Author: Elsa L

Categories
Movies

Movie: “The Woman”

The Woman Movie Poster

Be prepared for a unsettlingly creepy and weirdly gory viewing with The Woman (Bloody Disgusting Selects), directed by Lucky McKee, based on a book by Jack Ketchum and Lucky McKee, also titled The Woman. If you expect to be surprised, you’ll be in a good position for watching this seemlingly straight-forward story about a family that takes in a feral woman.

The Netflix description had setup certain expectations for me which the movie destroyed coming out of the gate. The description on the envelope claimed we would watch the family breakdown as they attempted to “civilize” a feral woman, but from the first scene the family dynamics alone sent a shiver down my throat.

A sticky, icky candy-coating shines right from the scene where the family are guests at a barbeque. From his perch on the deck, the father gazes out at his miserable and uncomfortable teenage daughter and scolds his wife. Around the corner, the adolescent son practices free throws, while ignoring a group of boys tormenting a little girl. You can’t put a finger on it yet, but there’s something wrong in this house.

The action gets rolling when the father finds a wild woman living in the woods. He immediately prepares for her capture by putting the family to work on clearing an outbuilding, a project which they all undertake immediately and without question. Back in the woods, he traps the woman, knocks her out, and then takes her to the building and restrains her. He enlists his family in the project of helping “fix” her.

Ultimately, “The Woman” is a film that’s as much about power as it is about horror. The movie delivers both the gore and violence one expects from a horror film, but it packs the emotional punch of a well-rendered drama as it explores the power inequalities within the family and between the sexes. Don’t be surprised if certain dialogues make you cringe just as much as the scenes of bit-off appendages or torn-off skin. Like with any good film, expect the ideas in the movie haunt you in the days that follow.

Categories
Nightmares

Nightmare #350: Bloody, bloody nose

Photo: Washington & Jefferson College, Creative Commons, some rights reserved
Photo: Washington & Jefferson College, Creative Commons, some rights reserved

(Female 40’s) I don’t know if this counts as a nightmare, but it was a bad dream. It’s got the same things happening as other bad dreams I’d had, which is kind of funny when you think about it: pain, embarrassment, lots of blood, and not being about to find the bathroom.

I was on a trip at a hotel with some friends. I’d gotten separated from them, and I was wandering around among the common areas of the hotel, like the bars, meeting rooms and reception rooms. I realized that I was breathing strangely, like my breath whistled in my nose and it hurt. I slid my fingers up the skin on the side of my nose, and I could feel it was all lumpy, like something was huge stuffed way up deep inside my nose. At my nostril, my fingers touched the end of something sticking out that felt like a green bean! What the hell? I wondered. How did I get a bean stuck up my nose?

So without thinking too much, I yanked it out. The bean came out in one piece, but it hurt like hell, and my nose began to bleed. I didn’t have a tissue, so I plugged closed with my finger, but it was bleeding hard. I walked around then, trying to find the bathroom.

I came to a bar and looked around the edges of the room, but I didn’t see any signs or arrows. There were some men drinking; I didn’t think they’d know where the women’s room was. I saw waitress and I asked her, forgetting to hold on to my nose so the blood started to pour out again. She said this bar didn’t have a women’s room and I should try another one.

I walked around again and I came to an arcade, a big one, like those arcade rooms a lot of hotels used to have, only bigger. It was full of pinball machines, skeeball, driving car games, everything. Then I saw a pay toilet! That made perfect sense. I almost laughed out loud, but then I realized I didn’t have any change. Plus someone else was just going into the room. So I left again.

I came to a conference hall. I started to walk across this huge room full of people and booths and tables, and I saw a table with a big spread of sandwiches. I was suddenly very hungry. I picked up a sandwich, and my nose began to bleed again, so I held the sandwich in one hand and my nose with the other and hurried away. I had to get some tissue soon or sit down somewhere. I still had a bloody nose and I was starting to feel faint, and then I woke up.

Categories
Other Haunts

A Haunted Michigan Vacation

Postcard picture of Eloise Asylum, Wayne County Michigan
Postcard picture of Eloise Asylum, Wayne County Michigan

Sometimes, when looking for excitement and adventure, one has to go no further than one’s own backyard– or one’s state. Although I am Michigan born and bred, I have been informed that “Pure Michigan” was waiting for me, but I was not fully aware that “Haunted Michigan” was also right here for me to explore.

I recently found two lists on the Awesome Mitten website that are now inspiring a host of summer travel plans. In “The Ten Most Haunted Places in Michigan” and “The Ten Most Haunted Places in Michigan: Part Two“, writers for the Awesome Mitten provide details on Michigan restaurants, homes, theatres, light houses and hospitals that all offer a little something extra in the spooky realm.

I have visited only one of the 20 haunted places mentioned. The stunning Masonic Temple of Detroit has been the site of Theatre Bizarre for the last 2 years, and the Doktor and I thoroughly enjoyed both events. The space was teeming with all manner of persons and costumes, however, so if I encountered any real ghosts, I simply chalked it up to superior costuming skills.

Where to go first is the real question. Michigan is a big state, and many of the destinations are a good day trip away. Nonetheless, we’ll be making a short list of haunted Michigan places to explore and write about. Which ones catch your fancy?

Categories
Nightmares

Nightmare #348: When the Worms Come Out

(Female, 30’s) I had this dream when I was about 5 years old; it’s a vivid dream that I still remember clearly.

I was in the kitchen (in what was, in the dream, “my” house). Tiny red worms started crawling in, covering the walls and floors and ceiling. The room was yellow so they stood out starkly.

I knew they were poisonous, and so I climbed up on the table. They started crawling up the table legs.

I yelled out for my mother and woke myself up.

Categories
Book

The Necronomicon for Kids?

A friend of ours bought this journal for her child.

Journal

Her child thought the journal was scary. Now it’s ours.

Necro

Look familiar?

Categories
Nightmares

Nightmare #347: Assassination Attempt

(Female, 50s) This nightmare had a very realistic feeling, which made it even more confusing. I mean, assassination? Really?

My husband recently passed away, but in the dream he was still alive. The weird thing was we were in bed sleeping in the dream, and then we heard noises on the stairs coming up to the bedroom. We both woke up and I whispered, “Do you hear that?” He said it was probably our adult son, who lives at home, although it would be strange for him to come up to our room in the middle of the night.

Then someone jumped into the room. It was a guy who I knew back when he was a little kid, but he was grown up now. He was dressed in camouflage and carrying a gun. He laughed a crazy laugh and said, “I’m a hit man, and I’m here to kill you both! The best part of my job is telling people who hired me to kill them! Guess who hired me?” My husband and I were stunned. The assassin said, “It was your son!” and he laughed again.

“I don’t like to watch people I know dying,” he said, “so I’m going to put my hat on before I do it.” The guy pulled out a ski mask, which was more like a hood and pulled it down over his face. Now he really couldn’t see us as all, but he took aim with his gun.

My husband leaped out of bed and knocked the guy down, knocking him down the stairs, and they landed at the bottom with a big crunching noise, with my husband on top of the guy. My husband stood up and said, “Give me the pottery!” — which is strange because we don’t have any pottery in our bedroom. However, I turned to a shelf full of ceramic urns and vases, and I started to hand them one by one to my husband, who smashed them over the unconscious assassin lying at the bottom of the stairs.

I woke up feeling very odd. It was strange to dream about loved ones who were both protecting me and putting me in danger. I wanted to tell my son about the dream, but I thought about leaving out the part about who hired the assassin. Dreams are weird, aren’t they?

Categories
Nightmares

Nightmare #346: Scary Garden, Scary Basement

graverobbed
(Female, 60) In this nightmare, I was at the home of an acquaintance. Susan is a bit bossy and demanding in real life and can even be a little bit scary because she’s so self-assured, but nothing as extreme as dream-Susan! I’ve really been to her house, which is a large modern house on the outskirts of town, and again, it was nothing like where I was in the dream.

The dream started in the garden. I actually met Susan through a community gardening project, but in this dream, that garden was in her huge backyard, surrounded by a high brick wall. A group of people from the gardening project were meeting there to work in the garden, but unbeknownst to us, Susan had hired a group of professionals to come in and tend the garden first.

The people she’d hired were supposed to remove the weeds, but instead they’d completely destroyed the garden. They had dug up all the plants and moved them into design of four plants in a row: four roses, four carrots, four horseradish, four corn stalks, etc. The landscapers had done this to the whole garden! They’d thrown out all of the other plants. Talk about a nightmare, from a gardener’s point of view!

Then things got weirder. My husband showed up, and he and I went into her house, which was a huge rambling Victorian building in really excellent condition. We walked through the house and discovered that Susan had a crew of orphans working for her. There were dozens of children in Victorian factory-like conditions doing laundry, working looms, and manufacturing parts in a spotless tool and dye shop. It was ridiculous.

My husband discovered a storage space that had a window which opened on a room with a conveyer belt. Items were stored on the belt, and when the controls were operated, the items moved passed the window where you could grab them. I think he was just playing with the controls, figuring out how they worked, when we spied something odd– was that a severed head that just went by?

What kind of person was Susan anyway? The kind who destroyed a garden and kept enslaved orphans working in her basement, who had a severed head in her storage closet? We were obviously in danger.

Now he had to work the controls faster to get the long long conveyer belt to circle around and come back. He had to do it quickly before we were discovered. And then we heard Susan’s footsteps upon the stair.

Categories
Elsa Food Other Haunts

“Til Death Do Us Part” — Severed Heads Wedding Cake

Wedding Cake

Oh, to be young and in love, and just starting out in life! There’s the excitement of planning the wedding and coming up with the perfect everything to convey just what you mean to each other. Each aspect of a wedding can be a symbol and an expression of your relationship.

And nothing says “Til Death Do Us Part” like severed bride and groom heads wedding cakes.

The owner of Sideserf Cake Studio in Austin, Texas created these likenesses of herself and her partner for their wedding reception.

Memorable and delicious, I’m sure.

Categories
Elsa Events

Dailynightmare’s Best of 2013

2013 was a horrifically exciting year for the denizens of the Dailynightmare.com. We undertook new projects, traveled to new places, and made new connections.

Here’s a look back at the highlights of 2013:

IF
Face casting date and followup
We ventured to Studio FX 101 to be guided through a day-long, multistep art project that resulted in duplicate faces and the means to produce more. We bathed in the attention of the shop owners and in algenate. It was a truly unforgettable date. Within a week, we were face casting on our own from the comfort of our home. We got additional use from our project in time for Halloween.

Scarfolk
We discovered the strange and oddly attractive village of Scarfolk, a small town in England which is stuck in time. Through alarming 1970’s style public service announcements, Scarfolk keeps its citizens informed about all manner of topics and dangers, from pagan pediatrics to child discipline to “falling disorder.”

monteleone

New Orleans for the The World Horror Convention
A fantastic place for a great event. The Doktor was able to cross off at least two major goals from his life list (visting NOLA and hearing Caitlyn Keirnan speak). Alas, a lack of paranormal experiences and hauntings did not allow him to reach a third.

Ballroom

Theatre Bizarre: The Processional
We had attended our first Theatre Bizarre in 2012, so we had an entire year for the anticipation and excitement of 2013’s event to build. We checked the website frequently and plotted to seduce some good friends into coming along; they turned out to be easy wins after our gushing reports from our first time. Standing in line for tickets on the first weekend was a riot, and the event did not disappoint. It’s perhaps even a lifetime highlight, if the glowy faces and devilish smiles that cross our faces at the slightest reminiscence are any indication.

Impy2

Introducing the Impy at the Three Corpse Circus
This was another project that took months of planning but the results were oh-so-satisfying. We commissioned an award statue from sculptor Jeremy Haney, who was great to work with. The final product exceeded expectations. The film we selected as the winning entry for Cinematic Excellence in Midwest Horror, “Other” by Daniel Delpurgatorio is nothing short of fantastic.

from Amazon.com and .pdf download
from Amazon.com and .pdf download

The Anthology: 13 Quick Shivers from the Dailynightmare.com
Making a dream into a reality is certainly a thrill, and guiding our first Anthology from idea to plan to paperback book was an extremely satisfying project. We enjoyed collaborating with other horror writers, both old contacts and new. We honed our skills organizationally and technically, and we are gearing up for another round in 2014.

2013 was a year full of adventure and discovery as well as snob horror. We can’t wait to see what awaits us in 2014.

Categories
Nightmares

Nightmare #345: Ear Aches and Metal Scraps

Vintage Ear Drops Bottle
Vintage Ear Drops Bottle

(Female, 50s) This might be my oldest nightmare from childhood, and one that’s stuck around in my memory for years. I don’t remember how old I was when I had it, probably around 5. It seemed to bring a bunch of things that I was afraid of together into a big ball of a nightmare.

The dream took place in our basement, which was a room that I was scared of to start. My dad may have recently installed a drop-ceiling — something he did for work — or maybe I had just come to understand how a drop-ceiling hung: that there was some space above between the tiles over my head and the actual basement ceiling. It was a big enough space for a monster to live. No one else in my family knew about the monster, only me, because he was invisible.

The invisible monster hurt me, but there was nothing that could be done about it. One of the ways he hurt me was by making me have the ear aches, that seemed to be a frequent problem in my childhood. From real life, I remember the small blue glass bottle of ear drops from the doctor that my mom would heat up and then drip into my ears.

In my dream, I was playing alone in the basement, which at that time I wouldn’t have done. I didn’t go down there alone at all. My family were all upstairs in the house. The invisible monster came to me and told me to be quiet, that he would tell me a secret.

When he leaned in closer to me to whisper, he took a sharp piece of metal and screwed it into my ear. It really hurt a lot, but I couldn’t stop him. Then he did the same to my other ear, leaning in like he was going to whisper a secret and then twisting a piece of metal into my ear.

Almost needless to say, I woke up with a really bad ear ache.

Categories
Nightmares

Nightmare #344: Worst Nightmares from Kids

(Female, 30’s)
This wasn’t my dream, but my 5 year old son’s nightmare, some years back. I remember it quite clearly.

He woke in the night, as he often did at that age, whimpering fitfully and not quite awake. I made my way through the dark apartment, not turning on any lights because– good god, who wants to encourage a kid to wake up all the way in the middle of the night? So I stumbled through the darkness to comfort him and to coax him back to sleep.

I sat on the edge of his bed, rubbing his back and talking in a soft voice, asking him what was wrong.

“Mom,” he told me, “I had a bad dream.”

“I know. That’s awful, but don’t worry. I’m here. Want to tell me about it?”

“Mom, there was a cat, but he was turned inside out, with his skin on the inside…” He dozed off to sleep.

I remember feeling not so safe and curling up in bed next to him, sleeping there until the morning.

Categories
Elsa Movies

“A Horrible Way to Die” (2010) — Horror Thriller Cure for Heartbreak

Poster- Horrible

Neil Sedaka sang it right years ago: breaking up is hard to do. There are the memories, good and bad, the sort that linger and haunt a person in the middle of the night. There’s the loneliness and now having to do everything on one’s own. The mixture of emotions are enough to drive a person crazy: relief, sadness, regret, disappointment. And then there’s the what-if’s: what if I’d paid more attention, been more supportive, more trusting? Could we have made it work? A major split-up is the kind of event that rocks a person’s foundations.

The 2010 indie horror thriller A Horrible Way to Die takes a unique, pulse-pounding look at the messy aftermath of a relationship and considers the question of what could make the newly single girl’s suffering any worse.

For Sarah, the answer is a horrible secret she’s trying very hard to keep to herself as she progresses through the difficult stages of recovery. She’s moved to a new town, having left her past behind. There’s a new job and a new apartment, decorated a lot like the old one, with pretty white christmas lights hanging in the bedroom. A new relationship appears possible too, so she has to figure out if that is something she wants and is ready for. Most significantly, there’s her new resolution: staying sober after years of existing in an alcoholic fog.

Her big secret is that her ex-boyfriend is a notorious serial killer, the kind with widespread name recognition, a famous mug, and a few fans. When the news breaks that he’s escaped from prison and launched a new cross-country killing spree that appears to be headed her direction, Sarah doesn’t know which way to turn. She can’t be certain if her quiet, anonymous life is keeping her safe or putting her in more danger.

Even as a horror fan, I’m a romantic at heart, so I found that the relationship stories heightened the tension and terror of the movie. But don’t expect a sweet story or a happy ending; there’s gore, violence, and murder enough to keep anyone occupied. The real strength of this film is the solid acting from Amy Seimetz as Sarah and AJ Bowen as the escaped murderer Garrick Turrell. We see their relationship in blurry flashback form, the stuff that memories are made of, and we wait anxiously for their paths to cross again. Given the title, we don’t think that will end well.

Categories
Christmas Events

Happy Krampusnacht to You!

See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
from Wikimedia Commons

If you haven’t been informed: beware! Today is the day that St Nicholas and his mountain troll companion, Krampus, come to visit to the children. To the good little ones, St Nicholas gives gifts, but bad children are punished by Krampus. Depending on whose version of the tale we’re following, bad children are switched, carried away in his pack, chased, or simply frightened into being good.

If you’ve been reading the DailyNightmare, you’ll remember that we’ve discussed Krampus in the past. We reviewed Krampus: The Devil of Christmas, an historical art book here. We think so highly of Krampus that we ranked him as #2 among the best Christmas monsters ever.

In 2013 however, you might worry, as this Christian Science Monitor article implies, that Krampus is being too commercialized. To that we say, pshaw. Although there may be Krampus cards and Krampus-shaped chocolates, the tradition of a demon who punishes and scares us is at its core a frightening proposition that we don’t want watered down.

So whether you are celebrating Krampusnacht quietly at home, making a list of resolutions to do better from this point on or getting your dance party on at a local Krampus party (Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti have an annual Krampus gathering at the Corner Brewery), we wish you a Happy Krampusnacht!

Categories
Elsa Other Haunts Television

Video: Scary Japanese Tire Commercial… with warning!

A good reason, which you may not have considered, for buying the very best tires!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGFWEoCGhi8

Categories
Elsa Nightmares This Just In

What is the Most Common Nightmare?

Over at i09, Robert T. Gonzalez poses the question, “What is the most common nightmare?” To find an answer, he turns to a body of nightmare research generated worldwide since the 1930’s by psychologists Antonio Zadra, Michael Schred and many others.

Interestingly, the criterion of the nightmare studies vary quite a lot. The definition of what “counts” as a nightmare in some, but not all, studies is “a disturbing, emotionally intense dream that ends with the dreamer waking from sleep.” Data collection methods vary as well. Some studies have used dream logs while others have interviews or retrospective questionnaires. Subject pool size (from 200 to 10000) and make-up (students, the “feeble-minded”, nightmare-sufferers, or the general population) are other variables.

For the most part, the Dailynightmare.com list of common nightmares echoes these studies. Although our “data” has been collected through voluntary reporting and “sorted” and “analyzed” by tagging and clouds, our top themes in unranked order are:

Family
Violence
Death
Animals
Monsters
Creepy houses
Work-related

–themes which confirm those found in research.

As they say in the academic business, more research is needed. Please continue to send your nightmares to the Dailynightmare.com for further analysis.

Categories
Elsa Events Other Haunts

21st Annual Marshall City Rec Haunted Trail

Dance of Death Logo

Of all the holiday seasons, the Doktor and I enjoy Halloween best of all. We have our traditions — Nosferatu at the Michigan Theater, decorations and frightening foods, the masques and costumes, the surprises and treats — and we’ve made room in our schedule for a new-for-us annual event, the Haunted Trail of Marshall, Michigan.

We’ll be at this year’s event, The Dance of Death, too. Opening last weekend, the final nights of the Haunted Trail are October 25 and 26 from 7:30pm until 11:00pm. The walk takes place outdoors along Marshall’s Riverwalk; attendees should park at Haunted Trail Entrance, 900 S Marshall (behind the power plant), Marshall, MI. The cost is $7.00. The Haunted Trail is not appropriate for young children; kids under 12 must be accompanied by parent.

Unlike the haunted houses that spring up this time of year, the Haunted Trail is a scripted theater event, with a plot, actors and a puzzle for attendees to learn about and figure out. Like last year’s Haunted Trail, I expect the Dance of Death to be an interactive story that will amuse, delight, and perhaps scare just a bit. I won’t mind at all; I’ll have the Doktor to hold my hand.

Categories
Food Party

Frightful Food: Entrails made of Bananas and Brown Sugar

banana-guts-02
As a fan of horror and food, I was beside myself to discover Kitchen Overlord’s section on “The Noshing Dead.” Delicious recipes with simply GHASTLY presentation. I’m linking here to a dish that resembles entrails made from bananas and brown sugar but equally loathsome and toothsome are the raw muscles made from wine-poached pears. The Kitchen Overlord embellishes the recipes with a cute narrative flair too.

I am reading deeply here and taking copious notes for the Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers parties. Last year was good but with the tips from “The Noshing Dead” this year’s snacks will be KILLER.

Categories
Nightmares

Nightmare #343: Faster and Faster

(Male, 40’s) This is a recurrent dream-image that I’ve had all my life– like as far back as I can remember. It may have started in adolescence, but I’m not sure exactly when.

The set-up of the dream varies– the how or why part — but the dream always leads me to a dark forest at night. There are noises around me, and I’m running. I’m not big on running in real-life, but in my dream, I’m running for what feels like a long, long time. Why I’m running isn’t completely clear either. Am I running after someone or am I running away? All I know is that I’m fearful and I’m running.

And just when I am so tired that I want to give up, a thought occurs to me, like I realize or remember something that I already knew.

So I get down on all fours, and I begin to run again. I can run faster than I ran standing upright and with more energy. And I keep running on my hands and feet through the forest.

Categories
Elsa Events Movies Poe

Vincent Price Film Festival

Vincent Price with Raven

What better way to get in the proper mood for the Halloween holiday season than indulging in the cinematic brilliance of that master of horror movies, Vincent Price.

Happily, the historic Redford Theatre in nearby Detroit, Michigan will host a Vincent Price Film Festival on October 4 and 5, welcoming devotees to witness five classic Price films projected on the big screen.

Redford Theatre Marquee

Tickets are a bargain. The cost is $5.00 per show or $13.00 will get you into all three shows.

The following gems are on the menu:

Friday October 4 at 8pm:
• Diary of a Mad Man (1963) followed The Raven (1963)

Saturday October 5 at 2pm:
• House of Wax (1953)

Saturday October 5 at 8pm:
•8 p.m. Saturday: Masque of the Red Death (1964) followed by The Tingler (1959)

Don’t miss it!

Categories
Nightmares

Nightmare #342: Keep swimming

(Female, 30’s) In this dream I remember swimming along the shoreline near the beach. I tried to leave the water but I had fins and kept getting dragged back into it. I wanted to be back on the land but no matter what I did, the black waters kept pulling me. I remember being frustrated watching my family on the beach cooking out and talking and laughing without me. My grandparents were there too and no one seemed to take notice. But sometimes I would see myself in the water from the beach, but then there came a terrible cry and I was back in the water. This time I saw a fin gliding alongside of me and felt terrified knowing that a shark was gliding beneath the surface. But it didn’t attack. Then I woke up.