Fangoriais officially back in the movie business. Following up ontheir announcement back in September, newFangoowners Tara Ansley and Abhi Goel have launched Fangoria Studios, a new company that plans to use the venerable horror magazine’s trademark brand to develop TV shows, movies, and podcasts in both the sci-fi and horror genres.
Ansley, a film producer (Tragedy Girls), purchasedFangorialast year alongside Goel, a tech entrepreneur. According to Ansley, they plan to “draw upon theFangoriabrands” for new projects, as well asFango’s sister publicationsStarlog,a science-fiction magazine that’s been defunct since 2009,andGorezone, which is now a website for daily horror news.
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The new Fangoria Studios is represented by the New York/Los Angeles-based Circle of Confusion, which bills itself as a “premiere management and production destination for exceptional actors, writers, directors, content creators, publishers, and journalists.” It counts several reasonably high-profile talents as clients, including Adam Goldberg (The Goldbergs), Molly Parker(Pieces of a Womanon Netflix),Ryan Spindell (writer/director ofThe Mortuary Collectionon Shudder), and Sterlin Harjo (the forthcomingReservation Dogson FX).
No details have been revealed yet about Fangoria Studios' first projects. Ansley and Goel said from the jump that their plan was to “champion new and diverse creators… across multiple platforms.” WhileFangoriahas been involved with film production and distribution for over 30 years at this point, through labels like “Fangoria Presents,” “Fangoria Frightfest,” and “Fangoria Films,” most of the movies in theFangostable were really reveling in being low-budget projects. It’s probably safe to assume that the plan here is to use theFangorianame to get eyeballs on some new projects, rather than trying to crack into theFangovault for valuable intellectual property likeMindwarp. Then again, giventhe success of the Blumhouse production model, it’s possible that theFangoriastyle of film distribution may have simply been ahead of its time.
Founded in 1979,Fangoriaquickly shifted gears to become a must-read magazine forboth horror fans and professionals. At its height, the fan-nicknamedFangoran an awards show called the Golden Chainsaws, a radio talk program, a short-lived line of horror comics, and a couple of different companies involved with the film industry, in addition to the magazine. It hit rough waters in the 2010s like most of the rest of the print industry, however, and made an unsuccessful attempt to switch to a digital format in 2015. It was subsequently acquired by Dallas Sonnier via Cinestate in early 2018 before Ansley and Goel boughtFangoriaoutright in August of 2020.
Fangoria’s print edition returned last October as a quarterly magazine. Its next issue has yet to be officially announced, after its previous issue focused heavily onBlumhouse’s 2020 body-swap horror filmFreaky.
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