Recently I ran across a storyteller on YouTube that I really enjoy listening to. I'm not sure what the magic ingredient in his voice is or why I prefer listening to him vs. many of the voices on YouTube. I think part of it is that he genuinely sounds like he is telling you these things firsthand. He's probably reading these stories unless he has a photographic memory but they're told in a way that sounds like a friend is talking to you. He gets the emotions and the timing right.
The storyteller is Otis Jiry and he reads stories that are anywhere from a few minutes to an hour long as well as some dark poetry. A lot of the stories he reads are those "Creepypasta" stories. For those who don't know, Creepypastas are short scary/shocking stories posted online. They're usually written in way that sounds like they really happened, even if what's being described is pretty wacky.
So I thought I'd post a few of my favorite readings from Otis Jiry. Those of you who get my blog by email will probably have to come read my actual blog because I know these videos don't generally show up for you.
The first one is called "Ash Hollow: The Odd Little Well" and was written by R.J. Wills. This story isn't too scary, it's more mystifying. It would be good for a discussion group where everyone could share what they think it means. I thought it was descriptive in the way where there are just enough personal details to make it sound real.
This next story "Birthday at Freddy's" will seem extra spooky and familiar for people who remember Chuck E. Cheese's. It's a little scarier than the last story.
I always thought those animatronic critters were creepy!
If you'd like to listen to more of Otis Jiry's storytelling, here is his YouTube channel: Otis Jiry's Creepypasta Crypt
There are a variety of different types of stories on his channel. Some are pretty morbid.
While listening to Otis' channel, I saw a recommended video on the side of my screen. I clicked on it and really enjoyed what I heard. Listen to this one in a dark, quiet room. The lady who reads this has a whispery, haunted tone to her voice. It's a story from the point of view of a babysitter but it's different from most scary babysitter stories. This is another one worth discussing, because there would probably be a lot of different opinions about what happened. "My Last Night Babysitting" by Jeanna Saccomano:
Last night, I finally got around to watching The Woman in Black. I say finally, because I'm not sure what took me so long! I'm a fan of Hammer movies and haunted house movies in general. That and nearly everyone I chat with online has recommended it to me!
Now that I've finally seen the movie, I'd like to discuss it with all of you who probably saw it awhile back. I'll also share an interview and a behind the scenes video. For anyone who hasn't seen The Woman in Black, I don't want to spoil anything. So I won't go into specific plot details. Here are the basics: Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) is a young widowed father who works as a lawyer. He is required to take care of some last minute estate business at a creepy haunted mansion that happens to be in the world's most unfriendly town. It turns out that the townspeople have good reason to be miserable, but they're still pretty awful. I was wondering if the inevitable ghost would be as bad as the townsfolk!
Of course the ghost is unpleasant. I won't be giving much away by saying that she is a woman in black. She wears what might be described as Victorian mourning clothing, which keeps her pretty obscured and mysterious throughout the film. You only ever see a hint of her face. Overall, I liked how subtle the movie was. The ghost provides little hints of movement out of the corner of your eye or bits of shadows passing a mirror. Seriously, this movie is only for people with good eyesight.
So many modern horror movies throw violence and loud noises at the viewer, so the subtle moments were refreshing. I remember writing my Halloween blog post last October, which was filled with subtle things that terrify me. I came to realize that shadowy hands reaching out of the darkness or narrative songs didn't do as much for everyone. So I understand that different things scare different people.
Still, I think most people would agree that they felt some wonderfully uncomfortable anticipation during the movie. There was some serious tension being built up. Sometimes the tension led to nothing, like when our main character senses something and follows his hunch all the way around the house to a room where there's... nothing. I was reminded of a moment in a Simpson's Halloween Special, when Lisa is reading Poe's "The Raven" and gets to the part where there's "Darkness there, and nothing more". Bart says "You know what would have been scarier than nothing? ANYTHING!" Yeah, there were a few moments like that. On the other hand, seeing nothing sometimes drove home the point that the house was haunted. Isn't the scary part of ghost stories that you can't see what's looking at you?
Daniel Radcliffe did a great job, especially considering that he was the only person in many of the scenes and had to use his own imagination to be afraid. He reacted the way most people would in response to noises and shadows, except for when he followed them. I don't think my first impulse to hearing a loud noise in a dark house would be to go upstairs and check it out. Although, a movie about a person who just sat downstairs in denial while all Hell broke loose upstairs, would not be very exciting.
Speaking of denial, I'm reminded of the "Daily" character played by Ciaran Hinds, one of the few nice acting people in the unfriendly town. Daily had as many reasons to be unfriendly and afraid as anyone else in this movie, but his denial of the supernatural is basically what held him together.
Under the scares, there are some interesting messages in The Woman in Black. I was left thinking about how the different characters dealt with loss and the many forms those feelings can take. I thought about how the belief in the paranormal and the afterlife can change a person's actions. I also wondered about the ghost's motivations. The Woman in Black was probably more sad than scary for me overall, but as I said before, there was some serious tension brewing!
The scenery in this movie was pure Hammer. The old house was beautifully decayed, with layers of funk over the old jewel toned walls. Thick fog covered the trees and crooked grave markers in front of the house.
The movie was incredibly classy looking, aside from what I felt was one cheap trick thrown in near the end. I thought the ghost should be presented differently, when we finally get to see her up close.
For those who have seen this movie, do you think the ending was happy, sad, or both? It felt kind of bittersweet to me, but I did have a sense of closure with the ghost.
Here are those extra bits I mentioned earlier. I ran into an interview with the author of The Woman in Black and the screenwriter of the movie.
There are some really interesting parts in that interview about the inspiration for the story, revenge, and sympathy for the ghost. I felt some sympathy for the ghost too, even while finding what she was doing despicable.
I thought this was a nice little behind the scenes video with a few interview clips:
For those who would like to relive some of the scarier parts of the movie, here's a series of video clips from The Woman in Black:
If you haven't seen this movie I recommend it, and if you have seen it, let me know what you thought of it!
One more thing! It would be fun to connect with those of you who use Tumblr. I just started a page there as a place to store some of my favorite images. I know some people use the site as a blog, but my page is more of a gallery with no words. You can find my Tumblr page here: Justine's Halloween Tumblr Page or you can always click on these eyes on the side of my blog:
We're all familiar with the Disney version of classic fairy tales. There's always a beautiful princess, a prince charming, and cute little creatures performing musical numbers. For the most part, things don't get too scary. Aside from Maleficent (above) who really freaked me out when I was young! Of course, the original stories these Disney movies were based on were much darker. This season we are lucky enough to have two TV shows depicting the darker side of fairy tales. One is Grimm and the other is Once Upon a Time.
I was really anticipating Grimm, because I heard it was produced by the same people who brought us the Buffy the Vampire Slayer show. So far, all my expectations have been met! The show has had some genuinely creepy moments, while making me laugh at the same time. It has about the same dose of creepy and funny as Buffy did. Without giving too much away, the main character is descended from the original Grimms. You know, as in Grimm's fairy tales. He's also a police officer. It's a little like CSI only the crimes are being committed by supernatural creatures. A fun element of this show is that the creatures are new. Well, you might recognize a few of them from the old stories, but the names are all new. They mostly sound Germanic. The Grimm character has a sidekick who is a "Blutbad" which is comparable to a werewolf. He's my favorite character so far. Here's a trailer for the show. The bearded guy with the beer is the Blutbad:
The second fairy tale show, Once Upon a Time is similar only in that it includes characters from old stories. That and the main characters in both shows drive yellow VW Beetles. Once Upon a Time is not a show about crime. Basically, the show is a drama about fairy tale characters if they lived in modern times. As the story goes, an evil queen put a curse on all the other fairy tale characters so they must suffer in various ways in the modern world. The modern version of the evil queen is the evil mayor, Regina. And, wow is she ever evil. This is the first time in a while that I've yelled at the TV. At a fictional character, yet! She's just that terrible of a person. Here she is:
I know she doesn't look all that bad here, but trust me, she is. She's an irritating authority figure who misuses her power to a degree you can't even believe. Regina may be evil, but she isn't the creepiest character on this show. That prize goes hands down to Rumpelstiltskin, who in the modern world is Mr. Gold. He owns a pawn shop in modern times and appears to be shaking down the town folk like he's in the mob. Here he is:
He plays his role like a reptile mixed with Golum. The story does have a protagonist named Emma. She's the only hope for any of these characters. Emma is brought from Boston to "Storybrooke" by the son she gave up for adoption. He is desperate to get away from his adoptive mother, Regina. Yeah, the evil queen adopted him. Poor kid! Here's the show's trailer:
Has anyone else been watching these shows? If so, I'd like to hear what you think so far! I like both shows equally, for different reasons. If you haven't had a chance to watch the shows yet, you can catch up here:
Just click on the 'video' tab to watch full episodes.
Also, if you want to watch these shows on TV, Grimm is on NBC channels and Once Upon a Time is on ABC channels. We all have different time zones, but Grimm is on at 8:00 American central time on Friday nights and Once Upon a Time plays at 7:00 on Sunday nights. This is always a good place to check what's on TV near you: http://www.tvguide.com/
For those who don't know, the character looking at you is Screamin' Jay Hawkins. His music and persona would always be a perfect fit in my blog, but I have a reason to focus on him tonight. My blog buddy Julie was nice enough to finally solve a mystery for me that involves one of his songs.
If you remember, a while back I wrote a guest blog entry for GdL16. In it, I wrote about a certain X-Files episode involving a sculptor who was in his studio working while a song (that I couldn't remember) played in the background. Since I couldn't find any evidence of this episode online, I decided to focus on my favorite X-Files episode instead. Well, guess what? It turns out that the scene in my mind really did exist and also happened to be the beginning of my favorite episode!
As Julie pointed out, the song playing in this scene was "Frenzy" by Screamin' Jay Hawkins. I listened to the song online and instantly knew she was correct! It was nice to know that my memory was accurate, because my brain has continued trying to figure out where I came up with that scene!
I had a difficult time choosing photos for this blog entry, because there is a lot of great Screamin' Jay Hawkins material to choose from! He was someone who was clearly not shy about posing for photos! If you google images of him, you'll find lots of cheesy expressions, voodoo accessories, and vampire related poses.
If you'd like to listen to "Frenzy" check out the youtube clip below. You won't be watching anything, but you'll get to hear the song. I was thinking of putting up the video of him performing "Frenzy" live, but there's a lot of talking beforehand. I got a kick out of it, but I won't put you guys through it. :)
The second video is of Screamin' Jay performing the song he is probably most well known for. It will give you an idea of his performance style. I don't have any explanation for the chattering teeth, but this video is pretty old so I guess we can cut him some slack on the special effects. :)
Pretty innovative for the 1950's, hey? Just think of all the performers he's inspired!
