Saturday, November 24, 2012

Folk Horror Classics: The Crimson Cult


Although The Wicker Man is the best-known- and the best overall, I'd argue- it was only one example of an entire genre of British occult thrillers, many of which starred the estimable Christopher Lee. 

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Crawling From The Wreckage (of Superstorm Sandy)


It's not every day you live through a Superstorm. And even though we didn't get the flooding that the coastal areas received, it doesn't mean we didn't get hammered hard by Sandy. Apparently, we were one of the hardest hit outside the Shore. 


Monday, October 15, 2012

Sucking in the Seventies

 

Longtime TV fixture Gary Collins pierced the veil and left this mortal coil at the age of 74. 

Collins' career is too long and twisting to detail here, but he entered the Secret Sun Hall of Fame when he starred (with Darren McGavin, no less) in the Solar foundational text Hangar 18 (which you read about in depth here), and was no stranger to other genre roles as well. 


Sunday, October 07, 2012

Weekend Matinee: The Norliss Tapes

 

A Secret Sun board member recently asked me what I thought was Chris Carter's primary inspiration and the answer was simple: Dan Curtis. You see, the seeds of Ten Thirteen Productions can all be found in Curtis' legendary made-for-TV classics, everything from Dark Shadows to the The Night Stalker to Trilogy of Terror to Intruders.

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Comics are Magick: "Horoscope Phenomenon"


I mentioned my first encounter with Jack Kirby via a DC house ad for The New Gods and The Forever People in The Witching Hour #12. Contrary to current misconception, no one really referred to those books as the "Fourth World" until much, much later, and the term itself - most likely actually coined by DC editorial and adopted by Kirby after the fact - didn't show up until several issues into the project's run.