Seasonal Treasures
Still Unsolved: New Jack the Ripper DNA Evidence Debunked!
by Maledicta | Apr 7, 2019 | Categories: Halloween 365 and In the News. Tags: Catherine Eddowes, DNA, Jack the Ripper, London, and shawl.
There’s been a lot of buzz in the news lately about using DNA matching to solve cold murder cases. So it definitely made headlines when it was recently announced that the Jack the Ripper case, one of history’s great unsolved mysteries, has been solved once and...
The House on the Rock: America’s Most Insane Roadside Attraction?
by Maledicta | Apr 6, 2019 | Categories: Oddities and Curiosities and Weird Tourism. Tags: Alex Jordan Jr, American Gods, carousel, House on the Rock, Neil Gaiman, and Wisconsin.
Wisconsin is home to many places considered sacred and powerful by the indigenous people. When British author Neil Gaiman came to live in the US, he felt such an affinity for the state that he decided to make his new home in rural Wisconsin. And that was where...
Plan 10 From Outer Space: Phantasm Turns 40!
by Maledicta | Apr 2, 2019 | Categories: Macabre Amusements, Maledicta's Movie Corner, and Video. Tags: coffin, Coscarelli, flying spheres, mortuary, and tall man.
Every one of us can remember certain horror films that stayed with us long after we left the theater. Sometimes a movie just grabs you by the imagination and pops up again in your nightmares when you least expect it. Like when you’re walking on a dark, lonely...
Seven Great Irish Horror Authors to Read on St. Patrick’s Day
by Maledicta | Mar 15, 2019 | Categories: Books and Macabre Amusements. Tags: Bram Stoker, Dracula, ghosts, horror literature, Irish literature, Oscar Wilde, Sheridan LeFanu, and St Patrick's Day.
St. Patrick’s Day celebrations are usually boisterous and cheerful affairs with freely flowing alcohol and merriment. But there’s a darker side to Irish culture, a penchant for the macabre and mysterious. Remember, Halloween itself was brought to us by the...
Beyond the Leprechaun: The Scariest Monsters of Irish Mythology
by Maledicta | Mar 15, 2019 | Categories: Halloween 365. Tags: banshee, fairies, leprechaun, and St Patrick's Day.
In Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day is an actual religious holiday. But many here in the States, St. Patrick’s Day is basically an excuse to dress in green, drink green beer, and maybe an evening of Darby O’Gill and the Little People and chill. There’s...
Beware of Spring-Heeled Jack!
by Maledicta | Mar 11, 2019 | Categories: Halloween 365. Tags: demon, devil, London, Spring-Heeled Jack, and Steampunk.
If you think this is about “The Ripper,” you don’t know Jack… When you think of a scary dude named Jack from Victorian England, “Jack the Ripper” is probably the first one who comes to mind. Of course, the Ripper may have been the most notorious...
Groundhog, Schmoundhog… 16 Winter Horror Movies
by Maledicta | Feb 21, 2019 | Categories: Macabre Amusements, Maledicta's Movie Corner, and Video. Tags: 30 Days of Night, Dead Snow, horror films, Let the Right One In, shining, The Thing, and winter.
Our Pennsylvania homeboy – Punxsutawney Phil, the famous weather prognosticating rodent – made his annual appearance earlier this month. Apparently he didn’t see his shadow, and folklore tells us that means there will be an early spring this year. You wouldn’t...
The Show Must Go On – Haunted Theaters Around the World
by Maledicta | Feb 21, 2019 | Categories: Halloween 365. Tags: haunted theater, iroquois, new amsterdam, oriental, palace theatre, palais garnier, and theatre royal.
Whether they’re in London or Paris, New York or New Zealand, other than mausoleums and drafty old castles, theaters seem to be more prone to paranormal activity than other types of buildings. Considering the level of drama, superstition, and ego...
Rust in Peace: What Happens to Hearses When They Retire?
by Maledicta | Feb 21, 2019 | Categories: Halloween 365. Tags: collector, funeral, hearse, museum, and restoration.
Once upon a time, when you died, your simple pine coffin was carried to the graveyard on a basic no-frills horse-drawn cart. But as the American funeral industry evolved, so did the art of corpse transportation. Changing attitudes toward death in the Victorian...
Book Review – Horrorstör
by Maledicta | Feb 7, 2019 | Categories: Books and Macabre Amusements. Tags: bad place, ghost, Grady Hendrix, haunted house, Horrorstor, IKEA, and penitentiary.
If you think working retail is torture… you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. One of the great tropes of horror literature is the Haunted House, or as Stephen King describes it in Danse Macabre, The Bad Place. The Bad Place can be anywhere that a familiar or benign space...