Author's note: This was written over ten years ago and I must admit my opinion of the Star Wars Holiday Special has softened a bit. Oh, I still think it's awful don't get me wrong, but it has for me fallen into the "so bad it's good" category. Well, sort of. You see while
'Twas the nocturnal segment of the diurnal period preceding the annual Yuletide celebration, and throughout our place of residence, kinetic activity was not in evidence among the possessors of this potential, including that species of domestic rodent known as Mus musculus. Hosiery was meticulously suspended from the forward edge of the wood-burning caloric apparatus, pursuant
Frankenstein is one of the few classic monster movies that I did not see on a Saturday afternoon on a UHF channel. No, this film was played in prime time. It was a special movie-of-the-week. A re-showing of a classic film on “regular” TV. It was a big deal. I sat with my mother,
Horror as a genre is an unusual beast. It is on the surface just a way to illicit scares, to give you a momentary burst of adrenalin. Other times it is a way to repulse you – to disgust you with macabre and grotesque imagery. But when horror is utilized to its best effect,
Nothing says Halloween like a mask. (Well, maybe a pumpkin. Or a ghost. Or a skeleton, or a black cat, or a witch. Or candy. Look a lot of things say Halloween but masks are definitely one of them.) And in the world of horror if you want to create an enduring villain or
In 1954, at the height of McCarthyism, the comic book industry was under scrutiny for being a corrupter of youth and an inciter of crime. And according to the book Seduction of the Innocent by Fredric Werthram all of the issues of teenage delinquency could be traced back directly to the reading of comics. Senate
In the 1970s satanic cults were everywhere. Or at least that’s what popular culture would have you believe. In apartment complexes, suburban planned communities, and quiet rural towns – somewhere lurking beneath the all-too-normal exterior was a sinister group ready to induct you – or worse, your child - into the worship of the devil.
I am driving home from work in the rain. The traffic is heavy and I am upset. Not at anything, in particular, just a strange combination of angry-sad, non-focused malaise. I have a feeling of something is wrong, there is something missing. And the rain is coming down and I can’t see and that jackass
October has arrived - the most wonderful time of the year. There is a nip in the air, the leaves are changing and the smell of pumpkin pie surrounds us. It’s time to wear flannel as you walk a corn maze then curl up by a fire as the sun goes down early. A time
I stand atop the Sand Dunes at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo, the blood of Christ, my back to the wind. The sand swirls around me, my pockets fill with it, and my feet sink in it till I am buried up to my ankles. There are grains of sand in my teeth
