Armchair Commentary

DVDs from the Vault: Forgotten Noir, Jungle Thrills - Plus! Rock, Doris, Popeye, Penrod and Sam (and More!)

Let's begin this week's feast of vintage features on DVD with a newly remastered quintet of lessr-known noir, all culled from the Warner acquisitions library and released via their manufacture on demand imprint, Warner Archives. Monogram's The Fall Guy (1947) benefits greatly from its source material - the short story "Cocaine," by Cornell Woolrich,, whose doom-laden work also served as the inspiration for The Leopard Man (1943), Phantom Lady (1944), Rear Window (1954), The Bride Wore Black (1968) and countless other films. The Fall Guy draws from one of Woolrich's favorite tropes - the crime commited in the wake of an alcohol- or drug-fueled blackout (see also Black Angel and The Guilty, both 1947) - with actor/director Leo Penn (father of Sean, Chris and Michael Penn, and here billed as Clifford Penn) discovering that he may have murdered a woman while in the grip of a bender. The left-field upbeat ending and budget-driven is balanced by the presence of Robert Armstrong (King Kong, 1933) as Penn's cop brother-in-law and Elisha Cook, Jr., in full ferret mode as a highly suspicious stranger. 

The Inside Story on Zombieland's TV Roots, What the Future Might Hold, and Post-Apocalyptic Upsides

What fans of Zombieland may not realize is that the 2009 hit movie, written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, was originally imagined as a TV series.

“We wrote it in 2005 as a spec pilot and sold it to CBS and – this was pre-Walking Dead – and the idea was that zombies had been so successful on the big screen but they have never really been tapped on the small screen,” Paul said.  “The success of Zombieland in some ways paved the way for The Walking Dead to be on-air, and The Walking Dead is obviously a huge success. We’re so happy to be back on TV.”

Zombieland: The Series, is one of 14 Amazon original pilots now playing for free at Amazon Instant Video and LOVEFiLM. Viewer response will help determine which of these shows return with full seasons.

We asked with Paul and Rhett about zombies, their cast, and what the future might hold for their characters.

There are a lot of zombie stories out there, but you  but you guys have taken it in a direction that I think is more humorous than one might expect, post-apocalypse. 

Rhett:  Well I think what we wanted to do is to treat the post-apocalypse like an escapist fantasy.  There are a lot of post-apocalyptic stories like The Road and similar movies that treat the post apocalypse as a grim experience as it likely would be in real life, but we thought we wanted to turn it on its head a little bit and imagine the post-apocalyptic landscape as a fun one, and one where you could be free and do the kind of things that you wanted to do.  Maybe you were the last guy on Earth and maybe there was a cute girl who is also alive, and what would that mean?  So we wanted to look at the post-apocalyptic world as a playground full of toys and full of zombies to bash over the head and full of fun experiences and that was a jumping off point for us.

Paul:  It’s kind of like Los Angeles during the holiday season when everyone goes out of town, and traffic is a lot less and the air is cleaner and people are happier and we thought my God, that feels a little bit of what it would be like in the post-apocalypse, except you’re being chased by zombies.  So the wish fulfillment of that world is something that we really wanted to tap into that really sets us apart from all the other zombie projects, the idea that again you can drive Lamborghinis.  You can just go to the Lamborghini dealership and grab a yellow Lamborghini if you wanted to.  And you could get the hot girl because, you know, there aren’t a lot of choices out there.

What do you say to those who are nervous about seeing Zombieland as a series?

Paul:  Well I would say that they are in the best hands that they could be in.  The reason this was and is an original idea, it wasn’t based on a graphic novel it came out of our heads and it is now in our hands where it belongs and we have the utmost respect for the world and the franchise and the fans and we’ve captured the tone and feel of the movie.  We have cast wonderful actors who are playing characters – not replacements for other actors. 

Rhett: It bears mentioning that when we wrote Zombieland, we wrote the character of Tallahassee based upon an actor we knew, a friend of ours and an actor we had worked with named Kirk Ward, and he really inspired the character.  We wrote it for him intending for him to play it but when it became a movie, we needed a star and we went to Woody Harrelson, we found a phenomenal guy who left an indelible mark on that character and obviously brought it to life in a way that it will never be forgotten that will always set the bar of excellence.  That said, when it came time to turn it into a TV series again we desperately still wanted to work with Kirk Ward and to have him be our guy and it was a long circuitous casting process but we got our wish so people will be seeing in him our original vision for that character and I think that the other cast members are equally wonderful and are wonderful discoveries.  It’s true in theater that characters get passed on from one great actor to another and it’s almost like a legacy and we hope that it will be the case in this case.  There are also a lot of good examples of movies becoming Television shows, something like The Odd Couple – you know Jack Lemmon, Tony Randall, two wonderful actors playing the same part.  There’s Billy Bob Thornton and Kyle Chandler on Friday Night Lights.  I think there is certainly precedent for what we are doing and we hope to catch lightning in a bottle again. 

Rhett:  We really believe that we are holding the standard of the movie and it will be up to America and the world to decide. It’s not for us to decide, but we have confidence in it. 

Great zombie stories – like yours – have a unique way of helping people understand humanity. Is that kind of thing in your mind at all?

Rhett:  A little bit.  To some extent we don’t want to take ourselves too seriously.  I do think that zombies are a stand-in for all of our collective fears; you know each of us fears different things in life.  Zombies are a nice way within the world of fiction to embody those fears into something then bash it over the head with a baseball bat.  I think there’s something to that; it’s a kind of cathartic kind of movie or TV show.

If the series goes forward, how do you envision it unfolding over time?

Paul:  Inherent in the movie and in the pilot is this idea that they are on the road, it’s a traveling circus and we would like to embrace that.  As we are heading out of California and heading east, these adventures will take place in Vegas and Graceland and Mount Rushmore.  We want it to take advantage of the landscape and America and all the fun that awaits them on the road.  That would be what I say most.  They’re all looking for their own sense of home and peace and I think that Tallahassee is looking for love and hopefully will find it and Columbus will hopefully find it in Wichita.

Rhett:  And a show like Battlestar Galactica a real endgame, that being let’s get back to Earth, let’s get back home.  As they had that, and I think we also have the idea let’s ultimately try to find a place of safety, a home and a community for the future.  That won’t be reached right away because then there wouldn’t be a show, but I think in the long run we’ll try to take our guys to that mythical place of safety and renewal.

- Stephanie Reid-Simons

 

DVDs from the Vault: Vintage Hollywood! Classic TV! Multi-Disc Mania! Westerns Aplenty! And More!

Independent distributors Olive Films continue to underscore their status as a dream label for cinephiles and collectors with its current batch of titles, all culled from the vaults of Republic Pictures and available in both DVD and Blu-ray formats. Chief among the current lineup is Mark Robson's Champion (1949), a scabrous, violent profile of a ruthless boxer (Kirk Douglas, who received an Oscar nod for his performance) whose desperate drive to rise above his bottom-floor social standing results in the ruination of his closest relationships (brother Arthur Kennedy, manager Paul Stewart and desire object Marilyn Maxwell) and ultimately, his own self-respect. The darker corners of the soul are also the focus of The Enforcer (1951), with Humphrey Bogart (in his final role for Warner Bros., which distributed the film for United States Pictures) as an assistant district attorney trying to bring down mobster Everett Sloane, who runs a Murder, Inc. style ring of contract killers, and Fred Zinneman's The Men (1950), with Marlon Brando as a former GI struggling with a wartime injury that has left him a paraplegic and Sloane, Jack Webb and Teresa Wright as the doctor, fellow patient and fiancee who aid in his recovery. Both The Men and Champion were early producer credits for director Stanley Kramer and penned by Carl Foreman (High Noon), who received Oscar nominations for both efforts.

Why Do We Love Scary Movies?

Horror stories that are grounded in reality, and yet not bound by rules … these inspire Adam Simon and Tim Metcalfe (The Haunting in Connecticut). And it’s what they appreciate about Seed, a powerful and terrifying novel written by Ania Ahlborn. Simon and Metcalfe have been selected by Amazon Studios to adapt Seed for the screen.

“Ania’s character insight and scenic eye managed to do what few horror writers even attempt, let alone succeed at – and that is, create a fictional world we instantly recognize as our own, as true,” Simon said. “Like Stephen King and a handful of Horror masters, she knows that writing great horror fiction is like directing lightning – your pole’s gotta be grounded.”

We asked Simon and Metcalfe a few questions about horror, their inspirations, and bringing stories from page to screen:

Why do you think people enjoy scary stories so much?

Simon: They’re homeopathic medicine for the soul – boot-camp for the psyche. A little, controlled, dose of what ails us, cures us. Watch my documentary The American Nightmare. My favorite thing I ever did. And it’s everything I always wanted to say about horror movies, but said better by some of the greatest horror film makers and a bunch of people way smarter than me.

Metcalfe: There are only a few basic emotions that films trigger well – fear is maybe chief amongst them.

What are some horror movies/books that have inspired you, and why?

Simon: Horror Movies –The Exorcist, the original Night of The Living Dead, The Innocents, Suspiria, the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hour of the Wolf, Martyrs, Videodrome. What they have in common: Horror that obeys no rules.

Books: Blatty’s The Exorcist, Stoker’s Dracula, King’s Pet Sematary, Klein’s The Ceremonies, Barker’s The Damnation Game – all of HP Lovecraft, Arthur Machen, Ramsey Campbell, Dennis Etchison, Michael Marshal Smith and of course M.R. James. What they have in common: making the reader feel that the very act of reading might be dangerous.

If I could recommend only one book here it’d be Roszak’s Flicker – the best horror novel ever written about movies, maybe the best novel about movies period.

Metcalfe: The original King Kong, The Haunting (1962), The Innocents (1961, based on James’ Turn of the Screw), Rosemary’s Baby, both novel and film; the original Chainsaw Massacre; every version ever done of Jack Finney’s novel, Invasion of the Body Snatchers; The Shining, both novel and film (I think the film is better than the book, but don’t tell Mr. King I said so), and the greatest of them all, The Exorcist, both film and novel. If Silence of the Lambs is horror, then it’s on the list too. Recently, the last decade anyway, the film that impressed and scared me the most was probably Brad Anderson’s Session 9. Also del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth.

How did you begin writing together, and what do you feel each of you brings to the partnership?

Simon: I was sent Tim’s script for Kalifornia to consider as a director – and I thought it was both the funniest and scariest thing I’d ever read – I knew I had to meet him. We had lunch a couple days later  and we have been great friends and frequent collaborators ever since.  I think the most important thing I learned from Tim was what I alluded to above about Ania’s writing – that it means nothing if you can imagine strange and wonderful things, but you don’t embody them in real people, real emotions, real life. Tim taught me to make sure I wasn’t just dreaming dreams on top of dreams, or riffing off (or ripping off) all the stories and movies we’ve internalized, but instead dreaming through reality – using real life, even one’s own life, as the prima materia from which to create one’s fictional dreams and nightmares.

Walking Dead Showrunner Glen Mazzara on Midseason Finales, Pushing Limits and the Appeal of Daryl

Showrunner Glen Mazzara is merciful — OK, maybe not to the characters on The Walking Dead, but to fans. His belief is that midseason finales should be managed with care, not leaving too much hanging for too long. “Sometimes I worry about cliffhangers, that they can be frustrating to the audience,” he said in an exclusive interview with Amazon Studios.

Which isn’t to say that Mazzara won’t put beloved characters in peril — he’s done it plenty this season, the show’s third, and delivered monster ratings in the process (the midseason finale attracted 15.2 million viewers in December).

We talked with Mazzara shortly before news broke that this season, which resumes in February, will be his last as showrunner and executive producer for The Walking Dead. Be warned, spoilers abound in this interview. Don’t listen or read further until you’re caught up.

Some highlights, including Mazzara's take on finales, humanity in a zombified world, the freedom the setting provides, and how far he'll push characters:

On midseason finales vs. season finales:

We come together as writers and producers and the studio, network executives and we design with that midseason finale in mind. We really want to make sure that we’re paying off some of the arcs that we established, and really setting up the back half of the season. So last year, we had an arc to pay off about “Where’s Sophia?,” and that really could have played as a season finale. …

This year, I really wanted to concentrate on setting up the back part of the season. So what we did in these eight episodes was introduce a lot of new characters. We introduced Michonne, re-introduced Merle, the Governor, Milton, these two worlds. We needed eight episodes to bring everyone together in a plausible, believable way. Now that everything’s crashed together, everything’s all set up for the back half of the season. There was a lot of plotting required to get it done, and what was interesting about this midseason finale is that we do have this cliffhanger.

Sometimes I worry about cliffhangers, that they can be frustrating to the audience. I would not want to do a major cliffhanger like this at the end of the season because on cable sometimes you’re off for six months to a year, and I do feel that would be frustrating.

On what makes the zombie apocalypse such an effective tool for revealing humanity:

The world is so incredibly high-stake. Every decision you make is the decision you make is between life and death, and our show now is a show about making decisions. It’s not necessarily a show about discussing philosophy. All the pressure is on. There are zombies over there, there are zombies over here, there’s no food, there’s no water, there’s no ammo. We now have the Governor and his group out there, what are we going to do. I think the audience watches that and they feel the pressure, they buy into the reality of the show … and they in a sense play along at home by making decisions as well: What would they do? How would they get out of this? Who would they be willing to sacrifice?… In any drama, you reveal character through the choices they make, so I think people really believe in this world and believe in the characters.

On the appeal of Daryl:

Daryl’s just the everyman. Norman [Reedus] does a great job of playing that character just as cool as possible, just understated. Norman’s just a wonderful actor, and his biceps look great when he’s running around holding a crossbow. He’s also just a guy who doesn’t get rattled. He’s the guy you want by your side in this zombie apocalypse. He has a heart, he’s smart, he’s a survivalist. He’s the perfect person to have by your side. People just trust him and are rooting for him. …

He could lead this group. Now here comes his brother, who’s going to complicate his life and possibly undo everything he’s worked so hard for. It’s a very, very good challenge for him.

More from Mazzara at the Amazon Studios Hollywonk blog.

MODs of the Week: Shemp Howard, Wonder Woman, Dracula and Philip Marlowe Walk Into a Bar...

Silent comedy fans and Stoogephiles, take note: Warner Archives' two-disc Vitaphone Comedy Collection Volume One features comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Shemp Howard in 19 two-reel shorts made for Warner Bros. with the Vitaphone system between 1932 and 1934. The six Arbuckle shorts - his only sound efforts - were intended as comeback vehicles after the ruination of his film career in the wake of a 1921 rape scandal, and are highlighted by the comic' deft physicality and childlike glee: in "Hey, Pop!" (1932), he deftly navigates a kitchen full of utensils, while "How've You Bean" (1933) offers a swell recreation of the molasses gag from 1919's "The Butcher Boy" with Buster Keaton. Perennial foil Al "Fuzzy" St. John (also Arbuckle's nephew), Fritz Hubert and Pete the Pup from the "Our Gang" series offer support, while Shemp Howard, fresh from his brothers' act as the Stooges with Ted Healy, turns up in bit roles in "Close Relations" and "In the Dough." Arbuckle died shortly after completing his final short, and the rest of the collection is devoted to Howard, who quickly rose in the Vitagraph ranks from minor player to second banana on the strength of his verbal asides and rubber-faced mugging. He's front and center only a few times, most notably opposite Jack Haley in the energetic "Salt Water Daffy" (1933) and his occasional screen partner Harry Gribbon in "Art Trouble" (1934), which also features James Stewart in his screen debut. Though Howard's trademark anarchic presence is afforded little screen time in many of the other shorts, he enlivens showcases afforded to Ben Blue (an acquired taste if there ever was one), Gus Shy and dialect comics George Givot and Charles Judels, who co-star with future Blondie Penny Singleton, billed under her real name (Dorothy McNulty) in "How'd Ya Like That?" (1933). Howard remained with Vitagraph until 1937, after which he eventually re-joined the Three Stooges in 1946. A second volume of his Vitagraph shorts is expected from Warner Archives this year. (more after the break)

A Tensome of Terror: The Best Horror DVD and Blu-ray Releases from 2012

Following is Armchair Commentary's round-up of the best horror titles released on DVD and Blu-ray in 2012. As in past years, the films here may not reflect all tastes in the genre, which offers a dizzying array of styles, sub-categories and degrees of intensity. The ten films in this list, as well as a handful of honorable mentions, were selected because they met one (or more) of three important criteria: the overall quality of their stories and direction, their packaging and presentation for home video, and (most importantly), the level of terror they raised.

1. Kill List Director Ben Wheatley skillfully manipulates genre expectations in this indie-styled UK thriller about a pair of hitman who discover, far too late, that the trio of individuals they are assigned to kill are part of a vast and sinister network. Wheatley's Chinese box plot is punctuated by moments of heart-stopping violence that culminate in a finale that echoes The Wicker Man in its shocking sledgehammer impact.

2. The Pact  A young woman discovers that the ghosts of the past, both figurative and unsettlingly literal, hold the key to a terrible family secret in this atmospheric feature debut from writer/director Nicholas McCarthy. The film's largely female cast - a rarity for the genre - is capably led by Caity Lotz (Mad Men) in a physically demanding role, though Haley Hudson also stands out as a blind medium whose unearthly fragility that seems more supernatural than the picture's restless spirit.  

3. Cabin in the Woods Though audiences were divided over its meta-take on horror tropes, co-writer/producer Joss Whedon and director Drew Goddard's tribute/critique of the genre's rules and foibles was one of the most clever and energetic releases of the year.

4. Eclipse Series 37: When Horror Came to Shochiku The latest release from Criterion's budget line is a quartet of eye-popping '60s-era horror and science fiction titles from Japan's venerable arthouse studio. Late-night TV habitues may remember the startling alien invasion chiller Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell and the thoroughly out-to-lunch kaiju The X from Outer Space, but the set's real discovery is The Living Skeleton, a macabre mash-up of supernatural revenge, Expressionistic shadows and pulp weirdness.

5. Universal Monsters: The Essential Collection As its title rightly states, this Blu-ray presentation of Universal's most iconic horror films - Dracula, Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, The Invisible Man, The Mummy, the '41 Phantom of the Opera and Creature from the Black Lagoon (presented in 2-D and 3-D formats), all remastered with stunning audio and video - belongs in the collection of every horror fan.

6. The Innkeepers A pair of bored clerks (Sara Paxton and Pat Healy) at a crumbling New England inn turn amateur ghost hunters to investigate the building's history of supernatural phenomena in director Ti West's underrated haunted house thriller. West, who paid tribute to '80s horror excess with House of the Devil, also takes a tip from the past by evoking the slow-building, special effects-light shudders of '70s supernatural efforts like The Legend of Hell House. 

7. The Woman in Black Daniel Radcliffe makes a capable transition to mature roles in this extremely effective Victorian ghost story about a widowed solicitor who becomes embroiled in a small village's legend of the titular spirit, which is connected to a string of children's deaths. The film's Gothic-steeped, funereal atmosphere pays homage to England's legendary and recently resurrected Hammer Films, which released the picture (along with two of the best horror films of the last five years, Let Me In and Wake Wood).

8. The Snowtown Murders A relentlessly bleak dramatization of an Australian murder spree carried out by a self-styled and utterly psychotic vigilante, played with chilling conviction by Daniel Henshall, that also does much to strip away the glamour of infamy from a killer's base, animalistic acts. 

9. Jaws Not the perfect presentation of this still-potent horror-adventure - it lacks several of the supplemental features that were included in previous anniversary DVD editions - but the gorgeous restoration to picture and sound, as well as a pair of exceptional (and exhaustive) making-of documentaries still make this an essential purchase for fans.

10. Mario Bava on Blu-ray Kino Classics brings four of the Italian horror pioneer's most enduring nightmares - the landmark Black Sunday with Barbara Steele, the hypnotic Lisa and the Devil (paired with its grittier re-edit, House of Exorcism), the delirious psycho-slasher Hatchet for the Honeymoon and Baron Blood with Joseph Cotten and Elke Sommer - to Blu-ray in extraordinary remastered editions.

Also worth mentioning: Eduardo (The Blair Witch Project) Sanchez''s Lovely Molly; the surprisingly effective '80s creature feature The Boogens; the five-disc Complete Hammer House of Horror; Lucky McKee's potent cannibal chiller The Woman; A Serbian Film (Uncut), an even more punishing version of the controversial exercise in excess; and V/H/S, an uneven but frequently disturbing anthology of "found footage" horror by a cadre of independent filmmakers, including Ti West, Adam Wingard and David Bruckner. 

Which horror DVD releases made your 2012 best-of list? -- Paul Gaita

 

 

Amazon Studios Adds a Horror Novel to Its Movie Development Slate

Amazon Studios is pleased to announce that it has optioned Seed, a gothic horror novel by acclaimed author Ania Ahlborn. This is a first for Amazon Studios, which up to this point has optioned only movie scripts and episodic series projects.

Seed is a top-selling title of 47North, the science fiction, fantasy, and horror imprint of Amazon Publishing. It’s the story of a man who miraculously survives a violent car crash only to face a profound evil from his past — a dark force hungry for his angelic youngest daughter.

“Our primary objective at Amazon Studios is to develop great, commercial projects that our customers love,” said Roy Price, Director, Amazon Studios. “Ania Ahlborn’s Seed has been a top seller for Amazon Publishing’s 47North so we already have a sense of the mainstream attraction of the story and are excited to keep the project in-house for movie development.”

The novel was recently the subject of Amazon Studios’ first book trailer contest. Check out the winner  – “Grinning Demons” – selected by Ahlborn herself.

“The enthusiasm of the folks at Amazon Studios is infectious, and I can’t wait to see where that inspiration will lead us,” Ahlborn said. “Having Seed made into a movie is nothing short of a dream come true.”

Seed was released in mid-2011 as a self-published title and reached the No. 1 spot on Amazon bestselling horror list. The book was re-released in 2012 after Ahlborn restructured certain plot points and added more than 6,000 words to the manuscript.

More about the project:
Seed
By Ania Ahlborn
Logline: When Jack, his wife Aimee, and their children survive a violent car crash, it seems like a miracle. But Jack knows there’s a profound evil from his past that won’t let them die…at least not quickly. It’s back, and it’s hungry for Jack’s angelic youngest daughter.
Genre: Horror
Why we optioned it: It’s impossible not to be drawn into Ania’s story of a man struggling to save his daughter from the evil that he himself brought into her life. The characters are rich, the visuals arresting and it explores the fear we all have as parents – that we might pass the worst of us on to our children. This is the kind of slow burn, insidious horror story that Stephen King was known for in his heyday.

The Amazon Studios open-development process remains focused on movie and series scripts. However, the Amazon Studios development team will from time to time take a look at Amazon Publishing and Kindle Direct Publishing books.

Learn more about Amazon Studios.

Guest Post: “Seed” Author Ania Ahlborn on Horror Movies That Inspire

“Muses come in different shapes and sizes, mine just happens to look
like a blood-drenched Sissy Spacek.”

— Ania Ahlborn, author of the chilling new horror novel, Seed

Classic horror: there’s something magical about it; something raw and unforgiving that taps into our deepest, most primal fears. As an author, people ask me what inspires me. I’m expected to throw out complicated answers: Shakespeare’s soliloquies; Hemingway’s drunken banter; unpublished Russian manuscripts — the more underground the better. When I reply with “movies,” eyebrows arch above surprised expressions. But it’s undeniable — I have a love affair with moving pictures, especially the ones that make my skin crawl.

 As a lover of horror, I can appreciate almost any attempt at the genre. Granted, I don’t have much of a stomach for stuff like Saw and Hostel, but I understand why it makes the audience react the way it does. And yet, after a barrage of found footage flicks, I find myself pining for the days of old.

I spent my youth watching horror movies when the adults weren’t around, terrorizing myself with classic B-grades like Troll and Dolls—the latter of which gave me a childhood phobia of sleeping in rooms with those creepy, glass-eyed, porcelain faces. But the movie I remember watching most vividly is The Exorcist; sitting on the couch in a pitch black room, clinging a decorative pillow to my chest, my eyes wide as saucers while Reagan MacNeil thrashed in her bed. I was horrified, but it was the type of terror that refused to let me look away. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I didn’t get a proper night’s sleep for at least six months after that viewing. The horror of that movie dug deep into my soul. It infected me like a disease. No movie has affected me like that since.

That isn’t to say I’ll let a television sit on snow in a dark room for longer than a second. No way. There are people in the TV, Poltergeist told me so; just like The Omen taught me that being born bad can really happen and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre convinced me that the worst people live in the most remote places. And then there was The Shining, offering up the terrifying notion that a trusted family member can turn into a monster. These are the concepts that seeped into my subconscious, the very things that turned my thoughts weird and dark. Reagan MacNeil and Damien Thorn were the wicked little muses that scratched the inside of my skull for years, insisting that I had a tiny monster of my own to unleash upon the world. Jack Torrance assured me that there’s a switch in us all, and once it’s flipped, even a family man can turn into an axe murderer. Leatherface sparked my adoration for towns so rural they make the blood run cold.

Readers flatter me. They’ve compared Seed to the likes of classic Stephen King. Whether that’s accurate or not isn’t my call, but the comparison definitely gives me a thrill; and it’s not because my name and King’s are being brought up in the same sentence (though let me tell you, that blows my mind every time), but because my writing is being compared to the horror of old, the horror that was genuinely scary. That’s the horror I grew up on. It’s the stuff that twisted my mind and made my poor mother wonder how she’d raised such an odd, dark-minded girl. Muses come in different shapes and sizes, mine just happens to look like a blood-drenched Sissy Spacek.

When people ask me where I got my inspiration for Seed, I tell them that I’ve always been haunted by the concept of demonic possession. But my thanks will forever rest with the directors, actors, and cinematographers of classic horror fare. Because those are the people who put darkness in my head, those are the people who filled my brain with terrible concepts yet simultaneously entertained me. That’s why, when I see a preview for a movie that looks genuinely scary, I cover my mouth and laugh… because it’s like seeing an old friend. That’s why, when I write a book, I try to write it the way a movie would play out on screen. It’s what I love. It’s what twists me into a monster when presented with a blank page.

And I am a monster. We all are. It just takes a flip of a switch. A series of scenes. Or the flip of the page.

— Ania Ahlborn

Learn more about Ania Ahlborn. Amazon Studios is giving filmmakers a chance to create the official book trailer for her book, Seed, and win $3,000.

Clive Barker Exclusive: “Why Do You Choose Any Story to Tell? Because It Excites You”

Clive Barker — writer, artist, and master of the horror genre — speaks exclusively with Amazon Studios about the true nature of fear, finding the right arena for his stories and his Neverland dreams.

What separates great horror from the things that go spatter in the night?

Clive Barker: Metaphysical despair. That the world is meaningless and we’re just bouncing around on it and when we’re finished we die and that’s the end of it. That’s scary. That’s existential. When Sartre put the idea of existentialism in front of us at the beginning of the 20^th century, the idea of human hope was possibly at its lowest ebb. The bombs were going off. Europe was trashed. Economies were in ruins. And worst of all, we’d learned new ways of killing each other. Existentialism arose from the ashes of Auschwitz and Hiroshima and we had to address that very seriously.

There are horrific moments in movies (and not necessarily horror movies either) when something is evoked that has an awe-inspiring emptiness. When we are imbued with the sense that the cosmos is huge … and empty.

Pascal says, “We may enlarge our conceptions beyond all imaginable space; we only produce atoms in comparison with the reality of things. It is an infinite sphere, the center of which is everywhere, the circumference nowhere.

What that phrase evokes is the sense of a limitless empty meaningless space we as human beings have no control over and a total inability to impress meaning upon.

We think we have the power to impress ourselves upon the world in some fashion — through having a family, through feeling love, through our associations with political parties or to a church — and when we feel those connections we feel momentarily safe. And that’s horror; it is only momentary. It’s about reducing our sense of importance. Most horror says, “You think you’re fine and fancy, don’t you. Well you’re not. You’re meat.”  That I can be so easily erased.  In my estimation, all of that is as far from a simple ‘boo’ as it gets.

You tell stories in so many different arenas (books, movies, comics, video games) … how do you decide which is the right one for a particular idea?

Barker: I don’t. They choose it for me. I’ll start something with the intention of being a novel for example, and through one circumstance or another, it will end up a comic book. Or a movie. I’ve found that the story will end up being the format it wants most to. I just try not to get in the way of that.

If you could create a mashup with one of your worlds with one of someone else’s, which would you choose?

Barker: Neverland and my very real, very personal world. As a child it was always Neverland that caught my imagination. I didn’t read Narnia till quite a lot later by which time some of its charm had waned. I was rather too old for it.  I was a very shy kid. A very solitary kid. I couldn’t play games in the play yard. I wasn’t the kind of guy that played war. You have to remember this was twelve years after the second world war. It’s all everyone still talked about. And the cleanup is going on all around us. And we still had ration cards. It’s bizarre to think this, but that’s what was going on. So there was me feeling like a solitary little kid and when the wind came along, I was just carried away. I’ve always loved the sound of the wind. The sound of the wind to me is about the far away.  And there was just something about Neverland that I adored. As a child I used to see myself as Peter Pan and still do to some extent, I suppose.

What has been the hardest story for you to tell?

Barker: My life story. It’s an ongoing story, and I don’t know what happens at the end yet.

Read more from Barker, and learn more about Barker's work with Amazon Studios.