I had seen her – it – many times, of course. It sat in the corner of the glass cabinet, propped up among the many relics and trophies of my friend and mentor Malachi Burke’s celebrated career as a detective; an ugly little rag-doll in a blue-checked dress, with black curls of yarn and a … Continue reading The Dress Shop Doll: A Malachi Burke Mystery
Horror
Friday Flotsam: Mostly On Halloween
1. "The spirit of wickedness in high places is now so powerful and so many-headed in its incarnations that there seems nothing more to do than personally to refuse to worship any of the hydra's heads."-J.R.R. Tolkien (from a letter written in late 1969) 2. Our problem with Halloween is that we miss half the … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Mostly On Halloween
Thought of the Day: Bram Stoker’s Classic Story
From Fathom Events, I discovered that tonight they're showing Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (which may be the most ludicrous adaptational title expansion on record). I find that they begin their summary this way: Based on Bram Stoker's classic and dark love story about the vampire who travels from Eastern Europe to England in … Continue reading Thought of the Day: Bram Stoker’s Classic Story
Fun Horror Movie Anecdotes
Here are a handful of entertaining behind-the-scenes horror film stories: -The cast and crew of Frankenstein are gathering to drive to location. It's the day they film the (in)famous scene where the monster encounters little Maria, and the crew are nervous. Boris Karloff is in full makeup and costume, and 7-year old Marilyn Harris has … Continue reading Fun Horror Movie Anecdotes
Reviews: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932)
There are some curious superlative exceptions in the history of cinema. The great epic of the American screen – Gone With the Wind – was made by someone other than Cecil B. DeMille. Humphrey Bogart’s greatest romantic role was opposite someone other than Lauren Bacall. And, in my opinion, the best and most frightening horror … Continue reading Reviews: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932)
Review: The Screaming Skull
“It’s only a noise after all, and a noise never hurt anybody yet.” So says the narrator of F. Marion Crawford’s classic ghost story The Screaming Skull regarding the strange screams that sometimes sound in the night around his house on the Cornish coast. Screams that may be the wind, but are not quite that … Continue reading Review: The Screaming Skull
Review: ‘The Thing’
It’s October, moving toward the Halloween season, and you know what that means: time for horror movies! And kicking off the season for me is a film I’ve been meaning to get around to seeing for years: John Carpenter’s The Thing, the 1982 remake of Howard Hawks’s 1951 classic, The Thing From Another World, both … Continue reading Review: ‘The Thing’
Jekyll and Hyde at Catholic Match
For my Halloween post at Catholic Match, I got to gush a little about one of my all-time favorite horror films, 1931's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: You all know the basic outline of the story: the brilliant, good Dr. Jekyll uses a chemical potion to transform himself in the evil Mr. Hyde, the embodiment of all … Continue reading Jekyll and Hyde at Catholic Match
Thoughts on ‘Freddy vs. Jason’
If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll know that I have a habit of referencing Freddy vs. Jason as a go-to example of solid writing. So, for Halloween, I figured I'd delve a bit into why. 2003's Freddy vs. Jason was the final film for both the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street franchises, at least … Continue reading Thoughts on ‘Freddy vs. Jason’
Thoughts on ‘The Cabin in the Woods’
The other day I watched The Cabin in the Woods for the first time. I have to say, for a film with such a high reputation, I was really not impressed. The set up is that it's your standard '80s horror film; a bunch of college students go out to a, yes, cabin in the woods, where … Continue reading Thoughts on ‘The Cabin in the Woods’
Serpent's Den 