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FANGORIA’S OUR LADY OF THE INFERNO AUDIO ADAPTATION GETS A CENOBITE, A HORROR LEGEND, AND A BEAUTY QUEEN
I’m so excited to share with you all some exciting news about the award-winning FANGORIA novel Our Lady of the Inferno from Preston Fassel. Fassel is a jack of all trades, but most importantly he’s proof that if you work hard and hustle, dreams do come true.
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The upcoming audio adaptation of the award-winning FANGORIA novel Our Lady of the Inferno has found the rest of its cast, including two members of horror royalty and a beauty queen.
Earlier this year, Encyclopocalypse Publications—headed by the Rondo and Saturn award-winning producer Mark Miller—announced that they had closed a deal with FANGORIA to produce a fully-cast audio adaptation of Preston Fassel’s award-winning novel, which tells the story of the confrontation between a brilliant but troubled prostitute and a female serial killer in 1980s Manhattan. Already on board is horror luminary Barbara Crampton (Reanimator, You’re Next) as Nicolette Aster, a middle-aged waste management executive who hunts and kills girls in the Staten Island Landfill after hours; and Audible mainstay Gigi Shane as Ginny Kurva, a prostitute with a genius-level IQ who becomes the object of Nicolette’s obsession. Today, Encyclopocalypse Publications has announced that they’ve finished casting the project, bringing on board two more members of horror royalty.
Doug Bradley, best known for his role as Pinhead in the Hellraiser franchise, will join the cast as “The Colonel,” Ginny’s homicidal, amoral pimp, while writer/director Mick Garris will voice “Someone,” Nicolette’s unnamed supervisor at the dump, who has no idea that his best employee is a serial killer—and who comes dangerously close to uncovering her secret. A staple of the horror community for over thirty years, Garris is perhaps best known for directing a series of Stephen King made-for-television adaptations, including The Stand and The Shining, as well as creating the Masters of Horror and Fear Itself horror anthology series. His critically acclaimed podcast series, Post Mortem with Mick Garris, in which he interviews legends of the horror genre, recently joined FANGORIA’s new podcast network.
“The Hellraiser franchise is one of my favorites, and I’ve always thought that Doug brought this elegant, majestic menace to the role of Pinhead,” says Our Lady author Preston Fassel, who is serving as a producer on the project alongside Miller. “For as uncomplicated as The Colonel seems on the surface, there are all these layers of evil to him that make it the perfect role for Doug. And with Mick doing so much work with FANGORIA now, it only made sense to bring him on board. He’s got such this approachable personality, and such this range of knowledge, and that’s exactly Nicolette’s boss.” Bradley’s participation in the project comes on the heels of his also recording Morningstar by Peter Atkins for Encylopocalypse.
Joining the cast as Ginny’s trusted right-hand-woman, Shannon, is Desi Williams, Miss Virginia 2013 in the Miss America 2014 competition and later Miss Virginia USA. In addition to her pageant experience, Williams is also a Doctor of Physical Therapy, former professor, has competed on Survivor, and has appeared in a number of television roles. “Shannon is a character with a complex backstory, who’s gone from a runaway to a heroin addict to essentially being the second-in-command of this miniature crime empire,” Fassel says. “Not only did Desi nail the audition, but with everything she’s accomplished in life, she understands being a renaissance woman.”
Rounding out the cast is up-and-coming voice actor, writer, and entrepreneur Mchaji Celestaine as Roger, Ginny’s best friend, and the only person to realize that 42nd Street is being stalked by a serial killer. The casting represents a minor change Fassel made to his character from the book, one he felt was culturally necessary.
“Roger, in the book, is loosely based on me, and my experiences growing up as an ethnic Jew in Oklahoma. He’s someone who’s spent a lot of time on the outside looking in. And my wife is an inner-city high school teacher, and in the years since I wrote the book, she’s told me stories about students of hers who’re African American, and feel stigmatized because they’re interested in stuff like sci-fi, or video games, or electronic music. And they also didn’t feel like kids like them were being represented in the media as a result of that, that there were no positive portrayals of black nerds as heroes or protagonists. And so it felt right to me that for the audio adaptation, Roger should be voiced by an African American actor, he should be a black nerd. He’s still Jewish and from Oklahoma but now he’s a black Jewish nerd from Oklahoma. And I hope that gives some positive representation.”
Previously announced members of the cast include bodybuilder and voice actress Autumn Ivy as Ginny’s acerbic little sister, Trish; and country singer and writer Kasey Lansdale as Tammy, the latest addition to Ginny’s stable and a target of Nicolette’s dark obsession. Since its release, Our Lady has received critical acclaim for its depiction of a female villain, psychologically complex heroine, and attention to period detail. Earlier this year it received the 2019 Independent Publisher Book Award for Horror and was named by Bloody Disgusting as one of the ten best horror novels of 2018.
Miller is currently in the process of recording voice roles for the project. A release date has not yet been announced.
