Horrorverse | Horror beams with Pride 🏳️‍🌈, 'In a Violent Nature' stalks theaters 🪓, Jack McDermott’s favorite films & more!

I don't remember the first horror movie I ever saw. I was just always surrounded by horror - thanks to my dad who recorded movies from HBO onto well-worn VHS tapes. Films like Tourist Trap, Halloween II, and Friday the 13th: A New Beginning burned into my brain. I was also scared to death of The Hitchhiker - remember that show?! As an always inquisitive, wide-eyed kid from nowhere USA, horror was a lifeline to something bigger. My friends and I frequently congregated around the television set, either watching Michael Myers stalk the streets of Haddonfield or Freddy Kreuger slice people up. We always found ourselves gleefully relishing in the carnage and sometimes rooting for the killer. You could say I was born with horror coursing in my veins.

Over the years, my love for the genre has only grown. Whenever I dig into the work of Roger Corman or James Whale or John Carpenter, I get that same intense feeling all over again - that I'm witnessing something truly life-changing. Horror has that effect on you, I guess. When Brett asked me if I wanted to collaborate on a horror newsletter, I knew I had to say yes. It was an opportunity I just couldn't pass up... because horror means much more to me than blood, guts, and gore. It's community and collaboration. I've met many of my favorite people through horror. When two people connect over their favorite movie, magic happens. It's shared fear. Such a similar emotional reaction bonds you together in a way you otherwise wouldn't be. You become emotionally and psychologically tangled. You've experienced something special together, and that can never be taken away.

With The Horrorverse Newsletter, we hope to recapture that magic and offer community along the way. We hope that when you open the newsletter every week, you walk away with a deeper understanding of yourself and your favorite genre. We invite you to partake in our weekly helpings of interviews, reviews, and anniversary pieces and encourage you to discover your new favorite horror movie. There's a boundless world out there, and the next great cult classic is just waiting to be uncovered. In each edition, you'll get giveaways, filmmaker spotlights, and Screaming Soon releases, as well.

Exclusive for Pride Month, you'll also find three LGBTQ+ film recommendations - horror is queer, after all! Embarking on this new venture is both thrilling and terrifying. I hope you stick around for the ride. It's sure to be a bloody good one.

Yours Cruelly,
Bee Delores | Instagram | Letterboxd | X

According to a Bloody Disgusting exclusive, Blumhouse will be awakening the spirit of Harry Warden for a new My Bloody Valentine film. It has been 15 years since 2009's remake, and over 40 years since the original. Let's hope that it slashes its way into theaters on February 14, 2025, just in time for Valentine's Day.

The latest news to come out of the Friday the 13th camp is the announcement for the Jason Universe. While there's no mention of a new film at this time (insert angry face), fans will be able to experience Jason Voorhees through a number of activations, including games and merchandise. The details are still a bit unclear, but head over to JasonUniverse.com for more information as it's unmasked.

The first film in The Strangers trilogy makes its way to on-demand and streaming services beginning June 7th. Directed by Renny Harlin (The Long Kiss Goodnight, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master),The Strangers: Chapter 1 has scared up over $20 million in ticket sales off of a $8.5 million budget. The next two films will be released in late 2024 and early 2025.

In a shocking twist, Mike Flanagan will be directing the next Exorcist installment, which is said to not be part of Blumhouse’s originally intended trilogy. More on Deadline.

Blood and Black Lace Turns 60

“Perhaps the sight of beauty makes him lose control of himself, so he kills,” conjectures Inspector Sylvester (Thomas Reiner). Deep in his investigation, the detective circles the drain of blood spewing from a local fashion boutique where an unknown assailant piles up bodies of hot, young models. While he believes the murders are the work of a “sex maniac,” the film upends these classic genre expectations through a series of twists and turns. Sexualized murders characterize much of the Giallo genre, but Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace masks the true motive behind hyper-stylized setpieces that mimic sexual violence.

As the film turns 60 this year, my favorite Giallo serves as the benchmark against which all others should be judged. With the destruction of beauty throbbing inside, the 1964 murder/mystery is as relevant today as ever. Both the celebration of the female form and the hatred for women are woven into the fabric of the film and cinema, at large. You can find traces within such modern films as Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho and Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears, and even the work of Alice Maio Mackay, who deconstructs notions of evil through the lens of trans existence. These themes are nothing exclusive to Blood and Black Lace, of course, as they’ve wormed their way into countless other iconic stories - from Peeping Tom to Cat People.

In Blood and Black Lace, Eva Bartok stars as Christina, the boutique’s creative director, whose discovery of the first body pushes the story forward. When Isabella (Francesca Ungaro) turns up dead inside a costume wardrobe, Sylvester launches a query into the murder and begins interrogating the other models. More salaciously chopped-up bodies emerge during his quest for truth, and even given the sterile nature of some of the kills, he clings to the notion that a sex-crazed lunatic walks the halls of the fashion house. Beguiling its classic structure, the story isn’t nearly as convoluted as many Gialli. Bava trims away the extra foliage and opts for a heavier style, tone, and atmosphere than most.

60 years later, Blood and Black Lace remains an utter visual marvel. Bava and cinematographer Ubaldo Terzano douse the screen in surrealist lighting and ambiance that accentuates the impulsive intrigue. The use of vibrant reds, greens, and blues is as integral to the storytelling as the narrative itself. There’s a moment when a character pulls into an antique shop, and the dank midnight street is covered in haunting silver-blue and green, the screen split in halves to allow the moment to feel dark and brooding.

Such lush colors give Bava’s world a theatrical, otherworldly texture that’s intrinsically tied to the emotional threads keeping the story together. Quite the showman, Bava makes use of these tricks to satiate the palette, to give you something to ogle and admire. Look no further than the opening credits, in which Bava stages the actors in colorful tableaus. Flowers, red mannequins, and plump spotlights adorn the actors, who strike poses that are both magical and hypnotically tense. The actors’ eyes whisk open or dart mysteriously somewhere offscreen. Such a simple human gesture invites the viewer into their world; eyes are the windows to the soul, after all. Paired with the funky, rhythmic score, courtesy of composer Carlo Rustichelli, the introduction is the best opening credits ever put to film. There’s something in the way Bava presents the human form here, as vehicles for sensuality and chaos, that lulls the viewer into a state of wondrous slumber.

From its faceless, black-gloved killer to its confrontation of death, Blood and Black Lace greatly influenced many Gialli in its wake, including Dario Argento’s directorial debut The Bird with the Crystal Plumage – in addition to cementing the modern slasher. It’s hard to imagine Halloween or Friday the 13th without the film’s guiding touchstones: “masked” murderer, cast of youths, and blood, guts, and gore. Since my first viewing, I’ve always felt films like Blood and Black Lace were just early slashers… with style.

Blood gushes and bodies are frequently, playfully posed – not unlike Michael Myers throughout his 40+ year saga. Alongside other horror essentials like 1963’s Blood Feast, Black Christmas, and another Bava classic, 1971’s A Bay of Blood, Blood and Black Lace signaled a shift in what contemporary storytelling could be. In its juggling of sex and mayhem – an apt description for every slasher ever released – it presented a template that even films like Happy Birthday to Me wield to great effect.

As I revisited Blood and Black Lace for this newsletter, I found myself experiencing the shock and allure all over again. From the eerie, rain-drenched opening scene to the death-by-drowning, Mario Bava’s landmark entry elicits the same level of fear, interest, and admiration as the very first time. I can feel my spine tingle just writing this. It’s a film that monumentally changed my taste in cinema and forced me to think differently about filmmaking. While I’ll always enjoy schlocky indies like Don’t Go in the Woods, I’ve developed a greater appreciation for good old-fashioned storytelling as found in films like Saint Drogo, The Coffee Table, and Resurrection.

I am eternally grateful, Mario Bava. Thank you for your service.

Silver Scream Con, the horror convention that brought 5,000 blood-thirsty movie fans to Boston's North Shore in each of its first two iterations, brings the Three-quel everyone's been dying for to Worcester’s DCU Center on September 13-15, 2024. Tickets and information are available now at silverscreamcon.com.