Now in its fourth issue, small press fanzine Exquisite Terror goes from strength to strength. Edited and published by Naila Scargill, it’s a magazine unlike many others on the market at the moment. Rather than being focused on a particular strand of the genre, Exquisite Terror takes a cerebral, thoughtful look at various areas of interest, occasionally outside the cinematic medium.
As if to hammer home the eclectic nature, issue four features interesting and engrossing essays on such diverse topics as Dracula, The Silence of the Lambs, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and incorporating veganism and feminism into screenwriting.
The pieces on Bram Stoker’s vampiric creation don’t follow the usual, well-worn path, focusing as they do on historical facts, cases of real vampirism and the real ‘Dracula’s Castle’, Bran Castle in Transylvania. In The Bloodlines of Dracula, James Gracey argues that it was not only the infamous Vlad the Impaler who influenced Stoker to create the character of the Count, but also several folktales from the author’s homeland, Ireland. It’s a fascinating and informative article on a familiar subject.
Screenwriter Ed Pope’s essay on his script for the upcoming short film The Herd (starring Pollyanna McIntosh and recently crowd-funded on Kickstarter) delves into the procedure used to write a film in which women are used in the same way as cattle, milked-and-all. The film itself looks as if it could be controversial and thought-provoking viewing, and having this little background is invaluable.
Even an old subject like Chain Saw is given a fresh perspective.
To top it off, there’s also a brilliant interview with cult Deadbeat at Dawn director Jim Van Bebber, which is immensely entertaining.
A final unique aspect of Exquisite Terror is rather than peppering the pages with seen-them-all-before movie stills, many of the articles are illustrated with beautifully realised black and white drawings. This artwork alone is worth more than the £2.95 price tag. You can purchase the magazine (and the previous three back issues) from their website. Well worth checking out.
