It's almost my favorite day of the year...Thanksgiving. Not all of the family will be at the house this year. We'll be missing my sister and brother-in-law, but I'll still have 16 of my loved ones all under the same roof. Cooking for this many is a lot of work, but I still love hosting this celebration. Last week, the planning of this huge dinner was just a label for a new board on Pinterest. Today I type Part 2 of my thankful post with the aroma of pecan pie swirling in the air. Yum! What I'm Thankful for: 6. The CW I know last week I gave a shout out for the[...]
Yearly Archives
2014
3 Now in theaters (and as of today also on DirecTV VOD), The Babadook is one scary looking film. The plot: A widow and her troubled son are terrorized by a creature summoned from a children's book titled Mister Babadook. http://youtu.be/k5WQZzDRVtw While the film looks very promising (I haven't yet seen it), the thing I am most excited about is... ...wait for it... YOU CAN ORDER AN ACTUAL POP-UP BOOK OF MISTER BABADOOK. EXACTLY LIKE THE ONE FROM THE FRICKIN MOVIE. IN OTHER WORDS, YOU CAN SUMMON YOUR OWN MONSTER. Or just own a really cool book. I love[...]
Hi everyone. I'm back to Real Life Creepy Places, after having two papers due today that I just sent off (talk about real life horror). Ladies and gentlemen, good news! Today's Real Life Creepy Place is for sale! Everyone get their credit cards ready, the starting bid is just under $500, 000 US (or the price of a modest duplex in a moderately crappy Montreal neighborhood.) And this is no duplex, this is a paradisaical island in Italy. Check out this view! So what gives? Well, it might be the thousands and thousands of dead bodies that make up half the island[...]
I am so in the right mood for Thanksgiving. After seeing a recent post by Brooks Benjamin I decided to follow his lead with a post all my own. And as always with us here at the Midnight Society, my focus will be what horror am I thankful for. 1. American Horror Story As a long-time fan of the show AHS, I am most thankful for this season. First of all, I'm happy to know that there are others out there with crazier ideas than I have. I also adore Jessica Lange. I mean, can any actress out there beat all of the characters she's played over the last few years? AND[...]
Last month I introduced my new series, Reclaim Horror. Today we'll be looking at one of my favorite books, The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The Road is set in the post-apocalyptic Eastern United States. It centers on a father and his boy who was born just as the world was ending. He is now 9 or 10. They are trying to head south for the winter and must survive the evils they encounter along the way. According to IMDB, the movie adaptation is adventure/drama. According to Wikipedia, it is post-apocalyptic fiction, which is considered a sub-genre of science fiction that[...]
Here at The Midnight Society we talk a lot about fear. Some of us are afraid of clown, while others fear moving doll parts. What we haven't talked about are phobias. First of all, what exactly is the difference? A fear is the response to a real and true threat. Fear is something you can overcome. Phobias are more intense, anxiety causing, and sometimes a extreme irrational fear of something that poses very little actual threat. These little buggers aren't so easy to get over. I have a phobia and it's called Lilapsophobia--fear of tornadoes/storms. While my hus[...]
I write horror. This is the usual response I give people (delivered in a flat tone, because it's hard to gauge how they'll respond) when people ask what floats my boat. I've been met with a variety of reactions, but the most frequently recurring are the following: You must watch a lot of horror movies. I do, but I'm a chicken. I often won't watch them alone, and I would prefer to have someone burly next to me whose shoulder I can cram my face against during the scary parts. I often have trouble sleeping for weeks afterwards. You must have some strange stuff in yo[...]
This weekend, my Direct TV box went dark. Very, very dark. Although I can watch everything I've recorded, I can't watch regular TV or record any of my shows. Which totally sucks. I've missed THE WALKING DEAD and THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, just to name a few. In preparation for returning this box and in order to get it replaced with a new one, I've been binge watching what I have already saved. Some shows I deleted. I can't watch everything, so I deleted many things I can live without seeing. One show I kept to watch is THE STRAIN. I'm not quite sure why I never wat[...]
People brought the freak with October’s Top Scare Flash Fiction contest. Bravo to all participants. Here are a few of my favorite lines: Gina When I turned around I saw a pumpkin in front of my feet with the words “You’re Next” carved into its orange skin and the outline of a shadowy figure walking towards me. Alice “Pumpkin stew is best with young meat,” the third said as she pinched Jake’s arm. Joe Tatman As I sit on the ground in the cornfield with my knees drawn up to my chin and listening to the breeze whispering through the corn, I wonde[...]
Halloween has come and gone, and already the stores have started stocking holiday items. I hate this feeling -- the one you get when you see tinsel and prefab knit stockings two weeks before the clock strikes midnight on my favourite holiday of the year. I hide at home. Don't go into stores. Try to avoid the red and green and silver. It's too soon, and I'm not ready to let go quite yet. Being November 1st, I'm still holed up in my apartment, still sitting in my Halloween costume, trying to convince myself that's it's not over yet. And you know, it sorta is and i[...]