Saturday, September 24, 2016

'HORRORVILLE' - A NEW MONSTER 'ZINE

 
HORRORVILLE
Vol. 1 No. 1
August-November 2016
Publisher: Future Publishing
Editor: Will Salmon
Pages: 116

I tell you, those Brits and their monster magazines. If it isn't enough with THE DARK SIDE, WE BELONG DEAD, SCREAM, SPACE MONSTERS, CLASSIC MONSTERS OF THE MOVIES and others, now comes HORRORVILLE. The first issue has rolled of the chopping block and washed up on the shores of the States. Are we ready for another?

Presented by TOTAL FILM magazine and called the sister magazine of SFX (all from the UK super publisher, Future Publishing), Will Salmon says in his editorial that HORRORVILLE "came out of a desire to make a horror magazine that we really hadn't seen before...We wanted to make a modern magazine, one that celebrates the genre's rich past, but is more focused on the present and future."

True to his word, this first quarterly issue is brimming with the stuff that modern nightmares are made of. A survey of just some of the film titles covered here are: OUIJA, THE WHITE COFFIN, BLAIR WITCH, THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS, DON'T BREATHE and a list of 50 MUST-SEE HORROR MOVIES.

Out of the gate HORRORVILLE is smart, slick and visually appealing. The writing is intelligent and the graphics and page layouts are some of the best I've seen in a horror 'zine in a long time.

If there is one sticking point, it's the overwhelming $15.99 cover price. Even at a quarterly pace that's a little steep, especially when you can buy entire books for less.  Still, HORROVILLE is impressive in its debut and it's worth a look ... and maybe even your money.



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