Michael Gingold is an American
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...
,
screenwriter, and former editor-in-chief of ''
Fangoria'' magazine.
Career
In his teen years, young horror fan Michael Gingold wrote and self-published the photocopied horror-review
fanzine ''Scareaphanalia''
and made
Super8 short films. His longest was the 40-minute ''Deadly Exchange,'' about a slasher killing foreign-exchange students.
From 1985 to 1989, he attended
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
's film school. During this time he made the 19-minute horror short ''Hands Off'', inspired by writer
Clive Barker
Clive Barker (born 5 October 1952) is an English novelist, playwright, author, film director, and visual artist who came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories, the ''Books of Blood'', which established him as a leading h ...
's
short story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
"The Body Politic."
In 1988,
during his junior year, he began writing freelance for the horror-film magazine ''
Fangoria''. Two years later,
he joined the staff as associate editor and eventually becoming managing editor.
In October 2015 he became
editor-in-chief
An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies.
The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...
, Eight months later, he was replaced in that position by former managing editor Ken Hanley. Filmmaker
Guillermo del Toro, a Gingold support, took to social media to voice his disappointment with the decision. ''Fangoria'' ceased print publication with its October 2015 issue, releasing four additional issues online only. Gingold went on to become head online writer of the horror magazine ''
Rue Morgue''.
In February 2018, the Texas-based entertainment company Cinestate, which had bought ''Fangoria'', announced the magazine would be revived as a quarterly print publication, and that Gingold would return as a columnist. As of 2021, he continues to write for ''Fangoria''.
Gingold's other writing credits include features and reviews for ''
The Motion Picture Guide'', the ''
Blockbuster Video Guide'',
[Contributors list in ][Contributors list in ] ''Movies on TV and Videocassette'',
IndieWire
IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...
, and ''Birth. Movies. Death.''
As a screenwriter, Gingold's credits include ''Leeches'',
''
Halloween Night'', ''Shadow: Dead Riot'',
and ''
Ring of Darkness''.
He has also appeared as an actor in ''
The Suckling'', ''The Blood Shed'', ''
A Return to Salem's Lot'', ''Troma's War'', ''
The Toxic Avenger Part II
''The Toxic Avenger Part II'' is a 1989 American superhero black comedy film released by Troma Entertainment. It is the second installment of ''The Toxic Avenger'' franchise. It was directed by Lloyd Kaufman and features The Toxic Avenger in an ...
'' and ''
The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie'', ''Sweatshop'' and has had a recurring role in the Light & Dark Productions' series of movies including ''Fear of the Dark'',
''The Tenement'',
''Sins of the Father'', and ''Fairview Falls''. As of 2017, he had had completed a script titled ''The Doll'' for Italian filmmaker
Dante Tomaselli, and the two were seeking financing.
He has published two books containing vintage horror-movie advertisements: ''Ad Nauseam: Newsprint Nightmares from the 1980s'' (2018) and ''Ad Nauseam II: Newsprint Nightmares from the 1990s and 2000s'' (2019).
An expanded edition of the first book, with 125 more pages and a slight retitling, was published in 2021 with a foreword by genre filmmaker
Joe Dante. As a filmmaker, he completed the Super8 movie ''Mindstalker'' by 1998,
but it does not seem to have been distributed.
Other
On December 8, 2016, Gingold lectured at Brooklyn's Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies on horror film and television shot in New York City.
With writer Chris Poggiali, he presented the lecture "Horror on the Hudson: Westchester County in Horror Cinema" at the First Annual Sleepy Hollow International Film Festival, held in October 2019 in
Tarrytown, New York
Tarrytown is a village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, approximately north of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, and is served by a stop on the Metro-North ...
.
Bibliography
*. Foreword by filmmaker
Frank Henenlotter
Frank Henenlotter (born August 29, 1950) is an American film director, screenwriter and film historian. He is known primarily for directing horror comedies, especially '' Basket Case'' (1982), ''Brain Damage'' (1988), and ''Frankenhooker'' (199 ...
*.
*.
*. Foreword by
Joe Dante.
As book contributor
* Contributor,
* Contributor,
* Contributor,
*Essay: ''Halloween''
in .
References
External links
*
*
*Podcast:
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gingold, Michael
American male journalists
American magazine editors
American male screenwriters
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people