31 Days of Halloween - Day 6

When I was a kid we still had a milkman; a Hood delivery man to be precise, who went house to house in his truck delivering milk, ice cream, cottage cheese -- anything that Hood distributed.

Towards the end of the Summer of 1974, our Hood delivery man stopped at my driveway with a present for me. Apparently even our milkman knew of my love of monsters. He handed me a box of a new ice cream treat shaped like the head of the Frankenstein monster. I was really excited by this -- until I ate one. It turns out that as a child I didn't like pistachio ice cream. My parents told me I could never let our milkman know that I didn't like them since he meant well and gave it to me as a gift. I assume my parents ate the rest of them.

No one I know seems to remember these, and there isn't really any information to be found on the internet. While I only received the box of Frightful Frank ice cream heads on a stick, there were three other varieties shown below.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 5 - Movie

In a very loose riff on the Dracula story, Jonathan Harker escapes from Dracula's castle where he is interrogated by Sister Agatha about what happened in the castle, Dracula arrives at the convent to face his greatest nemesis, sets sail for England aboard the Demeter, and find an unexpected welcoming party when he reaches shore, find a new bride and an unexpected finish.

This sounds like the plot of the novel by Bram Stoker, (and some of the movies), but it's really a spoiler free outline of the 2020 BBC miniseries Dracula, which plays very fast and loose with the plot's details. Broken into three parts, episode one is outstanding, especially in the character of Sister Agatha (Dolly Wells) who dominates this series, and the portrayal of Jonathan Harker by John Heffernan. Full of atmosphere, attitude, and rich writing as well as a menacing and charming Dracula (Claes Bang), had the remaining two episodes maintained this degree of quality this series would have been an instant classic. Instead creators Mark Gatiss and Stephen Moffat, who are no strangers to updating and invigorating overly familiar properties, lose their way in the second episode set aboard the Demeter. We learn that Dracula is an exceptional vampire, intelligent, long-lived, and maintaining some of his human qualities, which he does by carefully choosing his victims, looking for those who have some aspect that he needs. Whether its speaking German, or understanding the customs of polite British society, if he drinks someone's blood he absorbs that person, too. This aspect of Dracula has a big payoff in episode three, which takes place in England. Unfortunately this last episode, which really should have been two episodes, is a bit all over the place. Story elements are introduced that go nowhere, and there's a well funded organization that exists solely to deal with Dracula, but he easily slips their grasp, and not by being particularly smarter than them, then just goes about his business without those hunting him really making much effort to stop him.

It's a frustrating series because there is so much good in it and it's ambitions are well intentioned, yet it still fails in the end to deliver the goods. Episode one is absolutely worth watching, especially for Sister Agatha. The second and third episodes are leaps forward in diminishing returns.

This series can be found on Netflix.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 5 - Books

Monster, She Wrote by Lisa Kröger and Melanie R. Anderson. Quirk Books. 2019


This outstanding book, with illustrations by Natalya Balnova is a pretty thorough overview of key women writers of horror and speculative fiction in such a compact volume. Beginning with Mary Cavendish in the 17th century and continuing up through the present, each author is given about four pages donating biographical information, key works, what they've brought to the genre and related recommended works. Kröger and Anderson are also the best cheerleaders you could have. Their descriptions of each work had me constantly stopping to add books into my Amazon shopping cart. If you enjoy horror fiction then this book is indispensable.

A Suggestion of Ghosts edited by J.A. Mains. Black Shuck Books. 2018.

A person's enjoyment of Victorian ghost stories will vary depending on the reader. Tending to lack the  immersive storytelling and scares of modern ghost stories, they may feel quaint to some. These are stories from a time when night meant darkness and the rooms and hallways of a person's home were filled with shadows that could not be pushed back by the illumination of a single candle and anything could be lurking just outside of the light.  Ghosts also tended to have purposes beyond menace, as demonstrated by the wide variety of stories here.  Subtitled "Supernatural Fiction by Women 1854-1900" all of the stories are by female authors, most of whom you will never have heard from. While none of these stories are likely to give you a sleepless night,  for the fan of Victorian ghost stories this book is a welcome addition. Most anthologies of Victorian ghosts stories tend to have a lot of overlap in content, but A Suggestion of Ghosts boasts an almost entire roster of stories never collected before, all culled from magazines and newspapers of the era.







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31 Days of Halloween - Day 5

Picking up where I left off yesterday, here are some more images from The Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, New York. These come from the Jim Henson Exhibition and the general collection.

I'm usually pretty good about taking photos of the info placards, but I may have been museum out at this point as I only have a few. What the above photos from the permanent collection show are various make-up masks and appliances including Chewbacca, Jim Carrey from The Mask, A number of life casts, molds, and appliances by the legendary Dick Smith, a bleeding scalp prosthetic from The Wrestler, A reproduction Bride of Frankenstein wig (I', not sure what for), life cast and sculpts for The Elephant Man, legs from Black Swan, and drawings and models for Silence of the Lambs. 

31 Days of Halloween - Day 4 - Movie

Thirteen years after illusionist, Philip Swann (Kevin J. O'Connor) kills and buries his evil mentor, Nix (Daniel Von Bargen), Nix's cult members set about resurrecting him. Private deceptive and occult investigator, Harry D'Amour (Scott Bakula) is hired by Swann's wife, Dorothea (Famke Janssen ) to investigate the murder of one of Swann's friends,who was also involved in the overthrow of Nix. Soon the cult members catch up with Swann and Dorothea and set about resurrecting Nix, with only D'Amour standing in their way.

Clive Barker's Lord of Illusions (1995), based on his short story, The Last Illusion, which introduced his reoccurring character, Harry D'Amour explores the fine line between stage magic and ceremonial magic and merges the film noir detective story with the horror genre. It's flawed. No doubt budget restrictions kept the story smaller than it probably really needed to be, but overall is an engaging movie with some nice set pieces and some intriguing characters that could have used a bit more fleshing out. Interestingly, the main villain, Nix, even though his relationship with Swann somewhat mirrors the Star Wars Sith Lord and apprentice relationship, ends up being a far less interesting villain than his true apprentice, Butterfield (Barry Del Sherman).

A bit uneven, Lord of Illusions is still worthwhile viewing. The Bluray from Shout! Factory contains both the directors cut and the theatrical cut as well as a slew of extras.









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31 Days of Halloween - Day 4 - Book

The Morbid Anatomy Anthology edited by Joanna Ebenstein and Colin Dickey. The Morbid Anatomy Press. 2014



Built around lectures given at the now defunct Morbid Anatomy Museum, these essays cover topics such as death and morning, les diableries, teratology, wax venuses, the European witch trials, spiritualism, the soap lady, the personification of death in Mexican culture, taxidermied humans, books bound in human skin, anatomy, human zoos, macabre theaters, grave robbing, and other fascinating topics, this beautifully bound and illustrated volume is a must have for anyone with any curiosity regarding any of these subjects. Engrossing and enlightening, I highly recommend this and any books from the Morbid Anatomy Press.

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