What Scares You?

 Nearly every day, it's the same thing. "Baby, find a new movie to watch." My boyfriend and I don't have cable, so we Google and RedBox are our best friends. Or they would be, if it weren't for the fact that we both love horror movies, and we've both seen 'em all. Trying to find a new movie to watch that will terrify you, or chill you to your bones? Don't search for "Best Horror Movies" or "New Horror Movies". Why not? The first search will get you a list of movies that you've seen, and probably weren't scared by. The #1 on the list will almost ALWAYS be the excorcist. Am I the only one that is not afraid of that movie? I first saw it when I was around 5 or so, and even then, when I was afraid of my own shadow (okay, I'm still afraid of my own shadow, but that comes with immersing yourself in everything horror as often as possible), it barely made a mark on my mind.


 The second search will harvest lists of remakes, ghost movies, or no-story gore fests. There's only so many times you can watch a movie about some person who likes to carve other people up for no reason other than carving people up. It's just plain boring. Ghost movies are the same, they're ghosts. The most they can do is levitate a bed or two. Remakes can be entertaining, but it's still something we've seen before. Half the new movies I start watching get shut off within the first 10 minutes. It's depressing.

 Well then, Ms. Fancy-Pants Know It All Horror Blog Writer, what movies DO scare you?

The last time I actually saw a new horror movie and didn't sleep for a year was Signs. First of all, aliens terrify me. Not just any aliens though. The scary-monster looking ones such as those in the 'Alien' movies? No way. Aliens that look vaguely human and creep up on you? Oh lord. Those guys are scary. Which brings us to number two, you didn't even see the aliens until a good way into the film. It was just a rustle here, a shadow there. Excellent suspense. It took numerous rewatching for me to get to the point where I don't have to cover my eyes when they show the aliens. For me, that's really something.

 Other movies that scare me are well done zombie movies. I love the original Day of the Dead. It has this claustrophobic stuck underground feeling, that I normally hate, but it's not over bearing because the facility does have plenty of room for the victims to stretch their legs, and also plenty of story. The Dawn of the Dead remake was great for kind of restarting the zombie craze. A classic with a nice modern twist. And of course Diary of the Dead, bringing zombies into the digital age. What happens when the zombies attack and everyone and their brother has a video camera? Love it.

 When it comes to more recent things, it's not the movies that scare me. It's stories, and short, independent youtube videos. Slenderman? Now he is scary. I would love to see a big budget movie about Slendy. It's night, you're alone, and you think you see something outside your window. As you go to look, you see this other wordly caricature of a man staring back at you. I made curtains for even the windows that aren't supposed to be covered because of him.

 So now that I've rambled on and on about my fears, tell me what scares you!

The St. Augustine Sea Monster

When I first got my library card for the local libraries here in Florida, boy was I excited. Even more excited when the book I took out about sea monsters had an entry titled "The St. Augustine Sea Monster". Boy oh boy, I thought. Here's something I can go investigate!

After reading the entry in the book, the disappointment hit me. Although this was an older book, and so it left the prognosis as a mystery, I just knew it was too good to be true. The St. Augustine Sea Serpent, also known as the St. Augustine Monster is a "globster". Globsters are "unidentified organic masses that wash up on a shoreline or other body of water." In November of 1896, this particular globster washed up on the shore of Anastasia Island. Two boys who were riding home that evening found it and later reported it to Doctor DeWitt Webb. Dr. Webb was founder of the St. Augustine Historical society and apparently he was very interested in the so called "monster". At the time, people thought it might be the remains of a giant octopus (at over 18ft long and 7ft wide, that would be one scary octopus!)

Sadly, modern scientific advances were able to determine that it was indeed the remains of a whale carcass, like most globsters turn out to be. Of course, that doesn't mean that there aren't gigantic octos out there, just that we haven't found them yet. I wish there were a bit more to this legend, perhaps sightings of live sea serpents, but it seems not. Hopefully someday I'll be able to investigate the Gloucester Sea Serpent, which makes for a much creepier tale.

Happy Sailing,
Nilla

Book Review: Feed

As a bribe to get to use the computer more often, my boyfriend took me to Barnes and Noble a few days ago so I could get a book. Initially, I wasn't looking for anything about zombies, or even really horror for once. However, this is Florida. There's not as big of a selection as I'm used to. When I passed by Feed it was facing forward and stuck out more than most of the books there. After a quick glance at the back of book, we bought it.

Feed is the story of a brother and sister team, George and Shaun, who blog about life after the "rising". It's been over 25 years and life has gotten back to being about as normal as it can be when everyone is infected with a disease that turns them into a flesh eating ghoul after they die (or if they exchange bodily fluids with someone whose infection is "live"). When George, Shaun, and their friends get chosen to cover the next presidential campaign, their love for the truth and each other is the only thing separating them from the rest of the crazy world.

My thoughts: I thoroughly enjoyed it. Normally books, especially books about zombies start off slow. Not so, this one starts off right in the middle of the action, watching brother and sister haul ass and out run a horde of the living dead. As the story unfolds, you learn more about their world and the initial outbreak, as well as the mystery that is leaving people they know and love undead. The end was a real shocker, and I can't wait to go get the sequel when I can.

The day I met George A. Romero

So, I'm sure a lot of you out there have idols. What would you do if you got to meet one of them? Today I'm going to tell you about the day I met mine.

One day my best friend, Jill, texted me and said that George Romero was going to be in Harvard Square the next day. After my initial freak out of "OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG", I texted her back, asked for the deets, and discussed transportation options with the boyfriend. Since Massachusetts has a wonderful thing called "Public Transportation", it was decided that the two of us would bus/train it, and meet up with her before the Meet and Greet. Then all three of us, as well as a mutual friend all went to the mall to get us some DVDs for signing. I got Day of the Dead, which is my favorite of all of his movies. The boyfriend got Diary of the Dead, and I believe Jill got Dawn.

The next day, we woke up bright and early and set off for the bus stop, with my little brother in tow, because, how could we leave him behind? We got there about 2 hours early, and there was no line. Just a few people sitting on a bench outside the store who continually left and came back. So we ended up being 3rd in line (no idea how that happened) and we saved Jill a spot for when she got there. As you can imagine, the wait was excruciating. Everyone standing there, talking about zombies. Until that is, the crowd roared, and a very tall man with a long gray pony tail and thick black glasses came in. He sat behind the register, and the signing began. Apparently I was more excited than I thought, as everyone kept asking me if I needed to sit down. What can I say? I wear my emotions on my face.

Finally, the moment came. Super nervous, I walked over to the man himself, Mr. George Romero. He asked me my name and signed my movie, then I went on to wait for the others. As far as I could tell, he was a nice guy. Of course, I only met him for a minute, so it's not like I can really judge. Afterwards I think we went for pizza or bubble tea (or both!), I don't really remember, but the day it's self is something that I'll never forget.

Lack of Inspiration

I have not posted in quite some time, both because things have been busy and because they haven't been very busy. Writing I've been doing a lot of, and that's something I'll go into further detail about in the future. Not having a job makes me feel guilty when I blog, and I am currently not working, so you can see how that goes. I did have a housekeeping job, but they fired me on July 4th. That's a great way to say Happy Birthday to your country!

Jobless humor aside, I started this blog because I was living in an area with relatively little well known paranormal happenings. Now, I am living in one of the "most haunted" cities in the US. Guess where I found more things to write about? It isn't here, that's for sure. Whenever I google St. Augustine and any keywords such as ghosts, hauntings, paranormal, etc, the main things that come up are ghost tours. There are about five different companies with ghost tours in this city. Plenty of tours, but where are all of the ghosts? I haven't gone on any of these tours yet, but I've been on ghost tours in other cities and I'm willing to bet that most of what happens on them is history telling. Which is great, who doesn't love some bloody history? A few of these tours are run by actual paranormal investigators, it would be really cool to get to interview them some day for Mass Horror.

So how is it that I'm living in this haunted city, and the only thing that google brings up are history telling tours, whereas when I lived in a normal city, there were ghosts and demons running amok all over? Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough. Well, I know I'm not, as when you're unemployed it is difficult so justify spending time and money running around playing ghost busters, especially when there are lots of other people who are doing the same and getting paid for it. Ah well, such is life. Hopefully my next entry will have something more worth reading for you. I have uncovered some interesting sea monster stories, so you better love cryptids as much as I do, you'll be getting an eyeful.

Until next time,
Nilla