Trollhunter

Okay, so I'm a little late on the bandwagon on this one.  This particular gem actually came out in June.  And I started to watch it, only, I got distracted by, you know--life, and I just back to it this past week.  And wow!  There's a movie I hadn't realized I would like so much.  It could be potentially silly, could of  been ridiculous, could have been campy and laughable.  But it wasn't.  I've never in my life, including childhood been scared of trolls.  The only thing I knew about trolls, is from childhood fairy tales about  The Three Billy Goats Gruff.  And the trolls in The Hobbit (one of my all-time faves, it's the book that introduced me to the idea that trolls turn to stone in the daylight).   I have to say, though, this movie won't scare you, it's not horror, but it's a damn good movie that you shouldn't pass up.

[caption id="attachment_956" align="aligncenter" width="549" caption="This is Hans, Trollhunter Extraordinaire!"][/caption]

Okay, Synopsis:  There is a young camera crew (a trio) who are looking for this guy that, according to the bear hunters in the area, is poaching bears.  So the camera crew find him--his name's Hans, and he's all like, "Nope, I don't poach bears, I'm a troll hunter."  So the camera crew, who think this guy is either soft in the head or just joking, ask if they can come along and tape him whilst troll hunting.  And lo, and behold--there by trolls in that forest!  Once again, I gotta say, the troll could have cartoony or just stupid looking, but no, it's a pretty decent looking troll with three heads, and Hans, trollhunter, gives him a dose of his truck mounted UV lights and the troll turns to stone.  And the camera crew is shocked and exhilarated-this guy is for real!  I mean, come on, anyone would be-if you just found out that a mythical creature exists and your government's not only aware, but goes to great pains to hide the fact.

[caption id="attachment_959" align="aligncenter" width="549" caption="Check it out--Troll as big as a skyscraper and Hans is like, "I got this"..."][/caption]

Alright that enough spoilers--if you haven't seen it, don't wait like I did--it's pretty darn good.  And I hope there will be a Trollhunter 2.  I just love random movies that bring some new element in, and just make it work.  This is one of them.  Now, I need to find some sort of troll books to bone up on my troll mythos.

[caption id="attachment_957" align="aligncenter" width="549" caption="Can't have a troll movie without a bridge scene"][/caption]

Scary Stories To Tell In the Dark by Alvin Schwartz

[caption id="attachment_942" align="alignleft" width="93" caption="Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark---Seriously, what kid could resist this?"][/caption]

Even though the books and illustrations of Edward Gorey are wonderfully creepy, when I was kid, I'd never been exposed to his work.  One of my first exposures to the wonderful genre that his folklore/urban legends/horror (besides my mother) was this series--Scary Stories to Tell in The Dark by Alvin Schwartz.  The series is basically thin books each with some creepy tales based on folklore and urban legends.  Anyone who knows me, knows I love love love urban legends like I love breathing, and this is the series that introduced me to them.  The books are mostly black and white, the tales themselves, pretty creepy, especially when you're a 8 year old kid reading at night by the light coming from the bathroom (it was the only way I could read at night, considering I shared a room with 2 sisters.  Anyhoo, those little tales were made even creepier with Stephen Gammell's illustrations...pure genius!  I'm pretty sure I even had a few nightmares that my kid psyche forced me to repress...that's how good they were, and still are.  I highly recommend traumatizing your tykes--buy them these(who are we kidding, buy them for yourself)--they will love them!  In all seriousness though, this set is one of the most challenged books according to the American Library Association because of their violence (hey I turned out alright).  Keep in mind though, that The Harry Potter Series and books like A Wrinkle In Time are on that list of challenged books too.

 

 

[caption id="attachment_945" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Srsly? Who let me check these books out?"][/caption]

Remember:  buy your kid the books, don't let them read till bedtime, tell them they can't read because they have to go to sleep, but leave a flashlight conveniently on their little nightstand, then let the the fun begin.  Be prepared to have an impromptu sleepover though, or, as in my particular case, be prepared to have an insomniac pre-teen (be kind, buy the kid a nightlight).

[caption id="attachment_948" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Nightmare inducing? I think so."][/caption]

There are some great stories that I think most of us would recognize, like the oft-told around campfire tale of THE GOLDEN ARM, and the one about the girl with the beehive in which a spider laid its eggs, and the bride that was never found after a game of hide and seek....good stuff.  

 

It's when I recall books like this, I can't wait to have a little girl to scare the bejeezus out of her.

 

Seriously, it's Halloween time...the series is perfect.  Check out some of the stories on youtube.  There are quite a few posted on there.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVIGcOinSFY&w=420&h=315]

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak108MwUJ6I&w=420&h=315]

 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEtTh0vYMKI&w=420&h=315]

Red State

A horror movie by Silent Bob, I mean Kevin Smith, naturally, I was intrigued.  I love Silent Bob.  I love his love for Star Wars, his small role in the latest Die Hard, his itty bitty cameo in Scream 3, and I love Dogma. Red State is  not really a horror film in the typical sense.  Basically, the premise, without giving too much away is there is creepy preacher dude who leads a cult of mostly family members, who basically hate everyone whose not white and straight.  Of course, creepy preacher and his family/cult live in an out of the way compound armed to teeth for-I don't know-Armageddon, or for when the ATF or FBI or Homeland Security decide to "intervene".  Now the preacher of this intolerant religion, played to perfection by Michael Parks, is taking action against sexual deviants in the name of the lord.  You should watch, and I don't want to give away to much details.  I will say though, that they do entrap some poor idiotic teens just looking for some action.

I don't know about you--but intolerance sure horrifies me.  And if that isn't horrifying enough, John Goodman (whom I love), is the ATF (person, officer, idk what, but guy in charge) who leads his team to the compound.  They are unaware of hostages inside.  John Goodman's character is a good guy, yet, he follows orders, and they aren't necessarily good orders--I'm pretty sure they weren't legal orders.  Let's just say--the same guys probably made the same decisions for Ruby Ridge and Waco.

[caption id="attachment_930" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="This type of blind devotion always gives me the heebie-jeebies"][/caption]

Then there is this great trumpet scene (yes, I'm being deliberately vague) that for a while made me think this movie was going to go all M. Night Shyamalan spooky, but it didn't. But it wasn't a disappointment, because it turned out to be a great comedic angle that only Kevin Smith can pull off.

There's no typical horror fanfare.  No mirror scare, no creepy music, no evil children or satanic possession or any other typical horror film elements.  But it's still horror, because it does elicit fear and disgust (in people, in creepy intolerant religions, government, etc.) and it's all the more horrifying because there's no devil to blame it on.  No supernatural or psychopath to point the finger at.  Just horrifying, disgusting people.

[caption id="attachment_932" align="aligncenter" width="549" caption="Creepy, Intolerant Redneck PreacherIdiot teenagers, wrong place-wrong time"][/caption]

The Horror Club: Megan is Missing (2011)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Horror Club: Megan is Missing (2011).

Excerpt from review:  "If this movie doesn't make you feel dirty enough to live in a shower for 3 days after watching it, you're probably a serial killer."

It's very rare that I find a movie that actually scares me; thrills me-yes, great story-yes, beautiful or awesome effects-yes, but really scared-no, not really.   But this movie scares me, made me feel dirty for watching it, as if I was the perv, and it made me want to make the internet illegal for anyone under 21, seriously.  I wanted to write a review of Megan is Missing, but I found this one on The Horror Club, that basically said everything I wanted to say. Click the link above to read an awesome review of it.  

Rent it. Buy it. Netflix it.  Watch it.  Take away your teenagers internet.



Side note:  I'm sure I'm not the only one who noticed when the news anchor went on and on about popular, pretty, white Megan Stewart and her disappearance,  interview clips with her mother and friends, complete with mini Megan Stewart biography and Megan Stewart slide show and her stats THEN the news anchor devoted a whole 12 seconds to a missing Crenshaw boy, Tercell Jackson-he's 13, no other info was said about Tercell.  Social commentary about the bias of the news--I think so.

What's in a Dream?

I took this awesomely interesting psych course years ago that had a few chapters on dreams. That was just the coolest thing to me--that people studied dreams.  We only touched the subject briefly, but I read those chapters on my own.  And I learned that one could "train" oneself to remember their dreams, and even cooler, one could learn to control the dream.  For three years, I wrote in a dream journal everyday.  At first, the dreams were brief, only half-remembered.  As time went on, I was writing down two or three dreams every morning.  I could wake up, roll over, go back to sleep and pick up where I left off.  Now some of my dreams were grossly effed up---I mean, Jung and Freud would've had a field day, I would wake the next day, write it all down in my journal and wonder "what the bleep is wrong with me?" Why would I dream that?--and that reminds me, I should burn the book before I die.  But some dreams were amazingly entertaining, or frightening, or achingly beautiful.  When I filled up the book, I stopped and haven't tried since then, and I hardly recall my dreams anymore.  I should really try to make some time and start back up.

Okay--first off, EVERYONE dreams.  You will hear a friend or perhaps even you say, "I don't dream."   Well, that's not true.  Everyone does, they just don't remember.

Second--Why do we dream?  Ahhh...we've asked ourselves this question, but have yet to come up with an answer.  The current theories are:  They serve no purpose, it's just the brain entertaining itself.  And:  It's our brain weaving the days events, our emotions and the like, into our memories, and perhaps, in doing so, helps us deal with any stress we may be dealing with.  Our brain is basically cataloging the events, much as a computer would.  Another theory is that our brains are interpreting stimuli as we sleep, for example, we may hear a radio playing in our sleep and our brain incorporates that into a dream.  A modern theory, and the one that I like, incorporates several old theories into one:  our brains are connecting loose connections between thoughts and ideas, which are then guided by the emotions of the dreamer.

Dream interpreters have been around for as long as there have been dreams. And why not?  Dreams are fascinating!  In Greek and Roman mythology, Dreams were a direct line from the gods.  People believed they were messages from the deities.  Interpreters would interpret the meaning or message of the dream.  Actually every culture has it's own dream interpreters.  Don't forget:  Joseph (owner of the multicolored coat)  got himself out of slavery into a cushy position by the pharaoh for correctly interpreting his dream  (through the power of God, of course).  Who knows, perhaps Joseph was just very intuitive, or perhaps he saw the signs of a famine in the making,  or maybe he truly was given the answer by God--he was revered for "his gift" of dream interpretation.

[caption id="attachment_905" align="aligncenter" width="549" caption="Joseph interpreting the Pharaoh's dream"][/caption]

What is the purpose of dreams?  There will never be an answer that will satisfy everyone.  Are they entertainment--a movie for the mind?  Are they simply what our brains are playing while storing junk in our memories?  Are they whichever God you worship sending you a message?  I don't know--but I can and will tell you my own personal beliefs.  Dreams are a combination of all those theories.  The dreams I had of my dad for years after his death helped me deal with my grief.  The dreams I had of vampires after watching the week long Buffy marathon were simply entertainment.  The dream I had of showing up to school naked was my young self dealing with stress at a young age.  The effed up dreams I had just made me realize that I have a really sick imagination,  but don't necessarily have any deeper meaning than that(God, I hope they don't).  More than anything else, writing down and re-reading my dreams for three years, helped me learn a lot about myself.

You know how we all, as humans, share certain dreams-like the one where we are falling, only to awaken on the floor.  Or the one where we got to class or work naked?  I bet cavemenwere dreaming the same thing--Grog awakens on the floor of his cave having rolled off his animal-skin bed, or Grog wakes up sweaty and terrified from a nightmare in which he found himself the only naked neanderthal in the hunting party.  Well, that last one may not be too accurate, I imagine public nudity was probably not a big deal for historic man. Hmmm... that could mean, the naked dream we all have is a relatively modern stress dream.  And to that end-does that mean Americans suffer from that nightmare more, since Europeans claim that Americans have more hangups about nudity than they do?  Food for thought.   Still, Gary Larson could have made that into a funny cartoon.

[caption id="attachment_898" align="aligncenter" width="220" caption="Doesn't have anything to do with my post--I just love Gary Larson's The Far Side"][/caption]

Well, I hope I didn't bore you too much with random thoughts.  This is a horror blog--dammit!  How can I relate dreams to horror?

That's easy: A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Yeah, we haven't talked about nightmares have we?  Dreaming about going to school naked makes us anxious and embarrassed.  But it does not horrify, not truly.  At least once in our life's we have awoken in a sweat, terrified by what our brains conjured up for us in our nightmares.  We can explain away nightmares easily by saying our brains re-interpreted our stress or trauma into monsters in our nightmares.   Sure, looks good on paper, but anyone who has ever had a nightmare or night terrors, wonders if that explanation is enough in the dead of night. Maybe, just maybe we got a glimpse into a nightmare world.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adgp0v_mfTk&w=560&h=345]

In A Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddy Krueger, a dead child murderer, stalks the children of his murderers and kills them in their dreams.  Now in this movie franchise, the dreamscape is an actual if not physical place, one in which the dead, in this case Freddy Krueger, can physically harm and kill his victims.  To the waking world, the teenager has died in unusual circumstances, Freddy's special finger knives leave their marks, but those not in the dream don't know how kid died.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AORVA5yBx48&w=560&h=345]

One by one, the teens fall asleep and succumb to Freddy's nightmare never to awaken in some really awesomely gruesome scenes.  As I kid, I was totally impressed with the then-unknown Johnny Depp's death scene...all that blood just gushing from the bed.  How in the hell could a person have so much blood?

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4QelsRitAQ&w=420&h=345]

Somehow, this monster can manipulate dreams and the teens are helpless against him.  They try to stay awake.  The main character, Nancy Thompson, spends a few days drinking coffee in an attempt to remain awake and stay alive.  But humans need sleep, and against her own will Nancy is forced to sleep.  Her mother has her committed and she is given a sedative.  In the nightmare, Nancy grapples with Freddy, and when she wakes she finds she has pulled his fedora out of the dream into the waking world.  So Nancy, the Final Girl in this film, realize she can fight back.  She proceeds to booby trap her house.  She then goes to sleep in order to pull Freddy from the Dream world into reality.

[caption id="attachment_903" align="aligncenter" width="460" caption="My All-Time Fave Scene from ANOES"][/caption]

In an interview with Wes Craven he said that the essential premise of A Nightmare on Elm Street was "based on a series of small articles that ran in the Los Angeles Times about people inexplicably dying in their sleep." 

The articles are proof that sometimes truth can be stranger than fiction. There is an unsettling sameness to the stories, which Craven clipped and saved. First a young Asian immigrant died after telling his parents about a disturbing nightmare. Six months later another young man had a disquieting nightmare and died in his bed after going back to sleep. "The eeriest case was a boy who had a nightmare that was worse than anything, " according to Craven. "His family tried to quiet his nerves, and he refused to sleep. He stayed up several nights, and they sent for a doctor who gave him sleeping pills. The kid threw them away. Finally there was a night when the kid could not stay up any longer, and he went to sleep. The house was quiet at last. The parents were relieved that their kid was getting some rest. Then they heard this horrendous scream from the bedroom." 
The parents ran in and found the boy thrashing in his bed, only to fall still a moment later and die. "An autopsy revealed there was nothing wrong with him, no heart failure or any reason for his death. He was just dead."

"I became fascinated with the idea of harm happening to a person in such a way that people would not be able to clearly discern if the harm came in a dram or if it came in reality. Those two notions became the backbone of the idea of a killer murdering someone in their sleep. "


Is this true?  I have found many articles on line about sleeping death syndrome, but they are all about Asians.  Everything else I have ever read is that if you die in your dream you don't really die in real life.  The only explanation I could think of is that perhaps fear killed them.  Or perhaps they all suffered from sleep apnea.  Who knows?  But I know that it inspired a kick-ass, if cliched movie franchise and induced nightmares in kids all over the world.  And for me, personally, a new way to torture my little sister.

Tell me your worst nightmares.

[caption id="attachment_900" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="This must be for adult collectors. Because who the hell would buy their kid a doll of a child murderer? Sick! I want one!"][/caption]

John Dies at the End

First off, I am completely guilty of judging books and movies by their covers AND their titles.  When I first heard of the movie, There Will Be Blood, I was totally psyched to see the movie, because with a title like that, how could it not be excellent.  The movie was not at all what I expected, but I wasn't disappointed.  I still think that it should be the title of a zombie flick, or a vampire movie.  So when this particular novel popped up on my Amazon.com suggestions, I was intrigued.  And just like There Will Be Blood, John Dies at the End wasn't what I expected, but I was not at all disappointed.

I finished this book about two weeks ago, but I couldn't put into words what I felt about the story.  I knew I liked it, but I didn't really know why. And the book is so involved, I think I needed time to digest everything that occurred.  I'm not entirely sure what to define this as, except as a comedy(?), it wasn't always scary, but it was really funny. And eerie, then creepy, but always funny.   And I guess since it deals with alternate realities and demons it is part of the supernatural spectrum of the horror genre.  I mean, bad things happen in this book--like end of the world type shit.  But John and Dave are so funny; and nonchalant about the what they see and experience, you find yourself chuckling despite the horror going on around them (at least I did).

This book is jam-packed with comedy and action.  I know I couldn't put it down because I wanted to find out the rest of the story.

Synopsis:  First, the book is told in the first person narrative by David Wong, the author and one of the main characters.  He's telling the whole weird tale to an investigative reporter who has heard of Dave and John through weird web blogs that talk about the supernatural events Dave and John have "taken care of".  Dave Wong (not his real name btw, he's not even Asian)  then spins this unreal, tangled tale of demons and alternate universes that want to take over our own world.  And it all began for these two slackers (John and David) with a drug called soy sauce.  John and David, a pair of college dropouts that work at a video store, are what stand between our world and an invasion.

There is just so much going on in this book, I can't really do this book justice with a small synopsis--so I'm not really going to try.  I advise you to pick this book up and read it.  I mean, it has strange beasts, hauntings,  a portal to hell in an unfinished mall, a drug that can possess you, shadow people,  a dog that won't die--I really can't list the entire tangled web of events that go down.

[caption id="attachment_885" align="aligncenter" width="421" caption="I like this book cover the best because it's just as busy as the story inside"][/caption]

Here's a taste of why I really dug this book--The Set-Up: the gang, along with the main characters John and David are being held captive by Justin/monster and are prepared to fight when he opens the door.  They are telling each other things like, if I die, get rid my drugs and porno stash--stuff like that (you know the usual). And then we get to Fred and John:

(From the book) 

Fred whispered, “Okay. If I don’t come back, and say they don’t got my body,

like if Justin eats me or somethin’, tell everybody you don’t know what

happened.Make it mysterious. And then a year later spread rumors that

you’ve seen me wanderin’ around town. That way I’ll be like fuckin’ Bigfoot,

everybody claiming to have seen me here and there. Legend of Fred Chu.” John

nodded, as if he were committing this to memory. He lit his own firebombs,

glanced up at me and asked,“You got any final requests, in case this don’t

end well?” “Yeah. Avenge my death.”

On a personal note, this is exactly how I want my death to be--mysterious and righteous, and right when people are moving on with their lives after my loss--people will start seeing me around.  Am I dead, or did I fake my death?!

AND IT DOESN''T END THERE!

There is already a sequel in the works, entitled:  THIS BOOK IS FULL OF SPIDERS:  Seriously, Dude Don't Touch It

PLUS:  John Dies At the End is now a movie soon to be released. Directed by Don Coscarelli, (Phantasm, Bubba Ho-Tep). Starring two dudes I've never heard of as John and Dave and Paul Giamatti.  Coming out in 2012.

Here's the link, check it out:  http://www.johndiesattheend.com

The Sound and the Fury

I was watching some forgettable comedy one night, whilst flipping through channels, and I laughed aloud as I heard one of the characters proclaim that the scariest movie he ever saw was The Sound of Music, "Come on, listen to the words, the hills are alive!...."  I had never thought of the The Sound of Music as a horror, but yeah, when you tale the lyrics literally--yeah, it's frightening.

The power of music on a person's emotions is very real.  We cry to country music, dance happily to club beats, dance erotically to a heavily bassed piece. It effects our mental health through our emotions.  Remember that year we all went through death metal and wore nothing but black and carried around any book by Edgar Allen Poe.  But I'm re-iterating what all of us know, music is emotive, a language of its own that we all understand--the language of the soul.

But I digress.  I love horror movies, and everything about them.  Every element is important to convey the mystery, or build up the fear and just set the overall mood of the film.  But music--that combination of sounds that express an emotion--help move the audience move along with the story  by basically coaching the audience.  Put your favorite horror movie on mute and you'll realize what an impact the musical score has upon the feel of the movie.

Just think of a haunting melody in good ghost story, or a musical cue, you know what I mean, that build up of music when you know something is about to happen--then crescendo--evil strikes.  Imagine Jaws preying upon his victims without the famous da-nun da-nun daa-nun sound, or Janet Leigh getting murdered in the shower without the creepy shrieking violin sounds.  [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VP5jEAP3K4&w=425&h=349]

The soundtrack of screeching violins, violas, and cellos was an original all-strings piece by composer Bernard Herrmann entitled "The Murder."

Did you know that Alfred Hitchcock originally didn't want any sound for the shower scene?  But the score was written anyway, and when he heard it-he knew it was too good to pass up.  And horror movie history was made.  How many times have we mimicked the screeching violins and stabbing motion?  (Don't lie, I know it's not just me, we've all done it).

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH7czR4fjEA&w=425&h=349]

I know that every time I'm in a pool, someone always mimics the Jaws theme.  It's cool--if someone else doesn't do it, I will.

John Williams' first Oscar for Best Original Score went to Jaws. The jaws theme song is probably one of the simplest, but most inspired creations in he history of music, let alone film music. It can instantly warn of danger by implying the shark's presence even when we can't see it on screen. There are some great action cues interspersed with quieter, but tense moments as well as optimistic tracks highlighting the holiday season on the Island of Amity.

That dramatic buildup and subsequent scary reveal is almost always accompanied by really freaky music or somebody screaming.  But we all know this.  We expect it, and like me, you probably love it.  The right kind of music enhances or highlights the horror genre.

The sounds that we love the most become auditory symbols for the movie.  Its usually the sound we hear when the killer is around.  We hear it, recognize it, and remember the fear it evoked when we first saw the film in question.  Think of the ki ki ki, ma ma ma scenes from Friday the 13th (based on Mrs. Voorhees “Kill her mummy” from the original.)  Or the very simple yet effective theme 3-note piano theme from the Halloween movie franchise, or the tubular bells from The Exorcist.  Okay, now I'm getting chills.  Lets face it, if life had a soundtrack--and we heard these--we'd be looking for a 12-gauge, a crucifix, and well-lit room to barricade ourselves in.  Even people who may have never seen the movie can usually identify what movie these songs are from.  That is how deeply etched into our culture these auditory symbols have become.

THE SOUND OF HORROR:  

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNgyVliUM3c&w=425&h=349]

 Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells was the premier release of Virgin Records and launched a global empire for Sir Richard Branson, the billionaire entrepreneur known these days more for ballooning and boating than music.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBZcf4GC2o8&w=425&h=349]

This earned an Oscar for composer Jerry Goldsmith.  The creepiest part of the song is the chanting, but then again, isn't chanting, in general, pretty effing foreboding.  But in this song, the refrain to the chant is, "Sanguis bibimus, corpus edimus, tolle corpus Satani" (Latin, "We drink the blood, we eat the flesh, raise the body of Satan").

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMLPnk9-6MM&w=425&h=349]

I don't believe John Carpenter won any awards for this simple yet awesomely chilling track.  This is one of my favorites.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja0KKoPr9Ik&w=425&h=349]

Composed by Henri Manfredini.  He also came up with the k k k ma ma ma (the most well known part of the number)-- "ki" comes from "kill", and the "ma" from "mommy". To achieve the unique sound he wanted for the film, Manfredini spoke the two words "harshly, distinctly, and rhythmically into a microphone" and ran them into an echo reverberation machine.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQk8VNkAZBw&w=560&h=349]

This particular nugget was composed by Charlie Clouser and is entitled Hello Zepp. The piece's appearance in the first film was timed to bring a dramatic tone to the end of the film (which I believed it completely accomplished), in which the supposed bad guy named Zep Hindle, is revealed to actually be a victim of the real baddy-Jigsaw.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxIFzdwrzek&w=425&h=349]

Composed By Christopher Young. He also did the music score for the first sequel.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=405636sy3RY&w=425&h=349]

Another wonderful score by Jerry Golsmith, entitled Carol Anne's Theme.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7Tn1Y-ERCE&w=425&h=349]

Composed by Ennio Morricone for one of the best horror/thrillers of all time!  It still gives me chills!

Give these a listen, they'll send chills down your spine!

I'm sure I've forgotten some.  Which theme gives you the heebie-jeebies?

Oh and on a peripherally related note:  We should all get one of these.  The best part is you can upload your own theme music.  Yeah, I would definitely put a few of the above music themes on this shirt, and walk around with a knife and a Michael Myers mask.  I want it![youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdIZ2nlUkbE&w=425&h=349]

for sale on ThinkGeek:http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/interactive/a5bf/#tabs

100 of the Greatest Horror Movie Quotes

100 of the Greatest Horror Movie Quotes.

 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IezWgqg_-cQ&w=560&h=349]

I blogged a few posts on horror movie quotes, and now here's a great vid of the memorable lines of those I've mentioned and many, many more.

 

0’00 - Session 9, The Devil’s Rejects, Candyman, Texas Chainsaw Massacre

0’32 - Misery, Psycho, American Psycho, The Hitcher (1986)

1’00 - Peeping Tom, When a Stranger Calls (1979), Black Christmas (1974), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), A Nightmare on Elm Street

1’32 - The Fly (1986), An American Werewolf in London, Aliens, The Blair Witch Project
2’00 - The Thing, Friday the 13th, The Haunting (1963), Poltergeist

2’29 - The Ring, Scream, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, The Exorcist, Manhunter

3’01 - Dracula (1931), IT, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Child’s Play, A Nightmare on Elm Street

3’34 - House of 1000 Corpses, Halloween, The Omen

4’01 - Hellraiser, The Lost Boys, The Evil Dead, Pet Sematary

4’33 - The Omen, My Bloody Valentine, The Return of the Living Dead, Scream

5’04 - Friday the 13th, Island of Lost Souls, White Zombie

5’35 - Zombie Flesh Eaters, Dawn of the Dead (1978), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), The Birds

5’59 - Jaws, The Thing, Halloween, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Psycho

6’33 - Carrie, Evil Dead II, Black Christmas (1974)

7’01 - The Sixth Sense, The Shining, Candyman, Freaks

7’32 - Dracula (1931), Blue Velvet, Hellraiser, Videodrome

8’02 - Friday the 13th, The Mummy (1932), The Shining, IT

8’37 - Silence of the Lambs, The Black Cat, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

9’01 - Audition, Black Sunday, Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Saw II, The Serpent and the Rainbow

9’30 - Deliverance, The Mist, The Wicker Man (1973), The Wicker Man (1973)

10’00 - The Fly (1958), Evil Dead II, The Exorcist, Frankenstein (1931), Rosemary’s Baby

10’34 - Se7en, Carrie, Hellraiser, Silence of the Lambs, IT

11’06 - Black Sunday, Them! (1954), The Haunting (1963), Night of the Living Dead, Poltergeist, The Shining

11’28 - Phantasm, Suspiria

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

First off, you know that saying, Don't judge a book by its cover.  Well, sometimes I am completely guilty of that.  I mean, come on, look at the cover.  It entices you to pick it up, lures you to it.  So I did.  And I was not disappointed.

When I read the jacket before I purchased it, I was immediately intrigued.   The author, Ransom Riggs,  took beautiful yet unusual photographs and wove  a coherent tale out of them.

[caption id="attachment_796" align="aligncenter" width="322" caption="An image used in the novel. Jacob's grandfather tells him, this man had a mouth on the front and back side of his head!"][/caption]

The main character, Jacob, had always been enthralled with his grandpa's adventure tales.  His grandfather had lost his family,  grown up in an orphanage, joined the army, and traveled the world over.  His colorful tales made Jacob want to be just like him.  When Jacob gets a little older, the tales just aren't that believable anymore.  But then his grandfather's unusual murder and cryptic last words send Jacob to the small island his grandfather grew up on, to find anyone who could confirm the stories of gifted orphans with amazing powers.

I don't want to give too much away, but let's just leave it at--Jacob finds his own adventure.

The images Riggs used, he got from many collectors of "found" photography.  People who've amassed collections of interesting old photographs.  The images are fantastic.  I hope this becomes a series and we get to see more. Also, quite an interesting hobby-found photography.  The photos are amazing. I mean, today with photoshop and other various means, even the rank amateur can manipulate photos.  But these were the real pros, using light and double exposure and other means to create a picture of a girl suspended in air (which is what the pic on the cover of the book is, she is levitating--that's right, take another look.  Did you realize her feet weren't touching the ground?).

Wonderful photos, colorful tale.  I hope there will be more to come.  Definitely checking out Ransom Riggs's other novels.

Midnight Movie

[caption id="attachment_781" align="aligncenter" width="317" caption="Midnight Movie, a novel by Tobe Hooper and Alan Goldsher"][/caption]

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Do I really have to say it?  A book by the creator of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Alan Goldsher wrote Paul is Undead, which is next on my list to read.  It got really good reviews on Amazon.com. I've noticed that every ad for the book touted that.  And all I could think is: really? Do people really need to be reminded that Tobe Hooper created The Texas Chainsaw Massscre.  I was excited about the book, and couldn't wait to download it onto my Kindle.

It's a work of meta-fiction.  That means Tobe Hooper tells the tale himself, for the most part.  We glean the rest of the story from notes from a government agent, the blog of a twenty-something girl, the tweets of home terrorists, the scribbling of a madman, and the main characters themselves.  The book reminds me of Max Brooks' World War Z (my favorite book-ever) in that it blends other people's stories together, along with just enough real-life fact to make you wonder.

Long Story-Short:

Tobe is invited to speak at the showing of his never-before-scene first movie, Destiny Express(I won't lie, I googled this, hoping it really existed).  The movie is creepy, but more than anything, just terrible.  But things begin to happen to the people who attended the viewing. Before long, people are dying by the thousands.  Tobe's movie, one he doesn't even remember making, is causing people to become zombies.  Tobe gets together with a few people, and the original cast of Destiny Express(those still alive) to recreate the movie and understand what is going on.

I loved this book.  Tobe took the best of grindhouse and mockumentary and made it into a gruesome and sometimes humorous novel.  On a personal note, I'm always tickled when a story or movie takes place somewhere I've actually been to, and as a fellow Texan, I've been to a few of the places he mentioned.

Through the Looking-Glass: The Mirror Scare

Ahhh...vanity.  Aren't we all guilty of it?  Back in the day, people stared at their reflections in still pools of water.  Remember poor old Narcissus,  he fell in love with his own reflection and refused to leave the side of the pool, killing himself (probably from lack of food and water).  Later, polished obsidian was used as mirrors.  Even later, polished metals like copper were used.     It wasn’t until Roman times that mirrors made of metal-backed glass were first produced.  In Renaissance  Europe, mirrors were only for the rich as expensive luxury items.  Then, In 1835 a German chemist called Justus von Liebig invented the silvered-glass mirror where a thin layer of metallic silver is deposited onto glass by the chemical reduction of silver nitrate. The introduction of this process led to mirrors being manufactured on a much larger scale, and for the first time in history ordinary people could afford a mirror for their home. Nowadays mirrors are more frequently manufactured by depositing aluminium by vacuum directly onto the glass.

We like to look at ourselves.  Humans and a few other creatures on this planet are able to recognize their own reflection in mirrors.   We mostly use mirrors today for grooming.  And we love looking at ourselves so much, that we also use mirrors for ornamentation in our homes.

Mirrors and Myths

Mirrors have long been apart of legend and myths.  Ancient and not-so-ancient.  I already mentioned Narcissus, which is a Greek Myth.  Mirrors have been used by mystics  to scry or "see the future".

Mirrors are said to reflect the soul, and to see something that is not there is a bad omen.  Duh!  If I saw something in a mirror, that wasn't really there in reality, I would probably be having a bad day.  That being said, vampires, according to legend, have no reflection, as they have no souls. (Which is weird, because Angel had a soul, and he still didn't have a reflection in BTVS).  In the Southern U.S. and other countries, mirrors are covered when someone in the home dies, lest the spirit become trapped.

In the fairytale Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, the Wicked Queen gazes into a magic mirror and asks ‘Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?’ and is decidedly not amused when a reflection that is not her own floats into view!  

In a funnier scenario, Shrek's Lord Farquaad uses a magic mirror to find himself a princess to marry.

Lewis Carroll’s ‘Through the Looking Glass’ is probably one of the more famous books to use mirrors as a central theme, but there are many novels, plays an films with ‘mirror’ in the title.

And haven't most of us been at a slumber party with friends chanting Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary into our darkened bathroom mirrors.  Or Candyman, after the movie?

The Mirror Scare

Naturally, the mystique that has surrounded something as seemingly mundane as a mirror has dribbled into the horror genre.  How many times have we seen a character walking in their own familiar territory, right by a mirror, and suddenly we see the reflection of the bad guy, right behind them!....cue dramatic scary theme music.

The most common form of mirror scare is the use of a bathroom mirror on a medicine cabinet. As a character goes to get something from the cabinet: we see the character's reflection in front of the mirror, then opening the cabinet, then as they close the mirror again, Bam: they're right behind you!

Are they a cliche?  Yes, but an effective one.  With the myths and superstitions surrounding the mirror and our reflections, it's always going to be an effective scare.

My personal favorite mirror scare is a scene from The Craft.  The character, Rochelle, looks into a mirror, but her reflection turns away because it doesn't want to look at her.  At least that's how I saw it.  Her actions harmed someone, and her reflection was ashamed.  Good movie, good scare.

Anyway, each movie tries a different approach:  the character does not see the bad guy behind them, but the audience does through the mirror. Or, the character sees the bad guy in the mirror, but no one is really there. Or, the character sees themselves in the mirror turns around, and finds someone (aka the bad guy) there who is not reflected.  It appears to me, that horror mostly uses mirrors as we see them in superstitions:  a way to see the truth, the future, or a window to another world.

The Mirror Scare Compilation:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tjoqhx_dwk&w=560&h=349]

Movies that use the Mirror Scare:

[caption id="attachment_753" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="An American Werewolf in London"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_756" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Candyman"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_757" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Prom Night"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_741" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Sean of the Dead"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_755" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Mirrors"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_758" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The Craft-Sorry, couldn't find a mirror pic."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_759" align="aligncenter" width="200" caption="What Lies Beneath"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_740" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Halloween H2O"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_760" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The Orphan"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_739" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Phantasm"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_761" align="aligncenter" width="215" caption="Stir of Echoes"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_762" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The Grudge"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_763" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The Ring"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_764" align="aligncenter" width="202" caption="The Unborn"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_742" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The Omen"][/caption]

Wow!  I guess it really is overused!  Personally I don't care if it's a cliche.  I love a good mirror scare.