Irish actors play Civil War vets in 'Seraphim Falls'

A few days ago, I watched the 2007 western, “Seraphim Falls,” which starred Liam Neeson and Pierce Brosnan and was surprised by the overall quality of the movie.
The story takes place after the Civil War and centers on former Confederate colonel, Morsman Carver, who’s out for revenge against a former Union captain named Gideon. Carver blames Gideon for the deaths of his wife and children and is out to make Gideon pay with his life.
This movie is remarkable for many reasons, especially its use of sweeping western landscapes. The movie begins in the snowy Rocky Mountains, moves into the plains and eventually ends in the scorching desert.
This movie was very entertaining, and it often left me wondering about who I should be pulling for. Both of the main characters were compelling, and, as a viewer, you’ll find yourself sympathizing with both.
There are a number of interesting bits of trivia about this movie that make for good conversation. The Seraphim Falls referred to in the title is a reference to Carver’s farm, where his family meets their end at the hands of Gideon’s men. Some of you will remember from Sunday School that a seraphim is a type of angel. One theory about the movie suggests that Carver and Gideon are actually a pair of fallen angels who are forced to battle each other from heaven (the Rocky Mountains) to hell (the desert).
Another interesting side note is the fact that neither of the lead actors, Neeson and Brosnan, is American. Despite their roles as American Civil War veterans, both of these actors were born and raised in Ireland.
In the end, if you like Westerns, you’ll enjoy this movie. There’s plenty of gunplay, horse riding’ and lots more for fans of the genre. Let me hear from those of you who have seen it. I’d like to hear your thoughts on this movie.

Stephen King's Favorite Horror Films, Part II

Tonight, I give you Part II of the list I started yesterday, that is, Appendix I: The Films from the back of Stephen King’s nonfiction classic, “Danse Macabre.” The list is a best-of horror films list that King put together, covering films that came out between 1950 and 1980. Yesterday, I gave you those titled A-I, and today I give you the rest of the entire list.
Here they are, and, remember, King’s personal favorites are denoted with an asterisk (*):
- Jaws, 1975*
- The Killer Shrews, 1959
- Lady in a Cage, 1963*
- Last Summer, 1969
- Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, 1971*
- Macabre, 1958
- Martin, 1977*
- The Masque of the Red Death, 1964
- Night Must Fall, 1964
- The Night of the Hunter, 1955*
- Night of the Living Dead, 1968*
- Not of This Earth, 1956
- No Way to Treat a Lady, 1968
- Panic in the Year Zero, 1962
- Picnic at Hanging Rock, 1978*
- The Pit and the Pendulum, 1961
- Psycho, 1960*
- Rabid, 1977*
- Race with the Devil, 1975
- Repulsion, 1965*
- Rituals, 1978*
- Rosemary’s Baby, 1968*
- Salem’s Lot, 1979
- Séance of a Wet Afternoon, 1964
- Seizure, 1975
- The Seventh Seal, 1956*
- Sisters, 1973*
- The Shining, 1980*
- The Shout, 1979
- Someone’s Watching Me, 1978
- The Stepford Wives, 1975
- Strait-Jacket, 1964
- Suddenly Last Summer, 1960
- Suspiria, 1977*
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 1974*
- Them!, 1954*
- They Came from Within, 1975
- The Thing, 1951*
- The Tomb of Ligeia, 1965
- Trilogy of Terror, 1975
- Village of the Damned, 1960
- Wait Until Dark, 1967*
- What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, 1961*
- When Michael Calls, 1971
- The Wicker Man, 1973
- Willard, 1971
- X – the Man with X-Ray Eyes, 1963*
- X the Unknown, 1956
Let me know if you’ve seen any of these movies and what you thought about them. I’ve seen a few of them (and have even written about a few of them on this blog), but there are a few on this list that I’ve never heard of.

Stephen King's favorite horror movies

I’ve been posting a lot about great movies lately, and it dawned on me a couple of days ago that I’d never shared one of the best horror movie lists that I’ve ever read – Appendix I: The Films from the back of Stephen King’s nonfiction classic, “Danse Macabre.”
Published in 1981, “Danse Macabre” is King’s take on horror fiction in print, on the radio, in movies and in comic books and his feelings about how horror fiction has influenced popular culture.
In the back of this (great) book, King includes two appendixes, Appendix I: The Films and Appendix II: The Books. Here’s what King had to say about Appendix I.
“Below is a list of roughly 100 fantasy/horror films tied together by their time and their excellence. All were released during the period 1950-1980, and all of them seem to me to be particularly interesting in one way or another; if I may say so without sounding like an Academy Award presenter, all of them have contributed something of value to the genre. You will find my own personal favorites marked with an asterisk (*).”
Without further ado, here are titles A-I on King’s best-of horror film list:
- The Abominable Dr. Phibes, 1971
- Alien, 1979*
- Asylum, 1972
- The Bad Seed, 1956
- The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, 1969
- Black Sunday, 1961*
- The Brood, 1979*
- Burnt Offerings, 1976
- Burn Witch Burn, 1962
- Carrie, 1976*
- The Conqueror Worm, 1968
- Creature from the Black Lagoon, 1954*
- The Creeping Unknown, 1955*
- Curse of the Demon, 1957*
- The Day of the Triffids, 1963
- Dawn of the Dead, 1979*
- The Deadly Bees, 1967
- Deep Red, 1976
- Deliverance, 1972*
- Dementia-13, 1963*
- Diabolique, 1955
- Doctor Terror’s House of Horrors, 1965
- Don’t Look Now, 1973
- Duel, 1971*
- Enemy from Space, 1957*
- Eraserhead, 1976
- The Exorcist, 1973*
- The Exterminating Angel, 1963
- Eye of the Cat, 1969
- The Fly, 1958
- Frenzy, 1972*
- The Fury, 1978
- Gorgo, 1961
- Halloween, 1978*
- The Haunting, 1963*
- The H-Man, 1958
- Horrors of the Black Museum, 1959
- Hour of the Wolf, 1967
- The House that Dripped Blood, 1970
- Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte, 1965
- I Bury the Living, 1958,*
- The Incredible Shrinking Man, 1957
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1956*
- I Saw What You Did, 1965
- It Came from Outer Space, 1953*
- It! The Terror from Beyond Space, 1958
Like “The LOST Books” list from earlier this week, I’ll present you this complete list in the days to come. Let me know if you’ve seen any of these movies and what you thought about them. I’ve seen a few of them (and have even written about a few of them on this blog), but there are a few on this list that I’ve never heard of.

Have you ever wrote a 'triolet'?

One of my favorite magazines is Writer’s Digest, and one of my favorite regular features in the magazine is its Poetic Form item. In the Poetic Form piece, the magazine’s editors introduce (or reintroduce) readers to an unusual form of poetry.
In the March/April issue, the “triolet” was the featured poetic form. Never heard of this type of poem? Me neither, at least so far as I can remember.
A triolet is an eight-line poem that consists of repetitive lines, rhymes and has eight to 10 syllables per line in this pattern:
A: First line
B: Second line
a: Rhyme with the first line
A: Repeat first line
a: Rhyme with first line
b: Rhyme with second line
A: Repeat first line
B: Repeat second line
These types of unusual poems are often fun to try and you can write them in a short time or you can really put a lot of thought into them over an extended period of time. As an example, I’ll spit one out real quick for you.

I once had a dog named Winston.
He was as loyal as could be.
His curly tail wagged like a piston
I once had a dog named Winston.
Ol’ Winston was always much fun.
And I hate that he never saw three.
I once had a dog named Winston.
He was as loyal as could be.

OK, now that I’m on the backside of my first triolet, I can say that it requires a little more thought than I first thought. Next time, I’ll choose to end my first line in something that’s easier to rhyme with than “Winston.”
In the end, I’d encourage you to try this unusual poetic form, and if you want, post your efforts in the comments section below. I’m sure they’ll be fun to read and are bound to be better than my quick tribute to my ol’ buddy Winston the Pug.

'The Wicker Man' unusual, creepy, edgy... and entertaining

I scratched another Saturn Award winner for Best Horror Film off my list, and this time around it was the 1978 winner, “The Wicker Man.”
Based loosely on David Pinner’s 1967 novel, “The Ritual,” this movie was released in the UK in December 1973 and eventually in the US in June 1975. I can say with little doubt that it’s one of the most unusual, creepy and edgy movies I’ve ever seen. That’s not to say it wasn’t entertaining.
In a nutshell, the movie’s about Neil Howie, a police investigator who visits an isolated Scottish island to investigate the report of a missing girl. Almost from the start, Howie realizes that the folks living on this island aren’t quite right, and he finds out the full truth about them far too late for his own good. Edward Woodward plays the role of Howie, and Christopher Lee plays Lord Summerisle, the owner of the island and spiritual and civic leader of its inhabitants.
Those of you who haven’t seen the original “Wicker Man” may be familiar with the movie thanks to the 2006 remake, which starred Nicolas Cage in the role of Howie. I’ve seen both of them now, and I can tell you that the original is the better of the two, while the remake is much more, shall we say, “family friendly.”
I would not recommend this movie to everyone, especially those who are too young to join the Army, but if you like horror movies, you’ll enjoy the original “Wicker Man.” While it doesn’t contain any scary monsters or outright supernatural elements, it does fit well within the horror genre. (In fact, a scene from the movie ranked No. 45 on Bravo’s list of 100 Scariest Movie Moments.)
Next on my list of Saturn Horror Award winners is 1979’s “Dracula,” an American/British film, which starred Frank Langella as Count Dracula. This movie also stars Laurence Olivier as Professor Abraham Van Helsing.

'The LOST Books' Part III

Today I give you the third and final installment of “The LOST Books,” that is books and authors that appeared or were referenced during the hit television show, LOST.
As I mentioned on Monday and Tuesday, some fans of the show have made a side hobby out of collecting and noting all of the books and authors that appeared or were referenced during the show’s six seasons. The show was so mysterious that fans often saw these books and references as clues with a hidden meaning about what was really happening and where the show was headed.On the Web site, Lostpedia, there’s an entire section devoted to the books featured on the show as well as literary references made during all six seasons. On Monday, I covered titles A-F on the list, and on Tuesday I gave you titles G-O. Today, I give you titles P-Z. Without further ado, here they are.
1. The Pearl by John Steinbeck
2. Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy
3. Rick Romer’s Version of Astrology by Rick Romer
4. Roots by Alex Haley
5. A Separate Reality by Carlos Castaneda
6. The Shape of Things to Come by H.G. Wells
7. The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
8. The Shining by Stephen King
9. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
10. The Stand by Stephen King
11. The Stone Leopard by Colin Forbes
12. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
13. The Survivors of the Chancellor by Jules Verne
14. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
15. The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien
16. Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
17. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
18. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
19. Ulysses by James Joyce
20. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
21. Valhalla Rising by Clive Cussler
22. VALIS by Phillip K. Dick
23. Watership Down by Richard Adams
24. What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge
25. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
26. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Before I wrap this thing I up, I should mention a short, LOST book list called the “Sawyer Book List.” In spite of his rough personality, James “Sawyer” Ford is an avid reader. Throughout the course of the show, he’s seen reading or references a number of books including “Watership Down,” “Lord of the Flies,” “A Wrinkle in Time,” “Lancelot,” “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret,” “Julius Caesar,” “Bad Twin,” “Of Mice and Men,” “The Fountainhead,” “Evil Under the Sun,” “The Invention of Morel,” and “Grimm’s Fairy Tales.”
In the end, I'd like to know how many of these books have you read. How many have you always wanted to read? How many of them have you never heard of? Let us know in the comments section below.

The LOST Books, Part Two

Today I give you Part Two of “The LOST Books,” that is books and authors that appeared or were referenced during the hit television show, LOST.
As I mentioned yesterday, some fans of the show have made a side hobby out of collecting and noting all of the books and authors that appeared or were referenced during the show’s six seasons. The show was so mysterious that fans often saw these books and references as clues with a hidden meaning about what was really happening and where the show was headed.On the Web site, Lostpedia, there’s an entire section devoted to the books featured on the show as well as literary references made during all six seasons. Yesterday, I covered titles A-F on the list, and today I give you titles G-O. Without further ado, here they are.
1. Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.
2. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
3. Haroun and the Sea Stories by Salmon Rushdie
4. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
5. High Hand by Gary Phillips
6. The Holy Qur’an
7. Hotel by Arthur Hailey
8. I Ching
9. The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
10. Island by Aldous Huxley
11. Julius Ceasar by William Shakespeare
12. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
13. Kings of Love: The Poetry and History of the Ni’Matullah Sufi Order, translated by P.L. Wilson and Nasrollah Pourjavady
14. Lancelot by Walker Percy
15. Laughter in the Dark by Vladimir Nabokov
16. Left Behind by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins
17. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
18. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
19. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
20. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
21. The Moon Pool by A. Merritt
22. Mysteries of the Ancient Americas: The New World Before Columbus by Robert Dolezal
23. The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
24. Notes From Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
25. The Oath by John Lescroart
26. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce
27. The Odyssey by Homer
28. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
29. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
30. On Writing by Stephen King
31. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
32. O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
33. The Outsiders by Susan E. Hinton
That takes us through titles G-O, so I'll stop right there for today. Look for the rest of the list in the coming days.In the end, I'd like to know how many of these books have you read. How many have you always wanted to read? How many of them have you never heard of? Let us know in the comments section below.