Halloween Flash

Charles Gramlich has been showcasing flash fiction during the weeks preceding Halloween. Today is my contribution.

DISCOVERY

He woke to the soft notes of a flute, echoing through the tunnels beyond, coming in through the opening to the rooms of his cave chamber. The sound intrigued him—perhaps the goatherd was out with the goats in the orchard below. He moved quietly and quickly toward the tunnel leading to the waterfall, where a high ledge overlooked the orchard, the Keeper’s cottage, and Miller’s Woods.

Slowing his steps, Odin kept to the shadows along the side as he neared the bright beams of sunlight spilling onto the ledge. He edged his way to a dark niche in the rock wall where he could watch unnoticed. He could see four figures, their grizzled hair unkempt: three who sat side by side on the ledge, and a fourth against the side wall.

The waterfall lapped gently over the smooth stone lip. Within weeks the flow would grow to a noisy torrent, veiling the entire opening of the tunnel, its roar reverberating throughout the tunnels, down as far as the third level of the cavern. Spray flew over the foursome as they sat with their legs dangling over the edge. The three together were enjoying the last of a meal, gnawing on the gristle of a long shank and cracking rib bones with their teeth to get at the marrow.

The largest of the four males lifted his bone in salute to the others. “See what a cooperative effort brings? Now you know how stupid they really are.”

“I didna’ think they would lure so easily…great sport they proved to be.”

“Yeah, made ‘em tender with the chasin’…I do like ‘em carryin’ young. An’ now we don’t havta rely on stingy rations—we can pick out the plumper ones.”

The male who had just spoken turned to the smallest of the company, sitting alone at the far end of the ledge, next to the waterfall and the stone ladder that led to the bottom of the cliff. “Piper, you’re having none of this fine meat…pity.”

Piper shook his head while holding his bone flute in his lap.

“What’s the matter with you?”

“This’ll bring nothin’ but trouble…they’re not from the Colony stock.”

“Pah,” he scoffed, “the Keeper’ll never know…humans go missing all the time. We’ll just take what we need when the rations are low. Just not hungry, or are roots ‘n berries enough for ya?” Wrinkling his upper lip, he reached down to pick up a leather object and tossed it over, taunting him. “What does it say inside, Piper, o learned one of the caverns?”

Knowing it would be imprudent to refuse, Piper picked up the small leather package and pulled it open. He looked at the picture and the words on the thin, flat rectangle he found inside, and sounded them out in his head before he spoke, as Silas had taught him. “Washington driver’s license…David Lawrence…date of birth…”
THE END

From "Passage" by Barbara E. Martin

A Case of Road Rage

This evening's Halloween video presentation is a different kind of horror: this one of pure evil.

The Car is a 1977 thriller/horror film directed by Elliot Silverstein and written by Michael Butler, Dennis Shryack and Lane Slate. It starred James Brolin, Kathleen Lloyd, John Marley, and Ronny Cox. The story is about a mysterious car which goes on a murderous rampage, terrorizing a small town.


The following excerpt from the film's beginning is certain to chill some viewers despite being 31 years old.




The movie was produced and distributed by Universal Studios, and was influenced by numerous "road movies" of the 1970s including Steven Spielberg's 1971 thriller Duel and Roger Corman's Death Race 2000 (from 1975). It has also been compared to Spielberg's Jaws, with a car replacing the shark. The film is memorable for its sound effects, most notably the terrifying horn blast the car makes when claiming a victim.

Trailer


The movie is set around a small, fictional, Utah community of Santa Ynez, which is suddenly terrorized by a phantom black sedan that appears out of nowhere. The vehicle begins running people down – starting with some bicyclists and then a French horn-playing hitchhiker. After the car kills off the town's Sheriff Everett, (John Marley), it becomes the job of Captain Wade Parent (James Brolin), to stop the murderous driver.

The car enters town and begins running down the citizens, first attacking a marching band and then mowing people down at a carnival. It eventually chases a group of people into a graveyard – among them Lauren (Kathleen Lloyd), Wade's girlfriend – but curiously enough, the machine will not pass onto the consecrated ground and Lauren taunts it. The car then destroys a wall supporting a cross and leaves. The police officers chase the automobile down highways throughout the desert, but it destroys several squad cars before injuring Wade and then mysteriously disappears.

The hunt for the car becomes a personal vendetta for Wade when the automobile stalks and then eliminates Lauren by driving straight through her house. Wade concocts a plan to stop the horsepower-laden menace, but after discovering it waiting for him in his own garage, he is forced to carry out his plans post haste. He lures the car into a mountainous canyon area where his fellow officers have set a trap for the machine. There, a final confrontation settles the score and reveals the driver's frightening identity.

For trivia buffs the following: The evil car in the film was a customized 1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III designed by famed customizer George Barris who designed the The Munsters "Munster Koach" and the original "Batmobile" used in the 1966 television series Batman.

Although the movie has dated language, clothes, sideburns, it is a reminder of that era in the late 70s with its cliches and a different viewpoint on life.

Research: wikipedia

The Reporter of the Supernatural

My Halloween evening presentation today covers a television series in the mid-1970s, which I watched faithfully and was sorry to see it go.

Kolchak: The Night Stalker was an American television series that aired in 1974. It featured a newspaper reporter, Carl Kolchak, played by Darren McGavin, who investigated crimes with mysterious and unlikely causes that the proper authorities would not accept or pursue. The series with twenty episodes was preceded by two television movies, The Night Stalker (1972) and The Night Strangler (1973).

The series version was set in Chicago and featured Kolchak as a reporter for the Independent News Service (INS). The series also featured Simon Oakland, again appearing as Kolchak's editor; Ron Updyke (Jack Grinnage) as a supercilious rival at INS; and Emily Cowles (Ruth McDevitt) as an elderly advice columnist (and the only character who is sympathetic toward Kolchak). Each week Kolchak investigated murders involving supernatural and science fictional creatures. The series was light-hearted black comedy and placed Kolchak in an office setting with quirky co-workers. Other recurring characters included Monique Marmelstein (Carol Ann Susi) as an intern whose father owned the INS, Gordy "The Ghoul" Spangler (John Fiedler) as a helpful morgue attendant who ran lotteries based on corpse statistics, and Captain "Mad Dog" Siska (Keenan Wynn), a Chicago officer who found his efforts to reign in his temper through group therapy constantly thwarted by Kolchak's abrasive nature. McGavin's wife and behind-the-scenes assistant, Kathie Browne, appeared in the final episode as Lt. Irene Lamont, who found herself forced to deal with Kolchak.

Episode 9 “The Spanish Moss Murders” was aired on December 6, 1974. A dreaming host conjures up the Creole legend of Pelemafair moss monster willing to kill anyone who threatens its survival.

The following are excerpts from this episode.








This last one is close to the ending.




Charles Gramlich began posting about Halloween last week in writing flash fiction stories. His link can be found under "Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror Writer Connection" on the sidebar.

Research: wikipedia

Shadow of a Doubt

This Halloween representation is of yet another type of horror, one that is of a personal nature: a family matter.

Shadow of A Doubt, released in 1943, is considered Alfred Hitchcock's best film and was his favourite. Hitchcock's use of overlapping characters, dialogue, and closeups provided a generation of film theorists with psychoanalytic potential.


A bored young woman, living in Santa Rosa, California, Charlotte "Charlie" Newton (Teresa Wright), is frustrated because nothing seems to be happening in her life and that of her family. Then, she receives wonderful news: her uncle (for whom she was named), Charlie Oakley (Joseph Cotten), her mother's brother, is arriving for a visit.

Two men show up pretending to be photographers and journalists working on a national survey of the average American family. One of them speaks to Charlie privately, identifying himself as Detective Jack Graham (Macdonald Carey) and telling her that her uncle is one of two men who are suspected of being a serial killer known as the "Merry Widow Murderer". This murderer has a modus operandi of seducing, murdering and robbing wealthy widows.

Young Charlie at first refuses to even consider that her uncle could be this person, but she cannot help noticing him acting strangely on several occasions, one being taking the front page of the newspaper, hiding it and then cutting out the article.

These two video excerpts reveal the escalating tension between niece and uncle. A scene with Herbie Hawkins (Hume Cronyn), a neighbour who appears periodically to discuss ideas for the perfect murder with Charlie's father, Joseph Newton (Henry Travers), sets Young Charlie off.







Young Charlie's growing suspicion soon becomes apparent to her uncle. He confronts her and admits that he is indeed the man the police are after. He begs her for help; she reluctantly agrees not to say anything, as long as he leaves soon, to avoid a horrible scandal in the town that would destroy her family, especially her mother, an emotionally fragile woman, who dearly loves and idolizes her younger brother.

Then news breaks that the second suspect was killed fleeing from the police, and is assumed to have been the guilty one. The detective Graham leaves. Uncle Charlie is satisfied at first, until he remembers that Young Charlie fully knows his secret. Soon, the young woman has a couple of near fatal accidents, falling down some very steep stairs, and being trapped in a closed garage with a car spewing exhaust fumes.

I am not providing the ending so as to avoid a spoiler. There are other interesting scenes in this movie not covered in this brief expose.




Research: wikipedia

Don't Speak to Strangers

A famous wicked character often portrayed in horror movies is the vampire, Count Dracula. Count Dracula is a fictional character, the antagonist of Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula. Some aspects of his character may have been inspired by the 15th century Romanian Prince, Vlad III the Impaler.

Count Dracula (his first name is never given in the novel) is a centuries-old vampire, sorcerer and Transylvanian nobleman, who claims to be a Székely descended from Attila the Hun. He inhabits a decaying castle in the Carpathian Mountains near the Borgo Pass (Tihuta Pass – photo). Contrary to the vampires of Eastern European folklore which are portrayed as repulsive, corpse-like creatures, Dracula exudes a veneer of aristocratic charm which masks his unfathomable evil.

Bram Stoker's Dracula is a 1992 horror-romance film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. It stars Gary Oldman as Count Dracula in an ensemble cast, also featuring Keanu Reeves, Anthony Hopkins and Winona Ryder. The score was composed by Wojciech Kilar and the closing theme song “Love Song for a Vampire” was written and performed by Annie Lennox. The film was a notable box office hit and won three Academy Awards in 1993. It also established Oldman as a popular portrayer of villains in American film.


Research and photo: wikipedia

Four O'Clock

Today, continuing in the vein of the creepy things that make up Halloween, I am presenting a horror not of the supernatural.

The following video excerpt is from:

Four O'Clock, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, was the premier episode in the TV series SUSPICION which ran from 1957 to 1958.

In Four O'Clock, a watchmaker becomes insanely jealous when he suspects that his wife is having an affair. Fearing that she will leave him, he builds a time delay bomb and devises a plan to blow up his wife and her suspected lover.

While he is executing his plan however, he is interrupted by two burglars who tie him up in the basement, leaving him to die along with his intended victims at exactly four o'clock.

E.G. Marshall and Nancy Kelly co-star in this movie.

Garlic Anyone?

The movie excerpt this evening is from "The Brides of Dracula", a 1960 British Hammer Horror film directed by Terence Fisher. It stars Peter Cushing as Van Helsing; Yvonne Monlaur as Marianne Danielle; Andree Melly as her roommate, Gina; Marie Devereux; David Peel as Baron Meinster, a disciple of Count Dracula; and Martita Hunt as his mother.

Listen to the Wind Before Dark

The above video is an excerpt from the movie "The Return of Count Yorga" released in 1971, starring Robert Quarry, Roger Perry and Mariette Hartley. In the same year I had seen the movie and found it to be entertaining despite an ability to guess where most of the danger zones were. The creepy music adds to the magic. Enjoy while you see who lives in the shadows.

Charles Gramlich began posting about Halloween last week in writing flash fiction stories. His link can be found under "Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror Writer Connection" on the sidebar.

Halloween Is Approaching

Every evening until that spooky night arrives, I will be posting a short story or video to set the mood. This first video from the Phantom of the Opera does have creepy scenes.