Tag Archives: Halloween

Ghoulish Tens: Movie Monsters

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Awww, ain’t he cute? Tooth fairy from Hellboy II.

It’s time for another list, this time featuring our favorite, ghoulish movie monsters. I’m not including Godzilla, Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, King Kong, Jaws, and wolf man. (I make one exception with regards to werewolves as noted below.) As much as I love these crazy guys, I wanted to take an eclectic look at some more modern yet still classic creatures. Once again, the list is in no particular order. Please sound off in the comments and add your own favorites and check out my Pinterest for some images of the monsters.

Pinhead from Clive Barker’s Hellraiser. Iconic. A creepy sadomasochist. “I will tear your soul apart.” “We have such sights to show you.” I’m morbidly fascinated. Pinhead is the leader of the Cenobites, Theologians of the Order of the Gash, “ageless experimenters in the higher reaches of pleasure.” Really messed up monks. Read Clive Barker’s Hellbound Heart. It’s great and introduces aspects to the story not explored in the movie. I don’t know what it is about Clive Barker’s chilling ability to write about human’s relationship to their own flesh.

Alien Xenomorphs. Talk about awesome, ass-kicking design inspired by the surrealist H.R. Giger. (Google H.R. Giger alien lithograph for some awesome images.) Oh yeah, acid blood.

Guillermo del Toro gets two entries because he is just awesome that way. (When will we get At the Mountains of Madness? Pretty please?) First creature is Pale Man from Pan’s Labyrinth. Eyeball hands. Eats children. Pan was also very creepy and dark, but to pick one truly hellish monster, hands down Pale Man. Did I mention he eats children?

And second are the teeth fairies from Hellboy II, pictured above. They are soooo cute, just keep them away from your teeth! I also love the Angel of Death pictured here from Hellboy II. Del Toro definitely has an eye fetish.hellboy-2-the-angel-of-death1

The flesh eating crawlers from the Descent. Have you seen this movie? Talk about claustrophobic horror. Must. See. Now. (I think you can stream on Netflix.) We don’t know the origin of the crawlers, how they evolved in the caves, but they are humanoid enough for my over-active and sometimes twisted mind to just go there…

Brundlefly from The Fly. Just uck. The wonderful special effects in transforming Jeff Goldblum into a vomiting insect. Horror and pathos. I’ve said it before, the best horror movies bring both together brilliantly. The way Cronenberg directed Jeff Goldblum’s transformation was like someone suffering from a terminal disease and mourning the loss of his relationship with Geena Davis. Sad, powerful stuff.

The thing from The Thing. This scene alone:

Man, I miss old school special effects.

Evil Dead‘s Naturon Demonto (Sumerian Book of the Dead) demons, most notably possessed tree. You can’t beat Sam Raimi for campy, no holds bared horror blood fest, but mostly I love how over the top his demon possessed people act.

David Naughton’s American werewolf from American Werewolf in London. My one exception to the werewolf exception. One of the best or just flat out the best transformations in movie special effects history.

The velociraptors from Jurassic Park. Spielberg made a great decision in featuring these guys in addition to the T Rex. The T Rex is a big brute, but the velociraptors are smart, pack hunters. Best quote from Robert Muldoon, Game Warden: “They show extraordinary intelligence, even problem-solving intelligence. Especially the big one. We bred eight originally, but when she came in she took over the pride and killed all but two of the others. That one… when she looks at you, you can see she’s working things out.”

October update and Halloween short

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October in Phoenix means I can once again enjoy the outside. It’s only 80+ after all 🙂 But the evenings and mornings are glorious, and we put up our Halloween decorations! It’s the only holiday in which I decorate the house. There’s just something about hanging skeletons from the roof that appeals to me and I’m not going to explore that thought any further. One of the many lovely advantages of having a five year old is enjoying the holiday through him. I get to trick or treat again!! And this year we’re doing the zombie walk!photo-5

Lots of things going on this month. I’m  participating in a Fall into Fantasy giveaway (click here to go to Rafflecopter) and releasing my short story, titled The Werewolf’s Devotion,  about my werewolf character, Brandon, from the Necromancer’s Seduction. And I heard from ImaJinn that they plan on continuing on with the contracted books after the passing of Linda Kichline. We will become an imprint of Bell Books/Belle Bridge Books. I’m excited about joining Belle Bridge. So it looks good for a March 2014 release for book two in the Necromancer Series. It has to be pretty intense for Linda’s family after her death, and I greatly appreciate the care they’ve taken with the ImaJinn authors.

So I promised a Halloween short!! Ruby and Adam take a stroll through a cemetery. What can go wrong when a necromancer and a revenant visit the dead? Enjoy!

I should have known beforehand to walk away when a revenant asked if I wanted to take a “little stroll” through a cemetery on Halloween night.

On the positive side, I did learn something new about Adam, my revenant, but would have really preferred to have read it in a manual. Hands on learning is over-rated.

Halloween is my favorite holiday, yet it tests my evasion of the supernatural world. The supernatural community goes all out on the one night when strange happenings are tolerated by the general public. Cora, my grandmother, had always attended some killer party held by the witches, and constantly pestered me to accompany her. I almost surrendered to her indomitable will a couple of times, then remembered my mother’s death, chilling my enthusiasm.

We arrived at the cemetery, situated next to a church in the fashion of cozy European village cemeteries. Many of the dead rested in old tombs and masoleums, nestled among lush shrubs and shrouded by trees. We climbed the brick wall and dropped to the thick grass next to a stone angel, her white marble stained green by algae. The nearly full moon served only to lengthen the shadows cast by the trees and graves.dreamstime_xs_11736769

“Somehow, this just doesn’t feel as foreboding as when I was alive,” Adam said. “Why don’t you raise some zombies?” Continue reading →

Honoring the Dead

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It’s Halloween. My favorite time of the year. The weather is finally cooling down, which in Phoenix means it’s only in the 90s instead of the 100s. My son is super psyched about his Optimus Prime Transformers costume and I’m trying to decide if I should dress as a pirate zombie, perfectly combining my two writing projects.

But let’s talk about the dead. Of course, and especially if you live in the Southwest, Day of the Dead is a familiar tradition, a Mexican Holiday going back hundreds of years to an Aztec Festival dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl. Here are more:

In China on April 4 is Tomb Sweeping Day or the Qingming Festival. Families honor their ancestors by visiting their tombs and leaving offerings of food. People also burn paper replicas of items that can be used in the afterlife, such as clothing, money, and cars. And now, it was inevitable, people are burning paper replicas of iPads. A must have in the afterlife.

Near and dear to my necromancer’s heart in my second book is the tradition in Haiti: voodoo traditions are mixed with Roman Catholic ones to honor the dead. People play loud drums and music in all-night celebrations at cemeteries to waken Baron Samedi, the Loa of the dead, and his mischievous offspring, the Gede.

So have a safe and fun Halloween and remember beloved friends and family who have passed. And from the blog ancentralmedecine. org, some ways to honor your ancestors, the best being fulfill your soul’s purpose as an ethical and loving person.