Creepy Costumes of Yesteryear

Flavorwire has published 20 Incredibly Bizarre Vintage Halloween Costumes, which begs the question: Why were Halloween costumes so creepy back then? Is it because they were photographed in black and white? Is it because they didn't manufacture slutty costumes for eight-year-old-girls in the old days? Whatever the reason, these inventive and creepy costumes are worth a gander. . .

Witchy Women

Season three of American Horror Story will premier October 9th. Subtitled "Coven", the show will take place in New Orleans and focus on the Salem witch trials. According to executive producers, there will be a feminist theme running throughout the season and "a very strong theme of family, specifically mothers and daughters." Additionally, the tone will be lighter and peppered with more humor. Thank god. I had to drop out of last season because I couldn't stomach the brutality. Maybe enough people complained about all the meat hooks and human skin masks. . .

The cast of this season will be star-packed. The almighty Jessica Lange will play a witchy bad ass and Angela Basset will star as a voodoo queen. Evan Peters, Lily Rabe, and Sarah Paulson will return as will actors from Season One, including Frances Conroy, Dylan McDermott, and Taissa Farmiga. Kathy Bates will also be starring as historical serial killer, Delphine LaLaurie and Gabourey Sidibe will have a recurring role, which is unknown for now.

Overall, it sounds like a tasty brew. Check out the promo videos below:

Conjuring up the Blog Again

I'm back to this blog earlier than I have been in previous years. There's just something in the air that beckons that Halloween spirit. I'm like those crafters who start making vampire jewelry in July (actually I am).

Perhaps I'm inspired because I just saw The Conjuring - the film that documents a chilling case investigated by Ed and Lorraine Warren. I was particularly interested in the film because I was lucky enough to attend a few of the Warren's lectures before Ed passed away. Some friends and I were even lucky enough to spend the day with them on a ghost hunting tour, poking around haunted areas of Connecticut.

Anyway, the movie centers on the Perron family who bought an old farmhouse in Rhode Island. Not longer after they moved in, things started to go wrong. Very wrong. As in disembodied hands clapping in an old wardrobe and clocks stopping at 3:07 a.m. wrong. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson do a fantastic job of personifying the Warrens. Vera's eyes are so pretty and she is fragile yet strong like Lorraine. I was incredibly impressed with how well Patrick Wilson mirrored Ed's Connecticut accent. Spot on! Lily Taylor was perfect as terrified mom Carolyn Perron and Ron Livingston was gorgeous as dad Roger. Yeah, he's easy on the eyes. Oh, and his acting was good up until the climactic scene where he seemed a little bored by something trying to yank his wife's soul into hell.

The cinematography was splendid. The early 70s came to life on screen and made me nostalgic for the days when we played simple games like "hide and clap" rather than video games on smart phones.

I won't give any plot points away, but I will say there was lots of chilling use of white sheets. And the climactic scene near the end will stay in my head forever. It's a classic haunted house story, albeit one that is beautiful, lush, and spooky as hell. Director James Wan has alluded to making more movies based on the Warren's cases. Something tells me it's going to involve their famous haunted doll, Annabelle.

Can't Get Enough of Those Abandoned Hospitals

I found this very fantastically eerie video on an urban exploration website called The Fifi Organization. This video, titled Abandoned Hospitals of the Eastern U.S. contains creepy audio from the cassettes the urban explorers found in the hospitals. Very Session 9.

Creepy

Because I just had to post it.

Happy Halloween!

To celebrate, take a look at some creepy vintage Halloween costumes from The Huffington Post over here.

99 Rooms

I just stumbledupon one of the coolest, creepiest websites I may have ever seen. It's an interactive/urban exploration/art project/game called 99rooms. I won't ruin anything for you. Just go over there now!

Happy Booday, Thom Yorke!

Today was Thom Yorke's birthday. Thom has stated that he is a believer in ghosts.

OK Computer was recorded  in Jane Seymour's 15th century mansion that Thom claimed was haunted. About the recording in the house, Thom told Spin in 1998: "When we actually stopped playing music there was just pure silence. Open the wind - nothing. A completely unnatural silence. Note even birds singing.: The band stated that something in the house began interfering with their recording, rewinding and turning on and off tape machines. 

It is known that a "mysterious lady in blue" scared one of the gardeners off the property, and that reportedly there is also a ghost dog who barks and brushes up against people in the house. Perfect setting for the lovely, haunting feel of OK.

Thom has also stated that he once lived in a house with "creaking stairs, slippy stairs, attic stairs. . . "
He also claimed that "Morning Bell" was inspired by living in a haunted house.

"a bump on the head
howling down the chimney
release me. . . release me. . ."

There are also a host of other Radiohead songs that inspire the shivers.  One of my favorites of these is "The Gloaming":

"Genie let out of the bottle
It is now the witching hour. . ."

Also, the dark, atmospheric sound and lyrics of "Climbing up the Walls" are deliciously spooky:

"I am the key to the lock in your house
that keeps your toys in the basement
and if you get too far inside
you'll only see my reflection. . ."

Boo to you, Mr. Yorke!

BOOK PICK OF THE WEEK: SEEING THINGS

My husband's friend sent this story my way. In the 90s, two people living in a haunted house in Los Angeles began communicating with the ghost in residence named "Wright" through Polaroid photos.


Here is an excerpt of the story from the official site:

On Friday, February 5, 1993, the Fox TV reality show SIGHTINGS examined what may be a landmark discovery in parapsychology: convincing evidence that ghosts exist and can actually communicate with us. Two residents of an old house in the hills of Los Angeles began receiving ghostly messages in Polaroid photographs. The pair started taking photos inside the house in the hope of obtaining a picture of the entity they believed haunted the house.

After first capturing a ghostly image on film, the men discovered that if they asked questions about the entity and why it was inhabiting their house, words and messages appeared in response on their film. So far, more than 1000 photos have captured messages – photos taken not only by the residents but by paranormal researchers and other outsiders. A photographic expert at Polaroid has no explanation for the messages. An expert at California’s Brooks Institute of Photography can suggest an explanation, but it requires a lengthy set up process and hours of lab work.

The ghost or spirit calls himself “WRIGHT”. He shows signs of erudition and intelligence, writing many of his messages in Latin. The ghost first appeared on film in March 1992 after one of the residents kept hearing unexplained noises throughout the house. After a door opened mysteriously, he took a series of photos, several of which revealed a classic ghost-like shape, including dark shadows at the eyes and mouth. The messages began to appear on film in June 1992. The first was in response to a friend’s question about the ghost, “Is he here now?” The photo revealed a barely discernible “yes” in cloudy white shapes. After that, the writing became far more legible.

There are two videos on the site, one of which I'm posting below.




You can buy the book of photographs here.

There will be a gallery showing of the photos at DRKRM Gallery in LA from October 25 - November 2. The gallery address is:

2121 San Fernando Road Suite 3
Los Angeles, CA 90065
Tel 323.223.6867

A DVD is forthcoming. Looks like good stuff!

BOOK PICK OF THE WEEK

I first started reading Laura Kasischke when I only knew her as a poet (one of my favorites). I then moved on to read her dark novels, charged with the gripping language of her poetry. So I was intrigued to recently learn that she has since traveled into Young Adult territory and has published two YA novels. I finished the first one last night.

Boy Heaven is the story of three girls who go to cheerleading camp and run into a couple of boys from the "wrong side of the tracks." Kasischke is so good at capturing a mood and engaging her reader, someone would have had to wrench the book from my hands if they wanted to take a peak. Pages turned in front of my face so fast, I nearly got a breeze. Oh, all right, not really, but the book is immediately gripping and creepy. It's also indicative of what I love in light reading - a wicked, lusty, death-fueled joyride taken by teenage girls camping out in the wilds of some unamed state on a body of water called Lovers' Lake.

Boy Heaven plays on urban legends, ghost stories told around camp fires, and blossoming womenhood juxtaposed with death. That reedy dude, the Grim Reaper, is hiding behind every peeling birch tree.

If you like juicy, fun reads peppered with eerie and beautiful language, Boy Heaven is for you.

Here's are a couple small excerpts from the book:

She looked terrible. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail that looked painful. It was just a fat red rubber band, I could see that, and I winced when I thought of how much it was going to hurt to pull that thing out before she went to bed -- or, worse, in the morning, after all the little strands had worked their way around the rubber. She had no makeup on at all, and, without it, I could see that her eyelashes were not black, after all, put pale red, lighter than her hair. Her lips looked chapped. And she smelled like sweat. "Those boys," she said. "They're watching us from over there."

*******************************************************************************

The sun had all but set, just a deep pink glow over the other end of Lovers' Lake, and it lit up the pine trees like arrows. Only the other Kristi was looking in my direction, and she seemed to be gazing far across the lake, not noticing me at all, looking for those boys. So I stepped up to the edge of the water, and although I'd been warned a million times not to, I knelt down and cupped my right hand under the surface of it and drank from it -- the coolest and freshest water I'd ever tasted, or would ever taste again. I stood up just then the first blast exploded from the other side of the lake, and looked. It was like a huge slippery rose in the sky, shimmering before being ripped into a million pieces, being turned into burning tears and earrings, and drifting down from the darkness onto the surface of the lake, where it sizzled and writhed for a moment, then disappeared.