In My Restless Dreams, I See That Town...

'Silent Hill. You promised you'd take me there again some day. But you never did. Well, I'm alone there now. In our special place...waiting for you.'

'I got a letter...'

And so begins one of the scariest games of all time, Silent Hill 2. The story follows a man named James as he searches for his wife, Mary. Sinister forces in the town of Silent Hill impede James' journey. As he unravels the mystery that envelops the town, both he and the player slowly begin to be scared beyond belief.   While the first game and subsequent sequels were all horrifying in their own right, the second game in the series is hands-down the best. 

And not just because it was the first to feature Pyramid Head!

The original Silent Hill was developed by Konami and is one of the most successful video game franchises of all time. It has spawned nine video games, two Hollywood movies, several soundtrack albums, and a ton of collectible merchandise. While other survival horror games, especially Resident Evil, have been equally profitable, none match the mesmerizing horror that is commonplace in the Silent Hill universe.

Speaking of merchandise- I want this sooooo bad...

While each Silent Hill game usually involves a different set of characters, there are certain elements that tie the series together.  The first, and most important, is the town of Silent Hill.  The fog shrouded village is a place of mystery in each game as is the alternate dimension, or  'Otherworld,' that lies within its boundaries.  A map of Silent Hill is available in each game and players who make it through each sequel will notice several familiar places in each including Toluca Lake, Woodside Apartments, and Brookhaven Hospital.

Another static feature in each game is the presence of a fictitious religious cult. The cult is at the forefront of the action in a few of the games and in the movies.  They are best known for corrupting the innocent (a child or children), fearing the 'Otherworld' and causing a general ruckus for the main character. 

And in the movie, cult members wore awesome masks

I could ramble on and on about Silent Hill forever, dear reader. But Ill spare you for the moment. I won't promise that this will be the only post on the subject though!

Recommended links:

Silent Hill Wikipedia article

Silent Hill Wiki

PewDiePie Let's Play: Silent Hill

Silent Hill Heaven: Ultimate FanSite

  

  

Favourite Worst Nightmares I : The Wicker Man

The number one question that I'm asked when people find out I'm a horror fanatic is: 'What's your favorite scary movie?'  This is especially true in October when people are looking for some spooky entertainment whilst cuddled on the couch enjoying apple cider.  In today's blog, I've provided some of the most comprehensive horror movies lists on the web for your enjoyment in the Recommended Links section below.  I'll also be discussing one of my favorite movies of all time, Robin Hardy's The Wicker Man. 

NO. Not the crappy Nick Cage version. The best part of that was the bee helmet.

 

If you've seen the remake from 2006, please do not judge the far superior 1973 version harshly. The original combines folk music, thrills, and a powerful philosophical message about religious cultism into a solid, scary masterpiece of cinema.  

 

Plus, watching someone get burned alive is always fun, even when they're not Nick Cage

 

One of the best parts of The Wicker Man is its reliance on music to move the story along. The soundtrack is filled with Celtic folk songs, bawdy bar shanties, and elaborate musical numbers that celebrate the vibrant, pagan tradition of the residents of Summerisle.  Willow's Song is especially haunting and the beauty of Willow herself  makes her siren's hymn one of the most enjoyable moments in the movie.  

 

Seventies boobies also add to the experience

 

The cast is headed by Christopher Lee, a wonderful actor you may be familiar with. He has been in a terrific number of movies over the years, including many turns as Dracula in several Hammer Horror films.  He'll soon be reprising his role as the evil wizard Saruman in Peter Jackson's upcoming The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

 

But to me, he'll always be Lord Summerisle.

 

 

While The Wicker Man is certainly made better by powerful performances and a killer score, it is also truly terrifying.  At it's heart is a message about the horror of religious zealotry, yet the movie is ambiguous in its outcome. While the idea of modern day human sacrifice is enough to make the viewer cower in fear, the actions of the investigating officer throughout the film are as heinous in their xenophobia as any sinister plot the modern day pagans could execute. 

 

 

 

One of the best part of writing these blogs are the things I learn while doing research for the posts. And from all ya'll who take the time to read them! I had no idea until this very moment that director Robin Hardy released a companion piece entitled The Wicker Tree. Be sure to check it out, dear reader, but watch the original first.

Happy Halloween, everybody.

 

 Recommended links:

Wikipedia article on The Wicker Man

Best Horror Movies on Netflix Instant

AMC FearFest Schedule

TCM October Horror Schedule

IMDB Scariest Movie of All Time List

Rotten Tomatoes Best Horror Movies List

IGN Top Horror Movies of All Time List

 
 

CreepyPasta!

A few months ago I had some downtime and, as usual, was spending it trying to find a way to scare myself stupid.  I'd exhausted my supply of horror blogs and Facebook pages and my Netflix queue was terribly empty. I'd been spending a lot of time on Reddit, especially in r/horror, and after a long, boring day I found a wonderful scary story entitled 'My Son's Imaginary Friend.' The story was a poltergeist tale concering a young,  single mother who was being harassed by an entity known as Laughing Jack.

Creepy clowns are my favorite

After I read the story, I got the impression that Jack wasn't just some story made up on the fly.  Sure enough, after doing a little research, I found that Laughing Jack was an internet urban legend, also referred to as CreepyPasta.  That being said, the author of  the story,  u/Intyze, did a fantastic job of making the story as readable and believable as possible. It was because of her story that I  started spending a lot of time on r/nosleep, a subreddit set up specifically for CreepyPasta.

'Who has 18 arms and loves CreepyPasta? THIS GUY!'  

Over the next few weeks, I found out there is A LOT of CreepyPasta and some of it is pretty fantastic.  If you've heard of Slender Man, it is interesting to note that the character was originally a CreepyPasta story posted on Something Awful forums back in 2009.  Since that time, the legend of Slender Man has inspired countless online stories, video games and the character even has a movie in the works!

While there is certainly a lot of really good CreepyPasta on the web, finding them can be like searching for a diamond in the rough. The internet is full of geeks (SURPRISE!) and a lot of CreepyPasta revolves around haunted video games.  One of the most popular in this vein is called 'Drowned Ben' and concerns a possessed, bootleg copy of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.

'Did you look? GOOD. My job here is done! Muhahah!'

Other stories revolve around internet chain letters gone wrong.  The image above is from one such chain urban legend called SMILE.JPG.  While there are several variations of the story, most are about users who have seen the image and must forward it on or be slowly driven mad by the sinister forces behind the cursed photograph. Consider yourself warned, yo!

So what are you waiting for, dear reader? Check out the links below for some of the best CreepyPasta on the web. 


Happy Halloween, everybody.

Recommended links:

In my opinion,  r/nosleep is one of the best forums on the web The name of my blog is an homage!

Shameless plug! Here's my own contribution to the above forum, Cat People  

Creepypasta.com

Haunting Season: YouTube CreepyPasta Vlog

Tales of Tim: Creative YouTube CreepyPasta  

Horror History : Halloween

Fall is not just about cinnamon brooms and pumpkin flavored EVERYTHING. It's also about the change in seasons and the old year giving in to the new.  I think that's one of the reasons autumn, Halloween, and horror appeal to me.  I have great respect for the cycle of life and death and the many ways in which different cultures represent these ideas. 

'We better hurry. It'll be dark soon.'

So with that in mind, how about a little Halloween history lesson? All Hallows' Eve, or Halloween, is a Western tradition with ties to historic harvest festivals.  While there are certainly pagan elements to Halloween and the holiday shares striking similarities to the Celtic festival Samhain, the current holiday as it stands has been Christianized.

Don't let your crazy, right-wing Aunt Fannie fool you! Halloween / All Hallows' Eve is a precursor to the Christian holy day of obligation, All Saint's Day.  Catholic and Orthodox Protestant denominations view this day as a time to reflect on all the Saints and souls that have departed for the great Hereafter.  Legend holds that at midnight on October 31st the veil between this world and the next is thinner than any other night of the year!

I carved this guy myself!

So how exactly did we go from honoring the dead to jack-o-lanterns and bobbing for apples? Well that beats the f*ck outta me, dear reader. I'm also confused on how we went from the birth of religious savior to a fat man that uses magic deer to deliver presents. Sometimes culture is just weird so I try not to worry about it too much and just enjoy the sugar rush.  However, I do know that the idea of costumes and Trick-or-Treating has Scottish/Irish roots with the earliest celebrations taking place in North America around 1930.

'Cool story, bro.'

As evidenced in the photo above, I enjoy Halloween in its current incarnation.  I even try not to go too wild the night before so I can go to Mass on All Saints Day, just like any other good Catholic school boy.  I can't say the same for my friend on the left.

On another note, I've changed my text message notification to the sound of the siren from Silent Hill. If you're unfamiliar, you can listen to audio here. It's freaking out my coworkers and even gave me a little bit of a scare after I forgot I changed it over the weekend.

Happy Halloween, everybody!

Recommended links:

Halloweenhistory.org

Library of Congress - American Folklore Article on Halloween 

Wikipedia article on Halloween

History.com article on Halloween

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

If you were a child of the 90's, you probably remember School Book Fairs.  Twice a year, the school librarian would work with the Scholastic Corporation to bring students a large book sale during school hours. As a young bibliophile, I LOVED it and would always save up all my allowance to buy new books when the book fair rolled around. It was at one of these fairs that I discovered Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.  

The stories were pretty decent, but what STILL haunts me are the wonderful illustrations by Stephen Gammell. Mr. Gammell won the Caldecott Medal in 1989 for another (less frightening) children's book. But he'll always be remembered by me, and a host of other kids, for the emotional scars the drawing in these books left on us.  

The above picture is one of my favorites.  It is from a story about an elderly couple who adopts a hairless dog in Mexico only to discover upon smuggling the animal back to the United States that it is, in fact, an overgrown sewer rat.  Many of the stories deal with this sort of urban legend.  Alvin Schwartz was a renowned folklorist who wanted to expose kids to these sorts of creepy stories.  Working with Stephen Gammell helped make the stories both memorable and terrifying. 

Some of the stories Mr. Schwartz created himself. 'Harold' is one of my favorites and was based on the story of a scarecrow that comes to life. The story and drawing that accompanied it still makes chills run down my spine! 

I've still got my own copies of these classics from middle school. They're fairly easy to find on Amazon or in used book stores. I highly recommend them! 

Happy Halloween, everybody! 

Recommended links: 

Wikipedia Article on Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

YouTube Video Narration of many of the stories