Joe R. Lansdale has been called a Mojo storyteller, a cult figure, a gifted storyteller, a folklorist, and an American original. I prefer to think of him as a purveyor of the Southern Gothic genre with stops to deliver some of the best crime stories through his recurring characters Hap Collins and Leonard Pine. (If you haven’t read a Hap and Leonard story, you need to get with the program and pick up a copy of Savage Season, their first adventure.)
Joe has also delighted horror fans with film versions of his short stories Bubba Ho-Tep and Incident On and Off a Mountain Road.
Dread Central recently spoke with the laconic Texan about how he feels being a cult icon as well as what’s up next.
DC: Thank you so much for taking time to speak with Dread Central, Joe. With your prolific writing schedule, I’m surprised you had the time.
Joe has also delighted horror fans with film versions of his short stories Bubba Ho-Tep and Incident On and Off a Mountain Road.
Dread Central recently spoke with the laconic Texan about how he feels being a cult icon as well as what’s up next.
DC: Thank you so much for taking time to speak with Dread Central, Joe. With your prolific writing schedule, I’m surprised you had the time.
- 2/4/2010
- by thebellefromhell
- DreadCentral.com
In Devil’s Dream, Madison Smartt Bell takes on the massive task of making the Civil War live again in a non-clichéd manner. He never wholly pulls the task off, but he comes close enough that readers with a fondness for the era may find something to enjoy in the tale. The novel’s biggest strength is also its biggest weakness, ultimately, as Bell finds a new way to tell a story about the era and its largest looming figures, but never completely pulls off the stylistic conceit. Dream is an attempt to portray the life of famed Southern ...
- 11/25/2009
- avclub.com
Celebrated author and musician Jim Carroll died on Friday. The following essay appears in Paste's September issue.
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Whenever a writer makes a rock record, I expect two things. First, I assume the lyrics will be better than average. They should be—writers presumably know how to communicate in insightful ways. Second, I expect the album to sound like an erudite mess. This is because the ability to write perceptively does not automatically translate to good rock ’n’ roll—there are numerous examples of articulate people making unlistenable, pretentious twaddle. Amy Tan and Scott Turow, no slouches as novelists, have produced dreadful music. Similarly, novelist Madison Smartt Bell and poet Wyn Cooper are fine writers, but their 2003 foray into rock ’n’ roll was a veritable snoozefest. So I had my doubts about Jim Carroll.
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Whenever a writer makes a rock record, I expect two things. First, I assume the lyrics will be better than average. They should be—writers presumably know how to communicate in insightful ways. Second, I expect the album to sound like an erudite mess. This is because the ability to write perceptively does not automatically translate to good rock ’n’ roll—there are numerous examples of articulate people making unlistenable, pretentious twaddle. Amy Tan and Scott Turow, no slouches as novelists, have produced dreadful music. Similarly, novelist Madison Smartt Bell and poet Wyn Cooper are fine writers, but their 2003 foray into rock ’n’ roll was a veritable snoozefest. So I had my doubts about Jim Carroll.
- 9/14/2009
- Pastemagazine.com
In the effectively creepy "Close Your Eyes", "ER" regular Goran Visnjic retains his medical license as a psychic hypnotherapist who's recruited by British police to uncover the identity of a traumatized young girl's twisted kidnapper.
Based on the novel "Doctor Sleep" by Madison Smartt Bell, the atmospheric psychological thriller weaves a compelling web thanks to dense, stylized direction by Nick Willing and a smartly assembled cast.
The First Look release, shot in 2001, is certainly worth a look, though it's done no favors by a title that can be too easily confused with Alejandro Amenabar's "Open Your Eyes", not to mention "Close My Eyes", a 1991 Alan Rickman-Clive Owen film.
In his first lead feature role,
Visnjic carries a soft-spoken authority as Dr. Michael Strother, who has relocated to London with his very pregnant wife (Miranda Otto) and daughter Lauren Gabrielle Volpert) after leaving behind some unpleasant business back home in America.
Hoping to start again with a small practice helping patients to quit smoking, he's sidetracked by a detective (dark-eyed Shirley Henderson) who has been working on the case of a girl (Sophie Stuckey) rendered speechless after being kidnapped by a presumed ritual killer.
The pair embark on a rather unorthodox procedural that leads them down an eerie path filled with spooky old churches and the liturgies of 16th century religious fanatics.
Director Willing, who also adapted the script with William Brookfield, knows a thing or two about mood-setting, having helmed the lavish NBC miniseries "Alice in Wonderland" and "Jason and the Argonauts".
Here, he allows the intrigue to unfold against a bleak contemporary London backdrop that appears to be in a constant state of transition, from the dusty construction sites that surround Strother's working environment to those imposing houses of worship that have been converted to everything from theaters to luxury apartment complexes.
Given the Gothic window dressing, all Vijsnic, Henderson and company (also including Paddy Considine, Fiona Shaw and Corin Redgrave) are required to do is to act naturally, and they admirably resist the temptation to nibble on all that tasty scenery.
Based on the novel "Doctor Sleep" by Madison Smartt Bell, the atmospheric psychological thriller weaves a compelling web thanks to dense, stylized direction by Nick Willing and a smartly assembled cast.
The First Look release, shot in 2001, is certainly worth a look, though it's done no favors by a title that can be too easily confused with Alejandro Amenabar's "Open Your Eyes", not to mention "Close My Eyes", a 1991 Alan Rickman-Clive Owen film.
In his first lead feature role,
Visnjic carries a soft-spoken authority as Dr. Michael Strother, who has relocated to London with his very pregnant wife (Miranda Otto) and daughter Lauren Gabrielle Volpert) after leaving behind some unpleasant business back home in America.
Hoping to start again with a small practice helping patients to quit smoking, he's sidetracked by a detective (dark-eyed Shirley Henderson) who has been working on the case of a girl (Sophie Stuckey) rendered speechless after being kidnapped by a presumed ritual killer.
The pair embark on a rather unorthodox procedural that leads them down an eerie path filled with spooky old churches and the liturgies of 16th century religious fanatics.
Director Willing, who also adapted the script with William Brookfield, knows a thing or two about mood-setting, having helmed the lavish NBC miniseries "Alice in Wonderland" and "Jason and the Argonauts".
Here, he allows the intrigue to unfold against a bleak contemporary London backdrop that appears to be in a constant state of transition, from the dusty construction sites that surround Strother's working environment to those imposing houses of worship that have been converted to everything from theaters to luxury apartment complexes.
Given the Gothic window dressing, all Vijsnic, Henderson and company (also including Paddy Considine, Fiona Shaw and Corin Redgrave) are required to do is to act naturally, and they admirably resist the temptation to nibble on all that tasty scenery.
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