Author/filmmaker Gary D. Rhodes, a film scholar who has painstakingly documented every aspect of Bela Lugosi’s career, may be primarily responsible for the cult of Lugosi that exists today; his 1997 documentary LUGOSI: HOLLYWOOD’S DRACULA is an almost romantic homage to the late actor’s extraordinary talent. Rhodes joined forces with another noted Lugosi historian, Bill Kaffenberger, to fill in the blanks—the years between the collapse of the actor’s Hollywood career and his entry into Ed Wood’s world—with BearManor Media’s NO TRAVELER RETURNS—and their research is extraordinary.

Sometimes, product drifts into Fangoland that are just plain weird… well, weirder than usual. Such is the label I’m sticking on Dame Darcy’s HANDBOOK FOR HOT WITCHES, a quasi-new age tome with tongue deep in cheek, collecting fake spells, witchy wisdom, recipes, zodiac readings, crafts, fashion tips and other such odds and sods packed into its pink hardcover shell.

As with any carnival come-on, the joy of horror-film worship often lies not just in the movies themselves, but in the way they’re marketed around the world. Indeed, historically, in some cases the poster hyperbole outdid the picture it shucked, and you know what? That’s OK.

In this writer’s estimation, there are two distinct periods in the postapocalypse genre: that which came before Cormac McCarthy’s devastating novel THE ROAD, and that which came after. We don’t necessarily need to judge the genre against it, but when you title your book CARRY THE FLAME—a popular mantra in THE ROAD—you kind of invite that dangerous comparison.

“Why religion?” is a topic bordering on cliché in current affairs. The rise (or perhaps the gathering in volume) of atheism and strict Christianity now permeates the media and beyond to such a staggering extent that, when you begin to hold Internet, TV, film and written content against each other, the oldest argument in history seems to be everywhere.

Patrick Freivald’s TWICE SHY (JournalStone) is cute. That’s not meant to be derogatory; it’s really the best way to describe this novel about a teenage girl living incognito as a zombie.

The tale of the Amityville murders is one known by just about anyone. Whether you’re a horror-movie fan, a history buff, intrigued by outlandish and sensational cases of murder and mayhem or just someone who read the newspaper that day, you know the story: On a November night in 1974, Ronnie DeFeo woke up one night, went for a shotgun he had in his house and systematically killed off his parents, two brothers and two sisters.