(My series on Silent Hill 2 is on hold at the moment, but it'll return soon with part 746 of 982). Since movies became the dominate form of entertainment, nearly everything is either being considered for a movie, or was turned into a movie. Some IPs are easier to adapt for the screen than others though. Movies need action, visuals , loads of dialogue, and a cinematic universe with at least 36 interconnecting movies. The IP that keeps getting the rawest of the rawest deals is the Cthulhu Mythos. The reasons are obvious, the Cthulhu Mythos is low on action, aggre[...]
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Movies
2 As we close out week three of NaNoWriMo, we can see the finish line in sight. For some of us, 50k is easily within reach, and for others, there may be a few all-nighters ahead on the road to 50K. But no matter where you are on that spectrum, there’s a good chance that you’ve hit some creative lulls by now. You might even feel lost at this point in your story, stuck in a morass of half-formed ideas and feeling like your creative tank is empty. I know I’ve had days like this over the month, but I learned an important lesson from NaNos past that helps me turn[...]
Eeeeeek! It’s almost Halloween! This final week of October we, here at The Midnight Society, are celebrating Halloween traditions. There are five traditions that make Halloween… Halloween. At least for me. First… costumes. Halloween was always a special day when I was a kid. My mom made us our costumes every year and did her best to make our dressing-up dreams come true. Second…pumpkin carving. Every year Dad carved a pumpkin, and each Halloween night it would shine from our front window. When we got old enough, my sisters and I got to carve o[...]
When people ask me about the first horror movie I’ve ever watched, it’s usually Poltergeist that jumps to mind, mainly because I saw it when I was too young and that stupid clown scarred me for life. In reality though, Jaws was my first horror movie. I saw it when I was about six or seven years old, when my family was vacationing in Wells Beach, Maine. The TV was right next to the sliding glass doors of the cottage, through which I could see directly into the ocean. Yes, I watched Jaws less than a football field away from the water. To say that it profoundly[...]
Here's the next installment of Hidden Gem. There are so many great horror movies out there—both domestic and foreign—that don’t get the love they deserve, usually because they don’t fall under the mainstream film category (like say the Friday the 13th movie franchise or Scream does). So for my second post on Hidden Gem, I’m focusing another favorite of mine: The Loved Ones. Hidden Gem: The Loved Ones This is another film that I discovered thanks to Bree Ogden. This is a film that you either have to luck into on TV or buy. Or, if you're in[...]
The strange and dark things that exist in my mind surprise people. I seem so nice. So innocent. Well, not exactly. For my first post here with The Midnight Society (EEEEEEKK!) I want to introduce myself... or more specifically the dark side of myself. The weird, the fantastic, the scary have always drawn me to gaze into the shadows, to look under the bed and in the closet, well, maybe not the closet. Let's not go crazy. There are monsters in there. Seriously, you know that, right? My love of horror began long ago. Books like 'The Spell of the Sorcerer's Sk[...]
It's Wednesday! Time for another post exploring all things inspired by that classic tale, Frankenstein! We've gone over the first time Frankenstein took to the screen, now let's explore something a wee bit more recent, the 1994 film starring Robert De Niro (as the creature) and Helena Bonham Carter as Elizabeth. A few parts of this one had me hugging my pillow. Helena Bonham Carter. I mean... what can I say? Interesting bit of trivia on this one: the word monster was banned from the set. The credits billed Robert De Niro as "The Sharp-Featured Man" ([...]
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[...]
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[...]
Welcome to Odd Sundays with JB! I've got some fun features to kick off in September, but for the next couple of Odd Sundays, we're going to have some fun. As a movie-lover, I use movies to psych me up for different events. This week, I go back to teaching, so I made a list of horror movies to help kick off the pre-Halloween season. The Faculty (1998) The Breakfast Club meets The Body Snatchers. What says, "Welcome Back to School," better than a film that perpetuates the eroding trust between students and teachers? Disturbing Behavior (1998) Footloose meets Step[...]