Happy Halloween 2018 from Balladeer’s Blog!
THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND (1908) – Written by William Hope Hodgson. This tale is a terrific but often overlooked forerunner of Lovecraftian horror blended with traditional haunted house elements. Throw in material that puts the reader in mind of Madame Blavatsky’s and Aleister Crowley’s horror fiction and it’s a magnificent story for Halloween.
Our tale is set in and around an isolated house in a desolate, eerie location in West Ireland. The main character is an elderly man who lives there with his sister. His sleep is tainted with disturbing dreams that become more like occult visions of barren but impossible landscapes. (Think “If M.C. Esher did landscaping.”)
In those visions his and his sister’s house is always in the middle of the terrifying geography. After these unsettling experiences on the astral plane the material version of those forces are unleashed in the real world by a minor earthquake near our main character’s house.
Swinish humanoids that resemble the illusory pig-faced monster in the movie Boardinghouse emerge from the new fissure and besiege the two terrified humans, Night of the Living Dead style. Continue reading
THE DRAGON 
YANKEE GIRL 
Next we have a series of scenes featuring some of the more sinful citizens of the deep southern town. Adultery, bigotry, covetousness, greed and outright murderous passions lurk behind every corner of this Mayberry-turned-Sodom and Gomorrah. These scenes go on so long even Larry Buchanan would scream “Pick up the pace, dammit!” at the screen.
NUMBER TEN FALLS – In D3 the UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN AT STEVENS POINT POINTERS welcomed the number 10 team in the nation – the UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN AT OSHKOSH TITANS. A 14-14 Halftime tie became a 17-14 edge for the Pointers to end the 3rd Quarter. From there UW-Stevens Point pulled off a 27-21 Upset. 
USCAA GAME OF THE WEEK – The NEWPORT NEWS APPRENTICE SCHOOL BUILDERS (Shipbuilders) traveled to face the COPPIN STATE EAGLES (C) in the Game of the Week in the USCAA (United States Collegiate Athletic Association). The Builders parlayed a 13-0 lead at the break into an authoritative 33-0 smackdown. 
THEIR OWN PRIVATE IDAHO – Up in the NAIA the COLLEGE OF IDAHO COYOTES played host to the country’s number 18 EASTERN OREGON UNIVERSITY MOUNTAINEERS. The Coyotes held a 27-14 Halftime advantage, then got more and more separation from the Mountaineers. The final tally was College of Idaho 48 Eastern Oregon University 24. 
As always, October flies by too quickly. There are just a few days left in Balladeer’s Blog’s month-long celebration of Halloween. Here’s a shoutout to the title song from the infamously bad 1991 horror film HauntedWeen. 
PHAROS THE EGYPTIAN (1899) – Written by Guy Boothby, who was better known for his Doctor Nikola stories about an evil genius in the mold of Dr Mabuse and Fu Manchu. 
That ancestor was Ptahmes, whom we’re told served as a magician for the Pharaoh Ramses during the mythical Exodus. Pharos is angry over the desecration of his ancestor’s remains so Forrester obligingly returns the mummy to the old man. 
Balladeer’s Blog’s month-long celebration of Halloween hurtles toward its finale next Wednesday night. This time around I’ll examine the tale of Sean na Sagart aka John of the Priests, who should have been the lead character in several horror films by this point. 
Thus began the career and dark legend of Sean na Sagart. Sean spent roughly the next 17 years hunting, capturing and killing renegade Catholic Priests, Bishops, and Cardinals. 
Halloween is celebrated all month long here at Balladeer’s Blog. Here’s my review of this Jean Rollin film. For even more reviews of horror films with a nudity theme click 
THE GALLOWSMITH (1918) – A traveling hangman really loves his work and has executed countless figures with no care regarding their guilt or innocence. If the court condemned them, he does his job. 
THE GRIM GHOST
Satan offered to release the Grim Ghost from Hell periodically to subdue those renegade evil-doers and send them to Hell for damnation. 
