Macabre Amusements
Night of the Living Dead: The 50th Anniversary!
by Maledicta | Oct 1, 2018 | Categories: Macabre Amusements, Maledicta's Movie Corner, and Video. Tags: cemetery, Duane Jones, Fulton, George Romero, Haunted Pittsburgh, Judith O'Dea, Night of the Living Dead, Pittsburgh, and zombies. | 0 Comments
It’s a shame that George Romero didn’t make it to see the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Night of the Living Dead. Though he made many more films in his long career, NOTLD will always be his magnum opus. Because of its iconic status, I chose NOTLD as the...
Happy Birthday, Stephen King!
by Maledicta | Sep 16, 2018 | Categories: Books, Interesting People, and Macabre Amusements. Tags: Carrie, interview, On Writing, Rolling Stone, Salems Lot, Stephen King, and The Shining. | 0 Comments
Without a doubt, Stephen King has to be the most successful horror author of all time. He has 70 books to his credit as well as at least 75 movies and TV shows that have been adapted from his work. It’s safe to say that with over 300 million books...
Gateway to Horror – 10 Movies You Can Watch with Your (Older) Kids This Halloween
by Maledicta | Sep 9, 2018 | Categories: Maledicta's Movie Corner and Video. Tags: arachnophobia, critters, horror film, invaders from mars, monster squad, sixth sense, something wicked this way comes, and the hole. | 0 Comments
Halloween is fast approaching, which means now is the perfect time to start building your Halloween watch lists. It’s also the time of year in which everyone binges on horror, even those who don’t pay much attention to the genre the rest of the year. This...
Tea Time with the Dead: The Victorian Tradition of Cemetery Picnics
by Maledicta | Sep 9, 2018 | Categories: Macabre Amusements and Oddities and Curiosities. Tags: cemetery, garden cemetery, picnic, rural cemetery, and victorian. | 1 Comment
Within the wrought-iron and stone walls of American cemeteries—beneath the shade of oak trees and tombs’ stoic penumbras—you could say many people “rest in peace.” However, not so long ago, people of the still-breathing sort also gathered there to rest – and...
Book Review: Anno Dracula
by Maledicta | Aug 27, 2018 | Categories: Books and Macabre Amusements. Tags: Anno Dracula, detective, Diogenes Club, Dracula, Kim Hunter, Steampunk, vampires, victorian, and Vlad Tepes. | 0 Comments
People love to wonder “What If…” What if the South had won the Civil War? What if Hitler had beaten the Allies in World War II? What if Napoleon had a B-52 at the Battle of Waterloo or if Eleanor Roosevelt could fly? (Okay, I borrowed the last two from...
Scream and Scream Again: The Story Behind the “Wilhelm Scream”
by Maledicta | Aug 27, 2018 | Categories: Macabre Amusements and Oddities and Curiosities. Tags: Foley, Sheb Wooley, star wars, and Wilhelm scream. | 1 Comment
Click here to hear the original Wilhelm Scream! The Wilhelm Scream is arguably the most famous sound effect in the history of cinema. As of the beginning of 2018, the scream has appeared in as many as 372 films and numerous TV shows. Some of the popular...
The 15 Best Urban-Legend Horror Movies
by Maledicta | Aug 20, 2018 | Categories: Macabre Amusements, Maledicta's Movie Corner, and Video. Tags: candyman, horror film, ringu, slender man, the grudge, the ring, and urban legend. | 0 Comments
As ranked by Vulture.com This month, Slender Man opened in theaters after a long and winding road to the box office (including multiple release-date changes and a mostly absent marketing campaign). The central story is based on the internet lore...
Zdzislaw Beksinski – Painter of Nightmares
by Maledicta | Aug 5, 2018 | Categories: Art, Macabre Amusements, and Oddities and Curiosities. Tags: poland, Sanok, and Zdzislaw Beksinski. | 1 Comment
Step into the surrealistic dystopian world of Polish artist Zdzislaw Beksinski (1929-2005) The dark and powerful paintings of Zdzislaw Beksinski have been described as hellscapes or living nightmares – terrifying, surreal, grotesque, and apocalyptic. His work...
Stryx – Italian TV’s Satanic Disco Variety Hour
by Maledicta | Aug 5, 2018 | Categories: Macabre Amusements, Oddities and Curiosities, and Video. Tags: Amanda Lear, devil, disco, Enzo Trapani, Grace Jones, Italy, satanism, Stryx, and TV. | 0 Comments
For a short time in 1978, Italian TV viewers could enjoy a musical/variety show with Grace Jones, medieval satanic imagery, and even a cameo from the Devil himself. Picture, if you will: A lithe blonde woman climbs onto a translucent, elevated platform, wearing...
The Weird World of the Halloween Sound-Effects Artist
by Maledicta | Jul 15, 2018 | Categories: Halloween 365 and Macabre Amusements. Tags: Disneyland Records, Halloween, haunted house, Leigh Haggerwood, party, and sound effects. | 1 Comment
A chain rattles, and the wind blows. A skeleton’s bones clatter, and a woman shrieks. A wolf growls, and a ghost whispers in the darkness. Halloween, amirite? The Halloween sound effects album is a staple of the holiday, almost as inextricably linked to it as...