Apologies to all Teeming Brain readers for the lack of a new Recommended Reading post today. All of my spare time this week has been taken up by various other commitments, including writing and turning in the first installment of “Numinosities,” my new column about horror, religion, and philosophy for [Nameless] Magazine.
Then there’s the fact that I have been doing much planning and working toward hosting the third annual installment of the Dark Mirror horror film festival in Waco, Texas, which I founded in 2010. You can read about it in today’s edition of the Waco Tribune-Herald, in a nice article written by entertainment editor Carl Hoover, who has been a good friend to the festival since its inception: “Dark Mirror film festival focuses on end of times.” (Note this correction, though: the Trib article lists the wrong location for the festival. Here’s the right one.)
Then there’s our website, www.TheDarkMirror.net, will full event details plus a blog full of articles both past and present that anybody interested in horror films will find to be of interest.
If you’re in the Central Texas area, I encourage you to come and join us tomorrow for an apocalyptic-horrific good time. The theme for this year’s festival is, yes, Horror and Apocalypse. Admission is free and concessions will be for sale onsite (popcorn, candy, sausage wraps, drinks). The film lineup includes In the Mouth of Madness, 28 Days Later, and Take Shelter. Both I and my friend and co-planner, film professor Jim Kendrick of Baylor University, will deliver talks to introduce each film and explain its artistic merit and relationship to the apocalypse theme. I will moderate a panel discussion featuring Jim, renowned Baylor religion scholar J. Gordon Melton, and San Antonio police officer and zombie/horror/thriller novelist (and a pal from many past writing conventions) Joe McKinney.
As you’ve seen, that’s our poster up above, containing all of the necessary details. Or you can click here for the really huge version. Hope to see you there!