Archive for the ‘Horror’ Category

This is the latest B Movie style poster that can be fully personalised over at Zazzle.  It makes the ideal gift for fans of classic monsters like Frankenstein’s.

This design is available to purchase on the following products and can be customised by adding a name and/or website address.

Frankenstein Poster | Frankenstein Greeting Card | Frankenstein Business Card

The poster above features me as VampBitch and Luke as Frankenstein’s Monster.

I’ve compiled a list of places and objects that are a no go zone for me thanks to the many horror films I’ve watched over the years. Below is my personal list of things that terrify me and feel free to leave your responses as I’m sure there are many more.

St Bernard Dog

I always tread carefully near St Bernard dogs thanks to Stephen Kings Cujo. It has to be the most terrifying dog of all horror films.

Corn Fields

Remember the scene in ‘Children of the Corn’ when the stalks of corn suddenly part way for our entrance into the corn field? Absolutely no way will you find me travelling near a corn field.

Parked Lorries

This one will probably make you laugh. Ever since watching ‘Trucks’ again a Stephen King film, I hate to cross the road near a parked truck at night that is pure black inside the windows in case it suddenly starts up and mows me down. Also thinking about it, if you’ve watched this film, do you remember the lawn mower coming to life?

Windows at Night

Ever since Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot, I’ve not been able to sit in a room at night with the curtains/blinds open just in case a mist forms and something floats up to the window with yellow eyes and starts dragging their long fingernails down it.

Shiny Silver Balls

Although they don’t scare me that much, I do imagine sharp blades to suddenly pop out before the balls float in the air and chase me and land smack bang in the middle of my forehead. Thanks Phantasm! That tall undertaker guy walking down the street is scary as Hell.

Television Screens

When you’re sat at the television and suddenly there’s a problem with the aerial and the screen goes all white and fuzzy, I’m scared as Hell that spirits are on their way to get me thanks to Poltergeist.

In the previous article, we looked at types of fear and how childhood fears can shape our creativity as adults.

In this article, Twitter friends of mine describe their fears and I will begin with my boyfriend’s (@1uk3) childhood experience of living in a haunted house. It is interesting to note that not everyone who has a terrifying experience as a child goes on to adore horror and/or have a creativity outlet.  This is certainly the case with Luke.

First of all I feel I need to talk about the house, before we moved there back in 1981.  It was a very old miner’s cottage in Cornwall which dated back to the 1800’s.  Well in fact it used to be two miners cottages but it had been knocked through to form one larger house probably sometime around 1920.  Around that time it had been turned into a Post Office and used for this purpose until around 1960 I believe.  After the Post Office had closed (for unknown reasons) the house had been condemned as unfit for inhabitants.  It was then used to keep chickens and nothing more.  This is all quite strange as it was a terraced house and the homes at either side where all being lived in.  What had happened there?  I still don’t know to this day.  I think that the house was lived in briefly between it being a chicken coop and me and my family moving in – it didn’t smell of chicken poop!

In 1981 my Grandfather, Grandma, Mother, Auntie, Uncle and me all moved to the property.  I was only 3 years old at the time but remember it vividly!

All of my family, apart from my Mother and me were already there.  They’d travelled down from Cheshire (North West England) to Cornwall (South West England) the day before by car.  I travelled there by train with my mother the next day.  I remember arriving and getting off the train to see a grey small country town and feeling a strangely repressive vibe (for want of a better word).  We were picked up by car by my Grandfather and travelled to our new home which was in a small village about 3 miles away.  The village is called Carharrack.

I remember getting to the house which my Grandfather had bought very cheaply.  It was damp and dark, it had no heating apart from a large open fire in the living room.  The rest of my family were there looking quite down.  They’d all been used to living in a town with plenty to do and mod-cons at hand.  In our new home we had none of that.  We were isolated and living in a house that had recently been used as a chicken coop!

I was probably around 4 years old before I started noticing strange goings on.  I remember at this early age thinking that it must be my imagination.  Perhaps it was, because I was told that it was my imagination by my Mother.

My memories of the haunting (I think I can safely call it that) are a little jumbled – they were terrifying experiences that happened over a number of years.

To start off with, a very mild experience that occurred a few times…  I can remember sitting in the living room with my family and hearing a loud repeating knock at the door that lead into the hallway.  My Grandmother said each time, “Come in Mr Nobody”, the door handle would turn slowly, the door would open and close again.  There was nothing there that was visible but I was terrified.  Looking back, the rest of family must have also felt this way, but I guess they tried to act as though it was nothing untoward happening so I; the young child, wasn’t disturbed.

My family didn’t admit to me that there was anything wrong in our home.  I didn’t really experience any other phenomenon with them, but my personal experiences of the haunting grew.

I can remember questioning my own sanity when I was still only about 4.  I’d be playing with a toy in my bedroom, walk downstairs and then see it there.  I’d get angry with my family and ask who’d moved it.  No-one had!  I’d go back to my bedroom to check and it would be there!  I’d then get upset questioning my family if I had two of the same toy – I didn’t!  My mind would be in pieces trying to work it out – there was nothing to work out though.  Something was playing with me and with my mind.

The worst of all my experiences was ongoing and regular.  Every night, when I went to bed my Mother used to tuck me in and read me a bedtime story – something nice to try and make me feel good and help me fall to sleep.

A hideous rotting smell used to enter the room in an instant and my Mother would leave (I’ve asked her about this since and she feels very badly).  I would make her keep the hallway light on and leave the door open so that I felt safe.  The smell would remain and then I would hear heavy breathing in the corner of the room.  All of a sudden the breathing would be next to my ear and the smell would become unbearable.  The next instant, the breathing would be in the corner of the room again, and then back to my ear.  Sometimes the door would close and then reopen again with no-one being there.  I would have called for my Mother, someone, anyone to help me to make it stop but I was always too terrified – I couldn’t move or even make a sound.  This happened until I was at least 7 years old.

Eventually, I discovered that my other family members had been having similar experiences.

My Grandfather, who was a Pastor of a local church and a long-time dedicated Christian, finally decided that enough was enough and that he had to do something.  He studied exorcism for some time and performed one around our house.  It worked!

I always felt uneasy living in that house until the day I moved out at about age 19, but I never had any experience of haunting there again.

Twitter Friends Fears

BlooferLady from HorrorCrypt.com writes..

My biggest real life fear which scares me are ants. If one comes near me I freak out and either try to get away or, if I have a show handy, I kill it. When I was in high school I woke up to a bed full of them even though I never ate there. I think that they were out to get me and had some sort of evil plan going.

My biggest real life fear which excites me is being able to sense ghosts. I have always been a little bit psychic in the sense that I can feel paranormal events happening about me. There have been certain cemeteries that I have gone to in which I have felt such sadness that I had to leave them. This was especially true in Colma in California.

Colma is pretty much a city of the dead. There are over 17 cemeteries located there equalling to almost 2 million people being buried there. San Francico outlawed cemeteries within its borders early in the 20th century due to space constrictions so they exhumed all of the bodies and moved them to the city of Colma. I feel that there is a real sadness there due to the bodies being moved and every time I went there I would get excited by the prospect of being able to feel them about me. I would never stay there for too long because it really was quite overwhelming.

@HorrorExtreme from Horror-extreme.com writes..

My biggest fear is not knowing the way out of a confined area… If I was in “The Descent” I’d just curl up and welcome death! Double that fear if water is involved! I don’t really get scared by movies, occasionally I get disturbed, but I like that!

@MarixaLilith writes..

I’m terrified of butterflies and moths since I was little, like I’d totally panic if they get too close to me… have you seen Clive Barkers Dread? That’s what it’s about, peoples biggest fears…

@cdmetruk writes..

Fear of the unknown-what might happen, but you have nothing to base it on.

If you have any thoughts on fear or would like to add your experiences, please comment below.

‘a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid’ (dictionary.com)

What does FEAR mean to you?

Is it a genuine fear from phobias or frightening encounters with people or things of the unknown?

Some of us come across truly terrifying individuals in real life that will hurt or even kill us. This type of fear, mainly psychological is truly terrifying as you’re living each day not knowing what will happen next. Each move or decision you make could be your last and this could be down to no fault of your own. For a short period of my childhood, I experienced fear of this kind on a daily basis. I had to grow up fast to survive. I’m not going to go too much into my own experience of this, but it was a long time ago and although it plays on my mind now and again, it’s waned as the years have gone by.

Does fear excite you or does it terrify you?

Fear to some extent can provide us with an adrenaline rush especially if we are fans of horror movies and horror entertainment in general.  Even some of my photography has provoked a sense of dread in some, especially those who pose for a dark portrait and I reveal their inner demon.  I produced a photograph of my sister once and well, I’m forbidden to ever show it and she just can’t bring herself to look at it.  The photograph to your right is a portrait of my friend ‘Mandy’ and is titled ‘The Witch’.  This particular photograph has the chill factor for some.

Fear and terrifying experiences can shape our adult lives and can certainly influence our creativity.

I conducted an interview recently with Drew Daywalt who is a member of Fewdio who create short horror films that create nightmares.  Below is his experience of living in a haunted house when he was a child.  To read the full interview with Drew, please click here.

As a director, cinematographer, producer and lots more, what is it about horror that attracts you so much?

I think, like a lot of horror film makers, and fans for that matter, there is definite catharsis to it.

As a member of the audience, I love the thrill of a good scare.

I grew up in a 160 year old inn in Hudson Ohio that was chock-full of scary places, cold spots, bad rooms and alien noises (mostly in the basement).  I’m the youngest of 6 and my parents bought the 7 bedroom behemoth when it was abandoned and in a state of almost complete ruin.  Everyone in town thought they were crazy, but they needed a cheap home for their huge family, so they moved in and started fixing it up.

What followed were great times, but also some terrifying experiences – one afternoon there was a blood curdling scream that shook us all up, but no one was ever able to explain… then there was the inexplicable cold spots in the back staircase to the servants’ quarters. (We didn’t have servants – we used the rooms as some of our bedrooms). There was also a VERY CREEPY well from 100 years ago in the woods behind our house.  My parents always warned us not to go near it, for obvious reasons, but all us kids were convinced it was haunted. (When THE RING came out, I was like, THERE’S OUR WELL!)

I loved horror films as a kid – everything from the old James Whale & Todd Browning Universal Monster movies to Jacques Tournier’s Night of the Demon, all the way through Jack Arnold, William Castle, Hammer Horror and eventually John Carpenter. While the other kids were worshiping sports heros, I loved Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Vincent Price.

‘Fear = Sudden, horrifying news that you know in an instant will change your life forever. In life it’s positive test results. In fiction, it’s the thing making its way toward you while you’re alone and there’s NO way out…’ Drew Daywalt

As a treat I’ve included one of Drew’s latest short films titled Suicide Girl.

Click here for part two of my article were I will reveal more true life terrifying encounters as well as some of my Twitter followers most dreaded fears.

I don’t know how much longer I can hold out for the debut of Drew Daywalt’s web series (20 episodes), Camera Obscura, which I believe will be available to watch on 20 different platforms including YouTube.

Camera Obscura is the story of Clara Carson, a woman raised by her grandfather, who, upon his death, has to clean out his house. What she quickly discovers is that he wasn’t just a crime scene photographer. He was also a demon catcher, who hunted and imprisoned demons with his antique camera. And when she accidentally destroys the scrapbook which is their prison, they escape and run riot all over the city. So Clara is forced to take up her grandfather’s supernatural mantle and hunt the demons before they come looking for her and her inherited camera.

Starring REAGAN DALE NEIS, JACK KLUGMAN, TIMM SHARP, DONNIE JEFFCOAT, EDIN GALI, PAUL HUNGERFORD, AZURE PARSONS.
Produced by Max Goldenson, Robert Kandle, Drew Daywalt, Bea Egeato, Sarah Evershed
Creature FX by Jeff Farley of Obscura Artifacts