British Ghost Stories Under Tonight's Thunder Moon

I was so fortunate to get some photos of tonight's full moon! It looked like it was going to be too overcast out there to get a shot of it.

I was all prepared to show a pic I took of the nearly full moon last night. But tonight's moon popped out for maybe 30 seconds tops, and then went back under a cloud. I was lucky to have my camera ready.

Going...

Going...

Gone!

I took those photos in succession. Click, click, click. So that shows how fast the moon was being covered!

July's full moon is called the "Thunder Moon". If you're wondering, this moon got its name because there are more frequent thunderstorms in July than in other months. For those who'd like to get into the nitty gritty of what else is going on in the sky alongside that moon, space.com has an informative page: July Full Moon 2017: When to See the 'Thunder Moon'

Because I didn't think I was going to get a photo of the moon tonight, I took a number of photos of the neighborhood. That way, I thought I'd have something to share. I'll still include two of my favorites here. I love the look of this yard at night. It's like a happy little campground or festival with those lights. And the silhouette of the fence and trees frames the light so perfectly. There's something so old fashioned about it.

So, onto those ghost stories! I discovered a few new ghost shows on YouTube recently. New to me, anyway. I think they'd been filmed sometime back. I was searching on there for "haunted pubs" because sometimes I'm in the mood for British ghost shows. First I found this one:

Most haunted pubs & Inns in Britain With Richard Felix

It just occurred to me that this is the same Richard Felix who is on the Most Haunted TV series.

After watching that show, I read a conversation in the comment section where people were talking about a man named Chris Halton who made similar videos. So I looked him up and enjoyed this episode of his show very much. Here it is:

England's Most Haunted Villages: A Day and Night Investigation of Pluckley, Kent

For those who get my blog posts in email form, I know the videos don't come through. So here are some links to them:

Most haunted pubs & Inns Britain With Richard Felix

England's Most Haunted Villages: A Day and Night Investigation of Pluckley, Kent

These are like "ghost show comfort food", because you're not going to get scared. It's more like someone is giving you a tour around town, teaching you history, and sharing a few local stories. There are some interviews too. It's pleasant ghost show viewing. It's dare I say, relaxing viewing. So enjoy these ghost stories. It's a perfect night to watch them with that full moon out there!

Danger in Disguise

I'm sure you've all heard the term "Tom Foolery", but did you know that Tom Fool was a real person? Thomas Skelton (known as Tom Fool) was not only a court jester in the late 1500s, but also a murderer. He used to sit and relax by a tree and wait for passersby to ask him for directions. If he didn't like someone, he'd give them directions to the nearby quicksand.

Thomas Skelton was also Sir William Pennington's personal hit man. When Sir William was angered by his daughter's choice in men, he hired Tom Fool to kill her boyfriend. Despite decapitating the young man with an axe, Tom managed to keep his wicked sense of humor and entertain Sir William. This portion of Castle Ghosts of England will give you more of the gory details. Just skip to the 5:50 mark on the video to see Tom Fool. If you'd like to learn about Muncaster Castle (where this all took place) start from the beginning:



The story continues in this video...



I've really been enjoying the Castle Ghosts shows on YouTube! In addition to Castle Ghosts of England, I've watched Castle Ghosts of Scotland, Castle Ghosts of  Wales, and Castle Ghosts of Ireland. If you know of any Castle Ghosts I've missed, please let me know! The stories are narrated really well, and the shows teach history in the process of telling ghosts stories.

Sir William could always rely on Tom Fool to do his bidding. I think Tom was completely detached from other people and their emotions. Directing strangers to the quicksand was probably just another game for him. This must be my week to think about sociopaths! Not long after learning of Tom Fool, I watched a movie about a sociopath. The movie was Bad Influence, starring Rob Lowe and James Spader.

Before watching the movie, I read a little about the plot online. According to IMDb, the plot involved a "wimpy young executive" and "a dangerous sociopath". I automatically assumed that Rob Lowe would play the role of the executive, and James Spader would play the role of the sociopath. After all, I've watched James Spader play a convincing sociopath many times in the past. His role as Stewart Swinton in Wolf and his role as Robert California in The Office come to mind. If you don't believe me...



It's called personal space, Stewart!



James Spader can have a cold, almost reptilian look to his eyes, and I feel truly shaken while watching him. He's usually portraying a highly manipulative, intelligent character who puts himself first. He even fit that description somewhat in Boston Legal! What I am not used to seeing is the timid James Spader I watched in Bad Influence. That's right, James Spader plays the nice, ordinary man caught in Rob Lowe's sociopathic web. As surprised as I was, I ended up finding them both convincing in their roles. This movie is truly frightening, because it's so real. I did not question the reality of the movie's plot at any point.

The trouble starts with the simple question:

"What do you want, and what do you fear?"

Rob Lowe's character, Alex could help you get what you want and get rid of what you fear, but it would all happen in a Monkey's Paw sort of way. Bad Influence is a true portrait of a sociopath. Rob Lowe did his homework and watched hours of Ted Bundy footage. At times he actually looks Bundy-like! The scary reality is that I couldn't believe someone who looked like Rob Lowe could be a bad guy. Ted Bundy also didn't look like a bad guy, and I've read that he was charming. That's where sociopaths have an advantage, they can sneak up on you.

At first James Spader's character, Michael, is so timid and taken for granted that it's refreshing to see him under Alex's influence. Suddenly Michael is standing up for himself and displaying a little confidence. Gradually Michael turns from being a sweet, fearful man into something almost like Alex. Sometimes learning to defend yourself can turn you into the kind of person you always hated. Although, as Alex says:

"I didn't make you do anything that wasn't in you already."

Alex seems to feel that we all have evil inside us, and that we'll let it out if the right opportunity arises. Like any good sociopath, Alex is not following the normal rules of society. The Michael character is sort of like Sir William Pennington. He has the potential to be a good man, but having his own version of Tom Fool around, gives him the opportunity to be a very bad man. Alex and Tom Fool are far scarier than any movie monster I can imagine!

Here's the trailer, if you'd like to get a sense of the characters in Bad Influence:

 

This movie still has me thinking, days after seeing it. It made me consider how much one person can influence another person's life. It made me wonder how far is too far in defending yourself. I also gave a lot of thought to how a person could ever get rid of someone like Alex. Bad Influence would make a great topic for discussion!

Leap Year Fears From My Childhood

February 29, 2012 is a leap day. Leap years always remind me of a legend I heard in my younger days. OK, it's probably not so much a real legend, as it is a plot made up for a TV show. Still, it's funny how the stories you hear as a child stick with you. Even if they're ridiculous. These stories seem to live on in that special part of your brain, the part where things don't need to be completely logical to make sense.

Like many kids at the time, I was obsessed with the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books. The urban legends in those books really stuck with me! Especially the one about the teenager who thinks she has a some kind of blemish, but instead it's an immense sack of spider eggs. The eggs are shown hatching in one of the more gruesome illustrations I've ever seen. I haven't had one bug bite (even now) that doesn't make me think of that story.

Don't worry, I'm changing the topic back to leap years now...

Aside from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books, one of my obsessions during grade school was a show called Are You Afraid of the Dark? If you are relatively my same age and reading this blog, chances are you were obsessed with the show too.

If you're not familiar with the show, here's a quick summary. Each week, the teenage characters met in the woods at night and told scary stories around a campfire. The TV audience would see the stories re-enacted. One of the stories was about leap day, specifically a full moon on the night of February 29. The story was called "The Tale of the Whispering Walls" and featured this groovy guy:

This character is the story's villain, Master Raymond. The story isn't amazingly scary, but Raymond is creepy acting and I loved his jacket. It sort of looks like a rib cage.

As the story goes, you need to be careful if you're out during a full moon on February 29, because that's when spirits will come back to earth and try to change places with you. The story seems ripped off of old Halloween legends a bit. Anyway, here's the first part of the episode. I'm afraid that you'll have to follow this link to watch the video, because whoever posted the video won't let anyone embed it!

The Tale of the Whispering Walls

I don't expect you to watch the entire thing, because it's not spectacular. I do think the intro is worth watching, since you'll get an explanation of the legend. That and Betty Ann is wearing a cool mask (which looks like it was borrowed from her Day of the Dead stash).

"The spirits who prowl on a full moon leap year are hunting, and it may be for you."

That was pretty scary stuff to me back in the day...

Even those of us with large imaginations have no reason to be afraid this year, because the moon won't be full on leap day. I have to wonder if there has ever been a full moon on February 29.

I had wanted to share more about the full moon on February 29th legend, but there's really not much out there. Well, not aside from all the questions posted online by the other people who clearly watched Are You Afraid of the Dark? back in the day. Evidently, a lot of us are still thinking about the leap day episode 20 years later!

I suppose everyone carries childhood stories and superstitions into their adulthood. Probably each of you can think of a story that still seems scary now because you first heard it as a child.

Before I go, I'd like to mention something you've probably noticed already ~ My blog is wearing a new look! The new layout has two columns instead of three, and only one blog post will be displayed at a time. I hope these changes will cut down on my blog's loading time. I also designed some new icons to direct you to my Twitter, Pinterest, and Halloween Forum profiles. See the magnifying glass? Beneath that is a place for you to search my blog. Say you were interested in any posts I've written about vampires. Just type "vampires" in that search box, and a list of all my vampire posts will pop up. Pretty handy, hey? Please let me know if you have any trouble reading my blog on account of these changes, and Happy Leap Day!

The frightening side of fairy tales

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:

Episodes of Grimm

Episodes of Once Upon a Time 

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/

Barbie's Darkside

Thank you to HollyHorrorshow for letting me know about all these great dolls! It turns out that there are plenty of Barbie dolls based on characters from movies and tv shows. Here are some that should appeal to the readers of this blog:

The Munsters

 

The first picture is a close up of Lily Munster. I think these were designed pretty well. They actually look like the characters from the show. If there are Barbie versions of any other characters, like Grampa Munster, I didn't run across them.

The Addams Family

 

A close up of Morticia and Gomez and then the two of them together. Well, they got the clothes right, although I'm not sure about their faces. The Gomez doll looks like Ken with a mustache. If other members of the family were made, I'd love to see them!

Samantha from Bewitched

This doll looks somewhat like Elizabeth Montgomery, and certainly looks more like her than the original doll did! The first Samantha doll just has a vintage Barbie face and a witch costume.

Twilight

The first picture is of the doll versions of Edward, Bella, and Jacob. I think they did really well on Bella's face! Maybe the designers at Mattel are getting more advanced? I actually ran across quite a few Twilight themed Barbie dolls. I didn't want to post them all, but I had to include the last picture because I thought this doll was beautiful. That one is the Barbie version of the Victoria character.

So what do you think of these dolls? Which look most to you like the real people they're based on?

If you guys know of any other Barbies with a spooky theme, let me know and I'll post them here!