sábado, 30 de octubre de 2010

Halloween!!





I'm recovering from our Halloween party last night, which was a great success! 

We tend to go a little bit overboard with our Halloween celebrations and this year was no exception.

There was a great show of  the usual freakish guests, ravenous cannibal babies, deranged lunatics, and festering corpses. 

People stepped it up this year with the costumes and the decorations and did a great job.

Here are some of my favourite costumes, enjoy- and have a great Halloween weekend ^_^


Pyramid Head 


vampire baby...

Snow Queen and Wolf-man

Halo Hell-jumper and Judy Jetson!

Burlesque cutie!

my favourite towel in the  whole world!

Everyone made their costumes from scratch and did such an amazing job ^_^

I love my friends! Happy Halloween!

jueves, 28 de octubre de 2010

Mystique costume test run

Hi my Lovelies, sorry for the dry spell in posts lately, but I've been hard at work on my halloween costume. 

I'm going as Mystique from X-men this year. 










The list of ingredients for this costume were as follows:
  • 2 cans of red hairspray
  • yellow cat-eye contacts
  • blue bodysuit
  • 8 bottles of metallic silver/blue fabric paint.
  • 2 tubes of blue bodypaint
  • blue mascara
  • blue eye liner
  • 1 box of translucent setting powder
Here are some photos from the test-run I did tonight, I think I'm almost ready save a few last details...




sábado, 23 de octubre de 2010

Never forgive me, never forget...



 








miércoles, 20 de octubre de 2010

Trick Or Treat?


The Best Halloween movie I've seen in years, or possibly ever made; if you are looking for a good flick as Halloween nears, check out the movie Trick 'R Treat (2007).
It chronicles four interwoven Hallow's Eve stories that each add a little something extra.

I can't say much..but suffice to know that this movie really has something for everyone... It's just a screaming, bloody mess of the best variety ^_^ Enjoy!!







martes, 19 de octubre de 2010

And They Flew




Image by Carlos Bravo

viernes, 15 de octubre de 2010

Dark Days...






"This sinister object is a Victorian water tower in the back streets of Kennington.  It is one of the few remains of The Lambeth Workhouse where children were "taught to read but not write" and where Charlie Chaplin spent part of his childhood.  The childen would have seen it from a window in their dormitory.

It also appeared in the strange short film "The Black Tower' where a tower seems to follow the narrator around London.


I think I know that feeling."



Image and text re-blogged from The Clerkenwell Kid

jueves, 14 de octubre de 2010

Lover in the Mirror


Where I grew up they did not celebrate Halloween really, it's more of an American and European tradition that was lost on us.  
 That is one of the reasons I am so happy to live in the United states today! 

There is such a large community of people with strong Irish-heritage here that all the traditional legends and folklore are alive and well in our modern oral tradition.

 I love everything to do with Halloween from the origin legends  to the little kids dressing up like ghosts and the dogs dressed as hot dogs.

Halloween postcards were nearly as popular as Christmas cards for the first few decades of the 20th century, and probably vanished when the telephone came into popular use.

Many show legends and sayings that were popular at the time, that are rooted in Irish and Scotch folklore. 

For example these postcards illustrate the belief that if an apple is peeled in a continuous ribbon and thrown behind a woman's shoulder, it will land in the shape of her future husband's initials:




One of the most popular forms of Halloween fortune-telling, was to look into a mirror by candlelight in order to see the face of your future lover reflected in the glass.













If you wanted to take this method up a notch you could practice the same technique yet while simultaneously walking down the stairs backwards at midnight (somewhat treacherous especially by candle-light!)



Below, Mr. Pumpkinhead is attempting one of the more esoteric forms of Halloween divination, in which a clue of blue yarn was thrown into a lime kiln, a rhyme recited, and the voice of one's future intended would then answer from the depths of the kiln:




This card illustrates a little known Halloween ritual in which a wet shirt placed before a fire would lure the "fetch" one's future intended to appear and turn the wet side towards the fire:



This woman is trying her luck with the "luggie bowls"; each bowl has a different liquid in it, and her fate will be read from the one she chooses while blindfolded.





And finally, my personal favourite: picking a straw out of a haystack and reading it to see whether you will still be a virgin on your wedding day!




For more information and images, check out Lisa Morton's website where you can purchase her new book; A Hallowe’en Anthology.

domingo, 10 de octubre de 2010

Danvers State Hospital



This country has a wealth of imposing, lavishly constructed State Mental Hospitals from around shortly before the turn of the century, unfortunately as time goes on and these structures fall into increasing disrepair they are torn down completely and the land is chopped up for condos. 


One of the greatest tragedies of these is Danvers State Hospital, in Danvers, Massachusetts. 

It was designed by architect Nathaniel Jeremiah Bradlee.
Danvers is a magnificent building and was really seen as a triumph of architectural skill and design in 1874 when it was erected. 

Around this time in U.S history, these Asylums were intended to be just that, and to bring a sense of peace, calm and quiet, as well as community and security to those who were deemed "incurably insane." 
Before the discovery of anti-psychotic drugs, there was less of a emphasis on curing mental illness, but rather allowing those suffering from mental illnessness to live out their lives with a sense of calm, safety, and also purpose, as all of these hospitals had jobs for almost every resident.

It was because of all of this labour that these gigantic institutions were able to run self-sufficiently. 
Danvers is one of the most famous historic asylums in this country, and has a reputation for being haunted, which I think few will deny. 

This Asylum does indeed have some dark chapters in it's history, particularly after the discovery of both anti-psychotic drugs, (which changed the face of these institutions forever) shock therapy, and frontal lobotomy which is said to have been pioneered here.

In an institution built to house 500 patients, in the 1920 over 2000 patients were held here and overcrowding was immense, with patients even being housed in the basements.

As with any institution that is understaffed, underfunded and overcrowded, horrendous abuse of the vulnerable invariably occur. 

After patient labour was outlawed, patients were no longer free to roam the grounds doing occupations such as gardening, sewing, carpentry and others, and were instead confined to their rooms often heavily sedated and shackled.  

The Asylum was finally closed down in 1992 after a slow decline of patient population due to the increasing popularity of halfway houses and alternative methods of treatment which saw a marked increase in the homeless populations who were made up largely of these previous inpatients who weren't quite ready to self-sufficient  in society (indeed, some of them never would be). For over a decade the mighty structure was left to rot and decay from the inside out, creating a very surreal and somber atmosphere within its walls.

Sadly in 2005 the land was sold to developers and the process of the demolition of this invaluable piece of U.S history was started. By 2007 all that was left was the Hospital cemetery and the underground labyrinth of tunnels and passageways.

For more information on Danvers and other historic State Mental Hospitals I would highly recommend Asylum  by Christopher Payne.





viernes, 8 de octubre de 2010

Horrorfest viewing list


It has occurred to me that many people are in need of a good viewing list for horrors.
So here for your reference are my personal top ten (or 20) with regard to actual scare factor, that have a special place in my heart. 

To clarify, this list is specifically for creepy or entertaining films, not just outright disturbing or offensive subject matter  ( I have a separate list for those ^_^) 
This has taken me forever to decide but here they are for your viewing pleasure, with the creepiest at the top.
For maximum effect turn out all the lights, turn the sound up and watch alone. Enjoy!

  • The Exorcist (the original version NOT the "version you've never seen")
  • The Shining
  • The Grudge (Japanese version)
  • A Tale of Two Sisters
  • Creep*
  • Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1973)
  • 28 Days Later 
  • Silent Hill
  • Ravenous 
  • Devil (this one is still in theaters....catch it quick!)
  • Black Christmas (original- NOT remake don't waste your time!)
  • El Orfanato
  • Candyman
  • Meet the Feebles
  • Let the Right One In (original version)
  • High Tension
  • American Psycho* (also a funny one)
  • Drag Me to Hell (this one is actually more funny than scary)
  • Casper the Friendly Ghost (had to make the list- it's a classic!)
If thrillers/creepy movies are too tame for you, and you are just looking for straight up gore-fest/offensive/disturbing film experience, most of this genre suffer from being bad movies which just contain some gratuitous scenes. 

Context is all important, so my list contains good or competent movies only, here is my recommended list for you with some favourites but be warned some of them require a strong stomach:
  • Ichi the Killer*
  •  Benny's Video
  • Funny games*
  • Das Experiment*
  • Ken park*
  • Antichrist (it's a must see! just make sure you get the original uncut version...)
  • Dead Alive
  • Natural Born Killers
  • Requiem for a Dream
  • Riddlington Place
  • Human Centipede
  • Old Boy*
  • I Stand Alone*
  • Threads*
  • The Road (book more so than movie)
  • Happiness
  • In My Skin 
*Contains scenes of sexual violence




 FYI: I'll be the first to admit that there are FAR more disturbing films than these out there- I've chosen not to list many mainly because of either real scenes of animals/children being harmed.


Hope these lists are helpful to you and if I've missed something...let me know! Happy Horrorfest!



miércoles, 6 de octubre de 2010

Franklin Castle



Franklin Castle is an eerie structure of dark and foreboding stone that has long been considered a haunted place by architects and the general public alike. 

There are over thirty rooms in the castle's four stories and the roof is designed in steep gables that give the place its gothic air. Secret passages honeycomb the house and sliding panels hide the doorways to these hidden corridors. There have been an unusual amount of deaths within these walls, including a bloody ax murder once took place and literal skeletons in the closet. The Deputy coroner of Cleveland, Dr. Lester Adelson, who examined the bones shortly after they were found in January 1975, judged them to be of someone who had been dead for a very, very long time. Did they date back to the years of the original owners of the house?
The majority of the ghost stories and legends about the Castle stem from the tenancy of its builders. Whether it is a fair description or not, history has painted Hannes Tiedemann as overbearing and dominating, at best. At worst, as a cruel and temperamental monster of a man, capable of the worst crimes of passion.

A number of murders have been attributed to him for generations, though as far as I can tell he was never formally accused during his lifetime, let alone tried or convicted. Nonetheless, it is considered to be a fact that he was responsible for the deaths of at least two women in his household: his daughter and a servant.  
The accounts of the murders vary, of course. 

According to some, the 15-year-old daughter, Emma, (whose official cause of death is allegedly diabetes) was found hanging in the rafters. Another story has the dead girl being Tiedemann's 13-year-old niece, who was killed for being either promiscuous or insane... which could be synonymous for a teenaged girl in the 1880s. Yet others make her Hannes' illegitimate daughter, Karen. Some say the girl (whichever girl she might be) had been caught in bed with his grandson...


The stories say that the murdered servant girl was either hacked to death with an axe in a front turret window on her wedding day in a fit of Tiedemann jealousy (with the neighbors hearing each whack of the axe from outside), or perhaps she was strangled in her bed when Hannes bound and gagged her upon learning of her engagement to another man and her intention to leave him. 

Another version has him tying her up and gagging her before shooting her to death. Some speculate that you can still hear choking sounds in the room where she was killed, but I haven't heard any other references to such sounds.

The stories also tell of the death of Tiedemann's mother, Weibeka, and of several other young children in the family of various childhood illnesses, though there is always an underlying doubt about natural causes. Some speculate that Tiedemann killed his wife, as well-- with poison-- though it sounds to me like Luise died of liver failure, probably drinking herself to death rather than live with the unpleasant Hannes. 

The hidden passages in the house also hide many legends. At the rear of the house is a trap door that leads to a tunnel that goes nowhere. Another hidden room once contained a liquor still, left over from the Prohibition era. During the 1920’s, the house was allegedly used as a speakeasy and warehouse for illegal liquor. The most gruesome secret uncovered in the house came from another of the hidden rooms. 

Here, an occupant found literally dozens of human baby skeletons. It was suggested that they may have been the victims of a doctor’s botched experiments or even medical specimens, but no one knew for sure. The medical examiner simply stated that they were "old bones". 

When the Romanos moved in, things apparently got weird right away. The stories say that on the first day the family moved in, several of their children (there were five total) went to play on the fourth floor. They returned a while later and told their mother of their new playmate, a little girl who dressed and talked strangely, and who refused to leave the upstairs. They continued to play with the girl for quite a while, but could never get her to come downstairs. 

Meanwhile, Mrs. Romano was apparently developing quite a bond with Mrs. Tiedemann. Both women had five children, including twin boys. They slept in the same room of the house. And perhaps Luise chose Mrs. Romano to be the protector of the house. Mrs. Romano apparently often felt possessed in the house, felt that Luise was using her to keep the house's secrets. She said that the spirits were friendly, protective of her and the children, and that she had made a pact with them to protect the Castle.

A variety of investigators visited the house during the Romanos' stay. A team of researchers from the Northeast Ohio Psychical Research Society visited the house, and in the middle of the investigations one member of the team fled and vowed to never return. A writer saw a strange ectoplasm cloud and felt dizzy to the point of passing out when she approached it. A Catholic priest refused to perform an exorcism, telling the family that he sensed an evil presence, and that the spirits were not to be trusted-- that they were only being friendly to Mrs. Romano until they had her in their grasp-- and that they should move out immediately.

The family did move out after Mrs. Romano's ghostly friend warned her of an impending death in the family... but unfortunately, the move did not prevent it: it happened just as the spirits had warned.

These are the FACTS about the Franklin Castle and its first resident. Everything that you have read about Tiedemann ownership is correct to the best of my knowledge. I'm certain that many aspects of it may seem boring and only interesting to anyone who's really into genealogy and early Cleveland Ohio History, but it is all part of the haunted history, tragedy and life of a fascinating family who arrived in this country as immigrants only to leave an enduring American legacy to succeeding generations... 

/www.hauntedamericatours.com/hauntedhouses/franklincastle