The Devil's Muse

Category: horror

  • Great Tips for Writing Horror

    I started working with a friend to help encourage me to write because, although I love writing, I was getting stalled by plots with weak endings and not making my writing a priority. In one of our discussions when we were reviewing each other’s work, she asked me about mine, “What makes your story horror?”

    My only answer was, “There’s murder in it and a killer who creates suspense and fear.” Not the strongest answer. So, after our meeting, I did some research to see if I could find a resource to help me better define what could make my story a horror story.

    I stumbled upon a great webpage, Secrets of the Horror Genre. In most other resources I could find online, the information was vague and did not add anything to what I already knew about the genre. This webpage, in contrast, precisely outlines what is expected from a horror story, and it provides alternatives so that you can pick and choose what type of horror story you want to write. I highly recommend it if you are looking for some direction in your horror writing.

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  • One Way to Get Ahead in Life

    Image from Fall ’16 Comics & Graphic Narratives
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  • Horror Cinema Trivia: Dead Ringers

    The working title for David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers was “Gemini.” The studio did not like it, and the working title was updated to “Twins.” This was changed to “Dead Ringers” after Ivan Reitman, who had produced two of David Cronenberg’s early films, approached Cronenberg about purchasing the rights to use the title “Twins.” This title was then used for the Danny DeVito/Arnold Schwarzenegger film Twins (1988).

    It’s hard to imagine this movie being called anything other than Dead Ringers, let alone something as plain as Twins.

    Find more behind-the-scenes facts at IMDb Trivia: Dead Ringers (1988).

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  • DYK: Jaws (1975)

    Did you know that the producers of Jaws thought it would be possible to train a live great white shark for the film? Not only is it impossible to hold a great white in captivity, but marine biologists have also proven the idea of training such a fish is laughable.

    Find more behind-the-scenes facts about Jaws at ScreenRant’s Strangest Behind The Scenes Stories From Jaws.

    Images from Behind the Scenes of a Classic: Jaws.

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  • Horror Cinema Trivia: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

    With the exception of some copyrighted music they had the rights to, the soundtrack of 1974’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre contains no sounds from musical instruments. Instead, they used sounds an animal would hear inside a slaughterhouse.

    From IMDb Trivia: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

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  • End of the Line, Buddy

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  • They Lost Their Heads

    Saul: Body despoiled
    Four headless bodies, with bound hands, hang from gallows. Crown on ground below them. Scene in landscape setting.
    Saul: Body despoiled
    Four soldiers, wearing armor, hold sticks, upon which are heads of Saul and his three sons, all wearing crowns. Scene in landscape setting.

    Details from Book of Hours, France, ca. 1500, The Morgan Library & Museum.

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  • Before Coffee in the Morning

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  • Horror Junior: Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast (1946)

    I recognize that Beauty and the Beast is not a horror story and that the film adaptations were not billed as horror movies. However, Jean Cocteau’s 1946 surreal take on the story lasts, to me, as such a creepy and scary version of the fairy tale. When the Disney version came out in 1991, I was a pre-teen and a die-hard fan of the animated film. I saw it in the theatre several times and when it came out on VHS, my Mom spent a lot of money to buy it for me (this was early in the video rental days and it was expensive to buy a copy to own — I love my Mom! lol). As part of that obsession, I sought out Cocteau’s version, and I remember being thoroughly freaked out by it. During that same era of my life, I was discovering horror movies, and this one was more like a scary movie than a kid’s tale.

    Did you know that Walt Disney was interested in adapting Beauty and the Beast but felt discouraged after seeing Cocteau’s version, not believing his would be as good?

    The freakiest part of the movie for me was the long hallway with the hands holding the torches. It still stands out to me today as unnerving.

    I was interested to learn that Jean Cocteau intentionally made the Beast a sympathetic character and his alter ego the Prince an over-sentimental and saccharine character: “My aim was to make the Beast so human, so superior to men, that his transformation into Prince Charming would come as a terrible blow to Beauty, condemning her to a humdrum marriage and future; it would expose the naivete of the old fairy tale that conventional good looks are ideal.”

    The contrasting approach worked. So popular was Jean Marais as the Beast, that when he was transformed at the end back to human form, Greta Garbo famously said, “Give me back my Beast!” Marlene Dietrich cried, “Where is my beautiful Beast?” And letters poured in from matrons, teenage girls and children complaining to Cocteau and Marais about the transformation.

    Read more facts about Cocteau’s surreal film at IMDb Trivia: Beauty and the Beast (1946).

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  • Hatchet – Making Of

    I quickly fell in love with the Hatchet franchise. Great movies with memorable characters, scary scenes and gore.

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