The first horror book that really gets you, the one that sinks its teeth in before you even know what’s happening, never quite lets go. For some it’s Stephen King at a formative age. For others it’s a dog-eared paperback of something older, stranger, found on a parent’s shelf. For Antony J Stanton, author of the BookFest Award-winning medieval vampire horror novel Blood of the Damned, that gateway was Dennis Wheatley. The Devil Rides Out. Old-school occult, proper dread, the kind of book that doesn’t just entertain but inducts.
Stanton’s relationship with horror runs deep. He’s the kind of reader and writer who can trace fault lines through the genre with genuine affection and a critic’s eye. His guest post for Ginger Nuts of Horror is something of a personal inventory: the first horror film that genuinely rattled him (a 1982 made-for-TV ghost story called Don’t Go To Sleep, watched at thirteen or fourteen with the covers pulled high), the greatest horror novel of all time (Dracula, obviously, the text that hasn’t been out of print in over a century), and a three-way toss-up between Alien and John Carpenter’s The Thing for the finest horror film ever committed to celluloid.
Antony J Stanton on Horror That Shapes a Writer
The first horror book I remember reading
The Devil Rides Out by Dennis Wheatley. I remember seeking out horror books almost immediately after watching my first horror film (below), and what a great place to start. Proper, old-school occult and horror, this is an all-time classic that I’d advise any lover of the genre to read. In fact, just writing about it makes me want to go and read it again.
The First Horror Film I Remember Watching
Don’t Go To Sleep– a 1982 made-for-TV horror film with Dennis Weaver and Valerie Harper. It’s a chilling, malevolent ghost story, I would have been 13 or 14 years old when I watched this, and I was ‘affected’, shall we say..? I clearly remember the fear I felt as I watched it, but trying not to look afraid lest my parents sent me to bed. I also remember the thrill that fear gave me, and how I then realised that here was a genre I liked. Which soon led to my choice of reading material.
The Greatest Horror Book of All Time
As an author of a brand-new medieval vampire thriller series, I would have to say Dracula. I mean, it hasn’t been out of print in over a century, there are literally hundreds of films featuring Count Dracula himself, not to mention the count-less (pun very much intended) vampire movies that don’t, and goodness knows how many books..? Including my very own, little old Blood of the Damned. Which does mention Dracula, but not as one might expect. Without doubt, there can be no other book as influential on the genre.
The Greatest Horror Film of all time
Tough question, this. It’s a toss-up between John Carpenter’s The Thing and Alien –not Aliens, as I personally feel that the sequel leans into the thriller category a bit, whereas Alien is pure horror all the way down.
THE GREATEST WRITER OF ALL TIME
Impossible to say; my answer changes with the weather. But, some of my favourites would have to be Gabrial Garcia Marques, Tolkein, C.S.Lewis (if you’d asked me 50 years ago, that’s who I’d have said) and Stephen King – although I have a big love/hate relationship with SK’s writing that needs more than a short answer. In fact, to discuss it properly, we’d probably need to sit down for a beer in a pub, of an, evening, and thrash the details out.
THE BEST BOOK COVER OF ALL TIME
A toss-up between Psycho by Robert Bloch and The Godfather by Mario Puzo, and both of them for the same reasons. The monotone simplicity of the designs is instantly recognisable, and says an awful lot about the stories without the need for spoon-feeding the reader. I’m a big fan of ‘not’ spoon-feeding. The Godfather cover, for example, is just the title, the author’s name, and a hand holding the puppet-master’s strings. It’s all B&W, but there’s a yellow dot above the ‘i’ of Mario. It’s the only yellow on the cover.
That colour draws attention to it, and I can only assume it’s supposed to signify a bullet-hole. Brilliant. And simple. And the Psycho cover, again in B&W, has only got that one word on its side, but it has clearly been cut in two. Not a neat, precise cut, mind you, but a ragged, jagged tear, as though someone has slashed it with a knife. Again, simple and utterly brilliant.
THE BEST FILM POSTER OF ALL TIME
Jaws. Nuff’ said.
THE BEST BOOK I HAVE WRITTEN
Blood of the Damned, published Halloween 2025, instantly rose to Amazon’s #1 rank for Hot New Releases: Vampire Horror, and recently won first place in the 2026 BookFest Award for horror. It’s still lurking around Amazon’s top 50 in all of it’s categories, and for an indie-author that’s no mean feat.
THE WORST BOOK / FILM I HAVE WRITTEN
The high-fantasy story I scribbled in my school notebook when I was fifteen years old. It needs a LOT of editing if it’s ever going to see the light of day again.
THE MOST UNDERRATED FILM OF ALL TIME
I nominate three films for this accolade. First, sticking to the horror genre would be the 2020 film, The Wolf of Snow Hollow. It only got 6.2/10 on IMDb, but I think it deserved to be in the high sevens. The acting, the attention to detail in the plot, and the characters are what make this film so excellent, not the horror and the bloodshed. This is how more horror films should be made today.
Second is JoJo Rabbit. Ok, this did get an excellent 7.9/10 on IMDb, and rightly so, but I don’t know how widely lauded this film really is. Because it’s absolutely wonderful, emotional, poignant, and beautifully bitter-sweet hilarious. And again, some amazing acting and characters – including my favourite portrayal of Hitler EVER.
Lastly, there is a 1995 British film about surfing called Blue Juice that I still find quaint, charming, and highly enjoyable. Scoring a risible 5.1/10 (come on, IMDb!) it deserves far greater than that. Plus, it stars Sean Pertwee, who, in my humble opinion, should have played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the latter remakes instead of McGregor (sorry, Ewan) – who also starred in Blue Juice, incidentally.
THE MOST UNDERRATED BOOK OF ALL TIME
As below, Between Two Fires, and not only because, like my own series, it’s a medieval horror story.
THE MOST UNDERRATED AUTHOR OF ALL TIME
Christopher Buehlman. His 2012 medieval horror book, Between Two Fires, is popular and successful, but nearly as much as it deserves. The writing is beautiful and emotional, the violence and horror isn’t excessive, and the characters draw you in and keep you rooting for them, or reviling them. I don’t imagine there are many horror books one can actually call beautiful, but this is definitely one of them.
THE BOOK / FILM THAT SCARED ME THE MOST
I found the 2017 film Life, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Sarah Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds, et al, to be extremely unsettling in a great way. In recent years, that’s the one I’ve thought about most when I lie awake at night with my eyes wide open and the covers pulled up to my nose.
THE BOOK / FILM I AM WORKING ON NEXT
In three months (approx 31stJuly) I hope to be ready to publish The Name of Vampire, book #2 in my medieval vampire horror series. I was absolutely delighted with the reactions and reviews to book #1, Blood of the Damned, not to mention winning the BookFest award for horror, and I’m even more excited and pleased with TNoV.
It will be available on Amazon to pre-order at a discount the week before publication, and more information can be found either by checking out my website, or ‘following’ my author profile on Amazon itself.
Blood of the Damned: A Medieval Vampire Thriller by Antony Stanton
Winner of the 2026 BookFest Award for horror
To save his soul, he must kill a monster. To save his sister, he must become one.
Game of Thrones meets Dracula in this gritty thriller where vampires are not myths—they’re predators!
Bulgaria, during the bloody Crusades.
Devastated when a creature of the night slays his mother, young nobleman Darius swears bitter revenge. He forges himself into a formidable weapon against the darkness, but when his quest endangers his frail sister’s life, will his vengeance mean her doom?
Sir George, son of a murdered lord, is drawn into Vlad Dracula’s shadowy Order of the Dragon. Seeking cold justice for his father’s death, he uncovers a secret more terrifying than the imminent Ottoman invasion. Should he continue to chase retribution? Or abandon his pledge and save his very soul?
And beneath such impossible choices lurks a diabolical underworld, with age-old myths and laws, plots and prejudice and vicious predators.
As Darius and Sir George’s lonely paths collide, they are lured into a hellish nightmare of sacred orders, blood-soaked destiny, and looming dread. To survive, it’s a choice between honour, family or brotherhood, in a war where immortals play for kingdoms, and each must decide: is victory worth the risk of damnation?
…..
Praise for “Blood of the Damned”
- ‘Stanton’s prose is vivid, cinematic, and relentless. Fans of The Historian or Anno Dracula will be at home in the mud of the battlefield and the shadow of the crypt.’ – Anca Antoci – Goodreads – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- ‘A love letter to the vampire-loving history geek that I am!’ – Haly – Goodreads – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Book Details
- Part one of a two-part story.
- Book one of an epic, alternate history horror series.
- A saga of vengeance and forbidden love amidst the true terror of the undead.
- Ideal for fans of Gothic world-building and dark fantasy with morally complex heroes.
If you love immersive, suspenseful vampire lore, this may be your next favourite series.
Why not flit to the top and grab your copy right now?
Start your own gripping adventure today.
Antony J. Stanton
Antony J. Stanton was born in a Parisian slum in the 1700’s. He worked the docks at the port of Le Havre before an incident with a jealous ship-owner’s wife saw him hounded by hired thugs. If not for the intervention of a beguiling vampiress who, for her own dark reasons, took an interest in Stanton, he’d no doubt have been lynched. In saving him, the vampiress turned Stanton into a foul blood-sucker, and he soon found himself preying on those who would surely have seen him dead.
[Perhaps, at this stage, either say: “to find out more, visit his website” or continue with the below…]
Being over two hundred years old, it’s not surprising he’s now almost bald, and his friends have always said his clothes are somewhat dated. He spent the past two centuries living in draughty, disused rooms of crumbling French châteaux and old English mansions, feeding off rats and ageing aristocrats, and researching the history of his night-walking fellows. And now, dear reader, over a century since Bram Stoker raised public awareness of the vampire in his survival manual—wrongly mistaken for fiction—it’s time for Stanton to publish the true account of his adopted species and set the record straight.
Or perhaps he just has a vivid imagination. Perhaps the vampire genre is long overdue a fresh lease of life, a new origins story, an epic and sprawling plot across countries and continents and millennia, a thrilling story of a complex underground society with their own rules and myths, rivalries and vendettas, living alongside and meddling with the affairs of humanity.
And perhaps Antony J. Stanton actually lives in London with wife, dog, and cat, where he enjoys writing award-winning gripping, multi-charactered vampire sagas—think Game of Thrones meets Dracula. Perhaps he has already written a post-apocalyptic vampire/zombie horror trilogy that rose to Amazon’s #3 for genre. But sometimes, reality is as incredible as fiction—almost.
Whatever the truth of being shot at in Ghana, kidnapped in Kazakhstan, being struck by lightning, whatever the lies behind his vampiric conversion in 1700’s Paris, he definitely did win the prestigious 2026 BookFest Award for Horror. Go to his website and sign up for his newsletter to find out more about such outlandish stories, and about his epic and sprawling vampire saga. Ladies and gentlemen, mesdames et messieurs, I give you the Blood of the Dragon series.
WEBSITE LINKS
https://antonyjstanton.com
Antony J Stanton | Author of Blood of the Damned and The Blood Chronicles
Author Profile on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Antony-J.-Stanton/author/B01LWM2IOL
Amazon.co.uk: Antony J. Stanton: books, biography, latest update
Author profile on Instagram: @authorantonyj.stanton
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14715498.Antony_J_Stanton
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/antonyjstanton
