Monster Scholar

So I’m dusting off the cobwebs on this blog to bring you a book review of Jason Zinoman’s book Shock Value out now, and if you’re reading this why haven’t you bought it? I received a copy from the publisher a few weeks back and could not contain my excitement which was thoroughly justified by this very satisfying and entertaining read. In 1968 William Castle, the master of suspense who made a living electrifying audiences with gimmicky horror films like The Tingler , bought the film rights to Rosemary’s Baby , the disturbing tale of a young woman who discovers she is having Satan’s child. Castle was keen on directing a film adaptation. He had years of experience, but the success of his B-movie horror features leaned heavily on publicity stunts, like taking out an insurance policy for any audience member who died of fright, instead of content. The studio recognized that Castle’s brand of horror was not what Rosemary’s Baby needed and asked Roman Polanski to direct, keeping Castle...

I picked this book up on a whim at my local book store and was glad I did. This anthology of female vampire tales combines old classics like Carmilla and Clarimonde with more contemporary tales by Stephen King and Richard Matheson. Here's a run down of some of my favorites. In One for The Road , Stephen Kings gives us a short vignette of what would become Salem's Lot.  Here the dreaded place is Jeru salem's Lot and it's the site of many unexplained disappearances at the hands of vampires who live on that unhallowed ground. In this story two natives of a nearby town try to help a city fellow who leaves his family and their car mired in a snowbank in the Lot.   The Cloak by Robert Bloch is a fun little number about a man who desperately needs a custume for a high end Halloween Party. He gets more than he bargained for when his authentic cloak begins working vampiric changes on him. He also chances to meet another cloak owner at the party.   ...