Back from the Dead: The Return of FANGORIA

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

​Looking back, I’ve come to realize that growing up in the 80’s and 90’s was quite the awesome experience. Because for the most part, the music was pretty bitchin’, technology was evolving at an incredible rate, so you were treated to some kind of new marvel on a regular basis, there were Saturday morning cartoons to enjoy, ones that you simply could not miss because they were so freakin’ epic and if you were a horror fan like myself, you were able to grow up in the midst of a horror renaissance where Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees ruled the silver screen and other monsters and terrors could be discovered via the wonder of VHS.
 
But while it was supremely cool to experience all of those things, the only real downside of growing up in that era, was the fact that the internet did not exist until the late 1990’s, which made life for a young horror fan such as myself extremely difficult for a time. Because it was simply impossible to geek out with others about the genre outside of your family and friends, provided they liked horror of course, and learning more about a horror film or franchise was simply impossible unless someone had bothered to write a book about said film or franchise. Enter a magazine known as FANGORIA. Because this particular mag is one that I stumbled upon in the late 1980’s and it was a true gift from the horror gods.
 
For this entire magazine, focused only upon the wonder of the genre and it’s quality writing and features, spoke to the souls of horror fans everywhere since the writers of this mag loved scary movies, and you could feel that passion in their words, but the magazine offered so much more than mere geek out moments, it was…a celebration of horror in every sense of the word. The genre’s past, present and future releases were all on display here, allowing for aficionados such as myself to learn everything there was to know about the genre and they did such a good job of building anticipation for upcoming horror films that I would count down the days to a particular release on home video so I could finally see what the writer in question was raving about.
 
In fact, I loved this magazine so much, I made a point to mow more lawns in the summertime to buy a yearly subscription and I’ll never forget taking the copy that featured the zombie movie Night Life on the cover to help the folks at my local video store order a copy for myself and others to enjoy. But, alas, the good times with FANGORIA would only go so far. For as the internet grew and print began to suffer, so did the magazine, eventually fading into oblivion not that long ago and I will admit that I was sad about this. After all, FANGORIA was a horror institution and knowing that it would no longer be on shelves was heartbreaking to say the least. But alas, it faded into the void…if only for a little while.
 
Because others understood the wonder and the power of FANGORIA, and a company named Cinestate snatched up the rights, and brought this sucker back to life and the instant I heard it was returning to print, I snatched up a subscription and soon as it was available and last night, when I went to check my mailbox, an incredible treat was waiting for me in a black bag, a brand new issue of FANGORIA, the first one to arrive in my mailbox in years and my goodness, what a treat this turned out to be, since this magazine did not skip a beat. The writing is as fantastic as ever, the features are as informative as ever, offering up incredible insight on the new Halloween movie and its impact on everyone involved with it and gosh, there’s just so much more to discuss about this particular issue that I could go on for days about it. But I won’t, because you need to get a copy for yourself so that you too can enjoy the wonder of picking up this resurrected magazine.
 
Which brings me to my final thought when it comes to FANGORIA’s resurrection, the fact that well, holding that brand-new copy in my hands…was simply a magical experience. Because in that moment, the history and the importance of that magazine washed over me. It’s helped to grow the horror genre into what it is today, and it has influenced who knows how many filmmakers and on a personal level, it helped stoke my love of horror films, it was one of the many reasons I got into creative writing and well, it simply invigorated my imagination when I was growing up, and opening it once again, allowed for a flood of wonderful memories to fill up my mind, and I think it’s magnificent that a new generation, and an older one get to experience that kind of wonder all over again. So, my thanks go out to Cinestate for starting the resurrection process and Phil Noble Jr. and his incredible writing staff for making FANGORIA better than ever, and I am simply over the moon over the fact that FANGO is back and that its future is a bright one indeed.     

---