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.


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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.


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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.

Horror – coming in May

Coming May 2016

“Everyone makes mistakes; that is how we learn. You just have to hope that the mistakes you make in life don’t cost you everything.”

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Skin Job – A NY tattoo artist conjures a demon to destroy a rival tattoo artist but pays for it in a way that will torment him for the rest of his life.

Release Date: TBD

Evil Dead (2013) – Movie Review – part II

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Evil Dead (2013)  – Movie Review – part II

Aka: 50 reasons why the new Evil Dead Movie SUCKS! Part II

***This review is a total spoiler, please do not read if you intend to see the film. ***

This post contains Reasons 27 – 40, on why the new Evil Dead movie sucks!

If you haven’t read reasons 1 – 26, click here:
Evil Dead  Remake sucks reasons 1 – 26

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Okay, I had asked another reviewer, did it really need to be named, Evil Dead? My contention is that Hollywood loves to hijack branded names, just so they can make the biggest buck the quickest way possible and they don‘t even care if they are actual “remakes“ or have anything in common with the originals.

I think if Rob Zombie’s, Halloween was not named Halloween, a lot more people would have liked and respected it. With the Friday the 13th remake, if you had changed the mask and didn’t call the camp grounds, “Crystal Lake” it could have been a brand new movie. On the other hand, War of the Worlds was definitely close to the book and could not have been called anything else. Same with Willard (both of which I thought were great remakes).

So, my reasons 27 – 33 are based on the decision to call this Evil Dead rather than, let’s say, Horror in the Woodlands, or something like that.

Did it really need to be called, Evil Dead?
The answer is… No!

The reasons to call it Evil Dead don’t hold up.

27) A cabin in the woods  – is in no less than 30 other horror movies.

28) The Necronomicon – is in no less than 18 movies. Besides they didn’t even call it the Necronomicon in this one.

29) Possessed women? At least 28 films have possessed women, many of which have been made in the last 10 years.

30) A Chainsaw? There’s at least 10 movies with the word ‘chainsaw’ in the title, alone!

31) Cut off your own arm? Even a non-horror film has that in it, ‘127 Hours.’

32) Evil entity in the woods – there’s a film every weekend on the Scy-Fy channel with this theme.

33) Pays homage to the first film – the movie Cabin In the Woods was a better tribute to the original Evil Dead than this remake.

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Reasons 34 – 40 are comparisons to the original Evil Dead

Before I go on from here, we have to make a clear distinction between Evil Dead and Evil Dead II. The original Evil Dead was a more serious film with a straight forward horror style. It contained only two or three real ‘comedy gags’ in the whole film. (Ash does not cut off his hand in the 1st film). ED II was more campy, funny and purposely leaning into dark comedy territory. If you have not seen the original Evil Dead in a while, it is time for a revisit. I watched it last night 🙂

34) The original Evil Dead had some serious atmosphere and suspense. The cabin, the mist, the dead trees all around the cabin delivered a foreboding, and you knew it was ‘wrong’ from the moment the group arrived. The new Evil Dead had NO atmosphere to speak of. Wanting to keep full tilt action in the remake also garnered very little actual suspense. Suspense is often created by the lull preceding a scary action or event and the anticipation of something about to happen.

35) Some claim the new Evil Dead is the goriest film they’ve ever seen. I think the original was gorier! Why? Pencil in the Achilles tendon, ‘nuff said!

36) Some claim the new Evil Dead was the bloodiest film. The original had Ash lop off his resurrected girlfriend’s head with a shovel and her body come to rest on top of him, squirting blood from her neck, right into his face! Blood from the rain doesn’t count, besides the band Slayer did that in live shows years ago!

37) The new one had a knot of tree branches crawl up Mia’s skirt. The original had a thick tree branch…uh… I can’t even talk about it. The whole scene in the original was just so much more disturbing.

38) The new one had a girl cutting her face with a piece of glass. The original had Ash stick his thumbs into a deadites eyes and all the way into its blood spewing skull.

39) The sound construction and composition in the original was half of the creepiness. The low hum as something unseen moved through the woods, the voices of the deadites, the jarring volume of slamming storm-shutters on the windows. All of these aspects made the original Evil Dead a better sounding film.

40) In the original, the deadite in the basement makes fun of the survivors – this to me is the ultimate evil, to have such a disregard for life that it would mock survivors – seems like something true evil would do. “I don’t wanna’ die! I don’t wanna’ die!”

Okay, hope ya’all enjoying this so far.
Tune in soon for my dramatic conclusion – reasons 41 thru 50

evil-dead- blood rains 2013 Evil_Dead-blood oozes 1981

Lovecraft – Fear of the Unknown – (2008) – dvd review

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Lovecraft – Fear of the Unknown – (2008)

A Wyrd Documentary 
Directed by Frank H. Woodward

PrintThe solid and well-made documentary/biography explains the creation, evolution and expansion of the Cthulhu Mythos from the moment of origin in H.P. Lovecraft’s fertile mind to the present. We follow Lovecraft’s life from childhood and see how personal tragedies and situations influenced his story-telling. The timeline points to periods in his life and his emotional states at the times of certain writings and it addresses – with no apologies – his xenophobic mentality and biased visions of the world. The documentary touches on his friendships with author peers, Edith Miniter, Clark Ashton Smith, Frank Belknap Long, amongst others, and his unique relationship with the pulp magazines, most notably Weird Tales.

For anyone that doesn’t truly understand what all the fuss is over Lovecraft, it explains how Lovecraft moved horror out of the predominantly Gothic style – whose monsters were human in origin (ghosts, vampires) –  into something completely different and how writers of the day followed him into this strange new world of cosmic horrors.

hplovecraft1The basis for the Cthulhu Mythos is this; many eons ago, other races of cosmic Gods and strange creatures ruled the universe and will one day come back to claim the worlds which were theirs. They are not at war with humans; they are completely indifferent to them and regard them the way mankind would regard the common house fly. Lovecraft stories are part mystery, part scientific discovery and part mythology, usually affecting a solitary individual on the brink of insanity for his inability to accept or comprehend the impossible.

The documentary explains the origin of the Necronomicon and how other writers began using the sacred book in their own stories, further propagating the notion that it was indeed a real book of spells and transgressions. When Lovecraft was once asked if he would document/write a complete Necronomicon, he replied that doing so would take its power and mystery away. It was better for people to keep wondering what else was in this ancient book and what other horrors could it bring forth.
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Lovecraft’s baroque style and his love for earlier literature, including his admiration of Lord Dunsany’s work is evident in this historical investigation. The documentary is laced with quotes and short readings of his work exemplifying his unique and sometimes overbearing style. The coherent story of his life and works is compiled with opinions and statements from modern horror directors; Guillermo del Toro, John Carpenter and Stuart Gordon. His influence on modern authors is evident when hearing praise and descriptions from; Ramsey Campbell, Neil Gaiman, S.T. Joshi, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Peter Straub, Robert M. Price. In the end they speak with cultist Isaac Bradley about the growing cultism of the Cthulhu Mythos.

The dvd is available for purchase at Amazon.com – or –
You can see the whole film at: http://www.crackle.com/

You can also read most, if not all of Lovecraft’s published stories at:
www.hplovecraft.com
There, you can also investigate the gods and beasts of the mythos, terminology, and everything Lovecraft.
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lovecraft pic 3“There are horrors beyond life’s edge that we do not suspect, and once in a while man’s evil prying calls them just within our range.”  – H.P. Lovecraft,   ‘The Thing on the Doorstep’

“I have seen the dark universe yawning
Where the black planets roll without aim,
Where they roll in their horror unheeded,
Without knowledge, or lustre, or name.”
 – Howard Phillips Lovecraft