Today I'm pleased to have Jess Fortunao visit my site. We have dubbed her the HalloQueen on Twitter for her immense love of all things Halloween.
HalloQueen’s Top 10 Horror Movies
This Halloween Season
Most Memorable Quote:
“It's time we were on our way. I'm hungry, and the city awaits.”
Most Memorable Quote:
“Always check your candy.”
Most Memorable Quote:
“They’re coming for you Barbara.”
Most Memorable Quote:
“One, two, Freddy's coming for you. / Three, four, better lock your door. /
Five, six, grab your crucifix. / Seven, eight, gonna stay up late. / Nine, ten,
never sleep again.”
Most Memorable Quote:
“I see dead people. Walking around like regular people. They don't see each
other. They only see what they want to see. They don't know they're dead.”
Suspense has never
been so palpable! In M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs, you are introduced to widow
and ex- Reverend Graham. He lives on a large farm with his two children and Brother
Merrill. As the family is still reeling
from the loss of Graham’s wife, they begin finding crop circles on their
property. Soon enough there is a
full-scale alien invasion. The pacing of
this movie is brilliant, and doesn’t rely on a pumped up soundtrack or too many
special effects. Most nerve wracking is how clearly you see the fear and doubt
of survival in the adult faces. The two children in the film are innocent and
while scared, still feel somewhat secure. When you’re little you think your
parents can protect you from anything, even aliens. It’s a little noted part of
the movie that I found stuck with me the longest.
Most Memorable quote:
“There is no one looking out for us. We are all alone.” ~Graham Hess
The Crazies, marketed
as another Zombie flick, is anything but.
Sheriff David is living the quite life in small town Iowa with his
pregnant wife Judy. A toxin in the water
supply has turned most of the residents into violent psychopaths. David tries
to make sense of the situation while he, his wife, and two other unaffected
townspeople band together to escape the town full of Crazies. The creepy part of this movie? The government involvement is nearly
immediate and is in no way lenient. The
declaration of Martial Law and the genocide of those they *think* are infected
is terrifying to say the least. (Especially because I can easily see it
happening.) Also, as disturbing as this
movie gets, it is subtly laced with great one-liners and humor. Something that is hard to pull off during
such a dire situation.
Most Memorable Quote:
“What road can they not see? Tell me, what magic road can they not see? Tell me
and I'll fucking go!”~David
For starters, you
don’t go messing with voodoo kids. That
is just fact. Main character Caroline finds herself in the middle of the dark
arts when she goes to the Devereaux home in New Orleans to be the hospice nurse
for the ailing Ben Devereaux. There is a
secret ritual room in the attic, and despite his poor health, Ben begs Caroline
for help. The deeper Caroline searches
into the family’s past and the history of the house, the more danger she finds
herself in. This movie has all the
suspense you could want and the most terrifying internal conflict I’ve ever
encountered in a movie. If you believe
in the magic, you can use it to protect you.
However, the magic can only hurt you if you believe in it. And by the end of the movie, you will believe.
Most Memorable Quote:
“The thing folks just don't understand
about sacrifice... sometimes it's more of a trade.”~Caroline
When my sister and I
first watched this movie we were so creeped out we had a sleepover, and the
Fortunato women are made of stone. The movie, told in a documentary format,
tells the story of psychiatrist Abbey Tyler.
After the death of her husband, Abbey continues his research into the
insomnia that seems to be plaguing the residents of their home in Nome, Alaska. What she finds is the unnatural commonalities
between all the patients. They think they are sleeping, they dream of a Snow
Owl, and then they remember nothing.
Abbey decides to take her research a step further and use hypnosis to
get to the truth. What she finds is
downright horrifying. The residents are
being abducted from their beds. However,
the deeper she pushes her research the larger the target on her back
grows. The creepiest aspect to this
film? The similarities it shares with
real-life documented cases in Alaska and around the world. The idea of being taken from your home by
monsters you can’t understand or fight is truly frightening.
Most Memorable
Quote: “An encounter in the first kind,
that's when you see a UFO. The second kind is when you see evidence of it: crop
circles, radiation. The third kind is when you make contact. But the fourth
kind, there's nothing more frightening than the fourth. You see, that one is
when they abduct you.”
Halloween is the
father of the horror genre. I’ve been asked many times why it is a must
see. It was a simple premise for a movie. A young boy, Michael Myers, murders his
sister in cold blood. Seventeen years
later, he reemerges to kill his other sister.
It set the standard for suspense and pacing that left you glued to the
edge of your seat. With a psychopath on
a murderous rampage, only one scene actually contains any blood at all. The atmosphere and a one-song soundtrack
establishes the fear from the very beginning without the gratuitous gore that
seems so prevalent in today’s horror flicks. Why should you see it? The fear and anxiety comes purely from a
well-developed plot and great actors. As
Michael races to find his sister, and his Doctor races to stop him, the action
is intense. Halloween exploded into not only a franchise, but also resurgence
of the horror genre, and for that, we thank it.
Most Memorable Quote:
“It's Halloween, everyone's entitled to one good scare.”
HalloQueen’s Top 5 Novels This
Halloween Season
(And 3 of them are Free!!)
The
only content hitting both Halloween lists this season. While the movie is excellent, you shouldn’t
deprive yourself the joys of reading the much more detailed account of new
vampire Louis. In his own words he
speaks of how he lived, how he died, and how he lived again. A sexy,
heartbreaking, and dark emotional ride, Anne Rice is the Queen of Vampires.
Most
Memorable Quote: “People who cease to believe in God or goodness altogether
still believe in the devil. Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally
difficult.”
Shelley
penned this novel at a mere 18 years of age, only to have it published three
years later. The first edition was
published anonymously due to its writer being a young woman. However, it was released again in 1823, this
time bearing the authors name.
Frankenstein
is the running narrative of Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant man who yearns to
reanimate the dead. His intent is to
make is creation beautiful, but instead turns into a monster. Although the monster itself has been called
Frankenstein, it was never really given a name in the book. It is always referred to in a disgusted
manner, but never by name.
Why
read it? It is a personal and tragic
narrative. It too spawned a franchise
and Shelley’s story lives on in various mediums.
In
addition, she’s an 18 year old chick who wrote a horror novel in the 1800’s
while kicking in societal norms! Rock on!
Most
Memorable Quote: “It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world;
but on that account we shall be more attached to one another.”
You
*think* you know Dracula, but you’d be wrong.
This 1897 horror novel introduced Count Dracula to the world. The novel tells the story of Dracula's
attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between
Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing.
The story of Dracula is told through
diary entries, letters and logs. He is a
bloodthirsty killer, very different from the Vampires we see in most fiction
today. Be a twi-hard if you must, but
you should investigate where your vampires hail from. If I claim Anne Rice the Queen of Vampires,
Stoker is definitely the King.
Most
Memorable Quote: “No man knows till he has suffered from the night how sweet
and dear to his heart and eye the morning can be.”
Flowers
in the Attic is the only novel on this list that in no way includes the paranormal. Don’t let that fool you though, it is plenty
horrifying on its own. It is the first
book in the series; however, it stands alone as one of the creepiest books out
there. The four Dollanganger children
had perfect lives until their father is killed in a car accident. With no way to pay their bills, the four
children and their mother are forced to go to their grandmother’s lush home for
refuge. After a brief happiness, the
children are locked in the attic, told that their sickly grandfather cannot see
them or their mother will be disinherited.
They at first attempt to make the best of the situation, despite the
abuse they receive from their grandmother.
Soon the children realize they are not going to be rescued by their
mother, as she has been dating and living a separate life. The children begin to starve and outgrow
their surroundings, and forced to fight for their lives. Why so scary?
The book could easily happen in an abusive situation. The religious fear their grandmother instills
in them is also very unsettling. The
other themes of incest, murder, and psychosis are disturbing enough to last a
lifetime.
Most
Memorable Quote: “Sometimes I wish I were dead, because I think we would all be
better off dead than buried alive up here!"
Ok, so the jig is up, Wilde is my favorite
author. The Picture of Dorian Gray, the
only novel written by Wilde, is also my favorite of all his works. The novel tells of a young man named Dorian
Gray, the subject of a painting by artist Basil Hallward. Basil is impressed by
Dorian's beauty and becomes infatuated with him. Dorian meets Lord Henry
Wotton, a friend of Basil's, and becomes captivated by Lord Henry's worldview.
Lord Henry suggests the only things worth pursuing in life are beauty and
pleasure. Realizing that one day his beauty will fade, Dorian proclaims he
would happily nail his soul to the devils altar in exchange for eternal beauty.
Dorian's wish is fulfilled, and he pursues a life of debauchery, the portrait
Basil painted serving as a reminder of the effect each act has upon his eternal
soul. Why is it number one? It is suspenseful, charming, and at times
downright funny. Wilde’s wit and
cynicism make everything the characters do both desperate and intriguing. What if you had a physical representation of
your sins, your soul, as Dorian does?
Would you strive to keep it perfect, or take pleasure in watching it
destroyed? I’ve always found the
internal conflict of the human mind to be the scariest thing out there.
Most Memorable Quote: “Nowadays most
people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late
that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.”
Jessica Fortunato is the author of The Sin Collector Series. Her first novel The Sin Collector, as well as a short novella The Sin Collector: Thomas are both available on Amazon. When she isn't writing she is usually getting her fix of bad horror movies. Jessica hails from the exciting land of Pittsburgh located in the realm of Pennsylvania. She lives with her family, and a number of pets that are slowly taking over the household.
Jessica took part in an exciting Supernatural anthology due out in November and the sequel to The Sin Collector, Sacrifice, will be released next year!
Website:
thesincollector.weebly.com
AND NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY!
Jess and I are so excited that we want to spread or love of the Supernatural. We're offering a Major Prize Pack to one lucky person. It includes:
The Sin Collector by Jessica Fortunato (ebook)
The Sin Collector by Jessica Fortunato: Thomas (ebook)
Flower of Hell by Noree Cosper (ebook)
Prerelease: A Presription for Delirium (ebook)
Just join the Rafflecopter options below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
