Horror

Patrick Fugit in 2006

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On August 12 the first season of the show “Outcast” ended.

The TV show is adapted from the comic book series – which I personally haven’t read so I can’t make comparisons – “Outcast” written by Robert Kirkman, the creator of “The Walking Dead”. The first episode was offered on the Internet on May 20, 2016 then broadcast on June 3, 2016 in the USA. The first season consists of 10 episodes.

The story has as protagonist Kyle Barnes, whose life was greatly influenced by the demonic possession that struck his mother when he was a child and years later his wife Allison. Because of those events Kyle is a misfit who preferred to isolate himself as much as possible after the divorce from his wife.

To protect his ex-wife and their daughter Amber from what happened when she was possessed, Kyle chose to take all the blame passing for a bastard who beat his wife and daughter, even if that made him disliked by many residents of Rome, the West Virginia town where he lives.

Video Kill by Joanne Fluke

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The novel “Video Kill” by Joanne Fluke was published for the first time in 1989.

Erik Nielsen and Tony Rocca are trying to sell the script they wrote for a possible movie called “Video Kill”. It’s a horror / slasher movie in which a psychopath is filming the murders he commits and his victims are actresses. A producer is interested but the production studio’s owner doesn’t want to buy the rights and the deal remains in a limbo when the producer acquires an option on the script.

Months pass and it seems that the option will expire without the movie getting produced when an actress is killed in a way that reproduces the famous shower scene from “Psycho”. The killer’s style is similar to the screenplay for “Video Kill” and for the two authors that’s advertising, though of an unwanted type. Fiction and reality start crossing path in a disturbing way.

Murray Leinster

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William Fitzgerald Jenkins, that was his real name, was born on June 16, 1896 in Norfolk, Virginia, USA. He signed various detective stories and westerns with the pseudonym Will F. Jenkins and even two romance novels under the pseudonym Louisa Carter Lee occasionally using other pseudonyms. However, gradually he specialized in fantasy, horror and especially science fiction stories, which generally signed as Murray Leinster. Murray Leinster died on June 8, 1975. He was one of the most important pioneers of science fiction since he began writing stories of that genre even before the name was invented. He was among the few who managed to keep on being successful when science fiction passed its pulp magazines phase and had an important influence on many writers of the following generations.

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On april 3 the sixth season of the show “The Walking Dead” ended.

The sixth season was produced and broadcast with the format has become usual: 16 episodes of which 8 were broadcast in October / November 2015 and the other 8 in February / March / April 2016. Meanwhile the first season of the spinoff titled “Fear the Walking Dead” aired but it arrived in Italy late so I’m still watching it.

The fifth season of “The Walking Dead” ended in the city of Alexandria, where Rick’s group established, and with Morgan’s arrival. The sixth season begins with a plan to get rid of a huge herd of walkers set up by the newcomers.

Rose Madder by Stephen King

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The novel “Rose Madder” by Stephen King was published for the first time in 1995.

For years, Rose, called Rosie, has been the victim of her husband Norman’s abuses, which even caused her a miscarriage beating her when she was pregnant. When he hits her yet another time, it seems just one of many abuses she has suffered but the next day she finds a drop of blood on the sheets of their bed, lost from her nose after the blow. For the woman it’s like an awakening from a long slumber that convinces her to run away from that horror.

Frantically, Rosie runs away from home and travels to a distant city. Forced to handle herself for the first time in her life and terrified by the possibility that Norman finds it, thanks to a meeting she discovers the existence of a women’s shelter, where she finds help. When she tries to make some money by pawning her engagement ring, in the shop she finds a strange painting of a woman with a rose madder gown that hides much more than it seems.