John Rozum's Blog, page 13

31 Days of Halloween - Day 16 - Movie

A scientist creates a creature that can transform between the form of an attractive woman and a giant, blood drinking, deaths head moth. Peter Cushing is the police inspector out to solve her murders.

The Blood Beast Terror (1968), which Peter Cushing has declared to be the worst movie he's starred in, is not much to speak of. It's plot is essentially that of Hammer's The Reptile (1966) with a little Bride of Frankenstein (1935) thrown in. It's barely diverting enough to sit through, and will, no doubt, be best known for having Wanda Ventham, who happens to be the mother of Benedict Cumberbatch, starring as the were-moth.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 16 - Book

Evil Roots - Killer Tales of the Botanic Gothic edited by Daisy Butcher. The British Library. 2019.


Cryptobotany tales are more prevalent a subgenre than most people think, but are generally less represented, especially in anthologies. Stories of strange mobile, and man-eating plants are only part of the category as this anthology of fourteen stories written between 1844 and 1935 demonstrates. Except for Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter" and William Hope Hodgson's classic "The Voice in the Night" (really a tale of fungus rather than plants), most of the stories will be unfamiliar to most readers. All of the stories in this anthology are enjoyable, some creepy, and show off the wide range of possibilities within this subbranch of horror.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 16

My latest Halloween cut paper piece is this bat lady. It will soon be available to purchase in my store.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 15 - Movie

When a group of people are washed ashore on an unchartered island, they learn the Navy is going to bomb it to oblivion in the next few days. But that's not their only problem. The island also contains Nazis who are experimented on local native girls in an effort to restore the disfigured face of the wife of the head Nazi. The experiments have the side effect of turning the girls into disfigured animal like "she-demons." There's also an exploding volcano.

She-Demons (1958) is a pretty wretched movie. The script is clunky, with some mildly racist jokes, and very little notions of plot development. The acting, to be kind is really stiff, especially the lead, Tod Griffin. The make-up effects, seen above are incredible crude and, with the exception of extra long fingernails, only cover the women's faces leaving their bodies normal. I couldn't tell you if this is a movie so bad it's good. Maybe with enough drinks and a good viewing crowd. On the plus side it's only about 75 minutes long, though it would have felt long at a third of that running time. Sheen: Queen of the Jungle star Irish McCalla is the star, so if you find her easy on the eyes, you've got that in your favor. Richard Cunha, who has made many more movie of about this quality, also directed this one.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 15 - Book

At the Mountains of Madness - The First Volume + At the Mountains of Madness - The Second Volume by Gou Tanabe. Dark Horse Comics. 2019.

Originally published in Japanese in 2017, this English translation of this adaptation of the story by H.P. Lovecraft is exceptional. Nicely paced and developed, Tanabe breathes a sense of awe, wonder and horror into his interpretation which runs about 600 pages in total length. The story follows a group of Antarctic explorers who uncover a vast city predating humankind by millions of years and once occupied by a race of extra-terrestrials. However, something the Old Ones left behind is still there and it brings gruesome death to members of the exploration team.

Tanabe boldly tackles translating Lovecraft's suggestive, yet almost impossible fathom, descriptions of a city build using "non-Euclidian geometry" into an actual impressive cityscape drawn with confidence and conviction. He also brings to life a number of the beings from Lovecraft's mythos in a manner that renders them with believable, yet alien biology.

If you are a fan of H.P. Lovecraft, then you need to do yourself a favor and pick up these two volumes right away.










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31 Days of Halloween - Day 15

Here's a batch of costumes that have come through my feed that I felt were clever, funny, or well executed. Not all were specifically done for Halloween. (above) Harrison Ford for 4 Halloweens

31 Days of Halloween - Day 14 - Movie

When Gloria's (Anne Hathaway)  boyfriend breaks up with her because of her excessive drinking, she moves into her parents' empty house and tries to restart her life, getting a job a a bar owned by a childhood friend. Within days, reports come in that a giant monster has appeared in Seoul, which soon vanishes. The monster keeps appearing in the same location, at the same time each day. Watching one of the broadcasts, she notices the monster has some of her mannerisms, and doing some research discovers that she in fact is somehow connected to this monster and is controlling its movements. When she proves this to Oscar (Jason Sudeikis) , her childhood friend, and boss. They are surprised to discover that he appears as a giant robot in Seoul. From there, things get dark, as Oscar becomes increasingly hostile and abusive, using the situation to keep Gloria with him. If she leaves, he promises to go on a rampage killing hundreds of people in Seoul. Gloria is now desperate to find a way to save herself and Seoul.

When you hear that Anne Hathaway stars in a giant monster movie in which she is the giant monster, you expect something light, comedic and quirky. While there are some amusing scenes, such as her demonstrating that she controls the monster by having it dance the Batusi, Colossal (2016) is an unexpectedly dark and mostly serious film. Even better it delivers the goods. The real drama is the human drama, with Oscar becoming the true monster; dark and violent.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 14 - Books

Spring-Heeled Jack, the Terror of London by Anonymous. CreateSpace. 2014.

I couldn't really tell you anything about the origins of this book. It's cover is taken from a series of  penny dreadfuls published in the 1860s, so presumedly the included text is also, but I don't know that with any certainty. Spring-Heeled Jack was a mysterious figure who appeared on the outskirts London in the 1830s frightening people and impressing them with his uncanny leaping ability. In this book, speculation is made on the author's part that Sporing-Heeled Jack was in fact a Robin Hood-like character; an aristocrat cheated out of his title and holdings by an unscrupulous relative. He uses the guise of Spring-Heeled Jack to win back his birthright and to bring aid to those indebted to his ruthless relation. As an eyewitness account, even thirty years after the events themselves, this is a useless volume that sheds no light, nor encapsulates the actual sightings. As a photo-superhero story, it's at best a curiosity.


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Spirits of an Industrial Age by Jacob Middleton. CreateSpace. 2014.
Spring-Heeled Jack wasn't the only mysterious figure terrorizing England in the 1800s. There were quite a number of 'ghost impersonators" as Middleton refers to them. Here he meticulously documents the various sightings and reports of these frightening encounters, which, in one notorious case, ended up with an innocent man being murdered because he was believed to be a ghost. More interesting than even the mysterious figures, are Middleton's examinations of the metamorphosing form that ghosts took on in their depictions in folklore, story and the customary beliefs of the public. He also does a really nice job at depicting what the living conditions of the time period covered were like and how they lent themselves to a belief that these pranksters could cause so much terror and could be believed as being genuine. If you are looking for something that allows for even the slimmest possibility that mysterious figures, such as Spring-Heeled Jack, might actually have some sort of otherworldly origin, then this book will completely crush that. As a very niche examination of a strange cultural phenomenon, it's an interesting read. 














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31 Days of Halloween - Day 14

Other than the Jack O'Lantern, the traditional image of the witch is probably the symbol most associated with Halloween. As with the Black Cats posted earlier this month, here a bunch of images of vintage witches I've gathered over the years.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 13 - Movie

Resurrected as Mircalla, the 18th century vampire, Carmilla, of the dreaded Karnstein family of vampires, is implanted in a girls finishing school, where she preys on the other students, villagers and a teacher, while finding love in another teacher, before the villagers rise up against her.

Since there are only very few left that I haven't seen, I'm always excited when I finally get to see a Hammer movie for the first time. Lust For a Vampire (1971) is one I've been wanting to see for a very long time. I'd heard it was not very good, and it turns out that view is correct. The characters are not very interesting, and the story just limps along not giving us anything that we haven't seen before. I also kept finding myself distracted whenever Mike Raven as Count Karnstein came on screen, all I could think is that Christopher Lee must have said "no," to this film (I don't know if that's true, or not), and that they cast someone who looks enough like him and sounds enough like him instead. It's overall a very forgettable movie, and no doubt in a few years I'll forget how disappointing it was and end up watching it again.