There is a sense of dread and menace that seems to ooze off the pages of Alma Katsu’s retelling of the haunting, and infamous Donner Party expedition. Everyone knows, or thinks they know the story, and Katsu uses that troubling knowledge and lets it hang over every page – you know each of the characters…
Tag: fear
Star Trek: Voyager (1999) – The Fight, and Think Tank
Captain’s log: stardate unknown Joe Menosky penned this Chakotay (Robert Beltran) episode from a story by Micheal Taylor. It first aired on 24 March, 1999. As the Voyager travels through a region of ‘chaotic space’ wherein the usual laws of physics don’t always apply, Chakotay begins to have visions, which may be an attempt by…
Paranormal Activity (2007) – Oren Peli
The Blair Witch Project may have made found footage horror movies mainstream, but it was Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity that brought it into our bedrooms. And this haunted house/possession story is the next stop in the ghost chapter of DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies. There’s a lot of divisiveness about this movie, people either…
Sleepy Hollow (1999) – Tim Burton
DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies book takes me into classic ghost tales territory with the next film that haunts the chapter on spirits, Tim Burton’s take on the legend of Sleepy Hollow. His bloody film, which serves as his version of the tale, also serves as a nod and homage to Hammer Films as…
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1998) – Covenant, and It’s Only a Paper Moon
Station log: stardate unknown Rene Echevarria pens this Kira (Nana Visitor) episode that first aired on 25 November, 1998. Colonel Kira Nerys is kidnapped by a cult that worships the Pah-wraiths. She is taken to the previously abandoned sister station of Deep Space Nine, Empok Nor. And on arrival she finds that their leader is…
The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) – Wes Craven
My exploration of the zombie genre with DK Canada’s eminently enjoyable Monsters in the Movies book continues with this over-fictionalized adaption of a real anthropological exploration and documentation of real-life zombies by ethnobotanist Wade Davis. Director Wes Craven used Davis’ book of the same name as the launching point for his horror film starring Bill…
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1998) – Far Beyond the Stars, and One Little Ship
Station log: stardate unknown Avery Brooks directs this exemplary episode from a script by Ira Steven Behr and Hans Beimler from a story by Marc Scott Zircee. It first aired on 11 February, 1998. The episode sees Benjamin Sisko (Brooks) being given a full sensory vision by The Prophets that allows him to become Benny…
Die, Monster, Die! (1965) – Daniel Haller
There are more mad scientist films to explore as I dig deeper into DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies book, and Die, Monster, Die! is the next one up. Which is weird, because I didn’t really notice a scientist in the film. Based very loosely on H.P. Lovecraft’s Color Out of Space, the film plays…
Space: 1999 (1976) – Journey to Where, and One Moment of Humanity
Moonbase Alpha continues to hurtle among the stars drawing us with them as Koenig (Martin Landau), Russell (Barbara Bain), Alan (Nick Tate), Maya (Catherine Schell), Tony (Tony Arnholt) and the rest of the crew try to survive. Trouble rears its head this week in Journey to Where, penned by Donald James this episode first debuted…
Space: 1999 (1975) – Collision Course, and War Games
Moonbase Alpha continues it’s journey across the stars in this week’s pair of episodes! Up first is Collision Course, written by Anthony Terpiloff, this episode first debuted on 18 September, 1975. Alan (Nick Tate) is leading a flight of Eagles in front of Alpha to blow up an asteroid that is on a collision course…
Persepolis Rising (2017) – James S.A. Corey
The seventh volume in the brilliant, and highly enjoyable science fiction series, The Expanse, finally finds its way to the Book Shelf this week, and it was so worth the wait. I love this series so much, and this book, Persepolis Rising does two things that haven’t really happened in the series before: there’s a…
Cujo (1981) – Stephen King
This week’s visit to the Book Shelf brings me another early King classic. Apparently he wrote this one quickly, and was under the influence while he did, and doesn’t even remember it. Unlike some of his other earlier works, this one didn’t wow me, and for the first time I came across a King story…
