DARK TOYS DTM001 1/6 Scale MASK DX Edition 12-inch collectible figure with Milo the dog

Watch Movies TV -The Mask is a 1994 American superhero comedy film directed by Charles Russell, produced by Bob Engelman, and written by Mike Werb, loosely based on the comic series of the same name published by Dark Horse Comics. The film stars Jim Carrey, Peter Riegert, Peter Greene, Amy Yasbeck, Richard Jeni, and Cameron Diaz in her film debut. It revolves around Stanley Ipkiss (Carrey), an unfortunate bank clerk who finds a magical mask that transforms him into a mischievous zoot-suited gangster.

When Ipkiss puts on the Mask, he becomes a wacky, zoot-suited, suave cartoon figure having the ability to manipulate his own shape and the world around him to a superhuman extent; this is implied to be the projection onto himself of his preferred fantasies.

DARK TOYS DTM001 1/6 Scale MASK DX Edition figure features: Head Sculpt, Hat, Feather, Funny Head Sculpt, Suit dress coat, Shirt, Suit pants, Tie, $ Gunny bag X 3, Shoes, Sledge hammer, Mask, Small horn, Alarm clock, Dollar, Crazy dog, Figure Stand, Hand shape X 5, 12-inch Figure Body

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The Kiss of the Vampire

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(1963) Directed by Don Sharp; Written by John Elder (aka: Anthony Hinds); Starring: Clifford Evans, Edward de Souza, Noel Willman, Jennifer Daniel, Barry Warren, Jacquie Wallis and Isobel Black; Available on Blu-Ray and DVD

Rating: ****

“I decided straight away he was going to be a creature possessed of bloodlust and great sexual appetite. I focused on Ravna’s power.” – Noel Willman on his character, Dr. Ravna (from The Hammer Story, by Marcus Hearn and Alan Bates)

“I felt that the picture had to have a style about it, that it had to have a feeling of elegance and decadence.” – Don Sharp (from Hammer Films: The Unsung Heroes, by Wayne Kinsey)

Note: This is an expanded version of a capsule review from July2015. After re-evaluating the film, I upped my star rating (did I mention I hate ratingmovies?).

 

Thanks (Or should I say “fangs”?) to Gabriela from PaleWriter (https://palewriter2.home.blog/) for hosting Dark and Deep: The Gothic Horror Blogathon, a celebration of all things dark and mysterious. With this in mind, it was an easy choice for today’s review, one of the lesser-known but no less-deserving titles from the famed production company.

When you think of Hammer films and vampire movies, the first that likely come to mind are the Dracula films with Christopher Lee as the titular Count, and Cushing as his archnemesis, Professor Van Helsing. You might also bring up the Karnstein trilogy, which helped make stars of Ingrid Pitt, Madeline Smith, and the Collinson twins. Following the success of TheBrides of Dracula (1960), Anthony Hinds set his sights on another vampire film – this time without the presence of Lee or Cushing (even Hammer stalwart Michael Ripper was otherwise occupied). Australian director Don Sharp was approached by Hinds to direct his first Hammer film. Although The Kiss of the Vampire was filmed in 1962,*/** problems with distribution (distributor Universal-International, feared that the film’s climactic swarm of bats was too similar to scenes in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, released in 1963) delayed its release in the States until 1963, and in the U.K. until 1964.

* Fun Fact #1: The Kiss of the Vampire was filmed back-to-back with The Old Dark House and Paranoiac.

** Fun Fact #2: Ever budget-conscious, numerous set pieces in The Kiss of the Vampire appeared in other Hammer films. The production/art design team of Bernard Robinson and Don Mingaye recycled set pieces from various productions: the same stained-glass window was used in The Old Dark House, a staircase was repurposed from Paranoiac, and the stone griffins from The Brides of Dracula were re-purposed for Ravna’s castle.

While traveling in the Bavarian mountains on their honeymoon, Gerald and Mariane Harcourt (Edward de Souza and Jennifer Daniel) run out of gas. The nearby village appears deserted; likewise, the dust-coated inn where they decide to spend the night is suspiciously bereft of guests. The innkeeper and his wife, Bruno and Anna (Peter Madden and Vera Cook) are accommodating, but reticent about the conditions of the village, or Dr. Ravna (Noel Willman), who resides in the nearby castle. Gerald soon discovers that their troubles have only begun, as Ravna fixes his sights on Mariane as his newest disciple.

It’s been said that vampire films (and by extension depictions of vampirism) reflect the times in which they’re made, and The Kiss of the Vampire is no exception. In this case, the central theme (the wealthy preying on the impoverished) is just as relevant today. When Ravna entertains Gerald and Mariane at his castle, he does little to mask his disdain for the common folk in the village, stating, “It often happens in life that the most beautiful things are made from the most unpromising of materials, don’t you find?” He further comments about the wine they’re drinking as being “made from grapes trampled by the feet of a peasant.” At once this reveals his attitude toward those less fortunate, but it’s also an indication about how he views his disciples, having saved them from a lesser existence. We learn that the innkeepers live in fear of Ravna, after he took away their daughter Tania (Isobel Black), who now serves as one of his undead minions.

Isobel Black makes an impressive film debut as Tania. She has few lines and relatively little screen time, but her presence makes a big impression, bringing an overt sexuality to the role. In one of the film’s more memorable scenes, set in a fog-shrouded graveyard, she claws at the dirt, in an attempt to recover one of her cohorts. Co-star (and headliner) Jennifer Daniel is nearly upstaged by Black’s mischievous, almost feral performance.

Professor Zimmer (Clifford Evans) is first seen in the film’s stunning opening scene, where he impales his daughter’s coffin with a shovel. He’s sort of an alcoholic version of Van Helsing, drowning his sorrows in liquor after he lost his daughter to Ravna. Evans plays his character with zealous conviction – Zimmer doesn’t want to see history repeat with Mariane, vowing to destroy Ravna and his followers (“forcing evil to destroy itself”). In a cringey scene that’s surpassed only by Cushing in The Brides of Dracula (1960), he burns his arm over an open flame to ameliorate a bite he sustained from Tania.

As a protagonist, Gerald is a bit on the obtuse side, managing to get drugged twice in the movie. The first time, he drinks a glass of “special” champagne at Ravna’s masquerade ball. In the second instance, Zimmer gets the best of him, before he can impulsively run off to Ravna’s castle to rescue his wife, sans a solid plan. On the other hand, Gerald deserves credit where it’s due. During an initiation ritual, Tania scratches his chest, leaving streaks of blood. In what can only be described as one of the most “metal” moments in Hammer history, he smears the blood in the form of a cross, thwarting her ambitions.  

The Kiss of the Vampire features some extraordinary sets and art direction. As mentioned in Fun Fact #2, the production design wizards at Hammer were masters at doing more with less, repurposing and re-arranging sets and set pieces until they looked like they were purpose-built for this production. In the masquerade sequence, our eyes are treated to a ballroom festooned with a colorful menagerie of paper lanterns, complemented by an equally colorful, bizarre assortment of masks (I’m not sure if Stanley Kubrick was a fan, but the masks and secret society element seem to parallel one sequence of Eyes Wide Shut). Overall, the movie looks like a much more expensive production – that is, until the final effects sequence, in which a swarm of fake, barely mobile bats* on visible wires spoil the illusion.   

* Fun Fact #3: 21 bats were manufactured by the prop department, but additional bats were purchased from several local Woolworths stores.

Sharp proved his mettle as a director for Hammer with this film (On a side note, isn’t “Sharp” the perfect name for a director of a movie with fanged creatures of the night? Okay, I’ll see myself out…), and would go on to direct other projects for the production company, The Devil-Ship Pirates (1964) and Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966). If you can look past the underwhelming ending, the rest of the film works quite well. It warrants re-evaluation by Hammer and non-Hammer fans alike, delivering everything you might expect in a gothic horror film. Don’t let the paucity of Hammer regulars fool you. The Kiss of the Vampire is a Hammer vampire film that compares with the best of them.

Sources for this article: The Hammer Story, by Marcus Hearn and Alan Bates; Hammer Films: The Unsung Heroes, by Wayne Kinsey

The Rotting Zombie's Round-up of Horror News for October - Halloween Edition

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If all has gone well this news post should be going up on my favourite holiday of the year, obviously Halloween. The only downside of living with horror all year round is that it can be hard to do anything special, the amount of films I get sent for review, coupled with the limited free time I have means I don't have too much additional stuff planned. As for Halloween itself I am planning to go cinema with my bestie to watch Zombieland 2: Double Tap, and my stream some horror games to my poor neglected YouTube channel at the weekend. It turns out that didn't exactly happen, instead going for a spooky curry instead of the cinema, which shall now happen at the weekend.

Some video game news to begin with, starting with the late announcement of the fourth and final Zombies DLC for Call of Duty: Black Ops IV. This new map is again actually a remake, this time it is Call of the Dead brought kicking and screaming into modern day with it this new version called Tag Der Toten. Gone is the George Romero boss zombie and the four celebrity characters, instead you now play as one of the four characters from the Black Ops II Zombies mode.
Back in the 90's there was a horror themed action game called MediEvil, and last Friday a remake of this came out. It is very faithful to the original making it quite nostalgic, though it suffers old fashioned issues such as a bad camera, and can be quite unforgiving due to the fact your health doesn't refill in between levels.
Finally, 1971 Project Helios is an upcoming turn based strategy game that combines modern warfare military tactics and close combat. It takes place in a frozen world where eight people (the characters you control) team up to find a missing scientist. On their journey they deal with raider attacks, investigate military headquarters, and infiltrate a anti-technological religious sect. I love this style of game despite being terrible at them, but it does look pretty.

Psychological horror film Anyone Home (previously Model Home) has recently been released by Gravitas Ventures. This stars Jasper Cole (The Rookie), Kathy Baker (Picket Fences) and Monique Gabriela Curnen (The Dark Knight), and is the first feature film from director Patrick Cunningham. In this horror a single mother (Curnen) moves into an unsold property in an empty development and soon get entangled with a creepy local voyeur (Cole).



Filmmaker David Axe (Shed) has a new film in development named Lection. This is a political thriller set in a post-apocalyptic world, and is about a mayor of a small town seeking to gain power. The cast includes Sanethia Dresch and Mike Amason in leading roles. There is currently an Indiegogo campaign running to help finish production and distribution of this that can be found here. With a description as good as 'a local election in a Mad Max-style universe' this may be one to watch out for.

Documenting the Witch Path (love the title) is a found footage horror from director Carl Sundstrom that Terror Films have acquired worldwide rights to. Inspired by actual events this follows three young documentary filmmakers (Nathaniel P. Erlandsson, Robin Franzen and Carl Sundstrom) who discover a path in the woods to a secluded lake named 'Witch Lake' where in the past those accused of witchcraft were drowned in. This award winning film was released on 11th October on a variety of VOD sites.
Talking of Terror Films, they and Global Digital Releasing are set to begin putting their films on Roku. Twenty one films have been selected including Hell House LLC, Patient Seven, and the documentary Untold and Unearthed: The Path to Pet Sematary.



Veronica Carlson (Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed) has signed on to play Dr. Whittingham in Anthony Calvitti's new short film Night of the Devil. Other cast members include Lauren LaVera (Terrifier 2, Clinton Road), Rachel Keefe (Vessel, Watchtower), George Williams (Dahmer on Dahmer: A Serial Killer Speaks), and Richard Lyntton (Creed). This movie is also to feature music by Cactus and Black Sabbath. The synopsis is that in 1978 four teens enter the woods the night before Halloween and come face to face with the Devil. For more information check out the Indiegogo campaign page here.

What seems surely like a post designed merely to drive traffic to a curtain shop website actually was pretty cool so I am going to mention it. Over on The Mill there is an article about iconic movie posters recreated out of felt. These include Alien, Jaws and The Silence of the Lambs, I have used the Jaws one as this months news header image, so the obligatory credit to The Mill Shop for the use of the image.

Music news now, first a pop/rock song called I Want Red. It is available to listen to on Spotify which I don't actually use. However if you want to check it out for yourself head here.
Lola Black has released the official music video for the cover of Concrete Blonde's Bloodletting (Vampire Song). Originally premiering on Dread Central this will become available via The Label Group/INgrooves Music Group on November 1st (Day of the Dead)



Minnesota based cinematic rock band Coyote Kid have released a concept album named Skeleton Man that is based on the dark world first revealed in the debut single Femme Fatale. This album contains 13 tracks and can be pre-ordered now. They have also created a treasure hunt that can be initiated by a secret code hidden in the album. Finding the treasure will result in free shows for life for the band, as well as a merch bundle.

I actually have plenty more news this month I have received in the half week since I wrote this news post, sadly I don't have the time to be able to add that on to October's news so it shall have to wait till the end of November.

Marvel Years 10.06 - June 1970

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Silver Surfer #17

Title: The Surfer must kill!

Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: John Buscema

Villain: Mephisto

Regulars: Shalla Bal

Guests: Nick Fury, Dum Dum Dugan, Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Johnny Storm, Tony Stark

The Silver Surfer has promised to destroy SHIELD in order to get Shalla Bal back from Mephisto. Unknown to the Surfer, Mephisto has retrieved Shalla Bal from the snow storm and has placed her in a hypnotised state as a secretary in SHIELD headquarters. Mephisto wants the Silver Surfer to despair when he discovers that he's killed his lover.

In turn, the Silver Surfer wants to betray Mephisto by destroying SHIELD as an organisation without killing anyone. He gives SHIELD a warning and asks them to evacuate their buildings, but they don't obey his requests. Nick Fury and other agents attack him, but he reacts gently, defending himself without hurting them. This gives SHIELD the advantage. Using a new Z-Gun (TM) invented by Tony Stark, they weaken him enough to take him captive.

Mephisto is furious. He places Shalla Bal within arm's reach of the Silver Surfer, then takes her away again. The Silver Surfer strikes helplessly at Mephisto, who is invisible to everyone else, so Nick Fury thinks he's gone mad. The Silver flies away weakly.

This is yet another powerful story by Stan Lee. But really... a Z-Gun? Stan must be running out of good names.

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The Avengers #77

Title: Heroes for hire!

Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: John Buscema

Avengers: Black Panther, Goliath, Vision, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch

Villain: Kronus, Cornelius Van Lunt

Guests: Tony Stark

After highly praising Roy Thomas last month for his six-year run on the Avengers, this is one of his weaker stories.

Until now we've assumed that the Avengers Mansion belongs to Tony Stark. Now we find out that the building is only rented, and the landlord is a wealthy man called Cornelius Van Lunt. The rent is $2000 per month, and now the arrears are $120,000. I don't understand that. How could a millionaire like Tony Stark forget to pay the rent for five years? Doesn't he have a secretary to deal with stuff like that? Now Stark Industries is going through a bad phase and doesn't have much cash, and Van Lunt is demanding his rent. The Avengers could become homeless!

The Avengers offer their services for hire to pay the bills. Cornelius Van Lunt himself hires them to demolish a newly acquired building. While they're working a bank is being robbed by a costumed criminal called Kronus. Based on his physique, the Avengers suspect that he's Van Lunt. In actual fact it's one of Van Lunt's employees who wants to frame his boss.

The Black Panther gets a job as a history teacher, using a civilian name not mentioned in this issue.

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Thor #177

Title: To End in Flames!

Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby

Villain: Loki, Surtur

Regulars: Odin, Balder, Sif, Fandral, Hogun, Volstagg

Unable to stop Surtur, Loki flees to Earth. Thor leads the rest of Asgard in battle against him, but they are unable to stop him.

Balder retrieves Odin from the Sea of Eternal Night at the risk of his own life. When Odin awakens he imprisons Surtur once more.

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Fantastic Four #99

Title: The Torch goes wild!

Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby

Fantastic Four: Reed Richards, Susan Richards, Ben Grimm, Johnny Storm

Regulars: Black Bolt, Medusa, Crystal, Gorgon, Karnak, Triton

In Fantastic Four #95 Johnny Storm's lover Crystal returned to the Inhumans. Johnny kept his cool for a few months, distracted by various battles, but now he snaps. He's certain they must have kidnapped Crystal against her will, so he flies to the Himalayas to free her. He fights against the combined might of the Inhumans, until the other members of the Fantastic Four arrive to tell him to cool down. Crystal says she went back voluntarily. At first he accuses her of not loving him. Then it's explained that she was needed, because only her elemental powers could save Black Bolt's life.

There's a mistake here. Triton calls Black Bolt Crystal's brother. The exact relationship between the two has never been disclosed, but that can't be right. Crystal is Medusa's younger sister, and Medusa is Black Bolt's lover, which couldn't be possible if they were brother and sister. Could it?

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Amazing Spider-Man #85

Title: The Secret of the Schemer!

Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: John Romita

Villain: Schemer (Richard Fisk), Kingpin

Guests: Gwen Stacy, Captain Stacy

This beautiful splash page drawn by John Romita gives a recap of what happened last issue.

The Kingpin is jealous, because his wife Vanessa (who looks remarkably similar to Dormammu's sister Umar) has helped the Schemer escape. Does she love him?

Captain Stacy visits Peter Parker with his daughter Gwen to ask him how he gets such good photos of Spider-Man in action. Fearing that George Stacy is getting close to discovering his secret identity, Peter makes an excuse to leave the room, then returns as Spider-Man angrily demanding to see Peter because he owes him money.

Spider-Man captures the Schemer and brings him to the address where the $5000 reward was offered last issue. It's the Kingpin's apartment. Spider-Man is trapped while the Kingpin and the Schemer argue, with Vanessa in the middle. The Schemer unmasks himself and reveals that he's the Kingpin's son, Richard Fisk. Spider-Man escapes and slips away unnoticed.

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Captain America #126

Title: The Fate of the Falcon!

Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Gene Colan

Villain: Maggia

Regulars: Falcon

The Falcon is on the run from the police. He's been framed for murder by a black supremacist gang called the Diamond Heads. Captain America helps him escape, and then goes after the gang. He finds out that despite the black supremacy is just pretence to make people more scared of them. They really work for the Maggia.

We'll be seeing a lot more of the Falcon.

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Daredevil #65

Title: The Killing of Brother Brimstone

Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: Gene Colan

Villain: Brother Brimstone

Regulars: Karen Page

Gene Colan delivers yet another masterpiece this month. It's difficult to say which of his panels is the best. They're all brilliant.

Daredevil is still in Los Angeles searching for Karen Page. She has a small role in a television show called "Strange Secrets", which obviously refers to "Dark Shadows". One of the show's lead actors, Ross Archer, who plays Brother Brimstone, is due to be written out of the show. He tries to take revenge on the cast and crew, but Daredevil stops him, only to find that the person dressed up as Brother Brimstone isn't Ross Archer after all.

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The Incredible Hulk #128

Title: And in this corner, the Avengers!

Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: Herb Trimpe

Regulars: General Ross, Major Talbot

Guests: Avengers (Goliath, Black Panther, Vision, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch)

The Hulk is still underground, walking through the Mole Man's tunnels across America. He's heading towards the San Andreas fault. General Ross fears an earthquake, so he asks the Avengers for help.

Goliath is as macho as they come. He doesn't believe in taking a woman's advice.

The Avengers fight with the Hulk, but even their combined strength is no match for him. They lure him into a Gammatron Bombarder (TM), which is supposed to change him back into Bruce Banner, but it doesn't work. The Hulk leaps away, and the Avengers let him go, because he's now above ground and the San Andreas fault is safe from him.

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Sub-Mariner #26

Title: "Kill!" cried the Raven

Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: Sal Buscema

Villain: Red Raven

Regulars: Diane Arliss

Prince Namor is hiding in New York, disguised as a man. He sees a newspaper report about a costumed man found unconscious at sea. Namor recognises him as a potential ally in his fight against the surface world. The readers should recognise him as well, because it's Red Raven, who we last saw in X-Men #44. He put himself into a 20-year sleep, but now he's been found after only two years.

Namor finds where Red Raven is being held and revives him. Red Raven is so full of seething hatred for the surface dwellers that Namor considers him an enemy. After a brief fight, Red Raven escapes and returns to the place where the rest of his people are in suspended animation. He tries to revive them, but they're all dead.

An explosion kills Red Raven. Supposedly.

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Iron Man #26

Title: Duel in a Dark Dimension!

Writer: Archie Goodwin
Artist: Don Heck

Villain: Collector, Shar-Khan

Regulars: Happy Hogan, Pepper Hogam

Pepper Hogan has been kidnapped by the Collector, who we last saw in Avengers #51. He tells her husband, Happy Hogan, that he will only free her if Iron Man delivers to him the Freak, who we last saw in Iron Man #4. Iron Man refuses, because he knows that the Freak is really Happy Hogan, a secret he's kept from him.

Iron Man talks to the Collector and asks him if there's anything else he wants instead. The Collector says he wants something called the Solar Sword. Iron Man is sent to a place called the Dark Dimension, not to be confused with Dormammu's dimension. The Solar Sword is being wielded by a hero called Val-Larr, and it's the only weapon that can protect the innocent people from the demons of Shar-Khan.

First Iron Man aids Val-Larr in  battle, then he steals his sword and takes it to the Collector. This prompts Shar-Khan to begin an all-out assault. The Collector accepts the sword and honours his promise to free Pepper, but the sword begins to glow, threatening to do super-nova. It gains its power from light, so it's too powerful to be used in any world with normal light.

Iron Man returns the sword to Val-Larr. Together they defeat Shar-Khan.

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Captain Marvel #20

Title: The Hunter and the Holocaust

Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: Gil Kane

Villain: Rat Pack (looters)

Regulars: Rick Jones

Guests: Hulk

Captain Marvel returns after a six-month break. I'm glad that Roy Thomas was given another chance with this comic series. The stories are outstanding, even more cosmic than the Silver Surfer comics. Sadly, the series is still ahead of its time. It will only be back for two issues before taking another two-year break.

After Rick Jones performs another small gig before an adoring crowd, Captain Marvel complains that he's been left floating in the Negative Zone for months. That's six months, as we already know. Rick doesn't allow Captain Marvel to come bck until he needs him, when he sees an old man being mugged in the building where he lives.

Rick suggests that they visit Bruce Banner to find a way to bring them both back to Earth at the same time. Rick directs Captain Marvel which way to fly to go to one of his hidden laboratories. On the way he's slowed down when he sees a tornado hitting a village and wants to help. He's further slowed down by a gang of looters calling themselves the Rat Pack. When he finally arrives at Bruce Banner's laboratory, his three hour time limit runs out and Rick Jones falls unconscious at Bruce Banner's feet.

This takes place shortly after this month's battle with the Avengers in this month's Incredible Hulk #128. Bruce Banner thinks that Rick might have led the Avengers to him, and the stress makes him turn into the Hulk. The Hulk is in a rage and prepares to kill Rick Jones.

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Other comics published this month:

Millie the Model #183 (Stan Lee, Stan Goldberg)
Mad About Millie #12 (Stan Lee, Stan Goldberg)
Chili #14 (Stan Lee, Stan Goldberg)
Our Love Story #5 (Stan Lee, John Buscema)
Rawhide Kid #77 (Larry Lieber, Larry Lieber)
Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #79 (Gary Friedrich, Dick Ayers)
Chamber of Darkness #5 (Jack Kirby, Jack Kirby)

Subspecies IV - Bloodstorm (1998)

Quick Sips - Fireside Magazine #72

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Art by Amanda Makepeace

Well Fireside Magazine certainly takes its Halloween seriously, because this issues is entirely ghost-centric in order to get you into the spoopy mood. The stories explore what it means to be a ghost, what defines ghost-ness. And obviously, spread over so many stories, the place it arrives at isn't homogeneous. There are a variety of ghosts, as there are a variety of people—ghost who remember their lives and those who don't, ghosts who hunger for the living, and those who want only a break from isolation. Ghosts created by violence, and those created by longing. And it's a wonderful celebration of ghosts carried out over the issue. So let's get to the reviews!

Stories:

“Lost Girl” by Catherine Lundoff (689 words)

No Spoilers: The narrator of this piece is a ghost who doesn’t quite remember why she’s haunting the house she’s at. She seems aware of the tropes of ghosts, the reasons why a ghost might haunt a house, but has no distinct memory of her own life. What’s left to her is the presence of the woman who lives in the house now, and tantalizing possibilities of what they might mean to each other. The piece is tinged with a feeling of longing, of yearning, of the kind of hunger that might cause a spirit to linger. There’s a darkness, a shadow, but something more tender as well, if also heartbreaking.

Keywords: Ghosts, Longing, Loss, Memory, Haunting, Queer MC

Review: This story has such a great, mysterious, wrenching feel to it. For me at least it really does capture the heart of what makes a ghost story—that hunger to remain. In this case it seems to have pushed everything else out, as if death was so traumatic that all that the narrator could hold onto was this desire. To stay. To be with someone. And they can’t remember if that hunger has to do with the person in the house now or if it was someone else, something else. And that brings the biggest part of the creepiness for me, because the ghost doesn’t know and basically doesn’t care. They are still filled with this desire, this hunger to break through the loneliness that has become so much of their time. She wants to press herself to the woman in the house, wants to share something with her. And, if possible, wants to hold that woman in the house after death, to have someone to be with, to share with. Only again, that woman might have nothing to do with the ghost, might only be a victim here, and if it’s a cycle, if it’s something that’s been happening over and over again, then there truly is something very scary going on in that house. For me it just carries this weight, this gutting inability to know if what the ghost is feeling is part of something warm and wanted, if the woman pines and yearns in the same way the narrator does, or if this is something much less positive. And in that space I feel the reader is confronted by how thin a line that can be, and how overwhelming a hunger when the context of telling what is love and what is...something else is taken away. What remains is a story that is unsettling and quiet and lovely and terrifying. And very much worth spending some time with. Go check it out!

“The Haunting of 13 Olúwo Street” by Suyi Davies Okungbowa (3142 words)

No Spoilers: This story unfolds from the point of view of a haunted house, and one that really only came to be aware of itself once it was haunted, like crossing into being a \haunted house imbued it with powers that even it didn’t fully comprehend at first. Even as it explores what it means to be a haunted house, though, the piece also throws into harsh contrast the expectations of haunted houses. That they be dark and evil places. That they be dangerous for the people who might come to live there. Instead, the house wants only warmth, compassion, and understanding of the tragedy that happened within it, at a time when it was powerless to do anything about it. It’s quiet and pleading, lonely but resolving into something beautiful and warm.

Keywords: Ghosts, Houses, Haunting, Documentaries, CW- Assault

Review: I really like how the story imagines what creates a haunted house. A tragedy, yes, but...not necessarily a dark energy that comes from violence. Rather it seems to me that the power of the house comes from a desire to protect. Because the ghost of the woman who used to live there remained, and the house, perhaps so guilty that they weren’t able to do anything to protect her the first time, has made it their business to make sure that their ghost should have more respect. It’s not something that the living seem willing to see or understand, though. As evidenced by the way that the house must put up with all the attempts to put it into the tropes and cliches of being haunted. The way that their pain is trivialized and erased, made into something where they are the bad guy, they are the villain. They are exploited for their tragedy, and they refuse to give into the pressure to give that expected appearance or answer. They refuse to be dragged down, or they do as long as they can. But at the same time they want people to live there. Want something like joy to be inside them again. But only a joy that can see and empathize with the ghost still haunting them. So that maybe there can be a spot of healing. Of understanding. And maybe slowly the scar from what happened will fade, will fade in the light of the new and happy moments that can be shared there. And that the house finds a happy ending is all sorts of wonderful, showing that sometimes it only takes one person standing against the tide of those wanting the easy and expected horror, willing to be kind and compassionate when people insist that it’s a mistake, an invitation for disaster, when what they’re really doing is furthering the harm done. A fantastic and heartwarming piece!

“On the Other Side of the Line” by A. T. Greenblatt (1687 words)

No Spoilers: The narrator of this story is coping with the sudden appearance of a Line. A physical barrier that sprang up one day and effective cut off one side from the other. For the narrator, the Line went right through their house, stranding their partner, Paulo, on one side, while the narrator and their dog, Turnip, are on the other. The loss is strange because the nature of the Line is strange, allowing pets to cross but not people. Allowing some messages, but only one direction, and never whole or coherent. And the narrator has to decide what to do, how to adapt, and how much to hope that maybe there is some way to cross the line and reach the person they love.

Keywords: Division, Portals, Communication, Dogs, Cats, Barriers

Review: So all the stories this month so far have been about longing, and while this one isn’t a ghost story exactly, it is about a very strong desire to reach for someone that is gone. It’s just that the nature of this being gone isn’t exactly clear. For me, the Line could be many things, could “mean” many things. It could even mean death, and this could effectively be a ghost story. Or it could mean a sudden ideological shift, such as political lines that suddenly seem to divide people. It could be geographical, or time related, where maybe one of the pair had to shift their schedule. Or it could be the onset of something like depression that comes down and feels like a physical barrier. I’m not sure it matters too much what precisely the line “is supposed to be” because for me at least the focus is on the feeling of isolation and distance, and how the narrator reacts to the Line. How at first they try just to get over it and move forward. But that it’s not possible for them to just accept that they have lost their partner. They can see their partner at times, know that they must be alive, must be trying to communicate. Accepting an end would mean stepping around the frustration of not knowing what to do, or how to handle what’s happened. It makes this out of the narrator’s control, which in many ways it was, but it says that because they didn’t create the situation, they shouldn’t have to fix it. And again, fair. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want to fix it anyway. That what they want is to regain their place with their partner, and that regardless of what’s fair or what they’re supposed to do, they’re going to do this. And it’s a lovely and mysterious story that really gets into the hope and despair of sudden change. A great read!

“Radio Static” by Carolin Jansen (764 words)

No Spoilers: This is a rather heartbreaking story told by a woman in a vegetative state to her girlfriend. And...fuck, that alone should tell you that it’s not going to be an easy read. But it is also a rather beautiful exploration of grief and love, showing the narrator reaching out however she can, trying to say the things that she cannot, trying to comfort when she’s become disembodied. It uses some very heavy emotional artillery, and as such it’s a rather devastating read even as it’s centered on love and progress and not regret.

Keywords: Ghosts, Accidents, Queer MC, Comas, Radios, Haunting

Review: Well I think any doubt that this is a ghost-themed month of work from Fireside can be laid to rest (heh). And I really like how this story gives a voice to someone who isn’t exactly dead yet, but... It’s a ghost story all the same, and it’s difficult all the same, because this is just such a tragic circumstance, a woman involved in a traffic collision trying to give something to the woman she hoped would have been her wife, and now, well, that’s not happening. It’s an attempt to find closure in a moment where these two people have been severed violently and probably insurmountably. And that really is the hardest thing for me, the fear and the tragedy that the story hones in on—that there are times when you don’t get to say goodbye. When you don’t get to reassure the people you leave behind. And in keeping with the issue’s works, the piece looks at the deep longing that is left behind after death (or brain death). Not necessarily even for more life (though there’s probably that, too). No, here the desire is just to be able to tell her girlfriend all the things that she didn’t get the chance to. To encourage her to heal, to move on, to be happy. Which might not make all that much difference, but the comfort goes both ways, that if the narrator can imagine their girlfriend as recovering, then maybe death would be okay. It’s not exactly a healthy way of looking at it, but then she’s dead, and health at that point is irrelevant. She deserves something that will let her know it will be okay, even knowing it can’t be okay. And lacking that, there is only static, gentle and persistent and waiting, waiting, longing to give voice to words that will probably not make it across the divide, but need to be said anyway, just in case, before the end. And fuck, it’s a hard story, but also effective as hell. It hurts in some beautiful ways!

“What Cannot Follow” by Eugenia Triantafyllou (884 words)

No Spoilers: This story finds a family moving into a new house. The thing is, one of the previous tenants is still there, only...well, she’s no long among the living, if you know what I mean. And the story shows this meaning, adding context and layers of grief and care in some complex and poignant ways. For such a short story, it even manages something of a twist, and throughout seeks to step away from the idea that hauntings are only bad or horrifying and seeks instead to explore how hauntings can be about love, and tenderness, and warmth.

Keywords: Ghosts, Moving, Family, Babies, CW- Loss of a Child(?)

Review: I rather like how the story grounds itself in this act of moving, and in that act inheriting something that a different family left behind. It’s a way of looking at ghosts and hauntings that I haven’t really seen before, where they’re not really viewed as entirely bad. At least for Eva, ghosts have connections to families, and if you respect them, if you’re kind to them, they’re not necessarily disruptive. It’s great how the story shows how awful people can be to ghosts, how they view them as nuisances, as something akin to rats, to be exterminated in order to make a home more livable. And I get the feeling that the only reason that Eva can afford to move into this new place is because the ghost there is too “stubborn” to be moved out. Only it’s not malice that motivates this ghost, but grief. Loss. And a desire perhaps to reconnect. Which makes this not at all a scary story, despite it releasing so close to Halloween. For me, at least, it’s a rather touching story about how families tend to carry things with them when they move. Eva has a ghost of her own, on top of the new baby, and it’s obvious from her relationship with the ghost that’s following her that her approach to ghosts is very different from most people’s. And she’s able to make a connection, able to reach out when most would run away, and that’s a rather lovely sentiment. The title for me speaks to the ghost of this house, who was unable to follow their family and who is now a part of the house. Who has in some ways become a wound, showing that some violence happened there. And Eva might just be able to start on the road for healing. It’s a strange and wonderful read!

Poetry:

“After Living With Him” by Okwudili Nebeolisa

Whoa boy. This story hits me in a place where family and upbringing, identity and grief, all meet and mingle. It takes place as the narrator makes food with their family. The scene is one of familiarity and routine, the family members each having their roles to play in this ritual, in the preparation of the meal. And each having their silences, the things that keep guarded. At least the narrator does, hiding something large about them because they know that it’s now accepted, because they know that admitting it isn’t the rescue ladder that it’s being vaguely held out as. There’s this wonderful complexity to the piece, where the narrator is surprised by this sudden question about a friend they had lived with. About their sexuality. And I feel in some ways that the narrator has expected this and struggled with this because the urge is there to reveal the truth, to be open about it. In the hopes of acceptance, in the hopes that all the fear and anguish that they no doubt went through were in vain, and maybe they were mistaken about what the outcome would be. At the same time, though, they have through about this it seems very much, have weighed and measured. And are dealing with their own griefs, with the death of this friend. It’s in that vulnerable place that the mother’s question comes and it’s such a fragile thing, so fraught, that it feels like everything will shatter if things are pushed just a little further. The narrator can feel the ghost of their friend (and here again ghosts dominate this month’s works), and it seems to me like they want to acknowledge them, they want to say how they really feel. But...they don’t. And I don’t see it as a defeat or a betrayal. I don’t see it as anything other than...than the narrator wanting to save their relationship with this family, with their mother. Because the narrator does seem to be saying all they need to by not answering, but leaves open the space for their mother to sort of chose what do with that. It’s a wrenching poem, one that really captures this moment that condenses so much pain and uncertainty and fear, and leaves it there to linger with the readers. A fantastic read!

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Off-Topic: Psychics

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When it comes to psychics, I'm a sceptic. They're all a bunch of fraudsters who read your mind by guesswork and suggestion. However, I had a strange experience in 2009 which I still can't explain.

At that time I almost never visited my bank. I did everything by online banking. One day I made an exception, because I wanted to deposit some cash. I went to the Small Heath branch of Nationwide. When I walked up to the cash desk, the girl behind the counter said, "Good afternoon, Mr. Hood".

That surprised me, so I replied to the girl, whose name was Ayesha, "Oh, so you remember me? It's been a long time since I was last here".

To which she said, "No, I've never seen you before".

That was weird, but I went on with my business and pulled my wallet out of my pocket. Before I even opened it she asked, "You want to deposit £200?"

"How did you know that?" I asked in return.

Her colleague at the next cash desk laughed and said, "She's psychic. Test her".

That was a challenge I couldn't resist. I asked her my date of birth, and she gave me the correct answer. But then I said, "You probably have that in front of you on your computer screen".

The colleague was leaning over and said, "Yes, she does. Ask something else".

It took me a few moments to think up an impossible question. "Where did I go on my honeymoon?" I thought to myself that there was no way she could possibly guess that I went to Brighton.

Ayesha stared at me for a few seconds, then asked me, "Where's the Black Isle? I don't know it".

That totally freaked me out. I went to Brighton on the honeymoon of my second marriage in 2002. That's the answer I was fishing for, but I went to the Black Isle on the honeymoon of my first marriage in 1982. How could she possibly know that? I wasn't even thinking about the Black Isle when I asked her. Another question I asked myself later was, if she's psychic enough to know I went to the Black Isle, why wasn't she psychic enough to know it's in Scotland?

I went home in a daze. I told my daughter, and she said, "I don't believe you. You're making it up". I was annoyed that she didn't believe me, but then I realised that if she'd told me the same story I wouldn't have believed it either.

I've kept this story secret for the last 10 years. I don't want people to laugh at me or accuse me of lying. Only my daughter knows about it, and if she hasn't forgotten it she must still believe I was lying. Was I hallucinating and imagined it all? Maybe I was. To a sceptic like me, a temporary loss of sanity is a better explanation than a Moslem bank clerk who can read minds.

Official Secrets (3½ Stars)

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"The truth is always the first casualty of war".

I immediately liked the film's tag line, which is super-imposed on the film poster. It wasn't until I sat down to write this review that I questioned whether it's a true statement. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. It varies from case to case, so I would definitely strike the word "always". A lie might be told to justify a war. That was possibly the case in the Iraq War of 2003, when it was claimed that the Iraqi regime was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. I say possibly, because it's impossible for me to decide after all these years whether it was a lie or a mistake.

It's more often the case that lies are told after a war has ended. It's said that after a war history is written by the winners. If the other side had won, the history books would tell a different story. My favourite example is the statement that World War Two was started by Germany invading Poland. That's something that people in England, America and most other western countries repeat without thinking, but it's only one way of interpreting the facts. It could also be claimed that Germany didn't invade Poland at all; German troops entered German territories that were being occupied by Poland. If Germany had won the war, the "invasion of Poland" would have been called the "liberation of West Prussia and Posen".

Those are interesting topics worth discussing some other time in greater detail. For now, let's stick to the film. It deals with the true story of Katharine Gun, an employee of GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) in 2003. She intercepted a message from America to the British government asking for the non-permanent members of the UN Security Council to be put under surveillance to find a means of persuading them to vote in favour of a war against Iraq. The suggestion that diplomats should be blackmailed shocked Katharine so much that she leaked the memo to a friend who was an anti-war activist. The memo found its way to the British newspaper, The Observer.

An investigation was made to find the whistleblower responsible for the leak. At first Katharine denied it was her, but she eventually confessed in order to protect her colleagues who were the main suspects.

This is a fascinating story told with documentary precision. If anything, it's too close to being a documentary. The opening scenes show the actual footage of interviews with politicians like George Bush and Tony Blair. This slows the film down, and it needs at least half an hour to get moving. For me it only became interesting when it focused on the personal drama in Katharine's life. Keira Knightley plays the role perfectly, displaying the emotions of her character while attempting to keep them under control. It's a subtle but very effective performance.

The most shocking part of the film is the way the detectives talk to her about her legal rights. Katharine is allowed to speak to a lawyer, but as an employee of GCHQ she had signed an agreement to adhere to the Official Secrets Act by not talking about her work to anyone. This meant that if she discussed her work with her lawyer, including any details of the case against her, there would be additional charges against her. That makes a mockery of the whole British legal system.

Review of TERMINATOR: DARK FATE: Failed the Franchise

Watch Movies TV - October 31, 2019

The "Terminator" franchise had been going strong since the first film debuted in 1984. It is about a future where the world is taken over by machines under Skynet, and human John Connor leads a resistance movement against them. Skynet sends an android assassin called the Terminator back to the past to kill John Connors mother Sarah to prevent him from being born. The subsequent films in the series would follow the same basic formula of Skynet sending Terminators back in time to alter history to their favor. For me, only the first two films really mattered, the next three were forgettable. 

From the year 2042 (a future where Skynet and John Connor never existed), a technically-enhanced human soldier Grace (Mackenzie Davis in a breakthrough performance) was sent by the Resistance back to the year 2020 to protect a young Mexican woman named Dani (a bland Natalia Reyes) from an advanced Terminator called the Rev-9 (an even blander Gabriel Luna). Just when the Rev-9 was getting the upper hand, Sarah Connor appeared to rescue them. With the Rev-9 hot on their heels, the three women crossed the border into Texas to locate Sarah's source of information about Terminator arrivals. 

In the very beginning of this sixth film in the franchise, following the events of "T2" in 1998 where a young John Connor was successfully killed by the T-800 assassin, and Skynet never was. So, this is yet another attempt at a franchise reboot like "Terminator Genisys," for which the planned sequels had been shelved because of poor box-office performance. Here in "Dark Fate," the filmmakers went further into the future, creating yet another AI aggressor called Legion, and the another human resistance fighting against it. 

Despite the exhilarating action CG-enhanced sequences of "Dark Fate," everything felt oddly tired and rehashed and unsatisfying. Even the Rev-9 terminator not too much of an advancement over the Academy Award winning liquid metal T-1000 which amazed us back in "T2." Its current innovation of being able to split into an exterior and its black endoskeleton was not as visually-impressive. What's worse was this Rev-9 seemed deficient in hand-to-hand fighting skills especially apparent when he went one-on-one against Grace, only to be saved by its ability to regenerate -- lame.

I felt the best thing about this film was the nostalgia factor of bringing Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger back together onscreen again in their iconic characters as Sarah Connor and T-800. Despite looking very much older, Hamilton still somehow projected the strength and fire for which remember her Sarah Connor best for. Schwarzenegger attempted to be the comic relief at first when we first see him as domesticated Carl, but of course he would also figure in big action scenes before the film ended. However by deciding to lose John Connor early on in this one made the emotional heart of the first two classic Terminator films stop beating as well. 5/10.