Popular Science: Evolution and Dragons
The website for Popular Science magazine has an interesting brief piece titled “If Evolution Had Taken a Different Turn, Could Dragons Have Existed?” The article notes that several of the features of dragons are found in various animals, just not all of them in a single creature. And although it would have taken several interesting […]
Gargoyles: Disney Making Live-Action Film
I learned through a link to my blog from The Grimm Tea Party that Disney Studios has a live-action film on gargoyles in the works. A few websites are reporting on this, including The Hollywood Reporter, which states that The studio is in the process of hiring Zoe Green to develop a story revolving around […]
Cryptozoology: Chupacabra Killed in Texas?
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Has the legendary, blood-sucking monster, El Chupacabra, been shot and killed in Texas? The Discovery Channel’s description of Chupacabra: Mysterious animal deaths sparked mass hysteria on the small island of Puerto Rico. In 1992, Puerto Rican newspapers reported a series of strange killings […]
MAKE-UP ARTIST magazine: Universal Studios Horror Features
A perusal of the magazine rack at Barnes & Noble last week was rewarded with the find of Make-Up Artist magazine, Number 85 (July/August 2010). Two articles were of special interest to me. The first is related to the first photo accompanying this post of the Creature from the Black Lagoon. The Creature is is […]
Cinefantastique Online: House of Usher – A 50th Anniversary Review
My contribution to Cinefantastique Online‘s 50th anniversary reviews and retrospectives from films of 1960 is now available as I look at House of Usher (alternatively The Fall of the House of Usher). This film was a pleasure to revisit as one of my favorites growing up. Roger Corman excelled with a series of horror films […]
Roswell: Happy Anniversary
No adequate consideration of American cultural celebrations for the month of July would be complete without a mention of Roswell, New Mexico. In July 1947 on a rancher’s land near the small city of Roswell, an event took place that would give birth to one of the greatest mysteries which would fuel UFO mythology and […]
Coming Attractions
In the near future I will be interacting with the authors or editors of several books. To begin this process, I have mentioned this book in the past but am slow to finally read the volume. I have just begun Stephen Asma’s On Monsters: An Unnatural History of our Worst Fears (Oxford University Press, 2009): […]
Joseph Laycock: Vampires and Eclipse
Watch this video on YouTubeEclipse recently debuted in theaters, the latest installment in the Twilight series of romance-vampire films, and in connection with this I am pleased to present this video of fellow religion and pop culture scholar Joseph Laycock. He shares some thoughts on the history of the vampire, contemporary vampirism, and the Twilight […]
i09: Why Won’t Christian Publishers Take on Science Fiction?
The science fiction website i09, recently included an article titled “Christian readers demand more science fiction. Why won’t Christian publishers listen?”. With this post I’d like to suggest some answers. This article, by Charlie Jane Anders, introduces the subject matter with reference to three separate articles, the first by StephanieP, a Catholic, who argues in […]
THE WOLFMAN: Must the Beast Have Its Day?
I recently had an opportunity to watch The Wolfman (2010). It was a film I had been looking forward to seeing as a new version of a Universal Studios horror classic. I did not find it very satisfying, but it did include some interesting elements and food for thought. Like the 1941 version of the […]
