Horror, Gnosticism and Queer Love: A review of Adam McOmber's Jesus and John

Just in time for the holidays, I wrote a rather cogent Plenitude Magazine review of Adam McOmber's Jesus and John, from Lethe Press, a  horror novel riffing on Gnosticism, their possible love affair, and scads of cosmic horror.

Not to go all Jerry Garcia about this interesting religious horror novel (yes, you read that correctly), but the book's a trip, and reviewing it required looking into Gnosticism, which I was happy to learn about finally.

You can read the review here.

Cold Skin: My favourite cosmic-horror film viewing of 2020

Quite liked Cold Skin from 2017. In fact, it is my favourite cosmic-horror viewing of 2020 (i.e.: horror that shifts our paradigm and suggests that our place in the universe is negligible at best).

In Cold Skin, an attractive young man travels to a remote island to take the post of weather observer, only to find himself defending the lighthouse from deadly creatures who inhabit the ocean. Handsome protagonist David Oakes inhabits a sort of a tortured queer-angst vibe with his GQ fur look, various bearded styles. He is a fine contrast to the weathered, beleaguered, homely lighthouse keeper, Gruner, portrayed by Ray Stevenson (and not quite as old as the part requires, despite the shaggy hair and wild-man beard). Moreover, this movie, to paraphrase Gemma Files, is a mood. A relentless dread and cosmic horror pervades each lavish, menacing shot of the shoreline, the ocean, even the lighthouse. It is almost an overtly horrific Big Sur by Kerouac. It hangs together well and is rather relentless and obviously and infectiously drunk on Lovecraftian (the Deep Ones) inspiration. Great immersive fun!

Trailer is here.

The Battery from 2013 is a notable zombie flick

Here is another arguable exception to the idea of the time of the zombie film having passed, The Battery from 2012. It does fresh things with the zombie premise. Ballplayers Ben (Jeremy Gardner) and Mickey (Adam Cronheim) are thrust together due to the zombie apocalypse breaking out during the middle of their baseball game. Ben is a catcher. Mickey is a pitcher. The odd couple must survive together, traveling in quietude and deserted campgrounds, Gardner's bearded survivalist is a great foil to Mickey's sensitive and introspective character. It's a quite post-apocalyptic trip whose environs include deserted vineyards and endless empty domiciles. It is also an indie flick, sort of a low-rent hipster zombie movie and a character study, at that. Imagine a beat writers' zombie novel, and you would get something like this. Credit goes to Pete at Movies 'n Stuff for ordering it.

Trailer is here.

One Cut of the Dead a delightful, layered, meta zombie flick

While I agree with Toronto horror writer David Nickle that the time of the zombie film has passed, here is one notable and rather remarkable recent exception I found, One Cut of the Dead. Ostensibly, it's a horror flick, but like a matryoshka doll, it has layer upon layer built in and is meta-meta. A delight!

Trailer's here.

Reflecting on typing my first horror novel Town & Train

Oh, I remember typing, not keyboarding. Started my first novel in grade twelve and continued it in grade 13 as an Independent Study, writing on my Olympia typewriter, then longhand on blue-and-red-lined foolscap, then on my Smith Corona electronic typewriter, finishing the walloping 100-page first draft on the family Adam Computer. All this I did at my desk from Sears. It was then The Train of the Damned, a title which  rocked to 18-year-old me drunk on Ray Bradbury, Stephen King and Clive Barker inspiration. A later draft became The Town and Train after Kerouac's first novel, the epic, Thomas-Wolfe-inspired The Town and the City. I thought my debut title should be a nod to his, as he was also following in novelistic traditions of the time before breaking out with his own voice. Still later, the title was gently but firmly shortened by my publisher when I lucked out, ten drafts (and about 20 years later, after rewriting on the side), to Town & Train.

Second novel is an eight-year grapple, mainly on laptop, with copious notes in moleskin notebooks.