksen. Great climax too.

The final tale (tail?) is NIGHT OF THE RAT and it’s often cited as the worst of the quartet, usually due to the spotty blue screen effects of the titular giant vermin itself. But it’s actually a decent segment, with believable performances by INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS and ALIEN vet Veronica Cartwright and THE THING’s Richard Masur trying to save their daughter from the wrath of a screaming, pissed-off rodent.

From the eerie opening credits sequence (a creepy cracked-desert visual that mimics the poster design) to the final frame, NIGHTMARES is an immaculate bit of no-frills horror entertainment. Sporting a dynamite score by Craig Safan, a composer known primarily for his work on the small screen, but who also contributed wonderful soundtracks for A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4, REMO WILLIAMS and the end-credits piece used in Michael Mann’s THIEF, the film is far superior to that same-years gigantic budgeted anthology TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE, with stories that often feel like deluxe versions of Serling’s original series, even moreso than the legitimate 1980’s TZ revamp.

 Scream Factory’s Blu-ray is an equally in-and-out, get-the-job-done affair, looking crisp and sometimes lush, considering the age of the material and offering a few bonuses, including a trailer and a meandering but informative commentary with producer Andrew Mirisch and Raines. You can also watch the film in either 1:78:1 widescreen or full frame, if the need to get the real deal, old-school TV vibe should strike you.

Totally recommended, NIGHTMARES is quality escapism; like a firm handshake, covered in blood.

The post Blu-ray Review: 80’s Anthology Horror Classic NIGHTMARES appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

more info...

Twisted Crispin Glover Shocker AIMY IN A CAGE Gets Release Date, Poster and Trailer

Shock Till You Drop

Twisted Crispin Glover Shocker AIMY IN A CAGE Gets Release Date, Poster and Trailer

Head-trip horror flick AIMY IN A CAGE gets trailer and official poster.

In what has been referred to as a hybrid of Kubrick and Tim Burton (especially evident in the Danny Elfman-ish score), writer/director Hooroo Jackson’s mental-case horror meltdown AIMY IN A CAGE has just been announced as locking a release date of January 8th, 2016. The film will roll out on DVD and digital platforms from Osiris Entertainment.

AIMY IN A CAGE stars filmmaker, actor (BACK TO THE FUTURE, WILLARD, THE WIZARD OF GORE) and professional weirdo Crispin Glover and NURSE 3D and THE EDITOR vixen Paz de la Huerta in a tale of a teen who is taken to a demented behaviour clinic in some sort of distant future/alternate reality while a grim plague decimates the wold outside.

Filled with crazed, circus-steeped imagery and echoing twisted flicks like JACOB TWO-TWO MEETS THE HOODED FANG, WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY and A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, AIMY IN A CAGE is just the ticket for those more daring horror fans looking to have their heads shaken hard.

Check out the wild photo gallery below and then groove on the eyeball-crossing trailer below that:

The post Twisted Crispin Glover Shocker AIMY IN A CAGE Gets Release Date, Poster and Trailer appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

more info...

‘Ozploitation’ Flick SCARE CAMPAIGN Wins Awards, Reveals New Poster

Shock Till You Drop

‘Ozploitation’ Flick SCARE CAMPAIGN Wins Awards, Reveals New Poster

New ‘Ozploitation’ shocker SCARE CAMPAIGN sweeps Monster Fest awards; reveals new poster.

Hotly anticipated ‘Ozploitation’ flick SCARE CAMPAIGN from writers and directors Colin & Cameron Cairnes (100 BLOODY ACRES) and producer Julie Ryan (RED DOG) just picked up four awards at Aussie horror festival Monster Fest and, while basking in the afterglow have revealed their official poster.

SCARE CAMPAIGN, which charts the increasingly extreme attempts of a horror-themed TV “prank” show to stay one step ahead of its nihilistic online rivals and stars Olivia DeJonge (The Visit) and Meegan Warner (Turn), picked up awards for ‘BEST FILM’, ‘BEST SOUND IN A FEATURE’, ‘BEST FEATURE SCREENPLAY’ and ‘BEST DIRECTION’.

SCARE CAMPAIGN stars Meegan Warner (TURN, THE VEIL), Olivia DeJonge (HIDING, THE VISIT), Cassandra McGrath (WOLF CREEK) and John Brumpton (THE LOVED ONES).

Here’s the official synopsis:

Popular TV prank show, Scare Campaign, has been entertaining audiences for the last five years with its mix of old school scares and hidden camera fun. But as we enter a new age of online TV, the producers find themselves up against a hard-edged web series which makes their show look decidedly quaint. It’s time to up the ante, but will the team go too far this time, and are they about to prank the wrong guy?

And here’s the official poster:

Be sure to follow these wild men and women via their official Facebook page.

And check out the batshit crazy teaser below…

https://youtu.be/7jVrh_t05DA

The post ‘Ozploitation’ Flick SCARE CAMPAIGN Wins Awards, Reveals New Poster appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

more info...

Exclusive Interview: Actor Robin Ward on the ‘Lost’ Frankenstein Flick ‘DR. FRANKENSTEIN ON CAMPUS’!

Shock Till You Drop

Exclusive Interview: Actor Robin Ward on the ‘Lost’ Frankenstein Flick ‘DR. FRANKENSTEIN ON CAMPUS’!

SHOCK tracks down actor Robin Ward to reflect on the ultra-obscure 1970 psychedelic horror film, DR. FRANKENSTEIN ON CAMPUS.

With the unfortunate VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN setting new highs for low box office openings (shame, really as the movie is really rather good) we decided to assume the role of the good Dr. Frankenstein. ourselves, sifting not into the soft dirt for corpses, but rather digging deep into horror’s maniacal past to find a film that time has seemingly forgot…

Indeed, a mere week or so before VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN saw release, SHOCK decided to stick our tongue deep into cheek and roll out a list of 5 Frankenstein films that failed to make the grade or effectively trade on the visions birthed during that fateful ‘haunted summer’ by Mary Shelley and her famous kinky friends. Sitting at number 3 on that list was the ‘lost’ Canadian psychedelic horror romp DR. FRANKENSTEIN ON CAMPUS, a totally daft 1970 melodrama about mad science, substances, sex and silliness that was in fact the first film funded by the Canadian government!

Free healthcare AND z-grade horror movies financed by tax dollars. Aint Canada grand?

Originally titled FLICK (we know this because the word FLICK remains on the bottom corner of the screen for the entire opening of the picture), DR. FRANKENSTEIN ON CAMPUS stars future Canadian TV weatherman Robin Ward as a young Baron Frankenstein, blacklisted from his native Austria and hiding out as a student at the University of Toronto. There, he conducts brain experiments on cats and dogs and has weird psychedelic sex with his comely girlfriend before launching a reign of terror on his classmates and the faculty. Oddly, the similarities between this and RE-ANIMATOR are interesting (and almost certainly accidental).

Briefly released theatrically in the US under its “FRANKENSTEIN” handle on a double bill with the skeezy NIGHT OF THE WITCHES, director Gilbert W. Taylor’s mad movie appeared occasionally on Canadian television but otherwise is about as obscure a horror film as you’re likely to (not) find. And while it’s not a great Frankenstein film, it is just so insane, so bizarre and so…so…Canadian, that watching it truly is a singular experience.

Ward is well known in Canada for his stint as a weatherman on National network CTV but he has had a long and interesting career in Canadian film and television including prominent roles in a slew of interesting genre projects like the noted Sci-Fi series THE STARLOST creepy “twinsanity” thriller MARK OF CAIN and SAW II; he even once channeled Rod Serling, serving as the narrator of the third season of the 1980’s revamp of THE TWILIGHT ZONE.

After penning that piece, the spirit moved me enough to make an effort to locate Ward and, with a little bit of effort, I did. The actor is currently in rehearsals for a new play but spared us some moments to chat about his stint making cinema’s strangest Frankie “flick”: DR. FRANKENSTEIN ON CAMPUS.

SHOCK: It’s rather amusing to think that DR. FRANKENTSEIN ON CAMPUS was funded by the Government, especially since it deals with mind control….

WARD: Yes the film was the first to get CFDC (Canadian Film Development Corporation) backing, which I think was ultimately a mistake because it set a doubtful tone. Because DR. FRANKENSTEIN ON CAMPUS was of course a ‘B’ horror film and would not normally have received the scrutiny or the reviews or respect that a pioneer CFDC project would and should have inspired. Consequently it was castigated by all and sundry…

SHOCK: How did you end up in the film?

WARD: I can’t remember how I got the role, whether I auditioned or just met the director. I was quite inexperienced as an actor, but I guess my work at the time suggested something that wasn’t quite real, hence my suitability for the role, perhaps?

SHOCK: The film opens with you fencing in Austria. Where were these sequences shot?

WARD: The Austrian scenes were all shot in and around Toronto, with the Scarborough bluffs substituting for the Alps!

SHOCK: It’s a demented film, truly. Was it always supposed to be sold as a horror movie?

WARD: God knows what the film was supposed to be! None of us really knew. I guess it was a horror film. It was certainly horrible.

SHOCK: Why did they change the title?

WARD: At some point it went from FLICK to DR. FRANK…I think they thought FLICK was too ironic and artsy. It got a limited release in the theaters, but went on to become a cult favorite on university campuses where it’s previously undetected satirical aspects were much appreciated.

SHOCK: The film is an extra curio in that noted Canadian rock band Lighthouse is the house band in the movie! Did you get to hang out with them?

WARD: We did see members of Lighthouse occasionally, especially Paul and Skip, who sometimes appeared during the shoot.

SHOCK: Any funny stories to tell from the shoot?

WARD: Well, I was supposed to wear an electroencephalogram on my head which they jerry-built from masking tape and which reduced the cast to tears of helpless laughter when they saw it perched on my head like an inverted jock strap. I remember we did take after take on a scene that had me wearing it because we kept breaking up.

SHOCK: What do you think of the movie now?

WARD: I haven’t seen the movie for decades. Years of therapy had almost erased it from my memory till you reminded me of its existence. As I said the film did have a kind of cult following and I sometimes am recognized for my part in creating one of the silliest films ever made. An honor I am not worthy of. It was a lot of fun to make; I think I laughed a lot during the film…especially during some of the actual takes when I wasn’t supposed to. Now it’s back to the shrink, I guess…

Here’s hoping that someone, somewhere puts some effort into making DR. FRANKENSTEIN ON CAMPUS available to strange cinema enthusiasts everywhere. It most certainly is a film that needs to be seen. And, once seen, I promise you…it cannot be unseen!

The post Exclusive Interview: Actor Robin Ward on the ‘Lost’ Frankenstein Flick ‘DR. FRANKENSTEIN ON CAMPUS’! appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

more info...

Toronto! Acclaimed Hitchcock Documentary to Open at TIFF Bell Lightbox

Shock Till You Drop

Toronto! Acclaimed Hitchcock Documentary to Open at TIFF Bell Lightbox

Celebrated documentary about monumental meeting HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT to open in Toronto.

The legendary, week long series of interviews conducted by French New Wave founder Francois Truffaut and iconic Master of Suspense Alfred Hitchcock in 1962 is the subject of Kent (VAL LEWTON: THE MAN IN THE SHADOWS) Jones’ acclaimed new documentary HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT. Now, after its festival run at both Cannes and TIFF, the film is set to open on December 4th at the beautiful TIFF Bell Lightbox film center in Toronto.

Screen Daily has called the film, which features heavy-hitting filmmaking talent like Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Peter Bogdanovich, Paul Schrader and many others, “a little slice of film buff-heaven,” while Esquire noted it “will thrill you and change the way you watch movies.”

Using the original recordings from the Hitchcock sessions, HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT is a cinematic depiction of that most cinematic of conversations, the likes of which were published as a book that helped shape film history and elevated Hitchcock’s reputation from craftsman to auteur.

For more on showtimes and ticket sales visit the the official TIFF site.

The post Toronto! Acclaimed Hitchcock Documentary to Open at TIFF Bell Lightbox appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

more info...

The ‘Legend’ of THE LAST MAN ON EARTH

Shock Till You Drop

The ‘Legend’ of THE LAST MAN ON EARTH

SHOCK dissects the first and best adaptation of Richard Matheson’s I AM LEGEND, THE LAST MAN ON EARTH.

Dr. Robert Morgan is not a well man. A mysterious airborne, plague-bearing dust storm has smothered the world, killing every man, woman and child and reviving them as sluggish, dull witted and eternally ravenous vampires. And yet, somehow, someway, Morgan has remained immune, completely unscathed…well, physically, anyway. He lives his life like a machine, by day rising early, clearing the streets of comatose, emaciated ghouls and throwing their barely living bodies into an eternally burning tar pit, tracking the sleeping stronger ones to their lairs and driving his specially made stakes through their hearts.

But by night, when the sun sinks below the horizon, the fanged echoes of mankind come-a-crawling out of their hiding spots, stumbling towards Morgan’s garlic and mirror fortified bungalow, clawing at his windows, screaming for his flesh and his blood. Such nerve shredding conditions might drive a weaker man to madness but, though he skirts insanity often, Morgan instead opts to play his jazz records loud, pour scotch, crawl into bed, squish a pillow against his head and wait, always wait, for the break of day when he’ll get up and start the horrible cycle all over again. Unbeknownst to Morgan however, he’s being watched by something other than the monsters, something that views him as an even bigger threat than the red-eyed viral vampires themselves.

This is the story charted in directors Sidney Salkow and Ubaldo Ragona’s 1964 Vincent Price vehicle THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, the first (and to date, best) stab at adapting influential dark fantasy author Richard Matheson’s still blistering existential 1954 vampire novella I AM LEGEND to screen. Written, then disowned, by the notoriously cranky author, the low budget Robert Lippert (THE EARTH DIES SCREAMING) Italian/US co-production had often been dismissed as a failed attempt to capture the psyche-destroying , bloodsucker-staking exploits of Matheson’s eternally put upon virus survivor, Robert Neville. Thankfully, that perception has changed through the years. Because although it inexplicably changes its hero’s name from Neville to Morgan, and tweaks the ending somewhat, it otherwise seldom strays from the novella’s narrative and perfectly captures it’s bleaker than bleak tone, downbeat mood and broken heart.

The history of I AM LEGEND and its checkered journey to screen is rather fascinating. Matheson’s gripping, intelligent and horrifying novella became a hit in sci-fi /dark fantasy/pulp fiction circles upon release, eventually landing squarely on the radar of fledgling UK studio Hammer Films. The lads at Hammer commissioned Matheson to self-adapt a screenplay, which he did, reportedly brilliantly and faithfully from a straightforward text that almost read like a script to begin with. But, when the British censor skimmed that script, they were disgusted, promising that the downbeat, violent and depressing film would never, ever get passed. Hammer, still in their relative infancy, were terrified of the all- powerful board and released Matheson from his contract, his screenplay left untouched and un-filmed.

The property floated around for years before American born, British based B-movie producer Robert Lippert got his mitts on it, finally inking an Italian co-production deal, oddly altering the script, hiring a fresh from Roger Corman-ville Vincent Price to play the lead and shooting the whole affair on a shoestring in Rome. When Matheson heard of the changes and rewrites to his script, and the casting of the larger than life Price as his reluctant working class hero Robert Neville, he balked and demanded his name be removed from the credits, instead sticking his often used pseudonym Logan Swanson on the final print. The movie was dumped into drive-ins, dismissed by critics and almost completely forgotten.

But what makes THE LAST MAN ON EARTH the superior cinematic vision of Matheson’s somber, frightening text is the profound way it handles Morgan/Neville’s search for grim purpose. His is a life pushed to the brink and beyond and yet, as his heroic, defiant nature dictates, he fights back; through his terrifying nights, his blood-drenched days and his bittersweet dawns, Morgan refuses to succumb to his hopeless situation, refuses to even abandon his ramshackle bungalow. He becomes a kind of lone wolf, a vigilante, and then a kind of prophet, finally a martyr but always he’s a caretaker, one whose life’s work is to dispose of the sub-human monsters that have insidiously infested what was once a bright and beautiful world and have so cruelly cannibalized any fond memories he may have once had anything resembling a happy life. And though they come to scrape at his windows like clockwork and though the rotting females pout and slink in a vulgar attempt to arouse him, he accepts the vampires, he adapts. To quote Matheson from an interview I conducted with him many years ago, it’s the ultimate “portrait of an everyday Joe confronted with the arcane and emerging somewhat triumphant.”

Even more resonant is the fact that THE LAST MAN ON EARTH retains the absolutely pivotal character of Ben Cortman (though Anthony Zerbe’s mentally unbalanced mutant albino cult leader Mathias in the second and strangest version of the story, THE OMEGA MAN, is certainly a loose variation on him). If you’ve read the novel, you’ll recall that Ben Cortman was a friend, neighbor and colleague to Robert Neville who, post plague, became his chief vampiric adversary. Along with his tireless pack of drooling undead, Cortman is really Neville’s perverted connection to his former humanity, a distorted nightmare logic vision of the man he once was. Over the span of time that the action in Matheson’s story unfolds in, the presence of Ben Cortman is both horrific and hopeful, distilling our hero’s misery and re-focusing it as anger, as a need, a divine mission to kill Cortman, a desire that almost single-handedly saves him from suicide. Cortman is in essence Neville’s ‘El Dorado’ his quest, his reason for waking, yet the kind of quest in which the searcher secretly pines to never complete, lest he be left with nothing to chase. LAST MAN keeps this disturbing dichotomy and mutually corrosive relationship wholly intact. In flashback, the film shows Ben Cortman (here played by Giacomo Rossi-Stuart from Mario Bava’s KILL BABY, KILL) and Morgan socializing at their children’s birthday parties, then trying to develop a cure for the plague, before finally emerging as otherworldly enemies, as a constantly reversing of the hunter/prey dynamic.

It’s a crucial narrative element that’s deftly handled and is both appropriately unsettling and almost overwhelmingly tragic.

Just as beautifully rendered are the final days in the lives of Morgan’s wife and daughter. As the rapidly disintegrating government insists on incineration of the deceased plague victims remains, Morgan, in a temporary fit of unbearable grief and searing madness, goes after the federal body burners in a vain attempt to rescue his little girl’s corpse from the fire. When he returns home, morally beaten and empty handed to find his wife dead, he takes her corpse to a nearby field for a proper burial. Later that night, while Morgan reclines in a chair and waits for the inevitable, a la ‘The Monkey’s Paw’, his spouses’ now gurgled voice chants ‘Robert, Robert…”, her unseen dirty and bloodless hands twisting the door handle, as she grins and moves in to give her still living husband the kiss of death.

And what of poor Vincent Price, the chief reason Richard Matheson turned up his nose at the film to begin with? How does this hammy, wonderfully theatrical icon of horror fare as the haunted, tortured last living man on the planet? In the context of the film, fucking great, I’d say. Price’s hangdog, wounded face and melancholy internal monologue voice-overs are amazing and, if not quite the blue collar Neville of the book, his Robert Morgan is never anything but believable and sympathetic.

Ultimately however, the three (four if you count Romero’s 1968 self-proclaimed LEGEND rip off NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD) filmed versions of Matheson’s soul-destroying masterwork fail to translate his unpretentious majesty verbatim, but really why would you want them too? Movies are dreams. They should be visions of their inspirations, not duplicates. I love THE OMEGA MAN for its bombast, its 70’s action movie bravado, affecting Charlton Heston performance, its then topical sexual/racial politics and of course, that brilliant Ron Grainer score. I really like the 2007 Will Smith version for its haunting urban decay tableaux, its wrenching isolation and magnification of the heart sinking Neville/dog incident and relentlessly sad tone (though the film falls apart in the final reel). But thus far, THE LAST MAN ON EARTH is the only one that has managed to exist as an aggressively depressing and lyrical nightmare, taking all that was profound and painful in the source text and re-presenting it as a low-budget but evocative and funereal slice of semi-cerebral pulp.

Flawed but unforgettable, THE LAST MAN ON EARTH deserves multiple viewings and a secure place in the annals of classic horror cinema. The recent inclusion of the film in Scream Factory’s second Blu-ray Vincent Price Collection means you can see this once though lost to the public domain gem in glorious high-def and the commentary on that release by horror historian (and SHOCK scribe) David Del Valle is marvelous.

If you haven’t seen it…see it. Soon. And to the late, great Richard Matheson, wherever you are….thanks man.

The post The ‘Legend’ of THE LAST MAN ON EARTH appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

more info...

Sculptor Bryan Moore To Give Bram Stoker the Bronze Treatment

Shock Till You Drop

Sculptor Bryan Moore To Give Bram Stoker the Bronze Treatment

Noted artist to tackle new Bram Stoker bust project.

Celebrated master sculptor Bryan Moore made a splash a few years back with his stunning bronze bust of iconic dark fantasy scribe H.P. Lovecraft and later, of Gothic godfather Edgar Allan Poe. Now Moore is about to mold another master of horror, that of DRACULA author Bram Stoker.

Says Moore:

“The character of Count Dracula embodies what we’d all like to be: sexy, immortal, wise from centuries of lost l’amour, status hard won and enduring to the last. The undead Count represents everything timeless and deathless that never goes out of style throughout the romantic ages.”

With this latest bust, Moore will continue the trend of casting the statue in the city of his subject’s birth, in this case Dublin, Ireland.

“Fans across the globe helped me to place busts of Lovecraft in Providence, Rhode Island and Poe to Boston, Massachusetts. It seemed only fitting that Bram Stoker should return to the Emerald Isle and will be donated to the Dublin Writers Museum in Parnell Square.”

“Placing a bust of Stoker here puts emphasis not only on his personality but also on his nationality” said Robert Nicholson, Curator of the Dublin Writers Museum. “Being born and bred a Dubliner was just as important to Stoker’s genius as it was to that of his contemporary and acquaintance, Oscar Wilde, and to many other writers born here on the cultural fault line.”

Joining Moore in his literary quest of honoring Stoker is no less than Bram’s great grand-nephew Dacre Stoker, who manages the Estate of Bram Stoker as well as co-author of both the sequel to DRACULA entitled DRACULA: THE UNDEAD.

“The Bram Stoker Estate is very pleased to endorse the Bram Stoker Bronze Bust Project. The Stoker family would ultimately like to see a statue of Bram displayed in a prominent location in Dublin. A bronze bust is certainly a fitting tribute and this effort by Bryan Moore is to be commended and is worthy of our family’s support.”

Also on board is noted DRACULA scholar, author and filmmaker David J. Skal, whose book HOLLYWOOD GOTHIC: THE TANGLED WEB OF DRACULA FROM NOVEL TO SCREEN paved the way for his much anticipated biography, SOMETHING IN THE BLOOD: THE UNTOLD STORY OF BRAM STOKER, to be published by Liveright next year.

As with the Lovecraft and Poe projects, Moore will be launching a Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund the costs of the bust as well as personally making a financial donation to Children’s Books Ireland, a local organization that promotes children’s literacy.

“It’s an incredible amount of work for many months to plan and launch these bust projects with the project team, but also incredibly rewarding” says Moore. “So many fellow fans from across the world rally to the cause and help me turn this vision into a reality, which is to celebrate these legendary authors of works that mean so much to the public consciousness and to pop culture. It’s about time that the authors of these classics of horror literature were seen as legitimate scribes of something really special that never becomes dated. Horror will outlast us all.”

The post Sculptor Bryan Moore To Give Bram Stoker the Bronze Treatment appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

more info...