Protecting the “Magic”: The Sanctity of the Idea
Writing is a private ordeal. We sit at the computer and will a world into existence with words. It’s a Herculean task. The loneliness which comes with writing isn’t often fun. But some of...
When Serial Killer Becomes Slasher – Ivan Milat, Mick Taylor, and Wolf Creek (2005)
Since the heyday of the big four - Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, and Chucky - slasher movie fans have continually searched for the next great villain. That’s not to say there haven’t...
An Appreciation for the Tokusatsu Fanbase in 2020
This year has been a hard one for all of us. As the year ends it feels like a good time for reflection. Despite the seemingly unending darkness that was 2020, there were bright...
Gacy (2003): The American Jekyll and Hyde
In 1993 on death row in Chester, Illinois, John Wayne Gacy said: “If you serve other people, it will come back to serve you.” A chilling quote from a man who used his trusted...
The Mystical Revenge of the Mighty ORCA (1977)
Humans have the capacity for great evil. Oftentimes the public is complicit in this cruelty without their knowledge. One of the cruelest things we do as a species is cage animals and put them...
A Congregation of Werewolves in Silver Bullet (1985)
There’s this place in horror that exists somewhere in between the innocent and wholesome and the brutal and disturbing. A place that feels so familiar, so welcoming and yet… quietly dangerous. It’s the sort...
After a 100 Years, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Still Scares
Horror movies are in the middle of a renaissance. Sure, us fans know they have always been valued forms of entertainment, now horror is being taken a little more seriously. But let’s...
An Interview with Subject #44’s Spencer MacKay
This week I got a chance to sit down with my good friend Spencer MacKay and speak with him about his newest short film, Subject #44 (2019). Subject #44 was made as an entry...
Using Letterboxd as a Tool for Research, Collaboration and Fun
I’m almost done writing Scream Writing: A Comprehensive Guide to Writing the Horror Screenplay and that means I’m beginning to gear up research on my second book, Mindfulness at the Movies: A Cinephile’s Guide...
Scream Writing Questions with Suri Parmar
This week Scriptophobic was lucky enough to talk to Scum of the Earth Films's Suri Parmar. Apart from tons of hands on and theoretical training in ScreamWriting, Suri has explored storytelling in prose for New Haven...
Found Footage Gets Religious in The Devil’s Doorway (2018)
Welcome back to Everything But Bone, and today we are delving into an oft maligned genre, the found footage film. Never has a horror sub-genre been so debated, with fans either hating or loving...
Try Walking That Off …a Written in Blood Look at Misery (1990)
Creating something, regardless of your canvas of choice, is a frustrating, tumultuous process. The act requires sacrifice, both of self and ideology, resulting in something that goes out into the world and, in turn,...
Pretending to be Alive: The Zombies of Land of the Dead (2005)
My imagination was running wild.
The menacing heads of encroaching zombies stretched as far as the yellow and black horizon, under the shadow of a dimly lit cityscape. Floating above it all in large red...
Horror Paperbacks for Giant Monster Fans
I made the mistake of re-reading Grady Hendrix’s amazing history of horror paperbacks “Paperbacks from Hell”. Using the word ‘amazing’ may conflict with the word ‘mistake’ to you, but if you were my bank...
Boob Guns and Butt Swords: A Look at RoboGeisha (2009)
The late 2000s and early 2010s were an interesting time for Japanese genre pictures. One of the most prevalent subgenres was the gory, the goofy, and the perverse. Films like Tokyo Gore Police (2008),...
5 Dos and Don’ts You Want From a Writing Support Group
I spoke before about how writing fiction can be a lonely task – how sometimes it is necessarily lonely in order to protect the idea you are shaping into a story. But that’s not...
An Interview with Writer/Actor/Podcaster Michael Swaim
One of the best features of Scriptophobic is how it has allowed me to talk to such wonderfully intelligent creative minds, such as Graham Skipper or the Video Palace duders. However, I have not...
Don’t Get Them Wet: Birthing Adorable Monstrosities in Gremlins (1984)
It was late and it was snowing. I was wrapped in a blanket that smelled sort of funny, you know, a musty sort of smell that led me to believe it had been balled...
How Setting and Soundtrack Make It Follows a Standout Horror Film
Welcome to the very first Everything But Bone, a column about storytelling in film that looks at everything BUT dialogue. I’m talking sets, costumes, editing, cinematography soundtrack, and all the other aspects that make...
Scream Writing Questions with Pat Higgins
Pat Higgins reached out to me on Twitter while we were looking for new people to talk to. Can't say how glad I am that he did, this week's Scream Writing Questions is a great...
Jaws and the Rare Case Where the Film is Better
The common thinking is that the book is always better than its film adaptation. That’s just…not so. It’s easy to understand why we often come away thinking that, though: A book has more time...
The Female Gothic: Three Steps To Creating Authentic Women in Horror Literature by Meg...
There is a notion of the kick ass woman. She is strong, perhaps even muscular. She is a natural leader, tough, and quick-thinking. We’ve seen her in movies like Alien (1979) and Resident Evil (2002).
I’ve never...
The Hell House LLC Trilogy and the Power of Continuity
Happy Holidays and Happy End of 2019! If you’ve been reading Everything But Bone for a while, you know I am a sucker for found footage films (FFF). And this time we are going...
Pace and Originality in Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead
Welcome back, my Scream Writers. This week’s article was originally going to cover another screenplay—one that I will leave unnamed. However, when I had found myself making up excuses to avoid reading what I...
The Untreated Psychopathy of I, Olga Hepnarová (2016)
We’re unsettled by anyone who kills another human being. The idea of taking a person’s life, to the vast majority of us, is morally revolting. Serial killers scare us worse because of the repetitive...