Short Story Recommendations

So a couple of these might have been mentioned in previous posts, but I really can't stress enough how great they are. Today I'd like to give you guys a few recommendations for some simple, fun short stories to pass the haunting hours this month. Attached will be pictures of the books I've found them in for easy reference. So, without further ado, let's get into it!

W. S. by L. P. Hartley

Though that may be a mouthful of single letters, this short story was what inspired today's post. I think all of us who read, or who have grown up reading, are victims of our own need to buy more books even when we've got a shelf or two of the ones we still haven't managed to get around to. '11 Great Horror Stories' was one of the many, because I was familiar with more than half of the works in it (The Dunwich Horror, The Judge's House, The Shed, etc.) W.S. however, seems to be the ancestor of a very familiar trope (one especially popular with Stephen King) of a writer having a mental battle with one of his own creations. Sadly, this story was published posthumously, and I can only hope it wasn't autobiographical.

Fish Night by Joe R. Lansdale

Did you honestly think you'd get through an entry of mine about short stories without at least one Lansdale story sneaking in here? Fish Night is one of his more peculiar (though they've all sort of got that title) works about the phantoms of long dead sea creatures float about in the desert that used to be the ocean they lived in. It's such an interesting concept, I couldn't pass it up.

Drink My Blood by Richard Matheson

Throughout middle school, junior high, and high school - - this story was my white whale. I had read about it once in a small encyclopedia entry, and was obsessed with finding it. Now I may not be ancient, but it was a lot harder in the early to mid-2000s to find out of print books unless you dealt with certain vendors or were old enough to have a card and drop some cash online (which I was not). So when I finally stumbled on this book at a garage sale several years ago, and at long last got to read the story by Richard Matheson about a young boy obsessed with becoming a vampire, it was the best feeling in the world. Yes, it didn't live up to the hype, but I still highly recommend this story (if you can find it. It'll be a lot easier now than it was then...)

Sabrina by Don Wulffson

This one is not so much terrifying as a little upsetting (especially if you're an adult). A young boy falls in love with a beautiful performer, and things work out in the most twisted way possible thanks to a few nasty adults. For those of you who have somehow read this, I'm sure you'll understand why I had to keep it vague for that bizarre little twist.

A Grave Misunderstanding by Leon Garfield

There's no deep message behind this one, nothing beyond the whole 'man's best friend' concept wherein a dog keeps his master safe from a pretty ghost--and, well, a pretty living woman too. It's worth a read for the humor and the oddly poetic nature of a dog's point of view.

Grim and Surreal Shorts

I find that the most surreal and experimental films tend to carry some sense of dread, whether the storyline makes sense or not. Good horror can often go hand-in-hand with experimental cinema. It makes sense, when you think about it. You can't really scare the same audience with the same trick twice. The following are a few classic shorts in the surreal genre I think every film buff (and especially horror fan) needs to watch at least once...if not dozens of times.

Bleed, the Webseries

So here's a funny little web series I watched a few years ago and figured was worth sharing with you guys today. As some of you may know, I'm from Texas. This was filmed in Austin. That's not really important, but I thought it was cool.

The story follows one really bad new vampire and his friend, pretty reluctant to become one himself...but surprisingly good at it, comparably. It's a silly little show with some decent acting, mostly bad...and it's all fun. A good way to spend an afternoon, I think.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like there's any humanly possible way to link the 2nd episode as a video here on Wordpress, so here's the link to their channel for you to view everything by Bleedonlineseries if the first episode has caught your fancy.

Book(s) Of the Week: "Carmilla"

Carmilla

By Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

When I was about 8, my mom went about getting rid of several crates of books she'd collected over the years. It was an annual thing to clean house by making a Goodwill donation stop. Of course I couldn't understand why she'd get rid of so many, so on our way there I dug through the crates. This particular book stood out to me, so I kept it and read it. The cover I posted in this article is the edition of Carmilla I found. There was something very alluring about the way the illustrator drew the girl's red hair. To this day I am glad I kept that book, because it became one of my favorites.

Some stories reach through time and refuse to age. The language used in them is neither overly-flowery nor simple. Carmilla is one of them.

Don't let the many erotic covers, the Hammer adaptations (pumped up with 3 times the sexuality, thanks to the gorgeous Ingrid Pitt) or loose interpretations of Carmilla fool you. It is a wonderful novella from the Gothic period which serves as one of the best ways to introduce a person to the style.

It is about Laura, a young girl telling of her experiences with a beautiful woman named Carmilla. Admittedly, there are some erotic undertones to that element. But what I find strangest about Carmilla, is that there is one particular aspect of the story that gets taken and used in the countless film/television adaptations of Dracula. Despite her lack of humanity and the darkness that lurks behind Carmilla's nature...I always felt she loved Laura. She genuinely loved her in a small way only a soul-less monster of the night could.

The atmosphere is excellent, the story is a classic. If you are an avid fan of anything vampire-related, but you aren't yet ready to tackle Dracula or Varney, this is the perfect stepping stone into the classic genre.

A Short Video: Purgation

I did not produce this one, nor did I write it. In fact, I wasn't even a member of this group in film directing, because mine was a crazier project I've already shared here, but...I did play a minor role in this one as the aunt. Though it does take a few viewings to catch the whole story, the director (Jason Litman) is incredibly talented. His videos were always some of the best in that class, so I thought it would be a good idea to share this one with my readers. 

A young girl visits her aunt, and goes into the basement, then reads a book that causes strange things to happen. Is it a dream, or is it reality?

A Short Video: E-Trade Devil Commercial

So this was one of my earlier projects in a film directing class, and I figured 'what the heck', I might as well share it today, since it's definitely got a Halloween vibe.

Fun fact, that guy playing the devil? He's a fantastic playwright.