More Dome Coming Next Summer!

 

CBS has renewed monster hit Under The Dome for a 13-episode second season to air next summer.

Even more exciting is the news that Stephen King himself will pen the season opener.  I'm curious as to how they're going to keep this going for another season before the story starts to run out but with King on board for the premiere we can be sure to have a great start.

Under The Dome airs Monday nights on CBS.

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Book Review: Joyland by Stephen King

Stephen King's latest novel, Joyland, was released on June 4th of this year. It's the second book he's published under the Hard Case Crime book line (the first being The Colorado Kid in 2005).

For all of you ebook readers, this book is only available in print (for now). It's an interesting proposition in this modern age, but it really adds another dimension to the title. By being able to hold the physical book in your hands, it gives that "pulpy" feel that the Hard Case Crime imprint has strived to recreate.

Don't let the Hard Case Crime stamp fool you though, this book is more than a just murder mystery at an amusement park. Themes of growing up, lost love, death, and friendship course throughout the novel intertwined with a cold case, the supernatural, and an old-fashioned ghost story. Now this all may seem like a cluster, but it's weaved together perfectly.

It's told from the point of view of 60 year old Devin Jones, who looks back on his 1973 summer job at the North Carolina amusement park, Joyland. He encounters an interesting story about a girl's murder on a famous ride and her ghost that supposedly haunts it. But that's not all that haunts Devin. Losing his first love, learning to grow up, and having that one last summer, are all things he faces and that readers can relate to.

This book is the perfect summer read and at 288 pages, it can be blown through on a lazy summer weekend.  The novel sticks around just long enough and doesn't over stay its welcome. In fact, I feel it left a bit too early, which adds to both its mystery and its charm.  It could easily be The Body (Stand by Me) of the twenty-something.

I'll be honest, the last few Stephen King novels haven't "wowed" me and I had my reservations going into this one, but it is phenomenal. Joyland is definitely in my top 5 favorite Stephen King novels. Do yourself a favor and add this to your summer reading list!

A rollercoaster of emotions from start to finish, Joyland is charming and fun one minute, sad and nostalgic the next, twisting and turning with mystery and intrigue that leaves the reader with a satisfying end to the perfect thrill ride.

Joyland is a flawless 10 out of 10 Haunted Rides!

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Evil Dead (2013) Review (with Minor Spoilers!)

(Minor Spoilers!)

First off, I'm not a big horror movie fan because I think that the genre has become diluted with slasher films, "gorenography," and found footage bullshit. There are very few movies that have actually scared me because having something jump out or appear in a mirror is just startling. It's no different than if I hid behind a door and jumped out at a person walking through. For a minute you are aghast at the unexpected, but you don't have nightmares about it or anything. I've always been a fan of Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft instead of Wes Craven and George Romero. Something about the unseen makes it better, because nothing is scarier than your own imagination.

The scariest movie in recent past, for me, was The Strangers. This isn't the best movie out there, but the idea of it is scary. Three people in masks break into a house and terrorize a couple for no real reason other than fun and you never find out who or why. Plus, for the first twenty minutes of the film you can see the "strangers" walking past the windows in the background. To me, that is scarier than any exorcism movie or slasher film because this stuff can actually happen.

However, I do enjoy the original Evil Dead series for what it is. It's campy and fun and I like Bruce Campbell as Ash. When I initially heard about this remake, I was a little mad because the Evil Dead series is pretty classic, but since nothing is sacred except money I guess they decided to cash in on the horror remake money train, too.

The first trailer screamed "gorenography," which I guess was alright because the original is pretty gory and gross for it's time. My problem with gore is that it's used to "shock" people rather than scare them. Honestly, the watered down Hershey's Chocolate Syrup in Psycho is scarier to me than a roomful of blood, puke, and guts. The horror industry seems to be competing to see who can shock the audience more, by cramming as much bloodshed into a movie as possible, but for me, it isn't working.

I was sort of excited to see the new movie, because there was a lot of hype and buzz about taking this classic, campy-horror series and making it into a full-fledged horror franchise. I watched the original The Evil Dead to re-familiarize myself with the story and series before seeing the new one.

First, the good:

I will say that despite no Ash character in this (which is fine because it'd be hard to replace Bruce), the nods to the original film were somewhat subtle and tastefully done. Without giving too much away, the opening scene depicts a father having to choose to kill his possibly possessed daughter. The father is Professor Knowby from the tape recording Ash finds in the original (played by the same actor, Bob Dorian). During the film, some famous things from the originals make brief cameos (such as Ash's famous car all rusted up behind the cabin). Little nods like that helped even the causal fan connect with some nostalgia of the previous films.

The film isn't really a reboot, remake, or sequel, but an amalgamation of the three (think requel?). The nods to the other films suggest that maybe this is happening in the present day, as the previous movies happened 30 years ago. The book of the dead still exists and is still terrorizing the living.

Now for the bad and the ugly...

What really ruins this film is the acting. It is absolutely horrendous. All of these twentysomethings are the least convincing people on the planet. Jane Levy, Mia in the film, is probably the best because she goes from drug addict to deadite. The rest of the cast makes paint drying seem like a Scorcese picture.

Shiloh Fernandez not only wins the award for the worst name ever, but also for the worst actor ever. He plays Mia's brother, David, who apparently hasn't been home in a long time and everyone is mad at him about it (that's all they ever say). Basically he makes this face the entire movie.

Elizabeth Blackmore plays Natalie and she is supposed to be a nurse and maybe David's girlfriend. She does nothing nurse like or girlfriend like and literally serves zero purpose in the film.

Jessica Lucas plays Olivia who is Mia's friend and also really doesn't do anything.

Lou Taylor Pucci plays Eric, who is a teacher and apparently can decipher the cryptic text in the Necronomicon. He appears to understand what's going on, but he doesn't ever say anything. He's a huge dick for no reason. He looks like Giovanni Ribsi doing his worst John Lennon impression.

If the delivery of the lines weren't bad enough, the poor dialogue really kicks it over the edge. Nothing like cramming every detail of back story into one sentence to save space and time. One of the lines is something like "It's been awhile David, but thanks for coming out here to help us help your sister get off of drugs." The gore didn't make me sick, but the dialogue was really scary!

For being such an effects heavy film, some of the effects look really, really bad. Apparently vomited blood looks like V8 shot from a firehose.

"She could've had a V8!"

Evil Dead seems like a movie that was miscast and written poorly in order to capitalize on the horror remake and "gorenography" boom.

Evil Dead is dead before dawn with 3 out of 10 Chainsaws!

Also, if you can sit through it, be sure to stay for an unrelated (to this movie at least) after credits scene.

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King's Under The Dome Coming To Television

Stephen King's latest opus Under The Dome has been optioned by Dreamworks TV to be produced as a limited TV series for Cable. I'm just starting this book and I can already tell it's going to make great television. If the fact that is is a Stephen King book isn't enough how about this? Steven Spielberg is on tap to Executive Produce.

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IT's coming to the Big Screen!

Warner Bros is moving ahead with a theatrical version of Stephen King's epic novel "It". I'm not sure how they're going to turn a book that exceeds 1100 pages into a two hour movie but we'll see.

Previously It was adapted into a miniseries that spanned the 50's and the 80's of which 50% of was fantastic. It also featured the scariest clown to grace the small or big screen.

The new version will be set in present day. Let's hope they can do Pennywise justice!

It would be fantastic if they started building a Stephen King universe that was true to the Dark Tower books considering a lot of those books spilled over into a lot of King's other books.

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Book Review: Just After Sunset by Stephen King

It has been six years since Stephen King's last short story collection, Everything's Eventual, and it must have been time well spent. King returns to the short story with Just After Sunset and this collection presents a truly fantastic collection of stories. He sites a guest editing stint for the 2007 edition of Best American Short Stories as renewing his interest in the format after he read through hundreds of submissions. Clearly, those submissions flipped the right switch because King is in fine form with this collection.

Just After Sunset contains 13 newly collected short stories that run the gamut of subjects from 9/11 (The Things They Left Behind), to running from the death of a child straight to the home front of a serial killer (The Gingerbread Girl), to OCD symptoms that may just save humanity (N.). King covers it all here and more.

The stories are genuinely creepy, some with laughs, some with a bit of sadness tucked in for good measure. Just After Sunset is King at the top of his game, proving that he is unparalleled when it comes to putting humanity into his works. His characters come alive and become almost real, even in stories that are just a few pages long. King is a master at giving life to these characters and there are very few others who can even approach him at this.

This collection truly is a brilliant set of stories. I really loved every one of them. My only complaint? I wanted more. The majority of the stories certainly have room for more. Especially N. and The Things They Left Behind. I also think these stories are fertile ground for some good movie adaptations as well.

King's new novel, Under The Dome, is scheduled for release next fall so if you read slow or read one of the stories a month you'll finish just in time for the newest book. I doubt you'll be able to hold out since these stories are so addicting. You won't want to put it down.

Just After Sunset is in stores now. It'll make a great gift for any fan of Stephen King, horror, short stories, or just great storytelling.

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New Stephen King Book!

Stephen King's newest collection of short stories, his first since Everything's Eventual six years ago, is in stores today. Scribner is not releasing any other books this month, dubbing it as Stephen King month!

We have a copy of the book and will be getting a review up as soon as we can but in the meantime, pick up a copy. It's Stephen King you know it's going to be good.

Just After Sunset is in stores TODAY.

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Horror Trailer A Day # 1 - Cujo!

Woof.

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Demo Footage for The Talisman!!!

This guy certainly has some cajones. The video below is test footage shot by Canadian director Mathieu Ratthe. He wants to be the guy handling the adaptation of the classic Stephen King and Peter Straub book The Talisman and has gone so far as to produce a segment for it starring Cameron Bright (oddly enough my pick for Jake in the Dark Tower movies) as Jack.



I would love to see Laura Linney in the role of Jack's mother. I like what he did with this. Maybe he'll get lucky and the producers will see he is someone with obvious love of the source material and they'll let him take the reins. I'm rooting for him for sure.

Source

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King Cover!

Have a peak at the cover to the new Stephen King novel: Duma Key. The book releases on January 22, 2008. If you preorder you can get an extra 5% off the current sale price of $18.48. Not a bad deal. Head over to the Pop Culture Beast Store and order it already!

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