There's a new crop of Australian bands that take inspiration from old blues, but twist the music in a strange fashion. The trend may have started with
CW Stoneking (Jungle Blues,
Love Me Or Die), who channeled the old bluesmen despite being a
young man. Its continued on to Sydney's
Snowdroppers, who started out as a
house band for burlesque shows and kept that dirty sensibility up with songs like
Rosemary ,
Do The Stomp, and their signature tune
Good Drugs, Bad Women (lyrics NSW). Frequent Snowdroppers touring partners
Gay Paris add a Southern horror twist (
House Fire In the Origami District, My First Wife? She Was A Foxqueen! ) and an antic stage energy. Some of the bands relay on gimmicks, like Adelaide's
The Beards, who sing about how
you should consider having sex with a bearded man and point out that
if your dad doesn't have a beard, you've got two moms. The Beards recently performed at the
World Beard and Mustache Championships. Horror-country-rockers
Graveyard Train have picked up the torch dropped when Sydney psychobilly masters
Zombie Ghost Train (
Graveyard Queen) disbanded. Graveyard Train tunes like
Mummy,
Ballad for Beelzebub ,
Tall Shadow and
Dead Folk Dance combine cheerful Misfits horror theming with stompy country. Most of the singers from this loose scene are joining forces in Sydney this week to
pay tribute to Tom Waits.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn
on Oct 4, 2011 -
32 comments
From the start of Bill Lancaster writing the original script to the final edited cut of the film, The Thing underwent some serious changes. A lot of footage ended up littering the cutting room floor. The Collector's Edition DVD gives us a look at some of the Outtakes and Deleted Scenes, but it falls shy of showing us what really was cut. -
Deleted Scenes from
The Thing and other assorted goodies at
Outpost 31.
There is also a prequel of some kind.
posted by Artw
on Sep 20, 2011 -
38 comments
Jason Zinoman, author of the newly-published
Shock Value, a study of horror films from the late 1960s/early 1970s, presents a four-part essay in which he diagnoses the ills of the modern horror film and presents a few solutions. (
1 2 3 4)
[more inside]
posted by kittens for breakfast
on Jul 8, 2011 -
39 comments
Universal Horror: history of the early horror films made by Universal Studios such as Dracula, Frankenstein, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, King Kong, The Mummy and many more. Directed by
Kevin Brownlow. Narrated by Kenneth Branagh.
1 ::
2 ::
3 ::
4 ::
5 ::
6 ::
7
posted by puny human
on May 16, 2011 -
13 comments
Daughter of Horror (original title: Dementia) was a 1955 avant garde film featuring a
noir style, a surrealist sensibility, and virtually no dialogue. A later version of the film even included an over-the-top voice over by none other than Tonight Show sidekick
Ed McMahon, but like Blade Runner the flick is better off without the narration.
Daughter of Horror is probably most famous for being the film playing in the theater overrun by
The Blob. And with a few more surrealistic elements and peculiar dialogue added, this could have been done by David Lynch in a later decade. The film, recently featured on Turner Classic Movies, is
available for free on archive.org.
posted by Celsius1414
on May 1, 2011 -
7 comments
The Ward (
Part 1 -
Part 2 -
Part 3) is a silly little Lovecraftian sitcom from the folks who bring us the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast. (previously:
1,
2,
3,
4) The guys Lackey and Fifer are also writing a graphic horror novel set in the Jazz Age,
Deadbeats.
posted by JHarris
on Apr 9, 2011 -
11 comments
Following the success of
The Haunter of The Dark, the HP Lovecraft Literary Podcasts presents two new readings,
From Beyond and
The Picture in The House, by Andrew Leman and Bruce Green. Both recordings are available "In 3D". Alternatively if you like your Lovecraft with both pictures AND sound, the HP Lovecraft Historical Society version of
The Whisperer in Darkness is complete and being shown at worldwide film festivals - it's a talkie! (The HPLHS are now also offering a rather handsome
"official membership" pack.) Want something more interactive?
Cthulhu Dark offers a complete Lovecraftian tabletop RPG system that fits on two sides of a sheet of paper. Please note:
"If you fight any creature you meet, you will die. Thus, in these core rules, there are no combat rules or health levels. Instead, roll to hide or escape."
posted by Artw
on Mar 29, 2011 -
21 comments
6 ways to turn Cthulhu into an emoticon. How to pronounce "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" via
The Lovecraftsman A contemporary blog about HP Lovecraft, Cthulhu, the Necronomicon, Miskatonic University, Arkham, R'lyeh, The Book of Eibon, Yog-Sothoth, De Vermis Mysteriis, & other unspeakable things...
posted by fearfulsymmetry
on Mar 27, 2011 -
105 comments
Canadian horror flick
Pontypool (
trailer) is a modern zombie tale quite unlike any other. Loosely based on a
dense, complicated novel by Tony Burgess and
inspired by Orson Welles'
War of the Worlds, it tells the story of Grant Mazzy, a grumbling yet likable radio host (played by veteran character actor Stephen McHattie) whose penchant for
philosophical ramblings gets him booted from Toronto to the sleepy winter pastures of Pontypool, Ontario. One bleak morning, as the outspoken Mazzy chafes against no-nonsense producer Sydney Briar,
disturbing news begins rolling in of a series of
bizarre and violent incidents sweeping the town. Trapped in their church basement broadcasting booth,
Mazzy, Briar, and intern Laurel-Ann Drummond struggle to understand the odd nature of the crisis and warn the wider world before it's too late. But this is no ordinary virus, and they find their efforts may be causing far more harm than good. You can watch the film on YouTube horror channel Dead By Dawn (
1 2 3 4 5 6 7), but if you're pressed for time you can also experience it in its more logical form: as
a one-hour BBC radio drama voiced by the original cast. And after the credits, make sure not to miss
the film's playful non-sequitur coda.
posted by Rhaomi
on Feb 25, 2011 -
49 comments
"Let's do those drive-in totals. We have: Nineteen dead bodies
(plus fragments). Ten breasts
(shame on you, TNT censors). Two zombie breasts. One-hundred twenty-five zombies. Mummy dogs. One-half zombie dog. Ten gallons blood. Brain-eating. Gratuitous embalming. Zombie fu. Nekkid punk-rocker fondue. Gratuitous midget zombie. Torso S&M. One motor vehicle chase
(totalled by zombies). Pool cue fu. No aardvarking. Heads roll. Brains roll. Arms roll. Hands roll.
Joe Bob says, Check It Out." Only on
MonsterVision.
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Feb 3, 2011 -
31 comments
For many years the BBC had a tradition of showing a dramatisation of a classic ghost story at Christmas. This tradition is being continued this year with
Whistle and I'll Come to You being shown tonight staring John Hurt. An adaptation of the same classic
MR James story was shown in 1968 staring Michael Hordern beginning the tradition (
1,
2,
3).
[more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry
on Dec 24, 2010 -
22 comments
Murderbullets, 102 pages of power armour, guns, mega-scale rapidly mutating biological horror, cancer sticks, tanks and general comics mahem by James Stokoe.
posted by Artw
on Dec 2, 2010 -
17 comments
A fine way to remove unwanted hair is to wrench it violently from your scalp. To facilitate this, try reading
Dell Hell (Part 2), in which a sad soul descends into madness at the virtual hands of Dell's customer service. It's a companion piece to a 2005 series of
Dell Hell deranged scribblings.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese
on Nov 9, 2010 -
100 comments
Broadcast on Halloween night 1992
Ghostwatch - a live investigation into a haunted house - was one of the most controversial and terrifying programs the BBC has ever shown.
[more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry
on Oct 31, 2010 -
36 comments
