Thursday, June 11, 2026
FANGORIA PRESENTS: VAMPIRES
As a sequel to its acclaimed, Frankenstein issue (see February 2026 post), Fangoria now offers Vampires: The Biggest and Best Bloodsuckers From the Silver Screen and Beyond, with a vibrant, crimson-fringed cover featuring Christopher Lee from Dracula, Prince of Darkness.
In addition to its Hammer Horror flavoring, which includes many of the studio's chilling favorites, readers are treated to the regal realm of Universal, with Tod Browning/Bela Lugosi's 1931 landmark adaptation of Bram Stoker's perennial novel, Dracula.
Other parasitic highlights can be staked as well in the 100-page issue, including former Fangoria Editor-in-Chief Tony Timpone's "The Thirsty Thirty," historian Tom Weaver's "Dracula: The First 100 Years," an analysis of Anne Rice's legacy, pre-Dracula vampires, blue-collar vampires, black vampires, yuppie vampires, erotic vampires, comedic vampires and respectful retrospectives on Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dan Curtis' Dark Shadows.
If you have a thirst for vampire lore (both the literary and the cinematic), this special release is an absolute must to disinter; why not take the big bite today?
https://www.fangoria.com/fangoria-presents-vampires/
ALIEN: A CLASSIC MONSTERS OF THE MOVIES TRIBUTE
"In Space, No One
Can Hear you Scream."
I love Alien. It's hands down one of my all-time favorites, which is why I'm pleased as Punch that Nige Burton & Jamie Jones have fashioned a luxuriant, 36-page, Classic Monsters of the Movies volume in its honor.
The 1979, 20th Century Fox blockbuster was directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O'Bannon & Ron Shusett. With its dark-discovery roots stemming from the notable It! The Terror From Beyond Space, Queen of Blood and Planet of the Vampires, Alien proved a momentous breakthrough for its intricate, gritty imagery and H.R. Giger's iconic Xenomorph, based on his 1976 "Necronom IV." The Alien, along with its resulting, gruesome scares, placed the production on an immediate par with Psycho, albeit in the desperate depths of space.
Of course, it was the movie's monstrous phases that made this macabre work of art the talk of the town, with the great, late Giger's design worn by the agile and towering Bollaji Badejo, and then there are those eerie eggs, the Facehugger, Chestbuster and "space jockey" Engineer, their weirdness bracketed and heightened by Jerry Goldsmith's portentous and resonant score (an orchestral classic if ever there was or will be).
Additionally, Burton & Jones share bios and insights on the Nostromo's indelible characters and performers: Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley, Tom Skerritt's Captain Dallas, John Hurt's Kane, Yaphet Kotto's Parker, Harry Dean Stanton's Brett and Ian Holm's Ash.
Precious trivia and "quotable quotes" also populate this high-stock edition, with photos that bleed with intensity and vitality. Indeed, Classic Monsters of the Movies: Alien is a collectible of the grandest order.
And you can order it right here and now ...
https://www.classic-monsters.com/shop/product/alien-1979-ultimate-guide-signed-art-print/
I SAW DISCLOSURE DAY
I remember how at the starry-eyed age of thirteen I anticipated the release of Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I felt I had full right to be part of the mounting phenomenon, and after I saw the movie with millions of others, I (like those many others) claimed CE3K as my own.
That communal yet personal feeling continued with E.T., The Extra-terrestrial and Matthew Robbins' Amazing Stories-derived *batteries not included (produced by Spielberg's Amblin), both of which I held in high regard. However, as the years passed, the writer/director became evermore a socio-political pundit (even going so far as to censor the sight of guns in E.T.). With that, my loyalty waned and then faded.
In recent weeks, I wondered if Disclosure Day might be the movie to resume that loyalty. There was a good chance since the premise was said to depict humans contacting otherworldly beings.
For the sake of the story, screenwriter David (War of the Worlds/Jurassic Park) Koepp (pulling from a Spielberg outline) has given us a cybersecurity, ex-con whistleblower named Dr. Daniel Kellner (Josh O'Connor), who's caught wind of extra-terrestrials visiting Earth, albeit in psychic disguise, and plans to share this information with one and all prior to a possible (maybe probable) outbreak of WWIII. (Kellner's proof has been shielded by the government as leverage against enemy attack, or is it more a matter of the bureaucrats not wishing to blow our minds?) Meanwhile, a television meteorologist, Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt), receives strange signals in her head from an alien source (accompanied by extrasensory spurts and these weird clicks and clucks she makes) and warns Daniel that assassins have been dispatched to kill him before "full disclosure" can occur. (Colin Firth plays Noah Scanlan, a mind-intruding heavy whose Wardex Corporation assists the government with its cover-up, and Coleman Domingo's Hugo Wakefield is a Wardex turncoat, who desires disclosure as much as Daniel and Margaret. Wyatt Russell plays Margaret's musician boyfriend, and Eve Hewson plays Daniel's ex-nun girlfriend, who alas, doesn't know who Jackie Gleason is [now how in the world can that be?]; both lend their staunch support when and where they can.)
As one may deduce, Daniel and Margaret are roundabout surrogates for CE3K's amenable lineman, Roy Neary. Like Neary, they're drawn by a higher force to fulfill their mystical mission. Mirroring Spielberg's 1977 U.F.O. classic in this regard should have won me over, but no matter where or how I positioned myself, I evaded the hook.
I believe the lack of commitment came in recalling that Spielberg isn't the man I thought him to be (or let's say, isn't the man he was). This uncomfortable notion nudged me after his recent request for more "empathy" in the world, with the implication being that we should show compassion to those who wish us harm (i.e. turn a blind eye to confirmed or potential assault) and how Disclosure Day is the emblematic, social key that could shift the essential, "empathetic" gears.
From this, I can only infer that Disclosure Day was made for a privileged in-crowd: those who see the world from the fringes and never at its dangerous heart. That means the movie bypasses all the daily-grind, "non-empathetic" survivors of the bad, and if there's anything that distinguishes Daniel and Margaret from Roy Neary, it's their sanctimonious relegation and the fact that they were once (surprise!) abducted, though neither can remember it. While Neary is an "everyman," chosen to board the Mothership, Daniel and Margaret are long-term, manipulated VIPs, who'll do as they please, no matter if it's right, wrong or somewhere in between.
In the same vein, Daniel and Margaret aren't E.T.'s Elliott (a mini Neary, one might argue), who let audiences see through his humble eyes. Daniel and Margaret aren't the self-effacing tenants of *batteries not included, who made viewers part of their unique family. The characters of E.T. and *batteries not included didn't act from a special perch or insert a confidential agenda to get what they wanted. Disclosure Day's duo does, even if their motivation is softened around the edges.
In the least, Disclosure Day's finale should have compensated for the detachment caused, but even there, the conclusion felt cumbersome. Oh, it churned enough of a sense of wonder (and yes, the Grey component manifested and did so in CE3K homage, and yes, John Williams' score did a splendid job elevating its mystique), but again (damn it!), I felt like an intruder, not one worthy of the fable's unveiling. If I was allowed a measly glimpse, it was only because the high and mighty found it in their huge, smug hearts to throw me a scrap, knowing full well that I couldn't see or agree with their surreptitious plan. That's not the Spielberg I revered. That's a puppetized simulation of the man.
Storytelling (moviemaking) is forged for escapism, but sometimes it sneaks in propaganda. To me, Disclosure Day feels like the latter, telling audiences to accept wrong as right and up as down, which designates it as a pompous betrayal among the legendary director's curriculum vitae. Thank God the inspiring, "average schmo" sincerity of CE3K and its companions prevail. Let's just hope their overseer never alters them to embellish his latest, holier-than-thou proclamation.
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