Author of adventure/thriller and horror fiction

My Deal with Hachette for HOW TO MAKE A HORROR MOVIE

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I could not be happier today to announce I have signed a deal with Orbit, the speculative fiction imprint of Hachette Book Group, to publish my next horror novel, titled HOW TO MAKE A HORROR MOVIE. This is my fifth novel with Hachette, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to work again with my awesome editor and such a great brand.

A slasher film director makes a horror movie with a cursed camera that kills anyone he cares about. The scream queen he loves wants to survive the night. Together, director and Final Girl, they’re about to make movie history.

No details yet on publication date yet, but it will be available pretty much everywhere, bookstores and so on. Get ready for a deep dive into horror movies and in particular the eighties. Can’t wait for all y’all to read this one. Stay tuned for more soon!

THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING (2022)

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In THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING (2022), a lonely academic who studies story encounters a djinn, who wants to be freed by granting three wishes. The academic, however, knows all the stories of wishes going wrong, setting up a contest of wits and wills. This is a charming movie, though its last act appears grafted on to bring the film into a meh finish.

Alithea (Tilda Swinton) is an academic who lives a life of reason and studies story for a living. While attending a conference in Istanbul, she is struck by visions, which suggest some destiny, though this is never explained. She encounters a bottle and releases a djinn (Idris Elba, born for this role), who offers to grant three wishes in return for his freedom. The only problem is as a woman who has studied story her entire life, she knows all the cautionary tales about making wishes. She also feels complete, and so has no heart’s desire from which to make a wish.

The first two acts of the film take place largely in Alithea’s hotel room, where she negotiates with the djinn while he tells her stories about his doomed interactions with humans in the past. The backstories are heavily CGI’d along with the initial appearance of the djinn. That and the playful narrative make the whole thing feel like a Disney movie for adults, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you just run with it. Like I said, the whole thing is charming, and the stories themselves are fanciful and interesting, building an overall narrative.

Swinton plays her part with crisp efficiency; Elba fully inhabits his role and as usual chews the scenery. The only problem is this is supposed to be a love story of sorts, and they don’t really have any chemistry. Which brings me to the third act, where we get to the love story, which would be fine only besides a lack of chemistry feels utterly grafted on, along with a subplot involving bigotry. A lot of happens in the third act, but it feels rushed and out of character for Alithea. This is a story we need to be shown instead of told for emotional impact, but it feels like telling.

All that being said, though, overall I liked THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING enough for its positive qualities. Despite the strange pacing and meh conclusion, it had its charms, I was entertained, I enjoyed Elba’s performance a lot, and for these things, I was happy enough.

BARBARIAN (2022)

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In BARBARIAN (2022), a woman shows up at an Airbnb only to discover it has been double booked by a man, only she doesn’t know the house contains a horrifying secret. Overall, I found this well written and engaging, even if its impression wasn’t very lasting.

The first act is excellent, tense with paranoia and vague threat, and very well written. The situation and dialogue all feel real even as the house and neighborhood appear threatening. The story changes gears several times and introduces new elements, which makes this movie one to plunge into while knowing as little as possible about it.

As a horror movie, it’s definitely different, while playing on the familiar. The solid cast including Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, and Justin Long makes a big difference in pulling off its ambitions. There’s plenty here that’s interesting and engaging, only with its innovative structure, BARBARIAN seemed to promise to come together in a surprising way but instead served up a fairly conventional finish.

So overall, I liked BARBARIAN a lot and enjoyed the ride even if I didn’t find the destination as having the impact I’d hoped for.

THE LAST OF US

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Based on the popular computer game and shot in my hometown and surrounding areas, THE LAST OF US is a post-apocalyptic HBO show about a man tasked with transporting a girl, who may be humanity’s last hope, across what’s left of the United States. In my view, this is an almost perfect apocalyptic series.

Twenty years after the world ended due to a rampant pandemic of fungal infection that turned its victims into monsters, Joel (Pedro Pascal) has lost what was most important to him and lives as a hardened survivor in a quarantine zone. When he’s contacted by the leader of a local rebel organization called the Fireflies to transport a girl named Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across the country to a research facility, he resists at first but takes on the burden. For humanity, the stakes couldn’t be higher, as the girl is immune. The story rolls out as a series of encounters on the road, with substantial flashbacks and back stories that slow the pacing but ultimately enrich the overall story and world building.

From every angle, this is my favorite kind of apocalyptic story. Realistic, gritty, savage, inhabited by an evolving and monstrous predatory enemy, full of horrifying moral choices, and showing that humanity doesn’t just come to an end but is holding out in small tribes and in old government quarantine zones now run by a brutal descendant of the military under endless martial law. What used to be that rare breathtaking money shot is everywhere now thanks to cheaper effects, presenting communities and survivors living in the crumbling ruins of American civilization. This is an apocalypse that is hazardous, beautiful, has its own rules and logic, feels real, and looks lived in.

The casting is solid. I had to get past Bella Ramsey looking so different than the Ellie in the game, but she grew on me as the show progressed, and she’s a great actor with a lot of range, portraying a girl who is tough and brassy but also vulnerable and longing. As for Joel, I couldn’t have asked for better than Pascal, who fully inhabits a man who is a true survivor and killer but haunted by trauma and the physical effects of decades of rough living, from minor hearing loss to aching knees. He’s no superhero like in the game, but instead a worn-out, traumatized, bitter survivor who does what it takes and knows how to kill.

The moral choices are absolutely terrific. The organization the government morphed into has eradicated individual rights and freedoms, but they’re also the only thing holding the infected at bay. Soldiers must make a choice to kill refugees, because if they don’t, they may end up fighting them later. A group resorts to cannibalism, but it was either that or die by starvation. It all culminates in the last episode with an ultimate moral choice that may appear to most viewers to be the wrong one even if it is for some good reasons. In this series, there are few heroes and villains, just people trying to survive in different ways, with survival itself meaning different things to different people.

Overall, I loved THE LAST OF US and highly recommend it.

NORTH WATER (2021)

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Based on the excellent novel by Ian McGuire, NORTH WATER (2021) is a CBC-produced miniseries about the men aboard a whaling ship in the 1800s. The story is brutal, the landscapes beautiful and savage, and the themes powerful. This is a terrific watch.

The story focuses on Patrick Sumner, a British Army surgeon who survived the Siege of Delhi but with an honorable discharge and a nasty opiate addiction. With nowhere to go to find healing and redemption, he signs up as doctor aboard a whaling ship bound for the Atlantic, a voyage that turns into a battle for survival. Thematically, the story explores man’s animal nature (expressed with some obvious symbolism), whether it’s suppressed (Sumner), freely embraced (Henry Drax), or rationalized (First Mate Cavendish and Captain Browning).

At first, I wasn’t sure about this one, as the first episode does a good job introducing the major characters but otherwise has a bit of a made-for-TV feel to it. Once they all get on the ship and the plot kicks into gear, I was utterly hooked, and the pacing and plot doesn’t let up until a period of peace leading up to the final climax.

The acting is just top notch in this. Jack O’Connell, Stephen Graham, and Sam Spruell are just about perfect in their roles, but Colin Farrell’s portrayal of the brutish, happily amoral, and reasonably evil harpooner Henry Drax blew me away. It’s possibly Farrell’s best role yet; he pretty much chews every scene he’s in.

The sets are also amazing and beautiful, with on-location shoots in the Arctic, meaning every time you see the actors looking utterly miserable and cold, well, that was real. (For those who hate animal violence onscreen, there’s a seal clubbing scene and a whale harpooning scene. Of course, no actual animals are harmed.)

I highly recommend this one if you dug similar series like THE TERROR. I found it a nice surprise, and if you dig the series, be sure to read the excellent book.

BIGFOOT: THE LOST COAST TAPES (2012)

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In BIGFOOT: THE LOST COAST TAPES (2012), a TV show crew travels to California’s “lost coast” region to debunk a hunter’s claims to have the body of a Bigfoot creature, only to become hunted themselves. This found footage movie follows all the conventions of the form and doesn’t add much that’s new, but it’s well done, and I thought it was fun.

The film begins with a journalist planning his excursion to a remote forested region of California. A Bigfoot hunter claims to have the body of one of the creatures and is willing to share it for payment. The journalist and his crew travel there, meeting the eccentric hunter and finding the whole camp and its defenses amusing. Soon, they end up discovering signs that Bigfoot is real, there are many of them in the area, and any humans in the area are under real threat. Soon, the camp is under siege.

It’s all typical stuff, a movie churned out in what was a veritable flood of found footage and Bigfoot movies at the time it came out. It follows the found footage playbook pretty well, with an obsessed protagonist, reluctant crew, Captain Ahab type we just know the monster would love to gets its paws on, the final confession and comeuppance for the protagonist, and plenty of spooky things happening that build up to the brutal finale. And there’s a twist about who the real monster might be.

The result isn’t particularly scary and the conflicts over what to do are often overwrought, but overall, it’s a very competent film. It does exactly what it promises, it doesn’t try or pretend to be anything else, and I thought it was fun. If you like found footage, this one ain’t bad, and I think you might have fun with it too.