Sunday Bloody Sunday

Re-Animator

Vampyres

From Beyond the Grave

The Strangers

Horror Rises from the Tomb

The Birthday 44 - My Personal Path To Horror, Part One

*In honor of my birthday this past week I decided to think back about all the various influences in my life that made me the horror fan I am today.  There are so many random things that I thought of that this list really became a real hodge-podge of weird stuff.  Some are extremely obvious if you know me or have read this blog on a long-term basis.  Other items will surprise. And it got so long I had to split it into two parts, because I wanted 44 total.
Only one guess why.

1) Jaws:  I adore everything about Jaws. So much so that I just bought the brand-spankin' new Blu-Ray - and I don't own a  Blu-Ray player yet. There is no doubt on this earth that this film would make the top of any list of favorites for me, for anyone that knows me knows I live and breathe this blockbuster and this one.....

2) Psycho: I've oft said Norman Bates is my homeboy, and those words are truth. I've had a long-standing love affair with him and the Bates Motel for oh....say, 30 years or so.  That's longer than I've been married. Sometimes I feel wed to this movie, as any time I'm feeling down it cheers me up.  xoxo

3) Ghost Story: The Novel.  While I'm a huge fan of the film, it was Peter Straub's excellent book that really spooked me out.  I'd read several Stephen King novels before picking this one up (on King's recommendation, actually) - but I was blown away by it's dreadful tone. It just reeks creepy and is my favorite novel.  Period.

4) The Liberty Theatre:  I grew up watching movies at this old theater (since torn down) in my home town.  And though I was too young to watch significant horror here, I watched many an old Disney film here, and was blessed with seeing my first sci-fi film here: Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  I vividly recall the poster for Jaws being on the Marquee though, and I can still smell that musty scent and the stale popcorn if I close my eyes....

5) The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:  I've been mesmerized by this Washington Irving short story for most of my life.  I read it as a young girl and its vivid imagery always stuck with me. I was able to recognize chilling atmosphere in the written word, even back then. Great stuff!

6) John Carpenter.  Long before Fulci, Cronenberg and Argento came John Carpenter.  The man knows how to subject his victims theater-goers to a real scare.  The first time I saw Michael Myers standing behind that clothesline in Halloween, I shuddered in my Nikes and knew I was done for. What a thrill!

7) Clue:  The board game.  While not firmly planted in the horror genre, it sits in my favorite sub-genre of mystery and is near and dear to my heart.  There is no possible way to count how many times I discovered it was Professor Plum in the Billiard Room with the Candlestick.

8) Stephen King:  As a too-young reader of many of King's early works like Carrie and  The Shining (still my #2 book, all-time), King showed me the path to horror and I spent countless nights under my covers with a flashlight to try and finish one of his tales without my mother making me go to sleep! I still consider him my favorite author.

9) Edgar Allan Poe:  Discovering Poe in probably the eighth grade or so made such an impression on me that I tried my hand and writing macabre poetry for several months.  I may or may not have succeeded - some day I need to pull out all those old notebooks.  Nevermore.

10) Friday the 13th (1980):  Recently I waxed poetic in great detail about the slasher film that jump-started my life-long obsession with horror. I've seen this campy (sorry, had to) cautionary tale of woe at Camp Crystal Lake more times than almost any other horror film (save my top two). I remember watching it on a weekend sleepover at my house, four or five of us screaming in all the right places.  Do not pass go...do not collect 200$...but do take off your boots and stay for a game of strip Monopoly...

11) A Christmas Carol: Written by Dickens in 1843, this short story scared the poop out of me when I was younger.  My grandfather (the minister!) used to read it to me, acting out all the various voices - except the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come. He'd just point.  Gah!  Still makes me shudder.

12) Halloween: The Holiday.  I've always loved the most wonderful day of the year.  Whether I was dressed up as a gypsy and trick-or-treating, hanging out in cornfields downing beverages I was too young for, or just simply having a horror film fest on the comfort of my couch, Halloween is just the best. It's my Christmas.  This year, I am taking the entire week around Halloween off work. I'm serious about my passion, people.

Yours truly at the NOTLD cemetery.

13) Cemeteries:  I have lived my whole life adoring graveyards.  I can't explain it.  I love to wander around in the quiet resting place, checking out all the old stones in our local cemetery.  Some date back to pre-Civil War times.  I had my first kiss in a cemetery, drank my first beer in a cemetery, had make-out sessions with my future husband in a cemetery, and nearly everyone important that I've lost lies in that same cemetery. They are spooky yet calming.  A wonderful combination.

14) The Twilight Zone: Between Burgess Meredith breaking his glasses and William Shatner wigging out about something on the wing of the plane, The TZ is near and dear to my heart.  I still love watching day and night-long marathons - it just never. gets. old.  Am I right?

15) Profondo Rosso (Deep Red): My first taste of Dario Argento.  Simply due to the VHS cover. I was young - had already seen Fulci and was looking for more Italian horror.  Wow, what a shocker to experience the visually striking world of Argento (in surprising contrast to Fulci's gore-fests).  I quickly moved on to the rest of his catalogue.  Why hello, Suspiria!  How's it going, Tenebrae?

16) The Amityville Horror: The book.  It wasn't so much the whole ghost/demon/haunting story that got me, it was the fact that Ronald DeFeo killed his entire effing family in the dead of night and not one of them woke up when they heard that first shot.  That is so disturbing, and stuck with me long after I read the book that was supposedly a "true haunting" and saw the movie that "inspired" it.

17) Abandoned houses:  When I was a teenager, several of my friends and I had our own little 'ghost hunters' group before it was fashionable and current and making tons of money on reality television.  We'd find and explore old abandoned houses - the further out in the country or off the beaten path the better.  Many a time did we scare ourselves senseless, hearing or even seeing strange things.  A few times, it really was unexplained, and those are the memories I still come back to and shudder.

18) Disney's Haunted House albums:  You know the ones.  The ones that have eerie sound effects certain to send you screaming in fear. I loved them as a kid, and my grandfather fed my passion and bought me as many as he could find.  One of these records held Poe's short story The Tell-Tale Heart. I still have a special place for it in my own.

19) 1981: The Year.  So many films came out in this particular year: An American Werewolf in London, The Burning, Dead and Buried, Evil Dead, Escape from New York, The Entity, The Funhouse, Friday the 13th Part 2, Ghost Story, Halloween II, Hell Night, My Bloody Valentine, Ms.45, Nighthawks, Omen III, Scanners....well, you get the picture.

20) Jane Eyre:  By Charlotte Bronte.  The classic gothic romance that influenced me as a teenager like nobody's business.  I read a lot of classics - including Austen, Dickens, Wilde, etc.-  and Bronte's Jane Eyre affected me the most.  Such a moody, melancholy piece of work.  Perfect in every way.

21) Lake Mungo:  This little 2008 indie flick restored my faith that movies can still be unnerving and scary yet again.  While The Strangers (another well done 2008 film) was a giant step in the right direction for me, Lake Mungo was a massive jump. There is just something SO unsettling about that film.  I can't recommend it enough.

22) Dick Francis & Agatha Christie:  A tie!  As a younger teen, I discovered one of the most famous mystery writers of all time -Agatha Christie- and set a goal to read all her works.  While that didn't quite happen (yet), I did read a great number of her classic mysteries. As a young twenty-something, I found out that there was an author out there writing mysteries that were based around the world of horse racing.  Well holy shit!  As an avid - no, obsessive - horse racing fan, I was in love with Dick Francis. And though both these grand masters are gone, their work remains for all to enjoy. And I do!

Stay tuned for Part Two.....

The Tall Man (2012): (And No, Not The One From Phantasm!)

Review by Marie Robinson

Greetings, grim readers! Today I review for you a brand spankin’ new movie called The Tall Man. As you all know, it is directed by Pascal Laugier, famous for Martyrs and House of Voices. I am a jerk and haven’t seen either of these (don’t hurt me, Christine), but I have seen his newest contribution to the genre!

The movie is set in a small, impoverished town called Cold Rock, Washington; a town that holds a local legend close to its broken heart. Folk whisper of a stranger called the Tall Man. Few have seen him—a towering, shrouded figure—but all have felt his sinister touch. The Tall Man is notorious for stealing Cold Rock’s children.

Jessica Biel stars as Julia Dunning, a woman who has been acting as the town nurse since the death of the local doctor—her husband. The townspeople view her kindly, and she is particularly helpful to the mother of a broken family and her daughter, Jenny, played by Jodelle Ferland; a young lady who has already established an impressive horror resume with roles in movies such as Silent Hill, Cabin in the Woods, and Tideland (not horror, I know, but I had to give a shout-out to one of my favorite directors, Terry Gilliam!). Julia provides some much needed talk therapy to Jenny, who refuses to speak and communicates by writing on the pages of journals. Jenny claims to be one of the few who have seen the Tall Man.

Julia lives with a little boy named David (ADORABLE child actor Jakob Davies, who is getting a good start on his horror career having been featured in an episode of R.L. Stines’s The Haunting Hour and Supernatural) and a young woman named Christine (Eve Harlow). We assume these to be her children, but it is never really confirmed—whatever they are, they mean a lot to her and, naturally, she loses her shit when she comes home to find Christine bloody and gagged and David missing. She darts out of the house in pursuit of the alleged Tall Man, and it doesn’t take long for this film to get scary and strange.

The Tall Man does an excellent job of creating tone; both the cinematography and the score are strong and dramatic. You get a real feel for this somber fictional town, and the actors who define the various characters that fill it.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this film—again, I’ve never seen another Pascal Laugier, and to be honest, I was kind of expecting it to be bad after seeing Jessica Biel’s face on the cover. She may not have wowed me before but she did a fine job with the complex character she was given in The Tall Man.

Even if I did have the slightest inkling on what was going to happen next while watching this movie, that was all instantly dashed. As opposed to the big shocking twist coming at the end, it happens thirty minutes into the film. Oh, but they’re not done with you there, from that point on, your jaw just keeps on dropping. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating, but this film will take you by surprise. You may not be satisfied by the ending (I’m not really sure how I felt at the end of it all) but you can’t help but give it a brief applause for being surprisingly fresh and original.

The Tall Man will receive a limited theatre release on August 31st and hit video stores September 25th.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

From Beyond

Severeance

Murder Party

Last House on Dead End Street

The Funhouse

Friday Flashback: Children Of The Corn (1984): HE WHO WALKS BEHIND THE ROWS Wants You Too!

Children of the Corn is one of those films I saw during my tender teenage years, and therefore I have fond memories of watching HE WHO WALKS BEHIND THE ROWS wreak havoc on poor little Gatlin.
While certainly not the prize apple in the Stephen King adaptation pie, COTC is still a fun and sometimes unintentionally hilarious flick.

That said, it truly is my belief that kids can ruin a horror flick quicker than you can say Chucky.  I tend to steer away from horror movies rife with little ones, as just like in television - when you add kids to the mix, it all goes to shit.  Now I know you parents are pissed at me stating that view, but I'm just being honest.  (Devil-children or other such possessed or evil mini-humans are a different story altogether.  I actually like films in which kids are offing adults, go figure. Probably why Children of the Corn works for me.)

As the film starts, I'm already pissed when I hear a kid doing a voice-over to describe the situation in Gatlin.  I despise voice-overs in most situations, they are a cheap-ass way to move a story along or give details. (*I do however, give a pass to Suspiria, in which a quick voice-over tells you all you need to know in the first five minutes!)

Regardless, Job (Robby Kiger) speaks over a flashback to a horrific event in the past in which the children of Gatlin take it upon themselves to rid the small town of all the adult supervision.  So with scythes and knives and other implements of destruction, the older teens slash, stab, and chop their way into orphandom (Is that a word? It is now.)  Seems the children's leader, Issac (John Franklin), and his lead crony Malachai (Courtney Gains, a hopelessly unattractive soul) are determined that the children in Gatlin follow their uber-religious ideals and their deity of choice: HE WHO WALKS BEHIND THE ROWS.  Which is apparently some kind of god of corn or what have you.  The quick analysis is that it's a cult.

Back in the present, Burt (Peter Horton) and Vicky (Linda Hamilton) are traveling through Nebraska to reach the west coast where Burt has accepted a position as a physician in Seattle. (Of particular note is the scene in which a battered copy of King's Night Shift - the book in which Children of the Corn appeared as a short story - is lying on the dash of their car. Nice move.)  When the radio starts to pick up only bible-thumping preachers ("NO room for the fornicators! No room for the homosexuals!"), the couple quickly deduce they're not in Kansas anymore. Matter of fact, they seem to have gotten stuck in the Twilight Zone when every sign they pass is for the town of Gatlin, and the only scenery they witness is giant corn stalks closing in on every road.  Their cross-country adventure takes a dreadful turn when they strike a young boy with their car. Examining the boy, Burt uses his astute medical skills to determine that the boy didn't die of injuries sustained in the car mishap, he had his throat slashed.  After stashing the dead kid in the trunk, they drive around looking for help. 

It's important to know that the boy struck by the car is from quirky, cult-happy Gatlin and was trying to escape the wacky sect, only to be cut off at the pass by followers of Issac, who do not allow any of the children to escape leave town.  When Job and his sister Sarah (Anne Marie McEvoy) are caught playing games and listening to music in one of the abandoned houses, Malachi brings them to Issac, demanding that they be punished.  Isaac lets them off the hook because Sarah has "the gift of sight" and has foretold the coming of "interlopers" who will try to interfere with their way of life.  In their eyes, all adults must die.  Naturally, Burt and Vicky are the interlopers.

When all roads seem to lead back to Gatlin, Burt and Vicky are forced to check out the small town and soon happen upon Job and Sarah in the aforementioned house.  When the couple splits up to try to find an another adult or at least a phone, Vicky is taken by Malachai and hung ceremoniously on a primitive cross - directly in front of the only other adult in town - a very dead police officer dubbed The Blue Man.  Issac's intention is to sacrifice Vicky to HE WHO WALKS BEHIND THE ROWS, which pretty much leaves her as valuable as anyone who turns eighteen in the fucked-up hamlet.

Meanwhile Malachai is terribly pissed off at Issac for wasting time continuously preaching and not taking action.  He demands that the other kids string Issac up on the cross instead of Vicky, which is just about the time Burt (along with Job and Sarah) is plotting the big rescue scene.  Suffice it to say, HE WHO WALKS BEHIND THE ROWS is hungry and accepts Issac readily.  But we've not seen the last of our creepy, unorthodox leader, oh no....

The climax of Children of the Corn is not exactly earth-shattering.  If you would have told me that HE WHO WALKS BEHIND THE ROWS was some kind of fire-demon or whatever the hell they were going for in those last scenes, I probably would have thrown my hands in the air and walked away. 
Hollywood's penchant for happy endings is at work here as well as sadly, the film's ending deviates a great deal from King's short story so that the finale is tied up with a big happy bow. 

The reason I have a special affinity for this movie is probably the time period in which I saw it.  I saw this one in the theater before I was age-appropriate, and I recall some parts of it actually being rather scary, at least back then. Truly, one of my greatest fears would be a bunch of kids killing off adults and trying to play God. Some of the lines from the film I am still using today, such as "Outlander! We have your woman!" and "He wants you too, Malachai! He...wants...you...too!"  Of course I am not using them in every-day sentences, but I am someone who extensively quotes movies, and sometimes you just have to say: "What hath the lord commanded?"

Floating Staircase: Watery Graves And Tortured Souls

After having read the fantastic book The Wicked, I was recommended this tome by Amazon and have to say, I'm damn glad of it.
Floating Staircase is a superbly written ghost story with a palpable underlying tension running throughout the whole of the book.  Author Ronald Malfi weaves a chilling mystery chock full of surprising turns and intriguing yet tormented characters that make for a compelling and atmospheric story you won't want to put down.

Travis Glasgow is a successful writer of horror novels.  With a past tainted with a family tragedy, he is at his best when penning tales of dark terrors that mimic the ones he has lived through himself.  As a young teen,  he watched as his brother Kyle drown in an accident Travis considers himself responsible for.  He has weathered a series of guilty depressions and family fights and after escaping for several years overseas, has returned to the small Maryland town of Westlake where his brother Adam is a police officer.  Travis and Adam have been at odds over the years because Travis has always believed that Adam blamed him for their younger brother's untimely death.   Trying to put the past to rest, the brothers attempt a new start as Travis moves into a house not far from Adam.
 
The house itself is a fixer-upper, but just what Travis and supportive wife Jodie are looking for.  Varying thoughts of children hang over the couple, with Jodie anxious to start a family and Travis still lingering in the past and not quite ready to add to the Glasgow brood.

At a party to welcome the new couple to town, Travis is told an unnerving story about the home that he and his wife just moved into.  Seems the previous family, the Dentmans, experienced a profound tragedy when their young boy, Elijah, drowned in the self-enclosed lake behind the house. David Dentman (Elijah's uncle), and the boy's fragile mother Veronica struggle to come to grips with the dreadful misfortune that has cursed their lives and made it impossible to stay in Westlake.

Travis, already uneasy after finding out about the lake behind the house - (the one factoid that Adam neglected to mention previous to purchase and something that may have thwarted the decision to buy in the first place, with its similar circumstance akin to his own brother's death) -  is understandably taken aback by the news. Even more so by the horrific announcement that the boy's body has never been found. 

While cleaning out the house's basement, Travis discovers a closed-off room that he quickly deduces was young Elijah Dentman's bedroom.  Dismayed that a young boy would be banished to the cellar, Travis develops an unhealthy obsession with discovering what really happened the day Elijah drowned.
In the meantime, he begins to hear footsteps and closing doors at night, has disturbing dreams, and is drawn to the lake behind the house and the strange floating staircase that juts out of the middle of the water, reaching eerily for the sky. 

Malfi's characterizations are one of the strongest points to this thriller. The inner struggles of Travis which cause him to become a man dangerously obsessed and near the edge of a total breakdown certainly kept this reader glued to the book late into the night. Haunted by his past and unwilling to allow himself forgiveness, it is the mystery of Elijah's disappearance that compels him to solve the puzzle and move on with his own life, if that is even possible.

A highly recommended entry in the supernatural genre, Floating Staircase is at its heart a mystery, but it has enough paranormal elements to satisfy even the most fickle ghost story fan.  You're never quite sure if it is indeed the ghost of Elijah haunting the house by the lake, Travis's dead brother lingering, or simply Travis's vivid yet agonizing memories that are taking over his sanity.

I've heard some claims that author Ronald Malfi is being compared to Peter Straub.  I wouldn't say he's quite there yet, and Floating Staircase is no Ghost Story, but he is well on his way to being one of the great voices in the horror/supernatural genre.

Read this book.

Vital Viewing: The Entity (1981)

The Entity is another film from the banner year of 1981 and tells the (reportedly) true story of a woman battered, beaten, raped, and all-around terrified by a malicious spirit in her own home. The paranormal events that plagued her are supposedly well documented and are the basis - or perhaps a better word would be inspiration - for this shocker starring Barbara Hershey. 

Carla Moran (Hershey) is a single mother raising three children: a teenaged boy, Billy (David Labiosa), and two young daughters, Julie (Natasha Ryan of Amityville Horror fame), and Kim (Melanie Gaffin).  She has a boyfriend Jerry (Alex Rocco) who apparently works away and is absent for the first half of the film.

Almost as soon as we meet the family, Carla is brutally raped inside her bedroom by someone she cannot see.  After the attack she begins screaming, alerting her son, who thoroughly checks out the house but is unable to find the assailant.  Carla convinces herself it must have been a dream, but when it happens a second time she and the family bug out and stay the rest of the night with her friend Cindy (Margaret Blye).

The rape scenes themselves (which continue throughout the majority of the film) hold nothing back, with Charles Bernstein's thumping (and distracting, if I'm being quite honest) score violently alerting you to the attacks much in the same way that John Williams' (far superior) score tells us the shark is coming.  The effective musical cues are so loud and booming that it becomes nearly too much, but just like the attacks, it ends just as abruptly.
What's extra unnerving here is that as an audience we too, witness the attacks.  We can see the entity pulling Carla's legs apart, touching her breasts, ambushing her sexually...it's almost too excessive.

Carla, thinking she is safe while out of her home, is shocked when the unseen force strikes again while she is driving to work, nearly causing her to wreck several times.  She seeks psychiatric counseling upon Cindy's advice and is a quivering mess when she meets Dr. Sneiderman (Ron Silver).  She tries to explain to him that she cannot see her attacker but she can smell him and feel him, and goes on to say that the room gets very cold and that the assailant smells foul. Dr. Sneiderman tries to convince her that the attacks stem from her subconscious recalling traumatic events from her childhood, that she is being raped emotionally and it is her imagination that causes her to believe that she is being physically assaulted.

But when others witness the merciless attacks (including her son, who is pushed away and injured by the entity when he tries to help his mother), Carla knows something must be done to try and stop the aggressive and relentless supernatural visitations. 
She enlists the help of a handful of parapsychologists from the local college, who have dabbled in paranormal activity before but have never seen anything of this nature before.
They begin experiments to see if they can somehow harness the entity, and when Carla's boyfriend resurfaces he is aghast at the lengths she goes to to try and rid herself of the supposed demonic spirit.  Naturally, Jerry doesn't believe one word of her story, until he is privy to an especially unsavory attack which unfortunately causes him to end their relationship.

With nothing to lose, Carla agrees to a dangerous experiment and complies with the scientist's request to somehow beckon the entity to come to her in a controlled environment.  Dr. Sneiderman shows up and tries to reason with Carla, but she's having none of it.  Her life has spiraled so far out of control at this point that she fears for her children's lives as well as her own.

Whether or not The Entity is actually inspired by a true event is not important here.  As in most films of this kind, viewers are asked to suspend their belief for a few hours and if you can just forget how ridiculous the premise appears to be, you are in for an effective story with great acting (in particular Hershey, who carries the entire film on her shoulders) and some unnerving and at times brutal scenes of terror.  Any woman not disturbed by the ferocious rape scenes is an unfeeling Stepford pod-person, as Hershey's portrayal of a woman in crisis is truly top-notch.  She holds nothing back, bringing a whole truckload of believability to a film whose main antagonist isn't even human. 

As stated, Hershey's performance is stellar, but also of note is the acting of a young David Labiosa, whose character of Billy is especially good as well.  His compassion for his mother is honorable as we see him struggle to be the man of the household and in turn protect his mother from her fears, whether unfounded or not.  Ron Silver also has a positive performance here, as a psychiatrist who may be getting a little too close to his unstable patient. 

While the film does lose a bit of its rhythm when they delve into the para-psychological experiments (a similar thing happened near the end of Insidious), and it did drag a bit for me at this point.  I guess I'm not a big fan of all the bells and whistles used to discover ghosts' existence - but that could stem from me not actually wanting them to be debunked or realized. I much prefer the old school 'what you can't see is scarier than what you can see': I don't want my ghosts uncovered, I want them firmly in the 'might be real' category.  Being scared is much more interesting than listening to a dissertation about their existence and the methods used to bring it to light. 

The Entity is vital viewing mostly due to Barbara Hershey's excellent portrayal of a woman losing hope and possibly sanity, but also because no one has yet to make a film on this particular subject matter as honest and direct, yet.  It doesn't really hide anything, and it sure the hell doesn't wait to scare the pants off you.  It just forces it right down your throat. And that lump you feel there, well..it's fear. 

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Creepshow 2: The Raft

Dream Home

House of the Dead

Dead Alive

Inferno

The Wicked: Classic 80's-Style Pulp Horror Makes A Welcome Comeback!

Back in the day - and I'm talking the 80's here - I was obsessed with reading all those horror novels with the lurid covers. Demons peeking out from behind the mountains of a small idyllic town, evil dolls with glowing eyes, ghastly ghouls hovering over a baby's crib, haunted houses that seemed to be alive...those covers were designed to attract the attention of horror fanatics such as myself, and generally held a story within that ran the gamut of ridiculous to genuinely frightening.

When I noticed the cover of The Wicked, I was promptly  taken back to my teen years and knew I had to check it out immediately.  I am a bit remorseful, however, that I purchased this title through my Kindle instead of buying the actual tome, as this cover is one of beauty (right down to the back cover that sports a faux price tag from Totem's Grocery and a well-used and battered-looking cover declaring 'An ancient evil rises...burns....kills...').  You just can't get it more right than that.  Shock Totem publications has re-released James Newman's 2007 throwback to 80's horror: The Wicked, and they've done a stylish and commendable job. 

The book itself is a helluva fun ride, too.  David Little has moved his family from the streets of New York City to the quiet mountains of North Carolina to escape a crime that has shattered his - and even more so his wife Kate's - world.  We quickly learn that Kate was violently raped walking home from work one night and the end result has produced a pregnancy that in effect has not only impaired the couple's happiness, but forced the question that haunts David's days and nights:  is the forthcoming child his?  Or the product of the worst event in both their lives?  They bring with them a young daughter, Becca, who has keenly observed that Daddy doesn't seem to love her new brother or sister-to-be.  

They relocate to Morganville, N.C. - where Kate's brother Joel is the local assistant (and acting) coroner - with intentions of starting over.  Kate is sure the impending birth will set David's mind at ease immediately, and as a woman of great faith she claims to "know" the baby is her husband's because God has told her so. This logic doesn't exactly make Kate a religious nutso, but it does swiftly show us that while Kate feels that God will help them through their troubles, David isn't quite so sure.  He in fact, has a sneaking suspicion that the baby will be a mulatto and has serious reservations about God's actual existence.

Amidst the carefully constructed story of the Littles, the author unwinds the heinous back story of Morganville.   Several months prior to the Little's arrival, a terrible tragedy struck the peaceful community.  A demented teenager obsessed with devil worship and the occult set fire to the Heller Home for Children, an orphanage/hospital that housed dozens of sick and helpless kids.  Killing everyone inside, the fire consumed the town's spirit with it as well, and has brought forth an unholy evil that is intent on destroying Morganville and all those who live within it. 

When the residents of Morganville start dropping off like flies to violent and sexually deviant deaths, it's up to David and his elderly ex-Marine neighbor, George, to decipher not only the unpleasant and sometimes repulsive manner of deaths of the innocent victims, but the disturbingly inexplicable acts of the townsfolk.  Walking around naked, fornicating without abandon, and committing unspeakable crimes - all in the name of MOLOCH - poses the age-old question: does evil exist?  Does a demon command an army of followers to kill in his name?  Is all hope lost?

Not backing down from violence in any form, this book just reaches out and grabs you from page one and doesn't let go. This is one of the fastest reads I've encountered in quite some time.  Filled to the brim with the old-style pulpy horror we fans expect, The Wicked boasts a high kill count and a fair amount of sexual perversion, but doesn't become too formulaic in its approach. Though a kickback to the horror novels of the 80's, it never falters in its believability and for all intents and purposes presents a compelling story with likeable characters and a fast pace.
Stick around at the end of the novel for the Afterword by the author; it's more than apparent that he is just as big a fan of those lurid and gory old 80's horror paperbacks as the rest of us.
Not just a guilty pleasure, The Wicked is a must-read and comes highly recommended from yours truly!

The Road (2011): Filipino Terror Comes To America

 Review by Marie Robinson

Greetings, multos! That would be the Filipino word for “ghost”; I use it because today I shall be reviewing a Filipino horror film called The Road. This film is directed by Yam Laranas, who has directed two other horror films called The Echo (2004) and Patient X (2009), neither of which I have ever heard of because The Road was the first Filipino movie I had ever seen. In fact, it is the first Filipino film to ever have a commercial release in U.S. theaters. Although it didn’t hit the screens in my town, I was thrilled to pick it up at the local video rental store.

Our film starts out with Luis (played by TJ Trinidad), a police officer at an award ceremony in his honor. At the ceremony, a woman approaches Luis, asking about the case of her two missing daughters. This particular case is news to Luis, so he asks for her daughters’ names—Joy and Lara—and then proceeds to reopen the twelve-year-old case…

This film is split up into three parts, and each takes place in a different point in time, each exactly ten years apart from the last. The first part is set in 2008 where a teenage girl named Ella (Barbie Forteza) is convinced by her cousin, Janine (Lexi Fernandez), and Janine’s boyfriend, Brian (Derrick Monasterio), to sneak out and take her aunt’s car for a joy ride. Ella is hesitant, because it is clear that she is not fond of Brian (or at least pretends to be), and none of them have a license. She changes her mind, however, not wanting to leave the two alone to do what teenagers will do in their parent’s cars.

With Brian driving, the three begin cruising down the highway, until Brian spots a cop, causing him to panic and turn off onto a street. Ella pleads that they turn around and go home, but Brian gets out of the car and opens a gate, leading to a concealed darkened road.

Ella sits nervously in the backseat, the country road is lined with only thick trees; the only light they have is given by their headlights. A red car drives up behind them, and passes. Ella tells them that she didn’t see a driver in the car. Brian scoffs at her until the same red car passes them again, and it becomes clear that there indeed is no one driving the car, but there is someone in the backseat.

The car begins to chase them, trying to run them off the road, until their pursuer swerves and crashes into the trees. They stop, getting out of the car to look at the wreck, but when they approach the car it has become ancient, as if it had been abandoned there for years, and then it bursts into flames.

The three get back into the car, driving on, but it seems they are trapped in an endless loop. When the car stalls, Janine and Brian get out to walk, but Ella insists on staying in the car, too afraid to face to open road. Cousin of the Year Janine leaves Ella behind to walk to dark road with Brian, but it isn’t long they are paying for it, as they are tormented by a ghost—a woman, with a bloody plastic bag over her head.

Part one was my favorite by far in the film. It had the feel of an urban legend and I was really diggin’ it. The other two parts take place in 1998 and 1988. In fear of running this article to long I shan’t be summarizing them to you, but at the same time it will give you all a reason to go out and see it!

The Road had beautiful cinematography, with clever angles that induce tension, suspense, and fear. The film is very emotionally charged, and successfully so. The soundtrack is understated but effective, and although it is sometimes a little difficulty to judge when it comes to foreign language films, I believe that all the actors did a wonderful job.

For my first Filipino film, I am very pleased! I was reading user comments on the film on Get Glue, and a few people were saying that the ending was predictable, but I didn’t see it coming! Maybe I’m dumb, but I think you should see this one for yourself. I hope my fellow Americans and I get to see more Filipino films as time progresses. The Road was also released in Belgium and Singapore, as well as the Philippines (duh).

The Balete tree is thought to be favored by spirits...

I came across an urban legend surrounding a road in the Philippines called Balete Drive. The road is surrounded by huge, beautiful trees called balete trees, which are thought to be haunted themselves. This particular type of tree is believed to be very adored by spirits, and are often inhabited or surrounded by them. There is also a ghost, called the White Lady, who haunts Balete Drive. Because of her, locals strongly advise not to travel the road at night, and if you do to have the backseat fully occupied, and not to look back in the mirrors. She wears a long white gown, with long hair around her shoulders, but her face cannot ever be seen, as it is usually covered in blood.

I wonder if the filmmakers were inspired by this tale when they made the movie?