Spooky Things #2: Victor Sjostrom's PHANTOM CARRIAGE

Within a few years of its release in 1921, Victor Sjostrom’s The Phantom Carriage was considered a masterpiece of the cinema, alongside such canonical stalwarts as The Gold Rush, Battleship Potemkin, and The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari. Charlie Chaplin thought The Phantom Carriage was the greatest film ever made. However, as the silent era ended and Carriage’s eye-popping-for-the-time special effects became outmoded, Sjostrom’s film fell out of favor and was soon regarded as more of a relic than a milestone. Fortunately, back in 2011, the Criterion Collection deigned to release a Bluray of The Phantom Carriage.

Glittering Eyes

I was feeling free. I thought all my debts were settled. And then I received another summons from the redoubtable Bill Ryan (right). I had no choice but to carry out his diabolical orders and write up Isak Dinesen's "The Monkey", selected from her SEVEN GOTHIC TALES (out in a handsome new Folio Society edition which is number one with a bullet on my Christmas list... - hint - hint -). My ruminations are over at The Kind of Face You Hate and (again) a part of the horror fiction series Bill runs every year.

While you're over there, also check out Roderick Heath on M.R. James and Bill hisself on Maurice Level. Great stuff, as per usual, and (again) I'm happy to be a contributor.

Hugger-Mugger Propinquity

Well... it's been quiet around here. A little TOO quiet. Eerily quiet, even. I...

AAH! WHAT'S THAT?!

Oh. WHEW. It's just Bill Ryan, ladies and gentlemen! My! Did his bulged eyes and exaggeratedly aquiline nose give me a fright!

During October every year, Bill runs 31 days of horror fiction-related posts. Over the years, this has become one of the few holiday traditions I look forward to. Bill's posts have led to me discovering a new writer (like William Scott Home) or finally getting around to an old one (like Algernon Blackwood, whose WILLOWS just might be my favorite piece of horror fiction). Bill's posts are funny and refreshingly free of blinkered fan boy reverence (check out his take on HOUSE OF LEAVES) but -- more importantly -- Bill has a deep love of the genre that's evident throughout his writing. If Bill chastens and chides today's horrorsmiths, it's only because he wants them to do better, dammit. 

Anyway, I'm not just writing this to praise Bill's annual efforts (incidentally: he's pretty good the other eleven months out of the year, too). For this year's project, Bill called on a veritable ghoul's gallery of ghasts to contribute pieces. I happened to sneak my way in to a roster that (thusfar) includes Andrew Leon Hudson, Jose Cruz, Dennis Cozzalio, Danny Bowes, Andrew Bemis, Arion Berger, and Bryce Wilson.

My piece -- on Charles Williams' DESCENT INTO HELL -- runs today. Enjoy (if you dare!)...

[ps This is where I would normally promise more content in the days to come. I won't since that always seems to turn out empty. "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring" and all that.]

"You know how to sucker a guy in, don't you?"

The above still represents one of the more thrilling scenes I've witnessed in a long time. It's taken from ROUTINE PLEASURES, one of three components that make up Criterion/Eclipse's new Jean-Pierre Gorin set.