A Far Out Fantastic Site

The promotion poster for the 1960 movie adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher" which starred Vincent Price. Photo Credit: Wikemedia Commons    Our Book-To-Movie for November is now crossing into December in which I apologise for. However, like myself, I’m sure many of you were too busy to read many blogs during the Thanksgiving weekend in which I hope you all had a great one. I didn’t post this during the week either because I was busy getting caught up on things that I got behind on mostly due to the holiday. Here’s November’s Book-To-Movie in December. In a Book-To-Movie , we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation. We’ve reviewed many Roger Corman film adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories here in the past. One we haven’t reviewed yet is his 1960 adaptation of Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”. One of the most distinguished features of Poe’s horror tales is his morbid style in both setting and character. Vincent Price...

Credit: Wikimedia Commons Warning: May contain spoilers. It's the fourth weekend of the month and so time for another Book-To-Movie review! In a Book-To-Movie, we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation. Last Wednesday, January 19th, was the 213th birthday of Edgar Allan Poe, and so I have another review of one of his stories and its cinematic adaptation. And yes, the movie is another one from American International Pictures' (AIP) series of Vincent Price-Edgar Allan Poe movies. Am I too addicted to films based on Poe’s work and starring Vincent Price? Maybe, but that’s not the reason why I chose this version. The reason I chose it was because it’s the only one I know of that exists. As we've seen in past Book-To-Movies, AIP's Poe film adaptations mostly stay faithful to the original work even though, naturally, the story is expanded in order to fit an hour-and-a-half-long film. Well, that’s hardly the case with 1969’s "The Oblong Box". Yet, a...

Credit: Wikimedia Commons Well, finally, I'm back from that hiatus that I had said I was going to take. With the nice help of family, I got my bedroom cleaned of the paper clutter that dominated it. But that wasn't the only thing I was busy with that kept me from my regular writing schedule. I was in the hospital for three weeks, a follow-up from the last time I was there. The doctors had to remove the benign tumor they had found in me the time before. They had to take me apart, limbs, head and torso, and stitch me back together again like Frankenstein's monster. Okay, I'm exaggerating. Like really exaggerating. They only had to make one incision that they had to stitch up (with staples). The surgery lasted one day but the recovery lasted three weeks. I still have to limit my activity here at home, but I've been feeling well and enthused enough to at least give you this Book-To-Movie review for the month!  I decided to take a deviation from our usual Book-To-Movie...

  Credit: Wikimedia Commons   /Arthur Rackham Warning: This review may contain spoilers.   It’s time for our monthly Book-To-Movie! For those of you who are just tuning into this blog, a Book-To-Movie  is when we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation. Normally, we do a Book-To-Movie every fourth weekend of the month. However, because it was necessary for me to make a sudden change of story and movie for review, I had to postpone this month’s post in the series to this fifth weekend. My apologies. This month’s book and movie review is Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, “The Pit and the Pendulum” and the 1961 movie adaptation directed by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price. I truly believe that no one can adapt any of Poe’s gothic horror stories to film in a way that does those stories justice. However, many of Corman’s films come close to doing so. One of his best adaptations of Poe’s short stories is “The Pit and the Pendulum”. Why this movie adapt...

Credit: Pixabay We all know that this Halloween will be unlike any other we’ve experienced. This year many of us will be required to wear masks. Many of us already are. At least in public, that is. Needless to say, the pandemic has made it necessary. Things are going to be very isolated compared to other years. Fewer trick-or-treaters in the streets, at the malls and downtown commercial areas. There will be fewer parties, or at least fewer guests at them. But it doesn’t mean that the fun has to end. There are always alternatives. One is: buy candy and other treats from the store, stay in with your family and eat them (the treats that is, not your family!) while watching scary movies, playing Halloween related games, or/and reading/telling scary stories. Make it a party inside your house limited to your loved ones and keep the plague out! Which this month’s Book-To-Movie review is exactly about that: keeping the plague out. We are reviewing Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, “The Masque of ...

Credit: Pixabay.com It’s the third weekend of the month and so it’s time for another Book-To-Movie review! In a Book-To-Movie, we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation. In the 1960s, American International Pictures (AIP) was the company responsible for producing and distributing many B, or low budget, sci fi and horror book-to-movie adaptations. Most of the literary works that were adapted were by Edgar Allen Poe but a few were by other authors such as H.P. Lovecraft and Jules Verne. While many of these movies didn’t stay as faithful to the books as many avid readers would probably have liked, they usually kept the basic plots. This is the case with 1961’s “Master of the World” based on Jules Verne’s 1904 novel of the same name and starring Vincent Price. This movie glosses over the novel’s story yet keeps the filming style that is distinctive of AIP’s many other films, especially those that star Price. ( Warning: Potential spoilers ahead.) The Book ...

Credit: Pixabay.com 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!   ...