Dear Weirdlings,
History is rife with injustice and bloodshed, bodies nestled under earth (waiting and expectant), and ashes scattered aloft on whistling winds. Memories and record keeping cannot contain it all.
The future — burdened by the ones envisioning it — may be no better, promising its own catastrophes and misfortunes, its own terrifying landscapes.
Can we escape by living in the time-space between?
Movies
Casting, Comments, Synopsis, and Distribution Announcement on David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future (Rue Morgue)
David Cronenberg returns to the horror realm with his forthcoming film Crimes of the Future, which explores transhumanism and body altering technologies — a perfect set-up for his particular flair for the grotesque.
Games
Alcina Dimitrescu: The Ingredients for an Iconic Character (Medium)
Resident Evil: Village will soon be available. In the lead up to its release, the element that has drawn the most fevered excitement is Alcina Dimitrescu. In her passion for the enigmatic giantess, Dani Bethea ponders,
"Whilst getting the vapors and swooning upon my fainting couch, I pontificated with a cool compress to my brow, why do we all unabashedly adore this vampire lady? What primal dormant longings is she engendering upon millions of us that have swept us off our feet and willingly into her embrace?"
Co-Op Horror With a Pet Gun: An Interview With Pet Project Games (Superjump)
Developer Pet Project Games discusses their sci-fi horror shooter, RIPOUT, which offers action-packed, co-op gameplay:
"Well, uniqueness comes from all directions in the dark corridors of RIPOUT! Monsters have a couple of tricks up their sleeve so they also can mix and combine. A part of one monster can attach itself to another, or you can shoot one down and it will join with another live monster so the action and variety is there all the time! We do have more unique features but we will be able to reveal more in the following months."
Life & Lore
Haunting Photos Reveal a Massive Abandoned Town of Disneyesque Castles (Architectural Digest)
Housing developments with their cookie-cutter homes are inherently creepy. Amp that up to the tenth degree when those duplicated homes are comprised of generically designed psuedo-castles — all left abandoned in Turkey.
Literature
On Being the Other in an Outsider Genre: Interviewing Chesya Burke (Tor Nightfire)
In this interview, Chesya Burke discusses the ways in which issues surrounding race, gender, and oppression have often been overlooked in the horror genre:
"Black people have always loved horror, and it has been an escape for us. The idea that Black people don’t watch horror is akin to the idea that we don’t read books. The book industry learned how wrong they were several years ago when Black people began self-publishing and making a lot of money, and now the movie industry has learned the same lesson. This, of course, is a lesson that the film industry has long ignored, as Black people have saved this industry in the past (in the ’70s with Blaxploitation films, for example). But if history tells us anything, they likely won’t learn this time either."
5 of the Best Historical Horror Books for a Hair Raising Read (Book Riot)
Jessica Avery notes, "From the evils of racism, to the bottomless maw of capitalism, to the terrors inherent in just existing in a world designed to despise everything you are, historical horror investigates the dark corners of history and interrogate the roots of our modern fears."
Short of the Week
In "Alice Jacobs is Dead," written and directed by Alex Horwitz, a scientist races to find the cure to a horrific virus before it turns his wife into something monstrous. Staring horror veteran Adrienne Barbeau, this short focuses on the heartbreak of loosing the ones you love.
