WerewolvesI don’t know who created this piece of Art. If it was you and you’d like credit, just give us a holler and we’ll be happy to oblige. Or if you know the person responsible, give them a holler and tell them to give us a holler. Or you can just credit them yourself. Whatevs.…Continue readingBritish Folklore, Mapped
Here’s the spin: “Soon after violent masked drifters dressed as wolves arrive in a small rural town, a local young couple goes missing and their bodies are discovered near a ranch run by brother and sister, Tommy and June. Her ex-boyfriend and local deputy sheriff Luke start suspecting Tommy of murder, leaving the siblings ostracized…Continue readingWhat Comes in THE DEAD OF NIGHT?
“April 6. Well I’m here at last. Kenya. The village is all I expected it to be. ‘I a stranger, and afraid,’ and all that. Yes, Toto, we are a long way from Kansas now.” She paused to listen for a minute as several other voices had joined in the argument. *Great. A riot outside…Continue readingBlackmane Chapter Five
We have more details on the upcoming PREDATOR movie. Courtesy of a new production listing: “The story will follow Kee, a Comanche woman who goes against gender norms and traditions to become a warrior. Many years ago – in a time before any Europeans had ever encroached on their lands – the Comanche people had…Continue readingPREDATOR and PredatorS
A couple of vehicles rolled past them in the street, both pick-up trucks. A man went by leading a herd of goats. They scattered a few chickens that were pecking in the dirt. Hamm led the way to a two-story stucco building, stepping up under the low veranda. Maribelle couldn’t help but notice the walls,…Continue readingBLACKMANE Chapter Four
If ever I have encountered a better premise and set-up for a gloriously cheesy Sci-Fi Horror flick, I cannot remember it. Scientists are growing little blobs of Neanderthal brains. What could possibly go wrong? And they’ve found that Neanderthal DNA, when introduced, can alter human brain tissue. This just keeps getting better! A virus that…Continue readingNeanderthal Brain Blobs
As far as giant killer pig movies go, Russell Mulcahy’s (and writers Everett De Roche’s and Peter Brennan’s) RAZORBACK from 1984 stands head and tusks above the rest. It’s the CITIZEN KANE of giant killer pig movies. Now we have a new contender. BOAR is right up there with it. It’s a grand, old-fashioned “nature…Continue readingMovie Review: BOAR
One thing that struck me (and by this I mean it struck my lovely better half, who was watching the film with me, and who pointed it out to me; I was myself too entranced by what I was seeing to contemplate much of anything) while viewing THE FURY OF THE WOLFMAN (aka LA FURIA…Continue readingDid Daninsky’s Villainess Inspire DARK SHADOWS?
The right front wheel of the bus bounced into a pothole, jarring her and stealing her attention from the papers on her lap. She looked up. The driver was already braking, slowing down. The brakes squealed and the bus shuddered as it came to a stop. The driver looked back at her over his shoulder.…Continue readingBLACKMANE Chapter Three
I must speak. There is something reassuring about seeing these words, now. By typing them they become real. They are no longer in my head alone, where they might be a delusion, or madness. I tap on this keyboard and the words appear, and by so doing I give them a permanence, or at least…Continue readingBLACKMANE Chapter Two
No, this one has nothing to do with the Universal Monsters character the Wolfman, not the Lon Chaney Jr. version or the Benecio Del Toro version. Rather this Spanish feature (alternately known as WOLFMAN NEVER SLEEPS) is the fourth in the multi-picture series of films featuring the character Waldemar Daninsky, portrayed by actor Paul Naschy.…Continue readingMovie Review: THE FURY OF THE WOLFMAN (1970)
It’s funny how, as a writer, your views of your work can change with time. Hopefully, if you’re doing it right, if it’s working the way it’s supposed to work, you keep getting better at it as you go. You keep improving. And something that you considered your masterpiece, the greatest work you’d ever be…Continue readingIntroducing BLACKMANE
FACT: The Human-Animal Hybrid Prohibition Act (H.R. 5910) was introduced into the House of Representatives in 2008 (having been introduced into the U.S. Senate one year earlier) but never passed. FACT: Several states, including Arizona and Louisiana, have proposed laws banning the creation or propagation of human-animal hybrids, also called chimeras. FACT: In 2004, the…Continue readingBLACKMANE Chapter One
Afterword It is all too easy to dismiss the numerous eyewitness accounts from ages past of the thing we in our modern parlance refer to as “werewolf,” no matter how credible those accounts might otherwise be. If the people of past centuries (and millennia, for in truth accounts detailing werewolf-like creatures are far older than…Continue readingTHE CONFESSIONS OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER: WEREWOLF – Finale
God surprised me one last time. I had not expected to survive the encounter with Lycanon, praying only that my death might accomplish God’s will. But survive I did. My brothers the monks climbed the mountain and found my ravaged body where it lay upon the fallen stones of Lycanon’s temple. The demon was no…Continue readingTHE CONFESSIONS OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER: WEREWOLF Part 65
It’s hard for an enterprising Horror mark these days to keep up with the theatrical release dates for upcoming genre films, as they keep moving them. This, then, is your handy guide, as of right now, to the upcoming cinematic offerings of 2021. These are, it goes without saying, subject to change. But as of…Continue readingMovie Switcheroo
I recently watched this paranormal documentary-type show, a relatively well-done one wherein the investigator approached the subject from a journalistic standpoint, not sensationalizing things but not displaying closed-mindedness either, a stance that I wish all investigators would adopt. This particular program put a unique spin on things—unique insofar as such television programs are concerned—by suggesting…Continue readingAre Werewolves and Skinwalkers the Same Thing?
AMC just managed to gather up some much needed fundage, I read. Or “capital”, as it is referred to in the business vernacular. Enough that they won’t be going bankrupt anytime soon. Enough to get them through the year, they said, or at least halfway, if they didn’t make a single cent (which they will).…Continue readingCoronavirus and the (Monster) Movies
You’ve probably seen the headline. Some Congressman from Oklahoma wants to establish a hunting season for Bigfoot. Then this same Congressman apparently got his feelings hurt when people started calling him stupid. Come on, dude. If you say, or post, stupid things, you should expect that somebody, somewhere is gonna call you an idiot. No…Continue readingHunting Bigfoot
I just watched KISS MEETS THE PHANTOM OF THE PARK for the first time since I saw it as a little boy. I waxed nostalgic about it over at our sister site VAMPIRES.COM. The whole blood-drinking thing with the Demon, Gene Simmons, made it a perfect fit, and there’s a Count Dracula automaton in it,…Continue readingKISS versus the Werewolves
[The conclusion of the battle between Christopher and the King of the Werewolves] “No!” I crawled. I pushed myself up. “No…more!” Lycanon stomped on me with one of his hoofed feet, shattering my spine. I vomited blood. “Yes! And forever!” Lycanon turned from me. Turned all of its eyes away. The moon remained, filling my…Continue readingTHE CONFESSIONS OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER: WEREWOLF Part 64
[NOTE: This is it, peeps! The first installment of the big fight between the beasts!] Never, save once, have I remembered with such perfect clarity the things that happen when I am in the form of the beast. All other times, the memories are distant, as though viewed through water, more like a dream half…Continue readingTHE CONFESSIONS OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER: WEREWOLF Part 63
First things first. This movie should not have been titled WRONG TURN. It should have been called THE FOUNDATION. I get that the same guy who wrote the original WRONG TURN wrote this one and they wanted to keep the continuity, but the title scarcely applies to this new film. The characters do take a…Continue readingMovie Review: WRONG TURN
Having watched GORILLA AT LARGE this past week, and having been sent on a magical mystery tour of nostalgia by it, I started consulting my old memory banks, trying to remember which of the two special 3-D broadcasts I recall from my childhood, the aforementioned GORILLA and REVENGE OF THE CREATURE, actually aired first. It…Continue readingWhich Came First, the Creature or the Gorilla?
Back in the 80s, somebody had the novel idea of repurposing old 1950s Sci-Fi and Horror flicks and airing them in their original 3-D on broadcast television. It must not have proven cost-effective for them because only a couple of movies ever aired, REVENGE OF THE CREATURE, the sequel to CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON,…Continue readingRevisiting the Classics: GORILLA AT LARGE
I had no idea that this low-budget effort was actually the third in a series. There for sure wasn’t anything from any earlier movies that I needed to have seen to follow this one. And honestly, there’s no reason this one should have been a Krampus movie at all. It would have worked better had…Continue readingMovie Review: KRAMPUS: ORIGINS
I made it through 2020 way better than I’d feared I would. I’d been afraid boredom would pose as great a threat to my wellbeing as the ‘Ronavirus. Thankfully that didn’t happen. While it did force the partial shutdown of my theatrical company, EVIL CHEEZ PRODUCTIONS, we managed to perform one full outdoor production and…Continue readingA Tentpole-less Summer?
NOTE: I keep seeing them referred to as “dire wolves”, even in scholarly sources like this linked article. But it bugs me. “Dire wolves” means wolves that are dire. This is an accurate description, as far as that goes, but it isn’t grammatically correct, not if the term is meant to designate a separate species…Continue readingDirewolves: A Different Beast
We knew that Oscar Isaac was going to be playing the lead in the new Marvel series MOON KNIGHT for Disney’s streaming service (although it has yet to be “officially” confirmed), and now we know that Ethan Hawke has signed on to play the big bad. We don’t know which villain he’ll be portraying, though.…Continue readingMOON KNIGHT and SWAMP THING News
It’d been a little while since I took a roadtrip, and this past weekend presented a perfect opportunity. It was a lovely day, but cold, thus ruling out any outdoor activities. An ideal day for driving, then! But where to go? I’d heard stories about Chickenfoot, an area of Lawrence County, Alabama, for years, but…Continue readingThe Beast of Chickenfoot
I’m a sucker for a good Wendigo movie at any time. Note that I said *good* Wendigo movie. As I recall, RAVENOUS was mediocre as hell, not bad enough to be fun but not good, either. I need to go back and rewatch it, as I might appreciate it a little more now, being older…Continue readingThe Wendigo of BLACK WOOD
This is the guy who brought us GERALD’S GAME, THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, the underrated OCULUS, and the amazeballs DOCTOR SLEEP, just in case you didn’t recognize the name. The dude knows what he’s doing, for sure, and what he does best is high-quality Horror. And he wants to do a Clayface movie. That’s…Continue readingMike Flanagan Wants Clayface
A clip 40 years in the making! Or close enough! I first saw the movie GRIZZLY when it was broadcast on network television around 1978 or so. I was just a wee thing, and the film, though edited to be broadcast on TV, scared the wee out of me. (The fact that I lived basically…Continue readingThe Grizzly Cometh!
So how exactly did we get dogs? How did wolves become domesticated? Ancient wolves sure wouldn’t have looked any more cute and cuddly than any of the other predators that hunted and preyed upon ancient human beings. (Maybe as puppies.) So how did it occur to our primitive forebears that making friends with the wolf…Continue readingScraps
One of the many communities I belong to on social media is dedicated to the MISSING411 phenomenon. This, if you are unfamiliar, is the field of expertise of a man named David Paulides, who investigates cases of strange disappearances in national parks and other wilderness areas. Most of the people who belong to this group…Continue reading411 Skeptics
“I do not believe I have ever witnessed a more disgraceful sight.” It took me a few seconds to recognize the voice as my own. One’s voice always sounds different in one’s own ears than it does to others. But I knew the voice I heard speaking, coming from nowhere in particular but all around…Continue readingTHE CONFESSIONS OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER: WEREWOLF Part 62
I’ve been writing about this one for some time now. I had really hoped that it would be released to theaters in my geographic area, yet it never was. Yesterday I finally got hold of it on DVD. Was it worth the wait? Well, kinda, I guess. I wanted to like this one a lot…Continue readingMovie Review: THE WOLF OF SNOW HOLLOW
A sense of uncleanness and foreboding grew thicker the higher I climbed, a palpable presence. Here I saw no other living thing. The air ceased to stir. I came at last to the temple site. The structure itself had long since collapsed, long before my time. Its walls lay in pieces now, broken slabs scattered…Continue readingTHE CONFESSIONS OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER: WEREWOLF Part 61
According to Screen Rant they are. I hadn’t noticed. Yes, I *did* notice that there were no big screen, big studio movies featuring werewolves in theaters right now, or for the past few years. But fewer werewolves than vampires? Fewer werewolves than appearances by Frankenstein? Didn’t seem like it to me. “The main takeaway from…Continue readingWerewolves Less Popular Nowadays?
The movie is titled WEREWOLF but it isn’t readily clear that there are no actual werewolves in this film. Not literal werewolves, at any rate. It does have killer dogs, and you could argue that there are werewolves present, but they are werewolves of the mind, conceptual werewolves. Here’s the official synopsis: “Children liberated from…Continue readingPolish WEREWOLF Dogs
World War Two didn’t just start out of the blue. There had been a buildup for years, with the expectant publicity. News reports on the radio and playing before feature films in theaters made sure the average American stayed up-to-date on the growing Nazi threat. Germany was viewed, and rightfully so, in a very negative…Continue readingVasaria
I traveled alone. None could aid me, so I allowed none to accompany me. God alone walked beside me. “Give me the strength I will need,” I prayed. “Not for my sake, but for the sake of all those who suffer from this pestilence. As You aided me that night in the Roman Coliseum, come…Continue readingTHE CONFESSIONS OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER: WEREWOLF Part 60
Our Abbot, in response to the shared question on all our lips—“Why is this happening?—came to me for an answer, believing I, as one so afflicted, might possess some greater insight. “I do not know why,” I told him. “Brother Christopher, what then can we do?” “I do not know,” I lied for a second…Continue readingTHE CONFESSIONS OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER: WEREWOLF Part 59
The movie is fantastic. All the Normie haters are wrong, as they almost always are. Ignore them, if you haven’t seen this one already. You really should, as it’s as good as they come. There is one implausibility—how exactly did they get that jet all fueled and ready for takeoff without anyone noticing?—and normally an…Continue readingMovie Review: WONDER WOMAN 1984 (and the Cheetah’s Nipples)
Over on our sister site VAMPIRES.COM this week we’ve been examining supposed real-life incidents of paranormal occurrences linked to this time of year and the annual celebration of Christmas. One of the stories I came across while researching the subject, however, is better suited to this particular site, as it deals with a phantasmagorical hellhound,…Continue readingSir Geoffrey and His Headless Hellhound
As I always do this time of year, immersing myself in Yuletide lore (being the folklorist that I am I cannot resist all the lush legendry associated with the holidays), I was reading through some Saturnalia esoterica and such when I chanced upon a mention of my beloved friend Krampus and learned something about him…Continue readingKrampus: One Hoof or Two?
I was watching one of those Bigfoot-hunting shows—and by “watching” I mean it was playing in the background while I was doing other stuff, only halfway paying attention to it, as generally those kind of shows don’t really interest me. (Spoiler alert: They don’t ever find Bigfoot. They go out in the woods and record…Continue readingMore than an Animal
“New Research Bolsters Claim That Neanderthals Buried Their Dead” reads the headline of this linked article. I had the same reaction as the writer of that article when I first read its headline: Isn’t that a done deal, I thought? Didn’t we already know that Neanderthals buried their dead? As he said: “I must admit,…Continue readingNeanderthal Funerals
Once upon a time, Horror maestro John Carpenter was supposed to be making a remake of the classic Universal chiller THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. For whatever reasons that film never got made. But maybe, just maybe, we can change that from “never got made” to “hasn’t been made YET”. With the incredible success,…Continue readingCarpenter’s Creature
“Alaska 1993. A snowstorm has trapped the small mountain town. Now it’s up to a group of rebellious teenagers to save their town that don’t believe in monsters.” So reads the synopsis—poorly. Is the “small mountain town” supposed to be named “Alaska”? That’s how the synopsis makes it sound. And they’re out to save a…Continue readingCheck Out FEAR OF THE WOODS
