November, 1984—that’s when Freddy Krueger was unleashed upon the world. He’d go on to become a pop culture phenomenon, with t-shirts, music albums, books, and much more bearing his name. What started off as an independent film, became a multimillion dollar franchise that’s just as relevant and popular today as it was in 1984. To celebrate this anniversary, let’s take a trip down memory lane.
Clive Barker is an incredibly creative person. Books, movies, paintings—Clive Barker has created them all and done so masterfully. Oftentimes, his artistry will span across multiple mediums at the same time, which is the case with Tortured Souls. This novella, which is an Audible exclusive, consists of writings that accompanied Todd McFarlane action figures of the same name. These figures were released between 2001-2002, and each of them included a 32-page novelette. There were two sets of figures. The first contained six figures—each accompanied by a novelette exclusive to that figure. The second batch of six figures didn’t include any new written material. In February 2015, these novelettes were combined to create the Tortured Souls novella.
Last night, I took part in another episode of the KISSFAQ podcast. This episode focused on KISS Kruise IX. Julian, Alex, and I interviewed David Rudat about his experience on the ship. As a first-timer, he had plenty to share about the pre-kruise festivities, as well as everything that happened on board the ship. It was a pleasure taking part in this podcast. I hope you enjoy it.
Journey’s Jonathan Cain recently released two new singles, one of which is a brand-new, original Christmas song entitled “Wonder of Wonders.” The second song, “Something Greater,” coincides with the release of Cain’s wife’s book of the same name.
Doctor Sleep, the new movie directed by Mike Flanagan, is coming out November 8. Based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, this is a sequel to The Shining. I was invited to attend an advance screening of this movie last night, so I jumped at the chance to see it.
The end is near. On KISS Kruise IX, while amongst the KISS Navy, KISS revealed the band’s final performance on its “End Of The Road” tour. It’s taking place on July 17, 2021 in New York City, where the band was formed, at a yet-to-be-announced location. The band already performed at Madison Square Garden, so that’s out of the question. Will it be at Citi Field in Queens? How about Central Park? No one knows, but I’m sure we’ll find out in the months to come.
Pat Fraley is well known for creating and performing the evil, bodiless Krang on the original animated TV series: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Pat has created voices for over 4,000 characters—placing him in the top 10 of all time to be cast in animated TV shows. His performances and projects across all entertainment mediums garnered him Emmy, Annie, Cleo, and Audie award wins and nominations.
As a teacher, Pat is the architect of voice over instruction. For nearly 50 years, he has guided more performers into meaningful voice over careers than anyone in the history of voice over instruction. He has taught audiobook narration for 20 years. During the past 10 years, Scott Brick, an award-winning audiobook performer, has taught alongside Pat.
I spent 90 minutes speaking with Pat, making this my longest interview ever, and it was a delight. We talked about his impressive and lengthy career, bonded over both of us being teachers, and much more. I hope you enjoy reading this interview as much as I did conducting it.
Happy Halloween! Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium streaming service for horror, thriller and the supernatural, offers the best, hand-selected collection of horror movies around. But sometimes you need a little extra help picking exactly which great slasher, ghost story, giallo or monster movie to watch next. In celebration of Halloween, Shudder’s head curator, Samuel Zimmerman, will be offering callers his live, personalized picks for their perfect Halloween night/weekend viewing.
Originally released in 1988, Cabal is one of Clive Barker’s most well known stories because it was the basis for the cult classic film Nightbreed. The protagonist Boon is “a tortured soul haunted by the conviction that he has committed atrocious crimes.” According to the synopsis, “In a necropolis in the wilds of Canada, he seeks refuge and finds the last great creatures of the world – the shape-shifters known as the Nightbreed. They are possessed of unearthly powers-and so is Boone. In the hunt for Boone, they too will be hunted. Now only the courage of this strange human can save them from extinction. And only the undying passion of a woman can save Boone from his own corrupting hell…” Cabal is an inventive story, featuring wildly imaginative characters, and it has some of the most exquisite and poetic writing I’ve ever encountered.
Just when I thought I had my fill of horror anthologies, Holiday Hell comes along. This Christmas-themed film stars the wonderful Jeffrey Combs as a shopkeeper who entertains a curious customer with the terrifying tales behind specific items he has for sale. Collectively, these stories comprise this entertaining movie. Aside from Combs, Joel Murray steals the show with his incredible performance as an alcoholic who is down on his luck in a variety of ways. I was completely enthralled by his performance, which was nuanced and emotive. Murray is an exceptional actor who deserves much more attention for his stellar work.
