Ladies Are Dangerous: Dastardly Damsels, edited by Suzie Lockhart

Ladies Are Dangerous: Dastardly Damsels, edited by Suzie Lockhart

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Dastardly Damsels (Crystal Lake Publishing, October 11, 2024)

Dark fiction anthologies are currently very popular and, with a few exceptions, tend to be a medley of horror, fantasy, mild SF or something in between. I don’t like the expression “speculative fiction” but maybe this is an acceptable label.

Some are published exclusively in digital format, which explains why the number of stories included is getting increasingly higher.

The present anthology, for instance, features thirty-two contributions (including a couple of short poems). A distinctive characteristic of this book is that the contributing authors are all female (including the editor), and so are the leading roles in the various tales.

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A to Z Reviews: “The Dybbuk in Love,” by Sonya Taaffe

A to Z Reviews: “The Dybbuk in Love,” by Sonya Taaffe

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A to Z Reviews

Over the weeks as I’ve written these reviews, I’ve noted coincidences such as sequential stories that have similarities. Today’s review of a story about Jewish folklore just happens to be the one that falls on the morning of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

Originally published as a chapbook in 2005, Sonya Taaffe’s “The Dybbuk in Love” is a look at a traditional part of Jewish folklore.  Not as well-known as the golem,  which traditional states was created by Rabbi Judah Loew in sixteenth century Prague, the dybbuk dates to the same period and refers to the soul of a dead person that possesses a living person in order to achieve an unfinished goal.

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Goth Chick News: Frankenstein’s Monster Gets One (Maybe Two) Loving Tributes

Goth Chick News: Frankenstein’s Monster Gets One (Maybe Two) Loving Tributes

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Just in time for Spooky Season, I have two bits of exciting news about one of our favorite classic monsters.

For over a year I’ve been talking about Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein for Netflix. News has been incredibly scarce from the jump, to the point of rumors coming and going that del Toro had shelved the project as he has so many other others (over 30 to be precise).

However, in January quite a lot of very specific information came out about Frankenstein including a cast list, a brief description of project details, and the fact that in March 2022 Netflix optioned the visual representation of Frankenstein, owned by Elizabeth S. Wrightson. This is the imagining of the monster that American artist Bernie Wrightson (1948-2017), Elizabeth’s husband, developed in 1983. This seemed to indicate that del Toro would be delivering a reimagining of Frankenstein rather than simply a retelling of Shelly’s work.

And this is all important as the first exciting announcement comes from our friends at Centipede Press.

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Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: Dragons and Wolveses

Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: Dragons and Wolveses

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Wolfhound (Russia, 2006)

The Barbarian Boom of the ‘80s was the first normalization of fantasy as a mainstream genre for the movies. As the boom faded in the ‘90s (Xena notwithstanding), it seemed as if fantasy film had been just another passing phase. But then, in the early 2000s, along came The Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean series: the Second Normalization of Fantasy Film had arrived, and as we’re still living with it in 2024, it looks to be permanent.

So, now we’re livin’ large and eatin’ good, right? Absolutely — as long as you’re something of a picky eater. Because along with normalization comes mediocrity and commercialization. I kid you not: Behold the KFC promotional toys for eragon!

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An Astonishing Bit of Modern Horror: The Substance

An Astonishing Bit of Modern Horror: The Substance

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Demi Moore in The Substance (Mubi, 2024)

Just staggered out of the cinema, shell-shocked and delirious, after witnessing what will undoubtedly be the best film I’ll see all year.

Coralie Fargeat’s audacious debut film, Revenge (2017), concerns a young woman called Jen, who is raped and left for dead by three men. Over the course of the film we are witness to Jen’s transformation from a meek, fun-loving person, into a vengeful spirit of death. The film is stunning to look at, painful to watch, and brutal as all hell. If you have indeed seen it, then you might think you have an idea of what to expect from The Substance.

You have no idea.

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What I’ve Been Reading: September, 2024

What I’ve Been Reading: September, 2024

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I listen to audiobooks because I can fit them in far easier than I can actual books, to read. But even as my bifocals have to continually work harder, I still enjoy actually reading, be it a physical copy, or on my Fire tablet (I prefer the former, but needs must win out sometimes). So, let’s look at some of what I’ve been reading lately.

THE WATERS OF ETERNITY – Howard Andrew Jones

I’ve been talking more about my Black Gate buddy since he announced he is battling brain cancer. As I mentioned last week, I re-listened to his two Dabir and Asim novels. I prefer the short stories, and this collection of six of them is my favorite featuring the duo. While still being sword and sorcery, with elements of the fantastic, these are more mysteries, which is what I really enjoy about the two.

Howard’s a really good writer, he loves these Arabian fantasies, and they mix sword and sorcery with mystery. And the ebook is dirt cheap. You can’t go wrong with this one.

WOLFE OF THE STEPPES – Harold Lamb

Lamb was a prolific Pulpster in the early 20th Century. A historian as well, his adventure stories are detail-filled thrill-rides. There are eighteen tales of Khlit the Cossack, a gray-bearded survivor on the Asian steppes around the start of the 17th Century.

Lamb was a great influence on Robert E. Howard, and Howard Andrew Jones collected all the Khlit stories in four volumes. There are three more books of Lamb’s adventure tales as well. The first story, which was much shorter than the others, didn’t do anything for me. However, the next two were novella-length adventures and much better. Other than REH, I don’t read Adventure stories, but I am enjoying Khlit and will continue on.

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Biggus Footus, Part III

Biggus Footus, Part III

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Primal Rage (Talent One, 2018), Wild Men (Goocher Films,
2017), and The Bigfoot Project (Fallen Films, 2017)

This is Part III of my new watch project. All Bigfoot (or similar) movies, no Yetis allowed. They must be films I haven’t seen before. All free to stream. Read Part I here and and Part II here.

Primal Rage – 2018 – Tubi

In tents? It had its moments.

Any good? Ooh, this was a good one. A survival horror with a dash of Deliverance and a sprinkling of Predator, this one features an Uber-Sasquatch picking off hapless hikers and hunters using primitive tools and forest camouflage. It’s a great looking monster, and the film is chock full of extreme practical gore. Chock full. I love it when former fx artists direct movies (see Harbinger Down), as the effects work is always front and center and beautifully shot.

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A First Rate First Novel: Daughters of Chaos by Jen Fawkes

A First Rate First Novel: Daughters of Chaos by Jen Fawkes

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Daughters of Chaos (Harry N. Abrams, July 9, 2024)

Back in 2021 I ran across a story collection by a writer I had never heard of – Tales the Devil Told Me, by Jen Fawkes. I wrote of it,

It comprises a set of reimaginations of fairy tales and other classic literature: there are radical takes on Rumpelstiltskin, the Odyssey, Moby Dick, Peter Pan, and more. In most cases they take a sympathetic view of the villain of the tale; and they are by turns witty and dark, extravagant and savage.

Fawkes has published one other collection, Mannequin and Wife. Now we have her first novel, Daughters of Chaos.

This is told by Sylvie Swift, who writes this for her twin daughters in 1877, 14 years after the events the novel depicts (and after their conception.) Sylvie and her own twin, Silas, were born as their mother died, and were raised in Kentucky until they were 14 by their devastated father and their ten years older sister, Marina. As they grow, it’s clear to Sylvie that Silas has an excessive fascination with fire – and he claims to see people in the fire.

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A to Z Reviews: “When the Morning Stars Sang Together,” by Isaac Szpindel

A to Z Reviews: “When the Morning Stars Sang Together,” by Isaac Szpindel

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A to Z ReviewsIsaac Szpindel’s “When the Morning Stars Sang Together” appeared in the 2004 alternate history anthology ReVisions, which Szpindel co-edited with Julie E, Czerneda, which explored alternative technological advancements. Szpindel’s story, set in the twentieth century, looks at a world in which Galileo reconciled science with the Church rather than being persecuted for championing the scientific method.

The main character has been given access to letters written by Galileo to his older daughter, Maria Celeste, who was a nun at the San Matteo convent. In real life, while Maria Celeste’s letters to Galileo have survived, his letters to her are lost.  Szpindel tells his story by alternating between the text of those lost letters and the events which are  happening to the modern scholar who is studying them and coming to conclusions that, in his world, as are heretical as the conclusions Galileo came to in our world in the seventeenth century.

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Goth Chick News – My Pilgrimage to Universal Studios Hollywood

Goth Chick News – My Pilgrimage to Universal Studios Hollywood

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Breakfast view, pre tour, and the St. Denis hospital set

I have been absent for the past few weeks while I chased one of my bucket list items. As nearly a life-long fan of the horror genre, a pilgrimage to Universal Studios Hollywood has long been an ambition – to go to the place that literally gave birth to the genre. So as part of a west coast tour, I finally had the opportunity to immerse myself in the wonders of a VIP day at Universal.

First, let me say there is nothing like being a VIP at Universal. Our day started with breakfast in a private, second-floor dining room near the entrance, which provided an amazing view of what was to come. There we met Andrew P., our personal guide for the day. As one would expect, Andrew was a literal encyclopedia of studio history and explained our 8-hour day (including a gourmet lunch stop) would be a combination of “behinds the scenes” tours as well as dips into the theme park side so we could experience the list of rides we gave Andrew in advance.

The great part about that was Andrew would be escorting us “backstage” of the rides to the front of each line, but even more importantly, would allow us to linger in these areas which were air conditioned. This was important because I chose to visit Universal during an unprecedented heat wave, so the day we were there it was 114, and as you could probably guess, I don’t do well in heat and direct sunlight.

We did a lot of lingering in the backstage area of the amusement park side of Universal, but I want to tell you about what I learned and saw on the working studio side.
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