Halloween Month continues here at Balladeer’s Blog with this look at some ghost stories from over a hundred years ago.
FROM OUT OF THE SILENCE: SEVEN STRANGE STORIES (full title) (1920) – Written by Lady Bessie Kyffin-Taylor. The stories are:
OUTSIDE THE HOUSE – A veteran of World War One (called the World War or the Great War at the time), who lost the use of a leg during the conflict, at last meets his fiancé’s relatives, the Falconer family. They are gracious hosts but aggressively warn the man to never leave the house after dark. Only at sunrise is it safe to venture out.
Hearing odd, menacing sounds outside during the night, and intrigued by the way even the windows are blocked off after dark, the man disregards the warning and goes outside one night to investigate. While walking the eerie, moonlit grounds of the estate he learns why no one leaves the house at night. Continue reading
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925) – Lon Chaney Senior’s makeup and performance as the title character were envelope-pushing for 1925 audiences. To me this is the ULTIMATE silent horror film. It may sound odd, but in my opinion this movie is the very best cinematic adaptation of the Gaston Leroux novel. 
Halloween Season is underway here at Balladeer’s Blog! This time around I have so many new readers that I’ll start out with this look at some VERY old horror stories that are basically Halloween versions of the Ancient Science Fiction reviews I write. 
TWO THOUSAND MANIACS (1964) – For people who’ve never heard of Herschell Gordon Lewis, I’ll point out that he’s known as “the Godfather of Gore.” And not even GOOD gore, but the obviously fake kind that makes you laugh. Add to that the inept acting, bland dialogue and quickie production techniques like you’d get in old black & white flicks and you’ll understand the man’s Bad Movie magic. 
THE MONK (1796) – Written by Matthew G. Lewis. Though The Monk was preceded by other works of Gothic Horror like The Castle of Otranto (1764) and The Necromancer (1794), Lewis’ novel cranked up the supernatural elements a great deal. It also painted the Catholic clergy in extremely unflattering terms, at least in the initial edition. 
LA ROSE DE FER (1973) – This film’s title was translated into English as The Iron Rose even though The Rose of Iron would be a more literal translation, but that’s just a tiny nitpick. La Rose de Fer was the fifth movie from Jean Rollin, whose horror productions can range from brilliant to So Bad They’re Good level. 
There IS a body count in The Iron Rose, but there is certainly no blood and gore. As our story begins, a beautiful woman (Francoise Pascal) lounges on the beach and regards an iron rose that has washed in with the tide. After tossing it aside she goes about her business, and before long is on a bicycling date with a young man (Hugues Quester). 
WEIRD WAR TALES Vol 1 #93 (November 1980) 
*** Army Sergeant Vincent Velcro, who was given a choice of 30 years of hard labor for crippling a superior officer or being a human guinea pig for chemical injections derived from bat blood. The injections turned him into a science-spawned vampire. 
MALDOROR 
GIANT-SIZE CHILLERS Vol 1 #1 (June 1974) 
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