STRAIN completed

Progress report: I have now completed viewing the first season of THE STRAIN in its totality, and I can officially pronounce that I’m a complete mark. Everything about the show is top notch: the production values, the FX, the acting (with the exception of child actor Ben Hyland, who portrayed the part of Zach Goodweather—and…

BLOOD RAVE

Vampires, freaks, and oddly inclined ravers are being invited to the world’s first ever “blood rave” to be held in Amsterdam this coming Halloween. Supposedly, a group of anonymous organizers are planning to stage, on Halloween night, at some as-yet undisclosed location in Amsterdam, a “Blood Rave” reminiscent of that opening club scene in the…

What’s so scary about a black cloak, anyway?

It looks like the mystery may be solved about a photo circulating around the Internet that created a buzz online. A hooded figure, spotted near a playground close to an apartment complex in Gastonia, North Carolina, and subsequently captured in a series of photographs, led to public concern (we’ll be charitable and not say “panic”) and…

More Highgate Hijinks

Is London’s Highgate Cemetery haunted? Folklorist, Trystan Swale, considers Della Farrant’s evidence in her book, “Haunted Highgate” (2014). Astute readers may recall my post last week (or was it the week before last?) regarding the supposed vampire of Highgate Cemetery in London. Well, here’s some more, a postscript, if you will. Ms. Della Farrant, wife…

We’ve got a full slate for 8 FILMS TO DIE FOR

Wind Walkers Takes the Last Spot of the Horror Festival The final slot has been filled for the After Dark Horror movie marathon set to hit theaters in limited release this October 16th, and it offers a unique American Indian twist to the genre. “WIND WALKERS digs deep into Native American history and the Psyche…

Did a volcano birth the modern vampire?

In April 1815, the most powerful volcanic blast in recorded history shook the planet in a catastrophe so vast that 200 years later, investigators are still struggling to grasp its repercussions. I’m gonna have to take exception with this article. Not with its assertions of the impact of the eruption of Mt. Tambora in the…

Teen bride buried alive?

It’s not clear whether Neysi Perez, 16, was buried alive. This sort of thing used to happen not infrequently, in all likelihood helping to fuel, if not outright inspiring, the vampire legend. In an age without advanced medical instruments, and especially in times of plague outbreaks, when victims were dying so quickly the authorities couldn’t…

A Vampire Coloring Book—And Why Not?

October 6th is a special day for me because it’s my mom’s birthday, but it’s also the day Roger Ma’s adult coloring book The Vampire Combat Field Guide: A Coloring and Activity Book for Fighting the Bloodthirsty Undead arrives from Berkley Trade Paperback. I’ve never understood why coloring is regarded as “kids stuff.” It’s actually…