Hungry Haunts - Robert Bloch's The Hungry House and Pumpkin

Speaking of haunted houses, as I was, sort of, in the Knock Knock post, I've been thinking about ghosts and haunts. Ghosts are disturbing, bringing into question the order of the universe and all, if you think about it. But they're not REALLY scary. Or can they be?

"Knock, Knock" ultimately offered a science fiction explanation as Doctor Who always does,  so, while the house was deadly for that reason, generally ghosts just tend to appear and repeat the circumstances of their deaths or bid a final farewell at 3 a.m.

Except when they don't. I don't know that it's Psycho author Robert Bloch at his absolute best, but I recently revisited a couple of Bloch hauntings that make you think twice about ghosts and their threat level.

First it was the 1951 story "The Hungry House," originally from the April 1951 issue of the magazine  Imagination but collected in Masterpieces of Terror and the Supernatural by Marvin Kay. It's a thick and handy volume.

 I came to the reading by way of TV. I recorded a  number of episodes of Thriller from Me TV recently and ran across an episode called "The Hungry Glass" with William Shatner and Russell Johnson on my DVR. Captain Kirk and The Professor from Gilligan's Island. Who could pass that up? Oh and Ellie May herself, Donna Douglas.

I liked it fairly well. My old friends John Scoleri and Peter Enfantino at A Thriller a Day seem to have given it a two-and-one-half Boris Karloff head rating, and that's a good benchmark to it's quality.

The episode inverts the short story a bit. In the prose story, the house's secrets are a mystery, while in Thriller we open with a flashback that offers hints of what lurks within the walls or the house's hidden mirrors, hence the re-naming to glass.

Ultimately the secrets prove dangerous to the protagonists, and there's a bit of a shiver in both versions. I think I like the short better because the mystery piques curiosity, and the odd events puzzle a bit until answers start to emerge from a real estate agent who knows all but has, of course, held back the truth. He had a lease to get signed. I'll stop spoiling there, though.

Maybe the antagonist of Bloch's much later "Pumpkin" is not a ghost but a zombie with a very small Lovecraftian tinge but there's a bit of that back-from-the-grave underpinning at least. I think I like it better than "Hungry House."

It appeared in the December 1984 issue of Twilight Zone magazine, and it's collected in Block's collection Midnight Pleasures and again in October Dreams II: A Celebration of Halloween.

I'm pretty sure I read it when it came out and remember feeling nonplussed. I was a kid then and invincible, past that phase of pulling the covers to my throat even on hot nights to prevent exposure to vampires.

The magazine's tagline suggests editors might have felt it was a little archaic: "A ghoulish little tale in the grand old Halloween tradition."

But old Bloch tradition really is grand, written to chill but with a devilish gleam in his eye or a curl up on the corner of the lips.

It's truly a tale by the writer who joked that he had the heart of a small boy...that he kept in a jar on his shelf.

It follows David, a recently downsized accountant, whose wife decides they'll save rent if they move into his uncle's rural house that's still in the family. David lived there as a kid long enough to piss off the old man across the street who had a tendency to head into the woods with a creepy old book under his arm.

Flashbacks reveal eerie encounters and thunder and lightning and hint there's a good reason why David doesn't want his son out at night, especially not around Halloween looking for a pumpkin to carve as a jack-o-lantern.

There's pretty good characterization from three points of view as well as atmosphere all building to an icy-needle-stab-to-the-spine of a last line that's right up there with Psycho chapter-ender and film shower-scene inspiration: "It was the knife that, a moment later, cut off her scream. And her head."

I loved "Pumpkin" when I read it again the other day, my youthful invincible delusions long faded and my mindset and imagination just right for a dark little journey.

Maybe bothstories suggest if ghosts are out of the grave, they should concern us at least on the page, and maybe they're not to be dismissed by writers contemplating eerie tales even now. 

I'm glad my whims steered me to Bloch again. A friend and I have lamented the lack of Bloch collections in ebook form, though a graphic novel adaptation of "Pumpkin" is out there from IDW. Hopefully the lack of Bloch digital prose will be remedied soon and that legacy of fear won't be lost.

Kids feeling invincible and impossible to scare just now deserve to have the work of a grand master around in a few years when they're finally aware of mortality and ready to curl up and shudder.

 

Echoing Knock Knock

I woke up while it was still dark this morning, so I put in my headphones and started watching Doctor Who "Knock Knock." Just the stereo version from iTunes and not the full 3D audio, I guess, but it was still pretty effective sitting in the dark.

Then Alexa turned on the lights. Christine had given the Echo the voice command from the other room, but I couldn't hear it with the headphones on, so it was a bit...abrupt.

Hoisted on my own lobbied-for automation.

Stuff Around My Office: Pinnacle Books Action Series Sampler Booklet

I must have picked this up at a book store once upon a time. I've always kept it with a stash of men's adventure paperbacks. I read some of everything back in the day. The Executioner, Edge and The Destroyer were in the mix because, well, they were there, right beside Doc Savage, Lew Archer,   Tarzan and everyone else.

I actually wrote one college paper on The Executioner series, sourcing some material from The Great American Detective edited and with an introduction by William Kittredge and Steven M. Krauzer. It includes a short story, "Willing to Kill," by Don Pendleton, Executioner creator.

Krauzer and Pendleton discussed Bolan and what they dubbed the aggressor genre. Initially, at Pinnacle Books, Bolan was at war with the Mafia before Pendleton sold the series to Gold Eagle and Bolan started fighting terrorists.  The protagonist followed in the footsteps of private investigator and occasional vigilante Mike Hammer from Mickey Spillane and touched off many imitators.

Saint with a Gun: The Unlawful American Private Eye (New York University Press ) by William Ruehlmann also explored the detective hero, tracing the roots back to Western heroes.

From the Facebook group Men's Adventure Paperbacks of the '70s and '80s, I understand this little booklet offering a taste of The Executioner, Edge, Death Merchant, Blade, The Penetrator, The Destroyer and Death Merchant is a sought after collectible.

Glad I held onto it.

x

Short Film Screening - Zion Curtain

Went to a screening of my buddy Wendell Nielson's new short film Zion Curtain last night at a local pub where he'd made the arrangements. Good times!

Wendell, who wrote and also directed the piece, calls it a tale about silly laws.

It's set in Utah in the early '90s and draws its name from a law there that seems to be on the way out requiring a shield in front of bartenders in some restaurants and other establishments. Supposedly that discourages drinking, out of sight out of mind.

The story's not set in a bar. It's a slice of life among a group of friends including one who's facing jail time, and he's building to a fateful decision as the slice of life evening with friends unfolds.

The show was on a double bill with a short Wendell wrote in the early aughts, Deep Down in Florida, which was directed by Sam Esmail, who created Mr. Robot, so we had a pretty full evening with lots of friends and writers on hand.

Orlando's a fun area for me, always loads going on.

Michael August's Young Adult Horror Newspaper Entry

I worked in newspapers for years. Toward the end of my engagement with Kensington Books, I wrote three young adult novels under the pseudonym Michael August.

Around one Halloween-time, I was asked to write a short piece for the newspaper's youth section. Or maybe I volunteered. Woulda been like me. But anyway my two worlds converged.

I re-wrote and updated the piece a couple of years ago. Since it was a short, Crossroad Press, which issued the Michael August novels in audio and ebooks didn't seem interested in adding it to the lineup, so I added it to Kindle myself to have the whole Pembrook High canon out there. It's my only self-published ebook to date unless my memory's missing something.

I recently removed it from KDP, though it will still be on Amazon. It's now on Smashwords and rolling out to other venues. Should be available on Barnes and Noble soon.

Get it here. 

Biblioholic's Bookshelf - Harvest Home

Haven't done a biblioholic's bookshelf in a while. Here's the paperback tie-in edition of Thomas Tryon's classic horror  Harvest Home released at the time of the NBC TV miniseries, The Dark Secret of Harvest Home.

Needed to be clear it was scary to viewers, I suppose. The book's out in an ebook edition that was on sale the other day, so I'm re-reading it on my Kindle.

Disciples of the Serpent Lovecraftian Novel Cover Reveal

Order from:

• Amazon
• Barnes and Noble
• Smashwords

 
Here's the cover art for my new novel Disciples of the Serpent with artwork from multiple Hugo-winner Bob Eggleton.

My entry in the O.C.L.T. series is a Lovecraftian tale set in Ireland. Here's the full synopsis:

In Dublin, Ireland, academics and historians are dying. An unidentified venom is to blame. Strange markings from deep in the Emerald Isle’s past suggest adherents to lost and forbidden knowledge may have reorganized. Detective Aileen O’Donnell of Ireland’s National Police Service, An Garda Síochána, has never heard of the agency’s sub rosa unit devoted to investigation of the strange and paranormal. That is, until a shooting incident leads to her suspension from the Special Detective Unit.

While awaiting disciplinary proceedings, she’s pressed into service by the secret division to investigate the deaths and what might be the tip of a conspiracy and academic cover-up. Soon O’Donnell’s teamed with Geoffrey Bullfinch and Wendell "Mack" Macklemore of O.C.L.T. On a race through medieval ruins and holy sites, she must collect puzzle pieces, fragments from a forgotten pulp writer and bits of secret Druid history to stop the shadowy band of disciples before it awakens something long sleeping beneath one of Ireland’s most famous landmarks, something modern technology and firepower can’t defeat.

 This novel, which stands alone, is a tie-in with the ongoing O.C.L.T. series. There are incidents and emergencies in the world that defy logical explanation, events that could be defined as supernatural, extraterrestrial, or simply otherworldly. Standard laws do not allow for such instances, nor are most officials or authorities trained to handle them. In recognition of these facts, one organization has been created that can. Assembled by a loose international coalition, their mission is to deal with these situations using diplomacy, guile, force, and strategy as necessary. They shield the rest of the world from their own actions, and clean up the messes left in their wake. They are our protection, our guide, our sword, and our voice, all rolled into one.

They are O.C.L.T.

 Other books in the O.C.L.T. series include the novella "Brought to Light," By Aaron Rosenberg, the novel The Parting, by David Niall Wilson, the novella "The Temple of Camazotz," also by David Niall Wilson, and the novel Incursion, by Aaron Rosenberg (in which the existence of the O.C.L.T. as a cohesive unit is finalized). Another stand-alone adventure can be found The Noose Club, by David Bischoff (writing with David Niall Wilson). 

Recent Panel: Comics & Graphic Novels in the Digital Age

I sat in on a comics panel recently at Full Sail Hall of Fame 8. A host of other cool folks were on hand also including Roland Mann, Barry Gregory, Tom Lucas, Daniel Corey and Troy Devolld.

Cord Cutting

A cable sales rep called the other day offering me a deal on service.

"Do you have cable now?"

"No. I go with over-the-air. I get HD plus a lot of local digital channels that weren't on basic Prism from CenturyLink."

I use a Mohu Leaf, and I'm fortunate to live in a good location--major networks plus Decades, Heroes and Icons, Me TV, My TV, Cozi, Bounce Laff, Escape, Univision, Telemundo, Get, Antenna, this, Retro, Grit, Escape, QVC, ION, NASA, PBS, Create.

I really don't want for stuff not to watch. There are as many things to flip past as I ever had. Sometimes the weather affects reception, but then that happened back when I had Dish TV.

"But, do you have a way to record programs?"

"Yeah I have an over-the-air DVR."  It's a Tablo. It's fabulous and plays through Apple TV,  an Amazon Fire Stick or on a tablet if I ever need television, say, in the laundry room.

I have to wait for a few cable programs to show up on streaming services, but otherwise I do OK.

I guess a DVR was the best arrow in the quiver. The sales rep and I said our goodbyes.

I suppose all this might be affected by loss of net neutrality if it comes to that, but at the moment I'm not missing cable about one year out. I've built my own à la carte and the wheels don't even wobble.

At the moment, I'm streaming musical performances from Pluto TV's Live Music channel via Apple TV. You don't even get that on MTV anymore do you?

Upgrading to the new version of Apple TV's one of the best moves I've made since cutting the cord. It allows providers to offer their own apps, making it a little less of a closed environment than Apple TV used to be.

I've found a pretty good set of alternatives even for surfing mindlessly.  Pluto's one of the best. There's a lot to be said for MST3K any time. 
Besides that, the news junkie in me is fed by a variety of sources, some on Pluto TV like the new Chedder--CNBC for Millennials but I like it too--and others. CBSN is available on just about every device, and I supplement it with UK's Sky News feed and a few others plus podcasts of the Rachael Maddow show, a day late, but still handy.

And there are free streaming services beyond Netflix and Hulu. Shout Factory, Tubi TV, Popcorn TV, Crackle they have a few commercials and a lot of niche selections the premium services aren't bothering with.

 As I said, way, way more than I need, but it's not the having, it's the getting for the geek in me.

Home Tech Echoes

At my house, we're not quite to the point of Scotty in Star Trek IV in our expectations of audible communication with computers.

You remember:

We're getting better, however, and surprisingly Christine, who is usually skeptical of new technology, is leading the way.

Last Christmas, 2015, I asked for a couple of things, and an Amazon Echo was on the list. For most of the holiday season, I thought the Echo-shaped package under the tree must be the fulfillment of that request.

Turned out to be a new martini shaker. Good gift,  just not an Echo.

I re-submitted the request last September and got an Echo for my birthday.

Since then it has moved from the living room, where I spend a lot of time grading and used it for random Wikipedia questions, to the master bedroom where Christine can access it as she gets dressed in the mornings.

Bondage
Christine's kind of bonded with Alexa, Amazon's voice assistant persona app thingy, in fact. It's to a point I think they talk about me when I'm not around.

Christine's even a little defensive of Alexa if I slip and call her Siri. They may talk about Siri when I'm not around also.

 I now hear weather and news updates being conjured along with a lot of song requests, playlists and calming nature sounds. Also: occasional arguments over station changes in Pandora. Alexa doesn't give up on Willie Nelson easily.

My use of the Echo "skill" Ditty isn't quite perfect either. Echo's features are called skills in this new world nomenclature, and new skills can be periodically applied. Ditty lets you create songs from random phrases, taking your words and assigning tunes from a variety of musical styles. I got a reasonably good country tune out of the words: "Welcome home Christine." Tunes, er, ditties about the cats haven't produced anything I want to save and share via Twitter, though that's an option.

Activating the meditation-themed Thrive "skill," can be challenging at times as well. Makes you need a calming meditation after talking Alexa into activating it.

We progressed recently to being able to  turn on a couple of lights by voice command, something they promise in the ads. That requires smart home plugs, though they're not quite as smart as I'd hoped. Some routines can be established, but you have to sweet talk Alexa for that also.

I thought that was going to throw Christine off, but she's taken to that as well after an unfortunate incident in which she discovered her phone charger had been crowded out of its usual outlet.

We've moved past that, though I think she takes a bit of pleasure in saying: "Alexa, turn on the bedroom lamp" while I'm still asleep.

Things have a ways to go before we get to where the 21st Century home looked in the 20th Century. I'm just hoping they don't turn out like this old Warner Brothers cartoon:

In St. Pete's by the shore

 

Walking early in St. Petersburg this morning, the horizon was an array of colors: gray-blue layered with rows of a pale coral and streaks of pink, sky meeting blue water with a splash of yellows and more pale pinks and oranges reflected.

I've never been here before, so it's a new sky, and in the morning quite I felt calm and detached, kind of what you want in a holiday break. 

There are a few reminders 'tis the season. On one condo building I passed, the balcony railing on one unit was decorated with lights, and an inflatable reindeer decoration stood beside their deck chairs, not Hallmark Movie Christmas, but a vestige. 

The birds were everywhere, more plentiful than tourists or locals, gulls on shore of multiple varieties,  a few geese diving amid the waves and a couple of big birds with what I think of as heron-like features, though I'm not sure of their species. 

The first I ran across tolerated my presence for a while as I snapped pictures on my phone then stepped off the sea wall and strolled away, wanting his privacy and a return to his placidity, I suppose. So it goes.

Christine says the infinity of it all is what's amazing. I suppose that's true. 

There are boundaries out there somewhere across the blue water, but you can't see them from here.

Homework: A Boy and His Dog

Some Harlan Ellison ebook editions were on sale yesterday from Open Road, which prompted a few messages between a friend and I about which ones were available vs. what could be found on the library service Hoopla Digital. A Boy and His Dog, Ellison's 1969 novella, was not on the free list, though it can be found for digital checkout via Hoopla.

All of that started me thinking about the film version again, sort of. I'd been thinking about it a bit because The Witchmaker (1969) produced by character actor L.Q. Jones and TV's Hank Kimball Alvy Moore is streaming via Amazon Prime. It was filmed in Marksville, LA, near where I lived in Central Louisiana, but I'd never had a chance to see it until the streaming. (Interesting drive-in horror flick.)

But that's an aside. My message-chat with my friend prompted me to start digging back through Starlog interviews and letters about A Boy and His Dog, the film from 1975.

Happily Starlog's available for nerd and pop culture research on Archive.org, and, though I'm late to the table, I ran across a ShoutFactory conversation between Ellison and Jones from 2013. Along with the Starlog articles, it all makes for a nice slice of film history conversation. I realized the various items complement each other and some add clarity to the others. I compiled them all for creative writing students for a Facebook group, but I'll add them here for the convenience of anyone wanting to peruse more on this bit of science fiction cinema.

Here's the 2013 ShoutFactory Backlot sitdown.

Here's L.Q. Jones interviewed by Ed Naha on the 1983 re-release of Dog.

And here's Ellison's letter responding to Jones' points a few issues later.

I did the Googling so you don't have to.

Ollie Dressed Up

We all get ties for Christmas. My cat, Oliver Littlechap, is no exception. 

Dreaded Light

I met screenwriter Mark MacNicol online recently, and he mentioned his work in progress. It's an intriguing film called Dreaded Light.

It's set in Soctland and follows a widowed father and his teenaged daughters and their efforts to cope with grief. At least that's where things start. The title refers to one of the teen's fear of daylight.

Mark talks more about his project on his website here: http://markmacnicol.com/

Not So Normal Living Rooms - Streaming Contained Thriller Horror

I like blockbusters as much as the next aging geek. I went to see Jason Bourne on Sunday because I knew it was going to be fun and frenetic. Other than one car chase that goes on from the third act until the next feature time, I was right.

I'm always intrigued also by films that sometimes get dubbed chamber pieces in keeping with theater tradition and terminology for small cast and limited setting.

Those chamber piece films are those that that go the other direction from the blockbuster. Instead of globe hopping, like a lot of TV viewers, they stay in the living room.

Alfred Hitchcock's Rope with it's real time storyline and Leopold and Loeb-inspired psychopaths is a stunning example. I think Hitchcock liked the challenge of developing thrills in tight settings because what are Psycho or Dial M for Murder as well?

I've enjoyed several variations on the streaming services of late, all eerie and effective, never making us feel just like we're stuck on one set but making that one set or location essential. These are some very weird living rooms if you will.

Coherence was conceived apparently in part by James Ward Byrkit as a respite from blockbusters, and it gives us a dinner party on the night of a comet that soon slides into a night of weirdness as it becomes apparent timelines in the many worlds theory are criss-crossing, and mistakes and missed opportunities drive some characters to desperation. 

Time Lapse from Bradley King plays different games with time to good effect. What might be a grim crime drama without its science fiction conceit becomes a cool and compelling nail-biter when three friends (The Flash's Danielle Panabaker, Matt O'Leary and George Finn), one with a gambling addiction, discover a dead scientist who's left behind a camera in his apartment that snaps Polaroids one day in the future. It's aimed at their living room. What can it hurt to post race results in the window?

If movies have taught us anything, it's that men who dabble in the realm of God reap a big and complicated mess.

That's what the heroes of Time Lapse soon discover. Is the camera creating self-fulfilling prophecies, or are other forces at work? Between dangerous bookies, double crosses and the challenge of keeping secrets and sticking to time's rule's, their world's soon awry, and the tale offers many twists and surprises before its revealing conclusion.




The Invitation has been getting just a bit of buzz upon its Netflix debut, and I think it's deserved.

It's the story of Will (Logan Marshall-Green of Prometheus) the grief-stricken father of a child killed by a playmate. He and new love Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi) are on the way to a reunion with his ex-wife (Tammy Blanchard) and her new husband (Khaleesi boy toy Michael Huisman.) The latter couple met in grief counseling and fled to Mexico for an Est-like (or not) experience that's replaced grief with joy.

Now they want to make amends to Will, so he and a host of old friends have received the invitation to join in, and the evening gets creepier and creepier in a slow burn buildup that engages and refuses to relent. Can any party with John Carroll Lynch as an unexpected guest go any other way, whether or not he's decked out as Twisty the Clown?



These films won't allow just vegging on the sofa, but they will make your living room viewing a bit breathless for a few hours. Check them out via Amazon or Netflix.

Getting a taste of Stranger Things

I've scratched just a bit of the surface of Stranger Things this weekend. I binge, but in doses.

What I've watched so far in the first couple of episodes is intriguing, especially in the creature play. We've seen an eerie silhoutte, but there's still room for mystery. There's a wonderfully kinetic opening in a flickering research facility, but a technician's lunched in the first few heartbeats by something kept off screen.

The characters are really what's keeping me engaged, from Winona Ryder's frantic mom to David Harbour's grieving police chief to a surprisingly malevolent and white-haired Matthew Modine on the mad scientist side of the equation to keep things in balance. 

 

I noticed Harbour last as one of the twisted killers in the under-rated A Walk Among the Tombstones, so it's interesting to see him as an urban cop who's come to a small town for the quiet only to have that upset by, well, strange things.

Then there are the kids, a nice blend of junior high nerds with ham radio and role-playing on their minds until a friend goes missing, and their creepy guest, a girl with a crew cut. 

There's an '80s vibe as well, of course. I don't know that I'm that nostalgic about that era, but there's a nice feel to the series, and it finds its own niche in a content-rich world, so I think I'll keep the stream open until it's finished.

A wild and weird Robot Excursion - Killer Robots! Crash and Burn

I have to say I'm a bit intrigued by the look of the robots in Leomark's July 15 release The Killer Robots! That's their exclamation mark, but I can't say it's totally unwarranted. AI's a little unsettling to everyone these days.

As the official synopsis puts it, there's "a dimension where living machines battle for supremacy, and those who oppose find only destruction." That can't be good for non-robotic types.

"After meeting their end in a mechanized gladiator arena, four robotic mercenaries - Auto, Max, Strobo and Trog are extracted from a junk pile, rebuilt and recruited as mercenaries for a mysterious organization of android adventurers."

Soon they find themselves on their way to the planet Vidya, "an artificial world ravaged by a computer virus that has sent its robotic inhabitants into a state of primitive barbarism."

The robotic heroes "must make their way through a tumultuous landscape, activate a mysterious communication device, link multiple universes, and bring about a new age of enlightenment and prosperity for a dystopian galactic civilization."

Birthed by a Florida band of the same name, The Killer Robots! looks a little different and "out there" and possibly outré. Here's a trailer:

Written and directed by Sam Gaffin, The Killer Robots! Crash and Burn will be on VOD platforms.

Writing Thoughts: Fear in the Shadows - Notions on Generating Subtle Scares

I had a lot of fun doing a presentation this week called "Fear in the Shadows." I've been developing it and polishing a while now. 

I take a look at subtle horror, partly by focusing on things that have chilled me as a reader. That's pieces by Ray Bradbury, Robert Aickman and others.

The focal piece is the 1902 story from W.W. Jacobs called "The Monkey's Paw," a tale to which I said "meh" when I first read it as a kid. It's deceptively simple, and I don't think my junior high imagination was fully engaging with the story, though its brief arc has always stayed with me.

It was really when I transcribed a portion of it a while back that I came to appreciate its brilliance. Very little is "on stage." Much is in the anticipation of a potentially walking corpse that's in a badly decomposed state...

It gives us something to worry about a bit. Wishes with the monkey's paw of the title always go wrong. It seems to confirm that with the first of three wishes in the story. Then it lets things roll along on a cold dark night.

And possibilities are introduced that let the reader's imagination work, possibilities and a little waiting.

There's a wish, a look out the window but...nothing. Then in the dark hours of the night, there's a sound at the door and then a knock an then a little more, coupled with different opinions on whether to answer or not and other bits of dread.

It was fun to do the presentation for a big room. We turned the lights down and had a campfire-story experience.

What does the story offer? A few points to keep in mind:

Atmosphere...a house that's become cold and dark and isolated.

Something to think about...the son who's been summoned back from the dead has been in the grave a while and was badly injured at the time.

Something to worry about...Monkey's Paw wishes don't turn out so well.

Anticipation...At first there's nothing after the wish, but a little while later there's a sound.

Implication...The sound turns in to a knock at the door, a knock that persists and the clock starts ticking as conflict bills. Do we wish the visitor away or open the door?

Sometimes as Stephen King said in Danse Macabre, you gotta show the monsters.

But maybe it's not a whole story you need to compose but a scene. Could the same elements be deployed? I think we see that in play in the log of the Demeter in Dracula, a small but chilling portion of a bigger tale and in many other effective moments in the horror pantheon.

I'd say try these points somewhere along the way and invite readers or viewers to engage.

Awaiting The Night of...

I watched the first episode of The Night Of a couple of weeks ago when it began streaming on HBO Now. I think  it rolls out on air tomorrow, ending what's been a long wait for things to really get started with the eight-parter, though that means yet another week before Episode 2 arrives. Ahhrrrrr! Ep. 1's a real, though almost leisurely, narrative hook.

Based on an arc in a BBC series called Criminal Justice which starred Ben Whishaw of The Hour and the new Q in Bond films, this neo-noir gets a Richard Price extension and Americanization that seems to channel a bit of Serial as well with a seemingly innocent immigrant student as the accused.

That's Riz Ahmed as Naz Khan, son of a Pakistani taxi driver who borrows his dad's hack for a party trip into Manhattan.

Before long he's inadvertently picked up a mysterious girl his age who's mistaken him for an on-duty cab. She wants to be taken to "The Beach," and that leads to a poignant chat then a druggy encounter and a blackout at what must be her residence.

Naz awakes to find her dead, and he's promptly nabbed and deftly maneuvered into giving up his rights by a savvy detective named Box (Bill Camp).

That's when a haggard John Turturro as public defender Jack Stone strolls in in flips flops, because of a skin problem carried over from the BBC, to pick up the ball.

The process moving forward looks to be promising and nail-biting since the circumstantial case against the studious bu naive Naz seems damming and insurmountable.

I think I'll stick around to see how it goes. 

Brain Dead for the Summer

I haven't noticed a lot of people talking about CBS' BrainDead from The Good Wife creators Robert and Michelle King, but I'm finding it to be a fun and trippy political satire built on a Invasion of the Body Snatchers chassis.

The time seems right for a blend of politics and horror centering around a government shutdown.

Alien bugs are to blame, squeezing out brains--or portions of them--of Republicans and Democrats alike to replace them with themselves. An agenda's not yet apparent, but conquest is probably afoot. Divided we're conquered?

The Heroine 
Documentary filmmaker turned senate aide Laurel Healy is poised to figure things out, but so far she hasn't put her finger on why everyone's fixated on the same tune from The Cars.

Laurel's played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead who this year has already survived a Civil War-era hospital in Mercy Street and being trapped in a bunker with a dancing John Goodman in the cool and different alien thriller 10 Cloverfield Lane.

She's kind of perfect as a Washington insider/outsider with a politician dad and brother who's more interested in obscure tribal music trends but needs $ to complete her current project.

It's trending more zany-reflection-of-the-real Washington than horror, to be certain. The mind control and brain gross outs have been seen before, but it's still keeping me tuning in at least on the week a new episode airs if not on the night.

Happily it's streaming readily on Amazon Prime, so catching up's easy, and with Trump in the background of the real world as well as that of the series, it's a nice fix for political junkies and those with scare leanings on and off screen as well.