Mike Thorn's Blog, page 41

Debut Collection DARKEST HOURS Set for November Release

I am humbled and thrilled to make this announcement.

Last week, I signed a contract with Unnerving for the November release of my debut collection, Darkest Hours.

Check back for more news!

‘Diary of the Dead’ and George A. Romero’s Formal Self-Awareness

Enter 2007’s Diary of the Dead, a film as deeply political as its predecessors, but characterized by a uniquely pronounced formal self-awareness. After Land saw major studio development under the banner of Universal Pictures, Diary finds Romero reevaluating the kind of micro-budget conditions that produced Night of the Living Dead. It calls attention to the sensibilities that have overwhelmingly haunted mainstream horror since the release of two genre-shaking titles in the late 1990s: Wes Craven’s Scream and Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez’s The Blair Witch Project. Romero taps into the postmodern auto-critique of the former, and the subjective “found footage” aesthetic of the latter.

Read my full Film Stage debut, “Diary of the Dead and George A. Romero’s Formal Self-Awareness” here.

Martin Scorsese / Wes Craven

What do these two auteurs have in common? I wrote about both for Vague Visages recently.

Moments of Revelation in Martin Scorsese’s Silence and Shutter Island

The Many Peculiar Virtues of Wes Craven's My Soul to Take

M. Night Shyamalan's Split

I wrote a review of M. Night Shyamalan's new film, Split, for MUBI Notebook. Check it out here.

Read My Martin Scorsese Articles in Vague Visages

Earlier this week, I shared the link to my article "The Way of the Future: The Connections Between Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull and The Aviator".

I now have two more Martin Scorsese pieces on Vague Visages, both available to read online:

"Toxic Masculinity and Empathetic Comedy: Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore"

"What I Learned from Martin Scorsese's Life Lessons"

The Way of the Future: The Connections Between Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull and The Aviator

Read my new article, "The Way of the Future: The Connections Between Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull and The Aviator" in Vague Visages here.

DarkFuse #5 Now Available & New Film Criticism Info

DarkFuse #5 (featuring my story “Hair”) is now available in three formats:

Signed, Trade Hardcover ($20)
Kindle eBook Edition ($3.99)
EPUB eBook Edition ($1.99)

You can also now read my new article, “James Benning’s Stemple Pass: Minimalist Horror for Trump’s America”, in Vague Visages (click here).

Check Out My New Website

My website is now up and running.

Check it out.

I'll still post links and publication updates here.

Preorder DARKFUSE #5

https://www.darkfusemagazine.com/2016...

The fifth volume of DarkFuse’s anthology series, featuring 7 original tales of dark fiction, will be released on Dec 13, 2016.

This is a signed trade (optionally autographed by editor Shane Staley) mini-hardcover production, extremely unique with wraparound cover.

Table of Contents:

“Lights Out, Happy People” by Jeremy Thompson
“The Ritual” by Jennifer Loring
“Hair” by Mike Thorn
“Whispered Sweet Nothings” by T. G. Arsenault
“Trashtown” by D. S. Ullery
“What Lives in the Trees” by Tim Curran
“Antibody” by Renee Miller

Tobe Hooper Retrospective

Can all those terrible IMDB ratings and the critical and popular drubbings be correct? Was Tobe Hooper really washed up by the 1980s? Works like TOOLBOX MURDERS, MORTUARY, SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION, and his most recent, DJINN, have been lost in the shadows of Hooper's unquestionable successes LIFEFORCE, POLTERGEIST, and supremely, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. Clearly an auteur in need of rescue. Our resident horror maven, Mike Thorn, watched many of these later Hoopers and finds much to love there. See if you concur with his positive reappraisal of this singular artist.

Read my article "Experimenting with the Horrific: A Reappraisal and Retrospective of the Films of Tobe Hooper" here