The Cyber Horror Awards are Here!

Forget about the Oscars! Take a stroll down the bloody red carpet instead: The 2009 Cyber Horror Awards are live!

Along with B-Sol and Iloz Zoc, I was part of the award nominating committee this year before the official voting period began.

I must say, the final results are really fascinating. I'm especially pleased to see some of the Drag Me To Hell love, particularly for composer Christopher Young and actress Lorna Raver.

Are the results controversial? Perhaps so, but 2009 was, in my opinion, an outstanding year for the horror genre. In addition to Sam Raimi's triumphant return to horror, we had Zombieland, Orphan, Antichrist, Trick'r'Treat, Pandorum, plus Jennifer's Body and the ever-divisive (but endlessly fascinating) Halloween 2.

Go over that list again, slowly this time and consider each title: there's a zombie comedy set in a post-apocalyptic, post "hateful" America, an Interloper "Bad Seed" film with a twist, a symbolic psychological horror of enormous power, a quasi-anthology about the rituals of Halloween, a high-tech space horror, a quirky teenage romp with a feminist bent, and a remake that strays far from the source material but offers a singular personal vision in its stead.

Frankly, I wish all years had offerings as diverse, as exciting, as controversial, and as original as what we saw in 2009. In any other year, Orphan, Antichrist, Drag Me to Hell, Zombieland, Jennifer's Body and Pandorum might have been a safe bet for best horror film. But this year, competition was fierce.

Read the whole tally of Awards here.

The 2nd Annual Cyber Horror Awards: Announcing the Nominees

They're heeeeeeere!

The Vault of Horror's B-Sol has just announced the nominees for the 2009 Cyber Horror Awards.

Along with Zombos Closet maestro and League of Tana Tea Drinkers Founder John Cozzoli, and B-Sol, I was quite honored to serve on the nominating committee this year.

Be sure to read the full list of nominees, here at the 2009 Cyber Horror Awards site.

Ballots have been sent out, votes will be tallied, and winners will be announced the first week of March, 2010. Stay tuned!

The Cyber Horror Elite's Reading List: The Greatest Horror Literature of All-Time

B-Sol at the must-read blog Vault of Horror has once again gathered the voices of the "Horror Cyber Elite" (a self-deprecating title...) to produce a fascinating "greatest of" list, this time devoting attention to "The Greatest Horror Fiction" of All-Time.

Eight of my top ten personal choices made this list of thirty best. Those eight titles were: Frankenstein, Dracula, The Black Cat, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, At the Mountains of Madness, Who Goes There? and The Hellbound Heart.

One title that didn't make the list was my Stephen King selection: Carrie. Still, King is well-represented on the final list, I think. Also, on my list, I put Frankenstein ahead of Dracula -- in the number 1 spot. But with the enduring popularity of vampires, I can't take much issue with the first place finish of Stoker's work.

For me, one of the great values of such a list involves B-Sol's dedicated parsing of the data, breaking down and cataloguing information by decade, century, author, and so on. The list thus provides a good guide to horror history, and more than that even, a valuable snapshot of the genre (and genre tastes), right now, in 2009. Can't wait to see the next list, and as always, it's a pleasure to be involved. Make sure you go read the entire list of thirty, and read B-Sol's analysis.

The Vault of Horror Presents: The Horror Canon

The amazing B-Sol at The Vault of Horror recently tasked the Horror Cyber-Elite -- a veritable "Justice League" of horror bloggers -- to assemble selections for a Horror Canon.

As B-Sol describes the mission:

"My plan was to create a list of absolutely indispensable horror films that every fan needs to have seen in order to consider themselves a proper horror geek. This is not to be confused with "The Greatest of All Time." For example, Plan 9 from Outer Space would not be on my list of the greatest of all time, but I might very well consider it "must-see" viewing for any wannabe horror fanatic!"

"Think of it this way: If someone came to you and said, "I want to get into this whole horror thing, what movies do I need to see?" Which movies would you give them to watch?"

Check out the post in its entirety to see the Cyber-Horror Elite's tally of 35 films for inclusion in the Horror Canon!

To my delight, eight of my ten recommendations/suggestions made the final catalogue. As always, you may quibble with a specific title, or wonder about a particular omission, but I love these lists because they get the debate started, evoke passion, and foster further blogging. For instance, given the success of recent first-person/P.O.V. horrors like REC (2007) and Cloverfield (2008), I would have liked to see The Blair Witch Project (1999) make the Horror Canon, perhaps in lieu of some 2008 - 2009 films that may -- or may not -- stand the test of time.

Regardless of the titles ultimately chosen, it was an honor to be included in the selection process for The Horror Canon, and one of these days, I plan to post in detail about the films in the canon and why, indeed, they remain so important to a deeper understanding of the genre...