Episode 4: The Circleville Letter Writer Scares Us!

Curious about Circleville, Ohio?  Who isn't!  A fascinating place, obviously - listen to Episode 4 by clicking here and learn all about the poison pen wielding madmen and/or madwomen who terrorized a small midwestern town ... and may have led to murder! 

They like pumpkins too.  You'll see.

 Welcome to Circleville.

Home of the Pumpkin Show.

And the spooky Octagon House, which has seen better days.

They care about their pumpkins, and here's the thing -- I get it.  I do.  I lived in Southern Illinois for three years, where there were apple fests and vulture fests and mosquito fests ... so many fests. 

...excuse me.  SHOWS.

Fan Art!

This Place Scares Us fan art, by anonymous!

Episode 7: House of Dark Shadows Scares Us!

 Are you as confused as Katya was by the not-so-exposition-heavy tale of House of Dark Shadows?  Then please ... allow the February 1971 issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland clear things up!  (And if you haven't listened yet, worry not! Click here and you'll be delivered into the waiting arms of Barnabas Collins!

 

Episode Seven: House of Dark Shadows Scares Us!

So if, like Katya, you are unfamiliar with the Brigadoon-esqueness that is Dark Shadows (it'll suck ya in, har har), please allow this post to guide you, visually speaking, through some of the references that we make.  Also, please remember that I am a giant nerd.

Ben Cross from the 1991 revival series.  I thought he was kinda hot when I was 12.

Who are these people?  This is how the movie starts.  One of them in named Daphne; will you be able to figure out which one?

This is Laura Collins, the phoenix, who marries a Collins, has his offspring, then tries to burn them up in a fire that also consumes her.  Since she inevitably fails, she eventually marries her own descendants.  As one does.  Does she look at all like a bird?  Maybe a little around the nostrils.

Dr. Sideburns.

This is exactly what it looks like.  Driving a stake into the chest of a young female vampire.

The "old Barnabas" makeup on the series ...

... and in the film, courtesy of the late Dick Smith.  Check out Maggie's bite wound, by the by.

Dr. Julia Hoffman, baller, M.D.

The infamous bat.  With the stick in the upper right hand corner.  Hey, you try to churn out a live daily soap opera with no budget, beaucoup de special effects, and actors who can't remember their lines.

My husband and I at the 50th anniversary celebration at Lyndhurst in Tarrytown, where they filmed House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows.  That expression on his face is a hundred percent genuine.

Episode One: It Follows ... the Tall Man

I feel like he shouldn't be so scary ... but he is!  The tall man from It Follows, looming behind our beloved Yara. The first time I watched IF, I thought he had no eyes at all.

Check out our debut episode by clicking here.

Episode 3: Israel Keyes Scares Us

Curious about the face of true evil?  Here's an infographic I discovered from the New York Post (click here for the article) that outlines the career of serial killer Israel Keyes, whom Katya and I discussed on episode 3.  Still super wigged out about the concept of a "kill kit."

Recorded Tonight...

Katya and I had a blast recording tonight's episode, which won't be available for a bit ... in the meantime, here's a taste ...

Coming Soon ...

Episode 5: Cycle of the Werewolf Scares Us

Katya loves loves loves to make fun of Silver Bullet, the movie based on Stephen King's novelette (lovable little word, that) Cycle of the Werewolf which we discussed in Episode 5 (click here to listen), but I love it. It reminds me very strongly of my childhood; also, the little towns of Burgaw and Wilmington, North Carolina, where it was shot are very much like the tiny Eastern Montana town where I grew up in the 1980s.

Okay, so the werewolf looks like a bear.  Or sometimes kinda rubbery.  But I love him, darn it!  (Stephen King referred to him as "ol' shaggy" in the copy of CotW he signed for me when I was 8; be jealous, be very, very jealous.)  And no lying, this movie terrified the piss out of me when I was a kid; the scene where the werewolf rips poor Stella Randolph to shreds sent me out of the room every time, for years.

At any rate, I've read several reviews that describe it as an 80s "classic," so I suppose it's earning its keep; as America continues to enjoy 80s nostalgia in the form of shows like Stranger Things and a kind of Stephen King renaissance (check out Gerald's Game on Netflix, once thought to be un-filmable), perhaps more of you kitty-cats will come to appreciate the lovableness of ol' shaggy and the rest of the company of Tarker's Mills, Maine (though it sounds an awful lot like Tarker's Mills, North Carolina).

Here are a few Silver Bullet images I scoured from the internet. Enjoy.

The first edition, from Land of Enchantment Press.  Boy, I'd love to get my paws on one of those.  (Plus that picture, THAT PICTURE ...)

British edition.

Run, Megan Fellowes, run!

Laser disc!

Stick with playing Buddy Holly, Gary Busey.  You're safer that way.

Ack!  Werewolf baby!

I think that werewolf on the cover sprang fully formed from The Howling.

Poor Stella.

   And here I am with the signed copy of Silver Bullet and Cycle of the Werewolf Stephen King sent to me one winter day in 1987.