“Burnt Offerings” brings to mind another haunted mansion flick, “The Shining”. BO features a family renting a stately manor and acting as caretakers to the property and the elderly lady supposedly inhabiting an upstairs room. It isn’t long before the heebee-jeebees set in and the wife and husband get unwillingly possessed by some dark forces lingering about the place. The husband has a bad spell and nearly drowns his son in the pool but then returns to some semblance of normality while his wife starts behaving rather oddly. As you can well imagine, no good can come from any of [More]
Rusty West’s You Tube videos and books talking about missing people, weird occurrences and Bigfoot have become some of my favorites. I just like his writing style and narration. I think it is very direct and entertaining. But also very spooky! Case in point, in this collection of tales, is the tale of the raided chicken coop. That one gives me the chills. Check out Rusty.
When you get right down to it, there are a ton of potential choices for Halloween movie viewing marathons. For the sake of brevity, I am choosing just five selections which will still take you a good day to get through so plan ahead to take the day off from your work or school grind! Wolfen (1981) – a cop is assigned to investigate a series of animal attacks. Is there a pack of werewolves on the loose in modern day New York? Some creepy situations and a suspenseful story should keep you entertained throughout. Albert Finney and Gregory Hines [More]
A documentary detailing the history of the vampire character Dracula, assembled using various movie clips and the narration of horror icon, Vincent Price. You’ll see clips from the silent “Nosferatu” and other cinematic appearances featuring the ancient blood sucker such as Lugosi in “Mark of the Vampire”, and the 1950’s alternative vampire film, “The Vampire” . “VPD” is a good flick to curl up by the fire to watch as we come upon the Autumn season and move closer to Halloween. Heavy on the garlic fries. Hehe.
Stanley Kubrick’s visually stunning interpretation of Stephen King’s novel. I guess the two follow different plot trajectories. I never sat through the entire King tome. A cursed family moves into a rambling hotel to act as its caretakers during the winter. Seems the Overlook Hotel has some dark secrets of its own that start to manifest during the family’s stay. Expect a LOT of unsettling, frightening moments. The movie takes on the tone of a nightmare. Events, circumstances keep building up and piling on the dread factor. Famous Nicholson over the top performance. Amazing use of Stedicam during filming to move things [More]
Here are some creepy examples of unexpected, ghostly patrons photobombing the living’s photo ops. Plenty of examples provided here to get your hackles up. Another frightening element to this video is the narrator’s robotic, sing song tone. The entertainment value of this post just went up!
A lovely, wet weather, stay inside creep fest to indulge in and then pay the price by looking over your shoulder or seeing things out of the corner of your eye when the movie does what it’s supposed to do and scares the Hell (House) out of you. A scientist and his hand picked psychics and sensitives venture to a sprawling estate long rumored to be infested with ghosts. The investigators’ purpose is to gather evidence and finally prove that there is a form of life after death: that ghosts really exist. Heavily atmospheric and unsettling. Good performances from Roddy McDowall and Clive [More]
Charles Dickens’ classic literary work is converted to silent cinema form by inventor Thomas Edison’s film studios. Rather “stagey” in appearance but that is to be expected from early cinematic works. The language of film had yet to be developed and filmmakers relied on the conventions of the stage (all action taking place in a static location such as a stage set, minimal usage of close up or shot variation , etc.). By today’s standards, the film may seem a bit plodding and “stationary” but the multiple exposure materialization of the ghosts Scrooge encounters are generally effective. Get out the popcorn and [More]
“In Search Of” was a documentary series hosted by actor Leonard Nimoy. The show ran in the 1970’s and it’s subject matter covered the mysterious, the supernatural, the uncanny and the just plain weird. Here is a sample episode that pursued the topic of Bigfoot. I remember watching this program religiously on Sunday evenings and enjoying it immensely. A precursor to the vast amount of supernatural/docudrama series which populate the cable TV landscape today. Worth seeking out.
Very unnerving, black and white film of the book by Shirley Jackson. Things go bump in the night, frequently, in a gloomy mansion being investigated by ghost hunters. The creepy surroundings are dimly lit and expansive, ghostly, unintelligible conversations are overheard. Shadows crawl. Effective, tense direction provided by Robert Wise. Are the hauntings real or simply created by our imaginations?