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Holy balls, there was huge news in the Toronto horror scene this week.

The New Regime.

TIFF shocked the horror scene this week by announcing that, after a twenty year run, Colin Geddes, the long-time head of their iconic Midnight Madness programme, will be stepping down. Having been attending since 2000, Midnight Madness has become a highlight of my horror calendar. Geddes introduced me to some of my favourite modern horrors like High Tension, Ju-on, Inside, You're Next and It Follows. 

TIFF programmer Colin Geddes

Fortunately, Geddes will still be overseeing the curation of Toronto's Royal Cinema and the online streaming service Shudder. Taking over the reigns of MM is the highly capable Peter Kuplowsky. He has been programming genre events for the better part of a decade, so he knows his shit, trust me. I'm extremely excited to see his brand of Madness in the years to come.

Geddes with protégé Peter Kuplowsky. Photo courtesy Ian Goring.

On the print horror side of things, the Toronto based mag Rue Morgue announced that long-time collaborator Andrea Subissati will be taking over as Executive editor. 

Former editor Dave Alexander will be focusing on special projects “involving new partnerships in publishing, merchandising, events and visual media.” Subissati is a fixture in the Toronto horror scene with her involvement in The Black Museum lecture series being of the most interest to me.

Now, onto the sad news that just broke while I was writing this. As of now, it appears that the iconic horror magazine Fangoria has shut its doors. Last night, current editor-in-chief Ken W. Hanley took to Twitter and point blank announced;

“For those wondering: there will likely never be another issue of FANGORIA, especially in print, unless there's new ownership.”

That's a fucking bummer. Hopefully, someone out there recognizes that the Fangoria name has too much brand recognition and history and resurrects it somehow.

Times they are a changing.

Horrors In Hyperspace.

This week, we announced our second Little Terrors anthology collection Galaxy of Horrors. 

Focusing on science fiction horror, Galaxy features nine stories, including a wraparound segment directed by Justin McConnell. Check out the trailer below.

Galaxy of Horrors will hit VOD on March 7th, and Blu-ray/DVD on May 2nd. The first collection, Minutes Past Midnight is now available.

Remake Revolving Door.

You know, just when I was breathing a sigh of relief that Paramount's reboot of Friday the 13th had been buried, I heard the most recent news about the new Halloween. David Gordon Green and Danny McBride? Seriously? At least I had some interest when Mike Flanagan was involved. 

While it is cool that John Carpenter plans on contributing music, instead of just letting a cheque fall into his hand as per usual, I think I'll be sitting out this Pumpkin Express.

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Hi all! I hope you are all enjoying your Labour Day weekend. Here's what I've got for you today.

Brutality!!!

It appears that we got another look at the upcoming Friday the 13th video game at PAX last week. Check it out below.

Well, they said it was going to be violent. With Kane Hodder mo-capping, I would expect nothing less. I really like that they have included multiple iterations of Jason, as well. There is still no concrete release date, but it creeps ever closer which each new video.

Love Hurts.

A trailer for Jessica Cameron's newest project Mania hit the Web last week.

So, yeah, this is a pretty easy sell for me. The dynamic duo of Tristan Risk & Ellie Church cutting a bloody path across the countryside? Where do I sign up?

Tony Todd's Dracula.

If you've wanted to hear Tony Todd play eveyone's favourite Count, your wish will soon be coming true. Produced by Canadian media company Bleak December, this audio rendition will soon be available online through Fangoria Musick. Here below is an excerpt.

Dracula is set to release September 30th, with several more classic tales to follow.

Okay, that's it for now, but check back later for my abbreviated rundown of this year's Fan Expo, and my TIFF preview. Talk soon, kiddies.

It Came From The Archives 27!

Twenty-five years ago, Fangoria's perennial fan convention Weekend of Horrors made its one and only trip to Toronto (and as far as I know all of Canada). This milestone would have no doubt passed unnoticed if a reader hadn't happened to email me asking if I had any pictures of the event. After responding that I did, it clicked that the anniversary was imminent and thus perfect timing for another Archives post.

By this time in my life I was a full-on fanatic. I had been working at Major Video for almost a year and it was feeding my obsession nicely. I was watching more movies in a day than most did in a week. I don't think I had my driver's license by then, so thank goodness my older brother was gracious enough to shuttle us in. The guest list was impressive, even with the last-minute cancellation by Bruce Campbell.

Right-click to enlarge.

I remember the dealer's room being fairly large, and it was similar to Monsterpalooza in that there were several make-up demonstrations going on throughout the day. I've talked before about basically opening up my wallet to the poster guy, but there was lots of other great merch there, as well. I remember I picked up a T2 shirt that I practically lived in that summer. In retrospect, I wished I'd rifled through the bins of scripts they had at one of the booths.

Anyway, the photos. Given my limited photography skills, I'm surprised these turned out at all. Truth be told, it was probably my brother snapping all these pics. It's kind of amazing how much of this event I can remember considering it was a quarter century ago.

I think I spoke about my interaction with Kane Hodder in my Friday the 13th archives post. He was super cool then, and been just as cool the two times I've seen him since.

Tom Savini gave a memorable Q&A. I've seen a few people online tell the story of Savini getting down on his knees and apologizing to all in attendance for The Ripper, and it happened at this show.

Savini looks out into a sea of mullets.

Linnea Quigley was a sweetheart. If I recall correctly about the photo below, she had a bunch of people come up on stage and re-enact her cemetery dance scene from Return of the Living Dead, for which we judged the winner.

Below were the esteemed judges for the WOH's costume parade. Seated from left, Savini, Fangoria editor Tony Timpone, Quigley, FX artist Steve Johnson & Hodder. 

And the winners were...

3RD PLACE - GREG & STANLEY

2ND PLACE - THE DUKE & DUCHESS OF REALLY DIRTY THINGS

1ST PLACE - AQUARIUS

Nowadays, the GTA has over a half-dozen fan conventions a year, but in the early nineties, this thing was a revelation. For me, it was really the first time the curtain between film and reality was lifted. It was surreal to say the least. I hope you enjoyed these little windows into the past. Until next time...

It Came From The Archives 26.2!

Continuing with the anniversary festivities, here are the remainder of the horror pin-ups I found in my most recent decent into the Archives. The fourty or so I posted yesterday were from Fangoria's Poster Magazines, but these ones below I am not as certain as to their origins. I am pretty sure these four Freddy posters were from a one-off magazine for Nightmare on Elm Street Part 5 though.

Click to enlarge

The rest I assume are from various Fangoria & Gorezones from the late eighties & early nineties. I'll start with the quad panels and work my way down.

Next up, a couple of four panels.

No matter how much time passes, I will always marvel at Mindy Clarke's get-up in ROTLD3 as a thing of beauty. Moving onto the three panel posters...

Finishing things off are a couple of two pagers.

Have a great weekend everybody!

THS Turns 8!!!

So here we are, eight years in. I've gotten crafty and/or reflective the last few years, but this time around I thought I'd just double up with an Archives post - my twenty-sixth!

Anyone who was reading Fangoria in the late eighties will no doubt remember their Poster Magazine Issues that consisted of ten fold-outs of our favourite horror icons. 

Since I didn't start reading Fangoria until late in 1988, I missed the first one, but still have the contents of the other four, of which I posted for your perusal below. Several of them are in pretty rough shape after years of scotch tape exposure. Long-time readers may remember from my seventh archive post that I used to put these on my ceiling as a teen, which alas meant lots and lots of tape. Sadly, with the posters being double-sided, one of the two had to be sacrificed. It was often not an easy choice. First up, are the posters inside Issue #2 from September 1988.

Click to enlarge

I'm assuming that after the first issue, Fangoria received a rash of complaints about staple-related injuries, because there was always a humourous how-to about removing the posters at the beginning of subsequent issues. Following in December came Issue #3.

In April 1989 came issue #4 with more glorious wall adornments.

And last, but not least, in January 1990, Issue #5 hit the stands.

Hopefully, you enjoyed looking through these. But wait, there's more! While I was digging these up, I found a few dozen other horror pin-ups that I'll post tomorrow. So, until then... many thanks for continuing to visit The Horror Section.