#Mannikins of Horror

[bookmaven]

THE OPENER OF THE WAY by Robert Bloch (Sauk City: Arkham House, 1945) Cover Art by Ronald Clyne.

A collection of fantasy and horror stories by American writer Robert Bloch. The author’s first book issued in a 2,065 copy edition.

Contents:

“By Way of Introduction”

“The Cloak” (Unknown May, 1939)

“Beetles” (Weird Tales, December, 1938)

“The Fiddler’s Fee” (Weird Tales, July, 1940)

“The Mannikin” (Weird Tales, April, 1937)

“The Strange Flight of Richard Clayton” (Amazing, March 1939)

“Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper” (Weird Tales, July 1943)

“The Seal of the Satyr” (Strange Stories, June 1939)

“The Faceless God (Weird Tales, May, 1936)

“The House of the Hatchet” (Weird Tales, January, 1941)

“The Opener of the Way (Weird Tales, October 1936) Illlustration by Virgil Finlay.

“Return to the Sabbath (Weird Tales, July, 1938)

“The Mandarin’s Canaries (Weird Tales, September, 1938)

“Waxworks” (Weird Tales, January, 1939)

“The Feast in the Abbey” (Weird Tales, January, 1935)

“Slave of the Flames” (Weird Tales, June, 1938)

“The Shambler from the Stars” (Weird Tales, September 1935) [Cthulhu]

“Mother of Serpents” (Weird Tales, December, 1936)

“The Secret of Sebek (Weird Tales, November, 1937) [Sebek].

“The Eyes of the Mummy” (Weird Tales, April, 1938) [Sebek]

“One Way to Mars” (Weird Tales, July, 1945)

“Dark Demon (Weird Tales, November, 1936)

(London: Neville Spearman, 1974)

[oswednesday]

im trying to get a good screencap of this cause this tour guide is insufferable and wont keep the camera still on anything for long but omg look how lovely!

[gebo4482]

Mannikins Trailer

Itch.io

[dustedmagazine]

Botanist — Photosynthesis (The Flenser)

Photosynthesis by Botanist

It seems significant that Botanist’s new LP Photosynthesis reaches an early apotheosis with its third track, “Chlorophyll.” The first two songs, “Light” and “Water,” are strong compositions, full of compelling sounds. But light and water are elements important for lots of life forms, human beings included. Chlorophyll is a more specific substance, crucial to the vitality of what Otrebor, founding member and key creative presence of Botanist, calls “the Verdant Realm.” Plantlife. Forests and jungle. The uncountable multitude of greeny beings that let us all breathe. And on “Chlorophyll,” the idiosyncratic black metal that Botanist has made over the past decade achieves its requisite aggressive resonance. Otrebor’s voice is a harsh shriek; his hammered dulcimer glitters and shimmers and also deafens; blast beats pulse under the song’s quickening pace. As with all plantlife, when chlorophyll combines with those other essential elements, the energy becomes a palpably livid thing.

If you’re not familiar with Botanist’s music, yes, you read that right: “hammered dulcimer” and “black metal.” It’s a strange and high-concept pairing. Pretty much everything about Botanist is high concept. Since the project’s inception in 2009, Otrebor has released music exclusively concerned with the mythos of the Verdant Realm. Plants are spirit beings, leafy mannikins that gambol and rage against the ecological depredations of the Anthropocene. Record titles are instructive: Doom in Bloom, The Suicide Tree, Green Metal. Despite the suggestions of that last, much of Botanist’s work accords with the sonic traditions of black metal, and while his choice of principal axe is idiosyncratic, it works. The hammered dulcimer has a sharply metallic ring, and its stringed intricacies adapt well to black metal’s customary tremolo lines and its enthusiasm for speed. There’s also a sort of thematic connection, given orthodox black metal’s romantic embrace of dark forests and atavistic spaces in which some primal, pagan Volk can gather and sing. 

For numerous black metal bands, that veneration of a Volk leads in unpleasant political directions, or the interest in hostile natural environments produces outright nihilism (perhaps those bands have mislaid the fact that veneration and interest are characteristically human acts and experiences, shared by all kinds of humans). If Botanist has a politics, it’s not concerned with lunatic insistence on pure bloodlines or contests among clanking war machines. And many of the songs on Photosynthesis consist of sounds and atmospheres that feel antithetical to violence of those sorts. Even at the music’s most forceful — the opening strains of “Bacteria,” the scorching pace of “Palisade” — Otrebor incorporates a brightening measure, something that lifts the song toward the sun. 

That’s an unusual impulse to encounter in black metal, and Otrebor finds equally unusual musical means to express it. The most persistent of those means is the hammered dulcimer, which often glistens and gleams even as it mimics black-metal guitar techniques often described as “cold.” The mix of textures is sonically and thematically rich. An icy glacier can gleam, but Otrebor’s playing gives the lightness a sort of warmth. Used with less frequency, but to strong effect, on Photosynthesis are clean vocals that Otrebor overdubs into a chorale. They sweeten some of the songs—but they’re weirdly monotone, even as they rise and fall harmonically. They sound not-quite-human, perhaps the voice of the Verdant Realm’s plant-consciousness. You’ll hear them in a sort of duet with Otrebor’s harsh scream during the final track, “Oxygen,” on which they build a sense of hopeful collaboration with the rest of the music. Given the earthball’s collective need for breath (the stink of pollution, the smothering horror of COVID-19, the poisonous hot air of institutional political discourse), it’s especially significant that the record closes with photosynthesis’s most precious product. Not for the plants, mind you. For the rest of us. 

Jonathan Shaw

[thevelvetlotus]

🔮🌿How absolutely enchanting are these Mandragoras?! Also known as Mandrake, even though Mandrake is only the root of the plant. All parts of the Mandragora are poisonous, though it’s roots have been used in magical ritual and medicine for thousands of years. The Mandrake root appears to have arms and legs and resemble a human body giving it popularity in many folklores. It is said that only the pure of heart can pull a Mandragora up from the ground or else the shrilling screams of the Mandrake root will poison and kill an untrustworthy man in the most insidious ways. Fun fact. The word mannequin comes from the name “mannikin” which were dolls made from the Mandrake root. Nifty, eh?🌿🔮 Mandrake Art from the very talented @elementalurchin 🌙 #mandragora #mandrake #nightshade #plants #plantsmakepeoplehappy #plantsplantsplants #art #craft #magic #lore #folklore #magic #mystery #mystic #enchanted #spooky #scary #horror #beautiful #witch #medicine #thevelvetlotus https://www.instagram.com/p/BuvF_uIgahD/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1fc2js4cu8d6s

[biggoonie]

MARVEL HORROR: THE MAGAZINE COLLECTION TPB

Written by CHRIS CLAREMONT, DOUG MOENCH, TONY ISABELLA, DON MCGREGOR, BRUCE JONES, J.M. DEMATTEIS, STEVE PERRY & MORE Penciled by TONY DEZUNIGA, RICO RIVAL, VICENTE ALCAZAR, ERNIE CHAN, BILLY GRAHAM, JUAN BOIX, MICHAEL GOLDEN, DAVE SIMONS, BOB HALL, GEOF ISHERWOOD, STEVE BISSETTE & MORE Cover by GENE COLAN, BILLY GRAHAM & GIL KANE Marvel’s supernatural superstars star in lavishly illustrated tales of horror! And many of these bizarre adventures from the age of the black-and-white magazine are collected here for the first time! Blade hunts, Dracula stalks and the Zombie shambles! Meanwhile, night brings the daughter of the diabolical, Satana! You’ll meet Gabriel, Devil Hunter! Discover the magic of Lady Daemon! Fear the Death-Dealing Mannikin! And brave the Haunt of Horror and the Vault of Evil! They’re rarely seen creepy classics filled with werewolves, vampires and monsters unleashed — read them if you dare! Collecting material from MARVEL PREVIEW #3, #7-8, #12 and #16; HAUNT OF HORROR (1974) #1-2; MONSTERS UNLEASHED (1973) #3-9; and BIZARRE ADVENTURES #25 and #33. 264 PGS./Parental Advisory …$34.99

[trebuchetuk]

Sculpture and expression

[dropcap style=”font-size:100px; color:#992211;”]L[/dropcap]os Angeles based sculptor Sarah Sitkin makes uncanny art. Anatomical sculptures created from silicone clay, plaster, resin and latex  convey psychological themes on which the viewer is simultaneously attracted and disturbed.

Containing liberal inferences to surrealist works which in turn reference classic European painting, there is a…

[ecotone99]

The Eighth Room

He was an unpleasant man with dark secrets.

Ron didn’t respond to – or read - most emails, but this one broke through the haze of drugs and alcohol, catching his bleary eye.

“$1,000 to spend the night in a haunted house. Make it through 8 rooms of terror and the money is yours – no questions asked.

You read that right, Ron - Cyphier Entertainment will pay YOU ten crisp Ben Franklins to beta-test our new Halloween Spookhouse! Be at the corner of 10th & Stripnyne at midnight next Tuesday and see if you have what it takes!”

It was signed Luther Cyphier, Cyphier Entertainment.

_____________________

​

The late-fall chill seeped into his tattered army-surplus coat as he stood at the corner of 10th and Stripnyne, thinking of ways to spend his money. He had visions of drugs and women.

Lots of both.

A sleek black limousine appeared around the corner and flashed hi-beams. A door popped open and he folded his lanky frame into the plush backseat.

“Nice, wheels,” he said. There was no response from the smoked glass divider.

“Whatever, pissant,” he said, opening one of the iced beers on display in the backseat.

I could get used to this shit, he thought.

Ten minutes later, the limo pulled up in front of an old Victorian house on the far side of town. The door popped open again and he slid out into the fog.

“Have yourself a nice fuckin’ evening, pissant.”

Up the nondescript stairs and into the dusty-smelling foyer. A door with the number 1 on it was immediately to his right.

And…heeeere we go! he thought.

The first room was your standard Halloween-house fare: mannikins and fake blood, a towering lunatic with a chainsaw and canned horror-movie sounds over the loudspeaker. Nothing surprising. He pushed through the door marked 2 and entered a darkened room.

Immediately, his nostrils were assailed by the thick smell of rot and corruption. Something small and wrapped in bandages lay unmoving in the corner.

Something vaguely familiar.

He gagged and stumbled through the 3rd door.

…and found himself in his old apartment. The one he had shared with Beth.

And little Jimmy.

Beth lay slumped in the ratty recliner, a syringe in her arm. Jimmy was cold and turning green and half out of his crib.

He lunged for Jimmy – moved to help him, even as he knew the baby was far beyond help and watched in horror as the crib dissolved and became another door, marked with a 4.

The next four rooms were a whirling blur of crying infants, terrible winged creatures that clutched at his clothes and ripped his flesh and nauseatingly huge syringes that stabbed at his eyes.

Finally, he came upon the door marked 8.

Finally, he thought. He barely had the strength to push through. The money! All that money!

As he pushed through the door and entered what lay beyond, the number 8 slowly, slowly turned on its side and stopped.

Infinity.

submitted by /u/dvmdv8 [link] [comments] source https://www.reddit.com/r/shortscarystories/comments/bph3ah/the_eighth_room/ via Blogger http://bit.ly/2Ect6qO

[docrotten]

Asylum (1972) – Episode 64 – Decades of Horror 1970s

“You have nothing to lose but your mind.” One of the final Amicus anthology films is prepared to drive you insane as Dr. Martin (Robert Powell) interviews the patients of a mental asylum searching for the head doctor who recently lost his mind in Asylum (1972). Roy Ward Baker directs from a script by Robert Block featuring Peter Cushing, Britt Ekland, and Hebert Lom. Doc Rotten and Jeff Mohr are joined by Chad Hunt and Bill Mulligan along with special guest-host Eli Mohr.

Decades of Horror 1970s Episode 64 – Asylum (1972)

With titles like Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, Tales from the Crypt, and Torture Garden, Amicus Films threatened to give Hammer Films a run for their money...but never quite reached that goal. By the time they caught up with the studio that gave us Horror of Dracula and Curse of Frankenstein, the horror genre was maturing into its modern era as films like Night of the Living Dead, Rosemary's Baby, and The Exorcist captured the audience's attention. Asylum is one of the final films in their series of portmanteau films - and quite possibly one of its forgotten best. The wrap around story is woven into the film's fourth tale "Mannikins of Horror" featuring a murdering toy robot while Peter Cushing stars alongside Barry Morse in a tragic tale called "The Weird Tailor". Britt Ekland guides Charlotte Rampling down a sordid path in "Lucy Comes to Stay" while Richard Todd faces his slain wife's revenge in "Frozen Fear". A terrific film that has the Grue-Crew enjoying every frame.

"See what the author of 'Psycho' is up to now!" - the poster tagline pimps the fact that the screenwriter, Robert Bloch, is the man responsible for Alfred Hitchcock's beloved horror classic.

The Grue-Crew are thrilled to welcome Jeff's grandson Eli onto the show to review Asylum. A new experience for the lad, Eli starts off things noticing how the music in the first segment, Frozen Short, uses unusual cues to signal the various terrors that threaten Richard Todd in his basement. The Crew agrees with him about the acting as well, as each of the cast - especially Peter Cushing - give the film their all, providing the film with a bit more class that may be expected. Chad shares his own terrifying tale of facing a mannequin in his grandmother's attic when he was young, a fear that he would have to face in the "Mannikins of Horror" segment. Except for Eli, who recently caught the film for this podcast, the rest of the crew remember catching the film when it was originally released - or, in the case of Doc, re-released under the title House of Crazies.

We want to hear from you – the coolest, grooviest fans:  leave us a message or leave a comment on the site or email the Decades of Horror 1970s podcast hosts at docrotten@decadesofhorror.com.

Check out this episode!

[abs0luteb4stard]

WATCHING

[oswednesday]

i headcanon that things incomprehensible to the human mind default to mannikins, so like that bedroom full of them is actually filled with unknowable horrors and the queen of the maggots is so unfathomable she just looks mostly like a mannikin, and the mannikins she eats are like the only thing the mind can make an understanding of the physical manifestation of suffering

[devouredbyghosts]

The Career of Nightmares (1994)

First published in its original form in Crypt Of Cthulhu #68, 1989 as 'Nightmare Horror', a section of Studies In Horror.

Also published in this revised form in: Noctuary; Thomas Ligotti

No one knows how entrance is made; no one recalls by what route such scenes are arrived at. There might be a soft tunnel of blackness, possibly one without arching walls or solid flooring, a vague streamlined enclosure down which one floats toward a shadowy terminus. Then suddenly, unexpectedly, a light flares up and spreads, props appear all around, the sc

enario is laid out and learned in an instant, while that ingress of blackness—that dull old tunnel—is unmemorized. On the other hand, perhaps there is no front door to the dream, no first act to the drama: a gallery of mannikins abruptly wakes and they all take up their roles in mid-speech, without a beginning to go back to.

But the significant thing is not to begin but to continue, not to arrive but to stay. This is the founding condition, the one on which all others are grounded and raised: restriction, incarceration is the law of the structure. And this structure, an actual building now, is a strange one; complete in itself, it is not known to be part of a larger landscape, as if perfectly painted mountains had been left without a lake or sky on a wide white canvass. Is it a hospital? Museum? Drab labyrinth of offices? Or just some nameless... institution? Whatever it may be outside, inside... for those who have important business there—it is very late, and the time has somehow slipped by for a crucial appointment.

In which room was it supposed to take place. Is this even the right section of the building, the correct floor? All the hallways look the same—without proper lighting or helpful passersby—and none of the rooms is numbered. But numbers are of no assistance, going from empty room to empty room is futile. That vital meeting has already been missed and nothing in the world can make up for this loss.

Finally, a kind of climax is reached in the shadows beneath a stairway, where one has taken refuge from the consequences of failure.

And within this apparent haven there is an entirely new development: multitudes of huge spiders hang ill drooping webs above and around you. Your presence has disturbed them and they begin to move, their unusual bodies maneuvering about. But however horrible they may be, you know that you need them.

For they are the ones who show you the way out; it is their touch which guides you and reminds you how to take leave of this torture. Everyone recalls this final flight from the nightmare; everyone knows how to scream.

[abs0luteb4stard]

WATCHING