Go Horror or Go Home! With Author M. E. Franco

Jack Skellington Says: "Eat Me!"
M.E. Franco

Alright Minions, it's here. Every Halloween Season I get with M.E. Franco author of the popular supernatural Dion book series and ask ten questions about our favorite time of year. It's our Halloween tradition, what's yours?!

MS: OK, let's start off by addressing the elephant in the room. On a scale of 1 - 10, how bummed are you that we have to wait until next year to see Halloween Kills?   

ME: I was so disappointed. I didn’t realize how much I was looking forward to it until it got postponed. By the looks of the trailer, I think it’s going to be worth the wait though!

MS: Which female horror icon is your Woman Crush?  

ME: Kate Beckinsale as Selene in the Underworld movies. More action than horror, but she was mesmerizing. 

Marie Laveau's Resting Place 

MS: Name your favorite cemetery that you have visited. 

ME: I was actually able to do a tour of the cemeteries in New Orleans. It was really interesting to see the crypts that they use, since they can’t bury people underground.  Cemetery #1, where Marie Laveau is entombed, was probably my favorite. Would have loved to go back there after dark. 

 

Regan MacNeil

MS: You have three doors to choose from, door number one has Pennywise behind it. Door number two has Regan MacNeil (in her possessed state) behind it. Door number three has Donald Trump behind it, which door would you choose and why? 

ME: Door number three because I could totally take him in a fight.

The Book That Started It All...

MS: Any plans to do a fourth Dion book?   

ME: I hadn’t planned to initially. I did write a few chapters for fun, but I didn’t really have a plot. I eventually came up with an interesting idea for a story line, but finding the time to write is tough.

MS: Spill on what you consider the lamest costume you have worn for Halloween.  

ME: One year I was really busy, and Halloween was on a weekday, so I actually wore one of those lame shirts that say “This is my costume.” 

MS: The Tell-Tale Heart is under your floorboard, what do you do?   

ME: Time to move!! Don’t want to get caught.

Seance, Seance!

MS: Your having the old fashioned version of a Kiki, a Seance. Name three famous people you whose spirits you would call upon to appear, and of course why damn it!   

ME: I’d ask Elvis for a song, Mark Twain for a chat, and Patrick Swayze for a dance.

MS: Losing weight is a bitch. Do you choose a gypsy woman's curse, or blood sucking leeches in your quest to shed pounds?   

ME: After the lockdown pounds, I’d probably be desperate enough for a curse!

MS: OK, last but certainly not least. What are your special plans for everyone's first pandemic Halloween?  

ME: Eat the candy I bought for the kids who can’t trick or treat and look for a good gypsy woman.

Want more M.E.? Of course you do! Get scary with her at:

https://www.facebook.com/MEFrancoAuthor/

https://www.amazon.com/M.-E.-Franco/e/B008NAKQW6

https://twitter.com/mefranco1

https://mefrancoauthor.blogspot.com/?m=0  

The Horror: Michael Shinafelt, Satan In Disguise

When Satan Met Me

The above title is the LAST time I will refer to myself in the third person during this post, to me that is more creepy than a Satanic Ritual...

So my fellow writer and horror fan-atic author ME Franco and I had so much fun with my Halloween questions to her, that she decided to ask me some, from one horror loving writer to another, oh but I have taken my love of horror to the next level, that's right, I have acted in a horror film as well as another one due in 2014.

OK, ME I'm all yours!

ME: Being a horror movie lover, I have to say you get major respect points from me for being in one. I watched the trailer for"The Summer of Massacre,"and I can't wait to watch it. What character did you play and how did he die?

MS: The Summer of Massacre is an anthology and I am in the segment "Son of the Boogeyman" I play a cop pursuing the Boogeyman and I start shooting him in the head and he just won't die, you know those Boogeymen, and he grabs my skull and crushes it in, it was awesome seeing my death on a 50 foot screen!

Me and  Scott Barrows Who Played "The Boogeyman" at 'The Summer of Massacre" Premiere

ME:. If you could star in the remake of a popular horror franchise, who would you want to be?

MS: Oh God, OK let me start by stating my ultimate horror role would be Satan, some people already think that about me anyway, ha! But in an existing franchise? Norman Bates from the "Psycho" franchise, I would give him my own spin, but what a fascinating character.

ME: What movie made you a horror fan?

MS: My Dad and I used to watch all the monster movies like Dracula, The Wolfman, Mummy etc. on Sunday afternoons, but it was the first slasher film that he ever took me to, and the only one that has ever scared me that made me a fan. The original "Halloween" I used to see Michael Myers face in the yard outside when it was dark for years.

ME: You do a lot of interviews. Who would you like to have on your blog for a chat - Freddie, Michael Myers, or Jason?

MS: Michael and Freddy are pretty much open books, I would have to go with Jason, try and find out more about the man behind the monster.

ME: Which witch would you not want to make an enemy of on American Horror Story this season?

MS: That's easy, Marie Leveau, I visited her grave site for real in New Orleans once when I went for Halloween, "Yes" I went to NO for HW once.

ME:. What candy do you have in your trick or treat bowl?

My Favorite "Dracula"!

MS: Mini Snickers bars.

ME: Love that more horror shows are coming out on television. What show are you most looking forward to this season?

MS: I'd have to go Team Dracula with this one, when I was a kid I used to want to be a Vampire when I grew up.

ME: Classic monster fight between Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Mummy. Who would you put your money on?

MS: Frankenstein is strong, but not too bright, the Mummy what's he going to do. put a band aid on it? I'd say Dracula, intelligent, supernatural powers and sex appeal, a winning combo.

ME: Do you have any plans to star in more horror movies?

MS: I shot another one this past summer that is due out in 2014.

ME:. If you could sit down and have a beer/coffee with anyone involved in the horror genre, real or fictional, who would you choose?

MS: Hmmmmmmmmmm....Miriam Blaylock from "The Hunger" that would be an interesting conversation, and encounter.

ME: Last question: What's your zombie apocalypse weapon of choice?

MS: The biggest shot gun I could find. It would be awesome to make their living dead heads explode!

Follow Me On Twitter at: https://twitter.com/MShinafelt

Check Me Out On IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4466735/?ref_=fn_nm_nm_1

Find Out More About ME at: https://www.facebook.com/MEFrancoAuthor

American Horror Story: Coven

In honor of this time of year I always post about the current season of "American Horror Story" or as I used to call it prior to this season; "The Jessica Lange Show".

Well "AHS" has upped the acting/diva ante this year with the addition of two other acting legends: Kathy Bates and Angela Bassett. Along with a trio of talented young actresses Emma Roberts,
Gabourey Sidibe and Taissa Farmiga, yeah say those names together three times fast.

Seasoned acting divas vs. young acting divas! Of course while the veterans are the most interesting but the young ones hold their own in what so far is working itself out to be an interesting entry into the "AHS" anthology now in it's 3rd season.

Kathy Bates & Jessica Lange

Two episodes in I feel like the season is really just getting started and we are in for something that is going to blow our collective cauldrons off!

One of the cool things is how "AHS" pays homage to other horror films with a wink and a nod, yet makes it their own. My personal favorite so far? The well deserved tribute to my favorite vampire film of all time, the late Tony Scott's "The Hunger". All of you "Hunger" fans know the scene of which I speak the one with First Lady Jessica Lange in the laboratory with the experimental aging drugs on a monkey, oh yes!

The demented Kathy Bates and her love of pancreas blood from her slaves to keep her young and Ms. Angela Bassett so good as a fictionalized version of Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orelans, whose grave I have actually been to, Marie's not Angela's.

Angela Bassett as "Marie Laveau"

Yes, you are engaging with one hardcore horror fan, someone who is so much one I visited the location of this seasons story, New Orleans, LA for Halloween one year, make of it what you will, or be well and carry on.

That being said fictionalized Marie Laveau so far is the scariest of the witches to me, even Bassett's line delivery of: "She done messed with the wrong witch" sends chills up my spine. Kathy Bates making a Minotaur out of one of her Black slaves that slept with her lily White daughter is pretty unnerving too.

But Ms. Lange takes the top prize as usual as her eternal youth seeking and sucking "Fiona" who will stop at nothing in a cocaine induced rage to get her some, Fountain of Youth, that is...

Emma Roberts as a half assed actress "Madison" who killed someone on set with a hanging light because he told her to hit her mark, takes top prize as my favorite of the young Witches, not to mention her destroying a whole bus of fraternity boys who gang raped her, way to go "Madison"!

Gabourey Sidibe takes best line of the season thus far for referring to one of her only witch role models growing up as "Sabrina, The Teenage Cracker" - love it!

Gabourey Sidibe: "Sabrina The Teenage Cracker"

And Taissa Farmiga as the Witch who has a "vagina that kills" gotta love a Killer V!

Interestingly enough the show really brings horror into a realm where the last two seasons have gone, but more so, it makes horror an estrogen game. Most horror is male dominated, but every season of "AHS" has really made the female characters the powerful ones, the ones who have driven the story, not the passive victims they are in standard Hollywood fare.

That, for me as a huge horror fan has always been one of the more interesting things about "AHS" - it really is all about the estrogen...can't wait for more of "Coven"!

Go "Coven" at: http://www.fxnetworks.com/ahs/