Mike Thorn's Blog, page 36

New Interview in Cedar Hollow Horror Reviews

Curtis Freeman interviewed me on Cedar Hollow Horror Reviews. I discuss Darkest Hours, beer, writing rituals and many other things.

Read the full interview here.

Writing Horror Stories While Completing a Master’s Degree — A Surprisingly Positive Testimony

Academiology's editors invited me to contribute a post about my experiences completing my M.A. while also writing Darkest Hours.

Read the full post here.

Appearance on Writer's Block (CJSW)

For the most recent episode of Writer’s Block on CJSW, I answered the Writer’s Block Questionnaire. The episode also features a reading by Clea Roberts and an interview with the great Suzette Mayr. Stream online.

NOTE: Just to be clear, when I describe Trump as someone who can be "funny," what I mean to say is that Trump himself is a disgraceful joke worthy of mockery.  

Read the Full Critics' Star Wars Dialogue Series in MUBI Notebook

MUBI Notebook ran a 5-part dialogue on George Lucas's six Star Wars films, which I wrote with some of my favorite working critics/filmmakers (Isiah Medina, Chelsea
Phillips-Carr, Isaac Goes, and Neil Bahadur). The full series is now available to read online:

I. A Long Time Ago
II. Avant-Garde vs. Classical
III. Art and Technology
IV. The Griffith Legacy
V. Revision

New Review of Darkest Hours in ReadingNReding

"As a graduate student, some stories in Darkest Hours hit a little too close to home. The story 'Sabbatical,' for example, offers a wonderful look into the agony and anxiety that accompanies the thesis writing process. This particular story shows the brilliant craftmanship behind this collection."

Huge thanks for this!

Read the full review in ReadingNReding.

MUBI Notebook Launches a 5-Part Star Wars Dialogue Between Me, Chelsea Phillips-Carr, Neil Bahadur, Isaac Goes and Isiah Medina

"I’ve spent a lot of time thinking and writing about George Lucas’s work, especially his Star Wars films; I hold this six-part series in extremely high regard, especially the prequel trilogy. In my Bright Lights Film Journal article Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith: George Lucas’s Greatest Artistic Statement?, I discuss the breadth of Lucas’s extratextual reference and his brazenly unique sensibility. In George Lucas’s Wildest Vision: Retrofuturist Auteurism in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002), I pay serious mind to Lucas’s interest in cinematic form and his avant-garde background, unpacking the ways in which his early experimental projects inform his later work.

For the purpose of this dialogue I wanted to hear input from several of my favorite film critics. I categorize Disney’s spin-off entries separately from Lucas’s work, given the corporation’s decision to disregard his existing outlines, but some of the contributors acknowledged the new films’ relation to (or distance from) the existing saga. I decided to pose broad, open-ended questions about these films, hoping to open up the possibilities for conversation as much as possible."

Read Part 1 here.

New 5-Star Review of Darkest Hours in Cedar Hollow Horror Reviews

"I had to stop reading three stories due to the fact that I was reading in the dark. I had to cover a mirror and keep the bedside lamp on."

Read the full review in Cedar Hollow Horror Reviews

New Review of Darkest Hours by Alex Landers for One Critical Bitch

For her website One Critical Bitch, visual artist, critic and playwright Alex Landers wrote the most in-depth review of Darkest Hours yet. Read it here.

Some of my favorite excerpts:

“As an opener, the short and sweet 'Hair' provides the special kind of hook that makes you afraid to continue, but somehow calls for multiple readings of its beautifully grotesque sentences. We are often made to believe that the unimaginable is the most terrifying, but the images Thorn conjures up are so horrifically imaginable that they’ll give you pause. And if you’re a true fan, you’ll probably push on.”

“Think again on Theodore’s desire: his hair lust is, in itself, horrific. But its his genuine, honest excitement as a lust-driven human that is both relatable and totally unmanageable. As hair grows on Theodore, so does our want for more: more grotesquerie, more cringeworthy vocabulary, more dunks in the hair-laden tub. It’s ingenious, really, in its metaphor for the genre itself. Horror can be an acquired taste – one that has the tendency to grow on you.”

“Darkest Hours is horror for horror people. For the ‘confirmed ghost story and horror film addict,’ if you will. But it’s also for people with strong emotions and a desire for philosophical thought. Funny, how horror often is.”

Huge thanks to Alex Landers! If you enjoy insightful and beautifully written criticism, hers is a site to follow.

Top 10 Lists for 2018 (Books, Films, Albums)

Starting in 2017, I decided to post a new top 10 films list every January 1. This year, I've decided to do the same for books and albums.

Books
01. Moby-Dick; or, the Whale, Herman Melville (1851)
02. It, Stephen King (1986)
03. Songs of Innocence and of Experience, William Blake (1789)
04. Melmoth the Wanderer, Charles Robert Maturin (1820)
05. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (1818)
06. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf (1927)
07. The Monk, Matthew Gregory Lewis (1796)
08. Ulysses, James Joyce (1922)
09. McTeague: A Story of San Francisco, Frank Norris (1899)
10. The Obscene Bird of Night, José Donoso (1970)

Films
01. Prince of Darkness, John Carpenter (1987)
02. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, George Lucas (2005)
03. La Région Centrale, Michael Snow (1971)
04. The Crowd, King Vidor (1928)
05. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Tobe Hooper (1974)
06. Citizen Kane, Orson Welles (1941)
07. Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles, Chantal Akerman (1975)
08. Alae, Lillian Schwartz (1975)
09. New York Subway, Billy Bitzer (1905)
10. Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Throughout the Ages, D.W. Griffith (1916)

Albums
01. Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys (1966)
02. Streetcleaner, Godflesh (1989)
03. Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath (1970)
04. Street-Legal, Bob Dylan (1978)
05. Pornography, The Cure (1982)
06. Electronic Meditation, Tangerine Dream (1970)
07. "Heroes", David Bowie (1977)
08. Treasure, Cocteau Twins (1984)
09. From the Inside, Alice Cooper (1978)
10. Structures from Silence, Steve Roach (1984)

2017 Awards Eligibility and Publications Summary

I've seen a few "2017 Awards Eligibility" posts popping up, so I've prepared my own (yes, I feel awkward about it, but yes, I feel like I should probably do it anyhow). I go into detail on my site, but here's my year's publication rundown: my debut collection Darkest Hours contains 16 stories, including 7 original publications; 5 stories published in other anthologies and magazines (including Dark Moon Digest and DarkFuse [R.I.P.]); 11 entries for "Thorn's Thoughts" on Unnerving's site; 9 "Devious Dialogues" posts on Vague Visages co-written with A.M. Stanley, 3 book reviews for Vague Visages; and 13 other film reviews/articles (including appearances in MUBI Notebook, The Film Stage, The Seventh Row, Rupert Pupkin Speaks and Kendall Reviews).

It was a good year personally, if a hellish year globally.