A collection of essays and interviews written and conducted by Jay Slayton-Joslin
4/5 Star Review
Jay Slayton-Joslin is a writer experiencing an existential crisis. His first book, Kicking Prose, came out in 2014. It’s a collection of poetry that he followed up six years later with Sequelland. Slayton-Joslin did not want one piece of work to define his career and this is the connecting theme that carries the essays interspersed throughout this book.
Sequelland is comprised of eleven interviews with directors and writers tied together with the self-reflective essays from the author. It is both an informative read and an homage to the legacy of horror sequels. While there are some big franchises involved, these sequels all struggled with small budgets, script changes, studio driven changes, and the directors who still made it work. We are talking about franchises that have shaped the horror genre – Nightmare on Elm Street, Saw, Hellraiser, Cube, Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and even Leprechaun and Puppet Master.
This was a really quick and enjoyable read. Sequelland is filled with fun, behind-the-scenes tidbits about movies that genre lovers know, as well as with the headaches that directors and writers have to deal with in the industry. There is a section in the interview with Uwe Boll that I found particularly interesting that was about production budgets and profitability for films in the direct-to-video market versus the streaming market that dominates the industry today. I would recommend this collection to any fan of the horror movie genre.
I received a digital copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.
Tattered Covers & Broken Spines 