New Horror 2023 – Day 22

“What most of them really needed was a good long drink of arsenic, as far as I was concerned.”

“Black Bargain” by Robert Bloch (1942)

This is supposed to be tied to Lovecraft mythology stuff, and I suppose there’s an element of the unknowable horrors here, but it just comes across as a good spooky demon story.

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“She was interested in his skin.”

“A Dog and His Boy” by Evan Dorkin, Sarah Dyer, Jill Thompson, Jason Arthur (2006)

I love this! It’s got a human in it but it’s mostly from the point of view of some dogs in a suburb, and that’s a perspective I long for. Just keep those humans on the sidelines and tell me what the animals are thinking, because sometimes…

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“Do you happen to have a pair of birds that are just friendly?”

The Birds dir. Alfred Hitchcock (1963)

Sometimes the birds are absolutely terrifying. I mean, they’re dinosaurs. Those clawed feet and sharp beaks are no joke. This one’s a tougher watch when you know Hitchcock was an obsessive weirdo toward the blonde actresses he loved to cast.

Ten more days of spooky fiction! Where does the time go?

munespice:

ain’t that just the way

yarrow-heather-and-hollyhock:

tenebrobscuro:

The first simulated image of a black hole was calculated with an IBM 7040 computer using 1960 punch cards and hand-plotted by French astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Luminet in 1978.

lovelessamai:

important-animal-images:

They’re distracting a nervous dog during a blood draw.

I don’t know any of these people

But I love all of these people.

James Earl Jones reading The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe.

New Horror 2023 – Day 21

“I’ll give you just the essentials, and you can make of it what you please.”

“The Woman’s Ghost Story” by Algernon Blackwood (1907)

The spirit as an inextinguishable longing.

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“God as daddy the deranged.”

“I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” by Harlan Ellison, John Byrne, Eric Shanower, James Sinclair, Chris Chalenor (1994-1995)

The title would have hit so much harder if there’d been a different choice at the end there.

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“The only thing I have not provided is your anesthetic.”

Saw X dir. Kevin Greutert (2023)

I was so tuned out of these movies that I did not realize they were releasing at a pace of one per year for six years, with sporadic releases thereafter. This one brought the squelch that I’m not especially keen to see, but it also kind of softpedaled in the end. Damned if I do, damned if they don’t.

New Horror 2023 – Day 20

“My clothes have but to fall and you will see before you a succession of mysteries.”

“The Lady of the House of Love” by Angela Carter (1979)

This can only be described as deliciously decadent decay. Carter does a magnificent job of just painting the most awful, crusty, gothic place you can imagine.

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“Can’t tell if the embers are dying or my eyes are.”

“Smoke and Cedar” by Abby Howard & Alina Pete (2016)

I was loving this but it ends so suddenly. Sometimes you want to leave them wanting more, but not starving for narrative.

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“You’re the bitch that brought our misfortune!”

Exposed to Danger dir. Yang Chia-yun (Karen Yang) (1982)

This one’s kind of a slow build-up, and not much mystery, but the tension does eventually hit along with a neat twist. The final confrontation is a great sequence.

silver-frog:

On est quand même pas des lumières.

clementine-kesh:

clementine-kesh:

giving field lab instructions makes me feel like mike ehrmantraut

here’s what you’re gonna do. one of your group members is gonna put on the waders. then you’re gonna take the measuring tape and meter sticks to measure channel width and depth. watch out for loose rock and be careful you don’t trip while in the river, that’s a quick way to turn yourself into bedload. next, you’re gonna take some sediment samples to determine the bed characteristics of the river. you’ll also be identifying the river’s major hydrogeomorphological characteristics, so take note of any rapids or eddys you see