Castle of Blood (1964)

Exquisitely creepy and essentially gothic, Antonio Margheriti’s Castle of Blood is the perfect moody film for dark, stormy nights. Heck, I watched it while the sun was still shining and it still made my apartment feel like a dank, dark crypt. Much like Mario Bava’s classic Black Sunday, Castle of Blood is full of foggy cemeteries, beautiful damsels in distress, cursed ghosts and a very gloomy yet suspenseful atmosphere.

Journalist Alan Foster is planning to meet with great author Edgar Allan Poe at a pub. When he arrives, Poe is regaling a group of men with one of his fantastical tales. After the tale is finished, Poe goes on to tell Alan that his tales are based on truth. Poe’s friend, Lord Blackwood, agrees with him and he and Poe challenge the scoffing Alan to stay at a supposedly haunted castle overnight. It is a special night, the night of the dead, where the ghosts of the castle supposedly come back to reenact their last moments on earth. According to Blackwood, no one has ever been able to last the entire night in the castle.

Alan begrudgingly agrees to the proposition and the three take a two hour carriage ride to the isolated and seemingly abandoned castle. Poe and Blackwood drop Alan off and tell him they shall return at dawn to see how he fared. Alan opens the creaky iron gates of the castle, creeps through an overgrown cemetery and is spooked by a little black cat before heading into the dark castle. Here he does some exploring and finds that he is not alone. A woman named Elisabeth appears and soon she and Alan have fallen in love. Trouble is, Elisabeth is a ghost and soon the other inhabitants of the castle appear. Alan starts to wonder if he is going mad but soon discovers that the apparitions are after more than his sanity…they want his blood!

For fans of old, black and white, atmospheric haunted house movies, Castle of Blood is a must-see. If, on the other hand, you need constant gore and action to keep your attention during a movie you may want to skip this one. The first 10 minutes alone show Alan just making his way into the castle and poking around. I love these kind of movies, though, the kind that are full of creaky doors, black cats, overgrown cemeteries, eerie fog, nefarious mysteries and murders!

The acting is quite well-done, though perhaps a bit over-dramatic for today’s audiences. Still, Barbara Steele shines as the doomed Elisabeth Blackwood and Georges Riviere is excellent as the unbelieving Alan Foster. The rest of the cast does a spectacular job as well and each character helps create a foreboding atmosphere as the movie progresses to the finale.

Margheriti’s direction is excellent. Everything is in the chiarcoscuro style and very Gothic-inspired. Scenes of rolling fog in between gnarled trees and broken tombstones look gorgeously creepy and the cramped, dark corners of the castle are truly claustrophobic. Margheriti builds on the dread with each scene and really delivers at the end.

The Synapse DVD release of Castle of Blood has previously unreleased scenes, such as a lesbian scene, a nude scene and a few extra scenes that add further explanation. These scenes were so rare to find that the only prints that existed were French. Therefore, you will notice that when these scenes pop up they have French audio with English subtitles. After getting over the language switch, you’ll find that these never-before-seen-scenes add a lot to the overall movie. Synapse has done a great service to movie fans by adding these “lost” scenes back into this film.

Castle of Blood is a must-see for fans of old haunted house films. The Synapse DVD is highly recommended for its restoration of “lost” scenes, but I recommend seeing this film any way you can!

Available on Amazon!

The Pit and the Pendulum (2007)

Ray Harryhausen Presents: The Pit and the Pendulum is a fantastically creative stop-animation short based on Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tale. It boasts a very dark, oppressive atmosphere that perfectly matches the tone of Poe’s story. This version of the story is presented as a short film, clocking in at less than 7 minutes.

Like Poe’s story, the film builds a palatable sense of dread with its suspenseful atmosphere. We follow the nameless lead character as he narrates his story for us. He is tried during the Spanish Inquisition by black robed judges and sentenced to the horrors of the infamous dungeons. Here he escapes his first planned death device, a dark, deep pit. Once his torturers notice that he has survived, they concoct another deadly demise for him. His meager portion of water is drugged, and when he awakes again, he is tied down and a sharp pendulum is swinging close above him. He escapes yet again, but the unrelenting inquisitors have fashioned another death trap that promises no easy escape…

This animated short really blew me away! Directed by Marc Lougee and adapted by Matt Taylor, it perfectly captures the despair of the main character’s plight and the decaying dungeon where most of the story takes place. It takes precious few artistic liberties with the story (having the main character wear a bucket over his head, including a red bird that flutters around the dungeon – both which add some nice visuals) and closely follows Poe’s original story.

The stop-motion animation, done by Switch VFX, is wonderful…it has an older, more traditional feel while still managing to retain its modern edge. The characters, from the black-robed inquisitors to the prisoner, are very expressive and emotive. The stop-animation gives the film a very surreal, delirious experience that fits perfectly with the seemingly hopeless account of the story. It’s easy to see why the great Ray Harryhausen would choose to back this production.

The atmosphere of the settings (the inquisition room, the dungeon) is kept very dark and foreboding, which, again, echoes the desperation of the prisoner’s situation. I loved how everything felt oppressive and heavy, from the dark visuals to the deep voice of the narrator. The score assists the growing dread in the film, playing eerily over the screams and moans of other prisoners in the dungeon.

The Pit and the Pendulum is part of a new series called Ray Harryhausen Presents. Harryhausen is the famous artist and animator probably most well-known for the creation of his fighting skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts (1963). He has worked on numerous stop-motion animation projects throughout his illustrious career and his contributions can be seen in many films from It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955) to Clash of the Titans (1981). He is continuing his legacy by nurturing young talent and releasing their work under his Ray Harryhausen Presents label. It is easy to see that The Pit and the Pendulum is a fantastic place to start.

This animated short boasts all the goodies us horror lover’s crave – a tense atmosphere, dark visuals and a horrifying premise. Whether you enjoy animated horror stories or not, The Pit and the Pendulum is definitely worth checking out.

Heading Home (2007)

Heading Home may only be 10 minutes long, but its quirky, creepy and fun re-telling of Ramsey Campbell’s classic short story makes it a very worthwhile watch.

Marie (Jenny Mundy-Castle) suspects her husband (Ean Sheehy) is up to something strange in his laboratory. He never wants to be disturbed, keeps the doors locked tight and the butcher (Chuck Bunting) always has bizarre deliveries for him. One day, curiosity gets the best of Marie and when she finds the door unlocked, she decides to snoop. She is horrified to find that her husband is performing some truly grotesque and immoral experiments. She confides in the butcher, who also believes something is amiss. The butcher soon takes his revenge, but not before the doctor perfects one of his experiments and tries it on himself…

Jane Rose has done an excellent job adopting Campbell’s short story. I’m sure many of you have read Campbell’s short story at some point – it is usually required material in elementary school. Rose was inspired (and creeped out) by the story when she herself read it in elementary school and has now turned it into a fantastic short film.

Though this is a low-budget film, it still plays very well. It does a good job of staying within its limitations and really working with what it has. The special effects are believable and never look cheap or tacky. The twist at the end and the accompanying special FX were very well done and looked very cool! Severed heads aren’t the easiest things to portray (especially if they are alive and wriggling), but this film, even with its low-budget, pulled the effect off very well.

Rose has created a very tight script that relies heavily on atmosphere, but still manages to be fun. Heading Home reminds me of the old “mad doctor” films that have “Midnight Movie” written all over them. Heading Home is a unique vision of kitschy horror that still sends thrills up your spine that definitely deserves your attention!

Interview with Author Gregory Solis

Fatally Yours recently had the pleasure of interviewing Gregory Solis, author of the Rise and Walk (our review), an intense and action-packed zombie novel. For fans of zombie novels, Rise and Walk is definitely a must-read! Solis has two other books planned after Rise and Walk, the next being titled Rise and Walk: Pathogen.

Rise and Walk is Gregory Solis’ first novel, which he even published himself. Solis is a very friendly, approachable and down-to-earth guy whose zombie novel has been a long time coming, but it was definitely worth the wait!

Read the insightful and fantastic interview with Gregory below!

Fatally Yours: Gregory, congratulations on the success of Rise and Walk! It’s a great zombie novel and deserves to be part of any horror fan’s book collection. What made you decide to write about zombies in particular?

Gregory Solis: Ever since I first saw Dawn of the Dead in 1979, I found the walking dead interesting. They were horrible and frightening yet, even as a child I felt that they could be dealt with. I was very frightened back then by ghost stories or things like The Exorcist, but zombies were an enemy I could deal with. I heard about Night of the Living Dead and watched the local Creature Features every Saturday night to see if it would be on. There was very little zombie related media back in the early eighties. I found what I could with the emergence of home video, the Italian [zombie] films, Return of the Living Dead and others, but my fascination with George A. Romero’s work never went away.

FY: Before becoming a novel, Rise and Walk was supposed to be a film based on a screenplay you had written. What happened to the film idea and why did you decide to write a book instead?

GS: The demise of Rise and Walk as a feature came about because the project was too ambitious for our budget and time. We also lost a lead actress to an emergency relocation. It was an incredible learning experience as a filmmaker but costly as the project never came to fruition. I am still paying for some of the equipment that we purchased for the film. I put the screenplay on the shelf for a few years yet it remained in the back of my mind. I would think about the characters and what would happen to them after the events of Rise and Walk. I thought about how I would create a larger world over run by zombies in sequels. I wanted to exorcise the negative feelings I had from the film not working out by creating something positive. Turning the screenplay into a novel was the natural progression to my mind. Writing gave me the opportunity to create a vast world in the mind of the reader without having to worry about how to pull it off onscreen. I absolutely love it. The limitless possibility for character exploration and scope of the zombie threat is a definite draw for me to keep writing.

FY: Do you think that Rise and Walk will ever be made into a film?

GS: A talented colleague and dear friend of mine is opening up a hi-definition production house based around the new RED camera named Dastardly Studios. He wants to shoot Rise but I wouldn’t try it without a serious, well proven producer. The budget wouldn’t be that bad now as we can do a lot more digitally. I learned my lesson not divide my attention as both Director and Producer on any project. I may shop the script around one day as the book becomes more successful. I think that something like Rise and Walk could easily become a horror television series, given the right outlet.

FY: Besides your work on Rise and Walk, what prior writing experience did you have?

GS: I have a pretty elaborate diary that I started when I was thirteen. It is an old ship’s log that I filled with teenage angst and introspection. I started to churn out fiction pieces that were inspired by Hemingway at fifteen. A lot of the stuff was in the first person like my diary, but written about fictional events and characters. I ran off to Hawaii for a while when I was nineteen and wrote a lot about drinking and chasing girls. Hawaii was my Pamplona. I met a lot of strange people from all corners of the globe and got hammered with them. One day I looked across the table at the bar and said, “I gotta go to school,” so I returned to California and slugged it out in classes. In college I started to learn more about the non first person perspective. My teachers were very encouraging, so I kept writing on my own. This was the early nineties and we didn’t have the many different ways of releasing one’s work that we do now, so I never had any aspirations to publish. I just wrote because I had stuff to say. Later on, I became a Television major where the curriculum required us to crank out scripts for our productions. Some times I would have to produce three shorts in a week, one for Field Production, one for Advanced Studio and a concept for a Music Video. I think that high pressure training helped a lot as a writer. I grew tired of the frenetic pace of Television and transferred to San Francisco State’s film program to get my degree in Cinema. It was there that I learned about serious drama while writing screenplays.

FY: What were your influences when writing Rise and Walk?

GS: When I was working on the screenplay, the main idea was that courage is not the absence of fear, but doing what you have to despite that fear. I think we see that theme in the actions of the characters. I was also thinking of a paper I read by Laura Mulvey about how women are usually portrayed as sex objects in cinema. I thought that I didn’t want the female characters in Rise to be damsels in distress, but real people. I know a lot of women who are intelligent and strong, so I wrote their characters as best as I could.

FY: When writing the book, what was your daily routine? As a writer, did you have a special “process” you went through when creating your stories or characters?

GS: I would wake up early, like four in the morning, have coffee and write to music. I created a few playlists with songs without lyrics. If I was working on an action scene I would play some Apocalyptica or a few AC/DC songs from Maximum Overdrive. Slower songs got slower music, so the music became like a film score for the writing. I would write until noon and go to the gym. I found that sitting at a desk all day is murder on the body. Working out would get my blood flowing to my brain. I would go about the rest of my day, sort of daydreaming about how I was going to write the next day.

FY: In Rise and Walk, the characters are portrayed very realistically. How did you accomplish writing such natural dialogue and actions?

GS: The dialogue, both internal to the characters and in how they speak is based on people I have met in life except for the case of Veronica. I gave a lot of thought to how she expresses herself. She was raised without a mother, by her father who was a surgeon. Her character grew up fast, surrounded by her father’s colleagues. It may sound silly but I decided to make her dialogue very formal. She doesn’t use contractions in her speech or thought. I don’t know if anyone noticed this; it is such a little thing, but it is how she would express herself. Maybe those small details work on a subconscious level to make the character seem more authentic. I am not sure. If you read Rise and Walk again, you might notice that Nikki asks a lot of questions. Even before the horrors become apparent, that is her nature. Nikki is desperately trying to keep up with a world that she thinks is passing her by as she wastes away in the small mountain town. She wants to pick people brains and learn what they know about the world. That line continues as the trouble unfolds. I have extensive back stories for each of the characters that I never mention in the novel. Stuff like Jack and Tony both having foul mouths as kids but being able to switch instantly to formal speech when around adults. Those little details help me to know how the characters would react to a situation, what they would say and how they would express themselves.

As for action, before I write a scene, I visualize it. I imagine what takes place and remember what I imagined when I type it out. Sometimes I will even block the action like we would in a rehearsal so that I know what to describe from the action. When Jack uses a sword to take out a zombie, I had to think about what that would be like. If the blade hits mid-vertebrae, it would take a lot of effort to break through bone, sinew, and muscle. If the blade is sharp, and it strikes in the intervertebral space then you may score a beheading. Acting out some actions lets me know if what I imagined is practical and possible. These characters are human; at lest I hope they come off as such. Jack and Tony have some skills in the book, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t give them super bionic ninja powers. That would just be silly.

FY: Speaking of action, the gore in the book is also described very vividly. How did you achieve such accurate descriptions of grue and violence? Did you have to do much research?

GS: No, I have always had an interest in medicine and science. I did really well in Physiology and Biology and considered a career in medicine. I did a lot of playing around with special effects make-up in college as well. My copy of Grey’s Anatomy has been to hell and back over the years from using it as a reference for sculpting. I also worked in an old time butcher shop in high school. Hunters would bring in their kills for preparation by us and we would charge them by the pound. I learned what it is like to cut down game, the smell, the texture and all that nasty stuff. I am somewhat familiar with the organic processes that take place after death; the gas build up, what coagulation looks like, how quickly insects find the smell of decay. Taking out the discarded material at the butcher shop was something I will never forget. The rendering bin only got picked up once a week. Talk about foul decay! So my life experience was the research for the book.

FY: You self-published Rise and Walk. For the aspiring writers out there, can you tell us how hard this was to do and how you actually accomplished it?

GS: It was remarkably easy. I have a lot of colleagues from my video work out in Silicon Valley. They told me all about how Publishing on Demand was really taking off. It sounded viable to me so I started to think about it. I had already read David Moody’s Autumn and Len Barnhart’s Reign of the Dead, enjoying both novels. Once I found out that they were POD books I started to investigate further. I saw the success that J.L. Bourne had found with his book, Day By Day: Armageddon, and my mind was made up. The process was simple enough. I wrote in MS Word, figured out what font I wanted to use and how the chapters should look. Next I created a table of contents and exported the file to Acrobat.
I never expected Rise and Walk to reach the audience that it has and I am unashamed of how I got my book to market. It has been a wonderful experience.

FY: Will the next two books also be self-published, or are you looking for a publisher at this point?

GS: I am in this for the long run, no matter who publishes the series. I have the rights to the property and can take it where ever I like. After hearing some of the horror stories my film friends have endured at the hands of distributors, I am glad that I am in charge of the series. I would consider taking Rise to a traditional house provided I felt good about how they would handle the property and how much input I would retain. The most important thing is to protect the series and myself as a new writer.

FY: How are you promoting the book and is this hard to do without a publisher?

GS: I have been incredibly fortunate that webmasters, forum moderators and readers have liked the book. Their support and word of mouth have been integral to the success of Rise and Walk. One thing I attempt to do in any of my interactions with others is to just be me. I endeavor not to be a rude to anyone or put on airs. I try to take the time to answer people’s questions as honestly as possible and offer encouragement to authors who ask about my experiences. Sending out review copies to horror related websites and magazines is vital. Indy authors have to find people whom will look at their work and give a review. The practice is expensive, so I recommend that you contact the reviewers first to see if they have the time and interest to review the work. I go to horror and writing forums and introduce myself politely and let people know about my website. The website has a 48 page preview that people can read online or download. I took the idea of a sample from J.L. Bourne, whose preview has been very successful for his book. I know that it has helped me. Putting time and effort into the Rise and Walk website is very important. It has links to all the Rise related reviews, interviews, features and articles to help get the word out. There is also the obligatory MySpace page where people can learn about me. I also blog a little; I recently did an article about how the design of the book cover came about.

It is all a lot of work, but I love my book so it doesn’t weigh on me. I could never be a salesman, it is not my thing, but I can honestly tell someone about my book because I believe that it is a worthwhile horror adventure. I suppose it would be easier to promote with the backing of a publisher but I would still do what I am doing to help the book.

FY: What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

GS: I used to be addicted to sushi but it is expensive. I spend time with my girlfriend of four years, collect music videos, which are getting hard to find on TV anymore, read, listen to podcasts about writing, play a mean game of Texas Hold ‘Em, and drink weak ass coffee all day long. I am also a bit of an insomniac so I think a lot about plot. I am currently applying to grad school for creative writing. Wish me luck!

FY: Best of luck! Since you are obviously a horror fan, what are your favorite horror movies?

GS: Dawn of the Dead ‘78, Night of the Living Dead, Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead, and the Night ‘90 remake. Limited I know, but they are my top five.

FY: What are five horror books that you can’t live without?

GS: Frankenstein, The Stand, I am Legend, Autumn, and Stories to be Read With the Door Locked.

FY: What can fans expect to see in the next two Rise and Walk books?

GS: I hope to improve as a writer on the sequels. I want to give the readers more; more characters, character development, more action, more zombies, and even more pages. I may have to shrink the font size down to fit it all but we will see. We will learn more about the characters. There will have a small town to move around in instead of the wilderness. The theme of Pathogen [the next planned book] is family, both blood and close friends. If something like this happened, wouldn’t you want to make sure that your loved ones were safe? If things, walking, munching things, got in your way, what would you be willing to do to get to your loved ones? There will also be an element of discovery as more details of the infection come to light. I have been studying more and more about writing since the publication of Rise and Walk. I feel a great responsibility to do a good job on the further adventures.

FY: Besides the Rise and Walk books, do you have any other stories planned for publication?

GS: I am developing a non-horror project for the future called The Boy You Used To Know. I know that some Masters programs for writing look down on horror so it will be more of a mainstream project about teen partiers in the late eighties.

FY: You’ll be a guest at SiliCon in San Jose, California this October. What can fans expect from you while you’re there?

GS: SiliCon will be my first convention. I have no idea what to expect other than to warmly greet any one who is interested in meeting me. I am looking forward to meeting Simon Wood, Greg Lambertson, Molly and Wil from Horror Yearbook, yourself of course, and the other attendees.

FY: Gregory, thanks again for the interview and I’m really looking forward to the next Rise and Walk books, along with any other novels you may have planned!

GS: Thank you very much for taking the time to ask me these questions. It is an honor to be included on your website.

Buy Rise and Walk

Dead@17 (2007)

Based on Josh Howard’s Dead@17 graphic novels, this short film by the same name stays true to the source material and by the end of its short run, you’ll be begging for more zombies and ax-wielding schoolgirls!

Nara and Hazy have been the best of friends since the 6th grade. Now they are in high school and Nara is offering support to Hazy, who has just broken up with her boyfriend. Hazy drops Nara off at her house that night, and Nara bounds up the stairs and into her bathroom to get ready for bed. After stripping off her pants, Nara starts brushing her teeth…until she hears and ominous noise. Figuring it’s her parents, she peeks into the hallway, where she sees a figure enveloped in shadow. He unsheathes a knife and Nara stumbles backwards into the bathroom, The killer, wearing a black mask, rushes at Nara and stabs her several times, leaving her to die on the bathroom floor.

Hazy is distraught at Nara’s death. One day, while visiting her grave, she is approached by two investigators who insist she come with them to the station. They tell her Nara was involved in the occult and even kept a diary chronicling the voices she heard. Hazy doesn’t believe it, but steals Nara’s diary anyway. Her friend Elijah picks her up from the police station and he also recounts a strange occurrence with Nara.

Hazy can’t believe what she’s hearing and heads home to her trailer park home. There she takes a peak at the pilfered diary and the undead come crashing through her thin walls! Guess Nara did have a little something to do with the occult… Just before all seems lost, a mini-skirt clad, schoolgirl-uniform wearing, ax-wielding and very dead Nara shows up and dismembers the zombies. Things are a little more complicated than Hazy originally thought, and now it’s up to the two of them to save the world…

Yowza! In its short 10 minutes, this film sure does pack a punch!! Fans of Howard’s comic will be pleased that director Mark Steensland closely follows the story, so much, in fact, that each shot looks like it was lovingly lifted from each of the the comic’s panels! This is definitely a film made by a fan for the fans. Even if you’re not a fan, this film will turn you into one and you’ll be Googling Dead@17 comics in no time! (Hint: They are published by Viper Comics, where you can get a sneak peek at volume one).

Everything about this short was a joy to watch, from the actors to the lighting to the cinematography to the zombie makeup. Right away you get wrapped up into the story and can’t wait to see what happens. The actors chosen to play Nara (Katelyn Gracy) and Hazy (Jessica Ciccone) look strikingly like the two characters and do a wonderful job of developing their characters within the first few minutes. We get a feel about who these girls are right from the get go and are behind them 100%.

The gore in the flick is short-lived, but, boy, is it sweet! We get stabbings, a pool of blood, zombie attacks, decapitations and dismemberment! This film is not a straight-up gore flick, but the gore it does contain looks great! I love the zombie slayage scene! Nara kicks some serious ass with her ax!

Dead@17 really brings Josh Howard’s work to life, capturing it’s energy, mystery and grue. Comic book or graphic novel adaptations are a tricky thing and no one wants them coming off goofy or silly, but Mark Steensland’s Dead@17 stands apart as an independent adaptation done right. It might be low budget, but it definitely has the spunk and charisma to garner the approval of fans and non-fans alike. Heck, it even has Howard’s approval!

When asked if he would make a full-length feature out of Dead@17, director Mark Steensland told us that, unfortunately, the rights to a movie have already been snatched up by some big budget studio. Here’s hoping this studio has the smarts to employ Steensland as director, because with his short Dead@17 film, he has created something truly special – a film both fans and non-fans love!

The film isn't available, but you can buy the comics on Amazon!

Book Review: Roses of Blood on Barbwire Vines by D.L. Snell

D.L. Snell has burst onto the horror fiction scene with his debut novel, Roses of Blood on Barbwire Vines, a wholeheartedly original and more brutal approach to both the vampire and zombie subgenres. Snell creates a post-apocalyptic world run by ruthless vampires who are slowly overrun by Lovecraftian zombies. The only humans that remain are used for the vampires’ food or for breeding. The breeders are lobotomized and amputated, slobbering sex machines that exist as nothing more than a means to give the vamps more bodies of full of tasty and life-nourishing blood. Only a handful of “whole” human survivors remain, and they are locked away tight as the vamps only, and quickly diminishing, supply of food.

Shade, the last monarch of the vampire kingdom, rules the Haven, an apartment complex where the vampires live. The Haven has been walled off from the zombies and barricaded with cars, barbed wire and other large pieces of debris. Somehow, the zombies are getting smarter and faster. They are controlled by the Puppeteer, a black, oily parasite that latches onto their brains and reanimates them. Now, the Puppeteer is quickly evolving and the mutating zombies soon find a way into the Haven.

Shade wants to stay and defend her father’s kingdom, but her general, Frost, has other ideas. He plans on abandoning their home to go live on a faraway island where the vampires can hunt humans in wide open spaces like they once did. Meanwhile, Ann, a secret blood slave to one of the vampires, must try to save her sister, one of the lobotomized and amputated breeders, and also escape the vampires’ clutches.
Will the vampires save their kingdom and side with their queen, or will they take General Frost’s side once the zombies infiltrate the Haven? Is there any chance for Ann or the rest of the humans? What exactly are the zombies becoming?

I was first introduced to author D.L. Snell through Permuted Press’ fantastic The Undead: Zombie Anthology. His story, “Pale Moonlight,” intrigued me quite a bit and I actively sought out his debut novel, Roses of Blood on Barbwire Vines. With this book Snell has blown me away, crafting a highly stylized story whose vivid descriptions remind me of a graphic novel without the pictures.

The action in Roses of Blood comes fast and furious, with the focus being on vampires. The zombies and remaining humans really are secondary characters here, with all the deceit, backstabbing, torture, viciousness and even loyalty between the vampires taking precedent. The characters of Shade and Frost are perfect comic book caricatures of the hero and the villain, but Snell develops each character so they don’t remain 2-dimensional. Both characters have their own mysterious pasts and both are brutal killers. Pretty soon, things go topsy-turvy and you’re not sure who the hero is or who the villain is. In the end though, the story belongs to Shade, who isn’t a princess in a fluffy dress who lounges on the throne all day. No, she’s a leather-clad caped crusader who won’t let her kingdom crumble without putting up one hell of a bloody fight.

Roses of Blood is a visceral, at times erotic, and always bloody book. The gore throughout really made me cringe time and time again. There are scenes of mayhem, torture and pain that really made me want to put the book down and say, “Wow, I just can’t handle it,” but Snell has created such an engrossing book that no matter how gruesome it became, I just couldn’t put it down. Barbwire does play a large part as is referenced in the title, and there are plentiful scenes of it ripping and tearing flesh from vampires, zombies and humans alike! The Puppeteer is also one vicious sumuvabitch, and the zombies here are unlike anything I’ve ever seen or read about! Their Cthulhu-like tentacles and quickly evolving intelligence sure did give me the heebie jeebies! The vampires are no frilly-frocked bunch either, and always come out guns and fangs ablazin’.

D.L. Snell’s prose is very poetic and uses many metaphors, hyperboles and comparisons. Don’t be mistaken, though. By “poetic” I don’t mean flowery love poems, but I mean some very brutal violence! My only complaint is that all the highly descriptive passages might rub some people the wrong way. Instead of just telling you what something looks like, Snell really shows you, which may be a bit abstract for some readers. Snell’s style is very creative, original but not straightforward. I found some of his descriptions a little clunky, but for the most part absolutely adored his unique writing style. This style is not something that is seen in the horror genre everyday and I found Snell’s unique voice very refreshing. Snell’s descriptions burst and bloom onto the pages…covered in grue, mind you! Don’t be put off by my “poetic” description. Roses of Blood on Barbwire Vines is one of the most visceral and violent horror books I’ve read in quite a while.

For an exhilarating and eviscerating mash-up of vampires, zombies and the apocalypse, don’t hesitate to check out D.L. Snell’s colorful, violent and all together entertaining book, Roses of Blood on Barbwire Vines.

Available on Amazon!

The Number 23 (2007)

I didn’t see The Number 23 in theaters, though I wanted to under the pretense that it was an intelligent thriller. And starred a very “smmmmmokin’!” Jim Carrey. Still, I never had the chance to check it out…until now.

Walter Sparrow (Jim Carrey) leads a pretty charmed life. He’s got a loving wife (Virginia Madsen), a close relationship with his teenage son (Logan Lerman) and a job he enjoys, even if it is animal control. For his birthday, his wife buys him a book entitled The Number 23, a novel of obsession authored by a mysterious author . He is soon lost within the story of Detective Fingerling (Jim Carrey) and his dark, noir-ish world populated by femme fatales, murder, paranoia, and, of course the number 23. Sparrow quickly notices startling parallels and too-close similarities between Fingerling’s life and his own, leading him to become obsessed with the number 23. Mysteries, secrets and hidden pasts come to light as Sparrow delves deeper and deeper into the book and into the cryptic 23. Are his and Fingerling’s fates intertwined or is everything just mere coincidence?

I remember when this movie looked oh-so promising and I though, “Oh, lookie! It’s an actual smart, suspenseful Hollywood movie based around numerology! And a hot Jim Carrey!” Looking back, one out of those three assumptions was correct. I’ll let you guess which one…

Now, The Number 23 wasn’t a terrible movie, just a terribly boring one! It started out promisingly enough, especially as Walter is introduced to the character of Fingerling. The audience is shown Fingerling’s gritty and dark world, and I really thought this is where the film shined. The visuals in Fingerling’s world are just breathtaking to look at, including his fairy tale-like childhood and the crime-streaked streets that he haunts as a detective. As things took a turn down Paranoia Lane, though, the film devolved into a confused mumbo-jumbo of a movie.

First of all, the film’s mysterious number 23 is never fully explained. Instead the real focus of the movie is Walter’s reading of the book and a mystery from the past that ties into everything. His whole family gets involved Scooby-Doo style to try and solve the big mystery and the movie starts to drag at the 45 minute mark. It relies heavily on mere coincidence and happenstance to keep things going (or “fate” and “destiny” as the characters like to call these convenient occurrences). The ending is anticlimactic, trite and expected.

Again, though, even through all my poo-poo’ing The Number 23 wasn’t all bad. I wholeheartedly enjoyed seeing Jim Carrey in two serious roles – one as family man Sparrow and one as the gritty ‘n’ greasy Detective Fingerling. Sparrow’s son, played by Logan Lerman (whom you might recognize as playing Ashton Kutcher’s younger counterpart in The Butterfly Effect) was great to watch as well. It’s always refreshing to see a teenage character that doesn’t sit around and sulk all the time. My only complaint with the acting was the chemistry between Jim Carrey’s characters and Virginia Madsen’s (she played both Sparrow’s wife and Fingerlings femme fatale), which just wasn’t there.

Despite my misgivings about the pacing, the convoluted storyline and my mistaken assumption that this would be a “smart” thriller, The Number 23 did manage to entertain…at least in small doses. Again, the Fingerling storyline and its execution were very enjoyable to me, as was some of the Scooby-Doo detective work the Sparrow family dove into. There were some suspenseful moments, but overall I just wished it were a lot more intelligent and much more cohesive.

Perhaps next time I’ll be more cautious when an edgy, tattooed Jim Carrey lures me to see an otherwise bland suspense-thriller…

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