PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Yuletide Terror: Christmas Horror on Film and Television, the latest upcoming book by Canadian micro-publisher Spectacular Optical, offers a definitive, in-depth exploration of the history of these subversive film and television presentations that allow viewers to engage in different ways with the complicated cultural history of the Christmas season. The publishers hope to have the book out by Christmas 2017, and that’s where they need your help.
From the IndieGoGo page:
For many, Christmas is an annual celebration of goodwill and joy, but for others, it’s a time to curl up on the couch in the dead of winter for a good old fashioned fright. The festive holiday season has always included a more somber side, and scary tales of Krampus, the child-stealing demon, to ghost stories told ‘round the fireplace go back to pre-Christian celebrations. These long-standing traditions have found modern expression in Christmas horror films and television shows, a unique and sometimes controversial subgenre that cheerfully drives a stake of holly through the heart of cherished Christmas customs.
Yuletide Terror: Christmas Horror on Film and Television collects over 20 essays and interviews that will deck your halls with insightful looks at all your festive fright favorites, including the BBC’s A Ghost Story for Christmas anthology series and contentious 1980s Santa slashers like Silent Night, Deadly Night. Unwrapping the true meaning of films featuring everyone from the Krampus and Scrooge to killer snowmen and evil elves, Yuletide Terror: Christmas Horror on Film and Television is a comprehensive look at TV and cinematic holiday horror from around the world. The book includes a compendium with nearly 200 Christmas horror film reviews. This new anthology, set to be released for Christmas 2017, is the latest addition to Spectacular Optical’s line of cult film and pop culture books that include Kid Power!, Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s and Lost Girls: The Phantasmagorical Cinema Of Jean Rollin.
Yuletide Terror: Christmas Horror on Film and Television features new writing by both emerging and acclaimed authors, including Stephen Thrower (Nightmare USA), Kim Newman (Nightmare Movies), Caelum Vatnsdal (They Came From Within: A History Of Canadian Horror Cinema), Rue Morgue’s Andrea Subissati, Michael Gingold and Ariel Fisher, Shelagh Rowan-Legg (The Spanish Fantastic), Alexandra West (Films Of The New French Extremity), Michael Helms (Fatal Visions), Zack Carlson (Destroy All Movies!!!), Joanna Wilson (The Christmas TV Companion), Diane A. Rodgers (Cinema Retro), Andrew Nette (Pulp Curry), Amanda Reyes (Made For TV Mayhem), David Bertrand (Satanic Panic), Eric Zaldivar (co-writer for Django Lives!), Leslie Hatton (Popshifter), Owen Williams (Empire), Ralph Elawani (Bleu Nuit: Histoire D’un Cinéphilie Nocturne), Derek Johnston (Haunted Seasons: Television Ghost Stories For Christmas And Horror For Halloween), Neil Mitchell (Devil’s Advocates: Carrie), Chris Hallock (Diabolique), Lee Gambin (Nope, Nothing Wrong Here: The Making Of Cujo) and Zach Clark (writer/director for White Reindeer), alongside co-editors Kier-La Janisse (House of Psychotic Women) and Paul Corupe (Canuxploitation).
From the IndieGoGo page:
PLUS! As part of this campaign, we will be releasing a new Christmas horror short film made to accompany the book, written and directed by Sean Hogan (The Devil’s Business) and produced by Deviant Films, the team who brought you Future Shock! The Story Of 2000 AD. The short film, a windswept ghost story set on England’s southeastern coast called We Always Find Ourselves In The Sea, will accompany book launch events throughout November/December in advance of its online premiere on Christmas Eve, as a nod to the British broadcasting tradition of Christmas ghost stories.
A lonely recluse prepares to celebrate Christmas alone, when a figure from his past unexpectedly reappears. But are the old ghosts stirred up by her arrival just bad memories or something more?
Be sure to check out the Indiegogo page for Yuletide Terror: Christmas Horror on Film and Television! There are some really awesome perks from places like Mondo, Vinegar Syndrome and more. What do you think of an anthology book about Christmas horror stories? What are some of your favorite Christmas horror films? Let us know in the comments below!
