Tag: Paper Cuts

5 Ways to Get Your Halloween Spirit Back: Chasing the Black and Orange Dragon

Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Paper CutsTags , , 2 Comments on 5 Ways to Get Your Halloween Spirit Back: Chasing the Black and Orange Dragon

Paper Cuts

Paper (n): material manufactured in thin sheets from the pulp of wood or other fibrous substances, used for writing, drawing, or printing on

 Cut (v): make (a movie) into a coherent whole by removing parts or placing them in a different order.

Guys and gals, we’re less than a week away from Halloween.

I don’t make the news. I just report it. A week! And while I see that all my horror-loving buddies challenging themselves to watch a horror movie a day, or creating lists for All Hallow’s Read, I myself… I’m…

This is hard for me to admit, but: I’m not feeling it this year. At least not yet.Continue Reading

Veruca Salt Playing Pokemon Go: How I’m Dealing with the Manic Pace of Modern Fandom

Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Paper CutsTags , , , , , , Leave a comment on Veruca Salt Playing Pokemon Go: How I’m Dealing with the Manic Pace of Modern Fandom

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Veruca Salt Playing Pokemon Go: How I’m Dealing with the Manic Pace of Modern Fandom

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Adam wanted to tell you that he’s just released a brand-spankin’-new book, The Con Season, but was afraid to increase his already out-of-control word count, so I told him I would tell you. We now return you to this month’s edition of Paper Cuts.)

Twitter is a lot of things. It can be a place to get your news, try out your comedy chops or keep tabs on your friends.

As a tool for mass communication the social network is powerful enough to overthrow governments, but its uses can be as simple as some R&R spent hurling anonymous insults to let the world know how terrified you are of women.

But I digress.Continue Reading

The Hype's Not Wrong. You're Wrong: A Horror Fan's Guide to Staying Positive

Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Paper CutsTags , , , 2 Comments on The Hype's Not Wrong. You're Wrong: A Horror Fan's Guide to Staying Positive

PaperCuts-web

Paper (n): material manufactured in thin sheets from the pulp of wood or other fibrous substances, used for writing, drawing, or printing on
 

Cut (v): make (a movie) into a coherent whole by removing parts or placing them in a different order.

The Hype’s Not Wrong. You’re Wrong: A Horror Fan’s Guide to Staying Positive

I’m not delivering breaking news when I say that civility and nuance are the first things to go once people plop their butts in front of their computers. But that doesn’t mean it’s not true.

And look, I get it, I’ve been guilty of logging in after a long day and treading down the warpath, looking to get the venom out. And sometimes I end up standing by that venom (especially if it was a good zinger on Twitter, no regrets there), but most times I wish I hadn’t.

But as a reader, movie guy, and—most importantly—a horror fan who values the opinions of those I’m friendly with, there’s a certain brand (flavor? variety?) of venom that I feel like I see way too often. What is this scourge on the horror community?Continue Reading

The Top Werewolf Films You (Probably) Haven’t Seen But Should: Stephen Graham Jones Talks ‘Mongrels’

Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Paper CutsTags , , , , , 2 Comments on The Top Werewolf Films You (Probably) Haven’t Seen But Should: Stephen Graham Jones Talks ‘Mongrels’

PaperCuts-web

Paper (n): material manufactured in thin sheets from the pulp of wood or other fibrous substances, used for writing, drawing, or printing on
 

Cut (v): make (a movie) into a coherent whole by removing parts or placing them in a different order.

The Top Werewolf Films You (Probably) Haven’t Seen But Should: Stephen Graham Jones Talks ‘Mongrels’

Mongrels_cover-678x1024When I initially pitched the idea for this column to the editors at Cemetery Dance Online, it was a very, uh… loose pitch. The “hook” was me discussing horror movies and horror fiction, wherever they happen to intersect.

And while that loosey-goosey connective theme has probably turned off some readers (“now we’re just reading a list of books he likes? Get out of your own butt, guy!”), it’s meant that I basically get to write about whatever I want and have it get a bunch of eyes on it.

Amazingly those suckers visionaries at CD were cool with that. Also I keep coming up with jokey clickbait headlines, so that probably helps. There is a list of “Top Werewolf Films” somewhere in this interview, but you have to read to find it.

Having no set format means I get to have guests. Which is a long-winded way of saying that, this month: I wanted to talk to one of my favorite authors! And he said yes!Continue Reading

Indie Publishing is the New B-Movies and Here’s Why That’s A Good Thing

Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Paper CutsTags , , , 2 Comments on Indie Publishing is the New B-Movies and Here’s Why That’s A Good Thing

PaperCuts-web

Paper (n): material manufactured in thin sheets from the pulp of wood or other fibrous substances, used for writing, drawing, or printing on
 

Cut (v): make (a movie) into a coherent whole by removing parts or placing them in a different order.

Indie Publishing is the New B-Movies and Here’s Why That’s A Good Thing

sharknado-4-sequel-greenlitThe age of the B-movie is dead.

Well, it’s died twice, actually, but still the term persists.

First of all, we should probably get on the same page and define what we mean by a B-movie, before I start telling you why I think it’s dead. And what I think has replaced it.

Continue Reading

Paper Cuts: Binge Smarter: 4 Film Books Every Horror Fan Should Read (and Movies to Go With Them)

Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Paper CutsTags , , , Leave a comment on Paper Cuts: Binge Smarter: 4 Film Books Every Horror Fan Should Read (and Movies to Go With Them)

PaperCuts-web

Paper (n): material manufactured in thin sheets from the pulp of wood or other fibrous substances, used for writing, drawing, or printing on
 
Cut (v): make (a movie) into a coherent whole by removing parts or placing them in a different order.

Binge Smarter: 4 Film Books Every Horror Fan Should Read (and Movies to Go With Them)

danseSo far this column has been about two things: horror fiction and horror film. And where they overlap. With various digressions where it has suited my mood.

But the name “Paper Cuts” is broad enough that it shouldn’t limit our book discussions purely to fiction titles. Right?

In that spirit, here are four nonfiction film books (some criticism, some history, some reference) that I think every horror film fan should read.Continue Reading

Paper Cuts: Option This! Vol. 2

Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Paper CutsTags , , , 1 Comment on Paper Cuts: Option This! Vol. 2

PaperCuts-web

Paper (n): material manufactured in thin sheets from the pulp of wood or other fibrous substances, used for writing, drawing, or printing on
 
Cut (v): make (a movie) into a coherent whole by removing parts or placing them in a different order.

Option This! Vol. 2

Hey y’all. Happy New Year!

Back in August I posted up a list of three literary works (two novels and a short story) that I think are ripe for film or television adaptation. You can click over to that article and check it out, along with a quick rationale behind why I like adaptations, for the most part.

This month’s article was originally going to be about something different, but that idea has now become so research intensive that it’s threatening to become a two-parter.

I was reminded to run another “Option This!” column last week when I saw a post on author Jeremy Robert Johnson’s Facebook page: Skullcrack City, one of the books I recommended that Hollywood jump on last time, is inching closer to actually becoming a movie.Continue Reading

Paper Cuts: The Paper Cuts 2015 Holiday Gift Guide

Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Paper CutsTags , , , Leave a comment on Paper Cuts: The Paper Cuts 2015 Holiday Gift Guide

PaperCuts-web

The Paper Cuts 2015 Holiday Gift Guide

I’ve made no secret about using this column to bridge the gap between the sometimes-at-odds and sometimes-overlapping horror fiction and horror film fandoms.

But if there’s one thing that unifies all varieties of horror obsessives, it’s our love of crass consumerism and physical media.

In that spirit, I thought I’d make this month’s installment of Paper Cuts a kind of public service. You can email this article to family and loved ones, make the subject heading “I found this interesting” and BOOM! you’ve got some sweet gifts coming to you this holiday season.Continue Reading

Paper Cuts: Hustling at Horror Cons 101 or: Dispelling the Myth of the Non-Reading Horror Fan

Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Paper CutsTags , , , , , Leave a comment on Paper Cuts: Hustling at Horror Cons 101 or: Dispelling the Myth of the Non-Reading Horror Fan

PaperCuts-web

Paper (n): material manufactured in thin sheets from the pulp of wood or other fibrous substances, used for writing, drawing, or printing on.
 

Cut (v): make (a movie) into a coherent whole by removing parts or placing them in a different order.

Hustling at Horror Cons 101 or: Dispelling the Myth of the Non-Reading Horror Fan

“This is a tough convention,” he says, eyeing our books, picking one up and testing the spine like he’s squeezing an avocado, going to make a little word guac. “It’s especially tough for books. Nobody here reads.”

I don’t know this guy.

Don’t even know him in the sense that I know what it is he does. He could be an indie film actor, a fellow writer, a grey-market DVD vendor. He could be anything that would allow him to be in Worcester, Massachusetts’s DCU Center a half hour before this year’s Rock and Shock convention opens.

Looking back on this interaction now, it’s hard to tell if he was trying to psych us out or if he actually believed that no one who attended the convention read books.Continue Reading

Paper Cuts: You Can’t Argue with Our Definitive List of Cinema’s Best Monsters

Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Paper CutsTags , , , , 8 Comments on Paper Cuts: You Can’t Argue with Our Definitive List of Cinema’s Best Monsters

PaperCuts-web

Paper (n): material manufactured in thin sheets from the pulp of wood or other fibrous substances, used for writing, drawing, or printing on.
 

Cut (v): make (a movie) into a coherent whole by removing parts or placing them in a different order.

You Can’t Argue with Our Definitive List of Cinema’s Best Monsters

Special Guest: Orrin Grey

The title story in Orrin Grey’s upcoming collection, Painted Monsters, is prefaced by maybe my favorite epigraph of all time:

“For you, the living, this mash was meant too…”
— Bobby “Boris” Pickett

And then I realize that title of the story and collection — which sounded so familiar on first hearing — is actually a reference to one of Boris Karloff’s lines in Peter Bogdanovich’s Targets, one of the best horror films of all time, in my opinion.

Continue Reading

Paper Cuts: Found Footage and the Ever-Evolving Campfire Tale

Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Paper CutsTags , , , , 5 Comments on Paper Cuts: Found Footage and the Ever-Evolving Campfire Tale

PaperCuts-web

Paper (n): material manufactured in thin sheets from the pulp of wood or other fibrous substances, used for writing, drawing, or printing on
 

Cut (v): make (a movie) into a coherent whole by removing parts or placing them in a different order.

Found Footage and the Ever-Evolving Campfire Tale

Blair_Witch_ProjectWhy are so many horror fans so damn conservative? And no, I don’t mean politically conservative, but that would probably be an interesting piece if someone else wanted to write it.

No, I mean why are they conservative when it comes to matters of genre? You’ll frequently hear the statement “everything Hollywood gives us is remakes and found footage these days!” accompanying crotchety diatribes about the “dismal” state of the genre. And to preempt anyone saying this is a straw man argument, I heard a permutation of this from multiple people last month at Scares That Care.

I understand the feelings of resentment towards remakes, on an ideological level. But I don’t share the opinion that remakes are the refuge of the creatively bankrupt.Continue Reading

Paper Cuts: Option This! Vol. 1

Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Paper CutsTags , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment on Paper Cuts: Option This! Vol. 1

PaperCuts-web

Paper (n): material manufactured in thin sheets from the pulp of wood or other fibrous substances, used for writing, drawing, or printing on
 
Cut (v): make (a movie) into a coherent whole by removing parts or placing them in a different order.

Option This! Vol. 1

Welcome back, this is the second installment of Paper Cuts, a column about horror film from a horror reader’s (and writer’s) perspective. Huge thanks to everyone who shared the last post, read it, or sent me their thoughts, whether public or private. I was really overwhelmed by the response.Continue Reading

Paper Cuts: My Least Favorite Meme

Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Paper CutsTags , , , 4 Comments on Paper Cuts: My Least Favorite Meme

PaperCuts-web

Paper (n): material manufactured in thin sheets from the pulp of wood or other fibrous substances, used for writing, drawing, or printing on
 
Cut (v): make (a movie) into a coherent whole by removing parts or placing them in a different order.

My Least Favorite Meme (and the “Best Movies” Listicle that will Hopefully get You to Read this Article)

Film_Book_MemeDid you know that Facebook has a “I don’t want to see this” button?

It’s true. Using it blocks a specific post from your timeline, but doesn’t unfollow or silence the person who shared it. After the third of my friends posted the meme you see to your right, I started clicking that button. Liberally.

Continue Reading