May 28, 2009
Anime Series: Jigoku Shoujo
(Yes, yes, I know, another not-quite-horror series. I write about what I actually watch, and I’m in a horror mood lately. Cope.)
An unusual rumor is spreading, among both young and old, from city to countryside: a website, accessible only at midnight, where you can request vengeance against another person. Just type in their name, and the Jigoku Shoujo (Hell Girl) will take them away. Seekers with intense grudges will find this rumor to be true, and the price of revenge greater than they could imagine…
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May 14, 2009
Anime Series: Red Garden
I have something of a love-hate relationship with horror and suspense in media. For the bad ones this pretty much sums up the reason; for some of the better ones (Silent Hill on film, the book The Ring) it’s the fact that I get freaked out enough to practically stop breathing, yet I’m enjoying the piece so much I have to know how it ends.
There’s a third way with horror though – one that ignores the “rule” that our cute spunky protagonist is given a noble motivation and an arsenal of cleverly homemade weapons, then manages to subdue the Big Terrible Evil Thing while suffering no more than a few scratches. Instead of a hero and a villain, two morally neutral antagonists want one another dead, and even accomplishing that won’t bring any personal satisfaction. Basically, life deals a few people the shittiest hands ever, and they play them as best they can. A story where gruesome supernatural fantasy is cut through with the worst of grim reality.
A story like Red Garden.
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January 14, 2008
Book-a-month challenge: January
The House on the Strand
Daphne DuMaurier
My first experience with DuMaurier came from a decidedly odd moment at the library – while weeding the fiction section, I found Don’t Look Back (a horror short story collection) with some very familiar handwriting in the margins, railing at the idiocy of the works therein. Well, any book my ex-boss could hate that vehemently merited at least a look.
I loved it. Though there were times the details were overly mired in their time and place, I was left with the overall impression of a talented author presenting well-crafted tales. So when I ran across The House on the Strand as an audiobook, I figured it would at least keep me occupied until my Rex Stout ILLs came in.
The story is that of one Dick Young, who until recently worked for a major London publishing house, currently figuring out what to do next with his life. It’s also the story of Roger Kylmerth, steward to a minor noblewoman, and keeper of secrets for another, in the 1330s. The connection between them? A curious drug that transports Dick back over six centuries, to observe lives in a world long since gone. As Dick’s fascination with this other world takes over his life, his relationship with his wife and two stepsons grows increasingly strained, and the side effects of the drug harder and harder to conceal.
Read, watch, listen 