Archive for
‘October, 2013’

Two simple 19th-century ghost illusions you can do at home.

A diabolical story of involuntary cannibalism from a French writer of depraved tastes.

The Victorians feared the Resurrection Man, but they feared premature burial more. Today we lift the lid on stories of burial alive and find the subject seething with maggots of horror. What is it like to hear those clods falling on your coffin lid while you are helpless, trapped….

Fearing the Walking Dead: Zombies and Draugr There is something horrifyingly fascinating about accounts of the dead who stubbornly refuse to lie down quietly, but continue to walk as they did in life. They may be called revenants, or vampires, draugr, ghouls, or the Undead. They scare us.

A Woman-Eating Serpent: Hissssteria over Snakes Most vintage snake stories tend to be all of a muchness: the horrid things slither, they are very large, they are aggressive, they are very poisonous, and they escape from circuses and terrorize neighborhoods while hunting parties are gotten up. But a few, whether Snaix fiction or Snaix fact, stick with us like an antlered deer sticks in the craw of an overambitious python.

The Vampire Long: A New York Horror The draught of blood seemed to intoxicate him. He swelled with it. It flashed red and fiery out of his eyes. It crimsoned his ghastly face. It thickened his thin fingers and made his arm round and easy. The monster grew less hideous and more devilish with every drop.

The Corpse Sat Up: Fearing the Dead The dead are dead. They cannot hurt us. (We hope.) So why are we so afraid of a corpse?

In 1895 the skeletal remains of the Devil were smuggled out of Japan, then put on exhibit in New York.

Fearing the Reaper: A Fight with Death “I felt certain if that shade came on and touched me, I was a dead man.” A fight to the death–with Death.