Halloween Month continues! From The Rocky Horror Picture Show it’s the opening song Science Fiction Double Feature.
THE ENSOULED VIOLIN (1880): GOTHIC HORROR
Halloween Month continues as Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at another tale of Gothic Horror which, like The Lost Stradivarius, centers around a violin player.
THE ENSOULED VIOLIN (1880) Written by Helena Blavatsky, aka Madame Blavatsky, famous for the Theosophy Movement and its premier work Isis Unveiled. Later she wrote The Secret Doctrine, another milestone theosophical opus.
This tale of Gothic Horror is set in the 1820s. The main character is a young violin virtuoso named Franz Stenio from Styria in Austria. Though studying the occult arts and alchemy while away at college his central passion had remained music.
Franz’s skill was extraordinary but eventually his widowed mother ran short of money, ending his studies. He left university and moved back home. Franz devoted his every waking moment to his violin and he refused even to go to church with his mother when she begged him.
The youth’s occult studies had filled him with contempt for Christianity and he preferred to think of himself as a pagan. Franz’s mother worried herself sick over the potential fate of her son’s soul and eventually she put such a strain on herself that she died. Some dark whispers hinted that her son had killed her. Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season
HELLRAISER: THE FOUR BEST FILMS
Halloween Month continues here at Balladeer’s Blog with my take on the top four (of ten) movies in the Hellraiser franchise.
HELLRAISER (1987) – “Jee-zuz WEPT!” Clive Barker helped translate his novel The Hellbound Heart to the big screen in this film. It’s incredibly rare for a novelist to get to DIRECT a movie version of one of his own works but Barker made the most of it.
Frank Cotton (Sean Chapman) has exhausted sexual sensation with women, men, corpses and animals. Seeking new stimulation he solves LeMerchand’s Puzzle Box, a “Rubik’s Cube From Hell” which leaves him at the mercy of the demonic inter-dimensional sadomasochists called the Cenobites of the Order of the Gash.
Suffering unimaginable torments as the M in this S&M relationship, Frank struggles to escape the Cenobites for good, even if it means sacrificing his brother Larry plus Larry’s wife Julia (Clare Higgins) and daughter Kirsty (Ashley Laurence). Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season, opinion
THE PRISONER: EPISODE LINKS
Recently Balladeer’s Blog wrapped up an in-depth examination of all 17 episodes of Patrick McGoohan’s pioneering 1967 series The Prisoner. Before Lost, before The X-Files, before Twin Peaks, there was this innovative British series which was equal parts science fiction and existentialism.
PROLOGUE: My look at the themes and issues addressed in the series. CLICK HERE
ARRIVAL – After abruptly resigning from British Intelligence a man is abducted to a futuristic prison city called the Village. This inescapable dystopia is an Orwellian nightmare with bits of Kafka, Ionesco, Pirandello and more than a little bit of Alphaville tossed in for good measure. CLICK HERE
DANCE OF THE DEAD – The Prisoner becomes more acquainted with the oppressive nature of the Village, including the seemingly mad Head Games to which the Villagekeepers subject the Villagers, their human guinea pigs. CLICK HERE
THE CHIMES OF BIG BEN – After Number Six meets a female prisoner who knows where the Village is located he puts into motion an elaborate plan for escape. The Village’s Art Festival will serve as cover. NOTE: INCLUDES MY TAKE ON THE ALTERNATE VERSION OF THE CHIMES OF BIG BEN. CLICK HERE
CHECKMATE – A degrading game of chess using human beings as the pieces leads to the Prisoner meeting an Aristocrat fallen from power and now held captive in the Village. The pair gather co-conspirators around them in hopes of a mass escape. CLICK HERE Continue reading
Filed under Forgotten Television, Prisoner (tv series)
TRANSGRESS WITH ME: OCTOBER 16th
Time for another round of Transgress With Me here at Balladeer’s Blog.
*** Democrats have no identity outside of their political opinions and that’s what makes them so empty, hate-filled and intolerant.
*** Democrats are the ultimate practitioners of discrimination and – as proven by their increasing intolerance and violence and other means of harassing dissenters – have shown they cannot be trusted to overcome their prejudices when it comes to hiring decisions or teaching and ESPECIALLY can’t be trusted to run any form of Social Media in a fair and impartial way.
*** I can honestly say that after leaving the Democrat Party I learned that most non-Democrat voters (not politicians, though) really ARE as compassionate, tolerant and brilliant as Democrats only PRETEND to be. Or tell each other that they are. Over and over and over again, all day long. Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
4 Women Indicted for Democrat Voter Fraud Ring in Texas – YouTube
REBLOGGED FROM SUBMARELIME76 AT WORDPRESS
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES
FRANKENSTEIN (1973) FROM DAN CURTIS
Halloween Month continues here at Balladeer’s Blog and so does the 200th anniversary year of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. FOR THREE MORE REVIEWS OF DAN CURTIS HORROR PRODUCTIONS CLICK HERE
FRANKENSTEIN (1973) – Dan Curtis was well-known for his Dark Shadows television series, the original Night Stalker telefilm and its sequel The Night Strangler. Throw in The Norliss Tapes, Trilogy of Terror and about a dozen more made-for-tv exercises in the macabre.
In Frankenstein Robert Foxworth stars as Dr Frankenstein and Bo Svenson portrays his famous monster in what was originally a two-part presentation on The Wide World of Mystery. (“He’s an artificially created monster who solves murders!”)
Susan Strasberg played the good doctor’s love Elizabeth, Willie Aames was William Frankenstein and John Karlen from Dark Shadows appeared as Otto.
Leif Garrett, soon to appear as one of the murderous children in Devil Times Five, was briefly glimpsed as a little boy running from the Frankenstein Monster. Heidi Vaughn and Brian Avery were along for the ride as the DeLaceys. Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season
COLLEGE FOOTBALL RESULTS FROM OCTOBER 13th
HEADLINES
NUMBER THREE FALLS ON THE ROAD – In NCAA Division Three the 8th ranked SAINT JOHN’S UNIVERSITY JOHNNIES played host to the number 3 team in the nation – the UNIVERSITY OF SAINT THOMAS TOMMIES. After a 7-6 1st Quarter lead for the Tommies the Johnnies went on top 19-7 and 33-20 in the 2nd and 3rd Quarters respectively. From there Saint John’s University won it 40-20.
KNOCKING OFF NUMBER SEVEN – Up in the NAIA the number 24 EASTERN OREGON UNIVERSITY MOUNTAINEERS visited the country’s number 7 team – the SOUTHERN OREGON UNIVERSITY RAIDERS (should be the Sea Gulls). The 1st Half was a defensive epic resulting in a 3-3 tie at Halftime. After the break the Mountaineers outscored SOU 24-14 for a 27-17 upset triumph.
SEVENTY-EIGHT – In the NJCAA the ASA (NY) COLLEGE AVENGERS took the field against their guests the CAPP CRUSADERS. The Avengers dominated on both sides of the ball, utterly annihilating the hapless Crusaders in the process. When all was said and done ASA College won by a final tally of SEVENTY-EIGHT to SIX! Continue reading
Filed under college football
THE PRISONER: FALL OUT (SERIES FINALE)
B
alladeer’s Blog CONCLUDES its examination of the 1967 science fiction/ existential drama The Prisoner. For Part One, in which I examined the themes and concepts at play in the series click HERE
Episode Title: FALL OUT
Madness and death reign supreme in the still-controversial series finale of The Prisoner.
We’ve arrived at the 17th and final episode of this innovative Patrick McGoohan series. Last time around, in Part One of the two-part conclusion, we at last learned why the Prisoner resigned from British Intelligence. The significance of the Penny-Farthing Bicycle symbolism was explored, too. (FOR MY REVIEW OF THAT EPISODE CLICK HERE )
Fall Out brings the entire saga to a close. Continue reading
Filed under Forgotten Television, Prisoner (tv series)
THE BODY SHOP (1973): MOVIE REVIEW
THE BODY SHOP (1973) – Category: A neglected bad movie classic that deserves a Plan 9-sized cult following
HALLOWEEN MONTH CONTINUES! 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
Filed under Bad and weird movies, Halloween Season
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