HORRORFAN NO. 1 (PART 1)

HORRORFAN
Vol. 1 No. 1
December1988
Charlotte Magazine Corp.
Editor: Bruce J. Schoengood
Pages: 68

In his editorial, Bruce J. Schoengood asks: "Why do another horror magazine?". His answer was to "selectively preview upcoming films and recommend worthwhile videos". He also promised a balance between classic and contemporary horror films and planned to fill the gap between issues of the then-reigning CINEFANTASTIQUE. Did it work?

After the obligatory upcoming films previews department is a guest column written by none other than Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund. Englund discusses the luck he'd had on landing the role of the Krueger character, his love for horror films and his desire to star in a movie where he didn't have to wear makeup, "maybe a Vietnam movie or something".

Following is a retrospective of haunted house movies. It covers films from the silent to THE CHANGELING. Well-written by Robert Maslon, it's the closest thing to emulating the aforementioned CINEFANTASTIQUE in the issue.

There are interviews with Paul Naschy, Jim Wynorski, Donald Pleasance, Roddy McDowell and Robert Fleischer, and previews of WARLOCK, THEY LIVE, HALLOWEEN IV, CYBORG, FRIGHT NIGHT, PART 2 among others. Included are articles on makeup FX, TV hostess Elvira, and Scream Queens.

Besides the interview with Naschy, the only material focusing on the promised earlier horror films are reviews of Hammer and AIP video releases (yes, I said videos).

So, did HORRORFAN hit the mark? It really can't be compared with the vastly superior CFQ, but it was a reasonable effort and deserved to run for more than one year and only four issues.