By Steve Newton In a fucked-up music world where turntables pass for musical instruments, thuggish recording “artists” are judged by how many bullets they’ve taken, and the week’s top seller is directly related to whichever surgically altered and heavily made-up tart has the skankiest video, it’s no wonder I’m such a cranky bugger when the … Continue reading Newt’s top 10 albums of 2003
Word out of the Cannes Film Festival is that Oculus director Mike Flanagan will helm an adaptation of Stephen King’s 1992 novel, Gerald’s Game, about a woman who fights to survive after a bondage game with her husband goes horribly wrong. Gerald’s Game was the followup to King’s 1991 behemoth, Needful Things, which–at 690 pages–was nearly … Continue reading Oculus director to adapt Stephen King’s kinky psych-horror Gerald’s Game
By Steve Newton One of the most enjoyable set visits I did during my 13-year tenure with Fangoria was for Needful Things, the adaptation of Stephen King’s 1991 novel. In December of ’92 I journeyed out to North Vancouver and got the scoop on the movie, with much help from the delightful duo of Canadian comedian-actress … Continue reading Horrific hijinx on the Vancouver set of Stephen King’s Needful Things
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, DEC. 10, 2014 By Steve Newton One of the biggest music stories of 2014 concerned the trials and tribulations of AC/DC, which had one original member retire due to dementia and another facing criminal charges. The return of Pink Floyd after two decades also made a few headlines—or garnered a ton … Continue reading Newt’s Top 10 albums of 2014
By Steve Newton Most of the Vancouver-shot movies I covered during my time as a freelancer for Fangoria magazine actually made it into theatres. One that didn’t was The Resurrected, which was based on the H.P. Lovecraft novella, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. The movie–aka Shatterbrain–went directly to video, but that’s okay with me. The main reason I wanted … Continue reading Hangin’ with Alien writer Dan O’Bannon on the Vancouver set of his 1992 Lovecraft flick
During my 13 years as a correspondent for Fangoria magazine I enthusiastically covered the horror beat in Vancouver, visiting the sets of such destined-to-be-awful films as Halloween: Resurrection and Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. But it wasn’t just big-screen projects that I wrote about. If there was a horror-related TV series (Poltergeist: The … Continue reading Meeting the men behind Freddy Krueger inside Wes Craven’s Nightmare Cafe
By Steve Newton For those horror freaks out there who just can’t get enough of a masked guy in overalls stabbin’ folks, here’s some good news. Anchor Bay Entertainment announced today that on September 23 it will release 10- and 15-disc editions of Halloween The Complete Collection, which gathers up all the Halloweens together on Blu-ray … Continue reading Halloween Blu-ray box sets on the way from Anchor Bay
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JAN. 23, 1997 By Steve Newton It’s hard for me to pick one all-time favourite rock band or rock album, but when it comes to my all-time fave song, that’s easy: Blue Öyster Cult’s “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”. I suppose it helps that, when that propulsive ode to the afterlife was released … Continue reading Blue Öyster Cult’s Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser on the origins of “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON OCT. 21, 1999 By Steve Newton Canadian guitar great and singer-songwriter Colin Linden has spent a large part of his life travelling this country’s highways and byways in pursuit of gigs. He’s also spent a huge portion of time holed away in recording studios, making his own records, producing other artists, and … Continue reading Blackie member Colin Linden loves the rigours of the road and the confines of the console
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, DEC. 6, 1990 By Steve Newton Stephen King’s 1987 novel Misery is widely regarded by King aficionados as one of his most compelling and consistently terrifying works. The tale of a best-selling author held captive by his “number-one fan”, Misery is all the more frightening because it is real … Continue reading Everything works to make Misery a Stephen King flick worth remembering
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON AUG. 27, 1993 By Steve Newton “Hollywood North” has been quite a hotbed for horror films in the past few years. But whether it’s a direct-to-video gorefest (The Resurrected), theatrically released slasher entry (Friday the 13th Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan), or big-budget TV miniseries (Stephen King’s IT), there has been nothing … Continue reading Discriminating horror fans and Stephen King freaks needn’t bother with Needful Things
By Steve Newton I just finished reading Stephen King’s latest novel, Doctor Sleep, and to be honest–even though it was dedicated to Warren Zevon–I wasn’t that crazy about it. Then again, as much as I adore King’s early work and appreciate all he’s done for the horror genre, I haven’t been that crazy about a few of … Continue reading Interviewing Tim Curry, aka Pennywise, on the set of Stephen King’s IT
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON APRIL 30, 2014 By Steve Newton When you interview rockers on the road you always try to find out where they’re located, so you can write “When so-and-so calls from wherever” and establish a setting for the conversation. But when I contact blues-rocker George Thorogood–who plays the Hard Rock Casino Vancouver this … Continue reading Muddy Waters didn’t want George Thorogood’s “Bad to the Bone”, but Bo Diddley did
