The story of the DARKSIDE magazine started around 1982 when Allan Bryce started writing features and reviews for just about every video magazine around, though most of his work was published in VIDEO WORLD, a magazine that is still going (though it has evolved firstly into DVD WORLD and now DVD AND BLU-RAY WORLD and which he had been editing since 1993 Eileen Daly started writing for this magazine in 2009, during a break in the publication of THE DARK SIDE) and her articles on the trials and tribulations of low budget horror have been copied by other magazines like the now defunct GOREZONE, an attempt to outdo the DARK SIDE, without the humour and with a design style that made it look more like a “lads mag” than a true horror magazine. Allan also started a magazine called VIDEO X for Argus Publications, under the guidance of my publishing mentor Chris Adam-Smith, who Allan Bryce worked for on a range of titles including PHOTOPLAY, VIDEO TODAY and VIDEO BUYER. When Chris left Argus Allan continued to produce VIDEO X for Argus, and it was on a trip to their Hemel Hempstead offices that he spotted the dummy issue of a new publication they were developing on called SKELETON CREW. "It’s a horror magazine", they told me, "Do you know anything about this subject".

SKELETON CREW was quite an interesting read, but Allan felt suffered from the same low production values that were already sinking VIDEO X. Allan had assisted in the creation of a magazine called FEAR a couple of years earlier, and contributed some articles under a pseudonym. Allan was offered the editor’s position on SKELETON CREW but declined as Alan did not want to take on somebody else’s concept - though Allan did contribute some articles under the name of Mark Lewis. In the end, SKELETON CREW only lasted for half a dozen issues before going the way of Supernatural and House Of Hammer. FEAR, though critically lauded, was also on its last legs, and Allan felt that the magazine dealt too heavily in Horror fiction which, excellent illustrations aside, was a little less than visual in magazine format and best left to compilations like those edited by Stephen Jones. At this point, Chris Adam-Smith had moved to the newly formed Maxwell Specialist Publications and was looking around for new ideas. It was he who suggested a horror magazine, and he who suggested that it should be called THE DARK SIDE. The most difficult thing was settling down to write the first editorial, rather like the characters of CITIZEN KANE creating their new newspaper, the crucial one setting down where the magazine was coming from. Having been presented with the chance to do a full colour, expensively produced horror publication, I’d have loved to fill it with features on my favourite genre flicks and lots of really gory pictures. But Allan also had a duty to the publishers, who wanted articles on heavy metal music, computer games, comics and books - anything to sell more advertising. When Allan Jones bought the magazine from them with issue 14 that the magazine became a purer beast and Britain’s ultimate horror magazine. It was always my intention from the start to use the top genre writers, and they were lucky recruiting people like Maitland McDonagh, John Martin, Martin Coxhead, Alan Jones, Alan Frank, Stan Nicholls, Kim Newman, Tom Weaver and many others. I’ve also personally interviewed many actors and filmmakers who have never been covered elsewhere - notably Lindsay Shonteef and Harry Alan Towers. Eileen Daly was added to this roster of writers and became the magazine scream-queen in residence talking about her latest low budget features and escapades. She would alos talk about those people she had worked with whilst setting up the film distribution company REDEMPTION with her partner at that time Nigel Wingrove. Having met and worked with Jean Rollin, Alex Chandon, Jake West, Dario Argento and up and coming directors like Sami Haavisto she has her own unique spin on the horror movie genre.