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The Real-Life Romanian Ghosts on the set of THE NUN

I remember watching a documentary about the filming of THE EXORCIST a few years back. Father William O’Malley, who appeared in the film as Father Dyer, was asked to perform a real-life blessing on the set after several members of the cast and crew suffered bad luck. For his part, Father Dyer didn’t attribute any…

AMERICAN HORROR STORY: APOCALYPSE Is Okay…But Do I Care?

I don’t know if the show has jumped the shark or not. I thought that it possibly had after last season. Honestly it’s way too early to tell. We’re only one episode in to the new season (it will be two by the time you read this) and it neither excelled nor failed for me….

The Count Returns

Last week I performed what has become an annual rite: I purchased my first box of Count Chocula cereal. Yes, as all the Halloween stuff starts hitting store shelves about mid-summer—and this is the only case of such “too-early” product placement that doesn’t annoy me (I swear a couple of years ago I saw Easter…

A Visit to the Torture Museum

Several of the exhibits on display at the Medieval Torture Museum in Saint Augustine, Florida, the first museum of its kind in the country, are the real deal, the genuine article. Meaning they were really used in the past to torture people. Does some of that psychic residue still cling to the pieces? I’d have…

The Ghost of Bellamy Bridge

Technically I think the hiking trail that leads out to the old Bellamy Bridge was closed. But I wasn’t going to let that stop me. Neither did I let it stop me that there were more mosquitoes swarming in the area than I had ever encountered before in my life. I just doused myself with…

My Ghostly Encounter at Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp

As promised last week, here is my recounting of what I personally experienced when visiting the Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp a couple of weeks ago. My lovely wifey and I checked in at the community bookstore, which serves as the hub of the area and from which the daylight historical tours depart. (They also offer ghost-hunting…

THE STRAIN In Real Life?

Does this sound familiar? “10 sick passengers taken to hospital after international flight lands at Kennedy Airport” reads the headline. And if you saw the series premiere of THE STRAIN, you know that this is exactly how the vampire epidemic got started. The report claims the crew members and passengers affected were suffering from the…

Color the NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD

No, that’s not color-IZE. By no means should anyone attempt to alter that film’s glorious black-and-white. It would be like hiring somebody to repaint the Sistine Chapel with cans of spray paint. No, I mean to color it literally. As in, there is now a NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD coloring book, with page after…

The Story That Inspired The Blind Dead

Longtime readers know all about my love for the Blind Zombies. But even a hardcore mark such as I can still learn new things. I only recently became aware that a short story, written by Spanish writer Gustavo Becquer (the most read Spanish writer after Cervantes, I also learned) in 1861, entitled “El Monte de…

The Lodger and The Shadow

Last week I watched the silent film classic THE LODGER, Alfred Hitchcock’s unofficial first movie (meaning it is the project he claimed as his first real movie, the two preceding it comprising just warm-ups for him) and offered my thoughts on the flick for your consideration. One thing that struck me during my viewing of…

Revisiting the Classics: THE CORPSE VANISHES

Sometimes when I’m writing about an old movie I will use this tagline, and I will put the word “classics” in parenthesis. You will note that I have not done so in this case. I am not attempting to be ironic. Rather I maintain that THE CORPSE VANISHES, starring Bela Lugosi, is underserving of its…

Dracula’s Castle in THE NUN?! Kinda!

No, your eyes weren’t deceiving you. That really is Corvin Castle, aka Castle Hunedoara, aka Hunyadi Castle subbing for the haunted convent in the new hit fright flick THE NUN. I knew it as soon as I saw it—and so did the people sitting near me in the theater, as I announced, and not too…