Hemlock Grove

Let me start by saying, I love Netflix! Not having to wait 3 to 6 months to watch an entire season; seriously, what could be better than that? I would also like to welcome it to the horror family.

Hemlock Grove is a brand new and horror adjacent. I say adjacent because it's not going to give you any scares, but vampires, werewolves and strange creatures are definitely on the menu.

The ingredients are, as always, a quite small little town, a high school, someone rich, someone poor, and the girl.

I haven't read the book it was based on so I cannot really say how good an adaptation it was, but what I can say is it was not half bad. The relationship between a werewolf, new in town, and an upir (code for vampire) becomes complex right when a series of bizarre killings starts. All eyes fall on the newcomer gypsy since he already admitted to being a werewolf to one of his schoolmates.

Who is killing?

Will the upir realise what it is?

Who is the mysterious mother?

What exactly is Shelley?

Who will get the girl?

What is uroboros anyway?

...and other questions will be answered, or not, in 13 nicely filmed episodes.

Let me just warn all of you it becomes a little tiresome before it reaches it's peak and I wasn't exactly a fan of the finale.

A way to say we are sorry...

Holidays are finally over. So it’s time we all went back to our lives as before. I know that there was a big promise breaking from our part so this is me trying to make up for it.

We had promised a top ten list about scary Christmas stories that were never posted. Our sincere apologies for that, I just hope that the following piece can make up for it. Since the post was promised to satisfy readers and not watchers I thought that a classic gothic tale by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would do the trick. It can of course be no other than “The Hound of the Baskervilles”.

When one listens to the name Sir Arthur Conan Doyle one usually thinks about Sherlock Holmes and detective stories. That is actually true so what is a detective story doing in this kind of a blog?

Well, when the supernatural and old tales of curses and hellhounds are incorporated to the story how can we not be tempted to write about it?

The story takes place in the English country; at “Baskerville Hall”. A vast estate surrounded by moors swamps and the aura of mysterious ghostly presence. Found dead with a horrified look on his face somewhere in the haunted woods of his land Sir Charles Baskerville, terrifies his heirs reminding them of an old curse.

Sherlock Holmes is called upon to investigate the circumstances of his demise and is made aware of a tale long forgotten. One of Baskerville’s ancestors enslaved by lust and madness sells his soul to have what he cannot. His life ended hunting what he desired and one of his hounds was the collector of the price paid. And so the curse begins for all male heirs of the Baskerville estate.

Footprints found at the crime scene suggested that Sir Charles was desperately running away from something that could only be described as a ‘gigantic hound’, while Holmes receives threatening letters telling him to avoid the moors...

Has the Hellhound been unleashed once again claiming the souls of the Baskervilles?

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s impeccable writing takes the reader to a place filled with fear and agony. Highly recommended “The Hound of the Baskervilles” can and will satisfy even the most demanding of readers. You can read it -for free- right here.

And for those who prefer watching to reading there are at least two dozen attempts to capture the feeling of the story in film, but if you ask me the ones that actually do are the black and white ones. There is something unearthly about the absence of color that makes those films even darker…

A good Starting Point

I was getting ready for a short trip to some mysterious destination for a little R n' R. I was almost done packing when I realized I hadn't packed any books. Big mistake! So, I went to my bookshelf running my fingers through the titles when my hand stopped at a book I didn't remember I had.

A great gift by great friends (isn't it wonderful when friends know exactly what to get you?).

A beautiful collage of Gothic tales with an excellent introduction covering questions such as “what is gothic?”, The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales makes for an excellent holiday companion. Authors like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, Thomas Hardy, Jorge Luis Borges, Angela Carter and others cover almost every era of the genre.

Since we all have personal favorites I'm sure that you will not all agree with the stories chosen representing every one of these authors. Nevertheless, this collection of horror – ghost stories is a smart way to initiate beginners to the beautiful dark and romantic world of goth.

Eerie settings, cursed souls, brave and honorable heroes who come to their untimely demise or prevail against all odds. Scary and passionate, dark and profoundly disturbing, each story speaks of the ill minds of their writers and the agony of their existence.

If you are seeking for something nice and relaxing to read during your vacation, this is not recommended, but if you, by any chance, are as addicted to decay as some of us, then rest assured that this book will get you there...

P.S: Have a gloomy and frightful summer children!