
Read original article –
Assembles 18 stories of cosmic mayhem and terror, by Jason V Brock, Rick Dakan, Jason C Eckhardt, Brian Evenson, Tom Fletcher, Richard Gavin, Caitlin R Kiernan, John Langan, Nick Mamatas, Nicholas Royle, Darrell Schweitzer, John Shirley, Melanie Tem, Steve Rasnic Tem, Jonathan Thomas, Donald Tyson, Don Webb, and Chet Williamson.
Dead Reckonings No. 14, edited by June M. Pulliam and Tony Fonseca, Hippocampus Press, 2014. Info: hippocampuspress.com.
“A Review of Horror Literature.”
Wagner and Vincent on Simmons – Hank Wagner and Bev Vincent (Dan Simmons, The Abominable)
Ramsey Campbell, Probably: The Grin Beneath the Flesh
From Horror to Homage – Richard Bleiler (J. E. Mooney and Bill Fawcett, eds., Shadows of the New Sun: Stories in Honor of Gene Wolfe; Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., ed. The Grimscribe’s Puppets)
Joel Lane: In Memoriam – Robert Butterfield
Other Realities—Alternate Readings: Two Views on Jason V Brock (Jason V Brock, Simulacrum and Other Possible Realities)
Outlier – Jonathan Johnson
Brock as Intriguing New Voice – Darrell Schweitzer
Malignant Mothers – Richard Bleiler (John Boyne, This House Is Haunted, Sophie Hannah, The Orphan Choir)
What Happens After – Sarah Simms (Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, eds., After: Nineteen Stories of Apocalypse and Dystopia)
571 Forrester Lane Eats Babies – Matthew McEver (Sonja Condit, Starter House)
Triskaidekaphilia – Jonathan Johnson (Jonathan Thomas, Thirteen Conjurations)
Submitted: My Stamp of Approval – Tony Fonseca (Reba Wissner, A Dimension of Sound: The Music of The Twilight Zone)
Religious Fanaticism Run Amok – Antoinette Winstead (L. Andrew Cooper, Burning the Middle Ground)
Fifty Years of Ramsey Campbell – S. T. Joshi (Ramsey Campbell, Holes for Faces; The Kind Folk; and The Last Revelation of Gla’aki)
Two Veteran Storytellers Demonstrate How It Is Done – Robert Butterfield (Darrell Schweitzer, The Emperor of the Ancient Word; Tony Richards, The Universal and Other Terrors)
Zombie Scholarship Earns Respect – June Pulliam (Jennifer Rutherford, Zombies; Aalya Ahmad and Sean Moreland, eds. Fear and Learning: Essays on the Pedagogy of Horror)
Sequel Deserves to be a Forgotten Chapter – Braden Dauzat (James Wan, dir. Insidious: Chapter 2)
Haunted from Within and Without – Richard Bleiler (Ellen Datlow, ed. Hauntings)
A Darker Piece of Darkness – John Edgar Browning (Ellen Datlow, ed. The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 5 and Blood and Other Cravings; Laird Barron, The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All and Other Stories)
The Lovecraftian Magickal Mystery Tour – Leigh Blackmore (Peter Levenda, The Dark Lord: H. P. Lovecraft, Kenneth Grant and the Typhonian Tradition in Magic)
A Smorgasbord of Weird – S. T. Joshi (Lois H. Gresh, ed. Dark Fusions: Where Monsters Lurk!)
Portrait of the Mythos-Maker as a Young Man – Tony Fonseca (S. T. Joshi, The Assaults of Chaos: A Novel about H. P. Lovecraft)
Second Time’s the Charm – Leigh Blackmore (H. P. Lovecraft, The Ancient Track: The Complete Poetical Works)
Covens, Witchcraft, and Murder, Oh My! – Antoinette Winstead (Debbie Viguie, The Thirteenth Sacrifice: A Witch Hunt Novel)
Zombies Are People Too – June Pulliam (Jonny Campbell, dir., In the Flesh)
The Weird Scholar – S. T. Joshi
Notes on Contributors
8:00 am |
Febbraio 15 2014
| 1 nota
Paul Davids, the director of the documentary The Sci-Fi Boys spurred this exploration of the afterlife after an odd encounter in a hotel room. While staying at a hote he printed a piece of paper, he then left the room for a few moments and when he returned he found what he believes was proof that his friend, the departed Forrest J Ackerman of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, had reached out him from beyond the grave. Actually, what he found was an unexplained ink smudge on a piece of paper, but this documentary would have you believe it’s proof of the existence of the conscious mind from beyond.
Personally I do believe in something in the hereafter. What exactly that is I won’t speculate on but I do hope there’s something beyond what we know, I wanna believe there’s more than just rotting in the dirt. When my younger tragically brother passed on at a young age I found myself speaking to him while I was alone in the dark, I was full of regret and mourning his death, there were so many things I wished I’d said, and I would find myself speaking these things to him as if he were there. Do I think he was present at the time, was his spirit with me, does anyone really know?
Paul Davids and a small group of true believers, scientists and friends of the departed Forrest J Ackerman would have you believe yes, there’s something out there. we have entries from respected science fiction authors Richard Matheson, Whitley Strieber, Dannion Brinkley and Michael Shermer, whom all chime in. There are also testimonies and research from scientist including Gary Schwartz, the Director of the Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health, here in Tucson, AZ at The University of Arizona, where I work. Schwartz in his lab attempts to communicate with the deceased through a series of yes/no questions and awaits a metered response, which proves absolutely nothing in my opinion. Seriously, until I see an apparition myself it’s gonna be difficult for me to believe, not that I do not want to, I just need a little proof.
Some of these testimonies are compelling stories, witnesses recount weird happenings that they assign to the afterlife, but c’mon now, papers falling off a chair… one time! If it weren’t for the trappings of Forry Ackerman here I don’t think I would have even given this documentary a shot, I hate shows like Ghost Hunters. I do appreciate the fond remembrances of the the world’s ultimate science-fiction nerd but as a science-based exploration of life after death the film is utterly lacking, simply stating that science cannot rule out communication from the afterlife does not prove squat.
There are 40 minutes of bonus features including audio excerpts from a 2009 tribute to Ackerman with touching tributes from Rick Baker and Ray Bradbury. There’s also a second disc featuring The Life After Death Project 2 – Personal Encounters (101 Mins) with further testimony about personal accounts of supposed life after death. I would much rather watch a documentary about Forrest J. Ackerman’s life and what he meant to legions of fans, what happened after his death is of far less interest. 2 Outta 5