All Hallows' Eve Countdown: Interactive Horror Fiction

The Apparition on the Streckelberg (Illustration for Meinhold's The Amber Witch) aka Spirit of the Mountain (1895) by Sir Philip Burne-Jones (1861-1926). Image Source: ArtMagick.

Today's post features some hypertext horror fiction games written with Twine software. You can download Twine for free here and write your own Millennial choose-your-own adventures. Because Twine is easy to use, it is accessible to amateur artists. Twine's hyperlinks promise to have a big cultural impact; the interactive form may possibly one day shake the novel from its preeminent position in the world of literature. The hyperlinked form of fiction is currently changing conventions around narrative, characterization, voice, plot, the sense of reality, genre, and other aspects of creative writing.

Twine game designers take an independent and innovative stance, which gives voice to marginalized communities. For example, on the 11th to 13th of October 2013, a 48-hour horror game jam took place with the purpose of writing stories which challenge the scary asylum and mental-illness-as-horror tropes: "The primary rule is 'You should not use asylums, psychiatric institutes, medical professionals or violent/antipathic/’insane’ patients as settings or triggers.'" From the main page, Asylum Jam:

WHO states that mental illness or disorders affect one in four people. It is something a great deal of the world live and cope with, yet are increasingly hesitant to reveal due to negative stigmatization in media, compounded by lack of general awareness about the variance and truth of suffering from a mental illness.

Horror is usually derived from the unknown and what we do not understand— and mental illness is one of these subjects where the general public lacks knowledge and insight. Many horror games use the negative portrayal of those who suffer from mental illness as extremely violent or sadistic, usually as the villain or antagonist, as an easy crutch to rest their story, characters and motivations on.

Asylum Jam is here to prove that we do not have to utilize a negative portrayal of mental health, medical professionals or medical institutes to create a good horror experience for a gamer!

All Hallows' Eve Countdown: Mainstream Gore

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

All Hallows' Eve Countdown: The Doctor's House

Photo © Daniel Marbaix. Image Source: Facebook.

Today, see urbex photos from photographer Daniel Marbaix. On his Facebook page, there is a huge collection of images, including:

• A heartbreaking photo of an abandoned Roman Catholic church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA (at 130 Larimer Ave.)
• An abandoned church organ
• A forsaken hunting lodge and abandoned chateau in Belgium 
• An abandoned castle in Italy
• Southwark Cathedral, London, UK
• An empty admin building of a North Wales hospital, UK
• A reform school shut after child abuse incidents in the UK
• Hebrew books left behind in abandoned Jewish holiday resort 
• De oude Beurs (the Old Stock Exchange - incredible photo!), Antwerp. The first money exchange market in the world was established in Antwerp; de oude Beurs is an abandoned 19th century building which is so stunning that it was recently named among urbex enthusiasts as one of the 5 Pillars of the Abandoned World (for more Pillars of the Abandoned World, go here - and see Gartloch mental hospital in Scotland (closed 1996), soon to be converted into luxury apartments)
• An abandoned jet engine testing facility, for the Manhattan Project
• An abandoned Masonic lodge in the USA

The places Marbaix visits are sometimes still eerily furnished. When asked by followers how he finds these locations, he remarks: "Google is your friend."

The set of photos below the jump were taken in a doctor's abandoned house in Germany; a report from the Daily Mail speculates - as does Marbaix - on why the inhabitants left so suddenly, at some point between the 1960s and the 1980s:

Who were these people? Why did they leave in such a hurry? What happened here? The once-grand house is badly dilapidated but its rooms still boast gorgeous fixtures and items inexplicably abandoned, suggesting a sudden flight from the home by its occupants.

It's the sheer amount of items remaining in the home that shed a little light on who the occupants were.

[Sixties' c]oats hang on hooks, their colors still bright and handbags of polished leather look ready to be slung over a woman's shoulder.

The most eerie sight of the house ... is the physician's exam room, complete with instruments and slices of kidney set between glass, ready to be examined. ...

[Marbaix] ... says little is known about the home, but he says the home has been abandoned for at least 20 years.

'It looks like most of the family were killed in a car accident (found head stones for them in the house) and the lady of the house died shortly after leaving everything behind from work stuff... to personal photos and kids paintings,' he told Reddit readers.

Headstones - in the house? The details are sketchy. The house had fanciful posters of dressed female skeletons as one ascended to two examination rooms. There is a waiting room, or study, filled with books, and medical sample models of sliced human kidneys.

All Hallows' Eve Countdown: The Backwater Gospel

Still from The Backwater Gospel (2011). Image Source: Creepy Pasta.

Today, see a Danish animated film, set in Gothic America, The Backwater Gospel. This animated short, directed by Bo Mathorne, was published by the Animation Workshop on Youtube in 2011. TV Tropes summarizes the plot and the tropes which the film features:

The Backwater Gospel is ... about a small town called Backwater that is in a bit of a predicament. Namely, whenever the local Undertaker bicycles into town, someone dies the same day. And not before he comes into town, either.

One day, however, the Undertaker comes to town... and no-one dies. Not one person. The Undertaker simply sits on a bench and watches the townsfolk. The fear and uncertainty as to who will finally die sweeps across the town, and it's only a matter of time before someone snaps...It can be watched online.

See the film below the jump.

All Hallows' Eve Countdown: Hollywood: Bones in the Foundations

Article about the haunting of 'Falcon Lair,' the last home of Rudolph Valentino (1895-1926) (click on page to enlarge). Motion Picture Magazine (November 1928, Vol. XXXVI, No. 4). Image Source: Media History Digital Library.

Hollywood, city of lights, art and artifice, takes its toll on the lives of those who work there. It is home to plenty of ghost stories, to a sense that there are many bones in its foundations. Perhaps ghosts reflect the price paid, and ghosts are sometimes said to be old screen legends themselves. Here, from the Media History Digital Library, see a 1928 report of the haunting of Rudolph Valentino's beautiful house, Falcon Lair, in Benedict Canyon, two years after the star's death. The house was reported haunted - possibly by Valentino himself - by subsequent inhabitants, and even sat empty for several years. Part of the Falcon Lair compound was the neighbouring property to the house on Cielo Drive in which Sharon Tate was murdered by Charles Manson's followers in August 1969.

Article about the haunting of 'Falcon Lair,' the last home of Rudolph Valentino (click on page to enlarge). Motion Picture Magazine (November 1928, Vol. XXXVI, No. 4). Image Source: Media History Digital Library.

Remainder of Motion Picture Magazine article on Valentino's haunted house (click to enlarge). Images Source: Media History Digital Library.

Falcon Lair, front and back views and a later view of the house's situation in Benedict Canyon. Image Source: My Love of Old Hollywood.

Rudolph Valentino at his home, Falcon Lair. Image Source: My Love of Old Hollywood.

Joan Crawford was famously accused by her adopted daughter, Christina, of obsessive, controlling abuse in the 1940s and early 1950s. What is less discussed in relation to this disputed depiction of the star is Christina's assertion that Crawford's house was haunted. Later inhabitants, up to 2005, also claimed that it was haunted:

Extreme punishments involving wire hangers, outbursts, a razor sharp tongue and a dark shadowy side that the public rarely witnessed. That tongue now quieted, Joan Crawford's daughter Christina tells of the dark supernatural events that were naturally drawn in and manifested themselves within her family home, despite the many exorcisms that were performed to remove the ornery and cantankerous spirits. The movie Mommy Dearest rattled the nation with tales so horrendous that even the most open-minded person questioned the possibilities of such terrifying acts against innocent children. Joan Crawford was a force to be reckoned with and her iron fist told volumes when it came to the star's personality. Not surprisingly, Joan's Brentwood, California home possessed a sea of rumors where the paranormal was concerned, and reports of haunting manifestations and exorcisms held in the home came to light in 1989 that are far too vivid to Christina even still today. Apparitions were literally everywhere you looked. Frightened by them as a child, there was no help as Christina and her brother were always shushed. Dark, cold spots in the home where no frightened child dare to cross were easily explained away to the children as active imaginations by their mother. The movie star's strange dealings with the dark side remained up until her last breath was taken when Christina claims that just before Joan's death, she spoke to a ghost at the end of her bed, taunting it in her arrogant way, to dare not ask her for God's help.

Joan eventually sold the estate and years later it was purchased by a family that shared similar experiences in the home. Distraught, they sought the help of the Reverend Rosalyn Bruyere, a family friend who by all accounts claim that there were so many spirits living in the home, including underworld connections and ritual abuse that it literally gave her goosebumps. Every family that had ever lived in the home had suffered from some sort of illness, disease, death, divorce, addiction or mental instability. Christina claims that she wouldn't be surprised if the ghost isn't Joan herself, due to the nature of her being capable of the realest evil you can imagine. The family living in the Brentwood home during the 90's allowed HBO to film a segment on Haunted Hollywood, adding their own personal experiences to the growing list of ghostly adventures. They claimed that the cottage by the pool was the center for paranormal phenomenon and that they had seen a host of ghosts and other entities parading through the house. The couple eventually moved. A new decade has brought new life to the Crawford estate, as there have been no more reports of ghostly activity until renovations on the estate began in 2005. The general overall feeling from those involved is that Joan is very angry that her wallpaper is being torn to shreds and thrown into the dumpster. Location: 426 N. Bristol Avenue, Brentwood, California. http://www.legendaryjoancrawford.com/brentwoodhome.html

The idea that Hollywood is haunted, or that people drawn to Hollywood are haunted because they are sensitive and artistic, is so common that it became the basis of a television series, Celebrity Ghost Stories. Joan Rivers's account of her haunted New York City abode is probably the most well-told story on this series and therefore convincing (see it here).

All Hallows' Eve Countdown: Heroic Werewolves

Image Source: Symbolic Symmetry.

The further back you go, the more ambiguous the mythological treatment of werewolves or human-wolf chimeras. Quite clearly, there was a cultural conflict between the worshippers of prehistoric wolf deities and organizers of later established religions. The increasingly negative view of werewolves appears to mark points of transition from animism to institutionalized systems of human faith. This seems to have been as true for the Greeks and Romans as it was for later Christians: an archaic positive view of wolfmen was followed by newer gods inflicting lycanthropic curses.

From Symbolic Symmetry (via Ancient Worlds), here is a short description circulating online about the positive myths surrounding the Irish werewolf, or Faoladh (pronounced FuEH-luh or FWEE-luck or FWEE-luh depending on the Irish dialect):

The Irish werewolf is different from the Teutonic or European werewolf, as it is really not a "monster" at all. Unlike its continental cousins, this shapeshifter is the guardian and protector of children, wounded men and lost persons. According to some ancient sources, the Irish werewolves were even recruited by kings in time of war. Known in their native land as the faoladh or conroicht, their predatory behaviour is typical of the common wolf, not beneath the occasional nocturnal raid on local sheep or cattle herds. If attacked or surprised while in wolf form, they usually simply run off because this causes them to shift back into their more vulnerable human form. However, after changing back into a man or woman, evidence of their lupine adventure remains on their bodies. If wounded, the injury remains. If they kill a sheep or cow, the telltale bloodstains stay on their faces and hands.

The most famous of the mythical Irish werewolves are the people of Ossory (modern day Kilkenny) whose legends live on even today. Among other lingering tales, the Ossory folk were documented by none other than Giraldus Cambrensis who, in the year 1185 transcribed what was no doubt a much older, oral folktale. According to Giraldus, the Ossory werewolves worked in pairs, male and female. A chosen couple lived as wolves for seven years before returning to human form to be replaced by a matched set of two others. During their time as wolves, they fed from the herds but this was taken as their due for watching over wandering children, healing the wounded, and guiding lost strangers to safety.

Despite the fact that this is a pre-Christian folk belief, the Irish werewolves eventually gained a reputation for being under a curse from either St Natalia (St Nailè) or, naturally, St Patrick as punishment for some vague transgression committed long ago. If you read Giraldus' account of these creatures, it is easy to separate what may be the original tale from his preachy commentary at the end.

Faoladh. Image Source: Ancient Worlds.

All Hallows' Eve Countdown: Voodoo Dolls Alive

Image Source: Pixel Nitrate.

I wanted to do a post on voodoo for today's Countdown to Hallowe'en entry, and I found a very cool animated short, Sebastian's Voodoo. It was created by Joaquin Baldwin at the UCLA Animation Workshop, with music by Nick Fevola. The film dates from 2008 and has won many awards. The synopsis: "A voodoo doll must find the courage to save his friends from being pinned to death." See it below the jump.

All Hallows' Eve Countdown: Facial Asymmetry and the Other Self

20th century prophet and clairvoyant Saint Slava Sevrukova saw Jesus Christ in a religious time travel vision and claimed that his facial features were mesmerizingly symmetrical. Image Source: The New Oxonian.

Welcome to a new installment in this year's Hallowe'en Countdown! Today, I follow up on this post about Mark Twain's speculation that Satan was a metaphor for our dream selves - a manifestation of our deepest, most unruly instincts. Today's post is about the hidden sides of ourselves which lie in plain sight, quietly expressed through body language, posture, a nervous tic. Good tailors and seamstresses know that people's whole bodies are asymmetrical, and part of the artistry of their craft lies in making clothes which make a body appear balanced, when it really isn't.

Gwyneth Paltrow has highly unusual facial symmetry. Her regular appearance (center); her right side is mirrored on itself in the far left photo; her left side is mirrored on itself in the far right photo. Princess Diana also had a very symmetrical face (see here). Image Source: right reading.

The same goes for faces. Very few people have nearly perfectly symmetrical faces. Facial asymmetry is a feature known to artists, photographers and hairstylists. Half their battle is finding the flattering angle in an imperfect subject. You can see a professional photographer discussing how she lights her own face to make it look balanced, 'normal' and beautiful, here. But there are even deeper dimensions to the implicit metaphysical messages our unbalanced faces give. With every crooked smile, we supposedly betray the ghosts which lurk within us.