(via Bad Newspaper)
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Dracula
This is the original 1931 Dracula with Bela Lugosi. From Wikipedia:
Dracula is a 1931 American Pre-Code vampire-horror film directed by Tod Browning and starring Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula. The film was produced by Universal and is based on the 1924 stage play Dracula by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston, which in turn is loosely based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.[3]
Jon Snow White and Other Awesome 2015 Halloween Costumes
Since Halloween is on a Saturday this year, many people wore Halloween
costumes to work, school, or parties yesterday. Lucky us! Some really
good ones have already been posted on the internet. See a roundup of them at Neatorama.
Friday, October 30, 2015
The Vampire
From 1957. Wikipedia describes this movie:
The late Dr. Campbell was experimenting with vampire bat blood just before his death. Fellow doctor Beecher finds a bottle of pills among Dr. Campbell's effects and takes them home. Dr. Beecher's daughter accidentally substitutes the vampire blood pills for her father's migraine tablets. As a result, the kindly Dr. Beecher starts having blackouts from the pills, making him change into a bloodthirsty monster by night.
Miss Cellania's Links
SXSW’s Video Game Fiasco Proves the Tech World Can’t Be “Neutral” on Harassment. They backed off even addressing the issue due to …harassment.
Have you ever picked up a hitchhiker? This guy’s story is well worth a read.
The 13 Most Bizarre Appearances by Horror Icons in Media. Would it be Freddie and Jason in Vegas or Chucky in professional wrestling?
10 Real Events That Sound Just Like Horror Movies. Screenwriters have to get their ideas from somewhere, after all.
10 Famous People Who Vanished Without a Trace.
Every Day I Want To Quit Social Media. A writer talks about the pressure of living and socializing online.
Why do secretaries need college degrees now? Because there are graduates who would be happy to land that job.
Text Messages From a Ghost. Do NOT skip the followup post.
Syracuse’s Transylvania Twist — The Best Halloween Song You Never Heard. (via Nag on the Lake)
A Bad Lip Reading of the First Democratic Debate
The folks at Bad Lip Reading had a lot of fun with the Democratic presidential candidates at their debate. Their lips are moving, but what’s coming out is pure nonsense. Stay to the end to catch Bernie Sanders reciting poetry! (via Neatorama)
The Spellbinding Stories of 6 Historic Witches
Witches as fictional characters are a lot of fun. But in the past, being accused of witchcraft was serious, and usually tragic, business. Here are the stories of six women who were regarded as witches at one time or another, in an article I wrote for mental_floss.
Thursday, October 29, 2015
The Brides of Dracula
One of the Hammer Films I recall from my childhood. From Wikipedia:
The Brides of Dracula is a 1960 British Hammer Film Productions Horror film directed by Terence Fisher. It stars Peter Cushing as Van Helsing; David Peel as Baron Meinster, a disciple of Count Dracula; Yvonne Monlaur as Marianne Danielle; Andrée Melly as her roommate, Gina; Marie Devereux as a village girl; and Martita Hunt as the Baroness Meinster.[2]
The film is a sequel to Hammer's original Dracula (USA: Horror of Dracula) (1958), though the vampires possess abilities denied to vampires in the previous film, much like those in the original novel. Alternative working titles were Dracula 2 and Disciple Of Dracula. Dracula does not appear in the film (Christopher Lee would reprise his role in the 1966 Dracula: Prince of Darkness) and is mentioned only twice, once in the prologue, once by Van Helsing.
Biisuke Ball’s Big Adventure
Biisuke is a little red ball who lives with his two brothers, Biita and Biigoro, who are also small balls. When two of them are kidnapped, Biisuke has to go on a grand quest to save them. This is a tale tale told through a Rube Goldberg contraption, which is impressive even without the story (subtitled in English) and the cute little song that goes with it. (via The Kid Should See This)
Miss Cellania's Links
When the news that Serena Williams is dating reddit founder Alexis Ohanian hit the front page, he only made one comment. Be sure to read the entire thread.
Photos From a Perilous 464-Day Sled Journey Across the Frozen Arctic Ocean. In 1968-69, four men and 40 dogs went from Alaska to Norway, a journey that hasn’t been repeated.
The Wah Wah Machine turns your text into the trombone-like adult voices hear in the Peanuts cartoons. (via Boing Boing)
Wage Stagnation in Nine Charts. The last one is a true eye-opener.
Ten DIY Tutorials Inspired By The Walking Dead. Celebrate Halloween zombie-style with costumes, makeup, decorations, and even food!
Pumpkin-Carving Stencils For The Real Monsters Of 2015. Download them for your own jack-o-lantern.
13 Spooky Film Scenes That Reveal the Terrifying Power of Dance. Yes, horror films have dance scenes, and we have video evidence.
The unified theory of all zombie fiction. It’s a philosophy of collectivism, focused on the survivors instead of the monsters.
13 Epic Pumpkin Carvings. Works of art that will last about ten days, max.
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Dracula (1979)
Frank Langella is Dracula this time, with Laurence Olivier, Donald Pleasence, and Kate Nelligan. From Wikipedia:
The film was based on Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, though much of Stoker's original plot was revised to make the film (advertised with the tagline "A Love Story") more romantic. The film won the 1979 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film.
7 More Haunted Places and the Ghost Stories Behind Them
If a murder or other dismal event occurs in some place, eventually someone will see ghosts there. You can count on it. In the followup to last week's mental_floss list, here are a few more stories of murder, mayhem, and the ghosts left behind, in a list I wrote for mental_floss.
Image credit: : Thomas Good / NLN via Wikimedia Commons
Halloween Special
Kurt Richter took this picture of the construction site near his home. The heavy equipment crew has a sense of humor! Let's get a closer look.
Their simple Halloween decoration is tasteful, subdued, and really appropriate for the scene. Incidentally, I would advise springing for the deluxe service. (Thanks, Kurt!)
Miss Cellania's Links
10 Famous Paranormal Hoaxes. You can fool all of the people some of the time.
How Long Would it Take for Vampires to Annihilate Humanity? Mathematical modeling gives us conflicting answers.
Watch Some Good Actors Do Ridiculous Things in the First Trailer for The Ridiculous Six. The Netflix original feature will premiere December 11.
The 42 Best Science Memes On The Internet. That is, if “meme” means a visual pun or an illustrated joke.
Why it pays to be nice to flight attendants. They can make the difference between a pleasant flight and a trip from hell.
29 Legendary Monsters of North America, parts one, two, and three. We're just infested with them.
The Hateful Life And Spiteful Death Of The Man Who Was Vigo The Carpathian.
How 19th-Century Zombie Dogs Revealed the Workings of the Brain. Warning: disturbing content.
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
The Premature Burial
Another Roger Corman thriller, this time in color. From Wikipedia:
The Premature Burial (1962) is an American International Pictures horror film, directed by Roger Corman, starring Ray Milland, also with Hazel Court, Alan Napier, Heather Angel and Richard Ney, screenplay by Charles Beaumont and Ray Russell, based upon the 1844 short story of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe. It was the third in the series of eight Poe-themed pictures, known informally as the "Poe Cycle", directed by Corman for American International.
Tea with Jean-Luc Picard
The Captain really likes his tea. Sometimes that causes problems on the Enterprise. This video is actually called "Tea with Jean-Luc, episode 1: Ménage à Tea,” which tells us there will be more to come concerning Picard’s relationship with tea.
Andrew Hussie and Jan Van dem Hemel made about three dozen amusing vignettes out of old Star Trek:TNG footage in 2009. Six years later, they are reviving the series. You can see the entire collection at YouTube. (via Gamma Squad)
Miss Cellania's Links
Are There Still Real Skeletons In Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean? Some observers have even identified which ones they are.
The 13 Best Horror Movie Themes. With video evidence, in case you want to argue about the ranking.
The Common Core math quiz that has everyone outraged isn't about Common Core — it's worse. Some poor third graders are smarter than they think they are now.
And now someone has recreated Andy’s room from Toy Story 3. The project took two years, because of all the attention to detail.
Historic Werewolves. They may not have fit our concept of a supernatural monster, but they sure scared the people of their time.
Magical Realism: Northern Exposure 25 Years Later. (via Metafilter)
The Neuroscience of Anorexia Reveals Why It’s So Hard to Treat.
13 Judicious Facts About To Kill a Mockingbird.
Monday, October 26, 2015
Miss Cellania's Links
The Great New England Vampire Panic.
Report: Mom’s Got Her Thing Tonight. (Thanks, Laura!)
The Secrets To Growing A 2,000-Pound Pumpkin. First, you have to have an unrelenting obsession with growing a giant pumpkin.
55 Genuinely Scary TV Episodes. Which one gave you nightmares?
10 Supernatural Fright Films You Might Have Missed. They range from terrifying to silly.
A Man Who Was Never Born Fathers a Child. It’s a case of genetic chimerism.
Death and the Afterlife by Cliff Pickover.
38 Facts on Frankenstein (Including the Aerosmith song it inspired and the reason the Munsters never got sued).
Dancing Lizard
How do desert animals stand walking on that hot sand? This is how. I’m sure you’ve done this dance a time or two on concrete or when you notice your shoes melting. or with your hands when you are carrying some foot that’s just a bit too hot. If only we had musical accompaniment during those times!
Sunday, October 25, 2015
Saturday, October 24, 2015
Han Solo's Flashback
The best part of the official trailer for The Force Awakens is the part where Han Solo assures Finn and Rey that the stories they’ve heard are true. What must he be thinking when he says that?
Nick Skywalk remixed the trailer with clips from other films to make “those stories about what happened” real, to Solo and to us, which just makes looking forward to the new movie more exciting. This is really well done. (via Uproxx)
Friday, October 23, 2015
An Honest Trailer for Back to the Future
Screen Junkies dissects the three movies of the Back to the Future trilogy, and comes to the conclusion that they are all the same except for the fashions. Great Scott!
Of course, it’s never a good idea to deconstruct a time-travel movie (or series of movies) too thoughtfully. You could end up with a headache. Or Primer. (via Gamma Squad)
7th Annual Riverside Halloween House Light Show
Kevin and Amber Judd of Creative Lighting Displays have once again set up a friend’s house to entertain passers-by for Halloween This year’s show features the songs “Ghostbusters,” Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” “This is Halloween,” and Bobby Pickett’s “Monster Mash.” Thousands of color-changing LED lights are accompanied by strobe lights, flood lights, and two Matrix boards, as well as tombstones and hand-carved pumpkins. My favorite new feature is the flames in the windows. If you can get to Riverside, California, here are the particulars for the show. (via HuffPo)
MOO!
I was reminded today that I haven’t posted anything new by Cyriak Harris in a while. This is his latest nightmare scenario that he posted over the summer. When the giant monsters come to get us, they won’t be aliens- they’ll be cows modified by aliens!
8 Haunted Places and the Ghost Stories Behind Them
You probably don't live that far from a place ghosts are said to roam. Maybe you don’t think about it until Halloween rolls around, when everyone seems to be ready with a scary story. But some of those ghost sightings may be tied to horrible events from the past—knowing the history of a place sets one up to see and hear things that might otherwise be ignored. And whether or not you believe in ghosts, the stories behind the legends can be seriously disturbing. Read eight spooky ghost tales in a list I wrote for mental_floss.
Miss Cellania's Links
Here's What Really Happened at That Company That Set a $70,000 Minimum Wage. Their profits have doubled.
Life as a Professional Pumpkin Carver.
The Top 10 Fears of 2015. More proof that people can talk themselves into being afraid of anything. (via mental_floss)
In the 1940s, Idaho moved excess beavers by dropping them from planes with parachutes. It’s hard to believe, but a newly-rediscovered film proves it to be true.
Great Moments in Gothic Fiction: A History in 13 Books. This ought to fill out your reading list for October.
Lionel Atwill, Universal Horror’s Forgotten Icon. He was in five Frankenstein movies, but is better remembered for his scandalous Christmas orgy.
The Science of Little House on the Prairie. Modern investigators try to determine the truth behind Laura Ingalls Wilder’s childhood stories.
9 Halloween Pumpkin Projects. They go way beyond a toothy smile and a candle.
Thursday, October 22, 2015
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
This was recorded in 1987 at Wembley Arena at a concert for the Prince’s Trust. In case you don’t recognize all the musicians, the band includes George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Ringo Star, Phil Collins, Jeff Lynn, Elton John, and some of their friends. (via Metafilter)
Bernie Sanders Plays Bongos
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has rhythm! He tapped his hands so much that the Huffington Post slid a pair of drums underneath him and set it to the tune of Ben Harper's song “Burn One Down.”
Doc and Marty Showed Up Just In Time
While everyone was waiting around at Hill Valley for Doc Brown and Marty McFly to appear from the past yesterday, they apparently recalibrated their time machine for a nearby location. They actually materialized on stage during the TV show Jimmy Kimmel Live! last night. Kimmel gives them the rundown on what 2015 is like, which was baffling and a little disappointing to our time-traveling fictional characters. You get one guess who the musical guest is. The selfie they took has been posted at Facebook. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
PS: Happy Birthday to Christopher Lloyd, who turns 77 years old today!
Miss Cellania's Links
It’s official: Working from home is the worst. Tell me about it.
This Is What Five Decades Of Star Trek Fashion Looks Like.
The Eskimo Pie Patent Saga. An example of what what can go wrong when patents are granted for broad ideas instead of the invention itself. (via Boing Boing)
The Teen Girls Who Talked to the Dead. The Fox Sisters were stars of the seance circuit during the Spiritualism craze.
Living Above the Store. The up-and-coming comedians who crashed at Mitzi Shore’s extra house created constant mayhem and lifelong friendships.
Yesterday, Joe Biden alerted the press to a big announcement he would disclose at noon. Twitter went nuts guessing what it could be about.
The first Democratic debate of the presidential campaign would have been better if it had children at the podiums. In this version, Bernie Sanders' hair stole the show.
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Barbershizzle
The barbershop quartet Main Street sings about how today’s songs will eventually become old. It’s a medley of “modern” music in barbershop style. Let’s overlook the fact that they start out with a Britney Spears song that’s about 20 years old, and end up with "Thriller," which is 30 years old. The other songs are more recent. They’re pretty good! (via Viral Viral Videos)
Never Give Up!
This kitten is clearly too small to jump the chasm between the chair and the table. But he keeps trying, and trying, and trying. Will he ever make it? Perseverance and practice will get you to your goal -eventually. Even if you have to grow up a little to make it. (via Daily Picks and Flicks)
You Can’t Change History
The 27 assassination Hitler attempts prove that
a. time travel is real
b. you can't change history pic.twitter.com/Ertfldv1Z7
— rob manuel (@robmanuel) October 21, 2015
Any time that time travel is mentioned (and it will be many times today), the conversation gets Godwined pretty quickly into a discussion on the feasibility of killing Hitler before he begins his reign of terror. Rob Manuel of b3ta posits the idea that it’s been done, or at least attempted, many times. Out of 27 unsuccessful attempts at assassination (that we know of), how many of them could be the result of a future in which time travel is possible? And at what point did these future people figure out it couldn’t be done?
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