Creeptastic

Creeptastic is taking a break this week so we can all get through these pesky holidays and start fresh with the new year! Join me next Monday 1/2 for a brand new episode on the ever-horrifying topic of: sleep paralysis! Have some Happy Holidays if that's the kind of thing you're into, or have a fabulous and Creeptastic week if not, and join me in the new year for some new creepy content! Advertise on Creeptastic! Support Creeptastic on Patreon! Contact me and find links to social media at Creeptastic.com!

In today's episode, I am going to make you never want to go to a live concert or sports game again by telling you all about the numerous instances in human history when a crowd has killed – not because they were an angry mob or had any desire to hurt someone, but simply because there were just too many people in too small a space, and that led to what is typically known as a crowd crush. What exactly is a crowd crush, and what conditions are needed for one to happen? What are some of the more horrific examples from our history of crowd crushes, and what can we learn from them? How can you try to effectively manage a crowd so it doesn’t get into a crushing situation…and if it does, what can you as the individual do to try and protect yourself so you make it back out? I will provide some answers to all these questions, talk super briefly about crowd crushes in horror entertainment because spoilers, it doesn’t show up often if at all for some reason, and bring you a delightful little bedtime story about a crowd who doesn’t necessarily crush, but is menacing and murderous all the same. Why talk about happy, festive events which turn into horrific tragedies in which dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of people can die? Because at some point in all our lives, we are going to be caught in a pretty thick crowd, and the very idea that it could end up crushing us to death (given the right conditions) is beyond horrifying, and terribly Creeptastic! Advertise on Creeptastic! Support Creeptastic on Patreon! Contact me and find links to social media at Creeptastic.com!

In this episode I revisit the Murder and a Movie format with an examination of Alfred Hitchcock's underrated 1948 film Rope, and the so-called "crime of the century" which inspired it. The murder in question was that of 14-year-old Bobby Franks in 1924, by two affluent young men with genius-level IQs and an entirely dispassionate motive: the two young men simply wanted to prove that they were above traditional morality, and therefore, above everyone else. The murder of a child by a pair of wealthy, well-to-do white students, who claimed philosophical motives shocked the nation. The horror of the crime juxtaposed with the image of the criminals being anything but stereotypical made it all the more macabre and fascinating, inspiring works of film, theatre, and fiction, including the 1929 play Rope by Patrick Hamilton, which was performed on BBC television in 1939, and a film by the same name which was produced by none other than the master of the macabre himself, Alfred Hitchcock, in 1948. Why examine the history of this particular case and this particular movie? Because to many, this case is responsible for the trope of the “perfect crime,” one committed by self-professed geniuses just to prove that they could; a murder that was utterly dispassionate, cold, and calculated, and therefore Creeptastic! Advertise on Creeptastic! Support Creeptastic on Patreon! Contact me and find links to social media at Creeptastic.com!

In this episode (in honor of her passing) I decided to talk about Dame Angela Lansbury, and what I consider to be her contribution to the wide world of horror that we all know and love: Murder, She Wrote. Why do I consider a family-oriented mystery show to be part of the larger world of horror entertainment, and even an important one? Is the tiny town where Jessica Fletcher lives, Cabot Cove, the true murder capital of the fictional world? And the truly critical question: was Jessica Fletcher the murderer all along?! I am getting a little silly this week and answering all those questions, and I even found some crossover fan fiction for your bedtime story which pits our hero Jessica against none other than The Thing from John Carpenter’s 1982 film. Why take an episode to talk about the mildest, most inoffensive murders ever to be portrayed on television? Because Angela Lansbury has more than earned it, and this is my way of thanking her for the hours and hours of entertainment she's provided me with. She is the Mistress of Mild Murder, and as such, also Creeptastic! Advertise on Creeptastic! Support Creeptastic on Patreon! Contact me and find links to social media at Creeptastic.com!

What's your favorite "B movie"? I know you have one. Today's episode is all about that low-budget, highly genre-specific, and often dismissed film that has been intrical to shaping the world of horror as we know it today: the "B movie." What precisely is a “B movie,” and what types of films have been referred to as “B movies” over the decades? Why did the ”B movie” come to exist in the first place, and how has its very existence been impacted and sustained by the shifting economics of the movie industry? What are some of the more well-known and celebrated horror “B movies” out there, and just how ridiculous are their titles and plotlines? (Short answer: very.) I will answer each and every one of these questions for you, and I even managed to find a short story written in the style of a B movie for story time which brings together the big three "B movie" genres: western, sci-fi, horror, and oh yes, horror. Why review the history of movies that many have called shitty at best? Because as much as some of them might sound shitty, many "B movies" can and do bring their own kind of horrific beauty to the screen, and that makes them so very Creeptastic! Advertise on Creeptastic! Support Creeptastic on Patreon! Contact me and find links to social media at Creeptastic.com!

When (if ever) is it okay to end a human life? Today I am getting a little dark and a lot philosophical by tackling the very controversial topic of mercy killing, or euthanasia as its typically known. What do we mean when we call something a “mercy killing”? What is euthanasia as we understand it today, and how have we felt about it throughout history? Is it ever okay to kill another person, and if it is, under what circumstances? What do proponents of euthanasia have to say about why it’s a good thing, and what do its opponents have to say about why it’s a very, VERY bad thing? I will offer up answers to each of these questions (though some are really for you answer for yourself), discuss the grand tradition of mercy killing in horror entertainment, and tell you a Russian fairy tale about a soldier for whom there is no mercy, not even from God or the Devil. Why talk about the often-avoided subject of intentionally killing someone to end their suffering? Because mercy killing, whether you call it euthanasia or a coup de grâce, is something worth considering your feelings about - and very Creeptastic! See visuals for this episode on Instagram! Support Creeptastic on Patreon! Contact me and find links to social media at Creeptastic.com!

When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Something good, I hope. Today I am going through the looking glass and pondering that ubiquitous everyday household tool: the mirror! What exactly are mirrors, and how do they work? How long have mirrors been a part of human history, and just how culturally significant have they been over the centuries? What is it about mirrors, and what they reflect, that we humans can find so damn creepy sometimes, and why? I am going to answer all those questions for you, talk about the various ways mirrors can be used in horror entertainment to delightfully devastating effect, and lull you to sleep with a sweet little bedtime story about a feral girl (raised among wolves) who moves in with a werewolf and starts to discover her humanity in a mirror. Why spend an hour or two pondering something as everyday and painfully normal as mirrors? Because whether we’re worried they'll steal our souls, or that something monstrous might come out of them, or that ghosts and demons might try to talk to us through them, there is plenty about mirrors that is very Creeptastic! See visuals for this episode on Instagram! Support Creeptastic on Patreon! Contact me and find links to social media at Creeptastic.com!

Every so often I like to zoom in on certain creepy topics and characters in history so we can appreciate the horror of humanity on a micro as well as macro scale, and today I decided to share with you the tale of one of the only Nazi women to be convicted of war crimes in the wake of World War II: Ilse Koch, the so-called Butcher Widow and Bitch of Buchenwald (one of the more brutal concentration camps in Nazi Germany). The case of Ilse Koch is interesting for a few reasons, the primary one being she was the wife of a concentration camp commandant, not the commandant herself – but her husband had already died by the time Allied forces liberated Buchenwald. Was Ilse truly the monster that ordered the flayings of tattooed prisoners so she could keep their inked skins as sick souvenirs? Or was she really just the wife of a Nazi who was prosecuted because her husband could not be? Let’s dip our toes in the last few years of World War II, and learn more about Ilse, her husband Karl-Otto, and the camp that they would run together which would see the torturous deaths of tens of thousands of prisoners – Buchenwald. Why examine the history of this particular concentration camp and this particular Nazi? Because Ilse Koch has rightly or wrongly gone down in history as one of the most cruel women to have existed, one with a penchant for creating lamp shades from the skins of prisoners, and regardless of whether or not she really did even half the things she’s accused of, her story is still at least a bit Creeptastic! See visuals for this episode on Instagram! Support Creeptastic on Patreon! Contact me and find links to social media at Creeptastic.com!

Tell me truthfully - are you afraid of clowns? In honor of Halloween, I decided to tackle one of the requested topics I’ve been hanging on to for a special day –clowns! The creepy, evil kind, to be specific. How did the clown archetype as we know it today evolve over the centuries, and at what point did things take a more sinister turn? What is it about a creepy clown that we love to hate so much? Why is clown fear so prevalent that you are guaranteed to see at least one (if not a dozen) in every haunted house or corn maze? Where do evil clowns show up in the wide world of horror we all know and love, and where do they show up in real life? I am going to answer these questions for you, and tell a nice spooky Halloween bedtime story which is about – you guessed it – a deeply creepy clown with murder on his mind. It’s obvious why today, of all days, I would want to celebrate the creepy clown, right? Because creepy, evil, demented maniacs with smiles painted on their faces are terrifying, horrifying, and totally Creeptastic! See visuals for this episode on Instagram! Support Creeptastic on Patreon! Contact me and find links to social media at Creeptastic.com!

In honor of the spooky season, today I decided to examine the haunted castle, and on in particular: Chillingham Castle, the most haunted castle in England (so sayeth the current owners). What do we know about Chillingham’s history as a border fortress between the warring nations of England and Scotland, and just how dark and bloody does that history get? I’ll say it now – pretty damn dark and pretty damn bloody. Who are the various ghosts people have claimed to see at Chillingham, whether it’s in a bedroom, the chapel, or out in the courtyard, and how dangerous might those ghosts be? In what ways does Chillingham truly epitomize everything we love to be scared of in a haunted castle? I will be answering these questions, mentioning a few notable haunted castle horror films of note, and have a sweet little bedtime story for you about a fancy married couple who have an old torture chamber in their basement, and not the sexy kind. Why ponder the haunting of a medieval castle when I for one don’t believe in ghosts? Because the legend and history of Chillingham, complete with a sadistic master torturer and a lake full of bones, is very Creeptastic! See visuals for this episode on Instagram! Support Creeptastic on Patreon! Contact me and find links to social media at Creeptastic.com!

'Tis the season of spook, and therefore the season of spooky movies, so for this week’s episode I decided to dig not into a creepy topic so much as a classically creepy movie – Poltergeist, from 1982. This movie might be a ridiculous-sounding forty years old this Halloween, but frankly, that makes it no less Creeptastic to this very day, and I rewatched it just to be sure. In honor of the spooky season and this truly iconic addition to the wide world of horror that we all know and love, today I am going to depart from our typical episode format and walk you through the background and production of Poltergeist (including some talk of controversies and curses), give you a quick little spoiling of it from start to finish (just in case it’s actually been forty years since you watched it), and tell you about the real-life supposed haunting of the Herrmann family which occurred back in the fifties in Seaford, Long Island - a haunting which planted the seed that grew into the film we know today. I’ll be honest, the real-life poltergeist doesn’t hold a candle to the movie in terms of solid bumps and scares, but I find it endlessly fascinating to see how film producers can take a grain of truth and turn it into a wildly fictitious and entertaining version of what it once was, and that is exactly what happened with Poltergeist. The "why" this week is pretty obvious – because 'tis the season to celebrate the ghostly and ghastly, and in addition to epitomizing both of those things, obviously Poltergeist (1982) is quite simply Creeptastic! See visuals for this episode on Instagram! Support Creeptastic on Patreon! Contact me and find links to social media at Creeptastic.com!

How long do you really want to live? In this episode I am pondering the history of humanity’s quest for ever-longer lifespans, and specifically, humanity’s quest for the so-called "elixir of life" – a concoction which will grant immortality (or at the very least, good health) to anyone who drinks it. What exactly is the elixir of life, as we’ve come to understand and view it throughout history? How have human beings attempted to produce the elixir over the centuries? What efforts are we still making today to find easy cure-alls and extend our lives as much as possible? And critically, do we really want to live forever, or do we just think that we do? I provide some answers to these questions, look at some portrayals of the elixir of life in horror entertainment, and bring you a classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale about brothers questing for a life-giving elixir. Why discuss humanity’s so-far futile efforts to make a miracle potion that cures all disease and grants life everlasting? Because our obsession with fending off death, and all the things we’ve tried to accomplish that, are odd, fascinating, and definitely Creeptastic! See visuals for this episode on Instagram! Support Creeptastic on Patreon! Contact me and find links to social media at Creeptastic.com!

In this episode I am digging into the controversial and rare psychological condition most commonly known as folie à deux, or sometimes shared psychosis, or sometimes shared delusional disorder. What exactly is shared psychosis (if it even exists), and what can it look like? What are the trends among people said to have this disorder which might give us clues about how shared psychosis can occur? What are the legal implications of using shared psychosis as a defense when people commit brutal crimes? I take a stab at these questions for you, talk about folie à deux in the fictional horror landscape, and bring you an unsettling bedtime story about two boys who conduct a shameful experiment involving an old dog, a raft, and the sea. Why indulge in a discussion about yet another rare psychological condition that may or may not be a real thing? Because whether you want to recognize it as a formal disorder or not, there is no denying that the idea that one person’s delusions can be contagious to another in a folie à deux is totally Creeptastic! See visuals for this episode on Instagram! Support Creeptastic on Patreon! Contact me and find links to social media at Creeptastic.com!

In this episode I’m shining a spotlight on one of my favorite subgenres of horror: found footage! What exactly is found footage horror, and how has it developed and evolved over the decades to be what it is today? What are the critical elements to making an effective found footage horror film (one that manages to achieve its goal of absolutely horrifying us with its unrelenting realism)? What are some of the more notable found footage horror films out there that any proper fan should know about? And of course, why oh why is the found footage style so damn effective, especially when it comes to the genre of horror? I will offer some answers to these questions, ponder the influence of culture and technology on the continuing evolution of found footage horror, and even bring you a little bedtime story about some idiots who decide to stage their own “found footage” horror movie and pay a bloody price. There’s no reason to ask why I would cover this topic this week, but I’ll answer that question anyway: because from Cannibal Holocaust to the Blair Witch Project to Paranormal Activity and beyond, found footage horror films have been (and as far as I’m concerned, will always be) completely and utterly Creeptastic! See visuals for this episode on Instagram! Get bonus content and support Creeptastic on Patreon! Contact me and find links to social media at Creeptastic.com!

What do you think might be waiting for you out there in the mist, just beyond your ability to see it? In today's episode I will be de-mystifying fog (pun intended)! What exactly is fog, in reality? How does it form, and impact the world around us? On the flip side, what purpose(s) does fog serve in the wide and wonderful world of horror fiction? I’ll answer these questions, take you through a brief history of fake fog in the entertainment industry, and talk about some notable uses of fog in horror films (and I had plenty to choose from). I also have a quick and creepy bedtime story for you about a perpetual fog from which no one ever returns. Why spend a whole episode on what is, in the end, just a fairly standard weather event?Because fog (and mist, and smoke, and haze) is one of the more versatile and visually striking effects we just love to use in the horror genre, and whether it’s real or fake, the tension and and mystery which fog creates is quite simply Creeptastic! See visuals for this episode on Instagram! Get bonus content and support Creeptastic on Patreon! Contact me and find links to social media at Creeptastic.com!

They are called annihilators for a reason – their destruction is utter and complete. In this episode, we are going to be taking a deep dive into one of the most shocking, but mercifully rare, types of mass murderers we've seen: the family annihilator. What exactly do we mean when we say “family annihilator”? What are the trends we tend to see among known family annihilators, and what, if anything, are those trends saying to us? Are there any risk factors we could possibly identify in possible future family annihilators around us? And honestly, how often do true family annihilations actually happen? I will answer these questions for you, talk a bit about how toxic masculinity has strongly influenced the profile of the family annihilator, and then (because we’re going super dark in reality) I have a little Russian fairy tale for you about a girl who uses a flaming skull to kill her evil stepmother and sisters (quite the departure from Disney). Why discuss how someone can go from loving and protecting their family to murdering them all, sometimes without a single warning sign? Because family annihilators and what they do is beyond horrific, but trying to understand them is important, useful, and in its own special way, also Creeptastic! See visuals for this episode on Instagram! Get bonus content and support Creeptastic on Patreon! Contact me and find links to social media at Creeptastic.com!

In this episode a give you a free preview of some of the bonus Creeptastic content waiting for you at Patreon.com/Creeptastic! Today’s featured creep is Amelia Dyer, who was executed after being convicted of three counts of murder - and her victims were all under the age of two. She was not just a killer, but a baby-killer; a predator of the worst kind who preyed on the most vulnerable possible victims she could find. And unfortunately for countless mothers and their children, she lived in a time and place that allowed her sadism and greed to run rampant for over thirty years, with some historians and investigators estimating that her true death toll might be as high as 400. How in hell could that be possible? Because she happened to live in Victorian England, when the perfect storm of social conditions combined to enable women like Amelia Dyer to not only murder children, but to profit from it. Journey with me into the dark side of an age marked by high morals and hypocrisy in this episode of Creeptastic! See visuals for this episode on Instagram! Get bonus content and support Creeptastic on Patreon! Contact me and find links to social media at Creeptastic.com!

What's the best way to appease an angry god? An offering, of course! And it better be a damn good one. What could be better than life itself? In today's episode I am digging into a practice which is almost universally recognized today as being totally “barbaric”: ritual human sacrifice. What exactly is ritual human sacrifice, and how have we managed to distinguish it from outright murder? When and where has human sacrifice been a prevalent practice? What are the plethora of reasons we humans have come up with to justify and rationalize the ritual sacrifice of another human being, especially a purely innocent one like a baby? Does ritual human sacrifice still happen in the modern world? I tackle all these questions, talk about trends in the use of human sacrifices in horror, and bring you a little bedtime story about a man who sacrifices everything for the sake of the harvest. Why explore yet another method we humans have come up with for killing each other? Because ritual human sacrifice is one of the more fascinating and messed up things we humans have come up with, so naturally, it’s super Creeptastic! See visuals for this episode on Instagram! Become a patron of the show at Patreon! Contact me and find links to social media at Creeptastic.com!

Bloody Mary...Bloody Mary...Bloody Mary...ever played? I sure have, and the experience left me with a few questions. Let's dig into the legend of that ghost, or maybe apparition, or maybe evil spirit, or maybe yummy cocktail: Bloody Mary! Where does the practice of turning off all the lights in your bathroom and saying Bloody Mary repeatedly into the mirror actually come from? Does it have anything to do with Mary Tudor, or any other Mary in history for that matter? If we assume it’s all just ritual and folklore, then how can we explain what people who are convinced they saw something actually experienced? And finally, why has the idea of Bloody Mary managed to seep into our collective consciousness so deeply that even today, kids nationwide feel compelled to test their courage by flipping off the lights and saying her name? I will attempt to answer these questions for you as best I can, give you a little more info about possible inspirations for the legend, and of course you’re going to get a bloody little bedtime story featuring that lady in the mirror we all hope we never actually see. Why try and tease apart a spooky legend that no one really seems to know the origin of? Because spooky legends and the rituals we devise around them are fun, fascinating, and very Creeptastic! See visuals for this episode on Instagram! Become a patron of the show at Patreon! Contact me and find links to social media at Creeptastic.com!

This episode is all about those cute, cuddly, organ-transplant-giving greedy eaters: pigs! Just how dangerous are these pigs we've been domesticating for centuries? How and why have people of all ages and from all over the world been attacked or even killed and eaten by wild and domesticated hogs alike? How have we viewed and represented the pig over the centuries in the real and fictional worlds, especially in the wide world of horror we all know and love? I will answer these questions, tell you about how so-called murderous pigs were brought to justice in medieval France, and bring you a nice little Romanian fairy tale in which a princess gets married to a literal pig. Why dig into our porky past for an episode? Because it is a very well-documented fact that pigs not only can but WILL devour human beings, from babies and toddlers to their caretakers, and the idea that some sweet little Wilbur is perfectly capable of eating you alive is horrific, brutal, and so very Creeptastic! See visuals for this episode on https://www.instagram.com/carolinesayang/ (Instagram)! Become a https://www.patreon.com/creeptastic (Patreon) of Creeptastic to access bonus weekly and monthly content! Contact me and find links to social media at https://creeptastic.com/ (Creeptastic.com)!