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How I found Horror….for women in horror month

A short introduction of how I found Horror

I was 8 years old, it was a sunny afternoon. I was walking home from school with some friends when my Mum and Dad shouted me over from their car, they were going to visit my Grandma and they had missed me walking out of the school. I started to cross the busy road, when I misheard my friends’ older sister say, “go now”. I started to cross and was inadvertently hit by a car, I bounced across the bonnet and into the windscreen, hitting the road with a bang. My school satchel went one way and one of my shoes went another. The road was silent, my little brother was screaming in the back of the car and my Mum and Dad looked on in obvious horror, I stood up off the floor and limped over to my Mum and Dad in shock. My poor friend at the other side of the road had thought I was dead! The lady driver was screaming, and my Mum had to calm her down!! I got into the car and then decided I couldn’t move my legs, my Dad drove us to the hospital where I was checked over, they said I was lucky and didn’t have anything other than a huge bruise across my hips and legs, and arms where my tiny 8 year old body had impacted with the car and then the road.

That night every time I closed my eyes I saw a car driving towards me and I would sit up panicking. It was around the late 80s when this happened, so I don’t really think they treated PTSD very well back then! I went downstairs to be comforted by my parents, I sat on my Dads knee and cried. I know you are thinking “what has this got to do with Horror?” but this day was the first time I was introduced to Freddy Krueger.

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, Robert Englund, 1984, (c) New Line/courtesy Everett Collection

 

Let me explain! My parents had friends round, and they happened to be watching Nightmare on Elm Street on video, because I had appeared in the room so upset, the film was still playing. I remember as I was sat cuddled up on my Dads knee, calming down and wiping my tears away, I sneakily began watching it, and I wasn’t scared, I was intrigued. I think once my Dad realised I was starting to notice what was on TV he said ‘this film isn’t for your eyes Sarah’ and I responded with “its ok, I’m not scared I quite like it!” obviously the grown ups laughed, and I was taken back to bed

 

By age 10, along with my best friend Antony I was watching every horror film I could get my hands on, back in the day of video stores, we used to beg our parents to let us pick a scary film to watch, as long as they weren’t ‘rude’ they agreed (probably just to shut us up) and gradually we began to watch all the classics; Hellraiser, Poltergeist, more Nightmare on Elm Street, Amityville, Pet Semetary…to name but a few!!! Then one day, a man we referred to simply as ‘The Video Man’ who used to drive around with a van full of videos, park up and charge for rental, and come back the following week to swap around, appeared with a ‘banned’ film. It was called ‘Evil Dead’

My friends Grandma happened to be babysitting that night, so we set the video up, fizzing with excitement and apprehension about what we were about to watch, back in the late 80s – early 90s two kids wouldn’t have seen any trailers about films like this, and we certainly didn’t have google. So we literally were going in blindly, not even knowing what the film was about.

Antony’s grandma sat there obliviously knitting by lamplight whilst we got our pop and crisps out, and switched off the ‘big’ light, got cuddled up in front of the TV set and pressed play. It was amazing. It was the scariest most horrifying thing we had ever seen, several times we screamed and covered our eyes, and as things escalated I remember we submitted and shouted to Grandma to ‘turn it off turn it off!!’ she did and eyes wide we discussed how good it was but far too scary to watch the rest. I think I had nightmares that night. We would only completely watch the rest of Evil Dead when we were 16.

So Horror was my life now, whether it was sitting religiously every week, watching the latest horror-based TV programme, or reading the latest horror fiction, researching true ghost stories, or watching the latest Horror film as soon as it came out. Horror was my true love and it would never go away.

 

30 Years later I am still obsessed, a couple of years ago I suffered with my own mental health, and had to take time off work. I eventually went to see a counsellor, and one session covered how I should take time out for myself, and do something I love. I told her, felling a little embarrassed, that I loved nothing more than to watch a good horror (or a bad horror – I would still give it a try) I kind of expected her to say ‘oh no, that’s the last thing you want to do – you need to start meditating or going for a run’ but she didn’t, and to my surprise she responded with ‘Horror is a great outlet for you, if its something you love and enjoy then it cannot be doing you any harm, keep doing it’

So I did. I regularly get told by my Mum that I should watch something, fluffy and nice, something about love, or romance or a feel-good film. (please note I do love thrillers, comedies and other genres too) but I tell her, NOTHING beats a Horror film, nothing beats a scare or the goosebumps on your skin when you watch a film that scares the hell out of you.

It was other people who commented that I should review the Horror that I watch (because I watch so many) and share it on social media, which is how ‘Little Psycho’ was born. A way I could briefly give my opinion to whoever may be reading, about horror/thrillers that I got to see. I have always dreamt of writing and I have thought about many ideas for a good book over the years, covering a range of topics. However, as the saying goes….’write what you know’ and one thing I certainly know….is what scares me!! Maybe one day that horror novel/story will come to me and I will be able to share it with the world, maybe not. However nothing, and nobody will quell my passion for the genre. I am a proud woman of horror, and even when I am 100 I will still be loading up whatever device may exist, with the latest Horror film, popcorn in hand, scaring myself silly.

 

 

 

 

Sarah

@Illberightbackk

Little Psycho

 

Categories
Book Reviews Reviews

The Mortecarni: Book Review

Stories about ravenous undead are a dime a dozen, and they all have pretty much the same core plot: A virus/disease/catastrophe unleashes mindless, flesh-eating revenants, and the humans who remain fight to stay alive. Every zombie book I’ve read is set in the present day and describes a post-apocalyptic world. It’s popular because it’s familiar and readers know what to expect. For prolific readers like me, the repetition gets old. When authors shake things up and deviate from the norm, it gets my attention.

The Mortecarni by Kelly Evans is a unique take on the undead, set in an actual apocalypse—the Black Death—that killed 30-90% of the population of Eurasia. I received a reading copy with no cover, no blurb, and no idea what I was getting into, so I was completely surprised by it.

The prologue is vague but tantalizing. Why were a group of soldiers and archaeologists tearing apart a monk’s grave? One scientist mentions that the monk was a physician, and the book they find in his tomb is a triumphant discovery. To my surprise, the next chapter plunged me into medieval Wales, circa 1347 and my question from the prologue is answered in the first sentence:

“My name is Brother Maurice and I hunt the mortecarni, pathetic creatures unnaturally risen from death to pray upon the innocent.”

My interest was immediately piqued. I have enough knowledge of Latinate languages to know “dead flesh” when I see it, but…a Monk? In 1348? Hunting zombies? Part of me was thrilled, the other part cringing. Would the author do right by Medieval history or was this going to be full of “olde tyme” myths that are endemic in modern media?

The third son of a wealthy merchant, Maurice is taught to read by his mother and learns rudimentary healing from farmers and “wise women”. Since he has two older brothers to carry on the family business, he’s sent to a monastery for further education. His talent in the healing arts convinces the Brothers to send him to study at Salerno’s Schola Medica Salernitana to become a physician. There, he befriends Falayh, an Arab raised in Spain as a Christian.

Brother Maurice’s holy duty takes him across Europe to teach the skills in healing to his monastic brothers so they might heal the sick in body and spirit. At one stop, he encounters an illness never seen before: an infection of rotting flesh that robs the afflicted of their senses and drives them to attack others. The infection spreads, and the only cure he can find is death. The monastery is ravaged, and when word reaches Pope Clement in Avignon, Maurice is sworn to secrecy and sent on a mission to end the mortecarni—by the sword or by a cure—and it endangers both his life and his faith.

I was riveted and read the book in two sittings. It’s like the author took historical fiction, mystery, coming-of-age, and zompoc, and combined them all like an alchemist to make something new and different. Brother Maurice’s conflict over faith and duty is heart-wrenching. And oh, what he must do. Evans assails us with horror that doesn’t turn away from the blood, madness and rotting flesh that this kind of story calls for. It’s definitely not for the squeamish. Even day-to-day “medicine” was a horror with leeches, bleedings, and the worst: draining the buboes of plague victims to save their lives. Evans does her research, and you can get a taste of it on her Twitter page. Her feed is full of links to medieval arts, sciences, and history, and she also writes historical fiction in addition to horror.

Evans did an excellent job showing this historical period, and at the same time acknowledging the realities of the age, like literal witch hunts and the erasure of women, extreme measures taken to stop the bubonic plague, and the indifference of otherwise “holy” men.

One thing I loved was that this book can easily stand alone, although the author’s site shows a sequel in the works. The story wraps up in the modern age, where the answer to the mystery Brother Maurice pursued is rediscovered. We don’t need to know who these modern-day people are; we’ve seen their struggle play out in the 14th century and know what they’re up against. The words of a humble monk will once again have meaning, his work and soul redeemed.

It’s good stuff, so if you’re looking for a completely different take on the zombie genre, this is the book for you. Kelly Evans is an author to watch!

Categories
Archives Renfield's Resurrection

Top 10 Women in Horror

So to celebrate Women in Horror week here is my Top 10 picks. Most of these women still have restraining orders on me!

10. Calico Cooper – Daughter of Alice Cooper. Without a feature film under her belt as of yet, she has done some modeling, replaced her mother on stage as Nurse Rosetta in her father’s show, and had a major part in Wednesday 13’s video “Get Your Grave On”. She never returned any of my phone calls, texts, or emails and I’m sure the cop she sent with the restraining order to my house was only a joke. “Call me, Cali!” (Waiving phone sign in the air).

9. Shawnee Smith – As Amanda Young in the Saw series. (She also played Julie in The Stand made for television movie based on the Stephen King novel). As everyone’s favorite heroin addict, Amanda was the only person (other than Jigsaw himself) to be featured in every Saw film. Smith pulls off this vital character to the story and in turn makes us empathize for Jigsaw alongside of her. Whether she was trapped in a reverse facial bear trap, or administering glucocorticoid steroids to Jigsaw, Shawnee/Amanda won our blackened goth hearts.

8. Danielle Harris – The queen of the new generation of scream queens. Starting off young in Halloween 4, and 5 and then again as an adult in Rob Zombie’s remake, this kitten has claws. She has battled Michael Myers, Victor Crowley, vampires, and urban legends. This chick actually looks hotter with the more blood you splash on her! Bedroom eyes, sassy smile, sweet, petite, and tattooed.  Me-freaking-ow!

7. Ingrid Pitt – Made famous by her many vampire Hammer Horror films. This buxom polish actress inspired legions of women to “vamp” up their styles in their roles of sexy vampires. Before her death she was the featured voice of Countess Bathory on Cradle Of Filth’s album “Cruelty and the Beast”.

6. Vampira (Maila Nurmi) – Inspired by the comic strip version of Morticia Addams, this Broadway dancer inspired other horror themed television hostesses with her gorgeous gothic looks. She enjoyed a successful career in B Horror films, but later left the industry. The beautiful scar that she placed on our memory never left us though.

5. Jamie Lee Curtis – The original scream queen. Horror has been in her blood ever since her mother Janet Leigh was murdered in the Psycho shower scene. (Leigh later returned to join Jamie onscreen during the filming of “The Fog”). Yeah, she does Activia commercials today, but she has the right to advertise anything she wants today.

4. Morticia Addams (Carolyn Jones) – The character was originally from a comic strip by Charles Addams. Carolyn Jones breathed new life into the tall, thin, matriarch of the family. Phased by very little, but obviously had something to hide behind locked doors with the way Gomez would jump at any chance to kiss her neck and hands. The Tease always pushed him away; maybe it was her way of saying “Later if you’re a good boy.”

3. Lily Munster (Yvonne De Carlo) – My heart is thumping as I write this! Okay, let me take a breath. Many monster boys tuned in wishing their mother looked like the temptress with a white strip in her hair and vampire bat necklace. (I bought Mrs. Rasputin a replica of it…You know…just to wear when…uh…yeah). Watch an old episode and look at the way she glides when she walked. Elegance really is poetry in motion. “Oh baby Lily Munster, ain’t got nothing on you!” – Black No. 1, Type O Negative

2. Elvira (Cassandra Peterson) – Ok, so she had sex with Elvis, and she totally ripped off Vampira (which later resulted in a lawsuit between the two). But she is witchy, quirky, curvy, and loaded with quick witted horror/sexual humor. Now I love, Love, LOVE curves on my dark haired, pale skin beauties, and this one has the Jack O’ Lanterns to line my driveway!  I met her two years ago at a horror convention and got the obligatory picture and autograph. Perspiration started flowing, my eyes popped out, my jaw hit the ground, my tongue rolled across the floor as I panted like a dog at the sight of her.  This was the woman that caused me to go into puberty at the sight of her lying on a couch. She was in her late 50’s but looked better than more than half of the 30 year olds I know. I guess she could sense I was about to have an aneurism when she put her arms around me for a picture and whispered in my ear, “Sweetie, you’re trembling.”  (Be still my dead heart).

1. Mrs. Rasputin – Yeah, that’s right, my wife! She never exactly done anything in horror, (other than me) but she’s into me, and I’m into horror, so therefore by the six degrees of separation, she’s into horror. Did you follow that? Now why exactly does this Italian Jennifer Connelly look alike with massive curves in all the right places, have anything to do with a creep like me is beyond me.  (Actually, I do. It’s my electrifying, rugged, good looks and my charismatic personality. But don’t take my word for it. Ask anyone.) But over our time together I’ve noticed her wardrobe is changing to all black, her hair keeps getting darker, and her clothes have turned over the years from Guess and Express brand to Harley Davidson, and the décor around my house is starting to look more and more gothic. It doesn’t hurt that she looks amazing walking around in my old Danzig t-shirts either. Our first date was to see Freddy Vs. Jason, we were engaged on Halloween, honeymooned at the Bell Witch Cave, and spend each anniversary in a different haunted hotel in New Orleans.  She supports my love for everything in this genre, and that means morgue than words to me.

 

Honorable Mention:

Anne Rice – As an author, I’ve learned more from reading her stuff than any other author of the modern era. Her works include gothic vampires, witch covens, and even romance all based around the city of New Orleans. Her use of detail in her stories is amazing. Try this; pick a location in one of her books. Google that location. It will exist on a map AND be precisely how she described it. In her book The Blood Canticle, she writes “I see you (Lestat) having coffee all the time in the second window of Café  DuMonde.” I heard a rumor that she then paid a Lestat look alike after the book was out to sit in that same window on Halloween to drink coffee while people walked by! I met her once and she told me “If Lestat was real; he would look just like you.”  I also own one of her gowns she wore at her Lestat Ball, a token from the all, a beer (unopened) that was made specifically for the Ball and two of her dolls from her personal collection. No, I’m not a stalker. My shrink calls me an “avid collector”.

Sherri Moon Zombie – Wife of Rob Zombie. Say what you will about Rob’s films and his casting of Sherri in everything he does, but the truth remains that she played one hell of a “crazy as a shit house rat” psychopath in her role of Baby Firefly. Her Go-Go style of modeling on most of his covers and inner art work isn’t bad stuff either.

Categories
2013 Archives Women Of Horror Week

My Favorite Final Girls

In honor of Women of Horror Week, I thought I would put together a list of my top five favorite final girls.  It was a fun list to put together.  It was also nearly impossible to cap the list at five.

With that in mind, I give you Dusty’s Five Favorite Final Girls, With Four Extra.
(It should be said that, due to the nature of this post, there will be spoilers for each one of these.  So, if you haven’t seen the movie in question, just skip to the next one.)

 Nancy Thompson

1. Nancy Thompson [A Nightmare on Elm Street 1 & 3]
(It’s worth noting that Heather Langenkamp – the actress who played Nancy – defeated Freddy in Wes Craven’s New Nightmare)

I wrestled long and hard over who should get the top spot.  In the end, it was Nancy by a very small margin.  She watched her friends die.  She was haunted by the bloody corpse of her best friend.  She was called crazy and locked in her room with barred up windows and forced to watch her boyfriend explode into a geyser of blood.  And still, depressed and sleep-deprived though she was, she was still able to figure out a way to drag a man who haunts dreams into the real world and defeat him (no easy feat, when that man has a glove of knives).

After that, she taught a group of ragtag crazies how to defeat the monster in his own world of dreams (pretty amazing, considering some of the powers these kids brought with them into their dreams were things like, “talking” or “just being kinda strong”).

And then, of course, Heather Langenkamp had to defeat a demon who had taken the form of Freddy in her own life.

Nancy Thompson 2

She fought Freddy Kruger – child-killing, dream-hunting Freddy – three times.  Sure, she only survived twice, but the lessons she taught those kids allowed them to live, and pass those lessons on to others.  Were it not for Nancy, there would be no Alice, and that would be a real shame.

Laurie Strode

2. Laurie Strode [Halloween 1, 2 & H20]
(I’m purposefully leaving out her brief cameo at the beginning of Halloween: Resurrection, because I’m trying desperately to purge that movie from my memory)

A bookish babysitter who endured the deaths of her best friends.  She ran and stabbed and put the safety of the children in her care above herself.  In the end, she defeated the bogeyman.
Well…kind of.
He showed up again and terrorized the hospital she was staying in after the events of the first film.  And she defeated him again.
Well…kind of.
She faked her own death, changed her name, started a family, and became the dean of a prestigious private school.  When Michael finally tracked her (and her son) down, she defeated him again.
(Like I mentioned above, I’m trying to forget about Halloween: Resurrection, so I’m choosing to believe she beheaded the real Michael Myers at the end of H20.)

Laurie is smart, kind, strong, and cares more about the welfare of those around her than herself.  Forget Final Girls: she’s one of the all-time great people in history.

Taylor Gentry 1

3. Taylor Gentry [Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon]
(It’s worth noting that this is one of my favorite horror movies of the last 10 years, and yet I rarely hear it mentioned.  Sad.  If you haven’t seen this, please do so immediately.)

Leslie played a nasty little psychological game with Taylor throughout this film.  In the first hour, he walks her through the steps he will take to kill a house full of teenagers.  Then, in the last half hour, she realizes that he was never scouting the teenagers for a final girl: he was scouting her.  And now she must survive this gauntlet of horror that she knows is coming, yet without a clear plan as to how to defeat him.  And then, if she does survive, she knows that she will have to kill Leslie; who, while still a murderer, is a guy who she has gotten to know pretty well over the past couple days.

None of that is easy.  (You ever try to crush a man’s head with an apple press?  Harder than you might think.)  And yet she pulls it off like a champ.

Ellen Ripley

4. Ellen Ripley [Alien 1-4]

She fought aliens, rogue androids, and corporation stooges, and she won.  She saved the life of a cat and an orphaned, possibly feral child.  She was able to overcome her (completely rational) fear of androids and was able to befriend a couple of them.  She was frozen in time and set hundreds of alien eggs on fire in front of their mother (you know what they say about getting between a mother bear and her cub?  It’s much worse with an alien queen and her eggs).  She even killed her very own alien baby for the sake of her crew. You know what kind of woman can do those things?  The best kind.

Ginny Field

5. Ginny Field [Friday the 13th Part 2]

The first girl to battle the mighty Jason Voorhees and survive.  She donned a death-scented sweater, stared Jason directly in the eyes and convinced him and she was his mother.  It doesn’t work for long, but it works for long enough for her to bury a machete pretty deep into his shoulder.

Since we never see her in another movie, I like to think that she adopted a child, named him Jason, and raised him to be the exact opposite of a vengeful killer.

Bonus Final Girls!

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (Tobe Hooper, 1986)

6. Vanita “Stretch” Brock [The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2]

Do you have any idea how hard it is to kill a member of the Sawyer clan?  Ridiculously hard.  I’m pretty sure the grandfather was 300 years old, and yet he was still trying to hammer-murder whenever he got a chance (sort of).  The only member we see die in the original was known only as “Hitchhiker”, and he was run over by a semi truck.  It’s pretty hard to recreate that scenario.

And yet, Stretch killed Chop Top using nothing but her wits.  And a chainsaw.  And a mountain.  Still, a kill is a kill.  Anyone who taunts a recently dead Sawyer by holding a chainsaw above their head and rocking the Leatherface Two-Step belongs on this list.

B33E1869.CR2

7. Sidney Prescott [Scream 1-4]

Sidney survived Ghostface on four separate occasions (which involved seven different killers).  Sure, she was aided by a set of rules not many victims are afforded, but no one else on this list even came close to besting a series of psycho killers four times throughout the course of their lives.  She also had to deal with a suffocating media that no one else on this list had to endure.  And yet, she just keeps fighting.  If Scream 5 ever happens, I would not bet against Sidney.  At some point, don’t we have to start feeling bad that Ghostface never wins?  (No.  No we do not.)

(Completely unrelated to anything having to do with Sidney, but have you guys listened to that new Ghostface Killah album?  Stunning.)

Lisa Webber 2

8. Lisa Webber [A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge]

She stuck by her pseudo-boyfriend through his disturbing dance moves (I actually think “disturbing dance moves” was the reason Jimmy and BJ Betty broke up), crippling nightmares, chronic flopsweat, snake-tongue, and various homoerotic adventures.  In the end, she saved his life by kissing a horribly burned child-killer as he tried to cut her.  That’s love.  That’s bravery.  And that’s the mark of a true final girl.

Dana

9. Dana [The Cabin in the Woods]

She survived (with the help of her stoner buddy) a zombie redneck murder family, let loose a horde of nightmarish monsters on the corporation that (prematurely) celebrated her demise, got attacked by a werewolf, and still had the presence of mind to make a decision about whether or not the world ends or not.  Whether or not you agree with her decision is irrelevant.  It takes an amazing amount of strength to pull all of that off.

Hope you enjoyed this.  I’d love if you left your own lists in the comments.