Author of adventure/thriller and horror fiction

THE FIRST OMEN (2024)

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In THE FIRST OMEN, we get the prequel to the classic 1970s film THE OMEN that no one wanted but nonetheless turned out surprisingly good.

This movie might have slipped past my radar but for that killer trailer with a lot of creepy images playing backwards and set to the wonderfully moody “If I Had a Heart” by Fever Ray. Though I knew not to ever get my hopes up too high based on a trailer, the effect grabbed me and enticed me to watch as soon as it started streaming.

In the movie, Margaret, a young American notiviate (preparing to become a nun), travels to Rome to work at a Catholic orphanage, where she uncovers a conspiracy to produce the birth of the Antichrist.

So, did we need this? Not really, though the film isn’t a cash grab on familiarity but instead uses it as a launch pad to find its own creepy identity. Since this is a prequel, we know basically where everything is going, and while the result isn’t very surprising, it’s great to look at, and it keeps you invested by focusing on atmosphere, mood, and imagery instead of jump scares. A really interesting aspect of the creepiness itself is the self-effacing rituals of the Catholic Church itself, which contributed nicely to the mundane sense of general threat and eeriness. The movie also captured that ’70s horror aesthetic really well, respecting its source material and adding to it, and also presenting a few aesthetic nods to other punchy horror films of the era like THE EXORCIST and POSSESSION. Nell Tiger Free was a real surprise as Margaret, giving her heart and soul to the role and bringing a lot of layers to the character.

Overall, I liked THE FIRST OMEN a lot. It didn’t wow me and produce the same sense of wonder like THE OMEN did back in the day, but it’s a respectable companion to it, and a worthwhile horror movie even without the franchise.

THE BOYS, Season 4

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The latest season of THE BOYS (Amazon Prime) continues to use the appearance of modern superheroes as the lens for brutal satire of today’s America. From this cutting satire to plenty of OMFG moments and crazy amounts of laugh-out-loud violence and gore, this was the best season yet.

In this season, the vice presidential candidate is secretly a superhero, the president is trying to have her assassinated by the Boys before she can do it to him after the election, and Homelander recruits new members of the Seven to realize his destiny–build a nation where common people are sheep ruled by superheroes for his son Ryan.

Of course, none of it turns out the way they think it will.

In past seasons, superheroes were used to both realistically evaluate what they’d look like in the real world while also skewering American culture and capitalism. In THE BOYS, superheroes aren’t paragons of virtue selflessly toiling to save people from catastrophe, they’re corporate products–carefully crafted celebrity personas designed to maximize revenues. With great power comes not great responsibility but a bigger propensity to screw up and hurt people, as these superpowers don’t make people better, they simply make them more of who they are, and unaccountable on top of it. As for the satire, it nails everything, with notable examples being corporations and celebrities acting performative on social issues.

In Season 4, the writers take on the willingness of certain people to worship strongmen, America’s innate fascist streak, the cynicism of big business towards average people, and how easy it is for the media to manipulate people to hate the “other” to the level of functioning as a cult, complete with its own reality, language, crazy logic, and fascist longings dressed up in star-spangled bullshit. If that sounds familiar to you in today’s gladiator-style politics, you can guess why this season made some people angry–certain they were in on the joke for three seasons but not happy when the joke was on them in the fourth.

The only downside to this season’s bold moves and smart writing was another season of Frenchie’s guilt–the character is a downer, they really need to find something else for him to do.

Overall, THE BOYS is brilliant TV, one of my favorite shows, and in my view honestly the most realistic depiction of what superheroes would actually look like in the real world.

Hachette Launches “Run For It” Horror Imprint

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I have a new imprint at Hachette Book Group! Cool news as it’s a brand-new imprint dedicated to horror.

From the press release:

Hachette Book Group’s Orbit division has launched Run for It, a new horror imprint. Run for It is Orbit’s fourth imprint, alongside the flagship Orbit SFF imprint; Redhook, launched in 2013, which focuses on commercial fiction with speculative elements; and the digital SFF publishing imprint Orbit Works, launched in 2023.

Run for It will publish Orbit’s current horror authors, including Craig DiLouie and Andy Marino, with plans to add more. Its inaugural titles are slated for summer 2025.

This is good news for horror, which is going through an extraordinary surge.

WE USED TO LIVE HERE by Marcus Kliewer

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In WE USED TO LIVE HERE by Marcus Kliewer, a young woman welcomes a family into her home, as the man says he grew up in the house. The result is a nightmare of shifting reality. Creepy and crisply paced, this new horror novel was a lot of fun.

Eve and Charlie live in a big old house they recently purchased and intend to flip. Eve is an anxious people pleaser, Charlie tougher and more practical. When a family arrives one day asking to have a look around the house, as the man once lived there, Eve lets them in. Only, events cascade that prevent them leaving, and the longer they stay, the more reality itself seems to shift. Intermittent epistolary chapters establish a spooky lore around the house, giving us the impression that it is not just a house.

Apparently, the novel started as a series on Reddit back around 2014, and it was so popular it was eventually fleshed out as a novel. My short review is I loved the read, though the last act wasn’t as strong as I would have liked as it doesn’t quite pay off on all the strong elements.

What I liked: Eve and Charlie are very likeable characters, the lore around the house provokes a sense of wonder and by the end makes sense, the writing has a page-turning pace, and there are plenty of little creepy moments that never feel kitchen-sinked. The mystery really propels the story, reminding me of novels like 14 by Peter Clines and HOUSE OF LEAVES by Mark Danielewski. What I didn’t: The last act is solid but rolls out as fairly conventional, not quite paying off the numerous questions raised earlier in the story. Which would be fine if the lore and those questions were in the background, only the story really leans into it.

All told, this jaded horror reader closed the covers a very happy camper. WE USED TO LIVE HERE is a super impressive debut and a distinctive addition to horror.

THE BEAR Season 3

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In season 3 of THE BEAR (Disney Plus), Chef Carmy buckles down and runs his new restaurant toward an ever-elusive standard of excellence, only to create a dysfunctional workplace that reflects his internal landscape. I didn’t find it as funny as Season 1 nor as poignant as Season 2, but I’m so committed to the characters that I found myself loving it just the same.

In the first two seasons, Carmy, a highly successful chef, returns home to Chicago to take over a family sandwich shop after his brother dies, only to find it a chaotic mess. In Season 2, he refashions it as The Bear, an upscale restaurant with the same staff, now sharpened and tuned to this new sense of purpose.

Season 3 brings the crashing end of Season 2 in for a soft landing by elegantly tying all the loose ends before showing us the hectic life in The Bear’s kitchen day in and out. Like all good restaurants, I came for the food, and there is food porn galore. Seriously, I could watch a chef spoon boiling juices over a slab of pork for an entire episode. From there, we see all the characters struggle with whatever is holding them back from achieving whatever their standard of excellence is–Carmy sacrificing harmony for perfection, Sidney being in Carmy’s shadow, Richie’s estrangement from his wife and new role as a weekend dad, Sugar’s fear of motherhood because she doesn’t want to end up like her mother, and so on. Two looming events promise a big finish to the season, one an upcoming make-or-break restaurant review, and the other the closing of a beloved high-end restaurant that brings everyone in the culinary community together.

In this season, we get a lot of things I love about THE BEAR–the characters, the slice-of-life feel that relies on dialogue and the excellent cast instead of off-kilter camera work, the vignettes, the focus on working class people, the themes of finding purpose in work and achieving personal excellence, and cameos by great actors and real people from Chicago’s vibrant culinary community. Also some things I don’t like as much, which is the occasional uncertain plot pacing and periodic overreliance on quick camera cuts to push the comic or cute. My biggest peeve with this season is while the previous two seasons told complete stories, Season 3 wraps up a few subplots but otherwise ends on a cliffhanger.

We’ll have to wait until June 2025 to see what happens next. But yeah, I’m totally in. THE BEAR remains one of my favorite shows, and while Season 3 didn’t push it to a higher standard, it didn’t wreck it either, and it remains one of the best shows out there.

Barnes & Noble Midday Mystery Event

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I had the pleasure of taking part in a Barnes & Noble Midday Mystery Event promoting HOW TO MAKE A HORROR MOVIE AND SURVIVE alongside Paul Tremblay, author of HORROR MOVIE. Gabino Iglesias did a fantastic job moderating a lively conversation about writing, art, horror, Hollywood, and what scares us.

Check it out here: