Sunday Reads: On the importance of Fangoria
Last week, media mogul, producer and CEO, Dallas Sonnier gave horrorhounds worldwide a reason to rejoice. Titan of horror, successor to Famous Monsters and all-round genre bible, Fangoria, is relaunching in October 2018, coinciding with the release of David Gordon Green's Halloween sequel. Resurrected from it's untimely demise in 2015 (ending on the written but never printed issue #345), the new Fangoria will be a quarterly compendium of horror, with Sonnier teasing classic Fango articles with new inclusions like short horror fiction. It's an incredibly exciting project and to know that it's happening, to bank on getting that book in my hands in October is powerful. Hearing the news, I promptly hit eBay looking for old issues, perusing the hundreds of issues available and their gloriously gruesome covers, suddenly realizing how integral the magazine is to the genre as a whole.
There are no fans out there as hungry for their genre of choice as horror fans. Any self-respecting horror fan can likely name and discuss anything from Carnival of Souls to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Scream to Suspiria. Knowing the release dates, production history, cast and crew as well as idiosyncratic trivia is all part of a horror fan's lexicon. We collectively devour physical media releases from Code Red, Arrow Video, Synapse, Severin, you name it, as well as hitting convention after convention in hopes of meeting performers who starred in our favourite fright flick from yesteryear. There's a palpable sense of loyalty and allegiance with the horror-loving community and Fangoria is, at least in part, responsible for that.
Launching in 1979 with a cover showcasing Godzilla in all his monstrous glory, Fangoria immediately cemented itself as essential reading for genre fans. That first issue featured a retrospective of Godzilla films as well as Doctor Who, Romero's Dawn of the Dead and a preview of Ridley Scott's Alien. It's important to remember this was 1979; no one knew everything about a production before it began it's theatrical run, set-reports were non-existent and there was no IMDb, Birth.Movies.Death or Dread Central for photos, interviews, reviews, etc. The fact that you could now grab a monthly magazine off the shelf with insider knowledge into upcoming classics was huge. And as Fangoria's prominence rose through the eighties, their team of contributors and editors began to sew themselves into the filmmaking community, with genre filmmakers now reading the magazine and the two groups becoming entwined, which in turn made readers feel a part of the family of the masters of horror.
With the dawn of home video and the rise of VHS, horror began to reach saturation point, with video store shelves crammed with all sorts of lurid, weird horror as well as mainstream slasher fare like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th. Grabbing an issue of Fangoria would likely inform your next month's viewing plan. My entire teenage years the magazine acted like my weekend diary, with articles and retrospectives dictating my Saturday and Sunday viewing schedule; starting with a classic like Night of the Living Dead and ending with a little-known bizarro sleaze-fest like Street Trash or Visiting Hours (if I could find copies, that is). It was an incredible feeling, each issue felt like a personally curated list of films to watch, an unending gallery of gore to share with your worldwide horror clubhouse. I didn't have horror fan friends growing up (sneaking issues of Fango into school was usually met with strange looks), but I didn't care. Each month there it was, like a letter from fellow cinephiles, packed with new stuff that basically read to me as a personal letter.
Not having the internet at the time, I had no idea how prolific the magazine was and how long it had been running. Later, I found out through varying interviews that the publication partly inspired many past and present filmmakers, from S. Craig Zahler, Mike Flanagan, Mick Garris, James Gunn, etc. With the launch of Sonnier's new Fangoria, creature creators everywhere have been singing it's praises, reminiscing on old issues and their monthly rituals devouring the journal. It's heartwarming. Gone are the days of hanging out in video store aisles, scanning pulpy artwork looking for the holy grail of horror, with streaming services like Netflix and Shudder catering to our every viewing need. To have Fangoria physically back is kind of emotional, it's both a nostalgic blast recreating that video store feeling, but it's a look to the future of horror. The genre bible is back, ready to inspire an entirely new generation of filmmakers, writers and fans alike. Will it shape and inform the community like it did before? I have no doubt it will. Right now anyway, it's time to dig out musty old issues and celebrate in anticipation.
Fangoria Lives.