Supernatural Tales

Not content with making the latest, rather brilliant, issue of ST available in print form , I can also reveal that it's available for Amazon Kindle , and - for the Amazon averse - as an ebook from Smashwords .

Here I go again, reviewing a film that's been out for about a year. Why? Well, if you're like me you never go to the pictures because you don't find it a pleasant experience. So you've got the option of seeing films on DVD, online, or when they pop up on regular telly. I rented The Babadook because it got a lot of praise from people I know and whose opinions I respect. Surprise, surprise, these people were entirely right. The film is an Australian-Canadian horror movie and marks the debut of writer-director Jennifer Kent. On the strength this film I'll definitely watch her next one. It's a very simple story with Gothic overtones, and yet at the same time manages to be a realistic, modern drama. It's grown-up horror that is, at times, so harrowing you might not want to see it more than once. But it is worth seeing. Amelia (Essie Davis) is a young single mother, because she was widowed when her husband died in a car crash. Her son Samuel (Noah Wiseman) i...

Not a huge fan of practical jokes and hidden camera stuff, but this is fun and educational. It illustrates the link between being scared and laughter, for a start. So much pf what we call horror is a form of absurdist comedy.

The new issue is now available to purchase as a print-on-demand magazine. It will shortly be available as an ebook, whereupon I'll update the 'Buy Supernatural Tales!' page accordingly. Here is the link . And here are some teasers: '30' by Helen Grant Job the handyman had managed, with an ease born of long experience, to make himself absent at the moment when coffin bearers were required, thus sparing himself an unpleasant exertion. All the same, as he stood in the shadows watching the casket being carried out, he took off his hat in respect for the deceased. The dead man had been the son of a Lord, after all. 'An Element of Blank' by Lynda E. Rucker It had that way about it, of getting inside your head. She reached again for the hands of the others, but she seemed to be alone. Not only that, but she was sure that she was thirteen years old again, that the years had fallen away. You always were thirteen years old, a part of you anyway: all the ages ...

As you can see, cover artist Sam Dawson has done a number 30... ... which is bigger on the back cover. Oddly enough, it fits nicely with one of the stories in this special issue, despite the artist not knowing what the story is about. Spooky, eh? Soon we'll have some extracts from the stories. 

Over at Juxtapoz magazine we find Things. Things made from old VHS tapes. Things that have a distinct M.R. Jamesian feel, but might also be deemed a tad Lovecraftian, or indeed Hodgsonian.

With a title like that you want to know more , surely? Or are you a bit blasé about pickled folk, whether they be clerical or secular? Anyway, I think you should read the excellent article by Jim Moon at the link above. His blog is absorbing to anyone who likes horror and folkore, and well worth a good old perusal. Sedgefield, where the parson was allegedly pickled (or perhaps salted) is just up the road from my home. It's in County Durham, one of England's lesser-known but rather fascinating counties. Among its many attractions is Barnard Castle, a tucked-away place with a huge museum built in the style of a French chateau , and containing an amazing automaton, great works of art, and more fancy frocks than you can shake a stick at. But I digress, again... Re: pickling parsons, it's perfectly possible that someone would preserve a dead body in the way described. But I can't help wondering if even an 18th century physician would be fooled. Perhaps the story was co...