Tag Archives: killer worms

Imaginator magazine’s CREATURE FEATURE SPECIAL EDITION!

There is SO MUCH monster-tastic wonderfulness enclosed in this issue!

Imaginator issue 9 cover


Imaginator magazine’s CREATURE FEATURE SPECIAL EDITION is available all over the world (UK, US, Netherlands, Japan, Brazil, etc) via Amazon and other fine retailers!

Amazon US:
https://a.co/d/a2xh23D

Amazon UK:
https://amzn.eu/d/5EvfVy3

Amazon Japan:
https://amzn.asia/d/hmJyIWF

Amazon Poland:
https://amzn.eu/d/7NCO08M

Amazon Ireland:
https://amzn.eu/d/cRID8wF

Amazon Netherlands:
https://amzn.eu/d/4dCL1J7

Amazon Italy:
https://amzn.eu/d/5WxXGAb

Amazon Belgium:
https://amzn.eu/d/hJoJUzC

Amazon Sweden:
https://amzn.eu/d/eMCIz4H

Amazon Brazil:
https://a.co/d/gFuhBba

Amazon Singapore:
https://amzn.asia/d/hRXpcof

INTERNATIONAL BOOK RETAILERS…

Barnes & Noble (USA):
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/imaginator-magazine-ken-miller/1147224598?ean=9781068444609

Blackwell’s (UK)
https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Imaginator-Magazine-by-Ken-Miller-author-Ramsey-Campbell-contributions-Steve-Wang-contributions/9781068444616

Bokus (Sweden):
https://www.bokus.com/bok/9781068444616/imaginator-magazine/

Adlibris (Sweden)
https://www.adlibris.com/sv/bok/imaginator-magazine-9781068444616

Hugendubel (Germany)
https://www.hugendubel.de/de/taschenbuch/ken_miller-imaginator_magazine-50975382-produkt-details.html

Saxo (Denmark):
https://www.saxo.com/dk/imaginator-magazine-creature-feature-special-edition_bog_9781068444616

Better World Books (UK)
https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/imaginator-magazine-creature-feature-special-edition-9781068444616

Walmart (USA):
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Imaginator-Magazine-Creature-Feature-Special-Edition-Paperback-9781068444616/16839322212

Booktopia (Australia)
https://www.booktopia.com.au/imaginator-magazine-ken-miller/book/9781068444616.html

Or, if you’re in the UK, you can order below (at discounted price) direct from the publishers:

Buy Now

Okay… let’s check out the issue’s contents…

PREDATOR
Award-winning creature designer/creator STEVE WANG talks about designing and building one of the most iconic alien characters ever created for the screen… the original PREDATOR!

Opening spread of Steve Wang interview

DRAGONSLAYER
Special effects & make-up effects titan CHRIS WALAS recounts what it was like helping to bring to life the greatest-looking movie dragon: Vermithrax Pejorative! 

Dragonslayer/Chris Walas feature

ALIEN
Actress VERONICA CARTWRIGHT is interviewed about working on the classic genre movies ALIEN, INVASION OF THE BODYSNATCHERS and THE BIRDS! She describes the day they shot the bloody Chestburster scene!

Alien (1979)

WEREWOLVES
A look at the awesome practical creature FX used in WEREWOLVES (2024)! One of the actor-producers tells us what it was like to work with Frank freakin’ Grillo!

Wererwolves (2024)

ELDRITCH ENCOUNTERS
Horror fiction author, editor and critic RAMSEY CAMPBELL reviews two films made by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society!

Cthulhu illo

CREATURE FEATURE REVIEWS
Noah Kneal, Simon Pritchard and Ramsey Campbell review a bunch of monster movies! Titles include BOGIEVILLE and ALIEN FROM THE ABYSS!

Alien from the Abyss
Bogieville poster

THE DEADLY SPAWN
JOHN DODS chats about making the gorgeously gooey, triple-headed monster star of THE DEADLY SPAWN (1983), plus he covers other pivotal moments in his career, including building creatures for SPOOKIES (1986) and NIGHTBEAST (1982)!

First page of John Dods interview

INTO THE DEEP
2025 is the 50th anniversary of the release of JAWS… and it is also the year that Richard (Hooper) Dreyfuss is unleashed upon the world in a brand new shark movie: INTO THE DEEP! Action director CHRISTIAN SESMA tells us all about it!

In the Deep

BEASTS OF BLOOD ISLAND
A dive back into the lurid, tropical, colourful world of Eddie Romero’s Filipino fright flicks! 

Beast of Blood

SQUIRM
Director JEFF LIEBERMAN reminisces about his incredibly enjoyable killer bloodworms opus SQUIRM!

Squirm

HORROR QUEEN
Exploitation movie star GERETTA GERETTA chats about starring in RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR (1984) and the insanely kinetic DEMONS (1985) – plus she even reveals what the recipe is for making demonic movie drool!

Geretta Geretta in Demons

MONSTROUSLY TALENTED
This interview with KEN BARTHELMEY, a mega-gifted concept designer and illustrator who focuses on Creature & Character Design work for big Hollywood movies, includes lots of very impressive concept artworks for such films as THE TOMORROW WAR, GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS and GODZILLA VS. KONG!

Ghidorah design

SHE’LL BLEED YOU DRY
MADALINA BELLARIU ION stars as a sultry and sometimes savage vampire in the impressive UK horror movie DRAINED! Here she chats about playing a vampire and playing a werewolf, and also fills us in on what it was like co-starring with Scott Adkins in a recent action flick!

Madalina Bellariu Ion interview

NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE
The supremely talented Creature Designer KEITH THOMPSON discusses how he conceptualised the surreal and wonderfully macabre god-monster that appears in the memorable finale of NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE (2021), the movie adaptation of the Adam Nevill novel!

Keith Thompson creature design for No One Gets Out Alive

THE FLY
Oscar-winning creature-creator CHRIS WALAS returns with a second interview this issue! Here he talks about the amazing work he did creating Brundlefly for David Cronenberg’s utterly wonderful THE FLY!  

Brundlefly

A VVITCH – GRAPHIC NOVEL UPDATE
Artist and writer Russell Fox treats us to another sneak peek at more sumptuous-looking illustrations that’ll be appearing in his upcoming folk horror graphic novel A VVITCH! (More of his work can be viewed in issue 8 of Imaginator)

A VVitch illustration

BONE KEEPER
This is a new movie, which has recently finished principal photography, about a group of friends being hunted by a malevolent monster in a cave. Director HOWARD J. FORD and creature effects VFX supervisor GIORDANO AITA talk about working together on BONE KEEPER, and they share with us some ace images of the development of the cave creature!

Bone Keeper poster

THE MAN WHO WAS MOLASAR
Actor Michael Carter is asked what it was like to wear the incredibly distinctive and damn cool Molasar muscle suit in THE KEEP. He also speaks about the makeup application process he underwent to become Bib Fortuna in RETURN OF THE JEDI, and he chats about playing a memorable London subway victim in the all-time 80s horror film classic AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON!

First page of Michael Carter interview

RADIOACTIVE REVIEWS
To finish off this issue there are a couple of non-monster movie reviews, including one for the Italian Mad Max ripoff 2020 TEXAS GLADIATORS!

2020 Texas Gladiators Blu-ray cover

Wow! So much lovely stuff is jammed inside this single issue!

LIMITED EDITION PRINTS
You can buy two Limited Edition Creature Feature Prints, signed and numbered by Imaginator’s cover artist ZillaMan, via this LINK!

Squirm (1976)

Worm-face!
Worm-face!
Arrow Video Blu-ray cover
Arrow Video Blu-ray cover

Starring Don Scardino, Patricia Pearcy, R.A. Dow, Jean Sullivan and Peter MacLean. Written and directed by Jeff Lieberman. Produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff, Joseph Beruh, Edgar Lansbury and George Manasse.

Lobby card
Lobby card

Downed power lines in Georgia turn bloodworms into killer critters that begin to chow down on the local rednecks!

He's full of worms!
He’s full of worms!
US one sheet
US one sheet
Japanese VHS sleeve
Japanese VHS sleeve

SQUIRM is a cool example of the 70s trend for eco-horror/animal attack movies. The two young leads (Scardino & Pearcy) are likeable and, between the worm scenes, they try to figure out the identity of a missing skeleton in a SCOOBY-DOO-style mystery-solving fashion.

Worm-alanche!
Worm-alanche!

There are lots of shots of real bloodworms, which look gross when filmed close-up: they really do resemble mini-monsters! In this movie these worms scream too! Yes! Screaming worms! And they like to dangle from the shower as well!

They're in the shower!
They’re in the shower!

There’s some fine early makeup work by Rick Baker to look out for (and Rob Bottin was an uncredited assistant makeup artist on this production too). The ‘worm-face’ scene is great, revelling in shots of a character who has bloodworms crawling beneath the skin of his face! He yanks at the worms, trying to pull them out! These are really neat-looking practical effects! Rick Baker really shows here that he was a makeup effects expert worth keeping an eye on.

Bloodworms beneath his skin!
Bloodworms beneath his skin!
Wigglin' worms!
Wigglin’ worms!

The ending is a nice merging of creepy house thriller & critter attack genres. It’s during this finale that the film comes up with its most impactful image; a man becoming submerged in a sea of worms that fill the room! If you don’t like worms you will not like this scene (or the movie)!

Lobby card
Lobby card

This is an enjoyable, wriggly, writhing, creepy-crawly, low budget, well-handled creatures-run-amok B movie that keeps you entertained throughout: it’s squirm-tastic!

Here are some posters…

UK quad poster. Art by John Stockle 
UK quad poster. Art by John Stockle 
Australian daybill
Australian daybill poster
US half sheet
US half sheet poster
Italian poster
Italian poster
German one sheet poster
German one sheet poster
A proposed design for a UK poster
A proposed design for a UK poster by artist Vic Fair
A second proposed design for a UK poster by artist Vic Fair. The actual UK SQUIRM poster was finally drawn by John Stockle
A second proposed design for a UK poster by artist Vic Fair. The actual UK SQUIRM poster was finally drawn by John Stockle
Japanese poster
Japanese poster

French poster
French poster

Let’s finish with a close-up shot of one of the bloodworms…

Yuck!
Yuck!