Empire Magazine

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Nostalgic

I used to buy Empire religiously in college (around 1996-1998), and kept buying that and Total film every month until about 2004 as I was going to the cinema pretty much every Friday to check out the latest releases, from blockbusters to unknown gems.

Over the years, work, family and other commitments just got in the way & I pretty much gave up buying them until recently, when I decided to buy a couple of issues to see if it was as interesting. Sadly, Empire (and TF) does not seem to interest me so much, a little too "mainstream" for me. I mean, they do "The Top 100 movies/actors/directors" every year (and yes, even though I haven't been buying them, I've seen the covers and they seem to waste an issue on something like this at least once a year). And as much as I do love them, can we just stop with the ENDLESS cliche-ridden articles on Eastwood, DeNiro, Scocesse, Spielberg, and bloody Star Wars!!!! Seriously, it's as if they only go round and round in circles when doing retro articles. There's only so much you can read about star Wars, The Godfather, Jaws and bloody Indiana Jones before feeling like you made the film yourself!

Now, because of my shift in interest more towards the fantasy/sci-fi (both mainstream and obscure) genres, I buy SFX! Very geeky stuff, very funny, and very self-aware! Some book and comic reviews too.

All mags are the same really.

I mean Dark Side over the years just had articles on the same old stuff. (The mag is a whole lot better now imo)

Shivers ran endless Buffy, Angel and X-Files articles and SFX panders to the blockbuster crowd just like Empire does. The last copy of that i saw had a Men in Black cover and tons of stuff on Prometheus.

Fangoria is esentially an advert for major studio horror films (although they try and incorporate classic films now and are much improved).

The best mag is Rue Morgue, but its hard to get hold of and far too expensive.

[Daemonia]

I once paid for trial 3 month subscription to Empire. I never renewed it and never paid them anymore money, but they kept sending me it for 3 years. I kept emailing them telling them I wasn't subscribed, but it never made any difference. Oh well.

[Wes]

Good score Daemonia...

I started reading Empire around the 50th issue and it was a good mag back in the day, compared to what it is now, it was a good serious film journal.
I still go back and read old issues from time to time and it's always amusing to read the In Production column and all those movies that never quite made it (Arnold Schwarzenegger is set to appear in Ridley Scott's adaptation of I Am Legend. Filming to begin in the autumn)

[Nostalgic]

I loved Fangoria in it's heyday (have up to about issue 200), but when they started putting Buffy and Jurassic Park on the cover, it went downhill, lots of big studio stuff, recently it just seems to be full of mainstream stuff (ie-Dark Shadows) and really bad U.S> camcorder/digital camera made stuff (ie: people trying to do the next Blair Witch).

Darkside is/was amazing, but I just ended up giving up just because I fell out of the "video nasty" phase. Good articles on censorship, but soon after things like The Excorcist and Clockwork Orange started getting released uncut in the UK, there was nothing left to shout about. Some good articles on Hammer films (though again, there was a lot of repeated material).

Anybody remember a mag called "In The Flesh"? Quite low-tech, but I remember it having some great articles on things like Hellraiser 2, Nekromantik and The Dead Pit. Ah, they heyday of splatterpunk!

[Wes]

Originally Posted by Nostalgic

Anybody remember a mag called "In The Flesh"? Quite low-tech, but I remember it having some great articles on things like Hellraiser 2, Nekromantik and The Dead Pit. Ah, they heyday of splatterpunk!

Yep, I still have a few copies of In the Flesh, by Steve C - low on gloss but high on enthusiasm. The early issues (see pics below) were pure punk DIY but by the time the final issue appeared (#13 I think), it had developed into a pretty nice looking publication, with pleanty of color and proper typeset. I wonder what Steve C. is up to these days ? In the Flesh was definitely an inspiration for me doing a blog...

[Refused]

Just received the April issue of Empire in the post - there's quite a large feature on Fangoria for some reason. Looking forward to giving it a read.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Refused

Just received the April issue of Empire in the post - there's quite a large feature on Fangoria for some reason. Looking forward to giving it a read.

And a very positive 5 star review of Black Sunday.

[Refused]

And bloody Iron Man on the cover. Sick of comic book/superhero films, so much so that I cancelled my Empire subscription last issue. And this issue's cover confirmed I had done the right thing.

[BAKA]

Originally Posted by Refused

Just received the April issue of Empire in the post - there's quite a large feature on Fangoria for some reason. Looking forward to giving it a read.

Thanks for the heads up! I stopped picking this up as I needed to trim my magazine purchases. Couldn't resist the Fangoria article though, picked it up today along with the latest issue of The DarkSide. The preview of horror in 2013 feature they have just prior to the Fangoria one looks interesting too. I had been wondering what was happening with Adam Wingard's You're Next, nice to see it had a date.

[Slippery Jack]

Sight and Sound still rules

Only I can't afford the subscription anymore . . .