'Psycho' heading to TV

Clearly new ideas are like finding a worm's tooth in Hollywood, so no surprise their making a series out of Psycho. My one question was how they're going to bounce that out into a bunch of episodes, but at least they're trying a bit of a spin by making it prequal and going BBC-style with just a 10-episode arc so hopefully we won't get bored or thoroughly disappointed...

'Psycho' heading to the small screen

July 3, 2012, 5:00 AM EST

WENN

Network executives are on the hunt for a new Norman Bates to star in a small screen series based on Alfred Hitchcock's classic horror movie "Psycho."

© 'Psycho' / Everett Collection

A&E is working on a 10-episode show which will act as a prequel to the iconic 1960 film, which starred Anthony Perkins as deranged killer Bates. The series will be titled "Bates Motel" and will tell the story leading up to the Hitchcock movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Casting is set to begin immediately and the show is scheduled to premiere in next year. It follows several previous attempts to revive "Psycho" -- including a 1990 TV movie called "Psycho IV: The Beginning" and another small screen show called "Bates Motel" in 1987. A movie about the making of the film, starring Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Biel, is also in the works.

New Poe Manuscripts Revealed! *Sigh*

Boy I had a crush on Poe when I was young/now. Even the freaky little mustache couldn't keep me from daydreaming about the maestro of macabre.  So the unveiling of newly discovered Poe manuscripts is setting my heart all a-flutter. Here's a press release detailing the joy in AP-style splendor.

Unknown Poe Manuscript Will Be Revealed at Poe Museum

RICHMOND, Va., April 18, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Newly discovered Edgar Allan Poe manuscripts will be revealed in a major exhibit at Richmond, Virginia's Edgar Allan Poe Museum from April 26 to July 11, 2012. Among the recently uncovered pieces are four letters and the only known manuscript for Poe's important early poem "To Helen," which was located last month in the album of one of Poe's cousins. Opening April 26 in honor of the Poe Museum's 90th anniversary, the exhibit From Poe's Quill: The Letters and Manuscripts of Edgar Allan Poe will showcase these recent finds alongside dozens of rare Poe manuscripts gathered from seven different public and private collections across the country. According to the Poe Museum's Curator Chris Semtner, "This is the kind of exhibit that comes around only once in a generation. Because Poe's manuscripts were not highly valued during his brief life, many have been lost or dispersed over time, making them very rare today. Given that, it is remarkable that this show will feature such items as the only complete Poe short story in private hands, the earliest privately owned Poe manuscript, and even a letter from Poe to Washington Irving."

One of the show's highlights will be the recently discovered manuscript for "To Helen," which represents a unique and previously unknown version of poem's first stanza. The piece was written in the album of Poe's cousin Amelia Poe of Baltimore, which was given to the Poe Museum in 1930 by Mrs. Stewart Woodward, but the poem was not found until last month during a recent cataloging and digitization project. Since Poe is known to have written poetry in the albums of other Baltimore ladies, including another cousin, Elizabeth Rebecca Herring, Semtner thought it plausible a Poe poem could be found in the present album. This exhibit will be the first time the piece has been displayed for comparison alongside fully authenticated Poe manuscripts. If accepted by Poe scholars, this version of "To Helen" would be an important find because it represents a unique, unpublished draft that likely predates the poem's first printing in 1831 when Poe was 22.

This fascinating exhibit will also feature the reunion of fragments of some of Poe's essays that were cut apart and dispersed over 150 years ago. Other highlights of the show include two short stories, five poems, four essays, two pages of notes, and several letters. Of the interest advance word of this exhibit has generated, Semtner says, "Seeing all these letters in one place is the closest thing to standing over Poe's shoulder while he wrote."

The Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia boasts the world's finest collection of Poe artifacts and memorabilia including the only surviving pieces of Poe's clothing, the author's bed, trunk, and walking stick as well as a lock of his hair. The Poe Museum is located at 1914 East Main Street in Richmond. For more information, visit www.poemuseum.org , write info@poemuseum.org, or call 888-21-EAPOE.

This press release was issued through eReleases(R). For more information, visit eReleases Press Release Distribution at http://www.ereleases.com .

SOURCE Poe Museum

Macabre Museum Mondays: John Zaffis Museum of the Paranormal

Let's disregard the fact that the John Zaffis Museum of the Paranormal has been sucked into Reality Show Purgatory - the fact is that this creepy museum is a testement to the John Zaffis' love of paranormal which is good enough for me.

For 30 years, John Zaffis has been collecting items purported to be possessed or connected with withcraft, the occult, or sinister stories in some way. Zaffis also helps people suffering from hauntings and haunted items.

Now, I have watched the show and the "evidence" given for why some of these objects are haunted is just laughable. However, there is always the inocuous looking chair and boring looking ashtray, or whatever, that has a backstory which has the ring of truth - and let's be fair if you're not willing to suspend disbelief for a second, you'll never have any fun.

Also seeing as the museum is chock full of possessed objects and other spooky things, one would have to assume that the museum itself is more than a little spooky.

This all definitely qualifies the John Zaffis Museum of the Paranormal as a creepy museum.

Unfortunately the museum is closed while the show is being filmed, so in honor of Mr. Zaffis' homage to horror, here's a quick video:

Review: Wet Linda by Paul Parducci

Wet Linda by Paul Parducci is a great example of how horror stories can benefit from being character-driven as opposed to purely plot driven.

Parducci takes the first part of the book to clearly establish the lead character's detachment and despondency. Understanding Mandy’s interaction with her mother and how she sees herself in relation to her family and social peers really allows the reader to indulge in suspension of disbelief and see her actions as plausible within the context of the story.

Whereas in many contemporary horrors the thrust of the action is the monster, killer, etc., in 'Wet Linda' the driving force is Mandy's damaged sense of self which leads her to express her compassion and need for camaraderie from a dangerous place of delusion. Also, because Parducci takes the time to communicate her inner-dialogue as the story unfolds, you find that the gory scenes make a certain kind of warped sense as opposed to being simply gratuitous.

While I felt that the end could have used a bit more explanation, I was impressed by how much time he took to get the reader into the lead character's head and let us fully experience how bat-sh*t crazy she truly became.

I felt that Parducci mixed just the right amount of gore and story to make this a solid horror read that will actually leave you a bit disturbed and remind you that "monsters" can be made in many ways and come in many forms.

Russia’s Arms Program Aims to Perfect Zombie Ray Guns

Thanks to MSN once again for their short yet absolutely vital reporting....
Russian Prime Minister and President-elect Vladimir Putin has confirmed that part of Russia's 2011-2020 state arms procurement strategy will beperfecting zombie ray guns -- sort of. The mind-bending guns shoot electromagnetic radiation, which at certain frequencies can send commands directly to the brain. (Pause to make a tinfoil cap; then continue reading.) They're currently being tested as a means of crowd control and as a physical (rather than mental) weapon, but the terrifying potential of a mind-control gun makes Putin compare the technology to nuclear arms, except he thinks it's "more acceptable in terms of political and military ideology." If you don't agree, better make the case while you still can.

Macabre Museum Mondays

Museums are better with grave wax.  It's a fact. The Mutter Museum has grave wax and a bunch of other disturbing/fabulous things which makes it one of the creepiest museums out there and therefore a great place to start my Macabre Museum Mondays posts.


The Mutter Museum in Philadelphia is a medical museum which contains a collection of natural oddities, anatomical and pathological specimens, wax models, and antique medical equipment. The museum was established in 1858 with the collection  of Dr.Thomas Dent Mütter and is still involved in various research projects. 


The museum is known for showing everything from examples of rare human deformities to famous murderer's organs. While it is a font of educational value, it is safe to say that the main attraction is simply the plain ick-factor of most of their exhibits. 


If you can't get to the museum in person, every Thursday the museum posts a video called "Guess What's On the Curator's Desk". You won't be able to guess... and you won't want to. 


Here are just a bit of the macabre goodies the museum houses.:

• The Hyrtl Skull Collection
• A wax model of a woman with a horn growing out of her forehead along with several other wax molds of untreated head conditions
• A nine-foot-long human colon that contained over 40 pounds of fecal matter which originally came from a sideshow act called the human Balloon
• The body of the Soap Lady whose corpse turned itself into a soapy substance called adipocere better known as grave wax. 
• A malignant tumor removed from President Grover Cleveland's hard palate
• The conjoined liver from the famous Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker
• A piece of tissue removed from the thorax of Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth

Horror vs. Character Development?

Figure with Meat by Francis Bacon

As a horror lover I suppose I've just felt it was a given that if faced with the choice between plot and character development I would go with plot. I've secretly felt that I was judged and found wanting for my preference of plot driven books. That somehow, my decision to read books which echewed any attempt at character complexity in favor of a swiftly moving story line meant that I was in some way a superficial reader lacking depth.

I realize that my choice of reading material should ultimately be influenced by nothing other than my enjoyment of reading. However, I do acknowledge that in general many contemporary horror novels seemed to be written with the belief that the need to keep the plot moving can excuse the existence of stupid, shoddily constructed characters. I believe that authors doing this miss out on the opportunity to create for readers the type of rich literary worlds that keep them coming back for more.

This argument draws attention to those books in which the development of the character is what ultimately makes the book a work of horror . So to close this post here are a few books which, whether they be considered horror or not, feature character development which is horrific none the less.


Books w/ Frightening Character Development
1. Metamorphasis by  Franz Kafka
2. The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe
3. Lord of the Rings by William Golding
4. Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
5. Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
6. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
7. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
8. The Shining by Stephen King
9. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
10. Resume with Monsters by William Browning