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Interview With Kim Paffenroth
Dante in the Valley of the Dead

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It and the girl were now both on Dante, the girl tugging at the hem of his frock, the boy getting a hold of his right arm. Dante grabbed the girl’s long hair with his left hand, pulling her away from himself before she could bite into his thigh or stomach. He tried to pull his right arm away from the boy, but the dead grip was powerful and tenacious. The two children were dragging him down, and for a moment he felt fairly sure he’d be dead soon, too (Valley of the Dead).

DanteIt was bound to happen sooner or later; zombies devour everything in their path, so why not devour the classics? While they may have their rotten pride and prejudices grounded in earthly appetites of the flesh, author Kim Paffenroth brings a sophisticated approach to their dinner table by introducing poet Dante Alighieri to the undead.

Unlike the one trick, novelty-book approach taken in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Paffenroth sets his scholar’s philosophical eye on the situations Dante encounters as he meets both living and the dead in his journey across a strange valley during a zombie plague. Like any good zombie, I wanted a closer look into the brain of Paffenroth and his thoughts on writing Valley of the Dead.

 

You’re a big fan of Dante and his poem the Divine Comedy, which details his journey through the Christian visions of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. The allegorical nature of the Divine Comedy lends itself to various layers of meaning; but no one until now has mentioned zombies. What inspiration led you to have Dante square off against zombies?

When I was working on Gospel of the Living Dead (Baylor, 2006), my analysis of the Romero zombie films, it struck me how similar his zombies were to the damned in Dante’s Inferno – not so much tortured with flames and the usual trappings of hell, as just mindless, lost souls, endlessly repeating their stupid, pointless activities. Later it occurred to me to reverse the idea of the influence: what if Romero’s zombies were similar to the inhabitants of Dante’s Hell, because Dante had actually seen a zombie infestation during the 17 years that he’s off the map and could’ve been anywhere. Then, when he went to write Inferno, he incorporated the zombie horrors he had seen into his poem. Once I’d seen that possibility, it was just a matter of working carefully through Inferno, thinking of zombie analogs to each circle of hell. And that was the really fun part!

With Pride and Prejudice and Zombies poised to hit the shelves, you appear prescient of the unlikely melding of zombie and classic fiction. What is it about zombies that makes this oddball marriage work?

Well, two things come to mind. When zombies are about, mayhem and violence are sure to follow. So, it would seem pretty natural to either put them into a work that’s already full of gore, like Inferno, since they’d be right at home, or else put them in a story that’s so genteel and lacks any mayhem, like Pride and Prejudice, so they could stir things up and provide some comic relief.

The other thing I wonder about, is how when they’re not eating people, zombies are so unobtrusive and bland, so maybe it makes more sense to insert them into a work, rather than put in something like a giant robot or dinosaur or vampires, since those monsters would throw the fictional world into a deeper turmoil and upset its balance more. In other words, except during actual zombie attacks, I can have Dante talk about the same things he does in the Divine Comedy, and the author or PP&Z can have his characters talk about the same things they do in Pride and Prejudice. The zombies would thereby “fit” better and not disturb the fictional world as much as other monsters, leaving the world of the “classic” more recognizable and familiar.

…

Interview With Kim Paffenroth
Dante in the Valley of the DeadRead More »

LOTT D Horror Post Roundup

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Lugosi, Bela (Mark of the Vampire)_01 Beware! Once again, the archives have been unburied, and the hideous horrors unleashed! For your entertainment and edification pleasure, of course. Members of the League of Tana Tea Drinkers dig six feet deep to find their past misdeeds…and reveal them to you, one post at a time!

 The Drunken Severed Head interviews Shane Briant, in three parts, about his Worst Nightmares.

Each segment is about twenty minutes. In Part One, Mr. Briant talks about his new book, about his writing process, and working on Dan Curtis’ The Picture of Dorian Gray. He does a cool bit of impersonation when reminiscing about two of the people involved, actor Nigel Davenport and producer Dan Curtis. In Part Two, he talks about what working at Hammer studios was like, and in Part Three, he riffs on a few dysfunctional fans.

Classic Horror deals death with a brutal kick and describes ten sadistic ways to die in a horror film.

They said, “Hey, guys, we have somebody getting yanked apart by two semi trucks in our movie. What about listing off some other brutal and/or sadistic deaths?” I was intrigued, which is often enough to get me to put fingers to keyboard, so here we go.

And Now the Screaming Starts worries about the first-class passengers in Crocodile 2: Death Swamp.

Regular readers of ANTSS know that I’ll pretty much watch anything with a giant alligator or crocodile in it. Tell me that you’ve got a flick in which a giant croc lurks in the potted plants of a bowling alley and preys on the wacky regulars of league night and I’ll go along, despite my better judgment…This flick pushes the limits of even my utterly uncritical indulgence.

The Vault of Horror goes retro with a review of Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2.

It happened about ten years ago, when this cheesy, third-string pay-per-view provider I used to have presented a Halloween double-bill of Zombi 2 and I Spit on Your Grave (trick or treat, kids!!). Having the movie all but dropped in my lap, I knew I simply had to tape it. The time had finally come to confront Fulci.

Star Trek (2009)
To Boldy Go Again

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Star trek

Zombos Says: Very Good

J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek is not Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek. It is a mix of Star Wars exuberance and Battlestar Galactica grittiness. With rapidly-repeating ship’s lasers blazing away in debris-strewn space battles, and revolver-like phasers shooting energy bullets, Roddenberry’s wagon train to the stars concept is taken to heart, but do not look for moral or social introspection here: in this reboot of the Star Trek franchise, Abrams puts aside the morality plays, for now, and points both warp nacelles to the action-filled stars, creating an emotionally charged adventure that brings together Roddenberry’s memorable captain and crew again for the first time. This Star Trek boldly goes where no movie in the series, odd or even numbered, has gone before, and keeps the heart of Roddenberry’s creation beating strongly and, ironically, more sure than much of what followed the original series’ next generation: Abrams remembered that the characters are always more important than the mechanics, and the story must be told through them, not about them.

Timewarp: some time in the 1960’s I stand in front of a small stage in the bomb shelter of my grade school, St. Mary Mother of Jesus. Star Trek, the television series, is hot, and every boy wants to be Kirk or Spock and put on school plays with them, us, fighting vicious Klingons. For this school play I do not get to play Kirk or Spock. I get to play the Away Party sap of the week; the guy who gets phasered or blown up in the opening minutes of the episode. This time, though, the principal, a nun whose temper is more feared than Klingon grooming, shoots down the play because the boys take the fighting part to heart and she will not have such science fiction tomfoolery in her wholesome school.

Abrams, along with writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, put the overused time-warped- cheat in use again to make it all comfortable enough for long-time fans and fresh enough to entice newbies. By revolving the drama around Spock, both young and old versions of him from this and that universes, this movie’s alternate universe and timeline allows the good old days and the new good days to comingle, leaving elbow room for growing the characters we know so well into those characters we know so well, while retooling the franchise with today’s sensibility for special effects and space drama.

The opening minutes blast furiously across the screen as the USS Kelvin encounters Nero (Eric Bana), a Romulan with mean tattoos and a bad attitude, who reminded me a little of Shinzon from Star Trek: Nemesis. (Is it just me, or does every foe encountered in a Trek movie want to destroy Earth?) Kirk’s father is captain of the Kelvin for only a few minutes before he dies, but its what he does in those minutes that saves baby Kirk, mom, and many others; he rams Nero’s larger mining spaceship, the Narada, to give time for the lifeboats to get away.

Star trek 2009 On earth, Kirk (Chris Pine) grows up to become a reckless, directionless, bad boy. On Vulcan, a young Spock is taunted by his classmates for being part human. When he loses his temper and pummels his tormentor to a pulp, he begins to question his place in Vulcan society. Spock (Zachary Quinto) eventually joins Starfleet, turning down an invitation to join the Vulcan Science Academy after he is insulted one last time. Kirk is chided by Captain Pike (Chris Pine), after a barroom brawl with Starfleet cadets, to do better. He does, and on the way to Starfleet Academy, Kirk and Bones (Karl Urban uncannily channeling Deforest Kelley’s likable doctor) hook up. To complete the introductions for this classic trio, Kirk and Spock lock egos over Kirk’s creative and humorous solution for Spock’s serious Kobayashi Maru no-win training scenario, with Kirk exclaiming he doesn’t believe in no-win situations.

Timewarp: it is 1973 and I stand in a long line waiting a long time to get into the second Star Trek Convention held in New York City. This time the original crew is on hand to boldly celebrate Trek geekiness. Thousands of Trekkies turn out, seriously upsetting the notions of Star Trek’s fanbase with organizers. Yet, it is comforting to find many others who also think the Spock’s Brain episode sucks. I feel vindicated. I feel empowered. But I still don’t know who I want to be for Halloween; maybe Kirk, maybe Spock; much debate ensues as we reminisce about the first interracial kiss on network television, and who would win in a battle between Romulans and Klingons. Seeing William Shatner get a pie tossed in his face was kind of fun, too. He handles the situation like Kirk would have and we love him for it.

The reason Nero is so hell-bent on destruction is the usual one of revenge, triggering the near pixelated storyline which allows everthing to happen in-between timelines in the story in a way that broadens the action while neatly setting up the Enterprise crew’s relationships, and moving the light drama along at warp speed. There is a lot more comedy here than in previous Trek movies, but it helps define the endearing and recognizable qualities of each youthful crewmember; although it is a bit strained for Scotty (Simon Pegg of Shaun of the Dead) and his alien engineer. The Transparent Aluminum paradox from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home gets a nod with Spock and Scotty’s timejumping transwarp equations. While the science is far-fetched, the action is not. It is hot and heavy with more Star Wars inspired monsters and aliens and clarity.

Much detail is given to the Enterprise’s engine room and interiors, providing a greater sense of the immense technological innards housed in the ship, and the transporter scrambles things up in a different way, but many of the original sound effects can be heard, along with new ones, and the all important viewscreen on the bridge is now a window to space on which images can be projected as needed.

Leonard Nimoy as the imperturbable Spock provides the critical mass that ties this movie to the series while also freeing it to explore new worlds and new adventures. It is bittersweet knowing this ends the original crew’s voyages for good, but heartening to know Star Trek will continue. Maybe this Halloween I’ll be Kirk; or Spock; or maybe a Klingon. I like Klingons.

Book Review: Hater
Whose Fear Is It?

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Hater I phoned the office a few minutes ago but there was no answer. I was relieved when I didn't have to speak to anyone but then I started to panic again when I thought about how bad things must have got if no one's turned up for work. There's nothing else to do now except sit back on the sofa in front of the TV and watch the world fall apart (Hater by David Moody).

It takes a little over a week for the world to fall apart for Danny in David Moody's Hater; not that his life was all that together before everything else goes to hell. Family, neighbors, people around him are propelled into a Ballardian new world order where fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to violence. But this dark side, in Moody's first book of his Hater trilogy, depends on whose point of view your seeing the escalating, spinning out of control, events from. As Danny describes his much less than ideal job, dissatisfying life, cold marriage, and children-interruptus, you wonder how much worse it can get for him. A lot, surprisingly.

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Book Review: Hater
Whose Fear Is It?Read More »

Max and Me Look At Experiments in Terror 3

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Experiments in Terror 3 “Striking for the third time, Experiments in Terror 3 unleashes another hallucinogenic orgy of the uncanny, the dreadful, and the macabre.”

Well, perhaps…

“Employing a mesmerizing montage of terrifying tropes and fiendish footage, our kino-coven conjures more than a bewitching hour of visionary cinema. Pounding a stake through the heart of genre convention, this shocking program expands the cinematic language of fear, breaking the chains of narrative logic and leaving only the black void of the infinite unconscious.”

We’ll be the judge of that…

Max and me chat about our likes and dislikes with Experiments in Terror 3. TK from Love Train for the Tenebrous Empire was scheduled to join us, but she ditched at the last moment. Smart move given our level of conversation. We did copiously borrow from her review, though, as she is much more articulate than either of us.

me: I looked for eit3 on imdb, but didn’t see it.

Max: To hell with the corporate fellatio that is IMDB! (Raising clenched fist in the air) 😉

me: Swish! and another proletarian-despised head hits the basket. Hey, no fair, you’re using emoticons! I can barely type.

Max: YOU can barely type? I don’t even exist! I’m a roomful of monkeys–one of us at a time accidentally producing coherent sentences!

me: Well, then send a few of them over to help me out. While I’m waiting let’s discuss the first film about Richard Chase.

Max: You know, when I was told that the first film on the review screener I was going to get was a Dick Chase film, I thought it was going to be a different sort of film!

me: Long pause as I look up Dick Chase…

Max: Aw, Zombos, you don’t look up *subtext*!

me: Ohhhhhh. I did find Deck Chairs, though.

…

Max and Me Look At Experiments in Terror 3Read More »

Malefique (2002)
Hell Is Other People

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Malefique Zombos Says: Very Good (Let me know if the ending here reminds you of the one in Being John Malkovich)

Four characters in search of an exit sustain and disdain each other’s mauvaise foiin this incarceration screenplay involving a serial killer’s dark arts journal written in 1920. With freedom just out of reach beyond a barred window, a locked door and four dreary walls complete their bleak prospects for salvation.

The beginning teases us with Danvers, the murderer who fears growing old, busy in his fetid cell and not alone. A crispy-charred corpse frozen in agony and one unfortunate individual with a gaping chest wound hint at arcane mischief afoot. Danvers casually dips his fingers into the man’s wound and draws blood to draw mystical symbols on the wall of his cell. Gore is sparsely used in Maléfique, a film directed by Eric Valette, but when it is, its brief, dramatic appearance provides suitable goosebumps.

Present day. Of the four men imprisoned in the small cell, the only one with hope of freedom is newly admitted Carrère (Gérald Laroche), but as time passes he grows more despondent and desperate to see his son again. His three cellmates are Marcus (Clovis Cornillac), who is midway between being a man and a woman and hoping for the latter; Lassalle (Philippe Laudenbach) who no longer reads or dares to listen to the many books involved in his wife’s murder; and Pâquerette (Dimitri Rataud), who is an insane child dressed like a man. He eats anything and everything, has had a very regrettable childhood–though not as bad as his 6-month old sister: she fared worse because he eats anything and everything–and he likes to make visits to the prison infirmary, necessitated by acts of self-mutilation.

MalefiqueThe book draws their attention at first, then gives it back, allowing us glimpses of their temperaments, temptations, and failings. Patience can be a virtue in French horror cinema; for every Haute Tension there is a quieter, more studied approach to building a sense of foreboding and ultimate dread, like in Sheitan; and in Maléfique, director Valette and writers allow Carrère, Marcus, Pâquerette, and Lassalle’s shadows to overlap without them ever touching each other. Each man is what he is and they wait in a room with no exit; until the book appears.

How it wound up hidden in their cell wall is not important; neither is how the erudite Lassalle knows so much about its notorious author’s quest for a fountain of youth. Much is left intentionally unexplained–like a good Japanese horror story– giving us a mystery, a mood, and imperfect men desperately looking for a perfect escape, which creates tension from their few agreements as much as their many dissents. Carrère, the cold business man, is the first to realize the journal’s commercial value; but when his bail does not materialize, and his wife divorces him, he realizes it may be his last and only way to see his son again. Much like Lemarchand’s Lament Configuration, Danvers’ journal, filled with magical spells and cryptic symbols, is a mean’s to an end, an end to all means, and a puzzle that intentionally mismatches the pieces; and the same caveat emptor warning applies here as well.

Malefique 2002 When Pâquerett, in his childlike simplicity, draws a symbol from the book onto the floor and persuades Carrère to recite an incantation the symbol suddenly bursts into flames. Quickly, the men realize the power that lies within those pages. A second test symbol drawn on the wall throws them off their feet after another incantation is muttered. Carrère wants to study the book and asks Lassalle for help, but Lassalle protests, saying he can no longer read. Marcus wants no part of it, either. As for Pâquerett, the wall eats his fingers as an appetizer. Unable to control his oral fixation, he pigs out on the pages of the book; but the book defends itself as Lassalle later points out. In the most startling and grotesque turn of events, Pâquerett gets turned and turned, first like a pretzel, then like a corkscrew, eventually giving a little quiet pop like a fine champagne. There are no screams, no showers of blood and gristle; just terror culminating in death in the night and a growing fear of the book, even though their desperation for escape is stronger.

Distraught over Pâquerett’s death, Marcus throws the book out the window. Not so surprisingly, it returns, along with a fifth cellmate whose fetish for recording everything with a video camera shows them the way out. Will they use the book to escape? Will Carrère be able to see his son again? Sometimes, a room with no exit can be the safest place to be.

Unless, of course, you find an old book stuck in the wall.

LOTT D Horror Post Roundup

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white zombie Beware! The archives have been unburied, and the hideous horrors released! For your entertainment and edification pleasure, of course. Members of the League of Tana Tea Drinkers dig deep to find their past misdeeds…and reveal them to you!

It’s only academic for the fantastic Theofantastique to interview Dr. Adam Possamai, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Western Sydney. He has researched and written extensively on new religions, as well as the nexus of the fantastic in popular culture and its connection with spirituality to form what he has labeled “hyper-real spiritualities.”

Billy Loves Stu tells us how Roddy Piper and his tight jeans saved the world. From the moment we see him stroll into frame, his jeans fitting snugly, his blond streaked mullet flowing in the breeze; we instantly fall in love with part time actor/full time pro wrestler, Roddy Piper as the hero named Nada in 1988’s They Live.

The Vault of Horror continues with a Quarter-Century of Freddy Krueger. Told in timeline fashion, it incorporates all “canonical” events in the life of one Fred Krueger. And by canonical, I mean accepted by New Line as officially part of their character’s story. And yes, I’ll admit to a little license taken on my part to help “smooth things over,” if you will, and take care of any inconsistencies.

And Now the Screaming Starts gives us dinner and a movie with The Deaths of Ian Stone, and their recipe for manchego-stuffed zucchini blossoms with piquillo sauce. Yummy!

Special thanks to Dr. Macro’s High Quality Movie Scans for this week’s photo.

LOTT D Round Table:
Violence In Today’s Horror Movies
How Much Is Too Much?

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GoreOther scenes, while violent, fell within the range of contemporary horror films, which strive to invent new ways to kill people, so the horror fans in the audience will get a laugh (Roger Ebert, The Last House on the Left).

Is Roger Ebert right?

Are me and you and them, and all the rest of us horror fans who eagerly frequent the dark cinema at the ungodliest hours looking for new, effects-improved, and more stomach and psyche-sickening ways to see people killed? Are we jaded? Are we insensitive? Or are we just fans who know it’s all a bloody gag, a make-believe setup in a fantasy world. Even so, why do we get such a kick out of seeing other people get skewered, fricasseed and dismembered in ever-increasingly morbid ways?

The following members of LOTT D give their impressions on the subject.

Fascination With Fear shares its thoughts on contemporary violence in horror movies. Movie critics today (and probably always will) find horror fans inexplicable. They just don’t get why we run out to the latest horror movie on opening weekend. They simply do not understand we are looking for the next great horror flick. (Still looking…..)

TheoFantastique finds some truth in Roger Ebert’s blanket statement. In my commentary that follows I will relate my view that Ebert’s statement is both understandable and correct in a sense, and yet also indicative of an unfortunate stereotype about horror fans.

Groovy Age of Horror discusses the standards of horror fans and illustrates the difference between intended and unintended flaws in movies, and how they can make a quirky and appealing difference in the viewing experience.

And finally me. How do I feel about it? At first I took offense at Ebert’s statement: he includes every horror fan, which makes it dead wrong simply because not all of us want more creative and sadistic killing in horror movies. Some of us actually believe it is more important to scare us or make our hearts beat in terror, not disgust us. It comes down to effectively telling a story with all elements coordinated to enhance that telling in a skillful and emotionally compelling way–really the goal of every movie, not just horror.

But he still has a point; the tacked-on, completely gratuitous, microwave scene at the end of The Last House on the Left is the poster child for what inhibits horror from becoming more than the sum of its blood and gore and mayhem. Many horror movies pander to the lowest common denominator of visual effect, and get lost in the elements comprising the movie, instead of making us lose ourselves in the complete story being told.

What do you think?

LOTT D Horror Post Roundup

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frankenstein Beware! The archives have been unburied, and the hideous horrors released! For your entertainment and edification pleasure, of course. Members of the League of Tana Tea Drinkers dig deep to find their past misdeeds…and reveal them to you!

Theofantastique looks at two small screen treasures from the ’70s: Many readers will be familiar with House of Dark Shadows (1970), and The Night Stalker (1972) from this time period, but perhaps far fewer will be familiar with what I regard as two gems from the period: The Norliss Tapes and Satan’s Triangle.

Billy Loves Stu sends a letter to Camp Stonewater regarding The Burning: You might have heard that we had some problems up here … it’s true, seems that one of the former groundskeepers went a little nuts-o after some kids burnt him up a couple of years ago, and now the killjoy is trying to ruin it for everyone else. What a jerk.

The Vault of Horror celebrates a quarter-century of Freddy Krueger: That’s right, Mr. Fred Krueger has been haunting our dreams for one score and five years now, ever since Wes Craven first birthed him onto the cinematic landscape in 1984, one of the most brilliant creations since the heyday of Universal Studios.

Dinner With Max Jenke continues the Freddy frenzy: I can’t say that the Elm Street films were always favorites of mine but Freddy’s cult hero status was part of what made ’80s horror fun. There’s a whole generation of now-twentysomething horror fans who bought their first issues of FANGORIA because Freddy was on the cover.

LOTT D Horror Post Roundup

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Creature From the Black Lagoon

Beware! The archives have been unburied, and the hideous horrors released! For your entertainment and edification pleasure, of course. Members of the League of Tana Tea Drinkers dig deep to find their past misdeeds…and reveal them to you!

Will Reflections on Film and TV Let the Right One In? You be the judge. At first blush, the snow seems beautiful, but on closer reckoning you see it for what it is: a blanket of cold despair, covering everything, raining down. Endlessly down.

Billy Loves Stu parties with the all singing, all dancing, all slashing The Fan; a strange film that blends the typical slasher flick with a backstage fable about an older glamor gal attempting to reclaim her place at the top of the heap by agreeing to be in a musical. Imagine All About Eve meets He Knows Your Alone, or something like that.

There’s More!

The Vault of Horror goes all Part 2 in their never ending kaiju quest for Showa-era Godzilla (did they mean showering with Godzilla?). In case you missed it, here’s the first part of my loving dissection of Godzilla’s original cinematic exploits, wherein I spotlighted the first, and best, of them all, 1954’s Gojira. Now let’s pick things up with the first sequel, and move on from there.

Igloo of the Uncanny isn’t joking when it names British Comedy Greats doing horror! Comedy is easy, horror is hard.

Theofantastique reveals its love affair with the bloodsucking Brady bunch in Lost Boys. One of my favorite vampire films is a “cult” classic, Joel Schumacher’s 1987 film The Lost Boys. I was therefore pleased to find a paper presented by Jeremy Tirrell at the national convention of the Popular Culture Association that deals with the film titled “The Bloodsucking Brady Bunch: Reforming the Family Unit in the The Lost Boys.

The Drunken Severed Head draws a complete picture around the art of Universal Monster Army’s Linda Miller. She’s also a natural wit, and a librarian by trade. Like me, she is a member of the Universal Monster Army. At the UMA she impresses everyone with her watercolor renderings of classic horror scenes.

The Haunting In Connecticut (2009)
Boo Who?

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the haunting in connecticutSince its inception in the field of spiritualism, the concept of ectoplasm has escaped to become a staple in popular culture and fictional supernatural lore. Notable examples include Noel Coward’s 1941 play Blithe Spirit, and the 1984 film Ghostbusters, in which “ectoplasmic residue” secreted by ghosts is portrayed as viscous, cloudy and greenish-white, similar to nasal mucus, famously referred to in Bill Murray’s lines “Your mucous”, and “He slimed me!” (Wikipedia).

Zombos Says: Good

Right before I drove to the theater last night, to watch a late showing of The Haunting in Connecticut, a lightning storm sparkled and boomed through Westbury, dropping pea-sized hail and fat raindrops by the bucketful. Perfectly horrid weather for, as it turned out, a not so perfect horror movie. While director Peter Cornwell and writers did manage to startle me twice, The Haunting in Connecticut has more in common with Tobe Hooper’s energetic spookfest Poltergeist than the lingering, atmospheric scares in Lewis Allen’s The Uninvited or Robert Wise’s The Haunting, but not enough in common to make it as good.

The Snedeker family’s travails with a reportedly true-life demonic haunting in Southington, Connecticut have been documented (I’ll leave it up to you if you’d like to put quotes around documented or not) in an episode of A Haunting, which aired on the Discovery Channel, and in Ray Garton’s book, In A Dark Place. Taking the cheerless funeral home ambiance and malevolent presence aspects of their paranormal experience, the movie embellishes it with necromancy, runic magic, angry earthbound spirits (earthbound spirits in horror movies always seem to be angry), and spiritualism. This backstory, involving seances run by the sinister Dr. Aickman and his reluctant medium, Jonah, would have made a more effective and terrifying movie entirely on its own.

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The Haunting In Connecticut (2009)
Boo Who?Read More »

LOTT D Horror Post Roundup

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Ride-'em-cowboy Howdy Pardners! Kick up those spurs and tilt those hats, it’s time for another month’s worth of favorite posts from the notorious LOTT D horror ranch. They’re lined up and waitin’ for you…grab your partner and dos-i-do, round the middle and on your toes!

Igloo of the Uncanny kills his fourth best friend while reviewing the Swarm.

Unspeakable Horror! blows the Whistle to Open Worlds and analyzes the black beast stereotype we all fear.

Blogue Macabre goes all sci fi and reveals the answers behind Battlestar Galactica’s mind-blowing series finale.

The Drunken Severed Head sends us this timely tribute to Uncle Forry, held at the Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles, from Jim Bertges.

Slasher Speak is hovering on Cloud 9 over their Bram Stoker Award nom for the speakably good Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet, named a finalist for Superior Achievement in an Anthology. Way to go!

Mad Mad Mad Mad Movies tells us not to judge Savage Weekend by it’s boom mike or other technical faults or “egregious continuity flubs, shots framed with some foreign object (possibly the cameraman’s thumb) obscuring the top of the lens, and…” because it does “add some cool performances by David “Dr. Hill in Re-Animator” Gale (with rockin’ 70s ‘stache!) and William “This is my brother Darryl, this is my other brother Darryl” Sanderson playing (what else?) a country bumpkin with a difference, and I think it’s an undiscovered gem. Check it out.”