Here are some more overwrought melodramatics for you.  This is a sneak peek at episode 2 of 'Shilling Shockers' Season 7.  In this episode I present the film 'Crypt of the Living Dead.'  
 

"Season 7 - Episode 2   - Without her Sinister Elixir (see Season 7, Episode 1), Penny Dreadful continues to age towards her true 700 years. Having acquired the eye of a ghoul, Penny is now after the second ingredient to recreate her elixir of youth -- the blood of a vampire. She attempts to revive Rhode Island's famous 19th century vampire, Mercy Brown. Things, of course, go terribly wrong and Penny must enlist the help of vampire hunter Dr. Manfred Von Bulow."

PS - In keeping with our tradition of showcasing strange New England locations and legends, we visit the actual grave of Mercy Brown in this episode - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercy_Brown

photo by Peter Pereira
 

Just in time for Hallowe'en, Penny Dreadful's Shilling Shockers Season 7 is unleashed upon the denizens of windswept New England.

WITNESS: A multi-part mystery as Penny Dreadful and Garou race against time to find the ingredients for Penny's elixir of life as she starts aging to her true 700 years.

BEHOLD: Cinematic terror tales from beyond the grave featuring legendary actors such as Boris Karloff, Vincent Price and John Carradine.

GASP: As you endure the monstrous movie machinations of mummies, possessed children, giant lizards and more horrid beings than you can shake a broomstick at! We even visit the grave of New England's most famous vampire, Mercy Brown.

Shilling Shockers currently scares on public access television in over 150 cities and towns throughout New England and beyond. The show is also streamed live on the internet via several channels. Check www.shillingshockers.com for TV listings, fan club information, live appearances, updated bios, etc.

A new "sneak peek" from each episode will be posted weekly through October and into November.  Here's a look at Season 7 Episode 1. The episode is called "Sinister Elixir" and features The Ghoul (1933).

 

Garou and I had the opportunity to visit Count Orlok’s Nightmare Gallery in scenic Salem, MA this weekend. Now normally when I pop up to Salem I’m greeted with bad “noose” by the locals over at Gallows Hill, but this time we were in for a real treat. Count Orlok’s Nightmare Gallery is a delightful monster museum. We were greeted at the entrance by friendly proprietor James Lurgio and his partner Mark. Mr. Lurgio looked very dapper in his marvelous 19^th century finery. At the front desk we spied realistic, iconic statues of Bela Lugosi as Dracula, Boris Karloff as Imhotep the Mummy and Lon Chaney as The Phantom of the Opera. We chatted with James and Mark for a bit and then they invited us into the mysterious Nightmare Gallery. 

A monstrously macabre menagerie awaited us.    I won’t spoil all the details, but within this strange museum you’ll find all manner of horrid beings. The statues on display were clearly sculpted by very talented professionals. Garou and I spied many realistic creatures and horror movie stars from all cinematic eras – Max Schreck as Count Orlok from Nosferatu, Vincent Price as Prof. Henry Jarrod from House of Wax, Tim Curry as Pennywise the Clown from It and so many others. They were all there.. lurking in the shadows… waiting to pounce on their unsuspecting victims. Informative plaques accompanied most of the life-sized figures. Each plaque explained the details of the film in which the relevant character appeared and their significance to the film. 

As we walked through this house of horrors, the eerie musical themes carried us along. I’m sure I heard the title theme from Suspiria at one point. The lighting was very nicely done and cast the perfect ethereal glow around each character. And full-size figures weren’t the only things in the gallery. We saw life masks from classic horror actors, movie prop replicas and other hex-citing items. 

At the end of the tour, James once again emerged from the darkness to chat with us and bid us farewell. I was a little embarrassed that I didn’t recognize a couple of the characters – not because they didn’t look fantastic, but because most of my horror movie knowledge turns into something of a trickle after the 1970s. There were a couple of modern zombie movie characters I didn’t know about, and one character I really SHOULD have known about from Poltergeist 2! I admit it – I’ve never watched Poltergeist 2. ‘Tis true. That’s something I intend to remedy this October thanks to James’ comments about the film. 

Anywhat, it is very clear that a great deal of love and attention went into Count Orlok’s Nightmare Gallery and I heartily recommend that you visit this marvelous place the next time you are in spooky ol’ Salem, Massachusetts. Count Orlok’s Nightmare Gallery is located at 285 Derby Street in Salem. 

Official website - http://www.nightmaregallery.com/

MySpace -     http://www.myspace.com/nightmaregallery

Garou is hex-cited about this one and I think you will be too...

( Press Release )

Imps,

We'll be at this year's Monster Bash classic horror convention.  It's happening this weekend June 26-28.

http://www.monsterbashnews.com/bash.html
 
Come by and say "EEEEEEEEK!!!"


 

London After Midnight starred the legendary Lon Chaney in ghastly vampire makeup and was directed by Tod Browning (Dracula, Freaks).  This silent motion picture is often cited by terror enthusiasts as the lost film they’d most like to see turn up one day.  While I would certainly relish the opportunity to watch this film (I missed it on its initial release – was busy with some necromancy), it is not my first choice for the lost film I’d most like to watch.  That distinction would have to go to the 1920 German chiller called Der Januskopf aka The Head of Janus.  The shadowy forces of night and might surely convened to create this now-lost film.  Here’s a breakdown of this picture’s horror pedigree:

Der Januskopf is an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novella of the macabre -  The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  Instead of using a potion to transform into the Hyde character, the Doctor here is transformed by the cursed bust of the Roman god Janus.

This lost feature was directed by the filmmaker F.W. Murneau.  Murnau is best known as the director behind the nightmarish German Expressionist classic, Nosferatu (1922).  Murnau also directed an eerie and memorable version of Faust (1926). 

Der Januskopf starred Conrad Veidt.  Veidt, a charismatic actor of great renown, is perhaps best known to horror devotees as the gaunt somnambulist Cesare in the nightmarish classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), and as the hideously grinning Gwynplaine in The Man Who Laughs (1928).

The Head of Janus’ cinematographer was one Karl Freund.  Freund was the cinematographer for such classic films as: Dracula (1931), The Golem (1920), Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), and Metropolis (1927).  He also directed a number of notable films.  These include: The Mummy (1932) and Mad Love (1935).

Hans Janowitz wrote the screenplay for Der Januskopf.  Earlier, he had collaborated with Carl Mayer on the script for 1919’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

The supporting role of Veidt’s butler in Der Januskopf was portrayed by none other than fright film icon Bela Lugosi.  Lugosi’s credits in macabre cinema are too numerous to list here, but include Dracula (1931), Son of Frankenstein (1939), The Wolf Man (1941),  Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), White Zombie(1932), and The Black Cat (1934). 

 
Surely Murnau’s Der Januskopf aka The Head of Janus must have been a silent sight to behold.  Hopefully this film, as well as the long-lost London After Midnight, will turn up in some dusty film vault one of these days.

Edgar Allan Poe had a love/hate relationship with his native city of Boston. He praised the city’s pumpkin pies, but derided their bad hotels and “not so good” poetry. Poe was born in Boston in 1809, left the city to live with relatives when he was a child, and later returned for a time to serve in the military. This period of military service ostensibly inspired his tale The Cask of Amontillado. Poe’s first book of poems was entitled “Tamerlane and Other Poems” by ‘a Bostonian.’ 

Alas, Boston’s literary elite didn’t see eye to eye with the master of the macabre. For example, a Boston critic referred to one of Poe’s public readings as “rich in intense twaddle.” Poe, in turn, held a special rancor for Boston’s literary establishment (particularly Longfellow) claiming they were “incapable of recognizing a decent poem if it fell onto their precious Common.” Poe’s delightfully snarky scorn for the city of his birth is evidenced by his frequent referrals to Boston as “Frogpondium,” in reference to the frog pond at Boston Common. 

Interestingly, near the end of his life, Poe expressed a desire to be buried in Boston (he’s buried in Baltimore, which is the city he’s most identified with). Boston held on to its grudge however. Up until now, the only local acknowledgement of Poe’s Bostonian birth was a small plaque near Boylston Street. This has finally changed however, as Boston seemingly let go of its grudge against the Melancholy One several weeks ago and dedicated the new “Poe Square” in the city. 

For this, I doff my hat to you, Frogpondium.

Read the article here:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/04/square_named_fo.html?camp=localsearch:on:twit:metro

Some other interesting articles about the rocky relationship between Edgar Allan Poe and Boston:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/01/28/poe/?page=1

'Tis I, Penny Dreadful the witch - hostess of New England's hex-cellent TV horror movie show
 'Shilling Shockers' - www.shillingshockers.com.  Rather than bother with my usual methods of communication - spirit boards, necromancy, seances - I've decided to start this page so that I may share with you my hex-periences in the realm of the unknown.  In other words, I'll be bringing you occasional thoughts on terror films, books, TV, music, supernatural history and that sort of thing.  Stay tombed for more...