Shadow Out Of Time, by Harold V. Brown
“After twenty-two years of nightmare and terror, saved only by a desperate conviction of the mythical source of certain impressions, I am unwilling to vouch for the truth of that which I think I found in Western Australia on the night of July 17–18, 1935.”
— H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Out Of Time
The King In Yellow by Earl Geier
Camilla: “You, sir, should unmask.”
Stranger: “Indeed?”
Cassilda: “Indeed it’s time. We have all laid aside disguise but you.”
Stranger: “I wear no mask.”
Camilla: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda.) “No mask? No mask!”
— The Mask by Robert Chambers
It’s always good to see the old gang back together again.
Enjoy!
Not all good Halloween scenes have to come from a movie. Sometimes, they can come from a video game!
One of my favorite missions in PS4’s Spider-Man is Back To School. That’s where you, as Spider-Man, have to search the Empire State University Halloween Party for an Oscorp scientist named Dr. Delaney and rescue him from Mister Negative and the Demons. Because it’s a Halloween party, you should be able to search for Delaney without anyone realizing that you’re the Spider-Man. The bad news is that, again because it’s a Halloween party, almost every party goer is dressed up like one of your enemies. And when Mister Negative does attack, it turns out that a drunk college student dressed up like the Rhino can be almost as dangerous as the actual Rhino!
Halloween City by Karl Pfieffer
Well, Halloween’s fast approaching and that means that it’s time for people to start thinking about what they’re going to watch on the big night.
Now, of course, you can always watch the old favorites, like Halloween or Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street (or any of their numerous sequels, remakes, and reboots). In fact, if you’re expecting a lot of trick-or-treaters, I can understand why you might want to go with the old dependables as opposed to trying to focus on something that you haven’t seen before.
However, if you’re looking for a new film to watch on Halloween, here are 6 good horror films that, sadly, don’t seem to be as well-known as they deserve to be. If any of these movies are new to you, October 31st might be just the day for you to experience them!
This is a horror film that I recommend to everyone. It’s a slightly satirical story about college students being turned into homicidal murderers. Along with all of the blood and the expected jump scenes, Strange Behavior is also a quirky portrait of life in a small town. It’s the type of film where a collection of 1940s character actors (including the great Charles Lane) share the screen with 70s character actors like Michael Murphy and they all try to figure out how a seemingly dead scientist is programming the town’s children to be murderers. The dialogue is frequently witty, the soundtrack is amazing, and there’s even an impromptu dance scene that comes out of nowhere!
2. Messiah of Evil (1973)
This is another film that I frequently recommend to my horror-loving friends. This is perhaps the most surreal zombie/vampire film ever made. A woman comes to a town to visit her father and she soon discovers that everyone in the town is acting strangely. This one features plenty of hippie action, a surprisingly large amount of clips from a Sammy Davis, Jr. film, an albino who eats rats and talks about how much he loves “Wagner” (which he pronounces with a “W” instead of a “V”), and some of the strangest imagery that you’ll eve see in a low-budget horror film.
3. The Possession of Joel Delaney (1972)
Shirley MacClaine is a spoiler socialite who discovers that her younger brother, Perry King, has been possessed by the spirit of a murderer. Though this film is often dismissed as being just another Exorcist clone, it actually came out before The Exorcist and, in many ways, it’s even more disturbing than the seminal shocker. The ending will give you nightmares.
George Romero takes on vampires and the end result is unlike any vampire film that you’ve seen. Martin thinks he’s a vampire. His grandfather thinks he’s a vampire. Is Martin really a vampire? In the end, the film suggests that it might not really matter. A disturbing and sad film that has unexpected moments of humor, Martin also features Romero himself in the role of a well-meaning priest.
From the great Jean Rollin, it’s France’s first zombie film! In this one, people are being turned into zombies by contaminated wine. How many of your friends would become zombiefied as a result?
6. Mountaintop Motel Massacre (1983)
Finally, if you just have to watch a slasher this Halloween, why not check into the Mountaintop Motel? Evelyn will be more than happy to check you in and check you right back out.
“Happy Halloween!”
How free are we? “I am the doorway” by Stephen King is an early work. It was published in 1971, when he was just 24. For context, we’d just gotten back from the moon 2 years prior. The stories in Night Shift were gathered from this time period. “I am the doorway” was published by Cavalier (see above). I always thought that was odd not that Stephen King was getting published, but Cavalier? Cavalier was a “Men’s” magazine. I always thought that was strange and must be unique to the 1960s and early 1970s where people paired their Men’s magazines with literature and poetry. Shel Silverstein wrote poetry for Playboy. I guess that’s where The Sidewalk really ended?
The stories in Night Shift, and “I am the doorway” revolve around free will and how free we actually are by outside influence. The occult is present of course, but that’s tangential. The real meat of Stephen’s stories are always about the people living with the monsters. In these early stories, it’s the people who are the monsters. Either people are pulling their strings, life is pulling their strings, or monsters because this was his life. He was newly married, he had kids on the way, and he was working jobs from substitute teaching and doing laundry to meet the bills. Very few of us are free and if you think you are one of the Select, stop paying your credit card or student loan for a couple of cycles and get back to me.
The will once given up can’t be retrieved, you’re trapped like Richard in Quitters Inc.. Blood called to blood in Jerusalem’s Lot from generations forward, poking free will right in the eye. In Salem’s Lot, Ben Mears described his oddly fortuitous meeting of Susan Norton – Ben Mears’ love interest- as if the “universe were making some sort of cosmic bread.” When the will is taken away, it can be retrieved with a cost like in Jerusalem’s Lot or in this story “I am the Doorway”. The main point is that if we give into the darkness like the teenagers did in Night Surf, we are gone for good. The will itself is like origami beautiful, fragile, and unique to the individual. The will is cajoled, stolen, sold, and bought back. The will for King appears to be akin to the soul. Perhaps that’s why giving up one’s will to a higher power is so challenging and difficult to do?
“I am the doorway” is told as a first person narrative by Arthur who was an astronaut to Venus. He gets exposed to alien cooties and starts to morph…grossly. He develops eyes on his hands, which allows the aliens from Venus to see into our world. Although he is disabled, when he falls asleep, the Venusians hijack his body and make him kill with lightning bolt powers. The first victim is a child. He understands that the Venutians will invade using him as a portal somehow. Maybe he could try Atkins and get really small? To stop the invasion, he tries to burn the eyes off of his hands with Kerosene, but 7 years later, eyes open on his chest or as Stephen King would write “Sometimes They Come Back”.
Arthur can get his will back and stop the murders and the invasion, but the price will be the highest he can pay. Like Arthur, we have these external forces in our lives. Whether we are really free or not, I don’t really think so. However, I know that some will is meant to be abdicated. You give some freedom for the best moments in your life: marriage and children. Both take up time and limit your freedom (no spur of the moment Vegas Trips and getting out the door can be interminable), but they complete a part of yourself that was missing and desperately needed to be found and they kinda look you and act like you, or the UPS man. Maybe giving up some of our will is the only way we can grow? Perhaps the doorway for us is to wisdom.
Happy Halloween Havoc!!!! Is it enough for horror to just be fun and even funny? YES! American Werewolf in London or anything by John Landis really proves that. Creepshow on Shudder is all about just sitting back and having some gory fun. This show is so wonderfully over the top that the 90s have returned. Let’s all put away our black turtle necks and put on some Hammerpants and watch some great horror.
Bad Wolf Down is a werewolves in World War II story…Really! It was a lot of fun. Then, when I saw Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator) playing a Nazi, I realized this show is THE AWESOMENESS! An american platoon gets trapped behind enemy lines and takes refuge in an abandoned police station. They find a woman in the jail who is a french werewolf. This seems relevant because they really spend a lot of time translating.
The Head Nazi (Jeffrey Combs) finds the american platoon and will wipe them out, but the platoon gets the french werewolf to turn them into werewolves and they go and kill a bunch of Nazis. That’s it…Really!
The Finger is your lonely guy adopts a self-regenerating-human-eating-Alien story. I know…I know .. another one?! Clark Wilson (DJ Qualls) is a twice divorced down and out guy who has nothing going for him- until he finds a finger. The finger looks alien and when he spills beer on it, it re-generates into a medium-sized alien and becomes his pet. He calls the alien Bob. Bob becomes Clark’s best friend and as any best friend would do, Bob eats all of Clark’s enemies. He also brings back body parts from the kill like my old cat did. Sidenote: I had a cat who used to bring me squirrel heads. He’d line them on my porch. Bob is like that. The police eventually arrest Clark for the murders, but Bob might break him out.
The finger is told by Clark in real-time narration, which really adds to the comedy. He looks dead into the camera, talking directly to us. Also, it’s especially fun watching DJ Qualls hang out with a bro-alien- Brolien. If you wanna chill, watch this!!!!
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
This October, we’re using 4 Shots From 4 Films to look at some of the best years that horror has to offer!
4 Shots From 4 1978 Horror Films:
Dawn of the Dead (1978, dir by George Romero)
The Grapes of Death (1978, dir by Jean Rollin)
Halloween (1977, dir by John Carpenter)
Martin (1978, dir by George Romero)
Happy Horrorthon! 2008 – Barack Obama was becoming a household name, I still had some hair, and Heath Ledger’s Joker brought the absolute evil of clowns to the silver screen. I understand that some of you might think that the comic Joker is not a horror comic, but guys it’s got a clown right there on the cover; they are ALL trying to kill you. IT COUNTS!
Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo sought to bring Ledger’s Joker into a comic form and dig a little deeper into the psychology of Joker and why someone would follow him. The story is narrated by Jonny Frost – a small time gangster- who wanted to be big. Jonny figures that he himself is not larger than life, but by being near bright evil, he too could shine like the moon does with the earth. He picks the Joker.
Christopher Nolan described the Joker as an absolute. He is an id of Corruption and destruction. In this story, the Joker has gotten out of Arkham….again. SIDE NOTE: what’s with Gotham?! They must have the single party liberal governing that we have in Seattle because you’d think they’d have a Three Strikes Rule or the Death Penalty by now. I mean, why let the Joker continue to keep breathing? I get how Batman has this weird code- he wears rubber, cape, lives in a cave, and is all kinds of weirdo, but why do the rest of Gotham’s citizens have it? Do they not vote? Do they have only one ballot choice? So, the Joker meets Jonny Frost the second that he leaves Arkham and Jonny works as a toady and hanger on for the majority of the book.
Jonny narrates the Joker’s return to power as he reaps through the underworld, but he burns most of his possessions down and kills all of his own henchmen and even shoots Jonny at the end. Really, the story depicted the Joker as a force of Anti-Creation. While it was a deeper dive into this Super Villain, it left me wanting because it was told through the lens of this mediocrity Jonny Frost. It says Joker right there on the cover so you’d think it would be all about the Clown Prince of Crime, but instead it was this tangential view of him. I would’ve been more captivated by a story just about the Joker without a go-between.
The story was strong and depicting LOTS AND LOTS of gore. In fact, the Joker kills more people than the Spanish Flu. He’s Lucifer and Death combined to cause havoc. In the end, we get the obvious conclusion that he’s just this disease of evil and that Batman is really just a treatment, but not a cure. It seems that Gotham’s real disease is a soft on crime public policy.
What if you’re not crazy? What if you’re finally seeing the truth that everyone else is too afraid to see? Is the revelation too much for your mind? Could your mind be both the doorway to hell and the gate keeping the evil old ones at bay? Most importantly, can a person’s mental illness infect another person? Stephen King’s “N” is a hybrid of Lovecraft and Modern Psychology where we are forced to learn the answers to these questions.
The story was both a novella and adapted as a comic book/olde-timey radio-show. Confused? Let me explain. N was first published as a novella, but instead of getting made into a comic book or as is typical of King’s work- a movie or miniseries, it became something else. Marc Guggenheim adapted the work as an all dialogue webseries similar to the serials of the 1930s and 40s and presented the story as a series of hyper-detailed comic illustrations. You can see it in its entirety below.
I have also read the novella several times. Honestly, sometimes I’m not sure why I like a particular Stephen King story more than another, but it seems to be when the characters are so real that they could be you or your neighbor. Yes, the monsters are spooky, but it’s the people, their story, their lives, who just happen to have to also deal with a monster or four.
The story begins with Sheila Bonsaint who is in mourning from her brother’s suicide. She is calling her friend who is reminiscent of Anderson Cooper to look into why her brother John killed himself. She believes it’s because of his contact with a patient named N. The story shifts to John’s perspective describing a patient N who suffers from extreme OCD. N believes his OCD rituals keep the portals between our world and the hell world closed.
N describes how he encountered a field with rocks similar to Stonehenge in Maine and that by viewing the structure, he caused the structure to activate and potentially release an ancient evil that will consume mankind. He begins to do OCD rituals to keep the portal closed, but realizes that he must sacrifice his life in order to shut the gate forever. Unfortunately, John becomes infected by N’s mental disorder and becomes overcome with the need to investigate the structure, which activates it again and causes him to spiral into the same OCD as N.
This story struck a very strong chord with me. Last year, I began to take a long road into facing my own PTSD experiences in the Army. When I would tell the medical professionals in the VA about what happened, one cried. My stories had infected them and left them different afterwards. The world was less clean, less safe, and much darker. Now, like N, if I have to tell a person the stories, I begin by saying that I am sorry because what I will tell you, will change you. I suppose that is what humanity does; we share our burdens and our curses. Maybe that’s how we keep the gate to hell closed?
