Horror Boom’s 2014 Holiday Gift Countdown- Part 5 of 5 – Edgar Allan Poe Sweater!

21 December 2014

Yes, this actually exists. Archie McPhee’s (based locally, and another store it is not wise for me to go into with a credit card, they expanded and there’s way too much cool shit) carries a variety of unusual Edgar Allan Poe-themed gifts, such as temporary tattoos and Poe lunch boxes. Check out the temporary tattoos if you have time, most of them are pretty clever and would only mean something to or be recognized by another devoted reader of Poe. Cool way to meet like-minded friends, huh? This one takes the cake, though!

The Edgar Allan Poe sweater is in stock now (which means if you live within reasonable driving distance of Seattle, you could definitely get one in time to give as a gift), costs $42.50, and is ‘One Size Fits Most’. It’s also unisex, which means ladies with curves could have a problem fitting into it, but we have yet to hear a female complain about it. Here’s the more detailed write-up direct from the Archie McPhee product page for this cool item:

Just say Poe to Halloween sweaters

This is a limited quantity, exclusive item! Some people prefer Halloween to any other holiday and this Edgar Allan Poe Sweater is for them. You could wear it as a Christmas sweater, but it’s designed to be worn on a brisk autumn evening as you contemplate your own mortality while sitting in a graveyard next to an abandoned church. Featuring an honest, but misguided attempt to accurately capture the likeness of Edgar Allan Poe, this sweater is sure to be a conversation piece with you and your friends as you play with a Ouija board and read poetry from your tear-stained journal. This one-size-fits-most sweater is sausage-casing-tight on a 2XL person and awkwardly loose on a medium frame. 100% acrylic. Buy it fast—these won’t last long!!

It may be limited edition, but the sweater is in stock. That’s a pretty awesome ~~self-justification~~ reason to pick one up– hey, they have them now, but once they’re gone, they’re gone! You might be able to find one on eBay after they go out of stock, but you know they’ll crank up the price, even if they’re used. Hey, you might as well grab the tattoos while you’re at it. The price is reasonable, and come on, check out this sample (click on it to go to the Archie McPhee’s purchase/detail page for the item). HOP FROG is on there, for Chrissakes!

Click image to go to Archie McPhee’s and get a better look! Maybe you will find your lost Lenore…

So, there you have it, give great gifts for horror fans to give and get. We ran this countdown admittedly a little closer to Christmas than we’d like, but we wanted to find extra cool stuff …and all of it ended up merited featuring in a post of its own, rather than lumping them all up in one novella-length post. In case you missed them, here are links to the other items.

The Babadook Actual Pop-Up Book (limited edition)

Festive Cthulhu Tree Ornament

The Journal/Sketchbook Made of Human Skin that looks like it was cooked up by an early Sam Raimi prop department, plus two other unique journals (there’s a good chance that if you go and find one of the Monster Skin ones gone, yours truly finally caved and purchased it for herself).

USB Waving Tentacle (that may or may not summon the Elder Gods)

Screen shot 2014-12-21 at 7.02.25 AM

Aaand of course, the good old Poe Sweater. We hoped you’ve found these items entertaining, if a little late to buy (though you could still make it happen by paying extra shipping). We don’t get a cut of anything sold, and we are also not responsible for any wild spending sprees you go on while looking them up on the Archie McPhee site, Etsy.com, or ThinkGeek.com.

If you buy any of the recommended items, we’d love to see your photos of it! Especially anyone wearing the sweater.

Here’s That Hemlock Grove Season 2 Behind-the-Scenes Werewolf Transformation Clip!

16 July 2014

Leave a comment

We told you they’d put one of these up again and were very happy to find this featurette! Check it out below.

Good for them for using practical effects again whenever possible. This time, they had to figure out how to “pull a full-sized man out of a wolf”!

It’s also cool to see the interviews with the younger actors on the show talk about how much better it looks than CGI.

They’re right–it’s a LOT more work (we’re guessing they had to hand-punch those hairs in individually on the black wolf model, and that’s some serious time and effort to put in), but the pay-off is absolutely worth it.

All ten episodes of Hemlock Grove Season 2 are available on Netflix streaming now. If you’re watching for the effects, we can confirm there is triple the amount of gore than there was on Season One!

Read Variety’s ‘Penny Dreadful’ Review – ‘Solidly Entertaining’, ‘Pulpy’, and ‘Oozing With Atmosphere’

11 May 2014

Leave a comment

Set in 1891, just a few years after the Ripper’s spree, the project capitalizes on the lingering fear created by those events, while playing with the audience’s understanding and expectations surrounding its better-known characters.

Created by John Logan and counting his “Skyfall” director Sam Mendes among the producers, “Penny Dreadful” (a not-quite-dreadful title, derived from the serialized publications of the day) doesn’t hurry the action, and some scenes linger surprisingly long, as the narrative flits around seeking to establish a dense mythology that includes Egyptian hieroglyphics and apocalyptic warnings.

-from the Variety review by Brian Lowry

We’ve seen the pilot, and that description in the title is very accurate. Don’t miss it when Penny Dreadful airs the pilot episode tonight, May 11, on Showtime at 10 p.m.! Did we mention it’s deliciously creepy and really gory?

The Conjuring Sequel and the Enfield Poltergeist?

7 May 2014

1 Comment

Our friend Patrick Keller wrote this interesting piece last year when speculation was going on about which case The Conjuring sequel might focus on. They’re still trying to decide, but in the meantime, this is very good reading–as is pretty much all of the content at his blog, The Big Seance, if the paranormal interests you. There’s plenty of research invested in the case, plus the piece is packed with links and a 12-minute recording so fucking creepy (real or staged) that I am very, very glad I did not listen to it after dark.

Click “View original” in the lower left, as I can’t get the font color for the first part of the entry lighter and more readable.

The Big Séance Podcast

Evidence of supposed levitation from the Enfield Poltergeist/Haunting case. One of the many photos of 11-year-old Janet Hodgson supposedly levitating.

There are rumors floating (no pun intended) around the internet that suggest the story line for the sequel of The Conjuring, now a major box office success, will involve the 1977 Enfield Poltergeist in England. This case involves two young sisters, mainly Janet Hodgson, who were really either great at psychokinesis (PK) or were tortured by an unseen spirit, perhaps the spirit of a man named Bill (who reportedly died in the same house years before), who apparently possessed and spoke through one of the girls. The video below includes the famous levitation photos from the case and audio of the creepy and traumatizing supposed voice of Bill during investigations.

I’ve been reading rumors about a sequel for weeks now, and though nothing is official, apparently the film will again involve the characters of Ed and Lorraine Warren…

View original post 397 more words

Toronto Film Review: ‘Horns’

20 January 2014

Leave a comment

Eric: Well, I’ll be goddamned.
Ig: You and me both. *

We consider the fact that the movie adaptation of Horns (2013) sticks closely to the source material a good thing, since it may likely contains the above dialogue from the novel. We searched, but as of this writing/posting, still can’t find an official U.S. release date, which is really too goddamned (har) bad. On the very bright side: the makers of the film wisely recast the role of Ig with Daniel Radcliffe, since Shia LaBouf (who we do not respect enough to even consider checking the correct spelling of his name) was originally signed to play the lead. We were not exactly thrilled about the ~~mis~~ casting of Juno Temple as Merrin, then we read the news about what a close call they had with casting Ig and that put things in perspective pretty fast. We highly recommend that if you haven’t already, pick up and read the Joe Hill novel to pass the time while we all wait for a release date… but if you tear through it as fast as we did, it won’t kill much time. It’s an average-length novel, but a very fucking fast–and highly addictive– blast to read. When we hear about a US (or even a UK) release date–theatrical or otherwise, but let’s cross our fingers for a theatrical release instead of VOD–we’ll post it here (and we happily welcome anyone who does have that info to please enlighten us, by email or by posting in the comments).

Here’s a link to an informative piece from CinemaBlend, giving the news that at least the movie HAS been picked up for distribution, and talks some more about the adaptations. It’s also one of the few articles that show more than one publicity photo.

Remember Joan Fontaine With This Haunting Clip From Hitchcock’s “Rebecca” (1940)

16 December 2013

2 Comments

As you’ve probably read by now, Academy Award-winning actress Joan Fontaine, the leading lady known for her string of roles as demure, well-mannered and often well-bred heroines in the 1940s, and the younger sister of actress Olivia de Havilland, died today at her home in Carmel, California; she was 96.

She was known best for her back-to-back roles in two Alfred Hitchcock thrillers — the 1940 Best Picture winner Rebecca and the 1941 film Suspicion, for which she won a Best Actress Oscar, making her the only actor in a Hitchcock film to receive an Academy Award.

Her obituary on the IMDB (click her for the entire piece) stated that producer David O. Selznick snapped up the rights to the Daphne du Maurier bestseller Rebecca, in which an unnamed, demure heroine — known only as “the second Mrs. de Winter” — is taunted by the memory of her husband’s first wife, the beautiful and seductive title character. Selznick brought director Alfred Hitchcock over for his first American production, cast matinée idol and rising star Laurence Olivier as moody, mysterious husband Maxim de Winter, and embarked on a Scarlett O’Hara-style talent search for his leading lady. Rejecting Loretta Young, Margaret Sullivan, Vivian Leigh (then Olivier’s wife), and a then-unknown Anne Baxter along with hundreds of other actresses, Selznick decided on Fontaine, who though not an established star projected the right mix of beauty, insecurity, and tenacity needed for the part. Fontaine’s insecurity, however, was heightened by Olivier’s sometimes cruel treatment of her on set, as he had lobbied aggressively for Leigh to get the role, and Hitchcock capitalized on her inferiority complex to shape her performance. The resulting film, released in 1940, was an unqualified critical and financial success, catapulting Fontaine into the tier of top Hollywood leading ladies, establishing Hitchcock firmly in the United States, and nabbing the film 11 Academy Award nominations, including ones for both Fontaine and Olivier; it would go on to win Best Picture.

Below is a classic nine-minute clip from Hitchcock’s Rebecca – the one that first jumped to our minds whenever we thought of her acting in the film.

And here’s a fan-made trailer for the film:

RIP, Ms. Fontaine. Your fans will miss you dearly.

Rebecca – Alfred Hitchcock (mrmovietimes.com)
Joan Fontaine: Hitchcock’s First Leading Lady in Hollywood (themoviola.com)
Joan Fontaine, Hollywood Heroine (famousdames.wordpress.com)
Rebecca (1940) (theblondeatthefilm.wordpress.com)

Vote In Our New American Horror Story Coven Poll! If You Could Have A Witchy Power…

5 December 2013

Leave a comment

How many times have you been watching a witch on American Horror Story Coven doing something an ordinary person can’t and thought, You know, that’d come in pretty handy a few times. I know I have. Being able to do something you’d normally get in trouble for (nothing too horrible) and then telling whoever saw it or helped you, “I’d thank you, but of course you won’t remember any of this” like Fiona can? Or just wave someone inconvenient out of the room? Yeah, that’d be pretty cool. Looking like I was thirty or so for decades after that would be pretty sweet, too. However, that’s when the longtime horror fan in me kicks in. I’ve been reading 50s EC Comics since the 80s, which would be enough to scare me off magical anti-aging cures as it is. Combine that with seeing even more mainstream movies like Death Becomes Her, and my brain will remind me of way too many ways that could go horribly, horribly wrong. Plus, there’s usually a huge price to pay for it (selling your soul being the most common). Many of Stephen King’s best books –take Carrie, The Dead Zone, Firestarter, and The Shining (all of which I’ve also been re-reading since the 80s), for example– teach readers that mind-reading, pyrokinesis, and telekinesis have a serious dark side. Let’s not over-think it, though, and go with the American Horror Story Coven rules for these powers (some of which Coven has already showed us the ways these powers can backfire, especially if you need intensive training on how to control them). Whose power/s are you REALLY envious of? Tell Horror Boom in this poll, then see the results so far, and don’t worry, your anonymity is perfectly safe; even the person in charge of everything (that’d be Mrs. Horror Boom here) couldn’t ID you. Have fun!

We were unable to find the artist/copyright for this cool piece of work. If whoever created it wants credit or would like us to take it down, please contact us and we’ll be happy to.