- Part 2

Battle of the Weres

Lycanthropes are not exclusive to European culture. Far from it. In Europe, the werewolf is prevalent, as it is in America, which is largely the result of European influences, for both good and ill. In Europe the wolf was the most common alpha predator. Whether it was an accurate reflection or not—probably not—the animal people…

Little Werewolf on the Prairie

I grew up watching LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, because my mom watched it. I don’t remember too much about it, because I was too young, but I do know that every Monday night (I think it always aired on Monday) we’d watch it. I saw some of the shows in syndication when I was…

Parallels of Murder

There are a lot of parallels between the fictitious Laura Palmer of TWIN PEAKS and the real-life murder victim who inspired her creation, Hazel Drew. Laura was 17 when murdered; Drew was 20. Both led seemingly idyllic, even boring lives, but after their respective murders details came to light suggesting there was a lot more…

Never Offer to Buy a Cannibal Dinner

James Jameson got off on watching. Cannibalism, that is. This guy, for whose family the whiskey company, and porno star Jenna Jameson, are named, was a real creepazoid. He was a wannabe. He wanted to be “the most interesting man in the world,” an international man of intrigue like Sir Richard Francis Burton. Burton was…

Hybridization Horror

Science is gonna be the death of us. None of today’s scientists have learned anything from the failed examples set by guys like Victor Frankenstein and the bajillion other mad scientist types of the movies. The best of intentions don’t prevent your experiments from blowing up in your face. In everybody’s faces. A human-monkey hybrid…

Movie Review: CUCUY THE BOOGEYMAN

When you take the plot of a popular big-screen Horror flick, in this case DISTURBIA, and then throw in samplings from a different big-screen Horror movie, in this case KRAMPUS, and stir, then pen the most paint-by-numbers screenplay possible, you know you are probably dealing with a SyFy original! I caught CUCUY THE BOOGEYMAN by…

THE HUNT Part Five

Jonas Beauregard Batiste Francois Toussaint had been born with rarefied tastes, he told folks. (He’d also been born with the Caul, but more on that later.) He had a passion for the finer pleasures in life. “I’m a gen-u-wine Epicurean, boss,” he’d say. Most principal of life’s pleasures for him were fine food (sweets in…

A Visit to Area 51

I haven’t written about this previously, as I generally don’t cover things “alien” on this site. But all this nonsense that’s going around about a raid on the top-secret base—which isn’t top-secret at all since everybody on the planet knows about it, but it is certainly secret-ive—has got me to thinking that maybe it’s time….

Moving Halloween

This idiocy popped up last year and it’s back. A movement by a bunch of “soccer moms” who don’t want to be inconvenienced by having to take their little ankle-biters trick-or-treating on a weeknight. They want the date for Halloween moved to the last Saturday in October or some crap. There’s a counter-petition, too, that…

Cryptkins, Wave Two!

Cryptozoic Entertainment has released a second series of those adorable Cryptkins. Once again I swallowed the hook on this one. I had to have several of those cute little beasties. This second series features figures of the Kraken, Cerberus, a Gryphon, a Unicorn, a Gold Dragon, a Blue Dragon, Pegasus, a “Cactus Cat” (pretty sure…

DVD Review: THE BRAY ROAD BEAST

This is the first of the offerings from Small Town Monsters that I’ve had the pleasure to view, and if the ilk resemble it then it bodes well for the overall quality of their output. Funded in part by crowdsourcing, THE BRAY ROAD BEAST is a slick little production and a must for werewolf aficionados….

Violence as the Motivator for Women

I don’t think any rational person would argue that there has been a history of sexism, chauvinism, and even misogyny in the motion picture industry. Thankfully that seems to be going out of vogue these days, although it does still happen. Was I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE pure exploitation, as many have claimed, or a…

Soska Sisters vs. Tarantino

I really like the Soska sisters, the dynamic “Twisted Twins” directing duo responsible for such films as AMERICAN MARY. I don’t doubt that if we all knew each other in real life and lived in the same geographic location we’d be good friends. They are kindred spirits. Quentin Tarantino is a kindred spirit, too, but…

The Flatwoods Stranger and Your State’s Trademark Monster

Somebody went and photoshopped the face of the Flatwoods Monster into a publicity still of Robin from season three of STRANGER THINGS. I don’t know who did it or I’d be glad to credit him/her. I think it’s cute so I’m sharing it. (Note: I added the werewolf.) I’m also sharing this handy map detailing…

THE HUNT Part Four

Friends told him the faces kept him up at night. They didn’t understand. The loneliness is what kept him up, or the quiet brought about by the solitude. Or sometimes it was the pain in that damn right shoulder, or both the pain and the quiet working together. Either/or, that was what kept him up…

The Red Room

Unless you live in a Third World country with no access to the Internet or even a good library, you have no excuse. Today, in America, ignorance is a choice. We have the sum total of all human knowledge literally at our fingertips. How do we use it? To insult strangers on social media and…

Thoughts of Season Three of STRANGER THINGS

I’ve seen it! Not being able to livestream sucks. You see, in the boonies where I live like a hermit, eating only the wild game I can snare and wearing garments fashioned of old burlap sacks, you can’t get cable, and you can only get the Internet via satellite, as well as satellite television. I…

Who Complains More, Werewolf Marks or Vampire Marks?

I write content for this site, here, as well as for our sister sites vampires.com and darkness.com. The latter is such a big umbrella that almost anything falls under its purview. With this site and with vampires, I tend to devote the majority of our focus to the respective monsters in the site titles, as…

THE HUNT Part Three

Saint knew that he scared people. He didn’t mind. Liked it, in fact. “Fear, that’s jus’ another word for respect,” he always said. But he could turn it off, too. When it suited him. He always tuned it down for the ladies. Played it low-key. Kept just enough of the edge to keep ’em interested…

That’s Practical!

Chances are you enjoyed seeing the werewolf make an appearance in ANNABELLE COMES HOME; that is, if you saw the movie. (If you didn’t it isn’t too late. Read our review here to learn why you should.) It was onscreen for far too short a time, and the looks we got at it were limited….

IT and STRANGER THINGS killed THE MONSTER SQUAD

What was actually killed was the idea to do a television series based on the 80s cult favorite. THE MONSTER SQUAD the movie is fine. We’ve heard talk of a remake off and on for years, but director Fred Dekker confirmed recently in an interview with Moviefone that the notion of turning the movie into…

The Formula of STRANGER THINGS

Filming on the fourth season of the hit series is reportedly set to begin this fall. This is good news but it leaves a lot of fans disappointed, wondering how long it will be before that fourth season is ready to air. The Duffer Brothers have stated that they like to have their hands in…

The Ghost of Starcourt Mall

Starcourt Mall, the safe on the surface but secretly sinister setting for the villainous threat of the new season of STRANGER THINGS is, as I have previously reported, actually Gwinnett Place Mall in Duluth, Georgia. The latter has sadly returned to a large extent to its pre-STRANGER THINGS existence, which is to say it’s mostly…

Guillermo and SCARY STORIES

When trying to figure out how to properly adapt SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK as a movie, Guillermo Del Toro looked to his own oeuvre for inspiration. Said Del Toro while sitting on a panel at the recent San Diego Comic-Con: “When we started talking about…this about five years ago, I had to…

Movie Review: ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD

This movie doesn’t show things the way they really happened in our mundane world. It shows them the way I wish they had happened. And I’m betting you will too. If only there’d been a boozy actor named Rick Dalton living next door to Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski in 1969. How different things would…