RM: "I'm looking for a new kind of story. Something that no one has ever thought of. Something scary. I don't mean an oh my that would be terrible if it were true story, but an ohmygod how could you tell me that story I won't be able to sleep for weeks. That image will stick in my head forever."

Horror abounds with people who have escaped the finality of death. They continue to walk the earth. Some are ghosts and spirits, but just as often, and in films actually more often, they are walking about in their own flesh and blood bodies. They rise from their graves, they cross back from the realms beyond, or they never truly die in the first place. They go by many different names and come from a number of primitive beliefs and mythologies.

In 1982 a new horror movie premiered from acclaimed director Tobe Hooper (the master behind the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre film), Poltergeist. Written by Steven Spielberg, the movie was destined for greatness. Presumably Spielberg did not direct himself because of involvement with E.T. The Extra-terrestrial. (Poltergeist premiered June 4th, E.T June 11th.) Tobe Hooper infused the Spielberg vehicle with a darkness, and a tension that would not have been there otherwise.

The cicadas hummed and the crickets chirped. Children could be heard running around, accompanied by the clanking of chains on the swings, the long squeaks and short creaks of the teeter-totters, and the pounding of running shoes up the ladder of the slide. The east glowed with the lights from the baseball diamond and a lemon yellow square of light showed where the door on the back of the concession stand stood open. A small yellow circle showed where the squat building of the public washroom stood. To the west all was dark and the last of the sun a forgotten memory.

Henry slipped out of the King's hotel room. The guards stood at attention with their eyes forward and their hands at their sides. They could not see. They could not hear. They could not move. Still, they would appear no different until the changing of the guards. By then Henry would have returned to his sanctum and replaced their senses and mobility to them. It was such an extra effort to go to, but the only apparent way to get the required items from the King himself. He could not simply ask for some hair, a nail clipping, and something intimate.

NOTE: This review discusses the packaging of the special Book of the Dead DVD release of Evil Dead that is now available for a limited time. The review for the movie itself is available separately and a link is provided at the bottom of this review. ...Now for the exterior of the Book of the Dead. After hundreds of years the human flesh that binds the book is still lithe and pliable. ...The Book has a good heft to it and feels good in the hand.

David Bergantino brings to paper and the silver screen of the mind the movie Wes Craven's New Nightmare. The movie is the seventh of the Nightmare on Elm Street series. Unlike the other sequels to the original slasher starring the man of your darkest dreams, Freddy Krueger, this film takes a look at the series being just that, a high grossing film franchise.

The boss led the three of them into the meeting room as Mr. Lucertola began his pitch. Paul listened intently, took a couple mental notes even though he was not the principal target of the initiative, and staved off the desire to daydream about Ronnie. At one point Mr. Lucertola turned to him and said matter of factly, "I do believe Mr. Sanford that you have an intruder."

I write in the dark both literally and figuratively. I live in the dark much the same. Each is part by choice and each is part by circumstance. We all live in a world of darkness. Sometimes this life in the dark begins to wear upon us and dull us to the vibrancy and vigour that is inherent in it. When that happens we have two options, to stop and take stock of things, which can be to broaden and change our perspective, or to turn on a few lights, open the curtains, or even step outside into the sun.

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