Blog Archives
DARK DISCUSSIONS spends time with NINA FOREVER
DARK DISCUSSIONS Episode 227 – NINA FOREVER montage by Philip Perron
Pomegranates, narcissism, Greek mythology and what-would-you-do-if-your-dead-girlfriend-literally-showed-up-in-your-bed-every-time-you-had-sex-scenarios (boy did the guys have fun with that one) ruled on last week’s Nina Forever episode of Dark Discussions, a (mostly horror) genre podcast (What’s also fun to mention is that Read the rest of this entry
DARK DISCUSSIONS Explores THE FOREST (2016) — with these resources, you can, too!
Dark Discussions Episode 215 masthead by Philip Perron.
The recent film The Forest may not have gotten such great reviews, but the crew at Dark Discussions took time out to discuss its good points, its bad ones, and its setting: the fascinating Aokigahara Jukai Forest (Japan’s Suicide Forest).
Below, links to the episode, as well as a list of resources for those who might be interested in learning more about this macabre environment—a real place where, on average, 100 people take their lives per year—that the film (although shot in Serbia; permission to work in the forest is almost never granted) depicted well.
Note: For a place so mysterious and strange, Read the rest of this entry
“Conjuring” Insight on DDP, G&D and Special Features
First off, this summer’s surprise hit The Conjuring was released on DVD/Blu-Ray four days ago. If you haven’t seen it yet, now’s your chance…and if you have or you’re not planning to, here are some interviews Nathan and I did that are worth checking out:
Dark Discussions: Ep. 108, The Conjuring, with Kristi Petersen Schoonover and Nathan Schoonover
Writers: Need to Ground?
In today’s world, being a writer is, I believe, much more difficult than it used to be; there are so many opportunities, so many things to do in terms of marketing and promotion, and, quite frankly, a lot of push to be busy, busy, busy to advance—and if I’m not “advancing” by my own standards, it gets depressing. Read the rest of this entry
“Jarring Lucas” to appear in Canopic Jars: Tales of Mummies and Mummification
Canopic jars were used in ancient Egypt’s mummification process. They held the internal organs of the deceased. This one, from the tomb of Imhotep, is held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, but currently it is not for public viewing. To see more examples of canopic jars, start at the MMA’s website here: http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/555729?rpp=20&pg=2&ft=canopic+jars&pos=37
My newest short story, “Jarring Lucas,” will be appearing in Great Old One Publishing’s upcoming anthology Canopic Jars: Tales of Mummies and Mummification. The final Table of Contents hasn’t been set yet, but I’m thrilled to share one with such writers as Read the rest of this entry
DARK DISCUSSIONS Opens THE CHERNOBYL DIARIES
Make your housework, drive to work or long car trip more interesting! The Chernobyl Diaries hit DVD and Blu-Ray this past Tuesday, and to mark the occasion Dark Discussions co-hosts Mike and Phil invited me to come on their show and discuss the film. Listen to the episode or download it to your device here: http://www.darkdiscussions.com/Pages/podcast_076.html
From the Dark Discussions website:
“On April 26th, 1986, near Pripyat, Ukraine, a human error occurred which caused the Chernobyl nuclear power plant #4 to explode and release radiation into the atmosphere. At the time it was classified as the worst nuclear power plant disaster in history. The area was afterwards considered uninhabitable. Today, years later, nature has reclaimed the area where plants and animals now live as if it were the wilderness.
Oren Peli, the creator of the Paranormal Activity film franchise, wrote and produced the 2012 film entitled Chernobyl Diaries. The film includes such up-and-coming stars as Olivia Taylor Dudley and Devin Kelley as well as being directed by visual effects expert Bradley Parker who has worked on such films as Fight Club and Let Me In. In the film Chernobyl Diaries, a group of six foreign tourists are taken to Pripyat on what the tour guide calls an extreme tour to see the site firsthand decades later and learn the history about the disaster. However, our guide and group of six tourists are suddenly left stranded when their vehicle appears sabotaged.
The film was just released for home theaters. Dark Discussions co-hosts Mike and Phil are joined by special guest Kristi Petersen Schoonover to discuss this horror film and the history behind Chernobyl and the Cold War. Other topics include the use of tragedy as a backdrop for both historical and exploitation film; radiation and nuclear power; the failure of the film at the box office; and how remarkably the film portrays atmosphere.”
Opening Chernobyl Diaries
The ghostly, abandoned city of Pripyat is the setting for the new Oren Peli film Chernobyl Diaries.
For those of us who were alive at the time, the word Chernobyl—which at its essence means wormwood, fitting for a place which poisoned itself for centuries to come—is scary all on its own. I was fifteen at the time of the accident, and stories of what happened to you when you were exposed to too much radiation were rendered in gory detail around the school cafeteria. After all, images from ABC’s graphic The Day After, which had aired only two and half years before, had branded our minds.
An essay on the just-released Chernobyl Diaries, “Opening Chernobyl Diaries: the truth is scarier than the film,” is now over at the Dark Discussions Podcast Article Library at http://www.darkdiscussions.com/Pages/article_007.html.
Our Fetish for Zuni
The Zuni Fetish Doll from 1974’s Trilogy of Terror
The mention of 1974’s Trilogy of Terror sometimes results in a blank stare until I jog it by adding: “you know, the one with the nasty doll that chases a woman around her apartment?”
The memory is suddenly fresh: “That doll scared me so much as a kid! I had nightmares for weeks!”
Yeah, we love that Zuni fetish doll, but why? The answer lies in what he represents. I take a look in “Our Fetish for Zuni: Why we’ll never escape ‘that doll’” over at the Dark Discussions Podcast Article Library here: http://darkdiscussions.com/Pages/article_003.html
