Midnight Premiere

Midnight Premiere
edited by Tom Piccirilli

About the Book:
Featuring Jack Ketchum, Gary A. Braunbeck, Thomas F. Monteleone, Ray Garton, Brian Hodge, Ed Gorman, Al Sarrantonio, Mick Garris, and many others, these eighteen original tales celebrate Hollywood and the horror movie-going experience with affection, devotion, and fear. In Midnight Premiere you'll discover how many of these authors have worked in film—as screenwriters, actors, and directors—and put their particular experiences to use in showing you the dark underside of the Hollyweird dream and the LaLa Land facade.

The opening credits are about to roll.

Prepare yourself for the shocking and the illuminating, the strange and the fanciful...the real and the lies of celluloid that may well mean more to you than the truth.

And remember—

All the many screaming folks they torment up on the big screen and across these pages...?

The leering mad smiles, yowling creatures, and the brandishing of sharp weapons...?

All the havoc and mayhem and anguish and horrors...?

They do it because they love you.

Table of Contents:
"Onlookers" by Gary A. Braunbeck
"Elusive" by Jack Ketchum
"Seven Knives" by John Shirley
"Between the Storms" Gerard Houarner
"Ocular" by Mick Garris
"End of Story," by Thomas F. Monteleone
"Everything Must Go" by Ray Garton
"Forces of Evil, Starring Robert Fields" by Lisa Morton & Richard Grove
"Shadder" by Tom Piccirilli
"Humps in the Field" by William Smith & Del Howison
"Arlene Schabowski Of The Undead" by Mark McLaughlin and Kyra M. Schon
"Del Corozon's Curse" by Carl Dupre
"Baby Boss and the Underground Hamsters: A Feature-Length Cartoon" by Al Sarrantonio
"Vision" by Patrick Lussier
"Murder Victim" by T.M. Wright
"Wizard of Ooze" by Mike McCarty & Linnea Quigley
"The Passion of the Beast" by Brian Hodge
"Scream Queen" by Ed Gorman

"The authors of these 18 horror-movie horror stories include plenty who work in the horror-movie industry, not all of them as scripters. B-movie queen Linnea Quigley teams with writer and former standup comic Michael McCarty to warn us about the gods of FX in "The Wizard of Ooze." Film editor-director Patrick Lussier's "Vision" is cautionary, too, but about boy-genius directors. With prolific short-form writer Mark McLaughlin's help, Kyra M. Schon, who as a little girl wielded a garden trowel on mommy in the original Night of the Living Dead, wickedly exploits her unforgettable performance in "Arlene Schabowski of the Undead." Full-time writers contribute the very best tales, such as Gary A. Braunbeck's "Onlookers," based on one of the most famous art films ever; Brian Hodge's thought-provoking reply to Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, "The Passion of the Beast"; and crime-novelist Ed Gorman's sad, moving coming-of-age story, "Scream Queen." But really, there isn't a single unrewarding entry, especially for fans of the most fiendish kind of Twilight Zone ending."
— Booklist

"The most successful contributions blur the boundaries between cinema and verité: Gary Braunbeck's opener, "Onlookers," is a shiver-inducing tale of observations that create reality; Jack Ketchum's "Elusive" makes a common question deeply disturbing; and Ray Garton's "Everything Must Go" is a heart-pounding, heartbreaking story about knowing when to believe your eyes."
— Publishers Weekly

"Midnight Premiere is a superb anthology, one whose faults as well as its strengths give it value. Highly recommended."
— Horror World

"While 'theme' anthologies still have their detractors, it's clear that a well-balanced volume like Midnight Premiere can and does showcase great writing and entertainment, slip in a little social commentary, and wrap it all up in a humorous Alan Clark cover painting. What's not to like?"
— Chizine

"Writer/editor Tom Piccirilli tackles a tough theme for this anthology: horror movies. Why? Because David Schow covered this theme with his benchmark anthology, Silver Scream, almost twenty years ago. So, how does Midnight Premiere stack up? It's a worthy successor and grand anthology that carves its own bloody path across this particular horror territory, updating and in many ways surpassing its esteemed predecessor... This is an utterly entertaining anthology that will delight fans of horror fiction and film equally. Bravo!"
— Count Gore De Vol's Tomb of Dark Delights

Published in two states:
• Limited Edition of 1,500 copies signed by the editor ($40)
• Traycased Lettered Edition of 52 signed (by the editor and many of the contributors) and lettered copies featuring a handmade traycase and additional artwork ($250)

Excerpt

Artwork