OCTOBER 7: FLOPPY MASK OF FEAR

 

 

Let me tell you about the scariest thing in the world: a mask. A person wearing a mask in a place where people usually don't wear masks? Call 9-11. A man in a business suit and a mask walking down the street? RUN. It has been well documented that of all the masks in the world the scariest one is the floppy sack mask. Gah! Look at it! So horrifying! Do a google image search for floppy sack mask! I didn't even post the worst one!

 

In that spirit (woOoOoOoo--ghosty pun!) here's a great list of 20 of the Scariest Movie Masks. They are not all floppy sack masks, but some of them are almost equally horrifying (check out Alice, Sweet Alice.)

 

The list DOES leave off the scariest mask movie I've ever seen, so your spooky post tomorrow will be devoted to a movie so frightening that it took me several months to even watch the TRAILER all the way through.



OCTOBER 7: FLOPPY MASK OF FEAR

 

 

Let me tell you about the scariest thing in the world: a mask. A person wearing a mask in a place where people usually don't wear masks? Call 9-11. A man in a business suit and a mask walking down the street? RUN. It has been well documented that of all the masks in the world the scariest one is the floppy sack mask. Gah! Look at it! So horrifying! Do a google image search for floppy sack mask! I didn't even post the worst one!

 

In that spirit (woOoOoOoo--ghosty pun!) here's a great list of 20 of the Scariest Movie Masks. They are not all floppy sack masks, but some of them are almost equally horrifying (check out Alice, Sweet Alice.)

 

The list DOES leave off the scariest mask movie I've ever seen, so your spooky post tomorrow will be devoted to a movie so frightening that it took me several months to even watch the TRAILER all the way through.



OCTOBER 6: Ray Bradbury, "The October Game"

Ray Bradbury is one of my very favorite writers, and most certainly one of the thrilliest horror writers in history.  I especially enjoy reading "The October Game"* aloud to someone who has never heard this story before.

A couple's disintegrating marriage is the impetus for this shocking and disturbing tale.  Like the husband narrating the story, the reader must exercise patience while waiting for the October game's denouement.  But when it comes -- holy cats.




Don't turn on the lights.






* Other creepy reads in this collection: "The Veldt"; "Skeleton"; "The Jar"; "The Small Assassin"; and "Fever Dream"

OCTOBER 6: Ray Bradbury, "The October Game"

Ray Bradbury is one of my very favorite writers, and most certainly one of the thrilliest horror writers in history.  I especially enjoy reading "The October Game"* aloud to someone who has never heard this story before.

A couple's disintegrating marriage is the impetus for this shocking and disturbing tale.  Like the husband narrating the story, the reader must exercise patience while waiting for the October game's denouement.  But when it comes -- holy cats.




Don't turn on the lights.






* Other creepy reads in this collection: "The Veldt"; "Skeleton"; "The Jar"; "The Small Assassin"; and "Fever Dream"

Wednesday Tech Tips: More Musing on Copyright + Digital Vaults

We've talked about the big hot mess that is copyright law before, but I thought you'd dig hearing about a specific example -- with a happy ending for all!




A nifty site I discovered is the National Archives Experience's Digital Vaults (digitalvaults.org), where you can shuffle through primary source material like a deck of cards.  How else would I come across a creepy (ha!) gem like this one?

That has horror movie written all over it, I'm telling you.

Happy Birthday Edward Gorey!

Wherever you are...

Truly an ingenious man, who lived the later part of his life in our own Cape Cod.  You can dress in your finest Gothic Victorian garb and visit his house!

He may have written about beastly things
happening to children, but he loved cats.

If you don't know who the heck Edward Gorey is, you can get started by reading The Gashlycrumb Tinies, one of the most famous and macabre alphabet books on record.

















This was my first introduction to his work:


And I wonder now as I did then, "Why doesn't she just untie her feet?"

"It was as if all the pain in the world had found a voice." -H.G. Wells

At the end of January a YA book called The Madman's Daughter* by Megan Shepard will be released. It's got a beautiful cover, and it's based on H.G. Wells's 1896 novel The Island of Doctor Moreau. 

I had never read the original, or seen any of the three movies based on it, and I only had a vague idea what it was about. I picked up a copy, and holy crab apple, lemme tell you something about a scary book! H.G. Wells knew what he was doing! I had a real, honest-to-goodness nightmare about this, folks! 

Just in case you don't know the story, I am not going to say much. (It's much better if you go in blind.) Let me just say this: it had me rushing to a dictionary to make sure I actually knew what vivisection meant. Chilling.


*If you don't want spoilers for either book, just look at the pretty cover of Madman's Daughter, and don't read the synopsis. It gives a lot away!

Celebrity book covers

Here's a career path for you: book cover model.  Just take a look at who's graced the book jacket of a well-known or...interesting book.


Thanks HuffPo, for the find!

Weird and Worrisome Wikipedia

There's a huge display of terrifying books in the Teen Room right now. Do monsters scare you? We've got monsters. Do aliens scare you? We've got aliens. Do ghosts scare you? We've got ghosts. Do demons scare you? We've got demons. Do your fellow humans scare you? We've got plenty of humans who are up to no good.

If you want to read about real life scary things (or at least things that scare people in real life), just click on over to The Hairpin! They've made an amazing list of Wikipedia Entries to Read in the Dark. Dang. And here you thought Wikipedia was just for finding out where Channing Tatum grew up, or cramming as much knowledge about Alexander the Great into your head as you can before the big test. Oh, no, no, guys. It's also for being scared out of your pants.

The ones about haunted pets shook me up the most (especially the one about the haunted bridge where dogs commit suicide! Ahhhh!). But read through and decide for yourself. You think it's going to be like homework, then you're not going to be able to sleep....

"so the doors were all bolted and the windows all pinned/ except for one window which lankin crawled in"

I was going to wait until at least October to post about the amazingly spooky book Long Lankin by Lindsey Barraclough, but I just couldn't stand it any longer. It is the first day of fall, though, so that's something.

Long Lankin is based on an old English folk ballad about the betrayal and brutal murder of a mother and her child. Lankin, the man (?) at the center of the legend has gone by many names as the tale passed through generations. Some know him as Lamkin. Some know him as Balankin. Ramkin, Lambert Linkin and Lammikin are all names he's gone by. It's been said he was a disgruntled stonemason getting bloody revenge for a financial grudge. Or possibly a demon making mischief for mischief's sake. Others believe he was a leper, and felt his only hope for being cured was bathing in or drinking the blood of babies.

Any way you slice it this story (and the songs based on it) are TERRIFYING, and have been for hundreds of years.

The book brings us back to the site of the original Long Lankin murders. The village has never quite gotten over what happened centuries ago. They don't talk about it, of course, but they also don't ever let their children play near the old church. Or open their windows, even a crack. Two little girls get shipped from London out to the village to live with their auntie, and the horror starts to reveal itself. This book was scary folks. Like, no joke.

The book trailer is pretty spooktastic as well.

I'm sure once October gets rolling we'll be sending other spooky reads your way. This is a terrific place to start, though.

Scarred You For LIFE??

One of my favorite sites for booklists is Flavorwire -- they do them in a great slideshow fashion, and their topics are usually unique and hilarious. I was excited when I saw this one -- 10 YA Books That Scarred Us For Life.

It's a fun list to look thought, but... uh, really? Hatchet scarred you for life? The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe? Scarred you for LIFE?

Some of those titles aren't actually YA, so I'd like to propose my own little addendum to the list. Books that might make you uncomfortable, if not scar you for life. I'm telling you, though, read at your own risk. These books are for those of you who take a dark turn of mind over the summer...

Nothing by Janne Teller: YIKES

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott: DOUBLE YIKES

The Children and the Wolves by Adam Rapp: OH MAN, MAYBE I SHOULD JUST STICK TO HATCHETT...

Yikes.

Scary Times

If you've been in the Teen Room lately you may have noticed that we have not one, but TWO scary book displays. You may have also noticed that we've been trying to read some short but terrifying stories and poems during the 3:07 announcements.Maybe you've seen the skulls. And the cobwebs. You may have gleaned from all this that we take Halloween, horror, and being-scared-out-of-your-pants pretty seriously around here.

That is good gleaning, guys. You're right.

If being spooked isn't your thing, then go past the two book displays, avert your eyes from the spooktacular movies on the shelf, plug your delicate ears as we read tales of terror outloud. Surely you'd want to stay away from our Horror Movie Screening at 4pm on the Thursday before Halloween.

No matter who you are, though, you will probably find these pictures hilarious. I can't believe no one thought to do this before. Leave it to Canada...

MWA HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

the most outstanding argument AGAINST snow i have ever witnessed.

point/counterpoint



-beth

Do you not LOVE this cover?

Creepy creepy awesome! I've been reading about all the new books coming our way this fall. I'm sure this one will inevitably be the first of a series (*world-weary sigh*) but let us hope it's a good one.

Read more about The Replacement at good ol' Amazon (I'm sorry, Razorbill, I tried to use your site, but you give me NOTHING, nothing I tell you!)