return to the blogue (Moment of Horror #7)

Greetings and condolences once again fellow travelers. It has been quite some time since I left the banks of the mighty Styx to put my mark with the forces of good. I am pleased to say that I will now have the ability to frequent these parts again in a more timely fashion and thus will be able to resume my role as guide here on the banks of these murky waters. It was very much troubling and regrettable that my duties kept me away during the most treasured of seasons and the celebrations of all hallows eve, the day of the dead and the day of the innocents as well. I do wish I had something substantial for my first post returning from hiatus. In fact I do have a significant offering that has been partially assembled since prior to my departure, but alas it remains still incomplete and on a computer many, many miles from where I currently reside.

Instead I will post a much more meager feature regular to the Blogue...

Moment of Horror #7
King Kong vs. Tyrannosaurus Rex

This scene has to count as one of the most influential scenes in cinema history. nothing is more empowering than giant monsters fighting, and the legendary King Kong going head to head with arguably the greatest beast this world has ever known (well it was certainly true in 1933 at the time of the film's release)the tyrant lizard king, Tyrannosaurus Rex. OK so some will point out that the dinosaur in question actually has three fingers and must be an Allosaurus, but to every young boy in the audience to this day will tell you otherwise.



King Kong certainly is one of the great hallmarks of science fiction and special effects on film. Selecting my moment of horror from such amazing images and scenes such as Kong atop the Empire state Building swatting at biplanes, or gently holding a terrified and under-dressed Fay Wray in a tropical jungle was not so easy, but I truly believe the visceral and imaginative impact that this scene has forever burned into the minds of generations of young boys makes this scene Moment of horror #7.

Moment of Horror #6

Stephen King's Carrie
In 1973 the Horror landscape changed forever. Unknown author Stephen King would publish his first novel, entitled Carrie. Undoubtedly the success of the novel had a fair amount to do with the story's subject matter finding an immediate and hungry audience. Carrie, a teen aged girl, living under the thumb of her "unbalanced" and oppressive mother; ridiculed and ostracized by her peers develops telekinetic powers and uses them to exact revenge. OK I admit being a guy, and one who grew up as the younger sibling, and was intelligent enough to let my older sister challenge parental authority, and make all the stupid teenage decisions to which I could observe and myself avoid later in life, the book had no appeal. But to the millions of girls just like my sister King was writing about their lives, or more accurately, their lives as they perceived them. His writing style was new and explicit and tackled subtexts that would clearly have been taboo anywhere else. In the beginning of the book he addresses Carries discomfort with her adolescent body and the changes it is undergoing, and then goes over the edge with people stoning here in a communal shower with tampons and "sanitary napkins". The book was so evocative, that it was widely banned from numerous schools, and not just library collections, but students could face out right confiscation in many cases. Only three years after it's initial publishing the book was made into a major motion picture, again with great success, which produced one of the Horror genre's most iconic film images, Carrie standing on stage dripping with blood.



While this image, this film and more so this book are all worthy of being included in horrors greatest moments, really the most important aspect is the emergence of Stephen King the novelist. So synonymous with horror fiction today that it could be argued his name rivals the likes of Edgar Allen Poe.

Gary Macabre

Moment of Horror #5

While there are many great moment's in horror and this segment is not intended as a top 10 list, or to represent rankings in anyway whatsoever, I felt I couldn't go another installment without including what is quite possibly one of the greatest scenes in the history of film, horror or otherwise:

The shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.

In an era where colour was the proud domain of the cinema and the mundane black and white pictures were relegated to the pedestrian invention the television, Hitchcock took his television crew and the stock of black and white film and shot what I believe is the penultimate Horror/Thriller of all time. The audacity to brutally slay your leading lady not even midway through the film would surely be enough to make a mark on cinema history, but it was the details in how Alfred Hitchcock, the master that he was, chose to do this which shook the cinema going world. With powerful imagery, intense emotional acting and skillful edits, the master didn't show the audience one tenth of what every cinema goer saw. The implied nudity, graphic violence and brutality that never existed on screen, just in the viewer's minds, provoked the censors to give the film an X rating until they were petitioned to further review it. The psychological and emotional effects on the audiences of the time were unheard of and widespread. Alfred Hitchcock with a great actress, a sound idea and a can of chocolate syrup managed what grindhouse bloodfests, slasher flicks and modern torture porn aspire to achieve and seldom accomplish.

I will never do a Post Mortem on this scene for the sure futility it would be.

Gary Macabre

Moment of Horror #4

Again from the silent dawn of Horror Cinema, another great moment. From one of my all time favourite films, the 1925 version of Phantom of the Opera, the unmasking of Eric. The mysterious figure first shown to the audience in shadow, and later as a masked phantom is finally revealed to not only Christine, but is filmed specifically that the impact of his grotesque features are right out front for the theatre audience's shock and horror.

Moment of Horror #3

Friday the 13th Part 3

Although none of the Friday the 13th films rank my top 10 horror films of all times, one would be remiss to not acknowledge their roll in the evolution of the Horror genre. As much as I prefer the Halloween series I must concede that the image of Jason as we have come to know him with the hockey mask which he acquired in part 3 is likely as well known in today's culture as earlier horror icons Universal's Frankenstein Monster and Dracula. So a tip of the tweed to the horror naysayers that figure I don't appreciate horror films that come in colour.

War of the Worlds 70th Anniversary

Moment of Horror #3
Today marks the 70th anniversary of what was unquestionably the most successful Halloween prank of all times. Originally aired October 30, 1938, the Mercury Theatre On the Air with Orson Wells adaptation of H.G. Wells' novel War of the Worlds (radio script by Howard Koch) presented the story in a unique and realistic contemporary news report format which sent thousands of people into panic. Naturally by the time they get half way through the story, the Earth is in shambles and the play becomes a first person narrative, but by this time much of the audience had already left their radios and were running about the streets. Well we know it caused a great degree of fear and public concern at any rate, but there are questions about the accuracy of the news paper articles that claimed wide spread panic. Broadcast nationally on the CBS radio network it potentially reached millions of listeners drawing the greatest reactions in New York and New Jersey.





























So please won't you share with me one of my personal and favourite Halloween traditions in listening to The War of the Worlds

G. Macabre

Moment of Horror #2

Arguably the most iconic and most memorable (or at least best quoted/ripped off) scenes in Horror Movie history has to be the Creation of the Frankenstein Monster. Colin Clive's maniacal rant "It's alive, IT'S ALIVE, IT'S ALIVE!!!" is almost as well known as the monster's flat head and neck "bolts". The Strickfadden equipment, the hunchbacked assistant Fritz and the good doctor at his finest set the stage for every mad scientist cliche to ever follow. Truly a moment of horror at it's finest.

Moment of Horror #1

A new feature to the Blogue is what I am going to call a Moment of Horror. These will be bits, scenes, lines, images, etc. that I feel have a significant or note worthy place in the horror genre.

Although I do not intend this feature to be a ranking system or in any chronological order, what better place to start than with one of the most impact full scenes from the earliest years of Horror on the silver screen.

Count Orloc rises from the Coffin



















An iconic film with a myriad of compelling and powerful images, this particular scene holds a special place in Horror history. Although we have already been introduced to the Count, have seen him in his coffin and have even been menaced by him before; here with his un-natural levitation from the box the point truly hits home about his nature and supernatural power. A more powerful scene of a vampire rising from his slumber has yet to be put on film.