Tiny Onion Presents... VIDEO VIDALIA

Announcing a new monthly movie marathon curated by James Tynion IV, available to paid subscribers of THE EMPIRE OF TINY ONION

So, I threatened the other week that I wanted to develop a recurring movie watching feature on Substack, after seeing how nicely the [Worlds Worth Watching] feature on 3W3M worked in its inaugural incarnation. The crew over there just announced that they’re going to be working through the various incarnations of Dune on film over the next few weeks, and I’m going to be taking part in as many of those as I can… I’ve been thinking about the most me way to do my own spin on the concept, and I think the most James trait that I can think of imbuing into this is overkill.

So… What’s the overkill version that’s big and messy and best represents me? And then it hit me. I’ve spent all of October buried in deadlines…

Wouldn’t it be nice to end the month with a Halloween horror movie marathon?

So, welcome to the newest feature here at THE EMPIRE OF THE TINY ONION… What I hope will be a monthly movie marathon that I’m going to call VIDEO VIDALIA! (Get ready - I’ve been resisting the onion puns, but now that the seal is broken you’re all in trouble). Here’s the premise at the outset… One day a month, I’m going to set a line-up of movies that I find inspiring or interesting. Stories that influenced my own work, and I think give a sense of my storytelling priorities. I’m going to post where the movies are available to rent or stream online, and give you at least a week’s heads up in case you’d rather acquire the movies physically.

The first VIDEO VIDALIA is going to run on Halloween itself. Sunday, October 31st, starting at Noon Eastern Time. One week from today!

This feature is going to operate as a text commentary, running in the comment section of a that we’ll drop 30 Minutes in advance, with comments time-stamped. You will need to be a paid subscriber to the newsletter in order to participate in the commentary. So if this all sounds fun to you, you should sign up to be a paid subscriber right now! And then set your alarms for next Sunday!

I’m going to post up on my couch with my laptop, and spend all of Halloween Watching horror movies that I absolutely love. I’m going to be in the comment section talking about what it is that speaks to me about each of these horror movies, and how each of them have inspired my original projects. Come for some of the movies, or all of the movies, or dip in and out! Watch them at your own pace over the week, and just join in the comments.

I figure this also gets to be a bit of a Tiny Onion Halloween party! Show up in the comments with pictures of your halloween costumes! Especially if they are costumes based on my books! Share cool facts about the movies, or things related to the movies. Hell, we can kick that off now - Anybody got some good reading in advance of the marathon next Wednesday?

And if it’s a success, we’ll make this a monthly feature. I’ve got some thoughts about a Blue Book inspired UFO film fest that could…

Now, let me debut my first VIDEO VIDALIA line-up!

12:00PM ET——————————————

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS
1978 - Dir. Philip Kaufman - 115 Min
Streaming on Shudder, AMC+

2:30PM ET——————————————

THE THING
1982 - Dir. John Carpenter - 109 Min
Streaming on Starz, Amazon Prime

4:30PM ET——————————————

RE-ANIMATOR
1985 - Dir. Stuart Gordon - 86 Min
Streaming on Amazon Prime

6:30PM ET——————————————

THE FLY
1986 - Dir. David Cronenberg - 96 Min
Streaming on AMC+, Rentable on Amazon Prime

8:30PM ET——————————————

HELLRAISER
1987 - Dir. Clive Barker - 93 Min
Streaming on Shudder

The limited print edition of RAZORBLADES: THE HORROR MAGAZINE #5 is going on sale tomorrow at 10:30AM ET as a part of tomorrow’s TINY UPDATE post. I’m expecting these to go pretty quickly, so if you want a copy I recommend you set your alarms!

Much more to come tomorrow. This is going to be a big week here on THE EMPIRE OF THE TINY ONION.

James Tynion IV
Brooklyn, NY
10.24.21