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History of Fear Street

R.L Stine began writing horror novels in 1986 some titles included Blind Date, The Babysitter, and The Girlfriend. These novels are sometimes mistaken for Fear Street novels because of the horror and mystery elements.

These novels were part of Point Horror Scholastic’s young adult horror series. Point horror includes authors such as Christopher Pike, Caroline Cooney, and L.J Smith to name a few.

Sometime later Stine left Scholastic and began his own horror series, Fear Street, with another publishing house. A collection of stories taken place in Shadyside revolving around the teenagers who attended Shadyside High. The first one in the series being The New Girl.

Fear street is a fictitious street in Shadyside which derived from the Fier family. This family was cursed and bought the curse with them when they moved to Shadyside in the 19th century and altered their name to Fear.

There were many novels in the series and sub novels that included the history of the family and how the street came to be.



A New Fear Street 

Fear Street Super Chillers

Fear Street Cheerleaders 

99 Fear Street  The House of Evil

The Cataluna Chronicles 

Fear Street Sagas 

There are two sagas one of the beginnings of curse set in the 1900’s and the second sagas are those of Nora Goode and Daniel Fear who try to end the curse.



Fear Street Seniors 

Fear Street Nights



The Ghosts of Fear Street is also included but were ghostwritten.



The Fear Street series came back in 2014 with new stories.

Party Games

Don’t stay up late 

The lost girl

Can you keep a secret?

The dead boyfriend 

Give me a K-I-L-L

You may now kill the bride


**Blog originally on HorrorAmino - Written by Horror Society Member Betty B Deadly

From Novel To Film (2018 Releases)

This upcoming year we will see more novel to film adaptations. The first novel was published in 1962 and was the last book by author Shirley Jackson. She also penned The Haunting of Hill House. 

 Synopsis: Mary Katherine “Merricat” Blackwood lives with her uncle and sister. Six years before the novel the family Blackwood experienced a tragedy that left the three survivors isolated from the rest of their village.

The film stars Sebastian Stan, Alexandra Daddario and Tassia Farmiga. It has been in the works for a while (2016) but should be released sometime this year. It’s unknown if it will be theatrical or VOD.

This next author has had a lot of her novels adapted to film. Lois Duncan (I know what you did last summer) will have another of her novels on screen. Down in a dark hall was written in 1974, it’s the only gothic fiction novel she has written. 

Synopsis A girl, Kit, has been sent to boarding school by her parents where only four other girls were admitted. The girls begin to discover certain talents which manifest in their sleep.

The film stars Uma Thurman and Annasophia Robb. It will be released on VOD on August 17.

The last adaptation is probably the one I am most excited about. John Bellairs novel, The House with a clock in its walls was released in 1973. It is a gothic novel intended for children and was illustrated by Edward Gorey.

Synopsis: When Lewis Barnavelt, an orphan. comes to stay with his uncle Jonathan, he expects to meet an ordinary person. But he is wrong. Uncle Jonathan and his next-door neighbor, Mrs. Zimmermann, are both witches!

The film will be released in September and stars Jack Black, Cate Blanchett and will be directed by Eli Roth. 

Carter and Lovecraft

There are a lot of novels out there about the Lovecraft mythos, but this is the first in a long time to break the mold. 

The story begin when ex-NYPD Daniel Carter inherits a bookstore.  Carter has recently retired from the force after a case went bad.  Having nothing pressing he decides to go check out the store he's inherited.  He finds the store is being managed by a woman named Emily Lovecraft, the last known descendant of H.P. Lovecraft.  She also happens to be African American.  Which knowing H.P.'s well documented racism, is a bit of a shock. 

The novel is very fast paced and while filled with the Cthulhu mythos, it nevers feels bogged down by them.  It's refreshing to read something that is original and offers a new twist on old stories. 

This was the first in the series, the second novel "After the End of The World" was released last year and I enjoyed it even more than the first. 

These novels have TV series written all over it and I would love to it made into a Netflix series. 

Happy Death Day

College student Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) must relive the day of her murder over and over again, in a loop that will end only when she discovers her killer's identity.

This is one of those movies I was on the fence about.  I heard good things about it, but I still wasn't sure if we needed another Groundhog Day inspired movie.  It turns out we did. 

While the film follows the basic formula established by GHD it adds enough twists to separate itself.  There is also enough humor to lighten the mood and make you really like the characters. 

Jessica Rothe does a great job of going from the bitchy sorority sister to final girl.  To make a great slasher movie you need two things, a great final girl, which they have in Rothe.  The other thing you need is a great killer.

While the killer never gets a name he manages to be very creepy and still have the morbid sense of humor we want from a slasher. 

Produced by Blumhouse for under $5million it managed to make over $100.  While a sequel seems unlikely I'm always glad to see horror films do well. 

Top Ten of 2017

It's the end of the year and time to make our list of favorite films of the year.  So without further adieu....


10.  The Void

It's Assault on Precinct 13 meets John Carpenter's The Thing, and to me that's a good thing (pun intended). 
 

9. The Blackcoat's Daughter

From director Oz Perkins (the son of Anthony Perkins) comes this slow burn chiller.  It takes a while to get where it's going, but it's worth the trip. 

8. Better Watch Out

A home invasion film with a twist, this is a new holiday classic. 

7. Annabelle Creation

I love director David Sandberg and this film cements him as an amazing director. 

6. IT

This was probably the most anticipated horror movie of the decade.  I can't say it's superior to the original because this is only the first part.  I did enjoy this and I have high hopes for the sequel. 

5. A Dark Song

An intimate and creepy film about loss and moving on it shows a side of mystical ceremonies we never see. 

4. Mayhem

Director Joe Lynch shows us the ultimate hostile work environment and makes us kind of want to be there. 

3. 

Director Mike Flanagan continues his streak with a film many thought wasn't adaptable, he proved them wrong


2.

A horror film that broke into the mainstream and started people talking about the film and our country. 


1.

This movie combined several of the things I love and was my favorite of the year.  Heavy metal, ghosts and serial killers all add up to a great film. 

Better Watch Out

On a quiet suburban street, a babysitter must defend a twelve-year-old boy from intruders, only to discover it's far from a normal home invasion.

I knew absolutely about this going in, and I think that is the best way to see it.  Things are so easily spoiled now that it's good to be surprised. 

I was expecting Home Alone meets The Strangers, but got so much more. 

Co-writer and director Chris Peckover deliver a very unique holiday horror film that delivers on tension and surprises.  

I wouldn't be surprised if this shows up in a lot of top 10 horror movie of the year lists. 

Never answer a call when you're isolated in a house.  

Add this to your holiday watch list today!

Annabelle: Creation (mini-review)

This was a  film that I missed in it's theatrical run, but finally caught it on Blu-Ray.

I have to say that I was impressed by the film.  Director David Sandberg does a masterful job of delivering scares, with little or no CGI. The actors all deliver great performances and the script does a great job of connecting to the first Annabelle film. 

All in all a great horror movie!

The Thing Homages

John Carpenter's The Thing is an undisputed horror classic.  Being a classic the movie has had it's share of imitators.  They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so here are two of my favorite imitators of The Thing.


The X-Files- Ice 
Season One/Episode Eight

Mulder and Scully are sent to an arctic research facility to investigate some bizarre deaths.  

The Ice episode written by Glen Morgan and James Wong is probably of the most famous imitators of The Thing. 

If the sets and general look of the episode remind you of The Thing it could be because production designer Graeme Murray worked on both.

The armed stand off! 

"Ice" does a great job of capturing the paranoia and isolation from The Thing.  This episode is one of the breakout episodes from the first season of the X-Files. 

Star Trek Deep Space Nine- The Adversary 
Season Three/Episode 26

The third season finale of DS9 finds the crew confined on-board the Defiant with a shapeshifting alien called a Changeling.  The Changeling sews confusion and paranoia among the crew. 

This episode borrows liberally from The Thing in several scenes.

The crew scanning each other to try and determine who the Changeling is just the first.

When they do discover his identity he reverts to his natural shape and escapes.

The Changeling also has a fondness for using tentacles to murder crew members.

No Thing homage would be complete without an armed stand off.

This episode even features a blood test scene.

The Thing has influenced multiple generations of filmmakers and will probably continue to for years to come.

IT (2017)

Hurricane Irma slowed this down a bit, but I wanted to share my thoughts on IT.

First, everything you've heard is true, the movie is phenomenal.

Where the movie really succeeds is in the relationships between the kids.

All of the "Losers Club" deliver great performances.  They all feel like real kids, they're probably the best ensemble of kids since The Monster Squad.  Watching them takes you back to the 80's and really lets the nostalgia well up in you.

I can't say that I'm 100% on board with the new look of Pennywise, but I certainly can't find fault with Bill Skarsgård's performance.  His Pennywise is every bit as creepy and disturbing as you would imagine.  

The only complaint I have about the movie is that I want the second half now.  The movie is great but having read the book, it feels a tad incomplete without the adult half of the story.  

That said, it's still a milestone horror movie.  I can only it's amazing box office will give us more top notch horror movies.  

Jackals (2017)

I saw this at the Popcorn Frights Film Festival and I went in knowing nothing about it.  This was case where not having any info ahead of time made the movie more exciting.

Written by Jared Rivet and directed by Kevin Greutert Jackals is a tense thriller that doesn't overstay it's welcome.  

I won't spoil the plot because I think going into this film blind really enhances the tension.  I will say that I loved the Halloween homage at the beginning and that the "cat joke" was one of my favorite parts of the movie.  

The cast includes genre vets Stephen Dorff, Johnathon Schaech, and Deborah Kara Unger.  All the cast do a great job of conveying fear and tension.  Schaech does a commendable  job of showing just how far a father will go to protect his family.  

Do yourself a favor and go see Jackals before someone spoils it for you!

Terrifier

Well I'm convinced he's scary

Another film I saw at the Popcorn Film Frights Festival, was Terrifier.  I have to say it lived up to it's name.

The plot is simple, an evil clown terrorizes three women on Halloween night.  This is hands down one of the goriest and most violent slasher movies I have seen.  It definitely veers into torture porn territory in some parts.  That said, it is still a very effective and entertaining film.

I'll take my food to go please

 Actor David Howard Thornton does a great job as the evil clown.  He manages to convey menace and humor all without speaking a word.

Writer/director Damien Leone has created a film follows the slasher tropes, but also adds new twists to them.  There is one scene that has the clown do something that I have never seen in a slasher movie before.  That scene, which I won't spoil, got an amazing reaction from the crowd.

If clowns don't scare you and you can handle extreme gore, then check out Terrifier!

Die! Sitter! Die!: Rupert

Last week I attended the Popcorn Frights Film festival in Miami Florida.  I saw several films, but I wanted to talk about a short I saw first.

Die! Sitter! Die!: Rupert was hands down one of the highlights of the festival for me.  The story is simple, a girl takes a babysitting job and things go wrong.  This is not a new concept in horror, but the twist the filmmakers drop on us is.

I was expecting an evil baby, or a slasher attacking the babysitter trying to kill her and the infant. What I got was something else entirely.

Directed by Sam and Lee Boxleiter and written by them along with Alex Holcomb, this short introduces a whole new kind of horror villain.

The short is now available online and you should definitely give it a watch.  

by: Shad Youngblood

Star Trek horror

Near the end of it's first season Star Trek: The next Generation did something different, and something they haven't tried since.

In the episode "Conspiracy" Captain Picard and crew learn that a race of alien parasites has infiltrated the Federation.  Picard and crew of course stop this invasion, no surprise there.  This could have been standard Star Trek fare,  but they managed to make one of the goriest episodes of TV to that point.

The episode is of note for horror fans for several reasons.

First of all, one of the people who tells Picard about the conspiracy is Captain Rixx, played by Michael Berryman.  Berryman played a Bolian (named for the shows director Cliff Bole) and this race would be featured a lot in TNG and other Star Trek shows.

This was one of the few Star Trek episodes that featured non-humaniod aliens.  The parasites were all puppets and were stop motion animated in some scenes.

We were also treated to this scene where the parasite infected officers eat live grub worms for dinner.

The mother creature of the parasites was a pretty gruesome creature.

What this episode is most remembered for hough is this scene.

Hands down this is one of the best head explosions ever.  This is at least as good as the Scanners one.
Reaction to the episode was mixed and the show never did another gory episode like this again.  It's a shame, I would have liked to seen more horror in Star Trek.