15 Fave Freaky Fictions

And by "fictions," I mean "books" but, you know, #alliteration. Here are 15 of my fave scary reads (so far), in order of publication date bc the idea of trying to rank them makes me feel faint. They're linked to their Goodreads pages, where you'll find buy links so you can check out pricing at your purveyor of choice, if you're so inclined. Publishers' book blurbs are in purple italics; my thoughts follow.

Terror Teaser and a Repost

The Terror Teaser

This October, watch this spot for some peculiar, possibly perilous, and probably possessed posts for Spooooooookyyyyyyy Seeeeeeeeasooooon 2024. My Reign of Terror begins next week with my first love, music, so be sure to tune in* for your Halloween decorating soundtrack.

*see what I did there?

The Repost

Here's an entry from my 2013 series, Aphrodisiacs from A to Z, which touched on the various things believed to rev up folks' motors in the sex-ay department. This was my H entry, Horror Movies, and may have* some tweaks, as well as new nonsense sprinkled in here and there.

*it definitely does

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Horror movies have been popular from the beginning of cinematic history, in large part pushed by young Hollywood for their very commercial scariness. Why so commercial? They reckoned fellas would take their gals to the local drive-in, so the chicks could get spooked right into their letterman-jacket-clad arms, and voila—sexy-fun good times in your dad's Buick. Well, OK, there's a bit of truth to the fact that getting freaked out makes you seek comfort, but sexual healing? Really?

Yes, in actual fact. Really.

Review: Suburban Hell by Maureen Kilmer

Dig that groovy cover, y'all!
(But please ignore my thumb.)

Suburban Hell by Maureen Kilmer 

My rating: 4 of 5 stars*
*3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

About the book:

A Chicago cul-de-sac is about to get a new neighbor...of the demonic kind.

Amy Foster considers herself lucky. After she left the city and moved to the suburbs, she found her place quickly with neighbors Liz, Jess, and Melissa, snarking together from the outskirts of the PTA crowd. One night during their monthly wine get-together, the crew concoct a plan for a clubhouse She Shed in Liz’s backyard—a space for just them, no spouses or kids allowed.

But the night after they christen the She Shed, things start to feel . . . off. They didn’t expect Liz’s little home-improvement project to release a demonic force that turns their quiet enclave into something out of a nightmare. And that’s before the homeowners’ association gets wind of it.

Even the calmest moms can’t justify the strange burn marks, self-moving dolls, and horrible smells surrounding their possessed friend, Liz. Together, Amy, Jess, and Melissa must fight the evil spirit to save Liz and the neighborhood . . . before the suburbs go completely to hell.

*    *    *

Spook Out! Day 13 ~ The House at the End of Time (2013, In Spanish w/Subtitles)

Amazon Says...
"A mother imprisoned for 30 years for the murder of her husband returns to her home, but the supernatural events, which led to her crime, come to haunt her and reveal a sinister secret about the house."

I Say...
^The summaries I've read for this film are a bit of necessary misdirection, but to explain further would mean depriving you of the pleasure of discovering The House's mysteries for yourself. (So I won't.)

Horror Type...
Horror, Suspense, Family Drama, Fantasy

Main Players...
Ruddy Rodríguez as Dulce (Badass Mom)
Gonzalo Cubero as Juan José (Loser Dad)
Rosmel Bustamante as Leopoldo (Loving Son)

I liked...

• Rodríguez's portrayal of the harried mom--financial worries and her sometimes annoying sons stress her to the max but you never doubt the love she feels for her kids (actually, she's just masterful in this, period)
• the set design--I've never felt so twitchy watching a deteriorating house as I felt watching this one
• the hot priest who seeks to offer Dulce spiritual solace (that's not a euphemism--he really is just a good guy doing his job)
• how they take your basic haunted-house story and spin it into something wonderfully bizarre
• the sweetness that emerges in the third act; it may seem hard to believe but this movie provides a heart-warming (though not treacly) ending I just love

The Meh...

• the dad of the piece experiences a legit heartbreak but then seeks vengeance against a vulnerable innocent, which is totally believable but ugh
• I feel like knowing something more of the experiences of previous tenants of the house would round out the narrative (but perhaps a sequel's in store that'll provide just that?)

Would I recommend it...?

Definitely watch this award-winning film! It has some good scares that aren't OTT, though there are moments of violence.

Miscellany...

The Spanish title is La casa del fin de los tiempos, which means "The House OF the End of Times." Not to split hairs but once you've seen the movie, you feel the difference.

Ratings...

My Grade: A
Rotten Tomatoes Scores: Tomatometer=Not Available, Audience Score=72%

Details, Schmeetails...

I Watched The House at the End of Time on Amazon (the Rotten Tomatoes page linked above provides links to other host sites)

The House at the End of Time's IMDb Page

The House at the End of Time's Wikipedia Page (Contains Spoilers)

This concludes day 13 of

Horror Movies ~ Aphrodisiacs from A to Z

By Screenshot from "Internet Archive" of the movie Dracula (1931)
(http://www.archive.org/details/Dracula1931-Trailer) [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons

Horror movies have been popular from the beginning of cinematic history, in large part pushed by young Hollywood for their very commercial scariness. Why so commercial? They reckoned fellas would take their gals to the local drive-in, so the chicks could get spooked right into their letterman-jacket-clad arms, and voila—sexy-fun good times in your dad's Buick. Well, OK, there's a bit of truth to the fact that getting freaked out makes you seek comfort, but sexual healing? Really?

Yes, in actual fact. Really.

Y U SO SEX-AY?
In the 70s, some weirdos thought to conduct an experiment on poor unsuspecting folk, to see if fear-induced physiological arousal could be misattributed as sexual desire. And damned if they weren't right. The rapid heart rates and breathing caused by the fear-inspiring stimulant seems to have been mistaken for sexual interest in the (previously unknown to them) folks tossed in their paths during the scary incident, whom they later asked out for dates! And that jazz has worked on gals and guys.

OK, I'll buy that for a dollar. But here's my own personal take on this: I dig horror flicks, but liberally mixed with humor. If it's a truly frightening film, any fella wanting to "comfort" me had better be sure we watch it in the morning so I've got time to get the sexy-fun-good-times sorted out and enough time to get the movie outta my head, else I ain't sleepin' that night. And if I ain't sleepin', neither is he.

Hmmm...that could be turned to my advantage, couldn't it?

RECIPES
This gets a bit tricky, as tastes for horror and sexy vary widely. So I can only go with what has been scary/sexy for me. If you'd like to share in the comments, I'm totally interested in learning what's proved scary/sexy for you.

• The Company of Wolves (1984) W00F!
• Sleepy Hollow (1999) OhMahGah, it's cray-cray, but the blood thrills through my veins whenever the Horseman charges on, masterfully wielding his...sword. For realz, though.
• Dracula 2000 (2000) I know I'm one of the few folks turned on by this flick, on any level, but damn: Gerry Butler! Gerry Butler sexing some chick up so fine they be floatin' up to the ceiling during the sexing!!!!!

Ahem.

Click here to learn more about horror movies.

Source

Here's a wee homage to the lust-inducing genre by, appropriately enough,

The Bollock Brothers.

Blog, the First

Some...

...girls are bigger than others?

...day, someway, maybe I'll understand you?

...people dance cheek to cheek?

...like it hot, and some sweat when the heat is on?

...times the truth is harder than the pain inside?

Dark...

I first became aware of mortality, generally, and of my own in particular, when I was about five. I was in kindergarten at a Catholic school and, as my classmates speculated about that spring's Easter Bunny haul, I was haunted by the "Davey and Goliath" Easter special, in which Davey's grandmother dies, which I seem to recall thinking was pretty messed up. (GAH, just watching this clip tied my stomach in knots.)

Anyway, my mind's traveled a gloomy trajectory ever since, though I prefer my doom with a liberal dose of L.O.L. (I adore "Shaun of the Dead"). Also, I prefer supernatural monsters to psycho-killers (though the Talking Heads tune is groovalicious), 'cause they're, like, totally not real. Probably. Anyway, as time goes by and the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune perforate my poor, tortured psyche, I find I gravitate even more closely toward that which is...well, dark.

Romantic...

I gravitated toward books at an early age too - possibly, my first literary obsession was the Nancy Drew series. Sure, I enjoyed a good, neatly resolved mystery, and how could I fail to love that it was the chicks who figured everything out??? But, being completely honest, the thing that absolutely drove me to read more, more, MORE was the hope that something...special would happen between Nancy and her boyfriend Ned. I wanted their love to blossom. At the tender age of 9 or 10, my sweet, school-uniformed, unquestioning-obedience-to-authority, butter-wouldn't-melt-in-my-mouth self wanted Nancy and Ned to...put on some Marvin Gaye. (I had no idea what this meant back then, and yet somehow, I kinda did.) And beneath what I sensed was a physical event I believed should lie a grand, passionate, everlasting love...and since Nancy had it all, I wanted it for myself, with one whose heart could match the nobility of my own.

So, as dark and somewhat twisted as I am, the romantic in me allows hope to dance her dangerous way through my heart...which brings me here to pollute the world with my nonsense, 'cause, you know, all the other kids are doing it.