Mort Castle is an American horror author and writing teacher, with a dozen books, novels, and collections, as well as hundreds of short stories to his credit. He contributed to How to Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy, and Science Fiction by J.N. Williamson, served as editor of both Writing Horror: A Handbook By the Horror Writers Association and the updated and revised On Writing Horror. He is a founding member of the Horror Writer’s Association. He has been (and is) a musician, stand up comedian, high school English teacher, a magazine and comic book editor, and a mentor, and teaches in the fiction writing department of Columbia College Chicago in the largest college writing program in the nation....
Any horror fan with eyes in their head has noticed the influx of Asian horror over the last decade or so. The shelves of Best Buy, Borders and Amazon.com are clogged with DVDs and books hailing from Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea and the multiplexes are jammed with remakes of the same films. With so much being imported, it can’t all be good, and it isn’t. Finding new and exciting fears is part of what makes our beloved genre great, and there are plenty to be had if one is willing to open their mind beyond countless slasher flicks and the same recycled stolen Stephen King plotlines (not that there is anything wrong with some good ol’ American horror). So take my hand, and join me as we look at some treasures of Asia you might not be familiar with as we look at Japan’s In the Miso Soup(1997) and Hong Kong’s We’re Going to Eat You (1980).
Hello to all readers and writers. We have determined that there is no interest in our pay-per-view issues in PDF and HTML format. So . . . we are going to go back to completely free issues with no strings attached. Every issue will still be of the highest quality that readers have come to expect from Macabre Cadaver magazine, but it will be free of charge. Anyone that has paid for an eSubscription will be credited with points to use toward purchases of merchandise from our online store (coming soon!).
We have decided to adopt a different approach, one that seems to be working for other magazines and websites similar to Macabre Cadaver. We will be accepting donations to help with our fiction, non-fiction, and art budgets. We are currently working on our first anthology and all donations will be applied to getting that ready to print first.
Hitting theaters on May 29th 2009, the new joint by Sam and Ivan Raimi (Evil Dead, The Grudge) is looking to be a real in your face scare fest. The premise in a nutshell:
A loan officer fails to extend a mortgage loan to an old woman in need. Said loan officer is trying to cheese up to her boss, playing the tough woman. Old woman gets pissed, puts "The Curse of the Lamia" on said loan officer. The loan officer turns in to a walking, talking, living nightmare. The loan officer seeks help from a seer to remove the curse. Loan officer's boyfriend is caught in the middle.
This film looks like it's going to be fun. If the Raimi bro's are keeping up in the tradition of Evil Dead (minus a chainsaw wearing Ash of course), then we're all going to be in for a gruesome treat.
Unfortunately, we are going to cease the print issues and put them on indefinite hiatus. Maybe if and when the economy picks back up and we have more interest in our magazine we might start printing again. The cost of postage is incredibly high, not to mention the amount of cost for printing. We will continue the electronic online editions at our leisure. What has happened is that we have become slaves to something that was supposed to be fun. We are not getting paid enough to be indentured servants. It is a losing proposition for us . . .
Issue 7 of Macabre Cadaver Magazine is the second print issue to date. It features stories and poems by some of todays hottest new authors, as well as movie and music reviews, and an interview with John Saul. This issue is now available for all to read for free.
This month local Chicago musician, Lady Parasyte, brought out her new EP titled, Sirens. The six track EP varies in musical style from the ambient opening track, Sirens, to the fast moving, almost metal sounding Are you Dead Yet. Her style cannot be locked down, and varies from electro beats and underlying loops ala Nine Inch Nails, to an almost industrial/techno upbeat that keeps the heart pumping. The Decadence is just one example of how an artist can take a looped wave sound, and a deep bass line, mix it up with well thought out lyrics, and turn it into a great song.
Issue 6 of Macabre Cadaver Magazine was our first print issue. It features stories and poems by some of todays hottest new authors, as well as a review of WildClaw Theatre's production of Dreams in the Witchhouse, an interview with musician Otep, and scriptwriter and author Daniel P. Coughlin.
Through the generosity of Brian Amidei, managing director and member of the Wildclaw Theatre Company, we got a chance to see Wildclaw's adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's horror story, The Dreams in the Witchhouse, performed at the Anthenaeum Theater in Chicago. We all know and love Lovecraft, one of the grand-daddies of horror fiction. During the 1920s and 1930s, Lovecraft spun yarns that raised the nape hairs, and a few eyebrows, in an era when story telling was reaching a pivotal moment in American literature; the birth of the modern horror story, which fused science, astrology, folklore and magic into what we recognize as some of the basic ingredients for every horror story written today.
Any horror fan with eyes in their head has noticed the influx of Asian horror over the last decade or so. The shelves of Best Buy, Borders and Amazon.com are clogged with DVDs and books hailing from Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea and the multiplexes are jammed with remakes of the same films. With so much being imported, it can’t all be good, and it isn’t. Finding new and exciting fears is part of what makes our beloved genre great, and there are plenty to be had if one is willing to open their mind beyond countless slasher flicks and the same recycled stolen Stephen King plotlines (not that there is anything wrong with some good ol’ American horror). So take my hand, and join me as we look at some treasures of Asia you might not be familiar with as we look at Japan’s In the Miso Soup(1997) and Hong Kong’s We’re Going to Eat You (1980).
