One of the most exciting genre celebrations in recent years, the Salem Horror Fest kicks off again this October and Daily Dead is proud to be a media sponsor of the 10-day event. In addition to featuring Ryan Turek as a keynote speaker, the festival will also include the return of The Faculty of Horror podcast for a live show. We have more information on the exciting announcement in today's Horror Highlights, which also includes Kickstarter campaign details for the horror comedy short film Frank & Mary, as well as info on author David Moody's new novels in his Hater series.

The Faculty of Horror Podcast Returning to Salem Horror Fest: Press Release: "Salem, MA - Pop academic podcast, The Faculty of Horror, is set to return to the Witch City for a live show at Salem Horror Fest this October in partnership with Rue Morgue Magazine. Hosts Andrea Subissati (Rue Morgue editor) and Alexandra West (author The 1990s Teen Horror Cycle: Final Girls and a New Hollywood Formula) will also give lectures on focused topics within the genre at the Peabody Essex Museum.

"Our first ever live show in front of an audience at Salem Horror Fest was a wonderful experience, and it was great to meet many of our listeners in such an intimate and historic environment,” said Subissati.

“In its first year, Salem Horror created a horror festival with terrific guests and exclusive screenings, where all are welcome to share in the love of their favorite genre and the Festival is poised to grow in importance,” adds West. “We're thrilled to return to the Fest this October!”

The most recent episode of The Faculty of Horror features a deep dive discussion about witches in horror, and is now available on iTunes and Stitcher. Salem Horror Fest returns Thursday, October 4 - Sunday, October 14th, 2018 in Salem, Massachusetts. Further details to be announced in the coming weeks. For more information, please visit salemhorror.com.

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ABOUT SALEM HORROR FEST

Salem Horror Fest will continue its cultural exploration into the horror genre with a two-week program of film screenings, speaker events, parties, podcasts and special events in the Halloween capital of the world running Thursday, October 4 - Sunday, October 14th, 2018.

Visit salemhorror.com for more information."

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Frank & Mary Kickstarter Campaign: "Frank & Mary is the modern day tale of an elderly DIY enthusiast who reanimates his recently deceased wife in the garden shed. He struggles to keep her secret as her decomposing mind turns violent and the bodies start to pile up beneath the flowerbed.

Frank & Mary is a dark comedy horror short film about love, loss and D.I.Y. A suburban twist on the classic Frankenstein tale, by Paul Williams and Evil Hypnotist Productions, the team behind the multi-award winning horror comedy The Furred Man.

It costs an arm and a leg to make a film so you can give us both... or a torso, a head and even a brain.

Writer/Director Paul Williams on Frank & Mary:

"You've heard of the horror genre the cabin in the woods, well, this is the British version - the shed in the garden.

Think live action Wallace & Gromit meets Hammer Horror with an Inside No 9 twist.

British illustrator Heath Robinson is the inspiration for the contraptions used to augment Mary. Frank rebuilds her from whatever he can find in his garden shed and by the end of the film Mary is more D.I.Y project than human.

2018 also marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and what better way to celebrate than with a brand new take on this classic tale."

We have part funded the short, but need additional funds for:

Building a fake shed (which we then have to destroy).

Set build for the interior of Frank's shed.

Studio hire.

D.I.Y Creature make up.

Prop articulated D.I.Y arm for Mary.

With your help we can bring our suburban horror to life."

To learn more about Frank & Mary, visit the short film's official Kickstarter campaign.

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New Books in the HATER Series Coming from Author David Moody: Press Release: Oscar winning director Guillermo del Toro (THE SHAPE OF WATER, PAN’S LABYRINTH) called Moody’s 2009 novel HATER “a head-spinning thrill ride, a cautionary tale about the most salient emotion of the 21st century”. After tearing the human race in half in HATER and its two critically acclaimed sequels DOG BLOOD and THEM OR US, Moody’s now paying a return visit to his dystopian world with a brand new trilogy.

ONE OF US WILL BE DEAD BY MORNING (now available from St Martin’s Press) and the forthcoming follow-ups ALL ROADS END HERE (published September 25 2018) and CHOKEHOLD (2019) tell the other (equally brutal and blood-soaked) side of the original

HATER story, with the six books ultimately combining to form a single epic dystopian saga.

With the long-gestating HATER movie in active development, Moody went right back to the beginning. “HATER is an insular and very personal vision of the apocalypse,” he said. “It’s literally one man’s journey through the end of days. That works really well on the page, but we’ve recently been talking about a TV adaptation and I found myself fleshing out plotlines to show how my anti-hero Danny’s story fitted in with the decline of the rest of the world at large. I was able to go back and look at the events Danny was a part of in a new light. It sounds like a blatant cash-in but it’s really not – the new books have enhanced the original trilogy in a way I could never have imagined.”

Critical reaction to the first book in the new series – the snappily-titled ONE OF US WILL BE DEAD BY MORNING – has exceeded Moody’s expectations. Kirkus called the book "A bloody fun ride... Another wetwork nightmare that should delight fans of Haters and intrigue writers who wallow in the genre", while Booklist’s starred review said that "Moody really knows how to write creeping, claustrophobic terror, effectively sneaking up on his readers and, finally, scaring the life out of them. Top-drawer horror”. DLS Reviews said that "the novel rips you out of your safe and sung world and thrusts you into an environment where anyone can turn on you in the blink of an eye. It’s hard-hitting, head-poundingly tense, and drenched from head to toe in blood-splattered cruelty."

ONE OF US WILL BE DEAD BY MORNING is available now in hardcover and ebook from St Martin’s Press, and as an audiobook from Macmillan Audio. Find out more about Moody at www.davidmoody.net."