The World’s Most Evil Books – in movies and real life

The World’s Most Evil Books – in movies and real life

book of shadows

For conjuring, spells, invocations and summoning the dark powers and Demonic entities

Books for summoning dark powers, entities, and magicks are often called Grimoires. These Grimoires were often collections of incantations and spells that practitioners accumulated in their travels, rewritten in an orderly fashion. Some were more intensive studies by monks, Satanists and sorcerers interested in the dark arts and attempting to unlock the secrets of death and the great beyond. Here’s a brief look at some of the most powerful dark arts books in the world.



TheBlackPullett

The Black Pullet – 1700s

This book from 18th century Rome gives instructions and guides on creating and using Talismans. The magic of the rings is known to bring forth a multitude of extraordinary powers of protection, healing, and spellbinding. One such ceremony concerns producing the Black Pullet, known as the Hen with Golden Eggs, to build wealth and fortune.


Grand Grimoire - Cover

The Red Dragon aka: The Grande Grimoire – 1500’s

Presumed to have been dated back to the 1500’s this book is a prized source of black magic and demonic invocation. It is believed to have been transcribed from original writings of King Solomon, known to be a master of spells, rituals and pacts with evil.


Malleus Maleficarum

Malleus Maleficarum – 1486

aka: De Hexenhammer (German) / Hammer of the Witches (English) This famous book is a legal treatise on the hunting, detection and persecution of witches. Written in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer after he had been given full papal approval for Inquisition and prosecution of witches in 1484. Part of it is a guide on the rules and methods of conducting a witchcraft trial, including accusations, tortured interrogation and proving witches guilty. The book covers arguments against witchcraft and how to maintain that it is real, the powers of a witch and the demon’s recruiting strategies.


aemeth_jhp_sl313s

Liber Juratus – 1200’s

aka: The Grimoire of Honorius, is one of the oldest Grimoires known to man. It is said to have been created at a gathering of the world’s magicians and sorcerers for the expressed purpose of collecting all their knowledge into a single useful tool. This book of higher necromancy offers instruction on saving souls from purgatory, conjuring demons, casting spells and even powers of the church such as using angelic powers and seals. Its date of origin is unknown but can be traced as far back as medieval times in the 13th century.


egyptianparch

The Handbook of Ritual Power – An Ancient Egyptian Book of Spells – 700 AD

This is a 1,300-year-old book of bound parchment papers describing spells to accomplish many things including, controlling a person or freeing oneself from possession. It is written in Coptic and dialect points to its origins in the ancient cities of Ashmunein and Hermopolis. It could have been a rewriting and transitional documents of Sethian spells. It’s currently housed at the Macquarie University Museum in Australia.


necronomicon art

The Necronomicon – 1929

The Necronomicon was a fictional book created by HP Lovecraft in his story The Hound. It showed up in several other stories by himself and others after its first appearance and was described as written by The Mad Arab. It was not the book bound in human flesh as many people think. Although fictional, The Necronomicon was later the title of a “real” book of spells described as the Simon Necronomicon. The Simon Necronomicon is a two-part book. The first part is of how the editor, only known by the name Simon, came into possession of the book and his work to translate the book. It’s followed by the book of spells and identifiers. It claims to be able to summon entities to do your bidding or to ward off evil. The rituals are a mix of cultures including some Babylonian creation stories and Sumerian rituals.


Necronomicon Ex-mortis - Evil Dead

The Naturom Demonto – aka: The Necronomicon Ex-mortis – 1980

This is the fictional book that appeared in the Evil Dead films. It is purportedly written by The Dark Ones, who were banished into the Mirror Dimension, as a tool to release the Dark entities. This is the book that is described as bound in human flesh creating confusion and making people think that Lovecraft’s Necronomicon was also bound in human flesh.


tibetan book of the dead

The Tibetan Book of the Dead

The Tibetan Book of the Dead is meant as a guide for Buddhists when they die and enter the Bardo, the hell-like place that exists between life and death. The text also includes the Signs of Death, and rituals to perform when death is near, in order to help the dying in the afterworld.


The black pullet - talismans

The Book of Shadows – 1940’s

The Book of Shadows contains rituals and ceremonies for the Wiccan Neopagan religion. It was created in the late 1940’s by Gerald Gardener and used in his Bricket Wood Coven. Originally he had tried to keep the contents of the book a secret but with the expansion of the religion in the 1970’s and adaptations by Alexandrianism it soon became publically used by solitary practitioners and the demand for it led to published copies. The book had become popular after its usage in the TV show Charmed and other film references but the spells and rituals in the show never adhered to the content of the real book.


egyptian-handbook

The Hecate Scriptures – 1206 AD

My first discovery of this book was during research in my Theology class in college. I had taken notes on this book only to find at later dates the information gone. This book had instruction on how to use magic, spells and conjuring.  Also, the book supposedly disseminates the laws and rules of Hell itself. It has instruction on binding, conjuring and commanding evil entities and lists known demons of the time.



 

What you’re looking at here is my research notes for my story, Skin Job. I will often do in-depth studies to gain an understanding about what I’m writing in my tales. I wanted to make sure the actions in the story were consistent with the rituals and outcomes from interactions with these sacred texts. It was interesting study to find out about these books and the ceremonies contained within them.

In my story, Skin Job, Alex uses a conjuring spell also known as an invocation, to call forth the ‘Car Nex’ demon. The book is unnamed with no markings upon its cover. It could very well be one of the books I’ve mentioned here. The book also has power in of itself as it possesses Alex and haunts his dreams until he can’t resist using it. The book torments him until its powers of darkness are unleashed.

Winter Reading – Horror

winter reading

Winter Reading Recommendations

for the horror fan…

Winter is a great time to read. There’s more down time in your life because the weather limits you from outdoor activities. The isolated feel of the weather and the early sundown also set the ideal mood for a good horror tale. Here are some great horror fiction stories and books to read during the winter months. They all have winter themes running through them, cold, snow, holidays, and isolation.

Winter Reading List

Short stories:

The Windego – Algernon Blackwood
Christmas Eve at Aunt Elsie’s – Thomas Ligotti
The Chimney – Ramsey Campbell
The Vending Machine – Mark Lukens
The Glamour of the Snow – Algernon Blackwood
At the Mountains of Madness – HP Lovecraft
The Yattering and Jack – Clive Barker

Books:

Who Goes There – John W. Campbell
Storm of the Century – Stephen King
The Shining- Stephen King
Winter Wake – Rick Hatula
A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
Dead of Winter – Brian Moreland
Snow – Ronald Malfi 
NOS4A2 – Joe Hill

winter pic

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If you have any more suggestions, leave them in the comments.
I would love to know your favorite winter theme horror stories…and I’ll add them to the list.

 

What are your favorite winter reads?

Classic Horror Stories – The early days of horror as a genre

Classic Horror Stories – The early days of horror as a genre

If you want to be a horror writer it’s quite important to read some of the classics, to know your heritage, in order to move forward from the early days into modern story-telling.

Here are some important links for you to read some of the classic horror authors and stories online

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Poe

Edgar Allan Poe – Ligeia
Read Ligeia at Online-Literature.com

Many if not all of Poe’s Stories and Poems can also be found here:
http://www.poestories.com/stories.php

ligeia - poe

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Bram-Stoker-

Bram Stoker – The Dream of Red Hands
Read The Dream of Red Hands 
(thanks to Paula Cappa for the suggested reading)

The Bram Stoker site includes more short stories:
http://bramstoker.org/

stoker - the dream of red hands bram-stoker-case

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hp_lovecraft
Perhaps the pinnacle in Lovecraft tales:
The Whisperer in Darkness
Read it here: http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/wid.aspx

Need to read some Lovecraft Tales:
http://www.hplovecraft.com/
and
http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/

whisperer in darkness - creature

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More horror fiction short stories:

More stories, Hawthorne to Stevenson – Polidori to Blackwood
Literary horror short stories:
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/horrorindex.html

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Re-Animator (1985) – movie review

Re-Animator - pic 1

Re-Animator (1985)

Directed by Stuart Gordon
Produced by Brian Yuznamy top 10 1980s horror

Starring:
Bruce Abbott
Jeffrey Combs
Barbara Crampton
David Gale
Robert Sampson

In the first 60 seconds of this film an old man’s bulging eyes explode splashing blood into a woman’s face. A few minutes later there’s a sex scene with Megan, (Babara Crompton) and Dan (Bruce Abbott). This is just the tip of the iceberg that makes up the insane world of Re-Animator. The circumstances, blood and guts, and over-the-top effects are reticent of the 1980s itself. The teaming of Brian Yuzna and Stuart Gordon on this film (and From Beyond) produce something so horribly vile and disgusting to the point you have to laugh; it is nothing less than Black Comedy.re-animator poster

The story is a far cry from the original Re-Animator tale penned by Lovecraft to where only the names, places and basic premise remain. Doctor Herbert West has a serum that when it’s injected into the brain stem, can bring people and animals back to life. He demonstrates on mutilated cat. First Megan’s father dies and they bring him back to life. He’s not the same. Then West uses the serum on University professor Dr. Hill. At first, Dr. Hill doesn’t believe the serum will work, but when Hill tries to take credit for the serum, West kills him. Once back to life and feeling indestructible, Hill decides to fulfill his fantasy with Dan’s fiance, Megan, and kidnaps her.

What hard-core gore scenes shall I talk about? I guess the most vile are the creepy old man (Hill) makes advances on the young college student scenes. Horrifying! Hill’s head, separated from his body puts some gnarly sex moves on a naked and restrained Megan.

Despite being in previous horror films, it was Comb’s role in Re-Animator that gained him notoriety as a campy horror actor and fan favorite. The music by Richard Band provided excellent accompaniment to the craziness of the film, especially in the tense pacing of the main theme which was heavily influenced by the main theme in Psycho. John Naulin handled the Special FX using 24 gallons of blood, 10 times more than he’d ever used on a film previously. Re-Animator has since become a cult favorite and spawned several sequels including Bride of Re-Animator.

And check out the other classic Gordon/Yuzna vile collaboration, From Beyond

A darkly funny Gordon/Yuzna gorefest that took Lovecraft ideas and mashed them with over-the-top 1980s, body horror excess!

I give it 4.1 headless corpses out of 5 on the Frankenstein scale of b-horror re-animated flesh flicks.

 

Re-Animator - pic 9

 

Gallery of gore and nudity:

 

Random Shocks! This week on the Web, Halloween edition

Random Shocks! This week on the Web, Halloween edition

cthulhus girlfriend

Cthulhu’s Girlfriend – Dark Beauty Magazine

Here’s some authentic costumes for Halloween, featured this year, 1980’s movies. checked it out!

http://www.founditemclothing.com/costume-menu.html ouija-board-pic-5

Here’s a look at Ouija Boards for those of you conjuring some Halloween fun.

The Ouija Board and Other Fortune Telling Games

http://www.halloweenforevermore.com/horrific-words-articles/article-the-ouija-board-and-other-fortune-telling-games/

Party Slashers, directed by Carl Bachmann

Check out this Kickstarter for a new horror-comedy called Party Slashers. There’s a fun scene from the film posted on the page…

kickstarter page:  Party Slashers  —- website: www.partyslashers.com

party slasher poster

Check out the Friday the 13th/Thriller mix track called: ‘Camp Blood’ by Videogram. YouTube channel at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PbUi7C4dDQ

BloodSucka Jones – Could be a fun campy b-movie, if you are so inclined to check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKnc0cTBatI

blood sucka jones
bonus points for the super awesome poster!

Here’s a nice wall plaque of HP Lovecraft transforming into one of the strange creatures of his stories. (or is it the other way around?)

http://www.blackheartmodels.com/ecommerce/tormented.html for more details.

lovecraft resin plaque

 

 

Here’s some books and novels to check out:

The Blessed Man and the Witchone undead step
by David Dubrow:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ITU5Z7G

One Undead Step
by Ian McClellan

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00IK9RQV4?tag=authl.it-21

puzzle man

Black Chaos
zombie anthology from Big Pulp:

http://bigpulp.com

PUZZLEMAN
by Christopher Alan Broadstone:Journals of Horror

Amazon Page

Coming soon: Journals of Horror, Found fiction in writing…edited by Terry M. West
Amazon Page

Great Halloween reading from Horror Novel Reviews.
Check out the One Hellacious Halloween anthology. Amazon link

Go here to win a free poster!Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000026_00095]

Another horror short film:

Grave Shivers – by Brett Sims – HP Lovecraft film festival award winner!

http://vimeo.com/100371988

If you get a chance, check out some of these wonderful creative horror projects. Enjoy!

killer klowns

From Beyond (1986) – Movie review

from beyond 1986 pic 21

From Beyond (1986)

Directed by Stuart Gordon
Produced by Brian Yuznamy top 10 1980s horror

Jeffrey Combs
Barbara Crampton
Ted Sorel
Ken Foree
Carolyn Purdy-Gordon

(***warning, explicit and graphic images and descriptions below)

Ever since Freddy Kruger uttered his first snarky line at his wincing victim, horror in the 1980’s was headed down a path to morbid humor. Few would take it as far as the Stuart Gordon directed, Brian Yuzna produced, re-imagining of the HP Lovecraft tale, From Beyond. This film is morbid black humor taken to the extremes of sadistic gore and horrific irony. While a majority of fans will pick Reanimator as their favorite Gordon/Yuzna collaboration, I like this one a little better, mostly because of the strange abstract creature that Dr. Pretorius becomes.from beyond 1986 poster

A machine invented by Dr. Pretorius and Dr. Crawford Tillinghast called The (Tillinghast) Resonator is believed to stimulate an unused gland within the human brain. The gland enables a person to see into a parallel dimension. The life forms in this parallel dimension have a penchant for human flesh and anyone who moves within the energy field of the machine is attacked.

Dr Katherine McMichaels (Barbara Crampton), is the psychiatrist assigned to Crawford’s case. He has been in the mental institution since the death of Pretorius. When she brings Crawford to the lab to reconstruct the scene of the crime, they both discover that Pretorius is not dead, just transcended into the beyond. As Crawford and McMichaels become mesmerized under the machine’s influence, Pretorius returns to devour them both. A detective sent to guard them, played by Ken Foree, is eaten alive by the strange creatures. McMichaels acts out some repressed sexual desires, made evident by how her eyes linger on a video of Pretorius performing sadistic sex acts. Crawford’s pineal gland bursts out of the front of his forehead like an eel and demands for Crawford to find new sustenance. He attacks the head psychiatrist, sucks out her eyeball then devours her brain by sucking it out through her eye socket. Yeah, gross! But I can’t look away. I haven’t been this mesmerized by gore since a possessed woman stabbed a number two pencil into a woman’s Achilles tendon in Evil Dead! Crawford goes on to suck out more eyeballs and brains, I giant worm grows in the basement and McMichaels is turned-on by the vibrations of the resonator and goes full tilt S&M.

This gory grind-fest is not for the feint at heart, but if you like Evil Dead 2 and Dead Alive, I think you will like this film. It’s absurd violence, a bizarre journey into gory blood-lust entertainment.

from beyond 1986 pic 22

Fun Facts:

The Lovecraft story that this film is adapted from is only 7 pages long.

The house where the lab is located and the experiments take place has an odd address, 666 Benevolent St.

At the mental hospital, automatic doors use the door opening sound from the original Star Trek series.

Here’s some alternate posters and dvd/blu-ray art:

from beyond 1986 alternate artwork

HR Giger dies at age 74 (1940 – 2014)

hr giger

Amazing, other-worldly artist, H.R. Giger died today, 5/13/14 at age 74

Taking in vast influences from Salvador Dali, HP Lovecraft, and his studies of industrial design at The School of Commercial Art of Zurich, he portrayed alien worlds of horror, sci-fi and fantasy in his monochromatic paint and sculptures. He called his works Biomechanics and they were featured in his popular books, Necronomicon and Necronomicon II.

alien-designer-hr-giger-dies-at-74-45358-954x715

His most widely known work was the designer of Alien (also the mutations in sequels) and Prometheus, but he also did work for Species, Poltergeist II, and the poster art for Future Kill. His work was often featured on the cover of Omni Magazine. His artwork is featured on over a dozen album covers and he designed the microphone stand for Korn’s, Jonathan Davis. Giger also designed a signature series of Ibanez Guitars. There are 2 Giger Bars in Switzerland still opened for business today and the infamous NYC Limelight had licensed Giger’s work for the VIP room.

http://www.hrgiger.com

Take a moment to veiw some of his art in this gallery, to honor a man with a unique vision.

Also, check out my previous giger gallery post: Horror art and music, artists – part II

Horror art – Early sci-fi and horror ‘pulp’ magazines

Horror art – Early sci-fi and horror ‘pulp’ magazines

Here are some of my favorite covers from early ‘pulp’ horror and sci-fi magazines. These were the small press publications that featured fiction short stories by HP Lovecraft, August Dereleth, Robert Block, and others, before they were well known and their stories were collected for anthologies. Publications like these were around from the 1920’s to the 1970’s.

Early sci-fi and horror ‘pulp’ magazines – cover art
(click on any cover for larger images)

astound2 Astounding_1953_10 amazing pic 5

The giant robot image was later used for a Queen album cover – News of the World

astound1 amazing pic 7 amazing pic 6
HP Lovecraft………………….H.G. Wells (war of the worlds)

amazing pic 4 other worlds

Weird Tales still exists today… These are some of the earliest issues:

weird tales 1 weird tales 4 weird tales 3
HP Lovecraft in this one ……………………………………Robert Bloch

weird tales 6 weird tales 2
Doctor Satan!
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Some of these issues are still around to purchase. I own a few myself. If you are interested in collecting, check out ebay and other great sites for collectable magazine fiction.