WRITER ROBERT FREESE
My childhood was rich with comic books, the STAR WARS universe and the occasional permission to stay up late to catch Dr. Shock host an old “creature feature” on “Shock Theater.” As I grew older, I traded the comic books for Fangoria magazine and leaned more toward gory monster movies and the slasher movies that were so popular back in the early ‘80s.
As a young, horror-hungry teen I read the scariest book
I ever picked up, and I have never been the same since.
The novel was Robert Bloch’s PSYCHO II. It was the first novel I
ever read that literally kept me up all night, turning the pages
frantically to see what was going to happen next. (And what a twist
ending!) Bloch’s economical prose stuck with me for a long time
afterwards, eventually driving me towards trying my own hand at
writing fiction.
Growing up during the early ‘80s video boom, I spent
countless hours consuming every giant monster amuck, slash-a-rama,
zombie a go-go, grind house exploitation gem and drive-in blood bath
I could rent.
When not affixed to the boob-tube, my nose could be
found buried in the writings of Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Gary Brandner,
James Herbert, Shaun Hutson, Jack Ketchum, Stephen King, Harry Adam
Knight, Dean Koontz, Joe R. Lansdale, Richard Laymon, Richard
Matheson, John Russo, Guy N. Smith and Thomas Tessier, among many
others. (I confess that I have a weakness for those grotesque,
totally outrageous and insane animal/insect amuck books that were so
abundant from the mid ‘70s to the mid ‘80s, especially those really
nasty ones imported from Britain.)
Later, I scored a job at an actual “Mom & Pop” video
emporium (remember those?- back before Blockbuster, back when Beta
was all the rage!) and I added to my regular video consumption the
delights of all the blacksploitation, gang, biker, women in prison,
kung fu, revenge, cheerleader and foreign bloodfests I had only ever
read about but had never seen.
In the mid ‘90s, a chance conversation with legendary
actress Brinke Stevens led to my first published magazine article.
Soon after, I sold my first short story. I haven’t stopped since.
Over the years I have worked for various print and
electronic publications. Since 1998 I have been a regular writer for
The Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope Magazine. (I pride myself on
watching movies that would cause stomach distress in most other
reviewers.) I’ve also been a staff writer for Blood Moon Rising
since 2002.
2005 saw the publication of my first short story
collection, A Place of Dreams and Nightmares (Dream Passage
Publication Group).
I currently live in Alabama with my incredibly patient and
understanding wife Frances. Not only is she my constant source of
inspiration and support, without her hard work this site would never
have been a reality.