Short Stories Make Good Movies: NIGHTMARES IN DIXIE (1987)
Short stories in the South that'd be good movies. Also a new YouTube interview and reminder for 6/15 and 6/30 shows
A few years ago on the recommendation of T.S. Dann, a fellow member of the Atlanta chapter of the Horror Writers Association, I read Nightmares In Dixie. This is a collection of horror stories set in different states in the American South. Some were by authors I already knew about like Manly Wade Wellman or Karl Edward Wagner, but others were new to me, like Henry S. Whitehead.
(Whitehead as a person was particularly interesting, since not only he was he a horror and fantasy writer who corresponded with H.P. Lovecraft, but he was also an Episcopalian pastor. He served as Archdeacon of the Virgin Islands, where he learned about voodoo and through his fiction brought it into American popular culture.)
This reminded me of something S.M. Stirling once said at DragonCon — books make good miniseries and short stories make good movies. Some stories in the collection are too short to justify making a full film, but they could be collected in an anthology film in the vein of Creepshow or V/H/S. Here's how I'd do them:
Full Films
"Where The Summer Ends" By Karl Edward Wagner-This is probably one of if not my absolute favorite story in the collection. Who or what is living under the kudzu that's slowly overgrowing a decaying part of Knoxville? You could make this a 1970s period piece, which would explain things like an old WWII veteran, the lack of cell phones to call for help, etc. It could also be modernized — much of the story takes place in a bad neighborhood where cell phones wouldn’t be reliable anyway and the horrors of the novel could be brought in from Vietnam (where kudzu also grows naturally), not Japan. Some stuff that's told could be shown to ensure it's the proper length. Here's a very well-done audio version of the story if you'd like to listen to it..
"Coven" by Manly Wade Wellman-You could have a prologue set during the Civil War, with the main thrust of the story set in the 1880s. A young Confederate soldier, who'd been captured by a Union sergeant at (I think) the Battle of Shiloh, comes across the sergeant working as a preacher somewhere out west decades later. And said sergeant is fighting a group of Satanists.
"Ooze" By Anthony M. Rud-A man who's the legal guardian of the young daughter of a close friend after the death of said friend and his wife decides to investigate just how they died. He ends up running into some mad science down in the Mississippi Delta. This is very stylistically like Lovecraft
"Dark Melody of Madness" By Cornell Woolrich-A New Orleans band leader follows a bandmate whom he suspects has black ancestry into the black part of town and ends up involved in voodoo. He tries to incorporate voodoo rituals into his music and trouble ensues. Given recent concerns about "cultural appropriation" and racism more broadly, this might be timely.
"Beyond The Cleft" by Tom Reamy-In a small mountain town, the children start attacking other children and their parents. It's like a pint-sized zombie apocalypse.
"Night of the Piasa" by J.C. Green and George W. Proctor-A young Native American woman who thanks to a Spanish ancestor can pass for white has adopted a European-style name and has been doing her level best to conceal her heritage. However, she finds out she has a downright supernatural link to her past. Owing to increased awareness of sexual abuse of Native American women this could be a timely movie.
Parts of An Anthology
"The Fireplace" by Henry S. Whitehead-This is a ghost story involving a man murdered in a hotel.
"Fast-Train Ike" by Jesse Stuart-I couldn't even really understand what was going on here. I'm only including this for completeness' sake.
"The Legend of Joe Lee" by John D. MacDonald-This could conceivably be stretched into a film, but it would work much better as a short in a collection.
"The Wait" by Kit Reed-A young woman and her overbearing mother are stranded in a small town in rural Georgia where weird stuff happens.
"Cry Havoc" By Davis Grubb-This was not one of the stronger stories in the collection to say the least. Think the "Chief Wooden-Head" sequence of Creepshow 2, but with toy soldiers. Maybe work in some wartime PTSD for the father's character? With the prolonged wars in Afghanistan and Iraq leading to a whole new generation of veterans suffering from it, that could be timely.
New Horror YouTube Interview
I got interviewed by a horror YouTuber. This is my first YouTube appearance in awhile, so enjoy! We talk about horror film soundtracks, movies I thought were overrated, and other interesting stuff.
(If for whatever reason the embedded video is an issue, here’s the direct YouTube link.)
Show In Stone Mountain TODAY (Saturday) and In Huntsville 6/30
I know I mentioned this last time, but today (Saturday) from 10 AM to 6 PM I’ll be selling at Charlie’s Collectibles in Stone Mountain. The primary focus of the event is toys, collectibles, video games, etc. but I was told I was welcome. Here’s the Facebook event with more information.
(I have some family stuff that afternoon so I might leave early if customers are too light. Better to get there earlier than later.)
For those of you in Alabama or close by, on Sunday June 30, I will be making my second appearance at HuntsvilleCon, which runs from 10 AM to 5 PM at the Embassy Suites Hotel on Monroe Street.
I’ll be bringing The Thing in the Woods, its sequel The Atlanta Incursion, my steampunk military fantasy Battle for the Wastelands, its prequel novella “Son of Grendel,” its sequel Serpent Sword, the horror-crime farce novella “Little People, Big Guns,” and the short story collection Flashing Steel, Flashing Fire to both shows. I’ll also have some stickers based on the Thing book cover for those who like stickers.
Last year a number of people bought Thing but only a few bought TAI along with it. If you’ve had a chance to read Thing and want to see what happens next, come on by. :)