Articles in Horror Volume 1 Read online

  Contents:

  My Myth of Vampires

  Goth and Horror

  History of SciFi in Horror

  Zombies on the Rise in Haiti

  Horror Religion & Voodoo

  Torture from Limb to Limb

  These are a set of articles that have been published online. They are an example of my writing style and I hope you check out my novel 'Rhinehoth' available on Amazon.com both in Kindle and paperback. Thank you and enjoy,

  Brian E. Niskala

  [email protected]

  Copyright 2010 Brian E. Niskala

  My Myth of Vampires

  by Brian E. Niskala

 

  Vampires, everyone loves them, but what makes sense vs. the reality check.

  Stake in the heart: In the movies they are classically killed with a stake through the heart. When it comes right down to it, anything that gets a stake in the heart is going to die.

  This just makes sense and successful in most of the text and main stream movies.

  Holy water: Well if you are from the old world, something blessed is sacred by God. Holy water through the history of early vampires has represented a cleansing or spiritual awareness of God and his goodness. So thus in earlier times, blessed or Holy water was looked at as a good weapon against the Vampire. But today it burns them, mutilates them even blinds them. But make a little sense of it, can holy water really burn anything?

  It's just water right? But unless you have a super rare allergy to water, I really don't think this is going to work by scalding a Vampire in his/her tracks. It will probably really piss them off! Last films I can remember this being a main stream weapon in was 'The Lost Boys 1987', 'Bordello of Blood 1996' with a much thinner, younger Dennis Miller and 'From Dusk to Dawn' being a more recent release where Holy water was used with some success.

  Cross/crucifix: Representing the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Evil of man being defeated by the grace of God) used prolifically as holy water in early text and films. Let's face the reality check here, unless Vampires fear the cross is going to be staked into their heart, I say there is nothing to really fear here or for that matter of a Vampire's hand touching it, turning it into flame as in 'Fright Night 1985'.

  Just think of it more rationally what we know about science as a whole. You need intense heat or a laser to spontaneously combust any wooden cross. Last two films the I can recall that a cross working in would be 'From Dusk Till Dawn' and 'Dracula 1997' Anne Rice kind of killed the cross's power in 'Interview with a Vampire 1994' when Daniel Malloy (Christian Slater) asks Louis de Pointe du Lac (Brad Pitt) about his/vampires fear of crosses, Louis simply replies that he is actually quite fond of them. But a cross still shows up every now and then.

  Garlic: Cloves of garlic around your doors, windows and around your neck, ok, I personally love garlic, but know people and animals that hate it, so really I think this one works, just hope you don't find one that likes to eat the stuff raw. Last main stream film to use this was 'Blade 2, 2002' earlier myths have been that garlic since it grows as a bulb in the ground and with such a pungent odor reminds the Vampires from which they came, from human mortal dead in the ground to immortal undead above ground. But garlic as a whole still has some good staying power on film and in text.

  Sunlight: A clear cut good vs. evil, day-sunlight representing good, night-darkness representing evil. Since humans basically sleep during the night and a total opposite creature would roam at night (unless of course you work for UPS or FedEx loading and unloading trucks in the early hours) In older times before modern electricity and lights most humans were home before sunset and stayed indoors. They knew at night predators like wolves and vampires would roam the country side.

  But here is something that is really controversial; some say Vampires' powers are weakened during the day light hours. 'Dracula 1992' as well as the Novel by Bram Stoker. Other extreme is they will burst into flame and turn to ash if exposed to sunlight or now the modern twist of UV light as used in '30 Days of Night'. Logically, hey there are plenty of animals that hate the sun, including me personally. So this I believe to be true but to the fact, do we really believe they will burst into flames? A more modern take was used in 'Underworld' where "liquid" sunlight bullets were used. Not sure how you would capture ultra violet light into a liquid, but then again science does do some serious almost magical things, but come on Hollywood, don't insult us all the time with this one. (but keep those movies coming!)

  Mirrors: Early mirrors would have a thin coat of silver melted and poured to the back of a pane of glass. Silver also represented purity and as with werewolves and silver bullets, silver was also seen as a way to kill vampires or ward them off. Since most people had these mirrors with real silver on them, it was thought since silver was a purity metal that since Vampires represented evil that they would not cast their reflection since only a "pure" being could show its reflection in a pure metal. A big play on this was 'Dracula 1979' with Frank Langella and Laurence Olivier, perhaps my favorite film of the late 70's early 80's. Though the mirror not only did not cast a vampire's reflection it also did not show their clothes either? hmm how does that work?

  Turning into bat/wolf: Well I have seen women turn into something else right before my eyes. Mind you, I love women but both male and female know what I am talking about here. Caterpillar into a butterfly, tadpole into a frog, so on that grounds, sure possible, as fast in the movies? See description of "women". The transformation of Vampires in other forms of beings can easily be related into the thought of Satan being as other people, demons, ghost or beings. So it was only natural for literature and film pick this up as another dramatic representation of Vampire's powers.

  Are Vampires real?: Great question, vampire bats, do exactly what Vampires are suppose to do, drink blood with fangs, wonder around at night and scary the heebie geebes out of us when you get a "fly by". No questions there, easily enough to adapt to another creature doing it because they already have one that does. Have I met one, sure plenty, search Facebook to find hundreds, walk down the street at night or check at work for people who suck the life right out of you!

  Quick, short to the point, some light humor, to help bring us into the 21st century with are eyes wide open.

  Goth and Horror

  Modern day Goth has evolved from the 80's punk ties being first coined by a band manager Anthony Wilson of 'Joy Division'. He described the band as 'Gothic compared to the pop mainstream' the scene eventually started taking on a more 'Gothic' look, dressing in darken clothing, mimicking the tall shadow filled buildings of the Gothic Period.

  Goth transformed from its musical sub-culture to a way of rebelling against the average daily grind of society. Today it has people from all cultures, careers and musical genre. It has become as mainstream has the Harley Davidson bikers now who are Doctors and Lawyers amongst them.

  The core of Goth in its relation to horror was represented in 'The Crow 1994' with the now deceased Brandon Lee where the main character spawned make-up of long running veins of black vertically on his eyes and dark black hair with clothes to match. This tied the two together nicely and it stuck.

  Gothic horror originally was coined as Gothic Fiction with it's know start with a novel by an English author named Horace Walpole with his 'The Castle of Otranto' 1764. His work can be scene and emulated by such greats as Bram Stoker, Ann Radcliffe and the drug delusion and disease infested Edgar Allan Poe.

  Goth really comes from the type of architecture called Gothic, which flourished during the medieval period. It can be dated back to 12th century France and late into the 16th century but obviously never lost its appeal. Gothic architecture is known for
its high peaks, pointed arches, ribbed vaulted ceilings and flying buttresses. Their windows were often stained glass as in churches and cathedrals with long corridors and hallways. This is what primarily led to the dark eerie shadows cast down from their stained glass mimicking the blood of Christ as the reds cast streams of pooled red color on the floors and walls.

  Dress of the day was bleak with earth tones and darkened color. Primary reason was to hide the stains of dirt and filth which was common since bathing and cleanliness was not high on the list, one of the main factors of the onslaught of bubonic plague otherwise known as the Black Death. These dark times of depression and death can still be felt in the architecture today.

 

  After the coined term of Gothic to Goth, the dark images of 'The Crow' launched the Goth era into the main stream. Out casts who found themselves with-out an image quickly adopted the dark imagery and began the Goth look phenomena. Horror seemed to go hand and hand with this dark depressing look and lifestyle. Goth finally found a sub culture in society a place where the 'different' can finally find a sense of companionship, certainty and a sense of belonging. Their clothing is what separates them from the 'norm' of society, it is always dark, depressing and with a touch of outrageousness. Tall black boots, skin tight black pants, long black dresses and chains to accessories with are just a few examples. The vampire scene also follows closely to the Goth scene; the two are often confused but closely related. Both cultures wear similar dress but the main separation is usually the vampire scene works very hard on keeping themselves sheltered from the sunlight and pride themselves on being as pale as possible.

  This mass of certain genre has launched films such as 'Nosferatu 1922' 'Phantom of The Opera 1925', 'Batman 1989' 'Edward Scissorhands 1990' 'The Crow 1994' 'The City of Lost Children 1995' 'Sleepy Hollow 1999' 'The Nightmare Before Christmas 1993' 'Dark City 1998' 'Blade 1998' 'Queen of The Damned 2002' 'Underworld 2003' to name more than a few.

  Tim Burton Directs most his films in a Gothic manner, most obvious are 'Corpse Bride' 'Nightmare Before Christmas' 'Batman Returns' most of his films have this dark Goth feel to them. As his films sold millions, the culture grew. The current director of Avatar James Cameron also tied some the culture together with SciFi Gothic Horrors 'Aliens 1986' 'Terminator series' and 'Dark Angel 2000-02' TV series that helped launch Jessica Alba's career.

  Horror may not be the choice of all Goth's but it has become synonymous with it.

 

  The History of SciFi in Horror

  Growing up in the 80's for the most part, I found myself a Horror fan as much as the next kid. My best friend Wally and I joined a local movie-rental club; we would ride our bikes down to the movie place and rent every horror film the guy had. Being 13-14 it was great because he would let us rent the -R- movies with the gratuitous nudity in them. Looking back, I am still not sure if we rented them for the gore or the girls. But I think it was for the girls with the "cover" of the gore to fool our parents! Let's not confuse gore with Al Gore who to me is honestly as scary.

  Like most of the SciFi Horror fans, I stumbled across their complexity merely by accident. Attracted towards the cheesy 'Firday The 13th' (1980's) films with almost zero plot and all gore, except for the fore mentioned gratuitous nudity. It wasn't until our "Rental God" suggested 'Alien 1979' to us that we really thought we found something. It represented horror but in a whole different back ground with spaceships, people being blown out into the vastness of space and one crazy looking puppet that came screaming out of a guys belly! Now up until that time, I was never so scared until I saw that scene. Sure the cool hack 'em up gore stuff was plenty scary, but this stuff made it hard for me to walk home at night! Crazy, I thought an 'Alien' was going to jump down from a tree and eat me, obviously far more less likely than a homicidal maniac jumping from behind the tree with a chain saw right??

 

  SciFi horror stimulates our intellectual thought patterns, we know the technological back-drop does not exist, but it could in the future. It applies to our natural instinct to build something better, something fantastic. The sense of the horror behind that somehow makes it more developmentally credible.

  Mary Shelley's literary master piece 'Frankenstein 1818' is probably the oldest most widely known Scifi Horror that exists. It was way ahead of its time even for today, but somehow the crude science behind bringing Frankenstein's monster to life is so credible. Even today we know it is impossible to re-animate dead flesh no matter how much 'Re-Animator 1985' tries to convince us! 'Re-Animator' believe it or not was a very loose, VERY LOOSE adaptation of HP Lovecraft's story "Herbert West: Re-Animator" which is a good read if you like Lovecraft but who doesn't?

  Robert Louis Stevenson who wrote 'Treasure Island' also wrote a SciFi classic novella 'Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' published in 1886. This has been done and re-done as well as the main character(s) have been seen through-out cinema and literature. This is one classic that even today we use its abridged title in everyday life "He/she went all Jekyll and Hyde on me" or any variant of the phrase. I am sure we all know someone with this case of occasional psychosis.

  The 1930's saw the breakthrough of various forms of technological in filmography, make-up and special effects. Making the 1931 film 'Frankenstein' by James Whale come to life. Even seeing this film in the 80's would give you nightmares. Progression moved a bit slower after that led to other releases but no significant breakthroughs until 'The Day the Earth Stood Still 1951' not the remake done with Keanu Reeves which I thought was entertaining, but nothing compared to the 1951 classic which must have been immensely impressive on the early silver screen. With the towering robot standing, shooting out its light ray laser. Not impressive by today's standards, but still a good SciFi classic that will bring a grin to your face.

  Almost standing light years ahead of its time was the 1953 Radio remake 'War of the Worlds' done in film. I have heard the radio cast which was originally done on October 30, 1938, so scary was the original SciFi horror on the radio, it had people calling their local police frantic of an actual alien invasion! Can you imagine! This HG Wells adaptation of his novel is a quick show how horror and SciFi are a match made in literature and cinema heaven.

  Cinema moved quickly with literary hits, 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1956' with 3 following remakes, 1978 and a closely related 'Pupper Masters 2002' and 'Invasion 2007'all based on the novel by Jack Finney in 1955. 'The Thing 1951, 1982' based on a short story by John W. Campbell published in Astounding Science Fiction Magazine, August 1938 issue (good luck finding it, I have been looking for years!) the 1982 film version is a personal favorite of mine and may actually be my favorite SciFi Horror next to 'Aliens'.

 

  Two movies that seem to always be on the top of most of the top lists for cinema SciFi Horror are 'The Fly 1986' and of course 'Alien' though I prefer 'Aliens' for the darker dreary feel. 'The Fly' also a remake from the 1958 with the immortal Vincent Price, this which has a more interesting twist to it?

  "Help me!"

  With the release of 'Avatar' with its life like digital 3D it is to be seen what other literary SciFi Horror will see its remake or new release with spectacular computer generated SciFi effects that will make the space creatures jump right into our lap as with all our intellect and reasoning we will have no doubt that could actually happen.

  Zombies on the Rise in Haiti

  The recent 7.0 earthquake in Haiti on January 12th 2010, which caused massive devastation in and around the capital city of Port au Prince is a tragedy and my heart goes to the people who have to suffer after this natural disaster. But it is feared there will be a rise of zombies.

  I am sure George Romero is not on the next plane down there to capture zombies for use in his next film, but in Haiti it is a known fact of the existence of zombies. So much so there is a Penal code for such events.

  Haitian Penal Code:

  Article 249. It shall also be qualified as attempted
murder the employment which may be made against any person of substances which, without causing actual death, produce a lethargic coma more or less prolonged. If, after the person had been buried, the act shall be considered murder no matter what result follows.

  As bizarre as the law may seem, it would not have been put into law, unless there was a considerable awareness of such facts and phenomena as zombies or a zombified state of being. People of Haiti truly believe there are zombies amongst them. Not a few or a hundred but in the thousands!

  Haiti is known for being the poorest country in the western hemisphere. With this comes the lack of financial revenues to build a school system that we are accustomed to in the United States or in most developed countries. With lack of education come the uneducated spreading rumors, fantastic stories and developing folklore. With their medical system being sub-standard to what we know as modern medicine, it is easy to believe people would be pronounced dead, but later come back from a comatose type state. Up to this most recent tragic earthquake people were still "buried alive". The horror of being in a coma, to only wake being buried in the ground in a coffin gasping for air with the tons of earth over you pinning you into an eternal slumber silence & darkness.