Blogtoberfest

I’ll be honest, I saw the movie “The Shining” before I read the book.  Saw it on channel seven, ABC’s channel here in the New York area.  I’m not sure how old I was, but I must have been in high school because the movie was in the theatre in 1980. That movie frightens me to this day, even when they show it on the Arts and Entertainment channel.  I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen the theatrical version and I’m not sure I want to. The whole idea of being snowbound and trapped while the “strongest” of your party goes slowly mad and there’s nothing you can do about it is frightening enough.  The fact that the HOTEL itself is making it impossible for you to escape from him is even scarier. The scene that scared me the most was not the famous and too-often-quoted “Here’s Johnny!” scene, but

Music soothes the savage beast and if you’re lucky, you’ll have a few of them around for the various Halloween parties you’ll be attending.  For help on your Halloween party playlist, you’ve come to the right place. Here they are, in no particular order, five songs for your player.   The Eagles – Witchy Woman http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vAIAXk0z0lI Van Halen – Runnin’ with the Devil http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=V1uz_aDo0YA Blue Oyster Cult – Don’t Fear the Reaper http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZdXfkkyI1nQ Warren Zevon – Werewolves of London Michael Jackson – Thriller

Welcome to more BLOGTOBERFEST!! I’m going to continue today to chat with you about a time that I was scared as a child.  This moment is so vivid in my mind that I can recall it clearly to this day.  Three words. Crystal Caves Park Now, I know what you’re thinking.  “Dahlia, don’t be so foolish, doll! I mean, two out of the three words are so nice! What could be bad about ‘crystal’ and ‘park’?” I do see the logic in that, but separating those two lovely words is the word CAVES.  Dark, underground caverns, which of course were on the verge of collapsing, trapping silly tourists inside in the dark. As a wee child, about seven or so, the idea of visiting a cave seemed fun.  It was well lighted, there were guides, restrooms and a gift shop.  Great!  I was game. Everything was going well until they

Books are frightening in a whole different way that movies, because your imagination has no boundaries.  With movies, once you see the “horror” manifested on screen, the mind tends to deflect the horror by trying to figure out how the special effects actually worked and wondering if they really used colored corn syrup for the blood. In addition, you can always look away from the horror on the screen. But books…books make your imagination work overtime, taking the author’s words and twisting it into your personalized nightmare, images so horrifying that they may stay with you long after you’ve closed the book and [amazon-product align=”left;”]B004TPFNVI[/amazon-product]moved on with your real life. And when/if you see the movie, that same scene is nothing like you imagined.  In fact, seeing the director’s interpretation of the scene may take all the “scare” out of it. One of the scariest stories that I’ve ever read,