Today is Halloween, which means it’s time for the annul Fark scary story thread!
Here are the links to threads from previous years:
While you’re here, feel free to check out some of my other freaky/creepy/scary/silly Halloween posts.
Archive for October, 2022
Happy Halloween!
Monday, October 31st, 2022Halloween Horrors: The Backrooms
Sunday, October 30th, 2022The Backrooms are a liminal space CreepyPasta setting where you’ve “no clipped” out of reality into and endless office maze of office corridors decorated in ugly yellow wallpaper and brown carpets illuminated by buzzing florescent lights.
Several video creators have run with this idea and produced some pretty convincing depictions of it. In the ones below, YouTuber Kane Parsons, AKA Kane Pixals, has filled in background lore where the Async Corporation has created (or possibly tapped into) The Backrooms as a potential money-making project, documenting their work as bland, 1980s-corporate speak promotional videos and handheld camera footage that have come down to us as grainy VHS copies. It’s a pretty-inspired mating of presentation format and subject.
And the people exploring the Backrooms start to realize that the deeper you get, the weirder things seem to be, and that there’s something else wandering those yellow hallways…
Evidently he’s doing all this in Blender, which you can download for free.
And there are lots more YouTube creators doing their own versions of the Backrooms…
Halloween Horrors: Transworld 2022 Halloween Show
Saturday, October 29th, 2022Here’s video from the 2022 Transworld Halloween trade show, where there are lots of high end props, animatronics, costumes, etc., for the haunted house trade.
This year: Lots of monsters being electrocuted, and some rather good dinosaurs.
Halloween Horrors: The Dark Watchers
Friday, October 28th, 2022It’s not often hear of legendary American creature previously unknown to me, but I hadn’t heard of The Dark Watchers before I stumbled across this
“The Dark Watchers are described as tall, sometimes giant-sized featureless dark silhouettes often adorned with brimmed hats or walking sticks. They are most often reported to be seen in the hours around twilight and dawn. They are said to motionlessly watch travelers from the horizon along the Santa Lucia Mountain Range. According to legend, no one has seen one up close and if someone were to approach them, they disappear.”
Here’s a page of firsthand accounts.
Halloween Horrors: Underground Car Graveyard
Thursday, October 27th, 2022Less scary than weird and curious, here’s some people exploring a water-filled “Cavern of Lost Souls” with “1000” (probably an exaggeration) old cars mysteriously dumped there. But there are an awful lot there, and it looks like a genuinely dangerous exploration.
This is evidently in north Wales.
Library Addition: Lettered Edition of F. Paul Wilson’s Sims Book 5
Wednesday, October 26th, 2022This one of those “what the hell” lowball bids that won. F. Paul Wilson is a writer I collected some early work of (The Keep, etc.), but hadn’t really kept up with. This is the final book from that UK dealer sale.
Wilson, F. Paul. Sims Book 5: Thy Brother’s Keeper. Cemetery Dance, 2010. First edition hardback, letter R of 26 lettered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and a Fine traycase. Bought from a notable UK dealer for £52.60.
I think this is the only non-Lansdale lettered edition I have from Cemetery Dance.
Halloween Horrors: Joe R. Lansdale’s River Adventures
Wednesday, October 26th, 2022Mojo storyteller Joe R. Lansdale tells about some early adventures on the haunted banks of the Sabine river, from water moccasins to the legend of the Goat Man to spending the night in an old cemetery.
One of the times we came to the cemetery, one of our group brought a recorder. A device that would be crude by modern standards, with a spinning tape and heavy buttons that required determination and strong fingers to activate and stop.
Recorded on the tape was the heart-wrenching sound of a dying rabbit, or at least an imitation of one. The noise a dying or injured rabbit made was of the sort that could cause the backbone to shift and the contents of your stomach to curdle.
We turned out all the flashlights, and then the recording was turned on. The plaintive cry of a suffering rabbit filled the air, and as we sat there, bright eyes gradually appeared around the perimeter of the cemetery. The owners of those eyes were unseen, and I can’t honestly tell you what sort of critters they belonged to. I could imagine slinking coyotes or red wolves—or at least their dog-mixed descendants—licking their lips. Hot little eyes like golden cigarette tips burning holes through black velvet. Gradually the eyes came closer, and when we could stand it no longer, flashlights were flicked on. It was as if the owners of those eyes were made of shadows. They disappeared into the trees and undergrowth so fast, there was only a slight rustle and a sensation of having imagined it all. Our lights couldn’t find them.
Read the whole thing, as it ends up in quite a different place than it begins.
Halloween Horrors: The Book of Cosmic Horror
Tuesday, October 25th, 2022If you like some Hieronymus Bosch, maybe you’ll enjoy this freaky medieval book of prophecy.
With a nod to H. P. Lovecraft.
Library Additions: Four Clark Ashton Smith, Three Arkhams, One Signed
Monday, October 24th, 2022One of these came over from the same UK book dealer as the last few purchases, the other three came over in a Heritage Auctions lot I won from the Gary Munson Collection. Which was a surprise, since I hadn’t won a Heritage lot since 2016!
Note: The bright white spot at top is merely a reflection off the Mylar dust jacket protector.
I will have more Clark Ashton Smith and Arkham House books available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Library Addition: Eric Frank Russell’s Somewhere A Voice
Sunday, October 23rd, 2022Another purchase from that British book dealer:
Russell, Eric Frank. Somewhere A Voice. Dennis Dobson, 1965. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with a small Foyle’s stickler on inside front cover under flap in a Near Fine- dust jacket with a 3/4″ split to bottom of front fold (and faint associated crease to front), a nail-head sized semi-closed circular chip to rear spine join near head, slight age darkening to edges of white portion of jacket, a faint, intermittant line of rubbing near right front cover edge, and slight foxing to blind side of dust jacket spine, otherwise a fairly bright example of the dust jacket. Short story collection. Currey, page 424. Locke, Spectrum of Fantasy III, page 70. Bought from a notable UK book dealer for £32.
I enjoyed Wasp enough that I think I should pick up some more Russell.