Supernatural Tales

  h/t Steve Duffy

I well remember the first time I saw the original version of The Ring (Ringu) on VHS, quite an experience given the haunted videotape theme. To me, the long-haired ghost Sadako was a novelty. But in Japan it seems such spirits are part of an ancient and still vital tradition. In this article you can read about Sadako and her close relatives.  And there are many others... Fudakaeshi is notorious for its ability to persuade people to remove their protection charms against ghosts (fuda) and let vengeful spirits in. Fudakaeshi was firstly described in “Kyōka hyakumonogatari”—a collection of comical poems of the late Edō period about Japanese spirits. Being Yūrei themselves, Fudakaeshi can not touch or remove protective fuda, but by tempting or bribing foolish and greedy people, they achieve this goal and can attack their poor victims. h/t Steve Duffy

I'm quite excited because few people bother to review ST, hint hint. (I can offer free ebooks in mobi or epub formats, btw.) But over at Goodreads a nice chap called Bryan took up the task, and you can read his review here . He sums it all up thusly: Well worth the read, the latest issue of Supernatural Tales showcases a talented group of authors whose work should satisfy both hardcore and casual fans of ghost stories.  

Serpents!  Cardinal Cox, sometime laureate of Peterborough and all-round expert on weirdness, has produced another one of his celebrated poetry pamphlets. This one considers the snake-cults of the past, and perhaps the present, plus of course the biblical significance of the serpent, and Yig of the Cthulhu Mythos. The first poem naturally considers the Christian view of the snake as both wise and evil. Apparently a certain Gnostic Sect had a Book of the Serpent.  The wriggliness continues with poems on the Midgard Serpent of Viking lore, Quatzalcoatl (of course), and the beautiful Nagas of southern Asia. The tribute to the Nagas has a somewhat Swinburnian feel, with its imagery of a race living without poverty or violence, in harmony with nature's 'elder law of peace'. But he reminds us of their great power, which could 'cause to cease all life' if pesky humans get out of line. The idea of sentient reptiles, very popular in some bonkers regions of the net, is examin...

It's been a long, long time since I took a chance and watched a horror film knowing nothing about it beyond a brief synopsis- in this case, the one on Amazon Prime. I'm glad I took that chance on this occasion. The title of this Russian horror feature is misleading, because it's really a ghost story that blends its ghost in with the folklore of Rusalka, a sort of freshwater mermaid or undine of Russian legend. But the film more than nods to the classic ghost story, and at not one but two points seems to pay homage to M.R. James himself. Some scenes are also - perhaps inevitably - reminiscent of the Japanese classic, Dark Water. So, having given it high praise, that's it about? The plot is comparatively simple. In a pre-title scene we find a man and his wife on the shore of a rural lake. She is trying to save him from something, but in doing so she falls victim to an unseen but clearly formidable watery menace. There's also one of those little voice overs spelling ou...