In a torrential downpour, Phil, Jamie and Martin—three teenage boys—encounter a strange and enigmatic man covered in horrible scars who will change their lives, their destinies and the very fate of their souls forever. When their encounter leads to murder, they realize this eerie stranger may not have been a man at all, but something much more…

Thirty years later the boys—now men—lead tormented lives filled with horrifying memories of the scarred man. Phil is a struggling writer, divorced, with a daughter and a mounting drinking problem. Jamie is a defrocked priest with depraved secrets and horrible addictions, and Martin, a madman who thinks himself a god, has vanished into a desolate desert region of Mexico and established a feared and violent blood cult. When Martin’s dying mother hires Phil to find her son and bring him home, Phil embarks on a perilous journey that will take him from the seedy streets of Tijuana, to a dangerous and allegedly haunted stretch of desert Mexican road known as The Corridor of Demons. At the end of the road, in an old and previously abandoned church, Martin and his followers wait in the Hell-on-Earth they’ve created deep in the desert. There will be only one chance for redemption, one chance for salvation, and one chance to stop the rise of an antichrist’s bloody quest for demonic power.

From the void, came chaos. These are its children.

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SHADOWS OVER NEW ENGLAND by David Goudsward & Scott T. Goudsward

Traditional New England was in decline after the Civil War. The war had decimated the male population. Farms were being abandoned in favor of the mills. This environment of change and instability gave birth to a new milieu of isolated villages, declining blue-bloods and hidden scandals that were ripe for inspiring horror and dark writers. Literary critic Van Wyck Brooks, in his 1940 study of New England literary trends, New England: Indian Summer 1865-1915, described it thusly:

“There were colonies of savages near Lenox, queer, degenerate clans that lived “on the mountain,” the descendants of prosperous farmers. There were old poisoners in lonely houses. There were Lizzie Bordens in the village, heroines in reverser who served the devil. There were Draculas in the northern hills and witch-women who lived in sheds, lunatics in attics.”

This was the golden age of ghost and horror tales in New England, culminating in H.P. Lovecraft, whose influence carried over into modern writers such as Robert Bloch, Ramsay Campbell and Stephen King. Shadows Over New England is a guide to geographical locations, real and fictional, utilized in horror tales set in New England. It is hard to say which is more disquieting, terror amidst staid Yankees in a familiar setting or horror in obscure, forgotten corners of New England. Both have their uses as weapons in the battle to scare you out of your wits.

And the line blurs. To a fan of horror, there are fictional towns that are as real as any found in an atlas: Castle Rock, Maine, Arkham, Massachusetts or Oxrun Station, Connecticut. Even those who don’t follow the genre have heard of the nonexistent Connecticut town that is home to the Stepford Wives or Collinsport, Maine with more Dark Shadows, witches, vampires and werewolves per capita than any colonial seaport really needs.

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Shadows and Other Tales by Tony Richards

Get ready for the scariest journey of your life. Becaue it doesn’t matter where you go–London, Hong Kong, Madrid, Japan, Jamaica–you’ll find one thing waiting for you when you get there…shadows. They’re on every street, down every narrow alley. They even haunt the corners of a bright tropical beach. They are always there, lingering at the edges of your vision. And they never, ever go away.

Come with Tony Richards as he wanders the globe in search of new ones. You see, anything can cast them. A raggedy old circus tent. The dim corridors of an old-age home. The incense-smelling depths of a traditional Chinese temple. You can even find them in a house just like your own. And if you dare to step into those shadows, you’ll find something even more terrifying…

The fear of the unknown.

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Edward Lee and H.P. Lovecraft join forces…

Sort of, although Lee does most of the work on this one…

Imagine this… In 1934, ground-breaking horror writer H.P. Lovecraft is invited to write a story for a subversive underground magazine, all on the condition that a pseudonym will be used. The pay is lofty, and God knows, HPL needs the money; therefore…he agrees.

There’s one catch.

It has to be a pornographic story…

ALL ABOARD TROLLEY NO. 1852
Through the midnight bowels of New York City, the decrepit trolley clatters on, its single yellow headlight illumining one desolate alley and squalid, trash-strewn street after the next, through crumbling ghettos and betwixt drab skyscrapers and labyrinthine edifices–indeed, the very guts of the Depression-ravaged metropolis. The Trolley admits only a special sort of rider, and takes them to a very select destination…

THE 1852 CLUB
What is the meaning behind the cryptic number, and what is the ghastly truth behind the club’s voluptuous madam? For, yes, the 1852 Club is a bordello of the most macabre discrimination. Destitute academician Morgan Phillips will learn of all the club’s pestiferous secrets but not before he is first subjected to unnameable acts degradation and abuse, and is then thrown body and soul into a morass of erotic abandon, sexual perversion, and gut-churning, brain-warping, inter-dimensional carnality so unspeakable it can scarcely be described…

Join horror veteran Edward Lee in this bold homage to his favorite horror author: H.P. Lovecraft. Herein, Lee boldly converts HPL’s obscure fragment “The Thing in the Moonlight” into a full-fledged novella, incorporating as best he can the Master’s rich, singular style and vision, while integrating some of his own lurid tricks and treats…

Now fifty-years after the film was made, Diane Kachmar and David Goudsward have published The Fly At Fifty; The Creation And Legacy Of A Classic Science Fiction Film, with a foreword by the star Al (David) Hedison.

Let me start by saying that this is a meticulously researched and thoroughly in-depth book. The level of detail is grand in scope, while being entertaining at the same time.

They start from The Fly’s beginning; the original short story by George Langelaan published by Playboy in 1957 and take you on a nostalgic journey through the entire process that brought the short story to the final film we love today. There are detailed synopses of the main characters involved with the film from the producer/director Kurt Neumann to make-up artist Ben Nye.

What really stood out for me is the acting credentials of the cast before and after the film. Everyone knows about Vincent Price’s career but the rest of the cast’s credentials are pretty impressive. From TV to movies to theater this cast was an extremely talented bunch.

They did not stop at The Fly though. They also covered 1959′s Return of the Fly, 1965′s Curse of the Fly, the 1986 remake The Fly and The Fly II from 1989.

There is an extensive interview with Mr. David Hedison, a chapter about “The Fly in Popular Culture” and for an added treat, the original short story by Langelaan is also included. This was the icing on the cake as I had never read the short story before.

In closing I would like to say that if you are a fan of The Fly or just movies in general this book is a must buy and is highly recommended. It gives you a wonderful insight into the making of a science fiction classic with detail, clarity and an obvious love of this film.

Now some questions for the authors and Mr. David Hedison.

Famous Monsters: Notwithstanding the 50 year anniversary, why The Fly?

Diane: It’s a classic film that never had a book written about it. There has always been a lot of interest. The film has major cult status. We decided the 50th anniversary was the time to do it once and do it right.

Dave: The Fly is a movie that I’ve always felt was overlooked. Yet, ask a monster movie buff to name five famous monster movie quotes and “Help Me, Help Me” almost invariably shows up. Having the contact with David Hedison, rumors (at the time) of a new opera and the landmark anniversary just indicated the stars were aligned and it was time.

Famous Monsters: How long did you work on the book?

Diane: Almost 11 months

Dave: I’ll take Diane’s word for the duration. I usually have so many irons in the fire I can’t tell what day of the week it is, let alone how long I’ve worked on a project! I was finishing off my last book, Shadows Over New England, while simultaneously tracking down Charles Herbert and researching George Langelaan as Diane was doing most of the preliminary work on the Hedison chapters from her extensive Hedison archives.

Famous Monsters: Did it come as a surprise to you as it did to me, the serious acting chops the cast had, the body of work amongst them is astounding.

Diane: Some of the actors I knew had credits: Price, Marshall, Freeman. I wasn’t surprised to learn Meyer and Flowers and other supporting cast members had long résumés. This was Fox at the end of their studio era; they would have a cast like that. The names are lost on us, a generation that did not attend movies like our parents did, but studio contract players worked in picture after pictures in the thirties and forties and fifties.

Dave: I’m currently working on a book about horror movies filmed in Florida and some of them would not be nearly as dreadful if they had used professionals, not friends. It drives home the truism that a film is only as good as its worst actor. The Fly works because the cast is solid. Even parts like “matron sitting next to Andre at the ballet” were played by actors with extensive experience in films.

Famous Monsters: David Hedison seems like a very accessible man. How instrumental was he in doing this book?

Diane: He was key to the project as our witness to the filming of this motion picture. I was born in 1958 and Dave G. was born in 1961.

Hedison has a phenomenal memory of the shoot, considering he turned 81 while we were writing this book. He was very forthcoming with everything he did remember. I have corresponded with David Hedison for 25 years, and worked for the first 15 years in his (now defunct) fan club, so I know his style of working and he knows mine, so it didn’t take long to put this book together.

Famous Monsters: Did either of you ever read the short story before you did the book. Do you like it and how do you think the movie compares?

Dave: It’s a favorite of mine, right up with Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror and anything by Joseph Payne Brennan. The surprising part is how few of Langelaan’s other stories have held up over the years. Several of his stories were made into episodes of Night Gallery and Alfred Hitchcock Presents with capable casts and good directors, but who remembers them? The film works, both because of the story resonates with the audience’s suspicions that scientific progress can be reckless and because director Kurt Neumann used his roots in German Expressionism film to steer the film with a steady hand.

Diane: I first read it in the early 1980′s. It has a raw power on the page even now, although the language is somewhat dated. The movie is, of course, more dramatic and has scenes that are not in the story, but really work for the film. The resonance of the story and the unhappy ending (the wife’s suicide) works for the short story.

Famous Monsters: Did you like any of the original sequels or the newer remakes?

Diane: Return of the Fly was the best. The 1986 remake was not my cup of tea, but I found the 1989 sequel to it quite watchable.

Dave: I think Brett Halsey did the best he could with what they gave him. As for the Cronenberg remake, I’m still not convinced he ever saw the original film, let alone the original short story.

Famous Monsters: Are there any upcoming projects from either one of you that you can give us a little preview about?

Dave: I have more projects than I want to think about! My next horror-topical book is Shadows Over Florida, the second in a series of gazetteers on settings and filming locations used in horror movies, regional Gothic literature and contemporary horror fiction that is due out in summer of 2009. The previous book is the aforementioned Shadows Over New England which was published earlier this year.

Famous Monsters: In closing, was it a lot of fun to work on this book together and how did the collaboration go?

Diane: We have been doing David Hedison’s official web site: davidhedison.com together since August 2004. We help each other with research for our various books. I’m currently working on my 4th book. Dave G. always has a book in progress. So collaboration between us is easy, most of the time.

Dave: Diane is a grammar maven and very good at tracking down contemporary resources. I prefer to connect seemingly unrelated events through historical perspective and leave the fine-tuning of the text until the end. I think the combination works well, even when one of us wants to strangle the other one at least half the time.