a clockwork orange

Reading a clockwork orange was a real great experience, while i do love Stanley Kubrick's interpretation of this work, I think that reading this is an entirely different animal, you get a real taste for Alex's voice and the sort of relationship he has with his "droogs". I quite love the writing style and it makes it a very engaging read which not many other novels are able to achieve. The world that is created is incredibly fascinating as well, not only is it a very unique world in itself but a dystopian world which certainly breaks most paradigms of other dystopian novels. All in all this novel was right horrorshow.

I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream

One of my favorite post-apocalyptic novels of all time, I Have No Mouth is what I would consider to be the most cynical, anti-human, takes on the end of times in writing history, the bleak future that is depicted really puts in to perspective a fate worse than what humans are even capable of now, as the final characters ends up as a sentient blob of flesh suffering until the heat death of the universe really makes all of our tortures look like tickling. While this is of course not a future I would ever want to live in, I do enjoy the act of pondering these 'worst case scenarios' as almost something to avoid, but not only to enjoy the story, but to find the deeper meaning behind the text. The author has definitely got some very strong views on the state of nuclear warfare and artificial intelligence and where it could head if we let things get out of hand. I would and do recommend this book to people all the time as it is a wonderful short read for those who enjoy the post-apocalypse scenario, or terrifying AI.

Bloodchild was a very interesting short story that addresses the idea of not only humans functioning within an alien civilization and being reduced to almost livestock like qualities. I think what makes the story interesting is that it isn’t necessarily a violent power struggle between the humans and the aliens but rather an almost diplomatic struggle and balance of power. I thought that playing with the premise of men in this society having to deal with possibly violent painful pregnancy is quite a unique concept and I feel could really even be taken further in order to really up the discomfort factor

I felt like I definitely made a connection with this story’s overarching themes of free will and whether or not we truly have it much like in the part of the story where the main character threatens to take their own life simply because it would be their own choice. We feel a much truer sense of free will within the character when he manages to get the alien to give up the gun and let him have it even though the creature is clearly not comfortable with it; however it brings it back in to question when we deal with the fertilization part where we find the alien would have chosen anyone and the main character is more or less forced to oblige them or face the guilt of shoving that responsibility onto their sister. It certainly offers some good topics for discussion and almost wish this was longer.

If I could adapt this story I would probably like to make it into a short film with greater emphasis on the power struggle of free will and probably cut out any parts that are gruesome and instead focus on the characters reactions and feelings towards the situations rather than being so overt. The main trouble would be dealing with the alien so to be perfectly honest I would have just left it out and rather had all of this discussion occur between the main characters not only providing the viewer with a more intimate feeling with the characters but also to let them imagine something worse than what may be described in the book. This would also not work with digital either as I would want to shoot this on either 8mm or Academy 35mm film.

Bela Lugosi's Dracula and other adaptations

Nobody's interpretation of Dracula is quite so famous as Bela Lugosi's, Famous for his 1931 film Dracula the man instantly perpetuated this idea of the well dressed Romanian vampire who feeds on people's blood and battles wits with Van Helsing. there have been many other interpretations that are also near as famous, or infamous as it were. Nosferatu is another one of the more well known examples of the vampire and one of its earliest interpretations. Vampires seem to be one of those monsters that will get interpreted over and over throughout the years much like zombies or werewolves.

The Unnameable

H.P. Lovecraft, at this point, has more or less become a household name; however few of those people may actually read his books, they at least know of his work and what it has accomplished. His creation of cosmic horror is one that would spur on thousands of more ideas to come from other writers, however, cosmic horror is hard. Not only is it hard but it's even harder to adapt to film mediums. One of H.P. Lovecraft's greatest examples of cosmic horror lies in 'The Unnameable" a short story, but it perfectly encapsulates the idea of this unexplainable force that occurs in cosmic horror, not only are the characters distraught and terrified by what they see, they cannot even describe it, it is the unnameable. Perhaps the greatest examples of film adaptations of cosmic horror are found in Alien and The Thing, these two movie perfectly encapsulate this idea of this unknowable force.

The Pit and the Pendulum

The Pit and the Pendulum is probably one of the most iconic tales by Edgar Alan Poe in existence, it is a very tense story that really keeps you waiting on the edge of your seat. One of my favorite parts of the story is that it really puts you in a very unfamiliar setting, the very idea of being tortured in such a strange and frightening way is quite disturbing and the fact that there is not only the constant threat of torture but also as we get to the part of the story with the titular pendulum the tension is cranked up to a ten. All of this comes together to make the ending quite dissatisfying in my opinion, having the character escape at the very last second seems to annul this sense of mystery and dread.

HORROR TROPES

Creaky Doors

Lighting

Shifting bookcase

Cemetery

Foggy night

Rainy night

Violin – creepy music

Rising trumpet

Sleeping alone at night

Separated 

Character stepping out of the dark 

Walking down mysterious stairways

Creepy house owner

Jump scares

Abandoned houses

Stupid victims

The hunch

Startled by an image of yourself in the mirror

Fake scares 

Dracula inspiration; Bela Lugosi

Touching you’re not supposed to

Damsel in distress

Never show the monster – tell them about a bomb don’t show them 

Creepy kids 

Chair at the window

Rituals (scientific or cultish)