The Classic Dracula…Thank you Bram Stoker…

What better way to finish off a Halloween series than with the classic Dracula. There really is nothing to compare that has came out since. Vampire legends are in every country in the world and go as far back as recorded history, but Stoker took the European legends and solidified them into something that has been causing chills and thrills ever since. Many have tried to duplicate, spin off, or even completely change the legends of the vampire, (looking at you Twilight), but none have succeeded in the pure thrills and shivers that Stoker did with his masterpiece.

Whether it is in the beginning when Harker realizes he is a virtual prisoner in Dracula’s castle, or the final show down with the monster, the writing is such that you are there with the characters, experiencing the fear and loathing that they are.

Stoker uses the vintage style of diary entries/letters to tell his tale of horror and it is a favorite style of mine as a reader. Diaries and letters are personal things and there is privileged feeling of being allowed to read a personal writing of such importance. You know you are reading fiction, of course, but the personal touch of the journal style still has that effect. This style also enhances the feeling, mentioned above, of being there with the characters described. It is a wonderful way to make the story inclusive to the reader that is part of why this wonderful book has such impact and staying power in the world. As the saying goes, “often imitated, never duplicated.”

Thank you Bram Stoker!

Have you read it? What did you think?

Have you not read it? Why not? Scared? You should be…

Thoughts?

The scary side of Lord of the Rings

Most people think about The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien and think of; war, good against evil, poetry in prose. Remember, however, Tolkien managed to create some incredibly shiver worthy scenes in his masterpiece.

The cries of the Nazgul, Ringwaiths if you will. These can bring chills down the spine and a glance at a darkened window to make sure you didn’t actually see a shadow there. Or did you?

For those who have issues with spiders, (myself included), Shelob, the horrific giant spider, in caves smelling of rotting corpses, moving her bulk toward Frodo, will sound off your warning bells and make you wonder was that your hair that brushed you neck or something more sinister.

Tolkien’s genius was such that amongst the grandeur and joy within Lord of the Rings, there is the darker side that makes you shiver and start at shadows in the most wonderful of ways.

How many times have you been creeped out by scenes in these wonderful books?

Do spiders bother you too?

Thoughts?

Night of the Living Dead (Zombie fans represent!)

While this blog concentrates mostly on books, a Halloween discussion cannot be complete with out this film. The Night of the Living Dead completely changed how horror movies were made. It was the most disturbing movie made up until that point. (I would argue that to this day it hasn’t been beat.) What made it so? Sure, the graphic depiction of cannibalism is pretty shocking, even if the diners were dead.

Does that make it cannibalism? Or do you have to be alive when eating someone for it to be cannibalism?

In any case I think what made it shocking, and further adventures of zombies since then shocking, was that we the people, normal everyday people, were the bad guys. Up until that point most horror flicks were in far away places with mad scientists or alien encounters. This was in the heartland of America and our deceased relatives were climbing out of their graves. The gore of the movie aside, the location and the people make The Night of the Living Dead a psychological horror film. This holds true for the flood of Zombie movies, shows and books that continue to be made. There have been many great zombie tales since, but for my money, it all begins and ends with The Night of the Living Dead.

As a side note, George Romero the director admits it was a rip off of the book I am Legend by Richard Matheson. Although in his novel, (and subsequent movies), it was a disease that caused something like vampirism.

Also the movie itself never called the zombies zombies. They were referred to as ghouls.

Memories of the first time you saw it?

Have not seen it? (gasp in shock)

Thoughts?

Those Who Hunt the Night

A frightening vampire story by Barbara Hambly that has a touch of realism which makes it all the more creepy. “Spoiler alert”. Set in 1907 England a man is hired to find out who is killing the Vampires of London. A threat against a loved one is sufficient to get him working for the Vampires, and so he hunts whoever is killing them during the day. Those who Hunt the Night is an intriguing look at what vampirism could scientifically be, yet this does not take the story out of the horror genre. It still remains one of my go to books for this season. Or any other when a good scare is what the doctor ordered.

There is a scene where they visit a crypt in underground Paris. It is the place where victims bodies of the Black Plague were dumped long ago. If that does not satisfy you taste for unnerving, you may need to see a doctor, because something is wrong with you.

Have you read this? Would you like to?

Thoughts?

The Raven, by Edgar Allen Poe

The narrator in this amazing work is haunted by his love Lenore, living in desolation and despair of his loss. He is visited by a Raven who has a one word vocabulary that is eerie and prophetic, saying “Nevermore”, merely this and nothing more. He would never see his beloved again, nevermore. The harshness of this poem comes from the repetition of the one word statement that says so much.

If you have never read this you should do so. It is worth the time, (and it is not a long poem). There is not much that I can add to the greatness of this work, so I will leave you with a stanza from the poem that I consider to be the most powerful.

‘Be that word our sign in parting, bird or fiend,’ I shrieked,
upstarting-
‘Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken!- quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my
door!’
Quoth the Raven, ‘Nevermore.’ Edgar Allen Poe

Thoughts?