Today’s spookytacular video is a compilation of what is very probably pareidolias, clever fakes, and de-humanizings of homeless people with untreated mental diseases, but may include some authentic Things What Science Hain’t Grappled With Properly. There’s also some pleasant shudders generated, which is the point.
I hope that you, as I did, took an unpleasant shudder from the examples of commodification of some homeless people for the algorithms of YouTube. That’s not entertainment.
It is often said that there are only {a relatively small whole number} of stories in the world, and that complete originality is not possible.
This comes into horror entertainment with extra force, since there is so often a cycle of fashionable frights (see 1980s Slashers for a fine illustration) that can quickly descend in to tropes and formulae.
The answer to objects based on this observation is this: we take pleasure from the skill of the execution.
Also, as Alasdair Stuart often reminds us in the outros over at Pseudopod, horror is watching something approach.
If you’re roughly my age and Canadian, you probably remember Count Floyd from SCTV. If you don’t, you’re on the internet, you’ll find a video soon enough.
I think I’ve mentioned I’ve been busy at work. Yesterday was ridiculous. Thus, here I am, watching the sun set on Hallowe’en itself, the night promising to bring nothing but wind to our door, setting up what should have been yesterday’s bumper crop of scares.
But I image you’re all sitting at home in semi- or quasi-lockdown, too.
Yesterday’s pen, from beyond the grave!… well… on-deck box: Parker 75 Yesterday’s really spooky ink: Edelstein Olivine
We’re heaving ever closer to the Best Day of The Year, and I feel like I’ve gotten an early present.
You don’t exchange Hallowe’en presents in your family? How very usual.
I’m probably late to the creepy party on this, but I was only yesterday introduced to a non-existent American cable channel with some delightful seasonal programming.
A thing that a lot of writers get stuck inside their heads is “I must keep my ideas secret, lest other writers make off with them!” This even though we all know that there’s only (variable but small number) stories in existence.
Apart from a very few seriously unique notions that need to be sprung on an unsuspecting world, like, “How about zombies, but fast?”, most of us stop worrying about that. We still keep ideas to ourselves, because (a) they’re often a little embarrassing, and (b) blabbing about them before they’ve fully gestated is a good way of killing them.
Others stealing the ideas, though? I’ve seen some big name authors shout WHO CARES?! at that, because no two writers will tell a story in the same way. Case in point:
I will make an exception to the preceding for film adaptations of The Three Musketeers. Unless it’s “In Space” or “set in the Cars universe”, you’re utterly wasting your efforts when the 1973/74 diptych exists.
ps: I haven’t mentioned it here (apart from the automated side-bar reference) but over on the writing site, I’m archiving creepy nanofictions which I emit daily on Twitter.
I’m actually going to do a content warning today. There’s a touch of domestic violence in today’s film, which the extreme stylization of the characters seems to make more shocking rather than less.
It does, however, have something I often like to find in scary things; spectral justice.
As the old saying goes, revenge is a dish best served on a bed of carmelized onions.
OK, I guess it is, but it started on Friday, and will look, smell and taste like a Friday entry, with a small sprinkle of ire on top.
Sometime between the posting of last week’s Progress Report and my attempt at the Friday nonsense, WordPress decided that everyone shall now enjoy the new editing mode that they’ve invented. This… became a problem.
It should not have. Apart from my own super-genius powers of adapting to new protocols on the computer (a legacy of having been a user of the things since 1983), you can set it to be functionally similar to the editor that I’ve been using without complaint for…
…um…
…eleven years? What? Really?!
Anyway, what happened when I made the attempt on Friday was a merry little message came up, on a red background: Sorry! You are not allowed to edit this entry. No reason, no “click here to find out more”. Just a slightly polite “bugger off”.
Google didn’t help much. That message had vexed WP users in the past, but I couldn’t find anything about the current newness. And then I had to get back to work.
It turns out the solution was to thoroughly log out, on all platforms. So now I can edit and save and stuff, and with 48 hours of fuming I’ve calmed down enough after this discovery to actually fill the gap. There is a reason that I was so vexed, too– I had news I wanted to share. My story “Wilden Klausen” has been picked up!
I don’t know it the cover art for the anthology is what I’d have picked, but I’m not an editor.
I mean… I’m not against it, but it’s not necessarily selling what’s within. Don’t judge a book by its cover, I guess.
I’m also, WordPress, not a fan of that way of presenting images, but I may find a way of editing that in future. That aside, the book will be out in December (surprise!), and the proceeds will be going to a charity voted upon by the contributors. I will, of course, be returning to this topic as details become available.
Now, the film I was going to offer on Friday, under the title “Terrifying Cultist Chanting” to start October off right:
OK, it’s maybe not cultists, but I’ll bet a chill would run up your spine if you heard it coming from the basement of a disused church.
In an attempt to create the bloggish equivalent of a jump-scare… I’m doing the films TODAY!
I’ll give you a moment to calm your pattering heart.
It’s Hallowe’en, after all, and I have no inclination to see what sort of online video content I can get that’s thematic with All Saints’ Day. So, because it’s the most funnest day of the year, a bonanza of distractions. Yes, distractions, to keep you from noticing what’s creeping up behind you even now.
No, you’re sophisticated. You don’t need to look. You know I’m just playing a little trick. Anyway, here’s some fun stuff:
Before I go, I will suggest that those who haven’t yet go and look at the final entry in my Inktober effort (which I’m sure graphic artists will forgive my little appropriation of their month). It’s a jim-dandy!
Today’s pen (my one nod to costume, as my son is not a Hallow-weenie): Rotring Core
Today’s ink (really, disappointingly, non-thematic): Waterman Florida Blue
My enjoyment of creepy stuff goes far back into my childhood, and part of it was exposure to Vincent Price. Without anyone prompting me to do so, I picked up an LP of Price reading stories on a trip to the library, and I’ve always remembered it.
Guess what I just found:
What really stuck through the years was the opening line of the penultimate track, “Gobbleknowll”. Listening to it again… man, my parents were not vetting my selections at the library very well. I was no more than seven when I listened to that thing.
A quick observance of THE VERY BEST DAY OF THE YEAR– first, if you have a moment between ghouls at the door, I’ve posted the yearly non-fictional piece on my fiction site, which unlike the previous couple of years is not about ghosts. What is it about? That’s what makes it creepy: I have absolutely no idea, and I’m one of the only witnesses.
There’s also this, which I think you’ll agree has today as it’s Best Before date:
And because I’m not one who thinks today should be totally about comedy, we’ll finish with this:
What's up at Ravens March. 