Originally published on March 11th, 2014 at www.FEARnet.com.
FULL MOON GETS GLOSSY (AND GORY) WITH DELIRIUM #1
By Blu Gilliand
Chris Alexander has snapped up some of the coolest jobs in horror journalism, and now he’s creating cool new ones to take on as well. After a stint writing for Rue Morgue magazine, he moved on to become editor-in-chief at Fangoria, building a résumé between the two that is enough to make the rest of us genre hacks jealous. But then he went and resurrected Gorezone (which he edits), and now, in conjunction with horror/exploitation film legend Charles Band, he’s helped create (and edit) Delirium, a magazine devoted to the film catalogs of Empire Pictures and Full Moon.
It’s with tongue planted firmly in cheek that I talk of jealousy, of course; Alexander is in the position(s) he’s in through a combination of talent, hard work and an absolute love of the stuff he’s writing about. That love shines through in Delirium #1, a debut issue that’s as bold, brash and outrageous as the filmography it covers.
Of all the movies Band has been associated with, Alexander wisely chose the most well-known and beloved of them to build this first issue around: Re-Animator. Nearly 20 pages are devoted to this gore classic, including long interviews with director Stuart Gordon, star Barbara Crampton and composer Richard Band. The interviews are punctuated with photos of some of Re-Animator’s bloodiest moments, not to mention several shots of an infamous scene featuring Crampton (you know the one I’m talking about) that are sure to make fanboys (and a few fangirls) happy.
But it’s not all about looking back. There are articles about WIZARD Studio, a new venture Band has created to focus on independent genre films from foreign countries, and about Full Moon’s new streaming service, which has been created to provide online, on-demand access to heaps of exploitation, grindhouse and horror films. Both of these are exciting developments, promising to bring fans face-to-face with material that’s been consigned to dusty old VHS tapes for too long, as well as giving new voices a chance to be heard.
Between the Empire and Full Moon banners (not to mention multiple other distribution companies that were folded into them), Band was involved in hundreds of films of varying quality, and this magazine seems poised to provide fans with lots of opportunities for in-depth retrospection. With titles like Rawhead Rex, Castle Freak, From Beyond, The Pit and the Pendulum and Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama, just to name a few, there’s fodder to keep the magazine going for years.
Hopefully Band and Alexander will dig deep and continue to bring issues like this one, packed with anecdotes and photos and stories that celebrate and encapsulate the scrappy spirit of one of horror’s most prolific providers for generations to come.
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Blu Gilliand is a freelance writer of fiction and nonfiction. He covers horror fiction at his blog, October Country, and contributes interviews to the Horror World website. Follow him on Twitter at @BluGilliand.