The Light at the End is a 1986 vampire novel by John Skipp & Craig Spector which became a New York Times bestseller and is often credited as the book that started the splatterpunk movement. [1] [2] [3]
The book takes place in the 1980s punk subculture of New York City. While riding the subway, a young street punk named Rudy Pasko is attacked and turned by an old vampire. Drunk off his new power, Rudy takes to the nightlife and goes on a murder spree, but his actions lead to the formation of a posse composed of several local messengers, artists, and working class citizens who devise a plan to hunt him through the New York underground.
According to Joss Whedon, the novel was the inspiration for Spike, the punk vampire on Buffy the Vampire Slayer . Coincidentally, in the Season Five episode, "Fool For Love" there is a scene in which Spike fights a hunter in the subways of New York.
For its 25th anniversary, the novel was re-released as an ebook from Crossroad Press on October 31, 2010. [4]
Carmilla is an 1872 Gothic novella by Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu and one of the early works of vampire fiction, predating Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) by 25 years. First published as a serial in The Dark Blue (1871–72), the story is narrated by a young woman preyed upon by a female vampire named Carmilla, later revealed to be Mircalla, Countess Karnstein. The character is a prototypical example of the lesbian vampire, expressing romantic desires toward the protagonist. The story is often anthologised, and has been adapted many times in film and other media.
John Shirley is an American writer, primarily of horror, fantasy, science fiction, dark street fiction, westerns, and songwriting. He has also written one historical novel, a western about Wyatt Earp, Wyatt in Wichita, and one non-fiction book, Gurdjieff: An Introduction to His Life and Ideas. Shirley has written novels, short stories, TV scripts and screenplays—including The Crow—and has published over 84 books including 10 short-story collections. As a musician, Shirley has fronted his own bands and written lyrics for Blue Öyster Cult and others. His newest novels are Stormland and Axle Bust Creek.
James Wesley Marsters is an American actor, musician, singer, comic book writer, and audiobook narrator.
George Andrew Romero Jr. was an American-Canadian film director, writer, editor and actor. His Night of the Living Dead series of films about a zombie apocalypse began with the original Night of the Living Dead (1968) and is considered a major contributor to the image of the zombie in modern culture. Other films in the series include Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985).
Urban fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy, placing supernatural elements in an approximation of a contemporary urban setting. The combination provides the writer with a platform for classic fantasy tropes, quixotic plot-elements, and unusual characters—without demanding the creation of an entire imaginary world.
Splatterpunk is a movement within horror fiction originating in the 1980s, distinguished by its graphic, often gory, depiction of violence, countercultural alignment and "hyperintensive horror with no limits." The term was coined in 1986 by David J. Schow at the Twelfth World Fantasy Convention in Providence, Rhode Island. Splatterpunk is regarded as a revolt against the "traditional, meekly suggestive horror story". Splatterpunk has been defined as a "literary genre characterised by graphically described scenes of an extremely gory nature."
Fright Night is a 1985 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Tom Holland, in his directorial debut. The film follows teenager Charley Brewster, who discovers that his next-door neighbor Jerry Dandrige is a vampire. When no one believes him, Charley decides to get Peter Vincent, a TV show host who acted in films as a vampire hunter, to stop Jerry's killing spree.
Mark V. Ziesing is an American small press publisher and bookseller, founded by Mark Ziesing. Active as a bookseller, from 1972 to present; Ziesing was in publishing, from the mid-1980s into 1998. The Ziesing publishing imprint specialized in science fiction, horror, and other forms of speculative fiction. Originally based in Willimantic, Connecticut and in partnership with his brother Michael, he published two books by Gene Wolfe under the name Ziesing Brothers.
John Connolly is an Irish writer who is best known for his series of novels starring private detective Charlie Parker.
Elizabeth Spilman Massie is an American author. She lives outside Waynesboro, Virginia with illustrator Cortney Skinner.
30 Days of Night is a 2007 American vampire film based on the comic book miniseries of the same name. The film was directed by David Slade and stars Josh Hartnett and Melissa George. The story focuses on an Alaskan town beset by vampires as it enters into a 30-day-long polar night.
The Return of the Vampire is a 1943 American horror film directed by Lew Landers and starring Bela Lugosi, Frieda Inescort, Nina Foch, Miles Mander, Roland Varno, and Matt Willis. Its plot follows a vampire named Armand Tesla, who has two encounters with Englishwoman Lady Jane Ainsley, the first taking place during World War I, and the second during World War II.
John Skipp is a splatterpunk horror and fantasy author and anthology editor, as well as a songwriter, screenwriter, film director, and film producer. He collaborated with Craig Spector on multiple novels, and has also collaborated with Marc Levinthal and Cody Goodfellow. He worked as editor-in-chief of both Fungasm Press and Ravenous Shadows.
Book of the Dead is an anthology of horror stories first published in 1989, edited by John Skipp and Craig Spector and featuring a foreword written by George A. Romero. All the stories in the anthology are united by the same premise seen in Romero's apocalyptic films, depicting a worldwide outbreak of zombies and various reactions to it. The first book was followed three years later by a follow-up, Still Dead: Book of the Dead 2, with a new group of writers tackling the same premise, though the second book put the stories in order according to their imagined chronology of the zombie takeover.
Steven R. Boyett, also known as DJ Steve Boyett, is a writer and disc jockey based in Northern California.
David John Skal was an American cultural historian, critic, writer, and on-camera commentator known for his research and analysis of horror films, horror history and horror culture.
Adam Cesare is an American author of horror novels and short stories. He attended Boston University, where he studied English and film.
The Fright Night franchise consists of American vampire horror-comedy films, including three theatrical releases with an original movie, its sequel and a remake, followed by one straight-to-home video sequel to the remake. Based on an original story by writer-director Tom Holland, the overall plot of each installment follows an adolescent hero who determines that his next door neighbor is a real-life vampire and his pursuits in defeating the monster.
Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, or simply Interview with the Vampire, is an American gothic horror television series developed by Rolin Jones for AMC, based on the 1976 novel and elements from The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice. The series stars Jacob Anderson as Louis de Pointe du Lac and Sam Reid as Lestat de Lioncourt and begins with the vampire Louis recounting his past life and tumultuous relationship with the vampire Lestat. The series embraces the queer elements of Rice's work, which are only insinuated in the 1994 film adaptation of the novel, and deals with themes such as race and abuse. It is the first series set in the Immortal Universe, a shared universe based on Rice's novels.
Scott Cole is an American writer, artist, and graphic designer operating out of Philadelphia.