Edited by Bob Morrish, Peter Enfantino, and John Scoleri, The Scream Factory, a magazine dedicated to old and new horror in fiction, radio, film, and TV, was a mainstay of late 80's/early 90's genre publishing. It was produced by Deadline Press (AZ), but submitters of material were encouraged to forward all correspondence to a California address.Although there is currently a publisher of comics with the same name, I'm not sure if the two are related.
I was always impressed with the depth of material, and admired the publication's efforts to cover horror from many angles. The mag could be seen as a precursor to Canada's Rue Morgue, a mag that also makes every effort to illuminate the darkest vestibules of the field in all media.Issue #15 was a Werewolf special, so would not have been out of place today with a Wolfman remake imminent (from Universal) and other lycanthrope-themed projects in holding patterns.
Great to see some focus on Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's The Godforsaken, a really terrific werewolf novel with a strong historical backbone. Yarbro has been a prolific writer of original fiction and a number of great novelizations including Nomads (based on John DIE HARD
Anthologist, editor, and scholar Peter Haining, who has recently been the subject of immense interest in Justin Marriott's indispensable Paperback Fanatic, a mag you should not be without, was the subject of an exhaustive article in this issue. He has been responsible for close to a hundred horror and mystery anthologies, and has penned so much non-fiction, it's difficult to catalog it all; thankfully, ace writer Mike Ashley gave it his best shot in this fascinating, lengthy piece.
Most horror/fantasy mags focusing chiefly on horror in literature ignore film at their peril; The Scream Factory avoided peril by hiring Lawrence McCallum to write some capsule reviews. Island of Lost Souls earns well-deserved praise, as does The Bride of Frankenstein and the brilliant The Invisible Man.Encouraging to see Richard Thorpe's Night Must Fall being awarded three stars, too; easily Robert Montgomery's most memorable, chilling performance.
The small press was incredibly important to the genre when The Scream Factory was a going concern in '94, and they acknowledged that importance with a regular column. Now, the small press is absolutely essential, probably even more crucial to the development of writers than ever with mainstream publishers cutting back on their lists and bookshops being ever so picky about what they stock.
Husband/Wife authors Steve Rasnic and Melanie Tem were interviewed in this issue and contributed 'More Than Should Be Asked', an original piece.I read Steve's Excavation (Avon; '87) many moons ago and enjoyed it thoroughly. His specialty has always been thew short story.
Melanie's Revenant (Dell/Abyss; '94) is a brilliant novel about losing the ones we love, dealing with the loss, and reconciling the possibility of future losses. A re-release would be welcome. Perhaps coincidentally, the French film, The Revenants ('04), also addressed the complexity of the loss and dealing with the return of those we are grieving.
The author's Prodigal (Dell/Abyss; '91) is a killer read, too.
RIP , The Scream Factory, you are missed.
