Lili's Lair

 Love and Monsters shouldn't be taken as a serious horror / sci fi / end of the world movie.  Should it?  According to my fellow crypt mate when asked said, "that movie sounded stupid." Of course he didn't "see" it, he only heard it, so I told him I'm not really sure I can take his opinion at face value. In fact, I have just the opposite opinion. It wasn't stupid or poorly written, nor was it just a light hearted romp with apocalyptic monsters. Don't get me wrong, there was camp, some amusing bits, and it certainly isn't a Lord of the Rings, but how many movies actually are anyway? (that is rhetorical btw). However, with that said, I do believe that it's underlying premise was incredibly serious. A teenager, who, at the brink of becoming a man so to speak, not only looses the love of his life, but his family, and the whole world as he knows it. Why? Because of an asteroid named Agnes, and the desperate action of the worlds governments. Th

 It's almost autumn,70 days till Samhain (that's Halloween for you muggles) as I write this post. It's storming this morning, and I'm drinking a lovely mug of pumpkin spice coffee. A perfect time to write about witches. Not just any witches mind you, but witches from  RPG game supplements written by long time RPG blogger, and supplement writer Timothy S. Brannan, and published by Other Side Publishing. Timothy was kind enough to send me Five physical books. The list will begin with the newest from 2020. The Warlock - Designed for use with Old - School Essentials The Craft of the Wise : The Pagan Witch Tradition - Designed for use with Old - School Essentials The Daughters of Darkness : Lilith and the Mara Witch Tradition - Labyrinth Lord Compatible Product The Children of the Gods : The Classical Witch Tradition - Blueholme Compatible Product The Basic Witch : The Pumpkin Spice Witch Tradition - Labyrinth Lord Compatible Product In all honesty, I am not a game master,

Cristopher's writing spans over 30 years and I especially enjoyed his collection of short stories in Zombie Shuffle. Read on to discover where you can obtain his plethora of pencil scribbles. Cristopher is also a musician who's compositions are definitely worth a listen, as well as giving a read to a very interesting interview. Make sure to check out all of Cristopher's offerings darklings, it will be worth it. ( Author photo by Cristopher DeRose/Post Effects by Bruce S. Larson ) Bio Father, writer, photographer, and musician, Cristopher has had over 100 works published in the likes of Filmax, Cemetery Dance and was a Staff Writer for the (then-spelled) Sci-Fi Channel for several years. He worked as Editor for Dark Matter Magazine: A Chronicle of the Speculative Mind for its three-year run. His books range from the non-fiction as the Scribes of Speculative Fiction Series The Starsky and Hutch Trivia Quiz Book and the MASH Trivia Quizbook as well as fiction including Black M

Demons, Exorcisms, Incest, The Holy Roman Catholic Church, and a young man who enters the seminary for all the wrong reasons.  Welcome to The Rite darklings. The Rite is a 2011 film is based on true events,  supposedly . It is directed by  Mikael Håfström with screenplay by Michael Petroni  and is based on a suggestion from the book by Matt Baglio  . It has quite a good cast which can be seen in the powerful performances. Colin O'Donoghue  plays our main character Michael Kovak who's father - Istvan played by Rutger Hauer expects him to take over the family mortuary business or become a priest. Michael figures he can have his cake and eat it too by going to seminary for a free education. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way, and instead Michael, along with his lack of faith, gets sent to Rome to take classes to become an exorcist.  Ciarán Hinds plays Father Xavier who not only is teaching said classes, but is also good friends with Michaels seminary advisor Father Matt

 Have you ever watched a movie minions that you really just didn't know what to say about it? That is what Splinter was to me, a shrug and a move on kinda thing. So, why did I watch it? I blame a friend - You know who you are. Splinter was recommended to me as a possibility for another article series I am working on. So I gave it a watch and decided it wasn't a good fit, but I'd review it instead, at least I could get something out of the time I'd spent watching it. There was nothing wrong so to speak about the movie, but I also found myself checking IG & FB throughout because it was a bit slow, and it was just a step above a syfy channel movie. NOT that, that is a bad thing, it's just a thing. (I'm using that word a lot in this review). I guess what I am trying to say is that it was alright. I didn't dislike it, but I won't go out of my way to ever watch it again. The concept of the story IMO was the best part. It had a lot of potential, and I would

 Dead and Buried from 1981 may not be on your watch list for must see horror movies. In fact you might not even have heard of it. I had known about it for decades, but the clips (not the trailer. If I had seen the actual trailer I would have watched it in a heartbeat.)  I saw never really interested me enough to watch. My crypt mate had been bugging me for years to watch it with him, and I had always sighed in protest. That was until a couple of weekends ago, I am not sure why I relented this time but I'm glad I did. Well, actually that isn't completely true. I was eventually glad I did.  You see, the first ten to fifteen minutes or so were uninteresting and slow. I wanted to turn it off. Again, I gave in but with the caveat "It's only getting another ten minutes and then I'm done". What happened after that was a "WTF messed up kind of, WTF is going on!?" kinda moment. If you've never had one of those you will with Dead and Buried.  Per my usua

Have you ever liked a movie regardless of popular opinion. One, that for some reason, you would not only defend  against nay sayers, but you would watch it every month for the rest of your life? I have several such movies, but in this Blood, Babes, and Beasties I am going to talk about  1982's The Sword and the Sorcerer. Written by Tom Karnowski, John V. Stuckmeyer,  and Albert Pyun who also directed. The Sword and the Sorcerer has one of my absolute favourite first five minutes of any movie, I have ever seen. As well as the best ending line "we have kingdoms to save, and women to love". I really don't know why I feel this way though. Perhaps it was because 1982 was a super fun time in my life, or maybe it's just because those scenes really are JUST that super awesome and not many fully appreciate them. Whatever the reason, This is one of my guilty pleasure movies, one, which up until just recently you could only find in the riff version. I managed to find it on

Andrea AKA Belladonna Black is a multifaceted creator, who always has something new and interesting to share. Her talents range from writing multiple, books, short stories, and poems, to music, and micro movie creation. She's an inventor of worlds and persona's who has no problem telling people like it is. You either like her or you don't and she makes no apologies for it. It's a refreshing change.  Andrea is fun to feature.  I enjoy reading her darkly gothic tales and poetry, and her vampire persona Belladonna is a treat to chat with, and get the latest vampire scene scoop from. Oh, and ALL her work is FREE. She loves doing it that much! If you like Victorian / Vampire inspired, stories, poetry, and music make sure to check out her links.   Author Bio Andrea Dean Van Scoyoc is no stranger to the Macabre, the Creepy and the Darkly Sinister. A natural story-teller who can craft fanciful worlds a reader really feels a part of, Andrea has no shortage of, often shocking, im

Please check out my feature of Andrea AKA Belladonna Black  Lili's Lair:  What led you to the path of becoming a writer?  Andrea:   I've always been a story teller. In fact, I've been called a "Master storyteller." As a child I invented fantastical worlds that were real to me, so my storytelling had an outlet, even if, at the time, it only benefitted...me.  With age, I decided to put those worlds on paper, never dreaming anyone else would care or be even remotely interested. I'm glad I was wrong.     Lili's Lair:   What would you say influenced you to speci fically write in the horror/gothic genre? Andrea:  I had a very cool Aunt growing up who is only a decade or so, older than me, and she got me hooked on horror.  However, believe it or not, my first love wasn't horror...it was SciFi. But being the blackhearted belle that I am, it only makes sense that Horror won out.  There's no denying your soul I suppose.   Lili's Lair:  Do your ideas evol