Christmas Gifts for Horror Lovers

Now that it's December, I did some internet research to see what gifts are available for horror lovers. They range from the traditional horror movies, posters, and books to many novelty items, including gargoyle pens, Frankenstein tins with candy, and cracked doll head candles. However, these novelty items tend to be pricey unless there are still some Halloween markdowns out there in cyberspace that you can find.


For those on a budget, I'm reprinting a list I prepared for last year's blog post:


- Record some of the free offerings on television and make a themed set of horror movies (e.g., killer clowns; exorcisms; haunted houses);


- Give a subscription to a horror magazine or buy a horror-themed calendar;

- Take advantage of sales on t-shirts from printing companies that have no minimum purchase requirement and order a custom-made t-shirt for less (as low as $5-$7.50) with horror graphics downloaded from the internet;

- Visit dollar stores and local flea markets to see if there are horror collectibles that are reasonably priced; or

- Give your own gift certificate for a night of horror movie viewing at your house or a Walking Dead festival (complete with costumes if you're up for it).

If you have some free reading time over the holidays, you might want to download the works of Poe (for free or minimal cost). If you like psychological horror, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House is also a natural.

Have fun!

A Review of Dark Is the Sea by Heather Blanchard

In this week's post, we are pleased to present Dark is the Sea by British author Heather Blanchard.

Synopsis

Haunted by her mother's disappearance and plagued by nightmares, eighteen year old Rowan Munro abandons London for Dorchay, the remote Scottish village where she spent her childhood. With the help of her eccentric aunt and a familiar face from the past, she unlocks a power in her that is at once terrifying yet curiously addictive.

As she uncovers the deeply buried secrets of her family, she awakens something only imaginable in her worst nightmares. The Hunter: centuries old, malevolent, ferocious...and intent on killing Rowan and those closest to her. To survive, Rowan must learn to harness her newfound inheritance, and use her powers to finally confront the brutal, murderous force which has haunted her family for generations.

 Buy Links

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00OL07HO2

 http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Sea-Heather-Blanchard-ebook/dp/B00OL07HO2

http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/heather+blanchard/dark+is+the+sea/11428224/

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dark-is-the-sea-heather-blanchard/1120585824

 Author's Bio

Heather Blanchard lives in London with her husband Paul. With a childhood spent in the Scottish Highlands and Yorkshire, she developed a passion not only for books, but also for creative writing. Dark is the Sea, her first novel, emerged from a love of ghost stories, fairy tales, folklore, and old movies.


Our Review of Dark is the Sea


In her debut novel, Heather Blanchard skilfully combines elements of the Gothic novel, romance, native folklore, witchcraft, and fantasy to create a story that will appeal to young adults and older readers alike. The Scottish Highlands provide an evocative backdrop as the heroine confronts her past.and realizes her strengths as a rightful part of her inheritance. The themes of family and loss are central to the novel, and Ms. Blanchard makes us genuinely care for and share in the fate of Rowan Munro.

Ms. Blanchard has carefully researched the language and folklore of the region to add authenticity to her story. Her prose is cadenced, and she does an excellent job of using descriptive prose to engage the reader and add to the intimacy of the story.

Dark is the Sea will appeal to lovers of Gothic novels, romance, intrigue, sorcery, and fantasy.


Related Links

Author's Website:  http://www.darkisthesea.com/

Author's Blog: http://www.inkcoffeeandgolddust.com/

 

A Review of Santa's Little Helper by H.D. Gordon

Just in time for Christmas, we are pleased to showcase Santa's Little Helper by H.D. Gordon.

 
SYNOPSIS

He shows up in a white box, with a bright red book under his arm... He wears a jolly grin and hat, a suit with gold bells and green yarn... He watches you for Santa, or so his red book claims... But though his grin is jolly, he's not here for fun and games... 

The children have been chosen, such precious little souls they are... And may the gods be with them, if they wish to make it very far... For Santa's Little Helper does not say, but knows important things... He knows when you've been bad or good, and what monsters stalk your dreams... He knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you're awake...He's picking out his presents...He's got some souls to take.

 AUTHOR'S BIO

H.D. Gordon is the bestselling author of the Alexa Montgomery Saga, the Joe Knowe series, and the Surah Stormsong novels. She is a lifelong reader and writer, a true lover of words. When she is not reading or writing she is raising her two daughters, playing a little guitar, and spending time with her family. She lives in the northeastern United States.

 
OUR REVIEW OF SANTA'S LITTLE HELPER

Heather Gordon is a young writer who already has an impressive number of books to her credit. Like any good horror writer, she knows how to frighten us by undermining our comfort level with the familiar. In Santa's Little Helper, she takes the benign elf that we traditionally associate with the Christmas season and turns it into a grotesque and frightening symbol of evil. "Santa's" little helper becomes "Satan's" little helper.

Ms. Gordon tells the story of four different children--recipients of the elf doll--and their families.The children recognize instinctively that the doll is evil and try their hardest to get rid of it, but they must convince the less imaginative adults in their lives of the danger it represents. Although the narrative could have been shortened and tightened up, the author does a good job in creating and maintaining suspense until the final confrontation between good and evil.

After reading this book, you won't look at Santa's elves in quite the same light!

NOTE: This novel will appeal to horror lovers at a young adult or older level. It is not suitable for children.

  Trailer Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvFPqZk_wM4

Author's Website (to read excerpts): http://www.hdgordonbooks.com/#!SANTAS-LITTLE-HELPER-CHAPTERS-16/c1q8z/0E0E337D-19EA-4A2D-945A-FC5BFC9B17C5

Amazon Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/Santas-Little-Helper-H-Gordon-ebook/dp/B00O2AZFQS/.

Mutantis: A New Film from Dire Wit Films

 

 

We're pleased to introduce Mutantis, a new film  produced by Dire Wit Films, an indie company. It is a parody of and homage to the more sleazy monster films of the '70s, and is written by Mark Leake and directed by Kelly Fitzgerald.
 

 

Synopsis

 

When an unscrupulous scientist drags his stepchildren out into the forest to use them as bait--in the hopes of luring out Bigfoot--not even the team of hillbillies he hires can contain the horror they find: the horror of Mutantis! Only the adventurer Dr. William Fury may be able to stop the beast, but hope dwindles fast once Dr. Fury realizes that the monster is not only intent on murder, but procreation as well. Could this be the end of the world as we know it?

Our Review of Mutantis

 

Horror film buffs--especially those who like campy movies--will enjoy this send-up of the "more sleazy" horror movies of the '70s. There are the really bad special effects, such as the toy helicopter, that pay homage to Ed Wood, the badly dubbed dialogue which recreates the worst of the old Italian horror movies, a hokey and badly-costumed Godzilla-like monster who personifies EVIL, and a plot worthy of the best/worst of low-budget horror films, with the theme of toxic sludge mutation thrown in for good measure. To add to the general confusion, Mutantis is not only half-man and half-beast, but also half-female and half-male, and the female roles in the film are played by males. 

 

If you're looking for "buckets of gore, cheese, [and] sleaze," Mutantis is definitely your film! (Quotation from Amazon: Editorial Review of Mutantis)

NOTE: Due to the graphic nature of this film, it is not suitable for viewing by children and young teens.

 

 

Additional Information 

 

If you'd like to watch a trailer of Mutantis, please go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttb40xc5JEQ

 

Amazon Buy Link (DVD): http://www.amazon.com/Mutantis-Darren-Bolk/dp/B00ND52RMI/.

 
Digital copies are also available  for purchase or rental at the Dire Wit Films website.

New Horror Releases

Halloween may be over, but for fans of the horror genre there's always something to look forward to. Here are two new releases.

  The Halloween Mask and Other Strange Tales

This is a collection of 18 short stories by David Stuart Davies, the editor of Sherlock Magazine and the Crime Writers' Association's Red Herrings magazine.

According to the publisher, the stories are designed to shock and surprise you by taking you into the "misty world of the supernatural where all kinds of dark mischief takes place." (Release Date: November 1, 2014)

The Deep

Written under the pseudonym Nick Cutter, The Deep tells of a plague that is decimating the globe: it causes people to forget little-by-little until their bodies forget how to function involuntarily. A possible cure is being investigated by a research lab eight miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean ... but the lab has become incommunicado.

The Deep is described as part horror and part psychological nightmare in the tradition of Stephen King and Clive Barker. Nick Cutter is the pseudonym of Craig Davidson, an acclaimed Canadian novelist and short-story writer. (Release Date:January 13, 2015)


Stay tuned to Behind the Walls of Nightmare for news and reviews of other upcoming horror/supernatural releases.

Future Hoshi Prize Winner Could Be a Computer (or an Alien)

Photograph: Blutgruppe/Corbis courtesy The Guardian

 

Organizers of a Japanese award for science fiction, the Hoshi prize, say they will open up the award to a broader spectrum of competitors next year. The Guardian reports that the prize, which honors one of Japan's major science fiction writers, Shinichi Hoshi, will accept stories created by artificial intelligence, as well as from "other non-humans, such as space aliens and animals," provided they are written in Japanese.

 

Science fiction novelist Adam Roberts, when he first heard the news, thought it was "bonkers," but then decided that novels created by AI weren't that far-fetched given that many are written according to a very specific pattern. 

 

Roberts queries: "Do we need a human being to write Dan Brown novels? Might a computer even do a better job than a human there?”

The Guardian didn't comment on how animals and aliens would make their submissions. 

 

For the full text of the article, please click here. 

Search for the Dead Yields An Empty Grave

A team of researchers led by a forensic anthropologist from the University of South Florida has been trying to determine the fate of boys who died in custody at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida. The researchers have found more than 50 sets of remains in the makeshift cemetery of unmarked graves on school property. The school operated for more than a century before finally being closed in 2011. Throughout the years, former students came forward with stories of physical abuse and murder at the facility.
 
The investigation took a particularly unusual turn when the team of researchers decided to exhume the remains of Thomas Curry, who died in 1925. He was one of at least seven boys who died under suspicious circumstances after escaping from the school. The Florida death certificate indicated Curry's skull had been crushed by an unknown source.

Historical records indicated that Curry was not buried on school property, but that his remains were sealed in a coffin and sent to his grandmother in Philadelphia for burial in a local cemetery. The lead researcher, Erin Kimmerle, obtained permission to exhume Curry's remains, which she hoped would be better preserved than those excavated to date in the school cemetery. However, when the grave was opened, there was no trace of Curry's body.

 According to the CBS news report, "[w]hat made it unusual was that there were none of the usual tell-tale signs that a body had ever been inside. There was no hair, bits of clothing or teeth, not even tooth enamel which was present among the much poorer preserved remains . . . excavated in Marianna."

To view the full text of the article, please click here.

And if you are interested in following-- from the beginning-- this four-part CBS Web series on the search for the dead from the Dozier school,  please click here.