Bag of Halloween Reads: ‘Boo Brothers’ Paperback, BOOk-To-Movie & More

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I apologise for missing last weekend, especially since it was the third weekend of the month when we normally would have our Book-To-Movie here. However, things were a bit busier than normal and I wanted to give you a really good Book-To-Movie for this month of Halloween. So I decided to include it in this special Halloween post! That said, we have tonight, of course, our Book-To-Movie in which this one reviews the movie adaptation of three Edgar Allen Poe short horror tales. I’ve also included revised segments from the Halloween blog post back from 2014. One segment talks about the early stages on writing the title story to “Boo Brothers”. (Don’t worry, even way back then I made sure not to create any spoilers!) From that same post, I’ve also included an updated book list of Halloween reads and an updated write-up on Day of the Dead. But before we look at these, let me present to you the long-awaited release of “The Boo Brothers” paperback!

   

“The Boo Brothers” Print Edition Now Available!

“The Boo Brothers”, my latest book of short horror tales, is now available in print at Amazon! From now through Halloween weekend you can have it for the low price of $3.62. Also, from now until Sunday you can purchase my other print books for as much as 20% off the regular price! This means that The Fool’s Illusion, once at $8.99, has been reduced by 20% and so is now only $6.99. “Circa Sixty Years Dead” was at $3.99 but has been reduced by 9% and so you can have it for $3.62. This sale only last until Sunday November 3rd, so take advantage of it now!

“The Boo Brothers” Synopsis

This is a book of two teen tales of terror, including the title story in which two boys steal a Halloween decoration from an old mansion where nobody is ever home. That’s what they think.

Trick-Or-Read!

If the above discounts aren’t enough for you, then visit my Facebook page this Thursday for a special Halloween e-treat!

The Making of a Title Story: “The Boo Brothers” (Formerly, “The Boos Brothers”)

(From the section entitled “Halloween Horror Fiction I’m Writing” of the October 30th 2014 post)
For this Halloween, I’ve been revising a short horror story fitting for the season. I actually wrote it last year about this time but it was too close to the holiday so I didn’t bother revising it until just this month. It’s a juvenile story. I say “juvenile” rather than young adult in this case because I’m trying to target it at a tween audience as well a teen one. Yet I’m hoping it can be enjoyed by adult readers too. . . .

I’ve mostly been revising the story for character and am realizing how hard characterization and development can be. For example, I don’t know all the names of the clothes that today’s tweens wear and so I had to do my research on that. But the challenge was finding out the generic names for the clothes and ways to describe them so as not to use trademarked brand names and risk infringement. Most of this research I’ve done on retail stores’ websites. I’d go into other details of the challenges in revising this story but I don’t want to create any pumpkin spoilers.

BOOk-To-Movie: Poe’s ‘Tales of Terror’

A scene from the 'Black Cat' segment of Tales of Terror: Vincent Price, Joyce Jameson and Peter Lorre (Credit: Wikimedia Commons/American International Pictures)

Edgar Allen Poe is one of those classic horror authors whose name is nearly synonymous with Halloween. His stories are favourite reads for this time of year. They definitely are for me. And so during this month of October I’ve read four of his stories: “Morella”, “The Black Cat”, “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” and “The Cask of Amontillado”. And there have been some really great film adaptations of these four short horror tales in which one of my favourites, and what I believe is the best, is Tales of Terror. So, after reading the stories, I had to watch this 1962 film last week. And that’s not only because it’s one of my favourite Poe movie adaptations, but . . . Well, I had to do something for this month’s Book-To-Movie, didn’t I? In a Book-To-Movie, we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation. And when it comes to Poe’s prose, there have been plenty of movie adaptations.

The best, and my favourite, film adaptations of Poe’s stories are the ones that independent film studio American International Pictures made throughout the 1960s. All of them were directed by Roger Corman, starred Vincent Price and almost all were screen-written by I Am Legend author Richard Matheson.

The great thing about adapting Edgar Allen Poe’s short horror tales to film are that they can relatively easily be made into a movie anthology which Corman’s Tales of Terror is. It consists of the four stories that I mentioned above. The movie actually consists of three tales, but one, “The Black Cat”, is a double-up on one of Poe’s other famous stories, “The Cask of Amontillado”. If anything, it’s based more on that than “The Black Cat” and so may have been mistitled. Or maybe mis-written to the title? With Matheson--one of the greatest horror authors of the 20th century and onward--screenwriting it, I doubt it. Either way, like the other two stories, this one, the second of the three, was made really good taking a comic relief break from the previous one, “Morella”, before going on to the, what I thought was, most disturbing one, “The Case of M. Valdemar”. (“Facts In” was cut out of the title for this movie.)

You would think that since these stories in the movie are based on short works they would stay more faithful to the originals. Well, they do in the basic plots, but characters and situations are added to them. However, even though Tales of Terror takes several deviations from Poe’s original stories, Corman and Matheson use their expertise in horror to make worthy interpretations of them.

Vincent Price acts as the narrator in the introductory segment to each of the stories in Tales. These introductions are given a theme of death as is each story. Should that be surprising? I mean, what horror story doesn’t have a death theme in it? Well, the twist in this movie is aspects of death, one to each story. For example, “Valdemar” is given the theme of intermediacy of antemortem and death.

The even more distinctive characteristic of these introductory segments is the filming style: each one consists of a black background with a blood red foreground object. These objects are a beating heart, a trail of cat paw prints and dripping blood in which each is iconic of the tale being introduced. Another unique element is the style of filming of the ending scene in each story. Each story ends in a shot that transitions from the photographic scene to a hand-drawn illustrated version of it where a quote from the ending line of the original Poe story appears.

Besides Price, the only cast member who plays a character in each of the three stories, Tales stars two other icons of ‘60s horror: Peter Lorre and Basil Rathbone. Price’s acting is convincing making his characters sympathetic. Lorre’s character, Montresor, in “The Black Cat” is both comical as well as disturbing. He is a drunk who abuses his wife and is always ready to kill their pet black cat that’s always following and jumping up on him. Yet, his idiocy in his drunken state makes the audience laugh. Rathbone does a really good job playing the hypnotist in “Valdemar” who is much more evil and merciless than the one in Poe’s original story.

What makes Tales of Terror the best film adaptation of Poe’s three stories (four if you count “Cask of Amontillado”) is that it is directed by a horror expert, screen-written by one of the greatest horror authors of the time, and stars three of horror’s best actors. Also, it was made during an era when surrealism was nearly paradigm and well exploited in many movies in which Tales of Terror was one. If you haven’t seen this movie and are looking for a classic horror flick for Halloween viewing, I strongly suggest this one.

Halloween Book List

(From the the October 30th 2014 post, revised)

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The Manitou, Graham Masterton: This 1976 novel about an evil spirit of a Native American medicine man was made into a movie later in the decade. The movie was far underrated in my opinion.

“Alive-Oh”, Lisa Morton: This is a short story about a man who goes to a Halloween haunted attraction which turns out to be more than he expects. Much more than he expects. It’s a very meaningful story with a social message while the story doesn’t try too hard to convey that message. It takes a really good twist on the haunted attraction horror story. In this one, the real horror may be very near to where we are sitting as we read it. You can check it out for free at The Horror Zine.

“Storyteller”, Nicholas Dahdah: Another short story from The Horror Zine. (Sorry, the link to this one that was once in the original post has apparently been removed, perhaps for copyright reasons. You may want to do a Google search to see where you can access the story.) This one is Lovecraft-inspired but don’t worry, it’s not another Cthullu fan fiction piece. Even more, it’s far from amateur. This one actually features Lovecraft as one of the characters. Read the story and find out why.

The Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre: The above Lovecraft-inspired story inspired me to read a couple of Lovecraft’s stories and so I decided to read them from this collection. One is “The Picture in the House” and the other “The Silver Key”. The first one has its own characters and storyline while the second is from the author’s Randolph Carter series of stories which are really good and can get really mind-tripping.

Isaac Asimov’s Magical Worlds of Fantasy 2: Witches, edited by Isaac Asimov (and others): I haven’t read all the stories in this book yet, but one of the many that I’ve read is “The Witch” by A.E. van Vogt. It’s about a seemingly helpless old woman cared for by a young couple. But the husband has his suspicions.

The October Country, Ray Bradbury: This is the late Bradbury’s book of dark supernatural tales of which I try to read at least one each Halloween season.

Night Shift, Stephen King: An early collection of King’s short horror tales. One that is especially great for Halloween is the first story, “Jerusalem’s Lot”.

Any of Edgar Allan Poe’s Horror Tales: For us avid readers, Halloween just wouldn’t be complete without one, right?

Halloween Meets Day of the Dead

(From the the October 30th 2014 post, revised)
Something that has been making Halloween better each year is the apparent merging of the holiday with the Mexican Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos). Though the purposes for celebrating the two holidays are different, the two have many similarities that depict the myths of the afterlife and netherworld that are so iconic in the skeleton. Because the two holidays fall only within two days of each other, Day of the Dead has even influenced the stores: there are actually Day of the Dead skull masks you can buy at party shops and even general retail chains such as Target. (Although I do not condone the extreme commercialism of the holiday.)

As a Mexican-American, what really makes me proud of this holiday growing in popularity in the U.S. are animated movies like The Book of Life in which director Guillermo Del Toro helped produce. Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to see it myself but am sure to. Then three years later came Disney’s Coco! (This one I saw and liked.) These movies are great at introducing to people the Mexican holiday that, like Halloween, celebrates skeletons and ghosts (this second one many of whom our relatives have personally known!).



What is your favourite Edgar Allen Poe movie adaptation? What are you reading for Halloween? Do you attend any Day of the Dead events? Feel free to drop your answers and other comments in the box below! And have a safe and scary Happy Halloween!

Until next time . . .

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