Macabre Amusements
7 Vintage Horror Anthology Series You Totally Need to Binge-Watch
by Maledicta | Oct 22, 2018 | Categories: Macabre Amusements and Video. Tags: anthology, Black Mirror, hammer house of horror, karloff, Netflix, one step beyond, tales of the unexpected, and thriller. | 0 Comments
Netflix scored a major win in recent years with its sci-fi/horror anthology series, Black Mirror. One of the reasons Black Mirror has been so embraced by viewers (beyond the fantastic writing and heartbreaking performances) is the very structure of the series:...
Horror Lite – 11 Not-as-Scary Movies for the Faint of Heart
by Maledicta | Oct 14, 2018 | Categories: Macabre Amusements, Maledicta's Movie Corner, and Video. Tags: beetlejuice, hocus pocus, horror film, horror movies, paranorman, shaun of the dead, wicker man, and zombieland. | 1 Comment
Halloween is the perfect time for chills and frights, with many, many suggestions for horror movies to watch. But what if you’re kind of a wuss who absolutely cannot stand scary movies but still wants to get into the Halloween spirit? Sometimes, as they say,...
High-Stakes Halloween Games That Can Tell Your Future… or Kill You!
by Maledicta | Oct 14, 2018 | Categories: Halloween 365 and Macabre Amusements. Tags: apples, cabbage, halloween games, and snap apple. | 1 Comment
These traditional Halloween Night games used fruits and vegetables to tell you who you will marry and when you will die… and sometimes even set you on fire! All Hallows’ Eve is a time when the veil between the world of the living and dead is thinner than...
The Horror Oscars: The Best Scary Movies of the Last 40 Years
by Maledicta | Oct 7, 2018 | Categories: Macabre Amusements, Maledicta's Movie Corner, and Video. Tags: alien, black swan, blair witch, Get Out, Halloween, horror films, scream, shining, silence of the lambs, sixth sense, and They live. | 1 Comment
Here is the number of Oscars that were awarded to Alfred Hitchcock for Best Director: zero. Here is the number for John Carpenter: zero. Wes Craven: zero. James Whale: zero. David Cronenberg: zero. You get the point. In the Academy Awards’ 90-year history,...
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...