Category Archives: Halloween Season

October 22, 2016 · 5:37 pm

TOP FOUR SUPERHERO PANTHEONS COVERED AT BALLADEER’S BLOG

australian-superheroesWith superhero Cosplay rivalling monster themes for Halloween these days I figured it was a good time to showcase the various superhero pantheons that Balladeer’s Blog has examined in a style similar to my mythology posts.

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Dark NebulaAUSTRALIAN SUPERHEROES

Sampling: Vixen – She’s part human and part fox … The Jackaroo – Picture a costumed Crocodile Dundee … The Technocrat – She’s a mutant technopath with a flying rocket-skateboard … The Southern Squadron – Australia’s home-made team of superheroes.  

Top Hero On List: Dark Nebula – A cosmic and mystical hero whose adventures combine science fiction and the supernatural, like Doctor Strange meets Green Lantern. 

Comment: For this list I went ONLY with superheroes created by Australian writers and artists and published in Australia.

FOR THE OTHER AUSTRALIAN HEROES CLICK HERE  Continue reading →

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October 21, 2016 · 11:11 pm

THE BODY SHOP (1973)

 THE BODY SHOP (1973) – Category: A neglected bad movie classic that deserves a Plan 9-sized cult following

The horror film titled The Body Shop is one of my all-time favorite bad movie gems. It includes all the little extras that separate mere bombs from the truly legendary turkeys and, like another neglected classic, The Wizard of Mars (see my Bad Movie page for the review), just keeps getting worse and worse and weirder and weirder all the way to the end. Continue reading →

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October 20, 2016 · 9:27 pm

TALES OF HOFFMANN FOR HALLOWEEN

Tales of Hoffmann

Tales of Hoffmann

Yes, as if I wasn’t boring enough already I’m also into opera! Now, I know traditionally “the” Halloween Opera has always been Don Giovanni , but I’ve never bought into that notion since there’s really only one scene in the whole opera that qualifies as spooky and supernatural.

At this time of year I prefer Offenbach’s Tales Of Hoffmann. Not only is it full of appropriately eerie and menacing elements, but it’s also the perfect opera for you to share with someone who’s seeing their very first opera.

One of the reasons for that is that it’s in short segments, surrounded by a wraparound opening and finale. Offenbach adapts short stories written by E.T.A. Hoffmann, who in real life was a pre-Edgar Alan Poe author of eerie short stories in his native Austria during the 1800s. At any rate since this opera’s in short segments novices to the artform won’t have time to Continue reading →

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October 19, 2016 · 8:02 pm

TALES OF THE ZOMBIE AND OTHER HORRORS

tales-of-the-zombie-2As always October is one long celebration of Halloween here at Balladeer’s Blog. The hulking undead figure in the picture is Simon Garth, the title character in Tales of the Zombie from Marvel Comics. Marvel still hasn’t properly used their horror figures, with just Blade the Vampire Slayer (Debut Year 1973) and the Ghost Rider (Debut Year 1972) getting treatment on the big and small screens.

For additional pics and my in-depth examination of Tales of the Zombie, Satana the Devil’s Daughter and three others Continue reading →

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October 18, 2016 · 11:34 pm

THE MESSENGER (1897): GOTHIC HORROR

messenger-or-black-priestTHE MESSENGER (1897) – Balladeer’s Blog’s month-long celebration of Halloween continues with another neglected work of horror – this one penned by Robert W Chambers, author of The King in Yellow, which I reviewed HERE 

The story – also known as The Black Priest or The Black Abbot – is set in 1896 in the mysterious Brittany region of northwest France. Richard Darrel, a wealthy American knickerbocker (upstate New York gentry) has bought a Breton estate with assorted household staff. He lives there with his beautiful (of course) wife Lys, a native of Brittany.  

Landscaping work near Richard’s estate has uncovered thirty-eight skeletons: men killed in a battle between English invaders and Breton defenders back in 1760. A bronze cylinder in the mass grave holds a delicate parchment with a message written in human blood at the time of the burial. The writing is in the ancient language of Brittany, which only the clergy of the 1760 time period were literate in.  

Our American hero senses that the local authorities are withholding vital information from him. He is also intrigued by the revelation that there were thirty-nine men buried in the pit but only thirty-eight skeletons have been found. Continue reading →

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October 17, 2016 · 10:56 pm

THE SPECTRE LEAGUERS

gloucesterTHE SPECTRE LEAGUERS – In 1792 the Gloucester Leaguers returned from the dead to plague Massachusetts 100 years after their horrors had first been unleashed.

During King Philip’s War in 1692 a league of French and Native Americans who were fighting against the New Englanders were slain to the last man. Supernatural tales abounded about the appearance on the face of the moon of a Native American bow as well as a scalp dripping with blood. Superstitious souls said this strange phenomenon meant that the Gloucester Leaguers were not through with their depradations.

In 1792 the dead bodies of the Franco-Indian force raised themselves from the dead, fully armed and clothed in the tattered remains of their clothing. The next two weeks were witness to nocturnal horrors which most people would have believed to be impossible in any world ruled “by a just God or the laws of reason.”   Continue reading →

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October 15, 2016 · 2:04 pm

THE OCTAVE OF CLAUDIUS (1897): HALLOWEEN READING

Balladeer’s Blog’s month-long celebration of Halloween continues. 

Octave of claudiusTHE OCTAVE OF CLAUDIUS (1897) – By Barry Pain. This obscure little Gothic honey is just good enough that you wish it had been better. There are so many elements that make it appealing but it falls just short of being a worthwhile read for anybody except obsessive fools like me.  

Claudius Sandell, a once-promising young man who has wound up disinherited and poverty-stricken is broken and suicidal but is saved by mad scientist Dr Gabriel Lamb. Lamb is a wealthy sadist whose macabre experiments on human beings have already cost his wife her sanity and their infant child its life.

Since Claudius feels he has nothing to lose he accepts Dr Lamb’s proposition to become his most recent human guineau pig in exchange for eight days (the “octave” of the title) with enough money to indulge himself in ways Oscar Wilde would have found gaudy and excessive. He can also pretend to be wealthy and successful to impress all the people in his life who had written him off as a failure. Continue reading →

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October 13, 2016 · 11:04 pm

FOUR NEGLECTED HORROR FILMS

Night of the Scarecrow

Night of the Scarecrow

With Halloween almost here the seasonal posts here at Balladeer’s Blog are increasing in frequency. This time around I’ll examine four neglected horror films that are thoroughly macabre and are certainly graphically gruesome enough for today’s audiences but for some reason don’t have the followings they deserve. 

4. NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW (1995) – A big reason for this film getting lost in the shuffle is no doubt the fact that it is frequently confused with Dark Night of the Scarecrow, a telefilm with Charles Durning. This flick is in a whole different category. A warlock in 1600s America is killed by the holy roller townspeople, with his soul being trapped in a scarecrow and his bones buried in a coffin beneath that scarecrow.

In the 1990s an accident revives the warlock’s soul and unbinds the scarecrow, which sets out for revenge on the descendants of his killers. The scarecrow spent Continue reading →

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October 12, 2016 · 9:30 pm

HALLOWEEN WITH AMBROSE BIERCE

ambrose-bierce

Ambrose Bierce

Halloween Month continues with Balladeer’s Blog’s look at some seasonal stories by the one and only Ambrose Bierce. I think we’re all sick of Owl Creek Bridge so here are a few lesser-known tales from “Bitter Bierce.”

THE SPOOK HOUSE (1889) – In pre-Civil War Kentucky a pair of traveling politicians take shelter in a notoriously haunted house which was once the site of a bloody massacre. The eerie abandoned house features a room from which an unearthly green glow emanates … a room in which lie all the corpses of the missing massacre victims and of all those foolish enough to stay in the house ever since.  Continue reading →

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October 11, 2016 · 10:34 pm

HORROR FILMS FROM “THE DEATH KING” HIMSELF!

jorg-buttgereitBalladeer’s Blog’s month-long celebration of Halloween continues with this look at some of the films from one of the most envelope-pushing horror directors of all time: Germany’s “auteur of the transgressive,” Jorg Buttgereit.  

 

** EXTREME HORROR AHEAD **

Buttgereit’s noteworthy movies include: Continue reading →

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