No Need to Breathe Coming Soon!

Coming soon, the anthology No Need to Breathe!  Here's the final story list.  This includes my novella, Wear The Flesh. 

Raggedy Anne's on the Rag

Life Counseling

Send Your Fat to Africa

The Earth Has an Asshole

Nasty Demon Bitch

Talk Dirty to Me

Ambition

The Gravity of the Situation

No Need to Breathe

Warm Reception

Bringing Life Into This World

Novella

Wear the Flesh

 

I'll admit there isn't a ton of glory in releasing your book independently. It's mostly for the sake of creative freedom that I'm doing it. I hope this one catches on, because I had a lot of fun writing these stories. And I've seen a lot of horror anthologies released lately, especially in the hardcore horror department, so I thought why shouldn't I give it a try? Well, here goes.

-Alan Spencer

 

A Very Short List of Some of My Favorite Books from 2012

  Kristopher Rufty's The Lurkers



 Jonathan Janz's House of Skin


 David Bernstein's Amongst the Dead



  Ryan Harding's Genital Grinder




 Gary McMahon's trilogy



 John Everson's Nightwhere

More Horror for 2013!!!!!

2012, writing-wise, has been a productive a year.  B-Movie Reels and B-Movie Attack were released by Samhain Publishing.  And I finally got around to publishing the second Caleb Anthony novel called "This Town Eats Everything" and another novel called "Death Depot."

 

 

So what's up for 2013?  So far, I've been very fortunate to have two more novels from Samhain Publishing being released.  "Psycho Therapy" is hitting the streets in February and "Protect All Monsters" is tentatively scheduled for December. 

 

 

 

 

 

But that's not all.  I've got more independent projects I want to release in 2013.  First, I want to release a short anthology of about twelve stories called "No Need to Breathe."  One of the stories will be called "Raggedy Anne's on the Rag," just to give you an idea.  I also have a novella in the works called "Wear the Flesh."  And soon, I'll begin work on the next Caleb Anthony novel.  This will be book #3. 

 

 

So I know I'm not a big shot, hot shit writer who has sky rocketing royalty checks and tons and tons of fans.  But progress is progress, right?  I want to thank those people who drop me notes on Facebook or e-mail me.  Your words of encouragement mean the world to me.  Without you, writing books doesn't mean a whole lot.  What's a book without an audience?  So money or not, I'm here to write horror.  Here's to a fantastic 2013!

 



ESCAPE 2000

If you think you've seen all the "escape from prison camp" flicks, you ain't seen shit until you've experienced Escape 2000.  This is cheesefest all the way, but the uncut version contains plenty of nudity and some good gory moments.  Plus the crazy synthesizer music is waaaaaay cool. 

Imagine a prison labor camp where four rich people want to enjoy a "turkey shoot."  The prey?  A selection of the finest, strongest inmates.  Throw in a goofy freak monster, loads of machine gun fire, exploding arrows, machete play, and ONE OF THE BEST GUY SHOT BY GUNFIRE UNTIL HE EXPLODES scenes I've ever seen. 

Good for all the wrong reasons, and the guiltiest of pleasures, do yourself a favor and check out Escape 2000 (Turkey Shoot). 

The Day movie review

 

 

The Day is the kind of movie that puts its cards right on the table.  Yeah, it's a mix of other post-apocalyptic movies that have been made before, namely The Road, but so what? 

 

I really enjoyed the way The Day begins.  It gets right to it.  A set of people trying to survive with little hope of finding food or safety spot an empty house, settle down, and they realize the house is a trap.  Then the band of cannibals show up, our survivors fight back, and the bodies start to fall.  Action, you got it.  Fast moving.  You betcha.  But...

 

Going beyond the surface, The Day is almost too streamlined.  You don't get enough background on the band of cannibals.  You barely see their camp for God's sake.  And come to think about it, you don't see any flesh eating either, so what the hell?  You don't get much background on the main characters either, so by the time it's over, you're not really left with much to chew on (pun intended). 

 

The whole affair is a bit thin.  Just one night of survival, let's see who lives and who dies.  That's really the movie in a nutshell. The Day does have its moments, especially in the second act, but it doesn't seem like a complete thought, or the thought is way too short to mean anything.  And the bloodshed is mostly CGI.  Blech! 

 

Rent it, but don't expect to be talking about the movie the next day to anybody. I have to add, Ashley Bell, the girl who's also in The Last Exorcism, does an excellent job in the film. She easily gives the best performance of the whole damn movie.  I hope to see her in more genre flicks. 

 

So okay, it's got action, it's fun for one viewing, but it sure could've easily been a lot better.  Also, a certain actor dies really early on that might disappoint a lot of people.  You can guess who that might be. 

 

Movie Grade: C+

 

Excision movie review

Excision is a movie interesting by its cameos/stars alone.  John Waters.  Malcom McDowell.  Ray Wise.  That's three cult figures already.  Then two characters that are in the movie more, Traci Lords and Roger Bart.  Wow.  Power packed, right?

That said, Excision is sort of like the movie Juno, if Juno was a total sociopath.  Our main character, Pauline, a young teenage girl curious about sex, life, death, and the usual teen hormonal bullshit, suffers from not being liked by her peers.  Add to that, Pauline isn't understood by her overbearing mother at all.  Pauline isn't the prettiest thing, and her social skills are lacking, but her diabolically dry wit is funny during most of the movie.  She's sweet, in a deranged, sad kind of way.  You feel sorry for her, until things go awry. 

The bigger conflict of the movie, Pauline struggles with the fact her younger sister is suffering through cystic fibrosis.  She's also having demented visions of hyper sexual surgery, featuring fetuses, cut up people, and other fucked up shit, in result of her strange anti-social anxiety.  What is this culminating to, you're thinking?

No spoilers, you can see a mile away what our main character has in store for the movie's finale.  It's sad, sick, depraved, but also poignant, socially satirical, and filled with dark humor.  I'm still a bit on the fence about it's overall enjoyability, but I'd say if you're in the mood for something different, slower moving, and more character and dialogue based rather than visual (though the freak out visions during the movie are pretty effective), you'll find something to appreciate here.  Probably a one-time view, though. 

Grade B-
Traci Lords: A+

The Collection Theatrical Movie Review

I was a mild fan of The Collector when it came out.  It wasn't original, but the execution and grisly deaths made it a fun enough ride.  Who would've thought a wide-release sequel would've ever happened, but it did!

The Collection, straight up, is a fucking blast.  Our collector is at it again.  The character who survived the first movie leads a group of what you'd call mercenaries, or bad asses, to the collector's hideout to save a rich guy's daughter from imminent slaughter. 

The Collection throws mass slaughter, killer traps, fun gore, and mile-a-minute action.  Horror fans will revel in the way it delivers mindless thrills.  Those who aren't big horror fans and don't enjoy squeamish stuff will shy away, but it's all done in the mode of fun. 

I highly recommend you see this in the theatres.  It doesn't seem like the box office take is that high, and I guess I'm not completely surprised.  Plus, the mainstream critics have given this one the thumb's down.  Well horror fans, I'm here to say they're FUCKING WRONG.  If you like slasher movies, gore movies, or a thrill ride, this one delivers.  It's not Oscar worthy or anything, but it delivers. 

Grade: A-
Mainstream Critics: "F" for Fuck You