Tag Archives: Halloween

October 17, 2015 · 7:35 pm

THE SHE-MONSTER OF THE FRENCH BROAD RIVER

Balladeer’s Blog presents another neglected American horror legend for Halloween Month.

THE SHE-MONSTER OF THE FRENCH BROAD RIVER

French Broad RiverThe French Broad River near Asheville, NC is one of those rare rivers that are older than the mountains they pass through. Those mountains in the Appalachians were not created until North America collided with Africa 300 million years ago to form the enormous continent called Pangaea. The river is older than that.

The She-Monster of the French Broad River is said to be a life-form that goes back to those prehistoric times. She is the sole remaining member of whatever type of pre-human race existed in those times and as such is extraordinarily lonely. Continue reading →

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October 17, 2015 · 2:56 pm

ELEVEN MORE BAD MOVIE CLASSICS FOR HALLOWEEN

Return of Dr X

Return of Dr X

My month-long celebration of Halloween continues! Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog are very familiar with my Bad Movie page where I examine plenty of under the radar movies that are hilariously awful. Previously I ran a list of the top Eleven Neglected Bad Movie Classics for Halloween. That was such a hit here is a list of eleven more neglected bombs. My Bad Movie page features full-length reviews of each of the movies I’m offering a synopsis of here.

THE RETURN OF DR X (1939) – The notorious film in which the legendary Humphrey Bogart played a zombified mad scientist named Dr Xavier who was brought back from the dead by another mad scientist named Dr Flegg. Much of the fun comes from Bogie’s unmistakable disdain for finding himself in the kind of stinker that Bela Lugosi often waded through. Bogie’s Dr X kills Continue reading →

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October 16, 2015 · 7:58 pm

THE SOUL GEM OF THE WHITE MOUNTAINS

Balladeer’s Blog presents another neglected American horror legend for Halloween Month.

THE SOUL GEM OF THE WHITE MOUNTAINS

HANDOUT - In Vorbereitung auf die Jubilaeumsfeierlichkeiten zu 150 Jahren Erstbegehung des Matterhorns, zeichnete der Schweizer Bergsportspezialist Mammut zusammen mit den Zermatter Bergfuehrern in einer Lichterkette die Route ueber den Hoernligrat nach am Mittwoch, 17. September 2014. (PHOTOPRESS/MAMMUT/Robert Boesch)

On the former peak of Mount Monroe in New Hampshire’s White Mountains there used to glow a large light as if from a gigantic ruby or carbuncle. The Native Americans claimed it was a huge stone that fell from the sky one night in the far-distant past. They called it the Soul Gem in their language and they believed it ate the souls of anyone who touched it.   

No one within living memory had survived an attempt to reach the Soul Gem. Over generations multiple expeditions were mounted but all ended in horror. Stories spread that the souls captured by the gem knew new lives as the living trees which at one time were said to grow there.    Continue reading →

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October 15, 2015 · 11:43 pm

THE MALEVOLENT SEAMSTRESS

Balladeer’s Blog presents another neglected American horror legend for Halloween Month.

THE MALEVOLENT SEAMSTRESS  

PlagueIn Boston in 1775, shortly after the Revolutionary War had broken out a mysterious old seamstress wandered into the rebel-held countryside. This woman always wore a mantel wrapped about her in such a way that most of her face was always obscured.

The gentle and apparently very aged woman would beg a night’s lodging in the homes she visited, offering to do any sewing work that needed done by way of paying her way. Many families were happy to take her up on that bartering offer.  Continue reading →

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October 14, 2015 · 11:19 pm

HORRORS OF BOON ISLAND

Balladeer’s Blog presents another neglected American horror legend for Halloween Month.

HORRORS OF BOON ISLAND

Boon IslandBoon Island is located off the southern coast of Maine. Though it is now famous for its lighthouse it used to be a deserted island with no plant or animal life upon it.

In the late 1740’s the ship Nottingham went down just off Boon Island. The survivors of the shipwreck swam to the narrow, deserted wasteland and, losing hope of rescue, eventually turned to cannibalism. Continue reading →

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October 14, 2015 · 2:34 am

THE DALTON CHANGELING

Balladeer’s Blog presents another neglected American horror legend in honor of Halloween Month.

THE DALTON CHANGELING

Dalton Changeling 2Anne Coleman was a feared witch in Lanesboro, MA in the 1780’s. She was suspected of causing storms that sank ships, bringing on diseases that killed cattle, making food go bad and other malevolent deeds.   

Eunice Dalton – a new mother – had told her husband Ezra and anyone else who would listen that she was certain that Anne Coleman had stolen their baby boy out of the crib and replaced it with a changeling. Ezra and others tried to assure her that the baby was her own but she continued regarding it with fear.

One day when Eunice was nursing the baby she shrieked with horror as she realized the baby had developed teeth and had bitten into her breast to suck out blood instead of milk. Ezra was convinced now that something was definitely wrong with the baby because of the sudden growth of teeth and the blood spilling down from his wife’s bitten breast. Continue reading →

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October 13, 2015 · 8:39 pm

NAKED FEAR: FIVE ODDBALL HORROR FILMS FOR HALLOWEEN

The Nude Vampire

The Nude Vampire

Balladeer’s Blog’s month-long celebration of Halloween continues with this look at five unusual movies with that certain seasonal feel.

5. THE NUDE VAMPIRE (1970) – France’s Jean Rollin is one of those love-them-or-hate-them directors. The snooty French often bashed his films for their devotion to style over all else. Don’t believe reviews which claim that his movies have no comprehensible storylines. Personally I find him more straightforward than Lynch or Jodorowsky. At any rate the central figure of this arthouse Euro-horror is indeed a beautiful female vampire in skimpy outfits and less.

Members of a Suicide Cult have taken to offering themselves up to a vampress who turns out to be science-spawned rather than supernatural. Throw in various allusions to evolution, morality and mortality for good measure. There’s plenty of eerie and macabre imagery to go with the subtext which not only addresses the previous concepts but also examines the way in which the older generation of any time period always considers the younger generation to be figurative “monsters” who will quite literally inherit the Earth.

I’m not sure if Anne Rice was influenced by Rollin’s films but Continue reading →

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October 12, 2015 · 10:01 pm

THE GRAVEYARD IN SAINT PAUL’S

Balladeer’s Blog presents another neglected American horror legend in honor of Halloween Month.

THE GRAVEYARD IN SAINT PAUL’S

Manhattan in the 1600s

Manhattan in the 1600s

This story dates back to around 1661, when New York was still New Amsterdam and the Dutch still controlled it, not the British.

A Dutchman named Dirck Van Dara would often drink and carouse in the taverns with his friend Jahn Rooney until late at night (for the time period). At eleven o’clock one night a tavern on what is now Wall Street was empty of all customers except Van Dara and Rooney (“Did ya ever notice how this guy always puts Rooney’s name after Van Dara’s?”).  

The two drinking buddies left and set out to find a tavern that might still be open. A cold autumn drizzle was falling and not even Broadway showed lights on in any of its establishments. The chill and the rain were even forcing the scattered guardsmen to seek shelter in doorways.  

Van Dara and Rooney decided to make for their homes on Leonard Street, a route which took them past Old Saint Paul’s. When they were directly across the street from the graveyard adjacent to Saint Paul’s they heard the unmistakable sound of screams issuing forth from among the tombstones.   Continue reading →

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October 8, 2015 · 11:21 pm

THE STRANGE ORMONDS (1833): GOTHIC HORROR

THE STRANGE ORMONDS (1833) – By Leitch Ritchie

Ormond HouseHalloween Month continues! The last neglected Gothic Horror tale I examined was Isabella of Egypt back on the first of October. Let’s dive back into them with this 1833 story set in England.  

The reader is informed right off the top that the Ormond family (no, not the same Ormonds who are beloved by all of us bad movie fans) lived in the north of England and were objects of mingled fear, suspicion, derision and horror. The story is narrated in the first person and the author pretends that he is concealing some info to protect the innocent. An unnamed doctor from an unnamed town was called in to attend the oldest living Ormond in his last days.

The doctor took his daughter with him to witness the death of one head of the Ormond family and the accession of another. The huge mansion of the Ormonds was as odd as the family itself. The building seemed to be composed mostly of additions added on during different decades – even centuries – and if not for the obvious wealth of the family would have been deemed ramshackle. Continue reading →

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October 7, 2015 · 11:52 pm

THE DEATH SHIP

Balladeer’s Blog presents another neglected American horror legend in honor of Halloween Month.

THE DEATH SHIP

Death ShipEvery October 31st for over two hundred years Harpswell, ME was visited by a supernatural vessel. Sometime after dark a ship made of blood-red wood and with sails of purest white could be seen offshore.

Slowly but surely the ship would make its way into port. No crew members could ever be seen above or below decks. No one stood at the wheel, no one stood lookout in the crow’s nest. The ship would make its way in even against the strongest gales and the most violent seas. Continue reading →

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