Shock Horror Magazine is a new bi-monthly UK based Horror Magazine, written for fans by fans and is really rather good. I spoke to Dean Boor, Chief Head of gore, slash, and terror to get the lowdown on whats lurking inside the cover.
How did the magazine come about?
Shock Horror was really born out of frustration and a need to provide the UK with a decent Horror Magazine. I found that, having worked and written for a couple of Horror magazines, all the decent Horror mags were those that had to be imported from the U.S or Canada.
As a long time fan of the genre I really felt I could put something together that fans would want to read, and so with the help of my wife the project began to take shape. Whilst I had the experience and know-how to get the magazine off the ground and running, my design skills are pretty minimal.
If Shock Horror was designed by me it would be a lot of stick men and scribbles, not pretty! Luckily for me I had not long before met a talented photographer / designer / artist and all around visual geek by the name of Jason Miller, he was on board straight away and the rest as they say, is history.
It always sounds cheesy but the magazine is very much made by fans for fans, without the love for the genre that the team has it would be yet another commercial money making tool featuring porn stars and whoever else is hot in Hollywood at the time. Not so with Shock Horror!
What is inside the magazine?
The magazine features everything and anything Horror related, this includes books, games, music, tattoos, interviews, comics, events and more. Some people go in expecting a movie only magazine, Shock Horror is very much a Horror culture magazine and we try to cater for all aspects of that. It is full colour and printed bi-monthly, while we focus on UK Horror where we can the magazine also includes content from around the globe.
We are keen to promote UK indie more than anything though, there are a lot of talented indie film makers out there in the UK with no one to cover their films – until now! Previously we have had interviews with Tim Sullivan (2001 Maniacs), John Gulager (Feast) as well as Wednesday 13 from The Murderdolls. A big hit is our Scream Queen Scarlet Salem who appears in each issue, she’s a very busy and talented actress who is pretty easy on the eye too… the perfect combination!
All time Favourite Horror film and why?
I know it’s the easy answer but there really isn’t a single film alone I could choose. The film that will always be up there though is Nightmare on Elm Street, when I was a kid my older brothers made me watch it and Freddy haunted my dreams for years afterwards. Every now and then I still have dreams about Freddy and the yellow school bus scene! I also love John Carpenter’s The Thing, this film is just shot so fantastically and the FX are superb.
The one film that I still struggle to sit through is The Exorcist, I have a strange fear of little girls in Horror flicks and The Exorcist is the only film I’ve encountered that still scares the crap out of me. More recently Borderlands I found to be an amazing film, it ticked all the right boxes for me and also Japanese Splatterfests like Meatball Machine are always highly entertaining. There are too many to choose just one!
Who is the ultimate horror movie character?
It would have to be Freddy, he has haunted my nightmares for years and was a massive influence on my love for Horror today. The old school Freddy of course, not the 2010 Freddy that sounds like Batman.
Who is your favourite Horror Director?
I would love to say someone arty for those Horror fans reading, someone like Dario Argento maybe. Unfortunately I’m not his biggest fan and would have to go with either Wes Craven or John Carpenter. The two are legends and have created so much good in the world of Horror, good simple Horror fun!
What do you think of the current crop of re-makes of the old classics and the not so old movies? Am thinking of the re-make of ‘A Nightmare on Elm St’ and the upcoming ‘The Thing’ re-re-make?
The problem with remakes is that you are screwed as soon as you sign up to make the film. If you create it true to the original and replicate it then the fanboys will say you lack originality and shouldn’t have bothered making it. On the flip side to that coin is if you go out and make the film how you think it should have been made then the fanboys will ask what the hell you were smoking when you made the flick as it bears no resemblance to the original. The moral of the story? Don’t remake films that people care about!
With John Carpenter’s The Thing he made a piece of art, a truly remarkable film in its own right which is a once in a lifetime occurrence with remakes. I can’t think of a single Horror remake that really blew me away since The Thing.
What have you had recently in the magazine and what have you got coming up?
Our last issue which hit the shelves in December features a Rob Zombie exclusive interview as well as the usual interviews and reviews. Tony Moore is in this edition talking Walking Dead, UK actress / Martial Arts expert Zara Phythian is also featured as well as a big feature on the UK Indywood project which is a phenomenal project – check it out!
Moving forward we will be featuring more classic Icons as we have done since issue 1, author Gavin Baddeley is also going to be joining us for a feature and we’ll be looking to create another Horror fuelled issue that fans should enjoy!
You can buy Shock Horror magazine at HMV in the UK, or grab a subscription via their website wherever you live in the world. www.shockhorrormagazine.com.
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