This story happens by lamplight, under a copse of trees and at the top of a steep hill, predictably under the cover of night when only the most nefarious deeds are done. It's October and the ground is frosted, but there are men at work with spades and shovels, digging into the soil with some ardour, awaiting that telltale sound of metal striking a coffin. If you've ever dug up a grave yourself, I'm certain you'd know it: the timber of the strike changes as the wood buckles, and then splinters. It's an extra bit of give beneath the tool -- the result of the grav[...]
Category
Legends
1 Hello kittens, I'm bringing you a story straight from the truth vault. It happened to a friend of a friend of mine....just kidding. This guy is actually my friend, IRL and everything. He is a (gloriously) bearded farmer that lives in a tiny town in the prairies (since Bearded Farmer is probably a little too wordy, let's call him...oh...Mulder). A couple weeks ago, Mulder called me up and told me this story and I just knew that I had to share it with ya'll. I just got off the phone with him, so I'm going to tell it in first person, because I can't write[...]
Hello Kittens, I hope your holidays were delightful. My better (but far less scary) half got me a nest for Christmas, so I spent a ridiculous amount of time in my papasan chair, colouring in my Sherlock book and reading, swaddled in fluffy blankets and wearing a frog onesie. It was majestic. Now that the holidays are over, it seems we're getting a delightful pile of fresh new horror. flicks We kicked it off with KRAMPUS, and have THE BOY coming out soon, which looks awesome. But the one I'm most looking forward to is THE FOREST. THE FOREST is about Aok[...]
When we discuss folklore, the stuff of legends particular to certain areas, we're not always discussing the story itself -- we talk about the hype that surrounds it; makes it bigger than it probably is. The fact is, a lot of the pop culture we get our hands on today lies roots in stories that were told a couple of centuries ago. I can't say that this suggests that there's no original horror stories anymore, far from it; it's interesting, however, that the origin points for the things we find scary now might actually have kernels of truth to them because they're so[...]
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, I have chosen The First Love Stories by Diane Wolkstein. Included in her lovely book are the tales of: 1. Isis and Osiris 2. Inanna and Dumuzi 3. Shiva and Sati 4. The Song of Songs from the Old Testament 5. Psyche and Eros 6. Layla and Majnun 7. Tristan and Iseult Oh, these were not very happy people and some of their tales are pure horror! Yes, If you think these are perfectly happy stories, without any horror, you need to think again. Like most fairy tales, these first love stories are rooted in the primal emotions of hum[...]
Since I was twelve years old and I put down the The Witching Hour by Anne Rice for the first time, I've had a love for the South. The swamps with cypress trees draped in Spanish moss, the balconies jutting over the narrow streets of the French Quarter in New Orleans, the slow dirge of jazz music played on the way to a funeral. The above-ground cemeteries. Sweet tea and humidity and a clean sweat on a spring morning. Gas light and the perfume of magnolia trees on a slow evening stroll through the Garden District. If I lived a past life or three, I'm sure one was[...]
You can leave out the ghosts and give me a derelict, once-enchanted-looking building, and I'd find a story in the remains. I won't complain if there's a haunting, but old houses, churches, barns, asylums, mansions, greenhouses, theatres, and the like are magical places all on their own. I set my creative roots often in settings, and let my imagination take me to the worlds where those old ruins once cast formidable shadows on their inhabitants. Settings become characters. Settings have their own stories locked away in the walls. Sometimes, you find a skeleton[...]
Argentinians take their folklore seriously. And rightfully they should. According to legend, the seventh son born to a family is cursed to become a werewolf who feasts on the bodies of unbaptized babies. Yep. I'd take that pretty seriously too. But they take things to a whole 'nother level in Argentina. In fact, their president gets involved. In order to thwart the curse, there is a long-standing tradition where the leader of the country legally adopts any seventh born son. This way, the son is no longer technically part of their original family, and no longer co[...]
I remember when I was young and my mother used to say to me at Christmas time, “If you aren’t good, you’ll be getting a bag of switches and ashes instead of candy.” Of course, I was always good. As time passed and I became older I realized that our Americanized Santa Claus had his roots in a much older St. Nicholas. What I didn’t know at the time was that St. Nicholas had a counterpart, a monstrous creature called Krampus who gave new meaning to the words in a common Christmas song, Santa Claus is coming to Town. Some of the lyrics are: [...]
Yep, you read that right. According to this very extensive article from The Daily Mail, an amateur sleuth, an expert in DNA and genetics, and 7 years of exhaustive work have cracked the case that has baffled detectives and historians for over a century. If you're a die-hard CSI junkie, you HAVE to read this article. But for those who want the short version (but how can you call yourselves horror fans, and not read the article about Jack the Ripper?!?!?!), here it is... You might have watched the movie 'From Hell' with Johnny Depp: And maybe you've pictured thi[...]