‘New Horror Handbook’: Finally available!

NHH_coverWord came late last night that The New Horror Handbook has finally been printed.

And a cry went up in the home offices of NHH central… Well, a lone cry, because due to unforeseen circumstances, art director Pamela Norman wasn’t around to celebrate.

But yes, The New Horror Handbook was delivered, cleaned up, and smacked on the ass by the doctors/printers in attendance, and will be shipping soon.

Thank you again for pacing this delivery room waiting area with me all these many months — you’ve all made the wait that much more endurable.

Here, have a cigar.

The New Horror Handbook…

…has officially gone to press :-)

Finally: Sample Pages from the Book!

Inside_web_01Admittedly it’s taken us a bit longer to put The New Horror Handbook together than we expected, but I’m happy to report that the book was sent to the publisher on Monday, and things are finally starting to move.

Your’s truly is going to put the finishing touches on the index today, send that off to the publisher, too, and hopefully we’ll have this book out within a few weeks.

And yes, we finally managed to post a few sample pages from the book on the Web site: check them out. We’re still working on finding the best way to have them come through clear enough to read online, but I think you’ll get an idea of what to expect.

Also:

  • The book’s going to come in at about 230 pages.
  • It’s heavily illustrated, including many seldom seen “making of” images from the French gorefest Inside and Eli Roth’s Cabin Fever, among other movies.
  • For those interested in knowing how the book is coming along, you can follow its progress (and at times, lack thereof) on Twitter.
  • Finally, if you’re at all interested in such things, check out our Facebook page. We have a few things happening there sometime in the next couple of weeks that I think you will like.

Thank you again for your patience; I hope you will find it well rewarded once The New Horror Handbook finally comes out.

The New Horror Handbook Cover

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I was pretty excited about The New Horror Handbook even before seeing the finalized cover yesterday. Now I’m feeling pretty much like a kid on Christmas morning. Great job, Pamela Norman!

It’s looking like this Memorial Day weekend is going to be a marathon session for editing proofs; don’t know when the last time was that I was so jazzed about so much work. I love this part :-)

PS – You can check out close ups of the front cover here, and the back here.

New Horror Handbook: Home Stretch

100_0691The first proofs for The New Horror Handbook are in, and your’s truly couldn’t be happier. I really think you all are going to enjoy it.

True, this project has taken a tad longer than we thought it was going to, in part because the time we picked to document the modern horror film has been one of the genre’s most frenetic in decades.

Trying to explore the best and most innovative films and filmmakers in horror when the likes of Inside, Let the Right One In and Martyrs are hitting the market is slightly akin to catching rain drops with a thimble. At some point you simply have to stop and tell yourself that there can always be The New Horror Handbook Vol. 2.

In the meantime, we plan to get the book to press in the next two weeks. Thanks again for all your support!

-Aaron

Final Edits Begin This Weekend

nhh_newThe New Horror Handbook is just a few weeks from going to press; art director Pamela Norman is finalizing the last bits of design this week before your’s truly gets his mits on it.

Thanks go to all those who’ve so patiently given of their time, photos, and feedback during the writing of this book: Eli Roth, Karen Walton, Greg McLean, Joe Monks and so many more. The result is going to be one heck of a book!

Zombie Girl’s Slam(dance) Dunk

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The little film that could continued to capture hearts and plaudits this month as Zombie Girl documentary filmmakers Erik Mauck, Aaron Marshall and Justin Johnson (left to right) brought home Slamdance’s Spirit of Slamdance award. Get all the juicy details  at Zombie Girl’s Facebook page.

(Never ones to miss an opportunity to ride on someone’s successful coattails, may we remind you that you can read the whole Emily Hagins/Zombie Girl story in the pages of The New Horror Handbook?-ed)

‘Zombie Girl’ on the Road

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Cheers to filmmaker Emily Hagins (Pathogen, The Retelling) and the team behind Zombie Girl, the documentary about Emily’s efforts.

This week, filmmakers Aaron Marshall, Erik Mauck and Justin Johnson took Zombie Girl to Slamdance! If you haven’t already friended Zombie Girl on Facebook, now’s a good time to do so. You’ll find exclusive pics and reports from Slamdance. And, of course, you can read about the whole Emily Hagins/Zombie Girl story in the pages of The New Horror Handbook.

‘Let the Right One In’: Bloody Brilliant

The Morning After

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Still racing to finish The New Horror Handbook, but I had to weigh in on Let the Right One In now that I’ve finally had the opportunity to see it.  Good heavens, where to begin.

Yes, it’s been hyped to death; yes, it’s been all but hailed as the Second Coming of horror films. And I’m afraid that, cynic though I am, I absolutely adored this movie.

People occasionally ask me what I mean by “the new horror,” what this blasted book is all about. Now I finally have one solid movie to refer them to.

Granted that adoration didn’t exactly come to me during the screening itself, though I liked it well enough at the time. No, it was more of a slow burn kind of thing — one of those flicks where you keep ruminating on it on the drive home, at breakfast the next morning, and for the next week thereafter.

There are several horror movies where you identify with the characters, or at least like them well enough that you don’t want to see them hurt by the movie’s Big Bad, but if they do get hurt, meh. This is the first movie I’ve ever seen where I actually grew to love the characters, including what by rights should’ve been the Big Bad — the vampire Eli. And it has one of those endings that makes you want to jump out of your seat and howl “Yes!” Sober!!

Product of Sweden that it is, there is the strong compulsion to say that this is the movie Bergman would’ve made had he gotten around to dabbling with the undead. The truth is that’s not very wide of the mark. The much-talked-about cinematography doesn’t exactly live up to the hype — how could it? Yet it does what it’s supposed to do — it manages to make the Stockholm suburb look as drab and depressing as it does the main characters Oskar and Eli radiant.

One can already feel those who are working on the US remake distilling the easiest to understand bits and siphoning off the subtle complexities for the slop bucket. Best to see the original any way you can — the DVD is rumored to be coming out sometime in March — before the Diabolical Power of the Remake compels you to renounce the original. And make no mistake, it is original. Hurry before the next cinematic regurgitations come sluicing down the pipeline.

‘Repo’ Debuts Today

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Repo! The Genetic Opera finally hits (a few) theaters today. For those who constantly lament the mind-numbing predictability of horror flicks — hell, of most films today — here’s your chance to see what it looks like to subvert the norms of cinema. Starting today, you can catch showings in:

  • Los Angeles
  • Pasadena
  • San Francisco
  • Berkeley
  • Las Vegas
  • Austin
  • New York City
  • Minneapolis

It will also go on the road to a few more cities starting Nov. 10. Check here for details.

Directed by Saw II-IV director Darren Bousman, this rock opera serves up a bizarre near-future world where expensive replacement organs are savagely repossessed by repo men when their owners miss a payment. It boasts stunning visuals, some catchy tunes, and an intriguing behind-the-scenes back story, which you can find soon in The New Horror Handbook.

Here at the Handbook we like to go to bat for films and directors who we think are not only making significant contributions to the genre, but also edging horror cinema itself forward. Bousman and company have done just that with Repo. If you get the opportunity, check it out. Whether you love it or hate it, chances are good you’ll have to say you’ve never seen anything quite like it. And in the end, isn’t that why we come to horror in the first place?