by mike | Sep 26, 2016 | Books, Bookstores, Editing, Films About Books, Films About Writers, Horror, Horror Movies, Movies, Nightmares, Publishing, Uncategorized, Writing |
It is pretty well accepted that reading books can influence people in many ways, both positively and negatively. But can they drive readers to madness and murder? In the Mouth of Madness, the bizarre 1995 film—its title is an homage to H.P. Lovecraft’s At the...
by mike | Jul 18, 2016 | Books, Editing, Films About Writers, Movies, Publishing, Uncategorized, Writing |
Actually, I could have categorized the 2012 romantic drama, The Words, as a film about a writer writing about a writer—who’s writing about another writer. With a top-notch cast that includes Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana, Dennis Quaid, and Jeremy Irons, among others, I...
by mike | May 30, 2016 | Death, Films About Writers, Horror, Horror Movies, Movies, Nightmares, Psychological Thrillers, Thrillers, Uncategorized |
Okay, I’ll stay on my Edgar Allan Poe kick for one more week. The 2012 film, The Raven, is not about Poe’s classic poem, but about Poe himself—more specifically, about Poe’s last days of life in 1849 Baltimore. Despite much speculation the actual cause of Poe’s death...
by mike | Apr 4, 2016 | Films About Writers, Movies, Non-Fiction, Uncategorized, Writing |
Some critics—predictably—knocked the 2015 biographical drama, Trumbo, for its “historical inaccuracies.” Still, this excellent film, starring Bryan Cranston as Dalton Trumbo and Helen Mirren as gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, served to open the eyes of many who might...
by mike | Mar 21, 2016 | Films About Writers, Ghosts, Horror, Horror Movies, Movies, Paranormal, Romance, Uncategorized, Writing |
In the 2015 Gothic thriller, Crimson Peak, director Guillermo del Toro has crafted an atmospheric period piece designed to scare the living crap out of viewers. Young, aspiring novelist Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) likes to write ghost stories, but I doubt if she...
by mike | Jan 28, 2016 | Books, Films About Writers, Movies, Romance, Sword & Sorcery, Uncategorized, Writing |
We’re back to a tiny Texas town today to find out more about a giant of a storyteller: Robert E. Howard. Who knew? While writing a recent post about Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan and the acknowledged “father” of Sword & Sorcery, I did research to make...