Poe's "LIGEIA" - My Reading, Courtesy of Monster Island Resort

One thing I discovered about myself in the past year (among many) is that I really enjoy live readings. Perhaps it can be chalked up to the whole "being in love with the sound of my own voice" thing, or the fact that I was trained in rhetoric in high school (which, with the addition of $2.25, will currently get me on the subway), but I do get a kick out of public reading, particularly of great works of literature.

Another individual who enjoys this, and is also exceptionally good at it, is my West Coast brother Miguel Rodriguez. Not long ago, Miguel started a series on his acclaimed Monster Island Resort podcast, entitled "MIR Storytime". Using his impressive powers of enunciation, Miguel had been recording himself reading some legendary pieces of horror literature. Needless to say, I became intrigued. And once Miguel gave me permission to contribute to the series, I set about recording my version of "Ligeia"--a prototypical vampire/zombie tale which is one of, if not my very favorite, Edgar Allan Poe short story.

I'm honored that Mr. Rodriguez gave me an opportunity to do this, and was so thrilled to see it posted on his Monster Island Resort podcast homepage, that I asked his permission to repost it right here in The Vault of Horror. And so, dear Vault dwellers, I invite you to proceed directly to the following link, where you may tune in or download it for your macabre listening pleasure:

B-SOL READS EDGAR ALLAN POE'S "LIGEIA"

* The Vault would also like to wish a hearty congrats and attagirl to our very own sister blogger, BJ-C of Day of the Woman, who will be contributing to Yahoo! Movies in the very near future. Nice job, kid. That's how we do it on Team Vault.

The Horror of the Printed Page

[Tonight I bring you a special contribution from award-winning book blogger Katiebabs of Babbling About Books, and More. So let's shut off the DVD players for a minute and think about the books that really scare us, shall we?]

The horror! The horror! Quick, can anyone tell me where that line is from? And no, I’m not talking about one of the most famous movie lines muttered from Marlon Brando in the Francis Ford Coppola classic, Apocalypse Now.

It may seem unfortunate that most of the screams and thrills people find are in movies. I’m a true horror movie buff and I love having the ever loving shit scared out of me as I watch some poor sap die a horrible death from some maniac or supernatural monster. But it may come as a surprise that you can feel these same emotions in books. One of my favorite genres is horror. There has been many times where I have been sitting in my bedroom late at night all alone and scare myself to death by what I am reading.

There are hundreds of books I could recommend that can send chills up and down your spine but since I have limited space, I will give you some of my all time favorite tales of terror. You may find yourself surprised that these books will give you nightmares.

Many of the horror stories I have love are short tales of murder, mayhem and death. One of my all time favorite horror authors is Edgar Allen Poe. My appreciation for Poe began when I watched Vincent Price starring in many screen adaptations of Poe’s work. Two Poe stories that always give me the willies are The Tell-Tale Heart and The Masque of the Red Death. The Tell-Tale Heart is a chilling telling by the narrator as he tells about a murder he committed and how he got rid of the body. The police come to him to ask him questions about the missing person. They have no clue that he is the killer, and he is about to get away with the murder. But as the police interview him, he begins to hear a noise, a sound that won’t go away. The sound becomes louder to his ears, till he is near insanity, wanting it to stop:

"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! --tear up the planks! here, here! --It is the beating of his hideous heart!"

The Masque of the Red Death takes place during a masquerade ball where the guests are murdered by some unknown killer. The question is, who is this killer and why is he targeting these people? The ways they die are very gruesome. But no one is safe because the Red Death is actually a terrible plague that has swept across the land.

Don’t Look Now by Daphne de Maurier is another short story that was made into a cult classic movie in 1973 with Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie. A married couple are on vacation, trying to get pass their grief over the death of their little girl who drowned. The husband begins to see a little blonde girl in a red coat everywhere. He starts to believe she is his daughter because his daughter had drowned in the same type of coat this strange little girl is wearing. When he finally catches up to the little girl, the twist will shock the ever loving crap out of you. The ending to the story gave me nightmares for weeks. And if you decide to see the movie, don’t be surprised if the last two minutes makes you piss your pants from fright.

The one type of creature, that makes me want to hide in a closet and pray for a quick death if they find me are zombies. I blame George Romero for that lifelong fear. But without Richard Matheson there would be no Night of the Living Dead. Matheson wrote a story in 1954 that has influenced many horror authors and Hollywood filmmakers. I Am Legend helped develop the vampire and zombie genre by building upon the idea of an apocalypse of disease that will destroy the world. This story is the reason Stephen King wanted to write horror and responsible for flesh eating zombies becoming such a cultural phenomenon in movies and literature. It is about the one soul survivor left on Earth after a virus has turned humans into undead mindless zombies. The reader goes through the experience alongside Robert as he tries not to go crazy because every night he is stalked by these creatures. Imagine if you were the last person on Earth with no where to turn to for help, only you own thoughts to keep you company as you try to stay alive or become food.

Speaking of Stephen King, he is my idol, my reason for reading and wanting to write like he does. He has shaped the horror, science fiction and fantasy genre alike. It is so hard to choose his best work. The three that come to mind are The Stand, It and The Shining. With The Shining, King is able to tap into a person’s inner demons and the eventual break down of a person’s mind because of those demons. Part psychological thriller, part ghost story, this is one of the finest books I have ever read. It gave me an intense dislike of clowns and the underground sewage system, and The Stand is my number one favorite book of all time. The Stand taps into the desolation and fear in people of what is right and wrong and how one would survive if an epidemic such as a virus wiping out the world did occur.

Many of the books I have listed are classics. There is one final book I would like to mention that was just released this year and you may come as a surprise because it is a Young Adult book written for the teen audience. The Forest of Hand and Teeth by Carrie Ryan is such a book that in my past twenty odd years of reading scared me to the point I was looking over my shoulder as I read, expecting the monsters from the book to be standing there. The Forest of Hands and Teeth is a cross between M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village and George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. This book has tapped deep into my fears and psyche. Imagine the world filled with zombies who want to eat you. You have no where to turn, for they are all around you, crying in hunger, waiting for the right moment to attack. Imagine the only thing that keeps you from being infected by them and becoming one of them or becoming zombie food is a fence that keeps them out. What if that fence was breached and they were able to come through? This is a book not for the faint of heart. There is death and destruction, filled with violence and fear. The fear is not surviving from the monsters whose only goal is to consume the living. But is this truly surviving? (For more on The Forest of Hands and Teeth, you can read my review here: http://kbgbabbles.blogspot.com/2009/03/forest-of-hands-and-teeth-book-review.html)

I thank B-Sol for giving me this opportunity to talk about my favorite horror reads. What are some of your favorite horror books or authors you can recommend to fellow horror fans?

Katiebabs from Babbling About Books and More! http://kbgbabbles.blogspot.com/ Twitter: @Katiebabs

Poe's Work Adapted to Comic Book

Since debuting at Harry Knowles' BNAT film festival last summer, Marc Lougee's stop-motion animated version of Edgar Allan Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum has been making the rounds at literally hundreds of film festivals (unfortunately, the main outlet for short subjects these days). It has generated quite a bit of positive buzz in the process.

Now, Bluewater Productions, the same comic book company responsible for Vincent Price Presents (the first issue of which was written by The League of Tana Tea Drinkers' own Chad Helder) will be bringing the film to the sequential art medium.

The comic book has been put together without hand-drawn art--in a clever stroke, it is instead using actual stills from the animated film, which is sure to give the book a unique look indeed. If you don't believe me, just check out these sample pages at Where the Long Tail Ends.

The first issue hits comic book stores February 25.

Edgar Allen Poe: The Bicentennial

Much like the fabled "Poe Toaster", The Vault of Horror raises a glass of fine cognac to the memory of Edgar Allen Poe, father of the short story, founder of the mystery genre, and the greatest writer of horror literature in history.

Poe was born 200 years ago this day in Boston Massachusetts. In honor of this momentous occasion for literature and horror--two areas of great interest to me--I'd like to provide a bunch of very solid resources for looking further into the life and work of Edgar Allen Poe. There's no better way I can think of to while away this evening than wandering through Mr. Poe's gothic imagination...

• Poe at Project Gutenberg: Download Poe's works directly, in both text and audio forms.
• Poe at the Internet Archive: Scanned versions of actual, illustrated books.
• PoeStories.com: Summaries, quotes, and full text of Poe's short stories, plus a Poe timeline and image gallery.
• HouseofUsher.net: The premiere Poe fan site for 14 years, featuring a virtual library, plus criticism and info on the man himself.

Stan Lee Reads The Raven

Quoth the raven... excelsior!

This was just too awesome to pass up without sharing. The ultimate icon of geek culture reads from the ultimate icon of horror literature as Stan "The Man" Lee presents Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven". Stan recorded it for QuickStopEntertainment.com in honor of Halloween, but it's something that can be cherished throughout the year--I think Stan's old school Borscht Belt accent is really what puts it over the top...

Part 1:



Part 2:

But of course, nothing will ever top Christopher Walken's rendition for my money...

The Lady Ligeia: Coming Soon to a Crypt Near You

Den of Geek (great name) has an in-depth interview up with Michael Staininger, the Austrian first-time director currently in post-production on Edgar Allen Poe's Ligeia, a modern-day adaptation of my personal favorite short story from the gothic horror master. Staininger gives a lot of fascinating insight into his work on Ligeia, including the differences between his film and Roger Corman's '60s classic The Tomb of Ligeia, the difficulties of adapting Poe to the screen, and the deficiencies in American horror films today. Of course, he also remarks, "I’m originally from Europe, from Austria, in Vienna, and anything with intellectual appeal immediately interested me." Well, excuse me, Mr. Fancy Pants European intellectual.

Poe's classic 1838 tale follows the story of a bizarre yet beatiful woman who finds a way to defeat death by sapping the life of her husband's second wife from beyond the grave, then possessing her body. Staininger's film is expected to be released sometime this fall. It features Wes Bentley of Ghost Rider fame, the great Michael Madsen, and yes, Eric Roberts. Newcomer Sofya Skya plays the title role. Despite the involvement of Eric Roberts, it sounds like it could actually be a cerebral, atmospheric, supernatural thriller. Fingers crossed.

Viggo Mortensen to Play Edgar Allen Poe?

Cinema Blend broke the news yesterday that Sylvester Stallone has offered the lead role in his long-rumored Poe biopic to Viggo Mortensen of Lord of the Rings fame. Looks like this one is pretty solid, and Mortensen is apparently interested. But as with any project these days, who knows what impact the writers' strike may have.

Never noticed the uncanny resemblance till I put these two pics side-by-side. Kinda eerie. Which would please Poe, I suppose.

*11/16 UPDATE* Viggo Mortensen fansite Viggo-Works.com is reporting this rumor to be patently FALSE. Who's got the story straight here? Time will tell. Thanks to the anonymous commenter for tipping me off to this one.

Modern-Day "Heart" Transplant

Bloody Disgusting broke the news today that "The Tell-Tale Heart", Edgar Allen Poe's classic short story, will be brought to the silver screen in 2010. One of the Victorian horror master's finest works for my money, it's the story of a murderer driven mad by the imagined heartbeat of his victim emanating from the floorboards under which he buried him.
With Josh Lucas (American Psycho) in the lead, Tell-Tale will be a contemporary reimagining. Lucas plays a single father with a transplanted heart who must find the donor's killer before he is also killed.
Poe's tale has already been adapted multiple times over the past 75 years, including: 5 features, 3 TV versions, 9 short films, 3 animated shorts, and even one feature currently in production.