• Books
  • Exclusives
  • News

Exclusive news: Lovecraft classic “CAST A DEADLY SPELL” gets a novelization from Echo On

The HBO favorite has an adaptation coming for its 35th anniversary.

Echo On Publications gave us the scoop that it will issue a novelization of 1991’s CAST A DEADLY SPELL this Halloween. The movie, directed by Martin Campbell (GOLDENEYE, CASINO ROYALE), produced by genre legend Gale Anne Hurd and written by Joseph Dougherty, stars Fred Ward as detective Phil Lovecraft, working cases in a late-’40s Los Angeles populated by supernatural creatures. The book is being written by Jeremiah Dylan Cook and will be released in hardcover, paperback, eBook and audiobook.

“CAST A DEADLY SPELL has everything I love: a fedora-wearing detective, the Cthulhu Mythos, monsters, mystery, and humor,” says Cook, whose debut short-story collection A MYTHOS OF MONSTERS AND MADNESS was published last fall. “This film is one of the most unique creations given to audiences during the Pulp Cinema explosion of the early 1990s. I’m delighted to be adapting Joseph Dougherty’s screenplay into a novel, and I hope my work will inspire a new generation to discover this ’90s cult classic while providing existing fans of the movie with more of what they already enjoyed about this trailblazing genre mashup.”

“It’s great to know Phil Lovecraft will finally get the paperback he deserves,” says Dougherty. “Every few years a new crop of fans discovers the movie, and I like the idea of them having this book to put on a shelf between their copies of THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS and THE BIG SLEEP.”

For more about Echo On’s novelizations and other books, head over to its official website.

Read More

Get The Grim Reader.
Rue Morgue's free newsletter.
Editor's notes.
Cultural insight.
Curated horror across film, books, music, and art.
First looks.
Select previews.
No algorithms.
Join Free

Advertisement

In Print Since 1997

Issue 231

Rue Morgue #231 Jul/Aug 2026

Plus

Inside Rue Morgue #231 – Summer Slasher Issue FEATURES Filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun’s TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA guts the slasher formula from the inside out, turning it into a romance about the horror of becoming who you were always meant to be. Plus! GILLIAN ANDERSON and HANNAH EINBINDER unpack Schoenbrun’s radical dismemberment of…

Issue 230

Rue Morgue #230 May/Jun 2026 – RARE

Plus

Inside Rue Morgue #230 FEATURES Filmmaker Curry Barker transforms a simple wish into a spiralling nightmare of love, possession, and bloodshed in his breakout feature OBSESSION. Plus: The story of Barker’s found-footage shocker MILK & SERIAL, which turned a micro-budget experiment into a viral horror breakout. Hollywood made it a monster. History tells a different…

Issue 229

Rue Morgue #229 Mar/Apr 2026

Plus

Inside Rue Morgue #229! FEATURES A nerve-shredding found-footage thriller built around sound, UNDERTONE signals the arrival of a terrifying new voice in Canada’s booming independent horror scene. Plus! Meet the new breed of independent Canadian horror filmmakers behind DREAM EATER, SWEETNESS, HANGASHORE, THE LAND OF NOD and THE CURSE OF GHOST ISLAND. Part post-punk, part…

Issue 228

Rue Morgue #228 Jan/Feb 2026

Plus

Inside Rue Morgue #228! FEATURES He fascinated audiences in 2001 with the French period martial arts horror film BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF. Then he followed it up in 2006 by bringing the eerie world of SILENT HILL to cinematic life. Now, visionary director CHRISTOPHE GANS unleashes his latest nightmare with RETURN TO SILENT HILL. Plus!…