Books

‘Scary Stories’ Director Cody Meirick: The Horror News Network Interview

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2019 is shaping up to be quite a year for Alvin Schwartz and Stephen Gammell’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark book series.  Not only is the much loved (and maligned) series from the 1980’s being adapted into a major motion picture by producer Guillermo del Toro and director André Øvredal, but months before the adaptation’s release (August 9), fans will be able to learn the real “story” through Cody Meirick’s documentary, Scary Stories.

Horror News Network got a chance to speak to Meirick about his new film and his love of the source material in this exclusive interview. read more

James Wan & Gary Dauberman to Bring Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot’ to the Big Screen

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James Wan and Gary Dauberman- the creative team behind numerous entries in The Conjuring cinematic universe- are setting their sights on world of vampires. Their latest project involves bringing Stephen King’s 1975 classic novel, Salem’s Lot to the silver screen. The Hollywood Reporter says that Wan will produce the film and Dauberman will serve as screenwriter and executive producer.

Wan and Dauberman first collaborated in 2014 on the first The Conjuring spinoff, Annabelle. Wan produced the film and Dauberman wrote the script. This arrangement continued with Annabelle: Creation and The Nun; and now Dauberman will also direct the upcoming Annabelle Comes Home. There is currently no director announced for Salem’s Lot.  read more

Inside Ed and Lorraine Warren’s Occult Museum: A Horror News Network Pictorial

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The death of beloved paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren has all of us here at Horror News Network reminiscing about our favorite encounters with her and Ed throughout the years. Seeing as HNN’s headquarters is located in the Warrens’ home state of Connecticut, Ed and Lorraine directly impacted all of our lives, and we’re excited to be able to share some fascinating tidbits with our readers. HNN staff member Nick Banks and I were fortunate enough to visit The Warren’s Occult Museum on a couple occasions with our wives. It is no longer open to the public, so we’re even more grateful to have had the opportunity.  The museum houses the infamous Annabelle doll which was featured in numerous The Conjuring movies since 2013, but it also contains lesser known artifacts such as a Satanic idol taken from the woods of Connecticut and a shadow doll which attacks the dreams of unsuspecting victims. Not everything in the museum is haunted, however, as many of Ed’s original paintings and articles about the famous ghost busting couple are prominently displayed throughout its hallowed walls. read more

HNN Staff Members Remember Lorraine Warren

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Monroe is a small town in the southern part of Connecticut, about an hour and a half from the most famous city in the world: New York.  Unlike the cosmopolitan confines of NYC, Monroe looks like many New England towns, with plenty of woods and pastures and a number of strip malls that contain pizza shops, antique stores, and barber shops.

I moved to Monroe in 1978 as a seven year old, and today I live about a mile from the border.  One constant in my life over all of these years is the one thing that put the small bucolic town of Monroe on the map: the presence of our very own world-famous ghost hunters, Ed and Lorraine Warren. read more

Trailblazing Paranormal Investigator Lorraine Warren Dies at 92

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For real life ghost story aficionados-and since 2013, even big screen supernatural movie buffs- no individuals are more prominent than Ed and Lorraine Warren. The duo founded N.E.S.P.R., the New England Society for Psychic Research in 1952 and were involved in some of the most famous cases of hauntings of all time, including the infamous Amityville house, the Enfield poltergeist, and the Annabelle doll. They’ve been famously portrayed by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga in a series of The Conjuring movies and spinoffs, which have only increased their presence worldwide over the past six years. Ed passed away on August 23rd, 2006, and Lorraine continued to help people around the world with the assistance of her son-in-law, Tony Spera. It is with heavy hearts that we report that an era has come to an end today, as Lorraine Warren has passed away at the age of 92. read more

Netflix to Debut ‘The Witcher’ Series in Q4 of 2019

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It has been a long time coming, but it appears that Netflix’s television series based on the Polish fantasy-drama book series The Witcher will premiere on the streaming series very soon.  Ted Sarandso, the Chief Content Officer for Netflix, announced on a recent investor call that the series, which began principal production last Halloween in Hungary, will debut in Q4 of 2019.

After nearly two years of updates, fans of The Witcher can now see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Netflix originally announced production back in May of 2017, which would see an English-language adaptation of author Andrzej Sapkowski’s popular books.  Henry Cavill (Man of Steel, Blood Creek) will be the main star, with the rest of the cast revealed back in October of 2018.  Surprisingly, most of the information regarding this project has been leaked by executive producer, writer and show-runner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich.  Hissrich, who came aboard in December 2017, revealed that she enlisted the assistance of Sapkowksi, and later tweeted in April 2018 that the first season would be 8 episodes long and would be filmed mostly in Central Europe.  It was also recently reported that principal photography was moved last month to Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands. read more

‘House of Fear’ Writer James Powell: The Horror News Network Interview

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The entry into the horror genre usually happens at a young age, even if we are unaware of the dark path that we are embarking on. Whether it is watching classic Scooby Doo episodes, taking your first doom buggy ride through Disney’s Haunted Mansion, or finding a tattered copy of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark at your school library, the seed has been planted for the journey.

Children in the 1940’s and 50’s, found their way into horror stories through the numerous comic anthologies from EC Comics (which would go on to inspire many other forms of the horror anthology tale in film and television), before being targeted by civic groups and disappearing for a brief time.  Luckily, these four color scares became even more popular (and infamous) over the years, allowing other fans and creators to pick up the torch and place it firmly on the dungeon wall. read more

Bats Galore in Netflix’s ‘The Silence’ Trailer

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It appears as if Netflix is ready to chase every horror trend from 2018 in Annabelle and Wish Upon director John Leonetti ‘s upcoming bat horror film The Silence.

Not only does The Silence include a sound gimmick (A Quiet Place), a healthy dose of another sense-altering twist (the protagonist is deaf), but it also stars Netflix’s very own Sabrina, Kiernan Shipka (apparently, blindfolds would have been too derivative for Netflix viewers, who just enjoyed a similar tale entitled Bird Box.) read more

‘Castle Rock’ Season Two adds New Cast Members

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Set to premier later this year, the Hulu series Castle Rock has added Lizzy Caplan, Tim Robbins and Elsie Fisher to star in the show’s second season which The Hollywood Reporter stated will be themed around Stephen King’s novel Misery.

From producer J.J. Abrams and King himself, Castle Rock premiered on July 25, 2018 and has featured many actors who have appeared in adaptations of King’s various stories, such as Bill Skarsgård who is known for his role as Pennywise the Clown in 2017’s IT and Sissy Spacek who was the titular character in the 1976 film Carrie. read more

‘Haunted Universal Studios’ Author Brian Clune: The Horror News Network Interview

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Universal Studios will always hold a special place in the heart of every horror fan due to their dedication to the original screen monsters Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolfman, The Mummy, and a host of others.  The original filming location for many of these classics took place on the grounds of the studio that is now more famous for the theme-park and tour it operates on a daily basis.  The famed Los Angeles location has a long history, and not only in terms of the thousands of films produced there.  Many have suggested that there might also be ghosts that inhabit the world-famous Universal Studios lot and theme park. read more