Emanuele Taglietti (born in Ferrara, January 6, 1943) is an Italian designer, illustrator and painter.

Born to an artistic father, Emanuele Taglietti graduated from his local art institute, then moved to Rome where he studied set design at the Experimental Center of Cinematography. He worked on the art direction and set decoration for various films, including Federico Fellini’s Juliet of the Spirits. 

In 1973, he returned to live in his home town and came into contact with Renzo Barbieri of Edifumetto, for whom he worked as a cover artist of erotic, crime, fantasy and horror-themed fumetti (Italian comic books). Having been inspired by artists such as Frank Frazetta and Averardo Ciriello, he created artwork for fumetti such as Zora the vampire, Belzeba, Cimiteria, Sukia, Stregoneria (“Witchcraft”), Gli Spettri (“The Spectres”), Il Sanguinari (“The Blood”), Lo Schelectro (“The Skeleton”), Ulula (“Howls”), Vampirissimo and Wallestein.

Occasionally, Taglietti reworked images and artwork from horror films such as Creature from the Black Lagoon, Night of the Demon (1957) and The Plague of the Zombies, and seems to have had a fixation on actress Ornella Muti (whom he based the image of Sukia on). Featuring the signature nudity of fumetti, his work was sometimes censored when the comic books were publish in other countries, like Spain.

During this busy period, which continued until 1988, Taglietti also restored old paintings and occasionally collaborated as an illustrator for magazine publishers such as Mondadori and Rizzoli. He retired in 2000, broadened the scope of his artistic interests, devoting himself to mural decoration and furniture.

We are very grateful to the Emanuele Taglietti Fan Club blog for the images above.Visit their blog to see lots more of Taglietti’s artwork…

The Daughters of Satan is a horror novel by Sandra Shulman. The novel was first published in 1968 by Paperback Library Inc under the title The Daughters of Astoroth, but is better known under this title,which it was first published as by New English Library in 1969.

This is one of the first of the legendary NEL pulp fiction novels that would become hugely popular throughout the 1970s as the publisher cashed in on youth cults like skinheads and bikers, and published numerous slim but salacious novels that ranged from horror to action to erotica.

Although Shulman was an American author, the novel is set in Snowdonia, Wales and London, and tells the story of a investigation into a finishing school, run by a Dr Ambrose Anstruther and a sinister German, after several of its pupils commit suicide. Professor Niall Tregellis, academic, ex-army man and occult expert, is sent to find out what is going on. What does he find? To quote the cover blurb:
“The Abbey of Light – England’s most exclusive finishing school – is just a front for a Satanist with terrible powers. Behind its doors unholy black magic ceremonies take place – girls become spiritually and sexually enslaved to their diabolical master.”

Rather ambitiously compared to Dennis Wheatley and Rosemary’s Baby by NEL, this is perhaps more accurately described as “complete tosh” by trashfiction.co.uk. Nevertheless, it’s entertaining enough for fans of pulp horror, and at 128 pages, is unlikely to swallow up a great deal of your time. It is unrelated to the 1972 film of the same name.

Shulman was a prolific author, who mostly wrote gothic romances but also dabbled in horror, non-fiction and even authored a few  Dark Shadows novels.

DF

Cataclysm (aka The Nightmare Never Ends and Satan’s Supper) is a 1980 American-made horror film, starring Cameron Mitchell, Marc Lawrence and Richard Moll. The film was directed by Phillip Marshak (here spelling his Christian name with only one ‘l’), also known for Dracula Sucks. Made on a very low budget, the film has many of the hallmarks seen in low budget American cinema of the period, scant on quality and script but featuring at least one recognisable actor to help sell the film. Such is the fractured nature of Cataclysm that a brutally edited version appeared as just one of the segments of the Night Train to Terror (1985) anthology, also the work of Marshak.

Author James Hanson (an alarmingly coiffured Richard Moll, also in Evilspeak and House) has written a book firmly nailing his personal views – God does not exist: ‘God is Dead’. Less than supportive is his shrewish, Catholic wife, Claire (Faith Clift, ironically from another train-based horror film, Horror Express) who acts atrociously and moans ineffectively throughout the film.

Elsewhere, Lieutenant Stern (the hard-to-avoid Cameron Mitchell, Blood and Black Lace, The Toolbox Murders) reluctantly agrees to help his friend Mr Weiss (Marc Lawrence whose packed career stretches from the early 1930′s via Pigs until From Dusk ‘Til Dawn), an aged Holocaust survivor, now hunting Nazis, who is sure he’s spotted one of his Third Reich persecutors from the Second World War recently, not having changed a bit. Indeed, the chap in question, Olivier (Robert Bristol), has been around for centuries…as he’s the Devil!

Odd then, that much of the action takes place in a disco – a film understanding of what a disco is/was – modest sound levels, people going crazy for clearly rotten songs, everyone getting a good six feet of space to dance in. Anyway, a disco is where Olivier sees fit to run his operation, a surprisingly low-scale affair that sees him sat on a grand chair surrounded by lovelies – not at all threatening. This is at odds with Lt.Stern who along with Weiss actually spend some time acting. Like much of the film, the two worlds don’t marry together at all well but despite the almost universal derision for the film, all the elements are individually quite intriguing, perhaps because for a movie of such small financial backing, the ideas are quite grand, whilst mixing in the very real atrocities of the Nazis.

The killings, which are few, are mostly referred to than seen, the idea of someone having their face ripped off is far more ghoulish than the effects we are left with – admittedly brief flashes and popping eyes and the synthesised throbs which accompanying them are effective enough but, again, more fitting in an entirely different film. Little in the film makes much sense, plot-wise; a stalking monk regularly walks onto set, though serves no meaningful purpose; the coupling of a devout Catholic and an atheist husband may be a good device but adds no credibility; the film’s Devil is one of the most ineffective threats in any film (though clippings of him in a variety of historical massacres is a nice touch which would have worked well if developed further).

The frantic end to the film rather leaves you with a satisfying taste in the mouth that is in truth little deserved. It is fascinating though overall badly acted, shot and most especially edited. This messy film can best be exemplified by the fact that the rotten camera and editorial work is by Bruce Markoe, now one of the post-production editors on the current wave of Marvel superhero movies and the script is by Philip Yordan, famous for the screenplays of films such as El Cid and Battle of the Bulge. There’s probably a decent film in this mess somewhere but the delivery is bafflingly incoherent.

Daz Lawrence, Horrorpedia

Buy The Nightmare Never Ends Collection on Troma DVD from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Buy Night Train to Terror on Blu-ray + DVD combo from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Buy The Night Train to Terror + The Thirsty Dead on Alpha DVD from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

IMDb | We are grateful to Critical Condition for some of the images above.

Devil’s Knot is a 2013 biographical crime-drama thriller film directed by Atom Egoyan. The film is based on a true story as told in Mara Leveritt’s 2002 book of the same name, concerning three teenagers known as the West Memphis Three, who were convicted for killing three young boys and subsequently sentenced to life in prison. The movie stars Reese Witherspoon, Kevin Durand, Stephen Moyer, Colin Firth, Elias Koteas and Bruce Greenwood. It had a limited release in Canadian theatres on January 24, 2014, and will be released in U.S. theaters and Video on demand (VOD) services on May 9, 2014.

Plot:

In 1993, in the lower-class community of West Memphis, Arkansas, three eight-year-old boys – Stevie Branch (Jurgensmeyer), Christopher Byers (Spink), and Michael Moore (Boardman Jr.) – go missing from their neighborhood. After an extensive search, their bound and beaten bodies are found the next day. The community and the police department are convinced that the murders are the work of a satanic cult due to the violent and sexual natures of the crime. A month later, three teenagers – Damien Echols (Hamrick), Jason Baldwin (Meriwether), and Jessie Misskelley Jr. (Higgins) – are arrested after Misskelley confesses after approximately four hours of interrogation. They are taken to trial where Baldwin and Misskelley are sentenced to life and Echols to death all while still claiming they’re innocent…

Reviews:

” … while Egoyan and Co. are to be commended for doing a tactful, dignified job with material that could have made for a ghoulish horror show, the result nevertheless comes across as a flat, ponderous proposition, transforming a fascinating tale of small-town prejudice and miscarried justice into a surprisingly staid courtroom drama.” Scott Foundas, Variety

“The plotting and pace are so scratchy as to deflate a story which, on paper, abounds in amazing revelations and horrible ironies. This is a morbid, mawkish misfire…” Catherine Shoard, The Guardian

“Tech values are consistently strong, with Mychael Danna’s score particularly effective. A closing dedication to the three murdered children is more moving than many such gestures, reminding us that while prosecutorial sins have kept this story alive as one of three teen lives stolen by the state, three even younger boys were robbed of something much greater.” John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter

“Do we need a fictional version of this story? Does the Devil’s Knot add anything, be it intellectually or aesthetically to what has already been covered so extensively by other, greater works? Do we need this film? The answer, sadly, is a resolute “no”.” Jason Gorber, Twitch

Wikipedia | IMDb

As Above, So Below is 2014 American found footage horror film directed by John Erick Dowdle (The Poughkeepsie Tapes, Quarantine, Devil) from a screenplay by Dowdle and his brother Drew. It stars Ben Feldman (Cloverfield, Friday the 13th, 2009), Edwin Hodge (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, The Purge) and Perdita Weeks (The Cold Light of Day, Prowl). The film is being produced by Legendary Pictures and will be distributed by Universal Studios. It is scheduled for release on August 15, 2014.

Official synopsis:

Miles of twisting catacombs lie beneath the streets of Paris, the eternal home to countless souls. When a team of explorers ventures into the uncharted maze of bones, they uncover the dark secret that lies within this city of the dead. A journey into madness and terror, As Above, So Below reaches deep into the human psyche to reveal the personal demons that come back to haunt us all…

Wikipedia | IMDb

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In February 1855, Satan took a stroll through Devon, England. At least that’s what many locals thought at the time, and despite assorted explanations for the series of mysterious footprints left behind, some still cling to that belief.

On the night of either February 8th or 9th, 1855, there was a heavy snowfall, and the people of the Exe Estuary in Est Devon and South Devon apparently awoke to find a series of mysterious, hoof-like marks in the snow. Measuring around four inches long each, the tracks were between eight and sixteen inches apart, mostly single file, and continued for a distance of between 40 and 100 miles, from Exmouth to Topsham, Dawlish and Teignmouth. Nothing interfered with the relentless march of the prints – house, haystacks and frozen rivers were traveled over, the prints appearing on roofs, walls and even up to and then exiting four inch drain pipes. No wonder that people though there was something supernatural about the event, and the cloven hoof shape of the ‘footprints’ suggested that Satan had indeed decided to take a stroll through the snow.

Actual eye-witness accounts from the time are few and far between, however. The only documents to have been found were published in 1950, after an article in the Transactions of the Devonshire Association asked for  information about the event. This helped unearth a collection of papers belonging to Reverend H. T. Ellacombe, the vicar of Clyst St. George in the 1850s, including letters sent to the vicar from his friends, a letter to The Illustrated London News marked ‘not for publication’ and several tracings of the alleged footprints.

With no hard information from the time available – and of course, no photographic evidence – it is impossible to know exactly what really happened that night. Not that it hasn’t led to assorted theories, none of which seem much more plausible than the idea that they were left by Satan. Doubts as the validity of the story include questions about whether the tracks really did extend as far as is claimed, how accurate the descriptions of them were and if they actually took the relentless route claimed. As eye-witness reports are contradictory, there is no real evidence that the footprints reported were even the same from place to place.

Researcher Mike Dash, author of The Devil’s Hoofmarks (1994), has claimed that the footprints came from various sources, including hoaxes (though this requires the hoaxers to be aware of the mystery appearing elsewhere and to act quickly), donkeys and ponies and even wood mice, the marks left by these hopping rodents allegedly resembling the marks as described.

Author Geoffrey Household has suggested that an ‘experimental balloon’, released by mistake from Devonport Dockyard, had left the mysterious tracks by trailing two shackles on the end of its mooring ropes. While he claims a local source for this covered up story, others have questioned if a balloon could travel such a distance, so conveniently close to the ground, without being caught in trees or other obstacles.

Other theories include badgers, escaped kangaroos (a theory not helped by the fact that there is no evidence that any escaped kangeroos were at large at the time) and the more plausible ‘mass hysteria’, with people hearing tales of Satan’s stroll and subsequently mistaking ordinary animal tracks for the prints.

The truth is, we’ll never know quite what happened on that snowy night in Devon. The major unanswered question must surely be: if Satan did walk for a hundred miles through the snow, why?

David Flint, Horrorpedia

Blue Blood (also known as BlueBlood) is a 1973 British film directed by Andrew Sinclair. It stars Oliver Reed, Fiona Lewis (Dr. Phibes Rises Again; Bram Stoker’s Dracula; Strange Behavior), Derek Jacobi, Anna Gaël (Dracula and Son) and Meg Wynn Owen.

It was based on the novel The Carry-Cot by Alexander Thynn and shot on location at Longleat House in Wiltshire. In Italy, the film was naughtily promoted as a sequel to The Devils.

Plot teaser:

A debauched young aristocrat (Jacobi) entrusts the running of his country house to Tom, the butler (Reed), on whom he depends absolutely. Before long the servant begins to dominate his master, to the alarm of the newly hired German nanny (Wynn Owen) who senses sinister, demonic intent in Tom’s control of the house…

Reviews:

“This film isn’t for everyone. It’s plays like an episode of masterpiece theater as hosted by the Devil. It really doesn’t contain enough sex, horror or weirdness to be entertaining for the most part but is made satisfying by Oliver Reed, who chews scenery and exudes power in every scene he is in. Fiona Lewis is at her icy best as the often absent lady of the estate who is indifferent towards her husband so long as the riches stay in her name. If you are an Oliver Reed fan it is worth seeing, otherwise, pair it with Black Candles for a Satanic double feature.” Sinful Celluloid

“Pointing back to The Servant and forward to The Grotesque, the film unclothes Fiona Lewis at regular intervals but has nothing to recommend it other than Harry Waxman’s luscious photography of its Longleat House location.” Jonathan Rigby, English Gothic: A Century of Horror Cinema

“Oliver Reed almost transcends the foolishness and hamminess of the enterprise by playing to the hilt – bull-necked, gimlet-eyed, and moving with a strange reptilian menance – one of the most physically repellant of screen villains.” Richard Combs, BFI Monthly Film Bulletin (January 1975)

“Blue Blood is a curious oddity which, despite a brace of fine performances from its leading players, fails miserably due to tiresome pacing and ineptly handled occult elements ….The horror element is fleeting and not at all well handled, basically consisting of red-hued images of ritual child sacrifice and black masses” Harvey Fenton, Ten Years of Terror (FAB Press)

Buy Ten Years of Terror from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Buy Blue Blood on DVD from Amazon.co.uk

Buy Evil Spirits: The Life of Oliver Reed from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Cast:

• Oliver Reed as Tom
• Fiona Lewis as Lily
• Derek Jacobi as Gregory
• Anna Gaël as Carlotta
• Meg Wynn Owen as Beate
• John Rainer as Clurman
• Richard Davies as Jones
• Gwyneth Owen as Agnes
• Patrick Carter as Cocky
• Elaine Ives-Cameron as Serena
• Tim Wylton as Morrell
• Hubert Rees as Dr. Barratt
• Dilys Price as Mrs. Barratt
• Andrew McCall as Gerrard
• Sally Anne Newton as Susannah

Wikipedia | IMDb

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Goatwhore is an American blackened death metal band (although they prefer to define themselves as playing “just straight heavy metal”), formed in 1997 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Goatwhore was created in by singer/guitarist Sammy Duet following the breakup of his former band, Acid Bath. Soilent Green singer L. Ben Falgoust II, guitarist Ben Stout, bassist Patrick Bruders, and drummer Zak Nolan completed the lineup, which debuted with the demo Serenades to the Tides of Blood; Goatwhore’s proper debut LP, The Eclipse of Ages into Black, followed in early 2000. Funeral Dirge for the Rotting Sun appeared in 2003 before the band jumped to Metal Blade for the fall release of 2006’s A Haunting Curse. They performed at both Ozzfest 2008 and Ozzfest 2010.

In 2009, Goatwhore released their fourth album, entitled Carving out the Eyes of God, and toured with Obituary, among others. In January and February 2010, they embarked on the ‘Bound By The Road’ Tour with DevilDriver, Suffocation, and Thy Will Be Done.

In 2010, the band was confirmed as contributing to the soundtrack for Namco Bandai Games‘ 2010 remake of Splatterhouse.

In early 2012, the band released their fifth album, entitled Blood for the Master.

On March 10, 2014, the band completed recording their sixth album, Constricting Rage of the Merciless, which was released on July 8.

Buy on CD | Vinyl from Amazon.com

Buy on CD | Vinyl | MP3 from Amazon.co.uk

Albums:

The Eclipse of Ages into Black (2000)

Funeral Dirge for the Rotting Sun (2003)

A Haunting Curse (2006)

Carving out the Eyes of God (2009)

Blood for the Master (2012)

Constricting Rage of the Merciless (2014)

Wikipedia | Official site | Facebook | Metal Blade Records

Dennis Yates Wheatley (8 January 1897 – 10 November 1977) was an English author whose prolific output of thrillers and occult novels made him one of the world’s best-selling writers from the 1930s through the 1960s. His Gregory Sallust series was one of the main inspirations for Ian Fleming’s James Bond stories.

His work is fairly typical of his class and era, portraying a way of life and clubland ethos that gives an insight into the values of the time. His main characters are all supporters of Royalty, Empire and the class system, and many of his villains are villainous because they attack these outdated ideas.

Dennis Wheatley was born in South London. He was the eldest of three children of a family who were the owners of Wheatley & Son of Mayfair, a wine business. He admitted to little aptitude for schooling, and was expelled from Dulwich College. Soon after his expulsion Wheatley became a British Merchant Navy officer cadet.

Following WW1, in 1919 he assumed management of the family wine merchant business but in 1931, after a decline in business due to the Great Depression, he sold the firm and began writing.

His first novel published, The Forbidden Territory, was an immediate success when issued by Hutchinson in 1933, being reprinted seven times in seven weeks. The release the next year of his occult story, The Devil Rides Out — hailed by James Hilton as “the best thing of its kind since Dracula” — cemented his reputation.

Wheatley mainly wrote adventure novels, with many books in a series of linked works. Over time, each of his major series would include at least one book pitting the hero against some manifestation of the supernatural. He came to be considered an authority on this, Satanism, the practice of exorcism, and black magic, to all of which he was hostile. During his study of the paranormal, though, he joined the Ghost Club.

By the 1960s, Hutchinson was selling a million copies of his books per year, and most of his titles were kept available in hardcover. Three of his books were made into films by Hammer, of which the best known is The Devil Rides Out (book 1934, film 1968). The others are fantasy adventure The Continent (1968) and To the Devil a Daughter (1976). Wheatley reportedly disliked the latter because it did not follow his novel and he found it obscene. Wheatley apparently told Hammer that they were not to make another film from his novels ever again.

Buy The Best of Dennis Wheatley from Amazon.co.uk

He edited several collections of short stories, and from 1974 through 1977, he supervised a series of forty-five paperback reprints for the British publisher Sphere with the heading “The Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult”, selecting the titles and writing short introductions for each book. These included both occult-themed novels by the likes of Bram Stoker and Aleister Crowley (with whom he once shared a lunch).

Buy To the Devil a Daughter from Amazon.co.uk

Wikipedia | The Dennis Wheatley Project

The entrance to Hell (or more accurately, entrances) has been designated at  various locations on the surface of the Earth from ancient times right up to the present day. They have acquired a legendary reputation for being entrances to the underworld due to their remote location, often in regions of unusual geological activity, particularly volcanic areas, or sometimes at lakes, caves or mountains.

Legends from both ancient Greece and Rome record stories of mortals who entered or were abducted into the netherworld through the gates of Hell. The god Hades kidnapped the Goddess Persephone from a field in Sicily and led her to the underworld through a cleft in the earth so he could marry her. Orpheus traveled to the Greek underworld in search of Eurydice by entering a cave at Taenarum or Cape Tenaron on the southern tip of the Peloponnese. Hercules entered the Underworld from this same spot. Both Aeneas andOdysseus also visited the underworld. The former entered the region through a cave at the edge of Lake Avernus on the Bay of Naples; the latter through Lake Acheron (with friendly local ferryman, Charon) in northwest Greece.

In Israel, The Twins Cave in the Judean hills outside Jerusalem have revealed evidence of pagan rituals linked to the underworld and may have been thought to be an access point for Persephone’s journey to the underworld.

In the medieval period, Mount Etna on Sicily was considered to be an entryway to Hell, understandably perhaps considering the regular eruptions and in a similar vein during this period, Icelanders believed their own Mount Hekla was also a gateway, beginning in the 12th century, after its 1104 eruption. Benedeit’s 1120 Anglo-Norman poem Voyage of St. Brendan mentions the volcano as the prison of Judas.That reputation continued with further eruptions; after the 1341 eruption, there was a report that people saw birds flying amidst the fire—birds, some thought, that must really be swarming souls. Even in more recent times, Hekla has maintained its diabolic status, as some superstitious folk have claimed that it’s a spot where witches meet with the devil.

The most famous of medieval gateways, however, was St Patrick’s Purgatory in Lough Derg, Co. Donegal, Ireland. Here, it is said, St. Patrick spent time contemplating his doubting flock when a vision of Christ appeared, pointing out the entrance to Hell (Purgatory) and the doom and anguish that awaited such folk. Over the coming decades, Catholic pilgrims sought out Purgatory on Station Island to such an extent that by the 17th Century, local officials sealed off the Satanic cave to prevent it from attracting the wrong sort of visitor. Such was the lure, this did little to dissuade pilgrims and even today, religious types will enter the cave for up to three days at a time, performing their vigil alongside a fast to atone for their sins as close to their potential agony as possible.

Away from Europe there are many examples of people pointing the accusatory finger at various local places of interest. In China, Fengdu has a long history in the Taoist tradition of being a portal to Hell. The 2,000-year-old City of Ghosts, located in Chongqing municipality, has a particularly charming route to everlasting misery; firstly, the soul of the recently departed must cross the Bridges of Helplessness to have their virtue judged, then face the Mirror of Retribution at the Ghost Torturing Pass and either become immediately reincarnated or face a series of torments before reaching the Wheel of Rebirth. Those who are undecided can take a moment to take in the vastness of the largest image carved into rock, the 138 metre-high and 217 metres across, Ghost King. In truth, much of the mythology surrounding this area is very much based in tourism (who’d have thought?)

Staying in Asia, Japan had its own volcano which ushered souls into the fire eternal, Mount Osore, a region filled with volcanic cauldrons located on the remote Shimokita Peninsula of Japan’s Honshu island, is literally named “Mount Fear”. With a small brook running to the neighbouring Lake Usori that is equated to the Sanzu River, a river that deceased souls needed to cross of their way to the afterlife. The Sanzu River, or “River of Three Crossings,” is believed to be the boundary between the realms of the living and the dead. Local fungi known as “skull mushrooms” add to the gloomy tone of the place. On the island of Kyushu, Japan, another area has a similar reputation, the blood-red sulphurous Pools of Beppu. Several of these pools have such hot water within them that they were used for torture purposes in past years.

The cave systems of Belize have been described in Popol Vuh, the Mayan text, as Xibalba, the entrance to Hell for newly lost souls. These texts described rivers of blood and scorpions, and a vast subterranean labyrinth ruled over by the Mayan death gods, the demonic “Lords of Xibalba.” Since their rediscovery in 1989, the caves of Actun Tunichil Muknal have become a popular destination for explorers. There are numerous landmarks that make this network particularly interesting, including a vast chamber of stalactites known as the “Cathedral.” Amongst scattered fragments of pottery and bone, one of the more notable discoveries is the skeleton of an 18-year-old girl. Believed to have been ritualistically murdered in the cave as a sacrifice to the Death Gods, she has been nicknamed the “Crystal Maiden”; over the 1,000 years since her death, her bones have calcified to create a shimmering, crystal effect. Although riverboats full of tourists now regularly explore these grottos, they are advised not to touch any of the relics for fear of reawakening the restless dead.

Over in America, local legend tells of Hellam Township, Pennsylvania, sitting upon the Seven Gates of Hell. No fewer than two local legends attempt to explain the “Seven Gates” of Hellam Township. One of the better-known myths ties them to an insane asylum on the town’s outskirts, which supposedly burnt to the ground in the 19th century. According to this particular legend, the inmates – most of them criminally insane, of course – escaped, only to be recaptured using a series of tall fences and secure gates. Many were beaten to death by guards in the process. This story falls down somewhat at the stage where it is discovered there was never an asylum in this area. The other tale sees a local doctor who once lived in the town. This man (by some accounts a Satanist, by others merely eccentric) was said to have designed a series of strange gates on his land, which followed a winding path running deeper and deeper into the forest. Where stories agree, is that those who pass through the gates in order will find themselves transported straight to the underworld.

Even as recently as this year, in the ancient Phrygian city of Hierapolis, now Pamukkale in southwestern Turkey, an area has roused suspicion amongst locals (and the Daily Mail) that the Devil’s lounge is closer than you might think .The evidence for this points the finger at an archaeological dig which uncovered statues of Pluto and Kore, the diabolical Gods, as well as the carcasses of dead birds, allegedly killed instantly by noxious carbon dioxide fumes. This echoes ancient accounts from the Greek geographer Strabo (64/63 BC — about 24 A.D.), who said: ‘This space is full of a vapour so misty and dense that one can scarcely see the ground. ‘Any animal that passes inside meets instant death. I threw in sparrows and they immediately breathed their last and fell.’

Equally modern is the breathtaking fiery pit known as The Door to Hell at Derweze, Ahal Province, Turkmenistan.The Door to Hell is noted for its natural gas fire which has been burning continuously since it was lit by Soviet petrochemical engineers in 1971. The fire is fed by the rich natural gas deposits in the area. The pungent smell of burning sulphur pervades the area for some distance. The fire, boiling mud, and orange flames in Derweze’s large crater (with a diameter of 70 metres) attracts many onlookers, though the President of the country has demanded the hole be filled in, lest it drain any of his nation’s lucrative natural resource. Regardless, over 40 years on, the flames show no sign of receding.

There is one more place of interest which perhaps came closer than any to being proven to be the entrance to Hell. Around 1990, it was reported on various internet sites that whilst digging a  putative borehole in Russia which was purportedly drilled so deep that it broke through into Hell, or at least close to it. The legend holds that a team of Russian engineers purportedly led by an individual named “Mr. Azzacov” in an unnamed place in Siberia had drilled a hole that was 9 miles (14 km) deep before breaking through to a cavity. Intrigued by this unexpected discovery, they lowered an extremely heat tolerant microphone, along with other sensory equipment, into the well. The temperature deep within was 2,000 °F (1,090 °C) — heat from a chamber of fire from which (purportedly) the tormented screams of the damned could be heard. That recording, however, was later revealed to have been a cleverly remixed portion of the soundtrack of the 1972 Mario Bava movie, Baron Blood, with various effects added. Warning – the following Youtube clip contains some attempted Christian brainwashing towards the end.

Alas, the so-called “Well to Hell” has since been debunked but not before various spin-offs appeared – these included a 1992, US tabloid Weekly World News published article which was set in Alaska where 13 miners were killed after Satan came roaring out of Hell. Other alternative stories included an alleged story where Jacques Cousteau quit diving after hearing “screams of people in pain” underwater. Another story told of one of Cousteau’s men fainting in terror after hearing screaming voices in a trench in the Bermuda Triangle.

Daz Lawrence, Horrorpedia, round the corner from Hell.

http://www.entrances2hell.co.uk/

The Pyx (also known as The Hooker Cult Murders and La Lunule) is a 1973 Canadian supernatural thriller film directed by Harvey Hart and starring Karen Black and Christopher Plummer. It is based on the 1959 book of the same title by Montreal author John Buell.

Plot Teaser

A motorist witnesses a woman falling or jumping from a tenement building. Police arrive on the scene and find a crucifix and a small metal container (a pyx). While investigating the death, a detective in the city of Montreal enters the world of prostitution, drug addiction, conspiracy, and the occult. As the investigation continues, it is revealed that the dead woman is Elizabeth Lucy, a prostitute and heroin addict. Suspects in Elizabeth’s death are soon murdered one by one, and evidence of occult ritual begins to surface, leading to a confrontation with a cult leader who may be possessed by Satan himself.

The music was composed by Harry Freedman, with actress Karen Black lending her vocal talents.  Karen Black used a body double for all the nude shots of her filmed from behind.

Buy The Pyx on DVD from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk

Reviews

“A unique and chilling ’70s obscurity, The Pyx is a terrific little film that well deserves rediscovery. Complex and disturbing, it’s not your typical fright film. Don’t let the less-than-outstanding tech scare you off, this one is definitely worth seeking out.” DVD Verdict

“Though the direction is well handled and at times very atmospheric, this production is not without its fare share of flaws, with its pacing being its most glaring shortcoming. There are far too many moments that tend to drag and this prevents any momentum that does occur, from sustaining.” 10K Bullets

“A slow, complicated thriller with an intelligent storyline – and some intriguing insights into Catholic guilt – The Pyx is structured like a film noir (a main character is found dead at the onset with the action constantly shifting back and forth in time). Not for all tastes, but for the right fans, this is a wonderful mystery that’s well worth finding.” The Terror Trap

Buy They Came From Within from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

Wikipedia | IMDb

WH

Fear No Evil is a 1981 American horror film directed by Frank LaLoggia (Lady in White) and starring Stefan Arngrim, Elizabeth Hoffman and Kathleen Rowe McAllen. In the US, it was released by Avco Embassy.

Plot teaser:

Andrew Williams is a shy, awkward high school student with a straight ‘A’ average and a horrifying secret: He was born the Antichrist, the profane incarnation of Lucifer himself. While senior year can be Hell for some teenagers, Andrew unleashes the real thing bringing demonic carnage and the horrors of Satan to gym class and beyond. Now that the legions of the undead have risen, some very unexpected archangels are gathered and on the eve of the Second Coming the final horrific battle for the unholy soul of mankind is about to begin…

Fear No Evil was 26 year-old writer/director/co-producer/composer LaLoggia’s debut, and had a budget of $840,000. The films origin came about when producer Charles M. LaLoggia discovered the filming location of the Boldt Castle in Alexandria Bay, New York. LaLoggia thought it was an ideal place to set a horror film and approached his cousin director Frank LaLoggia to write a film around the location.

The film features a punk rock/new wave soundtrack with songs by Patti Smith, The Rezillos, Talking Heads, Ramones, Boomtown Rats, The B-52’s, Richard Hell and Sex Pistols. 

Avco Embassy Pictures apparently picked up the film for release solely based on the fact that zombies were featured.

Buy Fear No Evil on DVD from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Reviews:

“Overall, the film is a little too uneven to really recommend, but it has a few sequences which genuinely work up some grotesque dread, and even more that are memorably crazy if not entirely successful. Like its central antagonist, it can be hard to tell what it’s really trying to do, and even when it seems to know it’s not always great at pulling it off. But its still pretty interesting to watch something this weird develop, even if you can’t quite figure out what its going for. The mystery of whether or not LaLoggia is a director worth serious study remains unsolved, but I’d say this movie is a net gain for the world.” We are Cursed to Live in Interesting Times

“For all its impressive goals, the movie does seem amateurish in spots near the end, despite a game cast and some inventive staging. The climax seems hokey. The son of the Devil looks too glam rock to be truly scary—but who said the Dark Prince ever had any fashion sense? At least Satan once again gets it on with some babes, or at least his spawn does. It’s a strange mix of styles, culled from Italian horror and Hammer productions with a uniquely American twist. You have to give them points for going for broke with an unconventional twist on a tale that was also taken on—with a much bigger budget—by the Omen series.” DVD Verdict

“Fear No Evil is the rare 80s horror movie that actually has a story. In fact, it has so much story that I found myself scratching my head at many points and yawning at others. I hate to say this is a bad thing — based on the number of mindless horror movies I’ve seen — but the pacing is so weak, by the time the zombies showed up I almost didn’t care. I say “almost” because the last 15-20 minutes is just great, it just seems like it takes forever to get there.” Exploitation Retrospect

IMDb

WH

The First Power is a 1990 American horror film/neo-noir, directed by Robert Resnikoff and starring Lou Diamond Phillips, Tracy Griffith, Jeff Kober and Mykelti Williamson.

Plot teaser:

A young man, Patrick Channing, born out of an incestuous relationship and having endured an emotionally, psychologically scarring childhood, gives in to the dark side of Satanic forces and becomes a weapon of evil. He kills with such ferocity that he becomes the main target of the L.A.P.D. Detective Russell Logan – a specialist in catching serial killers – who engages in a battle of wits with Channing. It appears that the killer can’t be stopped, but Logan has a few tricks of his own to match Channing’s-“First Power”…

Musician Nick Cave was considered for the bad guy/Patrick Nanning role. Cave, who was touring the US at the time, did audition for the role, but later said he was glad he had not been awarded the part.

During filming, numerous press materials listed the title as Transit – because of the killer’s ability to jump between bodies as a way of moving around the city. Orion, the film’s US distributor, decided in post-production to re-title the film The First Power so potential audience members would be more aware of its supernatural/horror elements.

Buy The First Power on Blu-ray from Amazon.com

Reviews:

“The First Power is one of my top “guilty pleasure” films. Sure, with a tighter script to back it up, it could’ve been more than just fun Swiss Cheese, but I still manage to have a Merry Dead-Mas with it every time. If you’re looking for a somewhat silly, yet dark, opus that offers a string of inventive chases, easy scares, a badass killer that jumps in slow motion a lot and a Lou Diamond Phillips that just can’t get stop getting a beating…YOU JUST HIT PAY DIRT!”  Arrow in the Head

“There is some pretty amazing stuntwork going on in here and though they were ridiculous, I think they had a big part in why I ended up liking this so much. You know, it’s your standard late 80’s early 90’s supernatural thriller/detective story about a cop chasing a serial killer, only they throw in some insane stuntwork out of nowhere that serves no real purpose in moving the story along, but looks great on screen. Sometimes, depending on your taste or mood, it can be enough. In this case, for me it was.” robotGEEK’S Cult Cinema

“The First Power is a good old occult thriller mixed with a nineties cop-movie. Lou Diamond Phillips might look very young, but he’s good and handles the action and drama well – and shows of his hairless chest a couple of times. But Jeff Kober steals every scene he’s in as usual, and that’s fine with me. He makes even the most boring movies a little bit better.” Ninja Dixon

Wikipedia | IMDb

WH

Hack-O-Lantern is a 1988 American low budget horror film that has also been released as Halloween Night, Death Mask and The Damning. It was directed by Indian-born Jag Mundhra (Open House, Night Eyes) from a screenplay by Carla Robinson. The film stars Hy Pyke (Lemora, Nightmare in Blood, Slithis), Gregory Scott Cummins, Katina Gamer, Carla Baron, Jeff Brown, Michael Potts and Patricia Christie.

Reviews:

Extremely cheesy, Hack-O-Lantern is the epitome of straight-to-video late 80s horror, with big hair, cheap costumes and dodgy effects, mundane metal rock from D.C. La Croix (“You’re the Devil’s son!”) and Mercenaries, a fair amount of female nudity, the requisite puerile party scene, dialogue that’s delivered with no conviction whatsoever by a mainly amateurish cast, and a painfully distracting synth score that seems more akin to a silent movie.

On the plus side, Hy Pyke overacting as an incest-lovin’ Grandpa villain with a Southern drawl to savour is hilarious, and his supposedly evil antics are what keeps the plot alive when it threatens to falter.

Hack-O-Lantern is obviously low-grade rubbish but like Jon Mikl Thor’s testosterone-fuelled rock horror outings such as Zombie Nightmare, its thoroughly enjoyable rubbish, when taken it on its own unambitious terms. Needless to say, the Halloween elements are merely incidental.

Adrian J Smith, Horrorpedia

“The ending had a nice little twist as to who the killer was, but by then I was really too bored to care. I watched Hack-O-Lantern for some fun Halloween thrills, but found it more of a chore to sit through. A film with a cool name like Hack-O-Lantern deserves to be somewhat entertaining, but this was more like Crap-O-Lantern.” The Spooky Vegan

The Devil’s Business is a 2011 British horror film directed by Sean Hogan and starring Billy Clarke, Jack Gordon, and Jonathan Hansler.

Plot teaser:

Veteran hitman Pinner (Billy Clarke) and his young, inexperienced ward Cully (Jack Gordon) break into a house at night, awaiting the return of owner Kist (Jonathan Hansler) whom their gangland boss Bruno (Harry Miller) wants dead, with no questions asked. As midnight approaches, Pinner keeps the nervous Cully entertained with an eerie story about a previous hit he had carried out on a beautiful striptease dancer. Before he can finish his tale, a sound from outside the house draws them into the night, and to a horrifying discovery that plunges them into the shadowy darkness of their own tortured souls. The Devil hasn’t finished with them yet…

The film was shot in just ten days and features only five actors. It was released at the same time as another British film with a similar horrific premise, Kill List.

Buy The Devil’s Business on Mondo Macabro Blu-ray form Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Reviews:

“Director Sean Hogan (Little Deaths) keeps things well under control for the unusually short running time (just over an hour), resulting in a modest but effective little chiller that achieves far more than its means. It definitely won’t be a film for all tastes (there’s good reason Harold Pinter keeps being brought up by critics), but for anyone who likes a dose of cerebral art house attitude with their English chills, this one’s quite tasty.” Mondo Digital

“Amidst a slew of hackneyed, ill thought out horror the occasional gem shines like a bright beacon and this truly is the business. I can’t wait to see what Sean Hogan comes up with next.” Starburst

“The Devil’s Business is a likable micro-budget offering from a promising young indie writer-director who, with a little more money at his disposal, will surly have a good deal more to offer the genre in the future. This is an interesting attempt at traditional ghostly storytelling surrounded by the conventions of a contemporary crime thriller, and it is well worth giving it a chance.” Horrorview

Read an interview with Sean Hogan at Fangoria.com

IMDb

WH

Rosemary’s Baby is a 1967 best-selling horror novel by Ira Levin (The Stepford Wives; Dr. Cook’s Garden; The Boys from Brazil; Son of Rosemary), his second published book. The Random House book sold over four million copies “making it the top bestselling horror novel of the 1960s.” It has been reprinted by different publishers many times since.

Plot teaser:

Rosemary Woodhouse, is a young woman who has just moved into the Bramford, an old Gothic Revival style New York City apartment building with her husband, Guy, a struggling actor. The pair is informed that the Bramford has a disturbing history involving witchcraft and murder, but they choose to overlook this. Rosemary has wanted children for some time, but Guy wants to wait until he is more established.

Rosemary and Guy are soon welcomed to Bramford by neighbours Minnie and Roman Castevet, an eccentric elderly couple. Rosemary finds them meddlesome and absurd, but Guy begins paying them frequent visits.

After a theatrical rival suddenly goes blind, Guy is given an important part in a stage play. Immediately afterward, Guy unexpectedly agrees with Rosemary that it is time to conceive their first child…

Adaptations:

In 1968, the novel was adapted into a film produced by William Castle (House on Haunted Hill; The Tingler; Strait-Jacket) and directed by Roman Polanski (Repulsion; The Tenant; The Ninth Gate). It starred Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes (Incubus). Ruth Gordon, who played Minnie Castevet, won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

A TV movie sequel, Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby, arrived in 1976 following the success of The Omen.

In 2014, the book was adapted again as a television mini-series with Zoe Saldana as Rosemary.

Wikipedia

Dr Satan versus Black Magic (Dr. Satan y la Magia Negra) is a 1968 Mexican horror film directed by Rogelio A. González (Ship of Monsters) and starring Joaquin Cordero (Dr Satan; The Hell of Frankenstein; The Terrible Giant of the Snow), Sonia Furió and Noe Murayama (Blue Demon Versus the Infernal Brains). The film is a sequel to Dr Satan (1966) and retains the character and actor of the titular physician but changes director and transfers from black and white to colour.

Deep in the bowels of Hell, the notorious yet suave Doctor Satan (Cordero) is being given a thorough dressing-down by his employer, Lucifer. He is given one last chance to avoid Earthly punishment by doing his master’s bidding; he must return to Earth and steal the evil sorcerer, Lei Yin’s (Murayama) secret of turning base metals into gold. Preferring action and violence to an eternity in Purgatory, the doctor accepts.

Back on the Earth’s crust we meet Lei Yin, a somewhat Fu Manchu-like character who, alongside having a brilliant scientific mind, also happens to be a vampire of the old school changing-into-a-bat variety. Yin has come into possession of ‘the Sorenson Formula’ (by virtue of murdering Doctor Sorenson), which grants him alchemy via the use of an elaborate set-up involving a large ray-gun. Like any arch-villain worth his weight in recently transformed gold, he is always accompanied by his henchpersons played by Aurora Clavel (The Wild Bunch) and Nathanael León (Hellish Spiders; Night of the Bloody Apes; many Santo films).

Meanwhile, Dr. Satan is busy interviewing young ladies in his office, the lucky candidates rewarded by being transformed into super-strong go-go zombies, doomed to do whatever the good doctor decides. In a thoughtful touch, he dubs them Medusa (Furió) and Erata (Luz Maria Aguilar) and they sleep alongside him in coffins in his crypt. Whilst Dr. Satan and his slaves attempt to track down Lei Yin, the evil mastermind is attempting to relocate to Hong Kong but is rumbled by the police; luckily for him, his able assistant uses her desk-cum-tank the riddle to interferers with bullet-holes.

An early attempt to slay Yin is foiled when the doctor realises his bullets are useless and he can only kill him via the usual stake to the heart. Now aware of his pursuers, Yin makes the first of his regular transformations into a bat, a metamorphosis which only confirms Horrorpedia’s regular assertion that the manufacture of realistic fake flying mammals will forever remain out of Man’s reach.

In true Satanik/Diabolik fashion, it now becomes a battle of wits, with the permanently fog-greeted Lin maniacally laughing, as Dr Satan and his zombladies chase him in a red sports car, eager to please Lucifer. The doctor’s quick wits shift the advantage, as do Lin’s futile attempts to suck the blood of the zombies (“Ugh, zombies! Disgusting!”) but when The Infernal One checks in, will the doctor have succeeded in sparing his own life from an eternity in limbo?

Dr. Satan was considered a strong enough character to bring back for another crack at box office success, the advent of colour giving a whole host of new opportunities to exploit one of the more bizarre genre mash-ups from Mexico. The titular character is something of a novelty in himself, following in the footsteps of the likes of Italian characters Satanik and Kriminal but with an even closer bond to evil and Hell itself. Handsome and debonair, Cordero is a difficult villain/hero to either despise or root for, a little bland in himself and only of any real interest at all due to his winsome companions. Murayama, however, clearly relishes his role, cackling and cape wafting like it’s going out of fashion, equally diabolical when in his laboratory of bubbling vials or transforming into a bat in a flash of magnesium light.

The film is of the shaky sets kind but enjoyably so, the lurid, psychedelic colours redolent of some of the more trippy of Coffin Joe’s films, whilst retaining a cartoon innocence and throw-the-kitchen-sink-at-it fireworks mentality. Somehow, the film conspires to drag its heels on occasion, the pay-off being that when the action does hit, it’s with kaleidoscopic fervor, both visually and aurally, the blips of the lab combining with berserk electronic barrages to assault the senses.

Zombies, vampires, coffins, a mad scientist and his lab, bats, a stunning appearance by the Devil himself and fatal femmes and foes, this is Mexican fantasy horror at its most enjoyable, as you’d expect from the director of the jaw-dropping Ship of Monsters.

Daz Lawrence, Horrorpedia

Skywald Publications was a 1970s American publisher of black-and-white comic magazines, primarily the horror anthologies Nightmare, Psycho, and Scream.

Skywald’s first publication was Nightmare #1 (Dec. 1970). The company lasted until early 1975, with Psycho #24 (March 1975) being its final publication. Nightmare published 23 issues and Scream put out 11 issues.

The company name is a combination of those of its founders, former Marvel Comics production manager Sol Brodsky (“Sky”) and low-budget entrepreneur Israel Waldman (“wald”), whose I. W. Publications (also known as Super Comics) in the late 1950s and early 1960s published comic book reprints for sale through grocery and discount stores. Skywald was based in New York City.

Brodsky, who also served as editor, brought in Al Hewetson — briefly an assistant to Marvel chief Stan Lee and a freelancer for the Warren Publishing horror magazines and others — as a freelance writer. “Archaic Al”, as he later jokingly called himself in print, quickly became the associate editor, and when Brodsky returned to Marvel after a few months, Hewetson succeeded him as editor. Hewetson, aiming at a more literary bent than the work of industry leader Warren Publishing, developed what he called “the Horror-Mood” and sought to evoke the feel of such writers as Poe, H. P. Lovecraft and Kafka.

Comics professionals who produced work for the Skywald magazines include writers T. Casey Brennan, Gerry Conway, Steve Englehart, Gardner Fox, Doug Moench, Dave Sim, Len Wein, and Marv Wolfman, and artists Rich Buckler, Gene Day Vince Colletta, Bill Everett, Bruce Jones, Pablo Marcos, Syd Shores, Chic Stone, and Tom Sutton. Many who also contributed to rival Warren employed pseudonyms. Future industry star John Byrne published his first professional story, a two-pager written by editor Hewetson, in Skywald’s Nightmare #20 (Aug. 1974).

Editor Al Hewetson, in an interview given shortly before his death of a heart attack on Jan. 6, 2004, asserted the demise of Skywald was caused by:

“…Marvel’s distributor. Our issues were selling well, and some sold out. Such returns as we received were shipped overseas, mainly to England, where they sold out completely… When Marvel entered the game with countless [black-and-white horror] titles gutting [sic] the newsstand, their distributor was so powerful they denied Skywald access to all but the very largest newsstands, so our presence was minimal and fans and readers simply couldn’t find us…”

Buy Skywald: The Complete Illustrated History of the Horror-Mood from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Wikipedia | Image credits: Comic Vine | Pinterest