INTERVIEW WITH ANNIE KNOX

Positively Horror is elated to welcome back Annie Knox for a quick catch up interview. Please enjoy the full conversation below: 

It has been a few years since you were interviewed by Positively Horror. In fact, you were my first interview after starting up, when you first released Dimension. What have you been up to since then? 

I remember, that was my first ever author interview too I think! I’ve had a bit of a mad few years, I’ve moved around a lot, had a lot of random jobs… I wound up getting into boxing a couple of years back, and now I’m training quite a lot and working at a bit of kickboxing too. I had success for a while with a little burst of anthology acceptances, so managed to get my horror author portfolio buffed out a bit. 

Snakebite books seems like it is going really well. What was your motivation for starting your own publishing company?

Thank you! To be honest I’ve been happily surprised by how many lovely horror writers and horror lovers have engaged with it. I couldn’t find consistent anthology callouts for exactly what I wanted to write, and figured why not just start my own? There’s a lot of gore and splatterpunk and extreme horror and whatnot out there at the moment, and while that’s the thing for some people, it's just not really a bit of me. I wanted to build something where kind of quirky, emotive, quite niche horror writers could send their stuff. I love digging around in the submissions pile and reading so many amazing stories, getting to know so many amazing genre authors. It’s been an incredible experience building our first book. 

As well as being a publishing company, it seems to have created a great online community around it, with the micro-shorts and newsletter etc.Was that the goal, or a happy bonus?

I mean part of the goal was always to have a community of writers, I really wanted to establish a supportive, fun, positive space for horror fans to exist. I wanted to focus on really utilising the sub-genres of horror; I feel like a lot of horror gets swept into gore or not-gore, and we all know there’s a million and one different ways to categorise horror when you get into it! Horror has been a big part of my life since I was 12, and I’ve always found a lot of comfort in it - the fight between good and evil, whatever those things may take the shape of. The fight to find courage and strength in horrendous situations. The energy and adrenaline. It’s just different! So I am really excited to be growing that community - while it was always part of the idea, I’m now seeing the potential to really push that aspect of having a company, and thinking out lots of ways to grow a stronger network for writers and readers. 

What can you tell us about the debut collection from Snakebite? 

So the debut collection is all about fun, classical creatures from horror. We’re taking it back to relative basics but really looking to find a fun variety of stories for each monster - unusual settings, quirky and relatable characters, surprising villains, surprising heroes - and a big mix of subgenres. Comedy-horror, psychological horror, folk horror, serial killer thriller, dystopian/apocalyptic, sci-fi horror, cosmic horror, gothic horror, body horror, fantasy horror - everything you can think of! My personal favourite that I think I’ve kind of made up… ‘Buddy-cop horror’. Just niche, fun, emotive, impactful stories.

Finally, do you have any upcoming projects you can talk about?

Yes, I actually have a few - obviously we are in the early stages of ‘Creature Feature Classics #2: Creatures of the Night’, but we already know what we want for the third in the series! I’m also working on a rerelease of ‘Dimension’ - a new edition with new scenes, more backstory for Steve, deeper relations within the characters. And, to be honest, just slightly better writing! I released that one in the midst of a covid/lockdown existential crisis, so I’m looking forward to putting out a new and improved version because that one means an incredible amount to me, and I want to tell the story the best I can. I have my second novel, ‘Maggie’, also releasing later this year, which I’m really excited to have my incredibly talented graphic designer Jolene Legrand working on the cover art for!

Thank you to Annie Knox for the great catch up interview. 

Follow the links below to keep up with everything from Annie and Snakebite Books 

Snakebite Books

Annie Knox Instagram

Wrath of Thorn review

It has been quite a journey since the original 2009 Thorn short, with the iconic indie slasher making numerous appearances throughout the "Mychoverse" over the years. The Thorn feature trilogy began over ten years ago, with Legacy of Thorn released in 2014. The mammoth, masked killer had already made an appearance in Slasher House (2012) and was ready for his solo killing spree. 

From there, his lore was established, as we learnt little bits about the leap year myth and the mysterious town of Avondale. 

There is even a Patreon exclusive short Eric: A Tale of Thorn, focusing on the reoccurring character portrayed by Paris Rivers. 

Mask of Thorn (2019) established even more of Thorn's story and introduced us to the magnificent final girl and Mycho favourite Eve Oliver as Bethany Lovell.

Before completing the trilogy, Thorn took one more trip into the Slasher House for Slasher House 3: Rebooted (2024).

That all leads us to Wrath of Thorn, which premiered at the beginning of the year at Horror on Sea festival to rave reviews. 

Wrath tells the story of Jessica, Bethany's daughter as she returns to Avondale with her own daughter to try to put a stop to the seemingly unkillable Thorn once and for all. 

Jessica, played brilliantly by Sophie Ash is surrounded by a stacked cast of magnificent Mycho alumni, featuring Paris Rivers, William Marshall and Eve Oliver to name just a few. 

The film moves at a fast pace, packing in story, action and horror in equal measure. Fans of the Thorn franchise and wider Mychoverse will be left completely satisfied with this end to the trilogy and will be blown away, as I was, by the final act. 

As horror appears to be having a resurgence in the mainstream at the moment, it is always good to shout about the British indie scene, because not only is it alive and well, it is thriving, and Mycho continues to knock it out of the park each time. Wrath of Thorn is no exception, and shows just what can be done with an unwavering vision, passion for the genre, and a group of like-minded people determind to bring that vision to life.