A Far Out Fantastic Site

Credit: Wikimedia Commons One reason I'm calling today's post an "Unofficial" Book-To-Movie (BTM) is because this review of a movie adaptation of a book is not resuming the BTM series of posts [link]. That monthly series is still on hiatus until I release " Bad Apps " which I still don’t have a specific date for but am getting towards the end of the revision process for the whole book. Another reason for titling this post the way I did is because it can’t really be called a review. That’s because I did not view the movie in question since it cannot be viewed. (You’ll find out why in a bit.) I recently found out that in my BTM of the 1922 silent film, "Nosferatu", I had gotten two things wrong: 1) I said that the movie was the first film adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, "Dracula"; and 2) that Universal's 1930s "Dracula" starring Bela Lugosi was only the first legally made adaptation of the novel. (I’ll be revising that...

Credit: Pixabay Revised and updated as of 12/15/2024. Well, as I said I would on my Facebook page , I'm running late again with the Book-To-Movie which is normally every fourth Monday of the month. So, today's Book-To-Movie (BTM) is really supposed to be for November. For those who are new to A Far Out Fantastic Site, in a Book-To-Movie we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation. I'm keeping this one short because I've had a cold all weekend that's put me back. In fact, I’m still recovering from it. In past BTMs, we've reviewed Bram Stoker's novel, "Dracula", and a few of its movie adaptations. These have included the unofficial original of all of the Dracula film adaptations, the silent "Nosferatu" from 1922 directed by German director F.W. Murnau. During the Thanksgiving week, I finally got a chance to watch the 1979 remake of the latter, "Nosferatu the Vampyre". It's not a bad film, but it has several sh...

Credit: Pixabay Warning: A spoiler lurks in this review. I know, the title to this post makes it sound like Dracula's gone Indiana Jones. Although the summer's Dracula film, "The Last Voyage of the Demeter" , can be said to get into the genre of adventure since it takes place on the high seas, it is a very dark and terrifying film and so is horror overall like what any Dracula film should be. It's the fourth Monday of the month and so it's time for another Book-To-Movie (BTM) review in which we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation.  As you may have guessed, for today's BTM we’ll be reviewing Bram Stoker's famous classic vampire novel and its latest movie adaptation. However, the movie's not so much adapted from the overall book as it is from a single chapter and so this is how director Andre Ovredal’s “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” differs from many other Dracula films. There have been a lot of Dracula film flops and this movi...

Credit: Pixabay Finally, the newsletter, “Night Creatures' Call”, for March, is out! I released it just last night, so, those of you who subscribed to it, check your inboxes. If you're not subscribed you can do so for free here . In this issue, I talk about my newest story that I'm revising for my upcoming book of short stories, "Bad Apps" . I talk about the story’s characterisation and its tentative title. So, what is that title? You have to subscribe to the newsletter to find out! If you subscribe to me by April 10th, I'll make sure you get the current issue in your inbox. That’s it for the news about the new issue of my author newsletter. Now for some other science fiction and fantasy news that I’ve found of interest! Well, most of it.  ‘Renfield’ Trailer I saw one of the trailers for the movie, "Renfield" , over the weekend. This movie tells the story of Universal’s Dracula and his hunt for human blood in modern day New Orleans, only it's tol...

Credit: Pixabay.com Warning: This review may contain spoilers for both the book and movie being discussed. Read at your own risk! As I said last post , we've moved our Book-To-Movie review from its usual fourth weekend time slot to this Halloween weekend (or as I like to call it, Halloweekend). In a Book-To-Movie, we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation. The usual fate of rip-off films, it seems, is that they’re often soon forgotten as if they never existed. That was almost the case with the original film adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, "Dracula". And those of you who are thinking the original film was Universal's 1931 film starring Bela Lugosi, it wasn’t. That was only the original legal film adaptation of the novel. The original adaptation was the 1922 German-made "Nosferatu" and is one of the oldest vampire movies. Although it was at one time destined to be forgotten, it became far from that. As this year’s media coverage of “No...

Credit: Pixabay Updated on 8/26/2022, 7:25 PM, PT I apologise for another late post, but I got a late start over the weekend.  As much as I am a vampire fan, especially of Dracula, I realised only a few days ago that this year marks the 100th anniversary of “Nosferatu”. Its actual anniversary day was back in February but the media’s celebration of it seems to continue. “Nosferatu” is the German Expression film interpretation of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”, predating nearly 10 years before Bela Lugosi’s interpretation of the all-time famous vampire. That said, it’s one of the oldest vampire films. Even so, it’s been seen by many, especially during its time, as a rip-off of the plot to Stoker’s historically famous vampire novel.  Although the bald vampire in this film is not as popularly iconic as Bela Lugosi’s slicked back hair-do version, it’s still been an icon among goths and hardcore horror fans. So, in honour of this film, I decided to dedicate tonight’s post to it. I didn’t m...

Credit: Wikimedia Commons All this week I’ve been trying to catch up on my writing projects, especially my upcoming short story collection. I had lost a lot of writing time while I was in the hospital for several weeks. So for the past week I’ve been mostly writing the first draft of a story I want to include in the book. I’ll keep you updated on the collection but in this post I want to talk about Rob Zombie’s upcoming movie reboot of the 1960s sitcom, “The Munsters”. And I can tell you right now that I probably won’t be seeing it when it releases.  Some of you, especially if you’re a fan of popular movie monsters of the mid 20th century like me, are probably familiar with “The Munsters”. It was a TV sitcom about a family based on some of Universal’s classic monsters such as Frankenstein’s monster and Dracula. The series ran from 1964 to 66. During that same year that it was canceled, a movie directly based on it called “Munster, Go Home” released in theatres. In later decades, a ...

I’m just finishing up reading my copy of Stephen King’s early short story collection, Night Shift , which has some really good stories in it with plenty of scares. I’m not a huge fan of King’s work although I will read it and so do like some of it. So, I am a fan of a sort. But some interesting news about him has been going on for the past few months. The latest of this is that Funko, the manufacturer of bobble head-style vinyl figures called Pops, will be coming out with a figure of the author. Although Funko has made Pop figures of numerous classic horror monsters as well as modern ones, Stephen King will be only the second horror author they have made a vinyl figure of. Funko will offer two different versions of the Stephen King figure: 1) his everyday look version, which is his look of today only with the dark colour returned to his slicked-back hair; and 2) the Barnes and Noble exclusive red-headed version. What? Since when was Stephen King a red head? Since they ...

I have the latest update for the upcoming release of the paperback edition of my book of YA horror, "The Boo Brothers" , and a Lightning News Flash of a new Dracula graphic novel starring Bela Lugosi! “What?” you say. How can the long-dead actor of the famous Universal undead vampire play a role in a comic book? Read on to find out! ‘Boo Brothers’ Paperback I had my manuscript for the paperback edition of "Boo Brothers", my book of two short YA horror stories, formatted  and uploaded to Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) during the week. I also uploaded the cover and reviewed the book on the website with the online previewer that allows a person to see what his/her work would look like in its final product form. And mine all looks good. Now I just have to price it and then have Amazon approve it as meeting their guidelines. I can't say for sure right now, but I may just price it at a discount off the market price (which I have not decided on yet) as a...