A matte painting of a gloomy castle, with a grey sky. The title THE BRIDES OF DRACULA looms in red and white letters like torn drapery, sharp and ragged

This is the ideal title card. All others aspire to be as perfect as this title card.

A bird's-eye view of a former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp showing a wide dirt pathway flanked by parallel rows of barbed-wire fences. Groups of visitors walk along the path, surrounded by the remnants of brick structures and barracks, now reduced to foundations. Green grass contrasts with the somber history of the site, as the path leads toward a guard tower in the distance.

Auschwitz was at the end of a long process. It did not start from gas chambers.

This hatred was gradually developed by humans. From ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder.

Auschwitz took time.

Can’t find my original post. So here’s the time David Lynch and Thomas Ligotti teamed up to create the all time greatest scare.

Those two were so opposite in their philosophy & beliefs, I would’ve loved to see them fight it out over the course of a 2 hour movie.

Prepping for Valentine's Day...
__

©2021, 2025 Stephen R. Bissette

Japanese poster for TERRIBLE GHOST CAT OF OKAZAKI (1954)

🥁 Announcing the Public Domain Image Archive! 🥁

We are v excited to share our new sister-project, the Public Domain Image Archive (PDIA), a curated collection of 10k+ out-of-copyright historical images, all free to explore and reuse: pdimagearchive.org @pdimagearchive

Sorcery 6 (3673)

Flyer taped on a brick wall ⚠️ WARNING: IF YOU SEE STAIRS [PICTURE OF STAIRS] DO NOT ASCEND THIS BUILDING HAS NO FOURTH FLOOR The voices calling you up DO NOT belong to your loved ones

Be careful out there. Happy Saturday!

The Man Who Invented Folk Horror The category of folk horror was first identified in the 1970s, and in recent years it has generated a huge amount of media and critical attention. It is

Fascinating article arguing the case for Thomas Hardy as the founder of Folk Horror
www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiou...
#FolkHorror

illustration from the upcoming "Vampire Tarot" Death card featuring a shrouded figure of Death kissing a woman kneeling on a grave in a cemetery.

illustration of a woman at a kitchen table with her head down while two goblins look at her curiously

Cover illustration for "Come Find Me" for DSTLRY depicting a woman opening a door to a warmly lit room while tendril shadows follow her

illustration of a winged male vampire embracing a human woman in a room with an arched doorway

Some of my favorite pieces from this year 🖤

𝕹𝖔𝖘𝖋𝖊𝖗𝖆𝖙𝖚

The stunning carved doorway of Kilpeck Church

The kilpeck sheela na gig

One of the kilpeck carvings. A friendly looking dog and rabbit are depicted

A carving of a fiddler

Yesterday, I finally visited Kilpeck Church. I'd wanted to see it for so long, and it definitely didn't disappoint! 🖤

#Folklore #History #Kilpeck

And Tiny Tim, who did *not* die, lies dreaming still beneath R’lyeh, and in strange aeons, will bless us, every one

The trees, disrobed to their wooden bones, reveal an occulted alphabet. A language of twists and turns, subtle with twig filigree, moss diacritics. The land speaks through its arboreal avatars and we witches would do well to learn it. – #EmilyCBanting, 1982 #WitchSky

A shocked Santa wearing a flame thrower on his back stumbles into a toy shop where his panicked elves - and a reindeer - are being devoured by a formless Thing (as seen in the John Carpenter movie).

a drawing of a monster that looks like a christmas tree with a r on the bottom Alt: A drawing of a tentacular, many-eyed lovecraftian monster that looks like a christmas tree with a r on the bottom.

Merry Christmas, or a great Wednesday, or whatever good wishes you prefer! Hopefully the kind of wishes containing words like "eldritch" and "cyclopean", but pleasant ones all the same.

Photo of the writer Edith Nesbit.

Illustration of a Victorian-era woman looking around a corner for Edith Nesbit’s story, originally published as “The Portent of the Shadow.”

Illustration for E. Nesbit’s “The Portent of the Shadow” which shows a Victorian-era man and woman sitting in a parlor.

You can't go wrong with an Edith Nesbit story. So for day 23 of #ghostsoftheseason, we have “The Shadow” (originally published as “The Portent of the Shadow” in 1905), which starts with the tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas.

Scarred For Life advent calendar door twenty-three: Our mascot, our spirit animal - the Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water...

A photo of a lonely and empty orchestra pit

In the dark of Advent, an empty orchestra pit whispers of unseen musicians. Ghostly notes rise, the sound of strings tuned by frost. Figures, their faces pale masks, yearning for an audience to join their eternal performance.

#Folklore #GothicAdvent #Phantom #MythologyMonday

Book cover for E. Nesbit’s The House of Silence (published by Handheld Press) which shows three ghostly women dancing in the moonlight.

Are you excited about E. Nesbit’s “Man-size in Marble,” this year’s BBC Ghost Story for Christmas? Would you like to read more Nesbit ghost stories? Allow me to tempt you with my Nesbit collection, THE HOUSE OF SILENCE: GHOST STORIES, 1887-1920. Pls. share!

www.handheldpress.co.uk/shop/fantasy...

It is Dec 22 and I have been remiss in not yet posting any bizarre Victorian Christmas cards, so…

Here’s a reminder to make sure you remember to give the gift of a severed head with embedded cleaver this Yuletide.

My 2020 film about Dublin’s Dead Zoo & their trojan efforts to remove a dangerous 1851 whale skeleton hasn’t been available for a few years but I have uploaded it.

If you enjoy it, please consider sending me a few bucks via PayPal @PaulDuane449 or Revolut @paulxme4x

Link: youtu.be/O6zp8AkMx-g?...

Shigeru Nogura, 1987

The problem with only watching one Murder Santa movie a day is I never manage to get through them all. Unless I start in August.

Depiction of Slavic girls performing a divination ritual with a rooster, one of them is wearing a mask. Oil painting by Y. Sergeev

Svyatochnitsy are seasonal female demons in East Slavic folklore. Covered in hair from head to toe, they punish those who work during Christmas fast.

Some say, they love beads and compliments, and can be seen dancing and singing in the streets at night.

#GothicAdvent #ijulemørket
#folklore

Me facing 2025

John Noakes on Blue Peter about to light the Wicker Man. The text says “Don’t forget the Old Gods this Xmas”

Make sure you keep those traditions at this festive time of year.
(H/T to @trixranderson.bsky.social for finding this for me)

Werner Herzog on Animation. Werner Herzog says "I agreed to be on American Dad, but not Family Guy... I was intrigued by its subversive critique of our modern surveillance state. I am less interested in the actions of Peter Griffin... whose only purpose is to be a despicable clown."

Copying a thread from The Other Place:

Meditation of the day: What I mean when I say "Nazi Lovecraft fans fuck off"