From Coven to Grave

The witch's mark is an intimate marker that warns of an unholy alliance. Very few will have opportunity to see that nipple from which the familiar suckles blood. Those who need to discover a witch before it is too late must look for more external signs. Some are very blatant and others more subtle. When the witch is discovered then he or she must be captured, a job best left to the witch hunters. That requires special equipment if the witch is very powerful, and sometimes even when not. After that there is the trial, which has its own equipment needs. The capture in many ways is the easy part thanks to the skill of the hunters. The confession is paramount but not easy to attain. These are the devotees of the Adversary (the Devil) after all--lies come to them naturally. The last step, passing sentence on a confessed witch has the simplest parts requirement.

In the dead of the night they gather. Travel out to the woods, away from prying eyes. Around the fire they dance and cavort. No special garments denote them for they must be skyclad, their nakedness full and complete beyond mere skin, their wicked souls fully on display. The nudity strips them of rank and importance; they are all supplicants to their evil Master. The rituals of which they partake are dark and ominous, many of them in stark contrast to proper behaviour, such as the Witch's Sabbath. Their vileness knows no bounds as exemplified by the Unholy Water--made in a hole in the ground from the urine of the Master and the members of the coven. They fornicate with all abandon at these gatherings. Yet by day their wantonness remains hidden just as the rest of their fiendishness. No, they must be caught in small lies and tiny sick acts.

The hunt begins once a witch is discovered. Oddly enough holy water doesn't play into our hunter's bag of tricks, due to these hunters not being Catholic--though they have their share of hunters--think instead Protestants, Quakers, or perhaps for a change of pace, Mormons. Other holy items are used. Some of them are not your run of the mill crosses. They include pieces of the cross from Calvary and in the same vein nails from the crucifixion, perhaps even the famed missing fourth nail. There may be other reliquary of more esoteric history. The equipment of the trial includes dunking devices, stocks and legs irons among other painful bindings, and different torture chairs such as the pyramidal Judas Cradle. In the field all it may take is a length of rope and a stream. When it's all done it's off to the stake to burn in the soul cleansing fire.

Mood: judgemental.

Music: One by Metallica and Let Me Hear You Scream by Ozzy Osbourne.

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13 Nights of Hallowe'en 2009: Night #9 Evil Dead

If I've had great movies and classics up to this point welcome to the next step up. I am one of the ones who prefers the original Evil Dead to the more comedic sequel as a matter of preferring pure horror movies overall. I rather believe that Evil Dead is indeed the Ultimate Experience in Grueling Horror. Not that there aren't rougher movies, though those tend to lack the elements I require to call a movie horror rather than a sub-genre or related one. Not that there aren't more horrific movies, they lack the grueling bit. I think this because, well, it's Evil Dead and its vicious, and violent, and rakes poor Ash over the coals even though the rest of his friends really get it too. Director Sam Raimi and his friends actor Bruce Campbell and Robert Tapert created an institution.

I was rather late to the party watching Evil Dead. I didn't see it until my early college days. I remember seeing the second one in the local video store but never the first so thankfully I did not see them out of order. I would not suggest seeing the trilogy out of order. I had from a source I no longer recall heard something about an alternate version of the scene with Cheryl in the woods ending with two Cheryls. Where this bizarre and by all accounts imaginary alternate scene was dreamed up, I do not know and seems limited to whomever it was that told me the tale. Cheryl's woods scene as it stands in the movie is one of those moments everyone talks about. It is also one of the scenes that got it labelled as another of the video nasties.

Mood: taunted.

Music: Perfect Crime by Guns N' Roses off of Use Your Illusion I.

13 Nights of Hallowe'en 2009: Night #4 The Blair Witch Project

It is hard to image that someone has not seen this movie, but there are always people. I certainly have not seen everything, and the closer you get to newly released the less likely I've seen a particular movie yet. However, some things you expect everyone has seen. Tonight's movie is The Blair Witch Project and it is certainly one film I think every horror fan should see. This is not to say everyone will like it as much as I do. Some people literally can't sit and watch the shaky-camera movies. So that is one initial problem. Others will not be fond of the slow pace that builds up over time. There also might be the small issue that so much has been said about the movie that all the best parts have been spoiled. Don't let these things stop you from experiencing this film.

Right now I want to tell you a little story about my experience watching The Blair Witch Project for the first time in the theatre. I went to an afternoon matinee with a friend a couple weeks after the movie had opened. The hype was still high, but the complaints of the shaking were about too. As the film progressed the temperature in the theatre dropped little by little. It was quite chilly, someone had to have the air conditioning up too high--it was August after all. The film came to the now famous, or perhaps infamous, ending and the credits rolled. As soon as the end credits started the temperature immediately returned to normal. That of course means that it was not cold in the theatre, but instead the movie had a great impact on both us since my friend agreed on the instantaneous return of warmth.

Mood: mellow.

Music: My Girlfriend's Girlfriend by Type O Negative off of October Rust.