“I want to be the woman in red,” says Grace to her tattooist. It is the latest step in her journey of transformation. Grace has tried dressing in red, adorning herself with an array of sanguine garments: “Rustling scarlet taffeta. Crimson velvet as thick and soft as bat flesh. Wine colored underthings clinging like guilt.”…
A Tarnished Legacy: The End of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Sword and Sorceress
Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Sword and Sorceress, the once-influential anthology series that was founded in 1984, saw its thirty-fourth and final instalment this year. The series managed to survive a number of significant setbacks: one was the death of original editor Marion Zimmer Bradley in 1999; another was publisher DAW dropping the series with the 2004…
The Vampyre’s Legacy, Part 11: Urban Fantasies
The period following the publication of Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire saw vampire fiction entrench itself not as a subgenre of horror, but as a substantial body of fiction in its own right. Author David J. Schow would look back on this state of affairs in his 2018 collection DJStories: You know how zombie-flavoured…
Changeling Times: Melanie Golding’s Little Darlings
Little Darlings Melanie Golding Crooked Lane Books April 30, 2019 Having given birth to a pair of twins, Lauren Tranter is filled with the mixture of delight and anxiety that is to be expected from a new mother. But then, something strange happens in the maternity ward. Lauren becomes convinced that there is a woman…
Poltergeist Girls, Part 4: The Enfield Variations
In 1977, the British press reports an outbreak of alleged poltergeist phenomena that occurred in the Enfield home of single mother Peggy Hodgson and her four children Janet, Margaret, Johnny and Billy. Claims of strange activity at the house continued until 1979, and the case of the Enfield poltergeist has provoked heated debate ever since….
The Vampyre’s Legacy, Part 10: Sympathy for the Devil
During the sixties and seventies, pop culture was hit by an explosion of interest in the occult. Aleister Crowley glowered from the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band while Mick Jagger sang “Sympathy for the Devil”, and before long Black Sabbath would be embracing Gothic imagery as part of the nascent metal scene….
Poltergeist Girls, Part 3: Fact and Fiction in The Exorcism of Emily Rose
The Exorcism of Emily Rose was released in 2005; this was long after the 1970s heyday of the poltergeist girl subgenre, but the film nonetheless has its roots in that era. It was based on a real-life incident that occurred in 1976 – one far more horrific than the 1949 case that inspired The Exorcist.
’70s Horror at its Grooviest in Misty: The Jordi Badia Romero Collection
Misty: The Jordi Badia Romero Collection Jordi Badia Romero (art) Rebellion October 2019 Just in time for Halloween comes this spooky new addition to Rebellion’s line of books reprinting classic British comics. Misty: The Jordi Badia Romero Collection is an inviting hardback tome that dips into the Misty archives and pulls out a shimmering set…
Poltergeist Girls, Part 2: From Carrie to Carol Anne
The Exorcist was part of a flurry of late sixties and seventies films about supernatural children. Rosemary’s Baby (1968) was the trendsetter, and in 1976 The Omen would expand upon the theme with the exploits of young antichrist Damien Thorn. That year also saw the release of Carrie, based on the 1974 debut novel of…
Poltergeist Girls, Part 1: The Exorcist and Regan’s Rebellion
After she foolishly plays with a Ouija board, an innocent and cheerful early-adolescent girl begins showing a distinct change in personality. Her behaviour becomes strange, even sinister. Before long, she is the focal point of apparently supernatural phenomena: objects around her are moved by unseen forces, while her body undergoes hideous transformations. All the time…
The Vampyre’s Legacy, Part 9: Atom-Age Vampires
As far back as the nineteenth century, certain writers had tried to demystify vampires by coming up with scientific explanations for their condition and behaviour. James Malcolm Rymer’s ramshackle Varney the Vampire introduced – and later abandoned – the notion that its main character was a man resurrected through galvanism. Charles Wilkins Webber’s Spiritual Vampirism…
Baen Wins Big at the 2019 Dragon Awards
Tens of thousands of science fiction and fantasy fans gathered at this year’s Dragon Con in Atlanta, which offered its participants a variety of events and attractions. One of these was the fourth iteration of the Dragon Awards, representing science fiction and fantasy across a range of media — the victors being decided with the…