BOOK REVIEW: PUPPET MASTER COMPLETE by Nat Brehmer (McFarland Books)

Welcome back everyone, I hope that everyone's doing okay. Last year, we had our Tiny Terrors series. It was something that was pretty special to me. It was a chance to not cover just one franchise, but three in total. It was a pretty ambitious thing at the time. I hadn't been writing very long, but it provided a bit of a drive that I needed. It gave a focus and structure in a new way that I had never done before. 

But one of the franchises that we had covered was Puppet Master. Puppet Master is a franchise that is a bit close to me. There are plenty of memories that I have from watching this franchise with my Dad and being among the first ones that I was able to watch. So there's a small bit of nostalgia to it like a warm blanket. Plus, I remember going to a Suncoast that was in the Mall with my Dad and Grandma. I happened upon a 12" figure of Blade that was being released. It was the bloody variant. I hadn't seen anything so cool at the time. And it later became a gift from my Grandma for my birthday. Later on, I'd end up getting the Freddy Krueger doll and the Ghostface that was released. So when I get my movie room/office completed, they will be sitting there proudly displayed. 

This brings me to when Crystal Lake Memories was released. It was one of the first big franchise Retrospective books that I remember seeing. Since then we've had the Taking Shape (Halloween, Phantasm Exhumed, making of Tremors and other books, it became clear that these were pretty successful. For me, I was hoping that we would see other franchises covered. One of my big wishes is that we will see a Texas Chainsaw Massacre book. However, I am happy to say that we received a book on the Puppet Master franchise. 

Puppet Master Complete was written by Nat Brehmer, a horror journalist. He's written for Bloody-Disgusting, Dread Central, Wicked Horror, and Diabolique magazine. It was published by McFarland Books. To begin with, I'd like to thank McFarland Books for sending a copy to review. 

My younger self was absolutely thrilled when I discovered Puppet Master Complete. This was a very in-depth franchise. It went to places that I never even considered. I mean, there is a section dedicated to the action figures as well as the Action Lab comics. It made me so happy to read through it all. 

One of the best aspects is that this is a fan's recollection. Brehmer is a fellow fan of the series. He knows exactly what he's talking about. It's also extremely clear how much love and passion went into this book. 

Brehmer is able to deliver such a clear look at the series than any one commentary could do on its own. We are able to hear a lot of the different stories that have happened behind the scenes. This was something that I absolutely loved. Getting even an inside glimpse at what the Puppet Wars could have been. I absolutely had forgotten about Puppet Wars over the years. It's a clear concept that would have been fantastic to have received, however it wasn't in the cards. But we get to see the ideas that would later find themselves added in to later entries. 

I could go on and on about this book. It delivers a essential must have look. It does it so well. At this point, if you are a fan of Puppet Master - you need to have this in your collection. 

Rating: 10/10 (An Essential Must Have)

You can find Puppet Master Complete from McFarland Books. It can also be found on Amazon. 

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Book Review - Its Me Billy: Black Christmas Revisited

    Hello everyone, I have returned with another book review. These days it's amazing seeing all of the wonderful books detailing horror franchises like Crystal Lake Memories, Taking Shape, Phantasm Exhumed and Slash of the Titans. I mean these books are even better than any of the special features that we used to get. The depths of where they are able to go is astounding. 

Well, today I have the pleasure of talking about It's Me Billy: Black Christmas Revisited. Inside these pages, you get to hear the story of how Black Christmas came to be. It's something that I had never heard before. I don't have the Shout! Factory release of Black Christmas so I cannot tell you if that's something that was covered here. But it was interesting to hear the lengths it had to go. I also had no idea that Black Christmas came out at a time when Ted Bundy was beginning to be more known. For me, I had just started hearing about that within the last year. So never put two and two together. 

   

    But the depths that Paul Downey and David Hastings have went to for this franchise, it's absolutely incredible. There are quite a few stories that probably have never been told till this point. It just leaves me flabbergasted thinking about how much love and passion has to go in to craft something like this. I tip my hat to those that are able to do that because I know that I don't have the opportunity nor the tools at my disposal to do so. 

    But they don't just give the spotlight to the original, it would be incredibly easy to just do that. They took the time to discuss the 2006 retelling of Black Christmas. By now, we all know that Black Christmas '06 was an interesting take on the material. It expanded on Billy's backstory and brought some elements that were a little more subdued in the original to the forefront. As a fan of this incarnation as well, it was nice getting a more in-depth look at the behind the scenes of it. I enjoy the original DVD that was released for it and was a bit disappointed at the brief amount of Behind the Scenes for it. I am happy to say that this does it justice as well. 

    And oh no, they went even further. By this point, I was smiling ear to ear. All of the stories of the making of for the previous two incarnations had been fantastic. I was super excited to just see where they went with 2019's Black Christmas. Now, I know this incarnation gets so much hate. It's kind of the runt of the franchise. However there were quite a few that enjoyed it, so getting more information regarding it is good. It's just astounding the wealth of information packed into this tome. Just when I thought that it was done, it kept giving more. And honestly, everything I have mentioned is only a fraction of what is covered in this astounding book. 

    Honestly, I would have to say that this entire book is amazing. It manages to cover so much and helped me find a better appreciation for this franchise. I have a massive understanding now of what Black Christmas means to people and why it matters. Paul and David were able to preserve Black Christmas for future generations as they go through their film history. This is probably my favorite out of all of the ones I have read so far. And I cannot recommend it enough. If you are a fan of this series, this is for you. If you appreciate film and its history, get it. 

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Book Review: Screams for a New Millennium

    Hello everyone, Matthew here with another new entry for our Book Reviews. Adrian Roe is someone that isn't new to the horror genre. They have had a series of books that have chronicled the decades of the Horror Genre - The Final Scream (70s), First Scream To The Last (80s), and Second Scream (90s). These books are jam packed with discussions on the movies of those times as well as interviews with some of the people involved with them. Each of these books were something that I was quick to add to my Kindle backlog. I'm sure there's some hidden gems in there that I may have never seen before. 

    Then I had heard over on Twitter from Adrian that there was a new book coming out, Screams For A New Millennium. This book was going to be chronicling the movies of the 00s. For me, that's pretty great. Honestly, things have been pretty awesome in terms of getting books for the Horror Genre. I mean let's look at what we have so far - Crystal Lake Memories, Never Sleep Again, Slashing Titans, the Taking Shape series, the Phantasm Exhumed books, and another coming that will chronicle the Black Christmas franchise. If I would have told younger me that was a huge fan of hearing the Behind the Scenes stories regarding films that this was going to happen, he would have laughed. Then he probably would have went back to watching a behind the scenes extra from Scream or something. 

    So I went on the interwebs and Twitter, I reached out to Adrian . I was honestly pretty nervous. At this point, it's been a bit of a roller coaster in terms of me reaching out and getting a response. I mean there's been two interviews that kind of fell to the wayside due to different circumstances. Surprisingly enough to me, Adrian responded back and was so awesome. They were 100 percent on board and willing to work with me. And funny enough by that point, I hadn't put two and two together that this was the same author of those fantastic books I mentioned earlier. 

    Screams for a New Millennium is fantastic. It is a book that is a bit in-depth in terms of covering the 00s. There were some movies that were mentioned that I had honestly forgotten all about (Hollow Man, yeah I forgot about this one) and some that I hadn't heard of yet (Session 9, Long Time Dead, and Deathwatch are a few examples). There are some fantastic interviews in this collection as well. Jamie Blanks talks about his work on Urban Legend and Valentine. Joe Lynch discusses his time working on Wrong Turn 2. Jonathan Craven discusses his time working with his father, Wes, on the script for The Hills Have Eyes 2. This was something I had never heard of before and is pretty awesome. Author Daniel Kraus dives into his thoughts on Romero's back half of his Living Dead films (Land/Diary/Survival). Honestly, it added a new perspective for me regarding Survival of the Dead. I'm sure that I'll give it a rewatch soon. These are just a few of the interviews in Screams for a New Millennium. Roe also managed to remind just how much the 00s really were the 'Decade of the Remakes'. 

    If you are someone that truly appreciates cinema and would like something to chronicle those years of films, this is definitely for you. It's also a pretty fantastic time capsule in a way. For me, it just took me back to where I was in life when those films were released. And honestly, it also showed how important film was to me in those days as I had leaned into them to cope with my parents' divorce. So it just hit like a comfort blanket in a way. 

    If this book managed to do that, I am so thrilled to take a look at the other entries in this series. It's also pretty evident just how much of a labor of love for Roe, these books have been. Screams for a New Millennium can be found over on Amazon.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5. 

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Book Review: The Dragon Storm: Gates from Anthony DiPaolo

  

  Hello everyone, I am here with our first book review of 2022. This will be the first of many that I am shooting for this year. This month alone, we have three different book reviews. That's a pretty incredible feat. 

    Now, who here likes The Mummy? I'm not talking about the 2017 Tom Cruises film. That'll be a whole other topic that I will get to one day. I am talking about the 1999 Brendan Fraser film. That film is such a classic and has such a unique style to it. It's a great film. Who doesn't like it? It's got globe-trotting, swash-buckling adventure. It also has some pretty memorable characters in it. It's also safe to say that people have heard of a certain character called John Constantine. He's pretty popular with a long-running comic and been featured in a few different tv series, films, and animated films. He happens dabble in the occult and supernatural. Fancies himself to be a master of the dark arts occasionally as well. What happens if you put the two together?

     The synopsis for The Dragon Storm: Gates is as follows:

     "Join Alexander Storm as he leads a diverse team of would-be-heroes around the world in search of the Twelve Hours of Night. The fabled Ancient Egyptian papyrus has been split into twelve parts and secreted around the globe at major archaeological sites. With only a set of intricate riddles as their guide, the team must face all manner of supernatural nemesis as they race against time and a duo of enigmatic demons who are hellbent on acquiring the Twelve Hours and opening the gates to Hell on Earth.".

    As I sat reading this book, I couldn't help but be enraptured by the story. It quickly pulls you into the world and its atmosphere. It also has a brilliant pace to it as it moves along fairly quickly. There wasn't a moment where I found myself bored. The tone of the book for me felt like a brilliant mashup of those Mummy films with Constantine/Hellblazer in a very modern setting. The world that is built feels incredibly lived-in. The characters are all very likeable. I found myself invested in everyone's journey throughout the read. It also was incredible seeing the way the different characters start in the beginning, but then the ways they would come together. It is an absolutely fantastic first start to a series. And DiPaolo is hard at work at a follow-up. 

    I don't wish to dive too much further into story details as this is one that has to be experienced. If you are a fan of action and adventures with a supernatural world thrown in for good measure, be sure to check out The Dragon Storm: Gates. 

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

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Book Review: Those We Left Behind And Other Stories

Hello everyone. Hope everyone's been well while I've been gone for a little while. Lots of crazy things happening at home. I mean tis the season and all. Slowly we been working through the Night of the Reviews retrospective. I think I'll be having two or three more installments left for that. 

However we have something to be excited about. I have our first book review here on BlazinBlue's Horror Review. 

Those We Left Behind is an anthology written by Brandon Applegate. Mr. Applegate was so awesome and kind to send a pre-release copy to me. 

Now, I will say that the cover for the book is what made me stop and go 'Hey, this is something different here.'. It brilliantly grabs your attention and draws you in. After that alone, I was on board. It just screams horror in a way that I haven't seen in some time. I mean look at that haunting image above. 

The next thing that just lured me in was the sypnosis of this anthology. 

"A bedtime story has unspeakable consequences. A walk in the woods introduces a father to his daughter's horrifying new friends. A bit of trash in the shower drain leads to a surreal fight for survival. In this collection that ranges from magical fantasy to blood-spattered horror, Brandon Applegate guides you on a journey through the darkest, most tragic corners of his imagination. From the surface of Mars to the supposed safety of a child's bedroom, his stories will remind you that it's not a sacrifice if it doesn't hurt."

This sypnosis is alone so powerful. It lays out a groundwork of what one could possibly imagine. And for me, that's a deep deep rabbit hole. There is absolutely so much that my mind alone could come up with. And honestly, it's only a small fraction of what one could find in this fantastic collection. 

Typically, I imagine that when one does a book review that they tend to go in depth of what makes it so great. However, I'm not going to go into too much detail. It would honestly be a huge disservice to this collection to give away all its secrets. It is a very powerful journey. I have yet to think of a book that has hit me so hard as this one has. And that is saying a lot as I have read Pet Semetary. I know that there's a lot of people that consider Pet Semetary to be such a high bar. As a parent especially, it's truly deeply terrifying the thought of losing one's child. However what Brandon has done with this collection of stories has surpassed that. 

This collection can be a bit of a brief read. I mean the whole thing in all is 128 pages covering seventeen stories. That's a really fast read if one so wills it. However, I don't recommend doing that. Take the time to just let the stories unfold on their own. Don't rush it. It makes the journey so much grander and greater. Something I greatly appreciated with this was that there was story notes at the end, as well as content warnings. Now this is something that I honestly haven't seen in other anthologies. It allows the reader to get a glimpse behind the curtain as well as if one wishes get a brief idea of what to expect. 

The more that I think about it, the more I tend to think of this anthology compared to Joe Lansdale's High Cotton. I remember diving into Lansdale's world of reading back in the early 2000s. It was just after Showtime brought us the Masters of Horrors. Specifically the one - Incident On and Off A Mountain Road. It was a bit of a gateway as that also introduced me to Don Conscarelli's work on Horror as well. High Cotton was a fantastic read. Definitely one of my favorites for sure. I am happy to say that Those We Left Behind and Other Sacrifices has joined that in the pantheon. 

What I will talk about is that first story in this collection, Bedtime Story. At once, it feels like a familiar setup with a Grandpa telling his grandson a story. It's light hearted and relatable. It's comforting. However as the bedtime story moves on, it becomes clear that it's Grandpa's story. It's one of doing ones duty, loss, heartbreak, and becoming lost in the world. It's such a twist that left me floored. By the end of the story, I was sitting there with the book in my hands just shocked. I hadn't seen the ending coming by a longshot. It in a way sets the tone of what this collection will be like. It's not going to be happy or comforting. Again as Grandpa beautifully puts it in the story, "It's not a sacrifice if it doesn't hurt.". 

In the end, Those We Left Behind and Other Sacrifices feels like a new brand of horror in one way. It's not relenting. But in a sense, it feels like a callback to Lovecraftian. This collection is one that I highly recommend. It's a fantastic introduction to what Brandon Applegate can do. And I cannot wait to see what comes next. If you have a chance, pick this book up. It can be found on Amazon, Barnes & Noble as well as his website.

Rating: 5 out of 5. 

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