The Horror Returns - THR - Ep. #6: Horror Books & Interview With Author Sam Stone (Reupload)

Episode Date: April 14, 2021

This week, we talk about our 5 favorite horror book to movie translations, We also feature a very special interview with author Sam Stone. Thanks for listening! The Horror Returns Website: https://thehorrorreturns.com THR YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/@thehorrorreturnspodcast3277 THR Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thehorrorreturns THR Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehorrorreturns/ Join THR Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1056143707851246 THR X: https://twitter.com/horror_returns?s=21&t=XKcrrOBZ7mzjwJY0ZJWrGA THR Instagram: https://instagram.com/thehorrorreturns?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= THR TeePublic: https://www.teepublic.com/user/the-horror-returns SK8ER Nez Podcast Network: https://www.podbean.com/pu/pbblog-p3n57-c4166 E Society Spotify For Podcasters: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/esoc E Society YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCliC6x_a7p3kTV_0LC4S10A Music By: Steve Carleton Of The Geekz

Greetings, listeners, you have found The Horror Returns. For all of you who delight in dread, fantasize about fear, and glorify gore, welcome home. This is the podcast that proves that the horror never ends. Each episode, we seek out and review a brand new horror movie or book. Then we go back and find a classic work with similar themes. We're looking at both similarities and differences. Our goal is to explore. how our perceptions of fear remain the same

from generation to generation, but also to point out how the presentation can change based on the social and political climate of the times. Although we always do our best to avoid spoiling the new release, sometimes it may be necessary to talk about certain details in the course

of our conversation. We generally assume you guys have already seen the classic film, so there will often be spoilers when discussing anything that's been out for at least a year. The other thing we may do from time to time is use a few four-letter words. This is a horror podcast, and horror movies tend to be R-rated, so you can pretty much expect

us to be, too. I'm Lance, and with me as always are my co-host, Brian and Philip. What is it happening, y'all? What is going on? What's up? What's up? All right, well, let's start with a discussion of some of the highlights of what we've checked out this week. Brian, why don't you go first this time, man? Okay, I didn't really watch any TV, but I was going through, I got quite a movie collection going, so I was going through my movies, and I got on this 80s action movie kick. As one will tend to do from time to time, for sure. So, the movies I watched was Commando. Oh, man.

Schwarzenegger. Yes. Yeah. Cobra. Oh, Stallone. All right, cool. Tango and Cash. Kurt Russell.

And I finished it off with a lethal weapon. Oh, Mel Gibson. Whatever happened to poor Mal. He turned into a crazy racist. Yeah, his name just doesn't seem to carry the same weight as the other two guys. No, not quite. And just to mention, have you guys checked out the trailer to this lethal weapon TV show?

No, I had no idea it was even there. No interest. Oh my gosh. No interest. Move on. No, I'm sorry. No, no, definitely move on. It looks horrible. The weapon is lethal, man.

And the Danny Glover character, they got Damon Wayans to play that character. Junior or senior? What? Senior. Wow. Damon Wayans.

Wow. Yeah, this show looks like garbage so everybody watch the original movie watch any of the movies right but uh that's uh pretty much um you know these uh i think these were the best action movies were from the 80s so you chose wisely thank you i i also win uh action movies with the stuff that i watched i saw um hardcore henry oh you saw that yeah man i've been wanting to see that it was really It's really cool. I didn't see it in the theaters or anything, so I imagine it would have been a lot cooler then. But it's kind of like crazy, awesome stunts in an action movie with a GoPro strapped to his head.

Right. It was, it's exactly like it sounds, you know. It may not be for everybody, but it was super fun to watch. I mean, you know, the plot line had some holes and all that stuff, but it was pretty kick-ass. Awesome. Yeah, I've definitely been really. wanting to see that one. Yeah.

And then 13 hours was my other one. That was the... Okay. I've heard some good and some bad. The Benghazi story with the dude from the office in it. I really liked it, but as we discussed on the last show, I'm ex-military. So a lot of that stuff kind of hit home to me because I've been in some of those situations, not where everybody's shooting at me and, you know, trying to infiltrate the base or whatever.

So it was pretty hardcore then, huh? Yeah, it was pretty hardcore, man. I mean, they had a couple of different situations. And basically, they had no support from the Americans. They were kind of stuck out there on their own. We've definitely heard that story before. Super hostile environment, yeah. Right.

And, I mean, there's obviously some political implications to that, too. Sure. But, no, it was a really good movie, man. It was super serious and hardcore action, but it was worth watching. Absolutely. Awesome. Is this a Michael Bay movie?

I think it is. Did he directed or do he just have a producing credit? That's what I'm not sure about. Because I did hear he was involved, but I hadn't specifically heard that he had directed it. Brian, do you know the answer to that one? No, I just heard he was involved in it. Right.

Because I heard he has a pretty good relationship with the United States military. No kidding. Yeah, that's, he has access to stuff that he can use for his movies and. Yeah, yeah, directed by Michael Bay. He did, okay. It was in John, John Cresensky is the, uh, is the main dude in it. Right, from the office. Man, dude, that was, it was a really killer movie.

So he wasn't just cutting up doing one-liners every other? No, no, no, no, it was a bunch of, uh, it was, they were like CIA special forces, you know? Right. So they were, they were, they were all kind of ex-military. Terry. Do you see him being an action star? In the future, maybe not, but he definitely pulled it off in this one. So not too bad, huh? No, like better than I thought it was going to be.

So do you have any kind of a history of liking Michael Bay movies or disliking him as as as as popular or fashionable to do? No, I really, I've always really liked Michael Bay stuff. I like the first Independence Day quite a bit. Yeah, and I mean, is he, did he do this? second one too? Yeah, I believe he did, right Brian? I think I think someone else did that one.

Was it Roland Emerick? Wasn't that? Okay, so... Okay, well, I'm way off then, guys. Transformers, 13 hours, Transformers, Painting Gain. Oh, Panning Gain was awesome. Yes, it was. A bunch of Transformers. Lots of Transformers stuff. The Island, that was

good. I like the Bad Boy series. Oh yeah, bad one. Okay, that was him. All right. No, he's got a lot of really good stuff, man. I love Michael Bay. If his name is attached to it, you can pretty much expect it to be worth watching.

At least a roller coaster ride if nothing else, huh? Yeah, yeah. Hey, look, he's got a short called Vanilla Ice, I Love You. Fuck. That's how he got started, huh? I thought we'd throw that in there. Oh, all right. Hey, everybody's got to start somewhere, man.

You know, for me, it was. It was cleaning toilets, you know? For him, it was vanilla ice. I love you, right? Who's to say who was worse off, right? Go ninja, go, ninja, go. All right. Well, cool.

I didn't really watch too much this week that we hadn't already talked about. But we do, of course, we have a very special guest on the show tonight, an interview with Sam Stone. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, another Michael Bay. Playboy, Carrie Kendall, September 1990 video centerfold. I'm sorry. I had to put that in there. All right, Sam, if you're listening. I'm sure you'll forgive us for that.

I'm sorry, we are men. It was Playboy. What do you want me to do? All right. So, yeah, I obviously had the pleasure of interviewing Sam at the last, earlier in the year when we were at the sci-fi weekender in Wales. So anyway, I've been reading her book, Zombies in New York, which is a short story collection. Very cool. And the way she's got it set up is pretty cool.

She's actually got a recurring character named Lucrezia, who's actually a vampire. And about half of the stories in the book either revolve around her or characters that have something to do with her. There were a couple of stories that were real standouts for me. By the way, she's incredibly good writer. I would say that the standouts, in my opinion, were actually the title stories. in New York. I have not felt a sense of dread while reading a story that much since I read the story that Stephen King wrote. This was something that he wrote under a pseudonym. It was called The Long Walk. You familiar with that one, Brian? It was one of the ones he wrote not under his own

name. No, I'm not. But you have heard, I'm guessing you've heard of the running man? Yes. Okay, so these are some stories that apparently he was putting too much material out, he was kind of like, as has come up in the press lately, the polar opposite of George R.R.R. Martin. As far as writing speed and things like that. So he'd come out with a number of books that he wrote under a pseudonym. This one that I'm referring to is called The Long Walk, and it was basically about, it is in the, you know, as they say, the not too distant future. And it was a group of boys, probably preteen age boys that were in a, they were chosen out of their, village or their, I guess, their city to represent their people in this competition called

The Long Walk. And what they had to do was basically just walk until they either passed out or couldn't walk any longer. And the ones that passed out, they would be executed. So you'd have only one survivor at the end. But I remember reading that and literally crying at the end because I had such a sense of hopelessness. Well, this story, Zombies in New York, gave me a lot of the same feelings.

Yeah, it's kind of, it's a zombie story, but it's definitely with a twist. It's told from the perspective of a young man that I don't want to give too much away in case people want to go read it. But he does work with Lucrezia. It's not a story directly about her. It's one of those stories that you kind of think you know what's coming. And we're so used to these zombie survivor stories like The Walking Dead, where the people that we're following are survivors or they don't have

too much to worry about as far as being infected and stuff like that. So the ending kind of really you know, rip my heart out. But the lead up was, uh, it was pretty pretty fucking dreadful. Quite frankly, an incredibly depressing read, which I, which I really like to immerse myself into from time to time. A novel or a short story? It's a short story. It's not even a novella. It was probably maybe 20, 22 pages, something like that. Oh, wow. Yeah, definitely worth reading. Definitely gave you that feeling. So, you know, you get out of the stories that revolve around her. And there were two others that I really thought were cool.

One was called tar and one was called Red. And these were basically about a couple of werewolves that she met up with in different ways. After that, you start getting into her short stories that had nothing to do with the recurring character. There was one called clown addict. And this is one of those, I mean, it was. it was very, very guilty humor. The murders in it were incredibly sickening and gross, and the ways that some of these murders were done were just really, really evil,

but you couldn't stop tittering. The whole time you were reading it was just hilarious because it was happening to clowns, and it was kind of like the pie in the face way of killing people off. Hey, you're killing clowns, I'm happy. It's kind of hard to describe. You really have to read it, but... It's the opposite of what normally happens. Maybe it's just the way that my mind works, but I laughed my ass off while I was reading it.

And another one that really stood out was a story called Immortal Monster, which, considering that this particular author is from Britain, I thought she did a really good job of capturing sort of an American style of writing, particularly in 1920s or 1930s golden age of Hollywood style. So anyway, those were the stories that really stood out for me, but I enjoyed the book. a great deal. Sounds pretty worth reading. I'm definitely going to check it out. All right, as with every show,

it's time to take a little trip to the trailer part. We take a look at the big, the small, and sometimes the very, very weird. Brian, what's our first new trailer to talk about this week? First one we're going to talk about is summer camp. I saw it, but I'm not sure what it was about too much. Philip, you enjoyed it quite a bit. You said it had an evil dead vibe, in your opinion?

Oh, yeah, that one. That was, that's what it reminded me of, like a new version of the evil dead. Didn't excite me too much, Brian. What did you think? Watching the trailer, I was trying to figure, it gave me, like, I've seen something like this before, and then it popped up, producer of, have you guys ever seen Rec? Yes. I've never seen it.

Yeah, REC. Yeah. There was an American remake, what was it called, quarantine. Quarantine, that's correct. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you might have seen that one. Yeah. Yeah, it gave me similar vibes to that one. Right.

I wasn't sure where the summer camp was in the movie. Not really sure, man. I mean, it looked like it was just kind of making fun of 80s slasher movies to me. Yeah, a little bit. Obviously. I mean, you never can't really get a whole lot from the trailer. And I don't think that the trailer, you know, did a good job of showing what this movie is or isn't. But, yeah, it was just the Evil Dead was kind of the vibe that I got from it.

Like it could have been a trailer for The Evil Dead. Yeah, and it's other producers involved was also from The Conjuring and Annabelle. Okay. So, yeah, I'm not quite sure what's going on in this movie, but. Could be good, could be bad. SummerCamp is kind of a generic name, so it's not like they've got that going for them. And I'm going to say the Evil Dead trailer definitely gave it some buzz going, like when it did come out, because I thought the trailer was awesome for the newer version.

I don't know what to think about this one. Yeah, this had came out in a limited release in March, so I'm not sure if it's going to get a wide release or straight to... It's already out. I don't know. We're on the IMDB page right now, Brian, and it says 2015. So, but then it says... It's limited release in March. Yeah, June 10th, 2016 in Spain. And it looks like most of these filmmakers were Spanish.

I think the rec films were Spanish, correct? Yes, it was. I remember. Yeah, I mean, I'm reserving judgment, guys. Jury's out for me. I need to see more than just this two minutes. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I'm going to agree.

All right. Okay. next one we're going to talk about is a new Netflix show called Stranger Things. Very strange trailer. Oh, that was the one with Winona Ryder, right? That's the one. That's the one. Okay,

that's the one I thought I was looking at last week. It looks interesting. You know, Netflix has come out with some pretty good stuff, man. It's kind of hard to go wrong with it at this point. It almost is on the level of HBO. I totally agree. Except that you can watch the whole freaking season at once.

Yeah, just on that, you know, the past shows they've had on Netflix, I'm definitely going to give it a try. Okay. And I kind of got a Super 8 feeling from this show. I've guys ever watched Super 8? Yeah, yeah, I can see that. And it's good to see Winona Ryder doing a show, doing something. You know, I haven't seen her.

We were talking about that. Man, you know, I put her on the same level as Drew Barrymore because she gets a lot of buzz. And I've never really been like a huge fan. You know what I mean? She does all right. But I've never understood the amount of praise that she typically will get. And same thing for Drew Barrymore.

I just, I like Winona Ryder in these type of shows or movies because I kind of feel like she kind of has a little creepiness to her. Yeah, she definitely does. I think she does in real life, too. Beetle juice. Beetle juice is awesome.

Wasn't she the one that was caught for shoplifting or something weird like that? Hide and stuff. That was her. Yeah. Yeah, so I'm definitely going to give this a watch. This comes out on Netflix July 15th. Okay. All right. Looking forward to it,

man. And our final trailer, which I'm probably going to say this wrong, because I never knew how to say. Is it Ouija or Ouija? I think it's pronounced Owegia or something like that, right? I've always called it a Ouija board. Yeah, when I was growing up,

they called it a Ouija board, but I thought I think it's actually pronounced Ouija, but I guess it doesn't matter. Okay, I'm going to go Ouija. Right. Weegy Origin of Evil. Yes. I really like this trailer, man. I really enjoyed it. Did you

by any chance see the first one? I specifically was told by many, many people to avoid it, and I did. And I followed the same route as you. I saw the first one, and it, that's, that was the thing that threw me off, because this, uh, this preview actually looks really good. And, and my first thought when I saw it was, man, that first one was not good enough to make a sequel out of, but hey, you know, we've been proven wrong many times before. Right. Is this a Blumhouse release?

Man, I don't see how it cannot be. If it is, if it is, chances are, chances are the first one was made for probably nothing and probably made millions of dollars. That makes sense. I mean, look, hey, you know, there's a million horror movies out there, and most of them are really fucking bad. Right. All right. Which is why we do what we do. Yeah, the original movie, the Ouija, the whatever the fuck you want to call it, is.

It wasn't as bad as you may think it sounds. It was, I don't even want to really say it's worth watching because it's not great. Let me ask you this, Philip, does it boil down to, is it available on Netflix? Yeah, don't, don't at all pay money for this. If you see it on Netflix, then go ahead and watch it, you know, it's, it's worth it. But I put it in the B horror movie category. definitely not worth making a remake or a sequel. Okay, it is a Blumhouse production.

There you go. And the first one, the budget was $5 million, and it made $103 million. Oh, fuck. Well, it came out big in the theaters, and yeah, it was... Okay, man, well, there you have it. Off the fuels of, like, paranormal activity and stuff, so, yeah. Well, I know it was PG-13, so that probably got more people in.

It looks like this one is going to be PG-13 as well. This one looks way creepier. Yeah, that little girl looks pretty fucking creepy. Okay, so The Conjuring, I didn't think, was that awesome of a movie. The first one, but The Conjuring 2 is officially one of my favorite horror movies of all time now. And I will totally watch this, just based on that. I think it probably shouldn't have been a sequel. They probably should have made it a standalone movie.

but the concept is cool. I like it. Yeah, I'm definitely going to check this one out. Yeah, no doubt. And I'll tell you what, I have never seen a, I don't think I've ever seen a trailer where the beginning caught me like that, caught me off guard. Yeah. Because I was just, okay, so I'm in the movie

and I'm watching the trailer, and they're showing these two, you know, charlatans basically pretending to be psychics and bilking people of their money. and it kind of takes you backstage and shows you how the daughter's been incorporated into the family business, so to speak. And I'm like, okay, this is going to be one of those movies. And then the next thing you know, it shit gets real.

Yeah. And I really like the way they did that. And it looked to me like it's going to be, I mean, I'm really looking forward to seeing this movie, guys. I really am. I mean, everything caught me. I love the setup. I love the time period.

It looks like it takes place in the late 60s or early 70s. It looked like the costume design was, great. The set design was great. And like I said, I just love that setup. It just caught me and it speaks to me. So this one I'm going out of my way to see. The Ouija board is

kind of a creepy thing. And they had a movie kind of like that with Exorcism. I can't remember the name of it, but they went to Louisiana and were debunking this exorcism. It turned out to be a real thing and it was some cult deal, remember? Oh, the last exorcism?

That's the one. Yeah, that was a good movie. Yeah, I mean, I wish it was better. This one looks better than that one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, too bad the sequel wasn't as good. Yeah. Yeah, that one I avoided, guys.

Wait, wait, wait. Was that the exorcism, Molly Harley? No. I think it had a stupid... Yeah, the last exorcism, too, which kind of defeats the purpose of the last exorcism. No shit. But it was... Yeah, it was not good.

So I've been told. So I've been told. But this movie is due out in October, I believe, October 21st. There wasn't much in the, in horror as far as news. So we're going to go a little bit different route here. Mark Hamill just confirmed that Star Wars episode 8 will wrap in July. All right. So when do you guys expect us to get a trailer?

Any day now. don't care, I'll watch it when it comes out, man. I'm stoked about that whole Star Wars series. I really liked Episode 7, and I really want to see... What's the new one? Rogue something? Yeah, that's the one that's kind of a one-off, right? It's sort of...

Does it take place between films 1 and 2 or... I'm sorry, films 4 and 5? Yeah. No, it's... No, between... Between 3 and 4. Yeah. Ah, okay, that's...

right? This was like the heist movie about stealing the Death Star plans. Oh. Ah, yes. Definitely looking forward to that one. When the rebellion started, I suppose. But they said Darth Vader's going to be in it, so I'm stoked about that. Which would make

perfect sense that he would be, right? Yeah, I'm kind of staying away from any kind of news about Star Wars Episode 8. I don't want to be spoiled about anything. Yeah. You want to enjoy it the way it was meant to be. Yeah.

I don't know. I try to read as much as I can about that stuff. You're the polar opposite. I'll totally watch it. Yeah. I don't want to know what's going to happen in the movie before it comes out, but I'm going to see it probably opening night. Do you think we'll get more Luke than we did in the first one?

I mean, you have to. He was, yeah, he ended in the first one, so he's got to be in the second one. Yeah, I read that he got, just for that one scene, he got $4 million. Yeah. And he deserved every penny. That, like, I kept waiting for him to show up because I knew he was going to be in the movie. And, like, he wasn't in the poster and all that stuff. So, I mean, which led to all kinds of speculations.

But, yeah, it kind of disappointed me that he wasn't in that one more. And I think that he definitely will be a main focus of this one. Yeah, I see this one as being completely Luke-centric. Yeah. And, you know, I'm quite sure that it's going to be one of these things where basically, he's training Ray similar to the way that he was trained in the in Chapter 5, right? And I imagine we'll find the origin to Ray. I would imagine that we will.

Okay, moving on to our next one. It's about a show that I really didn't give a shit about, that they're making a movie. Okay. Power Rangers. What? Brian Cranston. Yes, that is why I'm intrigued in this movie.

Brian Cranston is in the Power Rangers movie? Yeah, also with Elizabeth. But, haven't heard that one. That doesn't surprise me, though. Yeah, she is the villain in this movie. Jesus. How over the top can you get, man? I was never a Power Rangers fan, man.

That was, my brother and sister loved it. They're slightly younger than me. And they were big into the 90s stuff, man. And I don't know, man. I just didn't do the Power Rangers. I was more of a Voltron guy. Yeah, I never. Ranges a rip off.

I never got it. I try to watch a couple of episodes, and I just never got it, but they are looking like they're going more serious with this movie. Oh, come on. With Elizabeth Banks? Jesus Christ. Have you seen the pictures of her in the outfit? No, but I see it. It doesn't look cartoon-y like.

Can I put my bike in her trunk? Yeah. So I don't know. I'm a little bit more intrigued in the movie. I mean, I'm not going to go back and watch the show. You're not going to go binge every episode from the first one, huh? Which one? They've got a thousand different series of the show.

I mean, my kid is watching the Dino Power Rangers or what the fuck ever right now. Yeah, but with these castings, it's got me more intrigued. And they recently came out with pictures of, I guess they changed their suits or whatever. and they look more kind of Ironman-esque type suits. Of course. I don't know. I think I might check this out. I don't know.

But like I said, I'm not going to go rewatch any shows or anything. Right. We're looking at Elizabeth Banks right now as the Power Rangers. Rita Repulsa. Reader. That's retort. Hey, but she's hot.

What are you going to do? Well, I disagree. No. She's not my type. I really like Elizabeth Banks. I think she's fucking hilarious. But I can't see that they're going super serious with Elizabeth Banks as the villain. You know what I mean?

It all seems a bit silly to me, guys. Well, it's Power Rangers. Well, okay. So be it. Okay, moving on, we have... There is rumors. Anybody watch Agent's Shield? I saw the first episode.

Yeah, me too. Properly tuned out after that one. It's about out after that. There are rumors that Ghost Rider is going to be on the show. If it's as good as the movies, then they ought to just expect to cancel that shit. I mean, I like the Ghost Rider character from the comics. Oh, me too.

Ghost Rider's one of my favorites. Yeah, I mean. And I like Nicholas Cage. And, man, oh, that movie. Well, this are terrible. You like the two alone, but the two just don't go together. Well, Nicholas Cage's hit or miss, man. He's had some real shithole movies.

man. Sure he has. At the top of the list, our Ghost Rider one and two. You waste no time explaining that, do you?

Yeah. They were hopeful. I guess there was some sort of train in San Diego that had an advertisement on it, and I guess

just got people believing that he's going to be on the show now that Marvel has the rights back. Right. Okay. Nicholas Cage

as Ghost Rider? No. No. Wow, you really scared me there for me. Yeah, no. Nick, you put Nichols-Cage Ghost Rider together. I'm not watching it at all. No, no, they just got the rights back to the character and not.

Okay. Not reserving rights to have Nicholas Cage reprised the character. I hope they reboot that movie. There's rumors that it was going to be a Netflix show. Oh, I'd watch that. Because they've also just recently got the rights to Blade back. Right. Oh!

Are you serious? Yeah. A Blade Netflix show? Yeah, I've heard. How quickly can we get that going? Wesley's put it out there that he's been in talks with them, so hopefully soon. Is he coming back? That's hard to believe.

Well, I know in the comic books, I know in the comic books, it's his daughter that is the main character now. He's kind of more of a mentor. Right. So. Maybe he could play whistle. huh? He might be of that age now. Yeah, I can see that. You gotta get a, like a Punisher and Ghost Rider and Wolverine thing going.

And Blade. Hearts and Darkness. Wouldn't that be awesome? If you have the right casting, that actually would be really good. Hell, yeah. So you're referring to an actual storyline. There was a comic. Yeah, there was a comic.

And Wolverine was in it? Wolverine, the Punisher, and Ghost Rider. No kidding. Yeah. So what was the basic story? They were fighting Blackheart. I mean, I don't know. It's been fucking 15, 20 years since I messed with it. Right.

It was a cool storyline. And those are probably three of my favorite Marvel characters. Wow. That sounds like a pretty cool meeting of the minds there. Hell yeah. You don't get much more badass than that. No shit. Okay.

Brian, did you know that was a thing? Yeah, I've heard it. I've heard about it. That sounds pretty cool. that was a good one to put to the street. Yeah, I think it would work better as a Netflix show. Blade popping up. I don't necessarily think he would fit in with the movies.

Yeah. Yeah, it's sad. Brian, I think you're on to something, man. If there's a current comic story about him having a daughter, then I'm sure that's the way they're going to go. Yeah. Hey, Layla, Ali, I don't know how well she can act, but we'll find out. And one more news.

item. Are you guys a fan of the underworld franchise? Yeah, of course. Not at all. No? Not at all. Oh, man. Not even remotely.

You're fucking fired, dude. So you guys talk and I'll hang out over here. The fifth one was originally supposed to come out in October and has now been pushed back until January of next year. Okay. I don't know we were talking about another movie, actually. Yeah, Kate Beckensale's back. Right. Kate Beckett'sell.

Man. that girl is amazing. Mm-hmm. And she's, I don't know how old she is, but she's got to be older for one of the really amazing chicks. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I've got nothing wrong with her looks at all. I mean, she's a sexy lady, but I just didn't care for the films at all. No?

Yeah. I liked them. That's just me. I mean, I didn't care for the third one, which was a prequel. Yeah, they started to get a little ridiculous after a while, you know. I mean, but you got to watch it for what it is. It's an action flick, you know? Yeah, I put it in the same vein as like the Resident Evil movies.

Yeah. They're not great movies, but, you know, they're kind of fun to watch. Right, definitely fun to watch. And that is pretty much all the news I have for this week. All right, cool. All right, well, so as I alluded to earlier, folks, this is a little bit of a different show tonight. We're not doing our normal two reviews as we typically do.

We're actually focusing on a very special interview that we have with horror author Sam Stone. And we are going to play that. And after that, we are coming back to each of us discuss our top five book to movie translations. So basically any movie that is based on a book, a novella or a short story is fair game. and we're going to do kind of a countdown and sort of do a roundtable and count down from five to one. But without any further ado, here is the chance that I got to meet up with Sam Stone at the Sci-Fi Weekender in Wales. Okay, this is Lance at the sci-fi weekender in Pfele, Wales. And I have with me Sam Stone.

She's a writer of horror, gothic horror, and also some erotica, I believe, if I'm not mistaken. Well, some of my stuff is a little bit erotic sometimes, lads, yes. Okay, Sam, I understand that you began writing when you were quite young. Was horror always your first love? Or did you see yourself possibly going in a different direction? And who are some of your earliest influences? It's really interesting, you asked me that. I started at the age of 11 putting pen to paper because I read the thriller, the collector, which was by John Fowles.

And it was my first adult book that I'd ever read. So it was more of a thriller, but it was a horror. in certain ways. Psychological thriller. And after that, I discovered the likes of Stephen King and Dean Coons. I absolutely loved Hammer Horror movies. I don't know if you've seen any. I'm sure you've seen those.

Oh, of course. Dracula, probably my first love, Dracula. A hence vampire. A lot of the British classics. Absolutely, brilliant. And I used to stay up late at sort of 12 years old with my sister. We used to stay up late when mum and dad had gone to bed. We'd sneak down and watch all the hammer horror movies.

That sounds familiar. they weren't around and I couldn't stop us really and and so it was it was that and obviously influences wise it led me on to Anne Rice when I was sort of 18 I discovered interview and absolutely thought it was the best book I'd ever read at that time because it's it showed vampires in a very different light and but I actually did read a lot of historical romance too growing up so I was quite an eclectic reader so I used to read horror used to read some fantasy and I certainly did read a lot of historicals and so I was influenced by all of that strangely and I think it comes out quite a lot in my work because I do like to write a lot of

history in my work. Great, very well-rounded reader. Yeah. Okay. From the time you began writing, how long did it take for your first novel to be published? Well, I wrote my very first novel when I was in my early 20s but it wasn't very good I'll be honest with you. And then I didn't do anything for a few years because I had my daughter, had a baby, and then I went to university as a mature student

and did my degree in English and writing for performance. So I thought I was going to go into screenwriting at that point. Really? Yeah. And then I ended up being a high school teacher teaching English and drama instead. But during that time, I did my master's degree in creative writing.

Okay. And I specialised in prose, and I wrote my first novel, Killing Kiss, for that. And I ended up self-publishing it, which I still think I don't recommend self-publishing to anyone. I think it was a real mistake. But it did go on to win the Silver Award for Best Horror Novel with Forward magazine over in lovely USA. And has it killer kiss turned into a series of other novels as well? Yes, it has. Killing KISS is now the Vampire Gene series.

And I'm on Book 6. I'm writing book 6 currently, which is called Jady Jewel. they're kind of thrillers now they're vampire thrillers with time travel oh great little time travel is always good to spice it up yeah I like to mix the genres quite a lot I enjoy doing that I think it's fun

so before you wrote that novel had you written any short stories and were they able to get published at all in any fashion? I had actually yes I'd done a few short stories and I'd done some poetry and they'd ended up in various anthologies along the way before I actually went and did my degree and they were actually the path by which I ended up going on the degree because I was going to an adult

an adult learning class sort of a pleasure for writing and the teacher said to me you know you've got real talent you really should go and do a degree it will give you a lot of confidence and that was how I ended up going down the degree route in the first place and as it happens it was a great thing to do because it did give me

confidence and I think improved what I was doing and improved my writing and my understanding of what I was doing as well and I understand that you still speak with students at certain times is that true yes I'm always available to go and do lectures I I like doing workshops. I'm off to Bognar Regis in the UK very shortly, actually.

In May and June, I'm doing two workshops. I'm doing one adult one and one teenage one at a theatre called the Regis Centre, which I'm looking forward to doing. And yes, and any universities that like to have me over, I go and give talks and things about writing and public shape. Well, that's good enough. So you continue to get back. Yeah, I love to do it.

I think when you love what you're doing, it's a real privilege to share that with other people as well, you know, in the sense of, you know, showing how you could do it as well. There are so many people out there that are talented writers that want to, you know, want to do what I'm doing or better, hopefully. And if I can encourage them in some way, I do enjoy that. Where did you get your inspiration for the character, Cat Lightfoot? Cat Lightfoot was a funny one.

It was my husband David is a big source of inspiration to me. and he often comes out with ideas that spark a story or a novel. And in this particular case he said to me, we were hearing about pride and prejudice and zombies being around. And David said to me, oh God, you should do something like that. But you'd do it better because you'd write an original story. I said, of course I would. I don't want to take someone else's work and put zombies in it.

That's just too easy. So he said to me, he said, yeah, he said, you should do something like, I don't know, like zombies at Tiffany's. And I went, what, what? And that was it, and I wrote it in three weeks. It was just fascinating. Well, that led to another question that I had. Your short story collection, I believe, was called Zombies in New York?

Yes, zombies in New York and other bloody jottings. And what's the reason for New York? Is that city holds some special meaning for you, or do you consider it very romantic? It's very interesting. I went to New York. At that particular stage in my writing career, I really like to write about places I've visited. Right. And the story collection itself contains lots of stories about different.

places I visited like in Los Angeles La Bray Tar Pipps. There's a story in there called Tar. And zombies in New York came to me because, again, inspired by my husband who is very good at this. He was your muse. He is my muse. He is. We went to visit longer. We were over in New York and I was actually up for these book awards again. And so we'd gone over there to

attend the book fair. And so we had a day where we went sightseeing. We went in Staten Island Ferry. It was fabulous. But it was colourful because people were colourful there and interesting but while we were waiting for the ferry I don't know if you know it but there's a big sort of like glass door that comes down and blocks people from going onto the ferry till it's set and then it comes up to let you on well David said to me wouldn't it be interesting if you were stood here and on the other side of that there was a horde of zombies and you knew any minute that door was going to open

Wow. So you see... That's a great dog. Isn't it? So that's about the story. And so that just dated actually. It might have been about 12 months before I actually wrote that story. But it just dated. It stuck in your mind. Yeah. And then it came out.

And it became part of the collection and we decided that that one would be... The story would name the collection after because we thought it was so good. Oh, okay. Yeah. It makes sense. Have you considered working with anyone to translate your works to film or television? it seems that we're in a bit of a golden age of television which shows like Black Mirror, the Walking Dead and the strain.

There's a real hunger for genre of television these days. Absolutely, and I have got a full screenplay that I've written for Some Visit Tiffany's. I'm working with my agent at the moment on lots of screenplays, and there are, shall we say, lots of things happening. But I can't say more than that. You can't say more than that.

That's okay to be expected, but it sounds like you're opening the door. Definitely, because I have got my first degree is in screenwriting. So it's not, to be honest, screenwriting is easier for me than novel writing, actually, because when you think that writing a novel, you have to fill in all the blacks, whereas screen you can just give a sentence saying, this should be seen. And it's the other collaborators that will make that happen as part of the, it's a wonderful art to be in, isn't it? Well, I know you can't talk about the project, but do you plan to be involved in the screen?

Obviously, you're doing the screenwriting portion. Definitely. Do you also plan to be involved on set in any capacity? Oh, I think I'm going to have to do a Stan Lee, don't you? I'm going to have to. If any of my work gets into film and it's all early days, but if it does, oh yes, I've got to do a Stan Lee. Well, we talked about the work you do with students.

Other than that, are there any particular passions, particular social issue or cause that means a lot to you right now? And if so, how could our listeners get involved? My friend Chase Masterson is very involved in the, it's called the I'm trying to think of the name it's very long name but if you Google it

and it's an anti-bullying coalition and it's to do with being your own hero and standing up for bullying and Chase is a wonderful ambassador for it and so this is a cause that is incredibly close to my heart because one she's my friend

but I also think the issues of bullying don't just happen in schools They happen in the horror industry, in my industry. Women are often bullied in this industry. And I'm not talking about sexism. I'm talking about, you know, bullying. It can be a man that's bullied.

It happens everywhere in every industry. You are abused by other people because of jealousy and other issues. And so it doesn't just, it happens all over. And unfortunately, I have been on the receiving end of some of that in the past. So I do think it's a really important issue. So we can probably find that through Chase Masterson's website. Yes. I know a lot of our listeners are familiar with Chase.

Yes. All right. Great. And final question. What's next for Sam Stone? And how can our listeners find your works in either book, audio or e-book format? Right. Well, they're in all of them.

We've got, all of my Catlight Foot series are all on e-book. We've got, all of my books are in paperback still. Tell Us has done re-editions now of the Vampire series. I'm currently doing book six. That's what I'm working on at the moment. I've got a third book to write for my Jinks Chronicles trilogy. The second book's written. We're just waiting for the artwork for that,

and that should be available hopefully very soon because it's all ready to go. And so the third book I've got to write, and I'm also writing a stage play this year, which is going to be a thriller. I've been doing some Sherlock Holmes stories. I've written a new Sherlock Holmes story for Titan. I did one for Mammoth Book of Horror.

Mamma's book of Sherlock Holmes Abroad. One of my Sherlock Holmes stories is in there as well. I think I did see that. And I'm doing some audio for big finish, which should be, I can't say more than that, but there is going to be, hopefully, something being announced for that soon. So, yeah, lots of stuff in the pipeline. And screenplays to write as well.

And you have a website? I do. It's www. samphestone.com. Okay, very good. Well, Sam, thank you for your time. We appreciate it. the listeners do as well.

And thank you for coming to see me. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So we are back and that interview was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed meeting up with Sam and Sam we do appreciate you being on the show. Definitely look forward to keeping up with what you are writing. We will be posting ways to get in touch with Sam and ways to purchase her books if you're inclined to do so.

Yeah, thank you so much, Sam. That was awesome. All right. So, again, special, very special show tonight. We are going to each cover. This is our first in a series of favorite films. These are going to focus on films based on books. So what we'll do is we're going to count down from our number five to our number one favorite.

And as I said earlier, this can be based on either a novel, a short story, or a novella. So we'll get it started with Philip. Philip, what is your number five and why? we're going me first. Okay. I may have a couple honorable mentions at the end of this because I started looking up movies, you know, horror movies that were based on books and I didn't realize some of them were. Right.

So, very warning, I haven't read all of these books. But my number five is going to have to be American Psycho. Oh, I didn't even think about that one. Because that is a classic movie. Yes, yes. It's one of my favorites. It's, uh, uh, oh my God,

I can't think it was thing though. I'm talking about the actor. Yeah. Christian Bale. Christian Bale in one of his first big roles. Man, he killed it. You know, Christian Bail's not...

No pun intended? Yeah. Christian Bail's not always my favorite dude. He's got some weird roles out there, but the guy is a good actor, and this proved it. And if I remember right, he had to really fight for this role. I think it was up for somebody else. No kidding. And he won it away from him.

Yeah, I couldn't. I couldn't imagine anybody playing, what was the character? Patrick Baton? Yeah. When I think about that character, that's who I think about as Christian Bale. Yeah. It made his career, I think. Kind of makes me wonder, kind of the show we talked about last week, guys, The Purge.

I wonder if they weren't kind of visualizing him when they came up with some of these douchebag, you know, entitled characters. Ah, well, no, because I think Christian Bale had a lot more substance, and the douchebag characters and the Purge were just like I wanted to punch them in their eyeball, you know what I mean? I like that. Yeah, you're right, man. Christian Bale, he sold it, dude. He had me believing that he was ready to come and rip my heart out. Hell yeah, dude, sociopath at its finest.

Absolutely, man. So yeah, there's no doubt that this film and the book were obviously based on, and I wouldn't even say loosely based on a lot of people that you see that kind of, quote, unquote, make it to the top out there in the corporate world. Oh, yeah. Very thinly veiled references there. Because I've known some people might, well, I'm not going to go too much further after that because there's real people and they may not ever hear this.

But they would do whatever it takes. to get to the top, right? Yes, absolutely. Murder, murder definitely being an option. Yep. Yeah, great choice, man. I didn't even think about that one. It's really hard to, it was really hard to come up with this list, guys. I mean, let's, you know, let's be honest, there have been so many great horror novels over the years and stories and, you know, obviously, you know, we wouldn't be doing this show if we didn't, you know, love the books and the films. Um, my number five, I kind of went old school on and I thought, you know, I kind

I thought about it because there were some newer ones that almost made it onto the list that, you know, might have been, as you would say, honorable mentions, Philip or something like that. But I'm going to go back to good old-fashioned the original Frankenstein. Oh, classic. Yeah, based on Mary Shelley's novel. Yeah, definitely classic, says it all. I just think that they captured the emotion and they captured the dread. I really love the fact that it was in black and white.

The movie's obviously been redone many times, and absolutely no version whatsoever has held a candle to this original. What do you think, Brian? I agree. A quick question. We recently talked about how Universal is revamping their classic monsters. Sure. Who would you cast as Frankenstein? We kind of talked about that, remember?

You said The Rock More Than Werewolf would be that as Frankenstein, right? No, I think I kind of went with the Rockmore for the Werewolf. Oh, did you? Yeah. I mean, I don't know about the rock playing the actual human version, if you know what I mean. Sure. But I could see him with the prosthetics and makeup as a werewolf. Oh, well, yeah.

But, I mean, you kind of have to cast him as the human version also if you're going to cast him as the monster. So I think as a big bad dude, man, that was my first thought as Frankenstein when you. said that. So you're referring to, Brian, let me, let me, I'll tell you what, reiterate the question again and let me ask you this. When you say, um, who would we cast, do you mean as the monster or do you mean as, uh, as Dr. Frankenstein? As the monster. Oh, yeah. Which is what I kind of figured that you meant for sure, because I mean, that's who we focus on. Um, I'll have, and steam. I really, I really have to think about that, guys. I'm not going to come up with that tonight because

I just do not believe anyone because there have been so many versions of it and in my opinion they've all failed miserably after the original I mean you gotta have

somebody that's gigantic and the only thing I'm thinking of is a bunch of wrestlers you know like the big show would be a great Freckettstein maybe the Undertaker yeah he kind of looks like

wow right I love the intertaker man but go ahead Lance I'm sorry I have to add ask that question. It's a great question. I mean, can you think of anybody besides you, you just mentioned the undertaker in passing, but did you have anyone in mind? Because I kind of feel like,

I mean, they have to be, they have to have that size, but they also have to act because I think there's kind of a, there's some emotional things going on in that story. Part with him with the little girl, when he meets the little girl by the, um, yeah, by the park. Yeah. And you know, You can't just get some random big guy to, you know, try to play those emotions and, you know. Definitely comes to mind with that because that's scary with the little girl, you know. I mean, because you don't know what's going to happen. Well, I can't give you an answer, Brian. I wish I could, man.

I love this original movie so much and it's one of those Halloween revisits a lot. I just think everything else has just come criminally shy. So, Brian, what was your number five? My number five was also American Psycho. Wow. And I'm just going to, you know, we talked about it enough. I'm just going to, throughout my list, I'm just going to give like a little, like a little subtle differences throughout the, between the book and the movie. Okay.

One of the differences between the book is, it was a little bit more graphic than a movie. Yeah. To the point where they felt like this was an unfilable movie. Okay. thought that was pretty interesting. Those are the ones that make the best movies. Yeah, so that is my number five. That's a good one, man.

Number four, Philip? Number four, I'm going to go another classic monster, Dracula. Oh, no kidding. Because that's one that I actually, Bram Stoker, you know. I have actually read the book and watched the movie. And while it was a little slow moving, you know, for the time period that it came out, I was a little weird. So you're talking about the original...

No, no, no, no. I'm talking about Bram Stoker's Dracula with Keanu Reeves in it, you know? Oh, Gary Oldman is Dracula. Yeah, Gary Oldman is Dracula. That was a great movie. I thought that it was an amazing movie. I thought that it stuck really true to the book. And I was really impressed with it, and it definitely made an impression on me when I was a kid, you know?

Yeah, that was a great movie other than Keanu Reeves. Oh, you mean the accent changing? Yeah. I like Keanu. I know, man. That was both. I love Keanu, too, but it was just, he can't do accents. Right.

He can do accents. He can do Bill and Ted. Well, I think that's how he actually talks, though. I know. That's why he's awesome. All right. Well, we're getting a little bit more into rare air here. My number four guys is based on a Stephen King novel.

Pet Cemetery. What'd you think, Brian? There's a lot of, that movie, there's a lot going on in that movie that still kind of just, it's hard to watch. The scene with the sun when he gets hit by the semi,

that scene's still hard to watch for me. Yeah, and then when the creepy little shit comes back? Yeah. A lot of Stephen King stuff, man. Like, because Pet Cemetery always runs into Coojo for me. Right. I used to have a,

a giant fucking rotwiler. It was like 150 pounds. Great with the kids, man. It was a cool dog. Yeah, of course. Well, the part that I had trouble with with Kujo specifically was in the film version. I thought they really copped out at the end of it because the book didn't have quite that bright of an ending. Yeah?

Yeah, and there was another Stephen King, well, it was, I guess, a novella that was translated to a film called The Mist. That one went the exact opposite way. Yeah, the novella actually had more of a bright ending than the movie did. And we're actually going to be reviewing that one next week. The mist? Yeah, we are. So, you see what I mean when we talk about it. Yeah, didn't Stephen King said he had wished he wrote that ending?

Absolutely, he sure did, man. That was an actual quote from Stephen King. But I thought, I mean, obviously almost every Stephen King novel has been translated to a film. many of his short stories have. I just thought Pet Cemetery kind of hit the nail right on the head. As far as the translation, I thought it was pretty much

lockstep with the book. At least, I got the same exact emotions reading the book that I got watching the film. Definitely classic, man. Brian, number four? My number four is Stephen King's It.

Ah, okay. That's one of my honorable mentions. All right. And my main difference from the book and the movie that they absolutely could not have in the movie was in the book the kids actually have sex with each other oh well i think that they could now you know so you think maybe in the new film that'll uh be in there maybe because i mean

when when it came out you know it was a tv movie i was it was made for tv right yeah yeah but you think they'll really go there with with the ages that they were yeah i don't know it's kind of a because i i've seen i've seen each thing you know no pun intended yeah i've seen pictures of the cast of the kids and they're they're pretty young right so well i mean you know that's a that's a part of life and there's a lot of like coming of age stuff that that happens when you're a teenager you know and uh that's i think that yeah they absolutely will tackle that you know if if nothing else just to make it different from the uh original i guess it remains to be seen and of course tim curry was fantastic as Penny Watts.

Nobody would deny that. We've had talks before, guys, about who was going to fill those clown shoes. Dude, no, the first half of it is probably the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life. Agreed, totally. Yeah, good choice, man. Very well done. And actually a TV

mini-series, which is other TV mini-series, The Stand, which is actually my favorite Stephen King novel of all time. I've read numerous times. I just did not think that the ending of it held up to what I was expecting from what I read in the book. The Langaleers.

I don't even want to talk about that one. All right. Okay. Moving on to our number three. Number three, I'm going to say a shout out to Anton Yelchen. Odd Thomas. Have you seen that? Yes.

Oh, yes. Finally, a Dean Kuntz novel that made a really good film. Translated into a great film. Dude, I really loved that movie. It was so quirky and different. Man, I thought Anton Yeltsin really killed it. And I wish that I had mentioned it the other day when you said, you know, that he had passed away.

And this is, to me, one of his best, and it didn't get near enough credit. But it's on Netflix. Go watch it. I promise you won't be a disappointing. Yes, man. This one flew completely under the radar. And one thing that I will say, I read a lot of Dean Coons, and I have never, ever, ever seen any of his books

translated into a good film until I saw Ad Thomas. Yeah. I think they did a great job. Yeah. And I know that his girlfriend in the movie did a really good job too, and boy, was she cute. Yeah, definitely. That did not hurt at all, did it?

What sucks to me is that they kind of left it open for a sequel. Which obviously won't happen now. Yeah, now it can't happen. I mean, I guess it could, but it's not going to be Antoni Yeltsin and I think that he did a really amazing job as that character. Well, for my number three guys, I'm probably going to make, we're going to get a few laughs here, so get ready. Probably going to piss a few people off here.

But I really, really like the Stephen King short story trucks. But more than that, I loved maximum overdrive. I fucking loved it. Everything about it, the cheesiness, the way it was over the top, the 80, The ACDC soundtrack was phenomenal and went perfectly with the movie. Oh, can't go wrong with ACDC. There's nobody would call Maximum Overdrive a masterpiece. But from the beginning where you have Stephen King playing a bumbling guy walking up to an ATM.

And the ATM across the screen says, asshole, asshole, asshole. And he turns around and says, honey, this ATM just called me an asshole. You know, when I saw that, and it was probably like in the first three or four, four minutes of the film, I knew we were in for a treat. And I've always loved Emilio Estavans. Everything he's been in it from... Emilio! Have you guys ever seen Repo Man? Yes. The punk movie from the 80s? I thought he was great in that. Very, very underrated actor, probably overshadowed by his brother a little bit, who turned out to be a complete

waste of space on the planet. Well, all right, we won't go there. I'll put him on the same level. Okay, fair enough, fair enough. I'm being a bit judgmental, which I'm shouldn't do. But what a fun movie, guys. So yeah, that's my number three. Brian, what about you? Okay, I'm also going to go a little bit different here. I know what you did last summer.

What? This movie was, I've watched this movie a lot when I was younger. This came out during the whole teenage slasher craze. Yeah. Okay. And this movie was from an author named Lois Duncan, I believe.

Wow. Yeah, the book came out 1973. You are educating me, sir. I had no idea. Of course, I'm going to point out a little difference between the book and a movie. In the book, there is no fisherman with the hook. Same premise, though, of them killing somebody. And no, Jennifer Lope, or, uh, what's, what's her name? Jennifer Love Hewitt's boobies. But that is my number three. Wow. Okay. Wow, that's pretty cool. You gave me some great trivia tonight, man. I appreciate that. So we're getting close to the top here, guys.

Right, okay. So we'll go number two. I'm going to say Jaws. I know we already. Oh, yeah. That's right. Already reviewed it, but it's a classic. Okay. You know, you can't go wrong with Jaws. Oh, man. I cannot believe. Okay.

So you guys have hit me with American Psycho and now Jaws, and these weren't even on my list. Really good. I don't think we need to say more about this. No, yeah. I mean, there's not a whole lot of review in it because we had whole show about it, but I think it definitely belongs on the list of top five, you know, movies that, or top five books that ended up as movies. All right. Well, by number two, I am going to go with the Clive Barker novella, The Hellbound Heart, and discuss the movie Hellraiser.

Oh. The original Hellraiser. That was, I almost hit that one. That was a beautiful film in every sense of the word. Yeah, that was a creepy-ass movie. Yeah, I absolutely love. I loved it. I remember being scared out of my wits and also thinking how in the hell did they pull this off of making it look as gorgeous as it looked, considering the debauchery and the evil things that were going on in this movie. So that's my number two. What do you think, Brian? You like it? I would say I love the series, but all the way up until three is where I like them and then it just drops way off. But I really enjoyed the first two.

Yeah, Pinhead, I mean... Classic character. Very classic character. Great villain, right? Clive Barker. Yeah, and that's... That movie came out, like, in the same time period as the Freddy's and the Jason. Sure.

And Hellraiser was so much scarier than either one of those combined. So different, man. Yeah, it was... The Lament Configuration. Boy, Hellraiser did it, man. That was... Demonic is right up my alley. And that's super scary.

to me and I was really impressed with it. Cool. So we're in agreement. That's a good one. Hell, yeah. Yes. Okay. My number two, we're on number two. Yep. My number two is another one, kind of left field here, is the ruins. Okay.

You guys ever check the book or the movie out? I saw the movie. I did see the movie. I didn't see the movie. Hadn't read the book, though. The movie surprised me. Yeah? And I didn't, it was actually, the movie was pretty brutal. Yeah. It was pretty. And not to give any spoilers away, but the book, the ending of the book is a lot more depressing, if you can imagine, than how the movie ended.

Okay. People go check that out. It's from an author named Scott Smith. So now did you read the book before you saw the movie? No, after. Oh, okay. And Scott Smith only wrote as far as I know one other novel, and that was turned into a movie called A Simple Plan by Sam Ramey. Oh, yeah, of course. So, uh, yeah, pretty small, low budget, independent movie.

Yeah, I thought that movie was all right, man. It just, uh, it kind of got lost in the mix of, uh, of horror movies, I think. And that is, uh, my number two. All right. All right. Number one, the exorcist. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Nice, nice.

Nice, nice. It's my number one horror movie of all time. Right. And, uh, I don't, I don't know if there's a whole lot to say about it. It's, uh, it's, it's a masterpiece. Indeed it is. Indeed it is. All right. So moving on to my number one, guys, I pick one that when I heard about who was going to be in this movie and the lead-up, considering how much I love the book and the series of books, there is no way in hell I would have thought I would be saying this is my favorite translation ever. But it is actually interview with a vampire.

When I heard that Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise were going to be in this film, you could see my eyes rolling from a mile away. I was like, there is no fucking way this thing is going to work. It's for the ladies. But the director, Jordine, pulled it off big time. This was one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen in my life. It's a very, very young Kirsten Dunst playing Claudia. Oh, yeah. She really pulled it off.

Antonio Banderas was extremely good in the movie. I actually thought everybody in it was great. And I thought they captured the essence of the book in a way that I was not expecting. But I would say more than anything, Mr. Tom Cruise just blew me away with his performance in this. He was Lestat. You know, the fact that he didn't have blonde hair or whatever, a lot of the time I might have seen this and thought, okay, there he is wearing a blonde wig. He looks like shit.

doesn't remind me of Lestat at all. That's not who I visualized when I read the books, but boy, did he pull it off. Did he ever prove me wrong? What did you guys think about it? I love that movie. Yeah, dude, it was definitely amazing. When I was a kid, we had a cat named a stat.

Really? My mom was a big fan of the whole Anne Rice series. So, yeah, it was definitely a good movie. I saw that at a very young age. Yeah, I think what got me more than anything, guys, is just, I was just so blown away with his performance. I just was not expecting that, Brian. Yeah.

Yeah, and I believe, in my opinion, besides Fargo, this is Kirsten Dunst's best role. Oh, yeah. Because I pretty much hate her and everything else. Yeah, I kind of forgot she's in that too. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. She was pretty good. I really love that movie.

Yeah. People hate it. Okay. Love it. Yeah, so, all right, cool. So it doesn't sound like you guys are too much in disagreement with me on this one. No, I'm going to throw a couple of honorable mentions out there. After Brian does his number one.

Oh, my bad, dude. Go ahead. Oh, this one will be real quick. We've already talked about it a little bit. Coojo. Coojo. Yeah, between the book and the movie, when I had seen this as a kid, I kind of had a little bit of fear of dogs.

Yeah. No, I had to, because I wanted a Rottweiler so bad. And it was after I came back from my deployment. it and that was I wanted either a Rottweiler or German Shepard. And I really wanted a Rottweiler just because I wanted that big bad dog. I had a fight with my wife to get it. She did not want it because of Kudjo. Yeah, true story.

Around the time I seen this movie, I was actually bitten by a similar dog. Oh, my God. And I swore I was going to die. I would imagine. They're pretty vicious if they bite you. Yeah. They are currently working on a remake to this movie. I'm kidding. Maybe it'll have the original ending.

We'll see. Well, because Rockwiler's now have a special place in my heart, man, because that is the best dog I've ever owned in my life. All right, that's a good one, man. So I didn't come up with any honorable mentions, but it sounds like Philip did. I'm going to go, yeah, I wanted to, some stuff that I wanted to include and then just didn't have them in my top five.

I've got to go silenced to Lambs, which is a classic. Yes. I mean, you can't go on. good choice. The Devil's Advocate, another Keanu Reeves. What? I like that dude, man. That was a good movie.

Okay. Anyway. And John dies at the end, which is another Netflix show. Yeah, go check that one out, too. It's another, it's kind of in the vein of the odd Thomas. It's on Netflix. Go watch it. Quarky, weird, horror comedy, and totally worth a watch.

Cool. Good choice, man. Good choice. I also I also got a couple honorable mentions All right One of them is Misery

Oh nice That's a good choice Good pick And my second is Another one by Clyde Barker Nightbreed Based on the book Cabal

Yes Fantastic movie I just watched it again a couple of months ago Dude I've never seen it You've never seen Nightbrane No I need to watch it Very good They did keep the second

scene out though. Did you notice that all? Although I think there was a version that had that in it, wasn't there? Yeah, recently, on the Blu-ray is supposed to be the original cut of the movie, so. Makes sense. But I do believe that movie's on Netflix. Nice. I'm gonna go watch it. Cool. All right, well, as always, we want to thank you for listening to another episode of The Horror Returns. We'd love to hear your feedback and ideas. You can always reach us at The Horror Returns at gmail.com.

For up-to-the-minute news, reviews, and interviews, visit our Facebook page at www. www.com forward slash the horror returns, and follow us on Twitter at at Horror underscore returns. You can find us on Podbean at thehorrorreturns.podbean.com. Also, look for us on iTunes, and if you like what you hear, please rate us and review us so we can get those numbers up and continue to bring you guys bigger and better stuff. Next week, we will be reviewing Collapse, directed by Jason Morris, and also Stephen King's The Mest.

So, until the horror returns again, good night.