Vampires

It would take a lot for this sequel to live up to its predecessor. The 2016 South Korean film TRAIN TO BUSAN is among the very best examples of the genre, including those with names like Romero and Fulci attached to them. The bar, as they say, was set really high. In addition, I’d been…Continue readingMovie Review: TRAIN TO BUSAN: PENINSULA

Dave settled into a chair, slid in closer to the little table. A sandwich rested on a plastic saucer and a plastic spoon protruded from an open can of pork and beans. He popped the top on a beer and licked the froth from the lip of the can. “Ah,” he said, taking a bite…Continue readingTHE CHOSEN Part Three: A STUDY GUIDE TO THE RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX Chapter 21

I remember studying this in my high school Sociology class. The experiment of the wire-mesh mothers, in which some baby monkeys, deprived of their real mothers, were given fake ones. Some of the fake ones were furry and warm and some were just made of wire mesh. The monkeys that got the wire mesh grew…Continue readingWire-Mesh Sociopaths

We are in the doldrums now. That’s what I call the period immediately following the end of the holidays. It encompasses most of the month of January, the dreariest, dullest, saddest month of the year. I always get depressed once the holidays have passed, and this year is no different. It helped a little bit…Continue readingWhat We Do With The Gingerbread

Anytime an agenda is put before the plot of a story, you end up with a lousy story. As Stephen King puts it, it’s a recipe for some bad fiction. Or, as the analogy goes, “if you want to send a message, use Federal Express; it’s cheaper”. Now I don’t *know* that FIRST KILL is…Continue readingAbout FIRST KILL: Gay Teenage Vampire Drama

The Sphinx—THE Sphinx—is in Egypt. We all know that. (We do, don’t we? Despite the continuing dumbing down of American society, and human civilization in general, the inexorable slide into mass stupidity, the sad dropping a rung or two on the evolutionary scale that has accompanied the disproportionate increase in our global population, there are…Continue readingDracula’s Sphinx

“If you let me go, I’ll do anything you say!” “You’ll do that anyway,” Charlie said. Starting at her ankle, he slit her jeans up to the waist. “You’ll do whatever I want you to do.” He moved to the other leg, finished cutting off her pants. He threw them into a corner. “Don’t hurt…Continue readingTHE CHOSEN Part Three: A STUDY GUIDE TO THE RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX Chapter 20

This is not at all surprising. Blame the guvment. They’ve failed to get the vaccines out in a competent manner. Those reports of entire batches going bad before they could be administered? Yep. On the guvment. The whole thing has been a cluster. And because of the delay in getting people vaccinated, which was going…Continue readingMORBIUS Delayed Again

The shackles they had fastened to Gale’s wrists were cutting into her skin. She tried to stand up a little higher on her toes to relieve the pressure, her calves trembling with the effort. She stood hanging from a chain attached to a pulley mounted in the ceiling, her arms stretched above her head by…Continue readingTHE CHOSEN Part Three: A STUDY GUIDE TO THE RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX Chapter 19

In many ways the Comana Monastery near Bucharest is a better candidate for Vlad’s burial site than Snagov Monastery. While tradition holds that Vlad founded Snagov, this cannot be corroborated by extant documentary evidence. Those records have been lost. The proof that Dracula founded Comana is still available, though this in itself doesn’t mean much.…Continue readingWhere is Dracula Buried? Part Two: Comana

After his assassination, an event which is itself shrouded in lots of mystery, where was the body of Vlad Dracula taken for interment? Tradition says that it was without a head at the time, as the Prince’s murderers had taken it with them to present, eventually, to the Sultan, to prove that the dreaded Impaler…Continue readingWhere is Dracula Buried? Part One: Snagov

One of the most impressive costume ensembles from BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA is that of the “Devil’s Armor”. Fashioned out of either fiberglass or plastic, it certainly looked authentic in the film. There is a real-life suit-of-armor on display at the Church of the Madonna Delle Grazie in Italy that is also called the “Devil’s Armor”.…Continue readingDracula’s Devil’s Armor