I thought Grandma was supposed to be dead.
A lady in the lake, a relative's deepfake, an ancient ring of stones, plus moans and groans and bones. It's time for the Sunday Scaries!
To die——to really be dead——that must be glorious.
~ Dracula (1931)
Hurray, it’s dark at 3 p.m. This must be the Sunday Scaries, mid-November edition, when the days are grey and wet and short and - keep - getting - shorter. As I’m supposed to be writing the new book instead of just enjoying myself, I will be switching to a biweekly schedule at least through the winter.
Ah yes, the new book. I can’t tell you much about it. BUT. This week’s little list should give you some clue about what I’m going for. Any one of them would be perfect to cozy up with on a gloomy blustery evening, maybe even tonight.
Full Circle / The Haunting of Julia - A quietly devastating look at a grieving mother, separated from her husband, who may be seeing evidence of her daughter’s return. A wonderfully chilly entry in the ‘mad, haunted, or both?’ category, with an excellent performance by Mia Farrow, this underseen 1977 Canadian co-production directed by Richard Loncraine creeps right into your bones. Exceptional score by Colin Town. Based on Peter Straub’s 1975 novel Julia.
Let’s Scare Jessica to Death - Incongruous title aside, this 1971 film by John D. Hancock has a fragile young woman returning from a mental hospital into a situationship with her boyfriend, his best friend and an ethereal young hippie who is not what she seems. Unhurried and yet suffused with dread, this has an eerie dreamy quality that takes its cue from Zohra Lampert’s remarkable performance as the title character.
The House That Would Not Die - From way back in 1970, this is one of the many TV-movies of my childhood to give me the heebie-jeebies. Barbara Stanwyck packs up her best orange pantsuit and her niece Kitty Winn (unknowingly gearing up for her supporting role in The Exorcist) and moves into a haunted house with a horrible history: cue strange occurrences, mysterious sounds and sightings, seances and possessions, and unpleasant revelations. The stacked cast, which includes a surprising turn by Richard Egan, makes the most from the slender material. Directed by John Llewelyn Moxey (Circus of Fear) and produced by Aaron Spelling.
Inside No.9: Dead Line (live broadcast) - British black comedy anthology series Inside No. 9 has never strayed too far away from the ghostly and ghoulish, which is only (super)natural given the proclivities of its creators Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, alumni of The League of Gentlemen. In part a tribute to notorious ‘live’ paranormal investigation broadcast Ghostwatch, and otherwise a recounting of true events surrounding the unexplained occurrences at Granada Studios, home of Coronation Street and Jewel in the Crown, Inside No. 9 presented a live broadcast of their own of a special Hallowe’en episode that went horribly wrong and resulted in several on-camera accidents and suicides. Or did it?
Stigma - The unlikeliest of Ghost Stories for Christmas, this short, sharp and disquieting 1977 film has a young couple unearthing ancient forces among the standing stones of Avebury. What a way to ruin your holidays! Met with disdain when it aired, it deftly maneuvers among horrors folk, body and cosmic to arrive somewhere very different from the M.R. James adaptations of years past. Once thought the worst of the series, it is overdue for a reassessment.
Currently watching: I am soldiering on with Dragula: Titans II even as the behind-the-scenes drama has led to several disqualifications. I have set aside The Secret History of Hollywood’s set of episodes about the history of the Universal horror movies. I have been forced by circumstances (ridiculous shipping costs) to resubscribe to Amazon Crime for a month, so I’ll happily take any suggestions. Currently on the list: Presence; Monolith; Wrong Turn (2021); Marrowbone; Count Yorga, Vampire (which I haven’t seen in decades); The Vast of Night (which I will happily see again anytime); Black Mountain Side.
Cool story, bro: We are big fans of Kyle Seibel here in these parts (buy his collection Hey You Assholes here) and here is a favourite from a few years back about how people come together to help a man facing down the end of his days. It’s called A New Kind of Dan.
This week in horror: We just can’t catch a break, can we. We lost beloved disability activist Alice Wong. Gay supervillain Sam Altman (OpenAI) and husband Oliver Mulherin fund startup to edit babies’ genes. Deepfakes of your dead loved ones are a booming Chinese business. Enough enough enough!
Ing Wong-Ward
That’s all of my shrieking into the void for this week. I’ll see you on or about November 30. For now I will leave you with these words from Alice Wong: “Death remains my intimate shadow partner. It has been with me since birth, always hovering close by. I understand one day we will finally waltz together into the ether. I hope when that time comes, I die with the satisfaction of a life well-lived, unapologetic, joyful, & full of love.”
Help me. Help me be human.
~ The Fly (1986)