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This video is from last week’s Poe birthday bash. You can see one of the cats wanted to become internet famous as I read a stanza of “The Raven.” Enjoy.
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A very happy birthday to one of my biggest influences. My ranking of his movies, from worst to best, would include the following:
 Guess whose birthday it is? That’s right, it’s Clark Ashton Smith’s, contemporary of H. P. Lovecraft, August Derleth, and Robert E. Howard, and one of the key writers during Weird Tales’ golden age. He wrote amazing poetry and incredible stories with prose so purple it was practically ultraviolet. So happy happy CAS!  I just submitted the signed contract so I feel comfortable posting it here. My story "Prodigal" has been accepted for publication in the anthology Anterior Skies edited by C. F. Page. It should be released by Strange Elf Press in the spring of 2023. Details as I learn them.  In print and visual media, this was a banner year for horror. These were my favorites. 5. Bones and All (d. Luca Guadagnino): A coming-of-age story, with cannibals. This may be too much of a slow burn for some and it's surprising less grisly than the synopsis suggest. Great performances by Timothee Chalamet and Taylor Russell, and Guadagnino's directorial eye is even better here than in his masterful Suspiria (2018).  4. The Black Phone (d. Scott Derrickson): Trapped in a killer's basement with the spirits of the dead, who speak through a disconnected phone. Based on Joe Hill's story. Derrickson knows how to build tension and dread, and perfectly places period details.  3. Brightwood (d. Dane Elcar): A couple traverses a trail surrounding a lake, and finds themselves incapable of escape. A powerfully crafted movie about how love turns to hate and, curiously, back again. Seen at Other Worlds Austin.  2. X/Pearl (d. Ti West): Mia Goth takes on the role of a woman trapped by her dreams in two outstanding movies, one an homage to 1970s exploitation, one a tour de force Technicolor character story. I probably prefer X for its visceral thrills, but Pearl is the better movie. See both.
1. Barbarian (d. Zach Cragger): I get why people dislike this movie. I do. But for me it was the most unpredictable picture of the year. I was sold based on the trailer, but it's so much more to the story than that. And it blends humor without overpowering it.  Others: Nope (d. Jordan Peele); Crimes of the Future (d. David Cronenberg); Resurrection (d. Andrew Semans).
Sorry, but I liked Alex Garland's Men. It seems a bit ridiculous to put the previous year in perspective; after all, what can we say but the big blue marble completed another track around the giant ball of fire? But a year is how we take stock: of ourselves, of the state of the world, of anything that matters to us as a society, a civilization, a species.
And none of it seems very good. Even if we wanted to set aside the global lunacy affecting us all on both micro and macro scales, we face problems that, to my own admittedly cynical eye, appear insurmountable. We've gone crazy, and none of us seem immune to modern dancing mania. On a personal level, even as I managed the fallout of a major personal incident that occurred a couple of years ago, new professional and personal issues required more of my energy and attention. I skipped events to ensure stability; those I attended had a bittersweet air. I missed deadlines for open calls I found interesting, and flirted with giving up writing several times; while I wrote more fiction this year, only a handful of pieces sold. The result is I begin the new year more tired than I have been in a while. And yet, on the writing front, this has been my best year ever. I had six stories published in 2022, the most I've released in a single year, including:
I've been on TikTok for over a year now, and For 2023, I plan editing my novel, and writing more fiction. At this point, that's about all I can do. If I had to choose one word that describes the Other Worlds Austin 2022 film festival, it would be “melancholy.” I do not believe this was by intention. Even when it began its run nine years ago, an attendee often found themes accreting to the movies and shorts presented. If the 2014 film festival overflowed with an abundance of love for the genre in its various guises and styles, from serious to comic, from intimate character studies to sprawling space opera, then its recent and final showcase served as a reflective concluding chapter. Yes, while there were time slips, fantasy landscapes, and tales of terror, at the heart of most were relationships: some either breaking or on the verge of collapsing, some seemingly damaged beyond repair, or some that faced the realizations of moving on.  If this sounds grim, it’s not meant to be. Not exactly. Earlier this year Other Worlds Austin announced its 2022 festival would be its last. Its founder, Bears Rebecca Fonte, is moving on to other projects. So the selections might be seen as a reflection on that decision. Or perhaps my own sadness at seeing this unique festival colored my attendance. It shouldn’t, because this year’s lineup proved to be one of its strongest.  Initially the festival was to kick off with Mad Heidi, in which a dystopian Switzerland falls under the rule of a cheese tyrant, only to be confronted by a girl from the Swiss Alps who has transformed from a gentle soul to a kick-ass heroine. Because of an issue with the movie’s download, we were treated to the soon-to-be-Christmas classic Violent Night, where a bored Santa (David Harbour) saves a severely dysfunctional family from the hands of a wicked criminal in the guise of John Leguizamo. Of course it’s predictable — think Home Alone meets Die Hard — but it’s not without charm, and made for an enjoyable opening night.  One of the things I noticed in this year’s programming was a lack of forward-looking or future-oriented science fiction. That doesn’t mean it was completely absent. In The Tomorrow Job, writer and director Bruce Wemple offers the possibility of traveling into the body of one’s future self using a pill, and allowing a team of thieves to steal tomorrow’s secrets. A true quill science fiction movie that also functions as a solid crime thriller, it is perhaps more complicated than it needs to be, but remains suspenseful and amusing throughout. One of the nostalgia picks included Peter Hyams’s 2010: The Year We Make Contact, sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. While I have my own problems with the sequel, it nonetheless suggests the future does not, inherently, need to be dystopian; David Bowman’s (Keir Dullea) utterance “My God, it’s full of stars!” remains a mantra of hope. Beyond Tomorrow, the festival’s big documentary (which I missed, unfortunately, due to a scheduling conflict), showcased artist and illustrator Roy Scarfo’s vision of the future, providing a glimpse of his seminal artwork.  What science film festival would be complete without an alien invasion? Snatchers involved purple corn from food trucks and a maid and FDA agent find themselves embroiled in an alien plot after meteor crash in upstate New York. It’s not as wild as it could have been, but always is watchable.  How about fantasy? It was there, and, with The Butterfly Queen, proved one could make a heroic quest using everyday items. An artist and sheep farmer on the verge of losing her farm is rejoined by her best friend, both of whom fall into a portal to another world where magic is powered by art. It’s an often touching study of friendship, grief, and redemption. Think Labyrinth as scripted by Terry Bisson and you’ve got an idea of what to expect.  If the trappings of science fiction and fantasy seemed somewhat sparse, the more overtly horror selections more than compensated, showing how diverse its subjects, themes, and approaches can be. This is especially true with the festival’s two horror comedies. Jesse Thomas Cook’s irreverent Cult Hero tells the story of a real estate agent who sends her husband to a wellness center for a weekend; when she learns the center is in fact a cult with sinister motives, she hires a disgraced celebrity cult buster to break him out. Often funny jabs at reality television, the self-help industry, and Machiavellian business partners make up for an at times sluggish second act. One wonders why Grady Hendrix hasn’t yet penned something similar. Writer-director Emily Hagins’s Sorry About the Demon finds a young man suffering from a recent breakup moving into a haunted house populated by evil spirits. It’s an amusing mixture of John Hughes and James Wan.  In Dark Nature, a therapy group hiking in the wilderness must confront the monsters of their past when they are hunted by a mysterious creature. There are good performances from Hannah Emily Anderson and Madison Walsh, along with good direction and scene setting from director Berkley Brady, though the story (by Brady and cowriter Tim Cairo) could have used a little more polish. Also faced with terror in the woods were the leads in Dane Elcar’s Brightwood, when a married couple teetering on the edge of divorce goes for a run and find themselves unable to leave the trail around a secluded pond. The movie depends on the performances of Dana Berger and Max Woertendyke, both of whom are excellent. Brightwood is reminiscent of a Twilight Zone episode by Serling or a story by Richard Matheson, but always is its own thing. For me it was one of the festival’s highlights.  The anthology film Scare Package premiered at Other Worlds Austin 2019 and was a huge hit. Based on the audience reaction, Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge, will be at least as popular. By turns funny and gross, it allows multiple directors the opportunity to tell metafictional stories at the insistence of its title character, a security guard who met his demise in the previous movie. It’s a lot of fun, with some surprising cameos.  And there was the non-supernatural thriller Influencer, in which the eponymous character is befriended by a young woman with sinister motives. Lushly photographed in Thailand, it’s about loneliness and isolation, and the dangers posed by those who live a life almost entirely online. Director Kurtis David Harder knows how to ratchet up the tension (not surprising given his previous Other Worlds Austin entry Spiral), with Cassandra Naud turning in a strong performance as the villainous CW.  Between Before, the closing movie, best sums up the what made the festival so great. On the surface, writer-director Sutton McKee’s picture is small: married couple Ari and John (Megan Sousa and Daniel Ballard) are separating as Ari is on the cusp of a scientific breakthrough. As they reminisce, wounds try to heal, secrets are revealed, and a government team tries to take Ari’s invention. It’s a chamber piece with implications both large and small, and reminds viewers that Other Worlds Austin was among the best at finding unique science fiction.  It’s no surprise that before each movie Sigrid’s “It Gets Dark” played over the reel featuring images from the festival’s offerings. (Or that the track is the first on her album entitled How to Let Go…maybe there was some intention, after all.) “It gets dark so I can see the stars,” the Norwegian singer tells us in the refrain, a phrase with deep meaning for those who take pleasure in going to movies and seeing stories in pictures, put together so people in a darkened room can witness something they’ve never set eyes on before. We see the highs, and the lows, of humanity in this year’s festival. This has been a great nine-year ride with a staff dedicated to finding compelling tales of who we are and what we can be. You will be missed, Other Worlds Austin, but in the mind of this writer, you won’t be forgotten.  Whoa. All the whoa. Eric Wright’s fantastic Midnight Tales and Midnight Magazine have received love from the wonderful crime, pulp, horror (that kind of thing) YouTube critic CriminOlly, providing screencaps for the layout, which I mention without modesty. (Don’t let the fact that I’ve got stories in Midnight Tales let you believe I’m biased.) Why have I not yet talked about David Cronenberg? Cronenberg is one of the few directors working in our out of horror that regularly visits the theme of body horror, which is exactly what it sounds like: stories finding horror within the body, often serving as a metaphor for anything from aging to disfigurement--an uncomfortable theme, but one Cronenberg uses to incredible effect throughout his movies, in everything from his first features Shivers and Rabid, to my personal favorite, Videodrome.  Made at the beginning of the home video revolution, Videodrome tells the story of a cable company executive who becomes obsessed with a series of pirate broadcasts showcasing a series of filmed tortures. As he watches these images, hallucinations take hold of his mind, and his body begins to transform in harrowing ways.
It can be a difficult movie to watch, but beneath the grotesque imagery is a statement about media, its impact on society, and how we view the world. Do you have a favorite body horror movie? Do you have a favorite David Cronenberg movie? Let me know in the comments. A number of writers have shaped no only my aesthetic taste but also my own desire to write fiction, but few have had the impact of Harlan Ellison. It's hard to look at any genre and not see Ellison's footprint: from mystery to science fiction, he has written masterpieces of the form. We could talk about half a dozen horror stories alone Ellison penned, but for this series, I have to point to "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" as one of the finest.  Walking the tightrope between science fiction and horror, "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" tells the story of a computer that has gained both sentience and consciousness. It wipes out all of humanity save for six individuals, and begins subjecting these survivors to de Sadean tortures in a technologically Dantesque landscape. It's a harrowing read that refuses almost any point of redemption. The Wachowskis used elements of this classic story in developing The Matrix, yet none of their visuals equals the dread or nightmare found in Ellison's work.  Do you have a favorite computer-as-monster story? Let me know in the comments.
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Derek Austin Johnson has lived most of his life in the Lone Star State. His work has appeared in The Horror Zine, Rayguns Over Texas!, Horror U.S.A.: Texas, Campfire Macabre, The Dread Machine, and Generation X-ed.
He lives in Central Texas. Archives
January 2023
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