Horror for the Holidays


Book Description

This anthology of dark, literary gifts, includes works by Donald R. Burleson, Mollie Burleson, Ramsey Campbell, Cody Goodfellow, T.E. Grau, Lois H. Gresh, Thomas Ligotti, and H.P. Lovecraft.




Season's Creepings


Book Description

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree... what lurks among thy branches... Christmas can be the most wonderful time of the year. Candy canes and hot cocoa. Snowmen and sleigh rides. The love and hope that the Nativity brings. Cold milk and warm cookies for Santa. Family, friends, and the cheerful laughter of children. But, beneath the festive wrapping paper and the gleam and glitter of the lights and tinsel, things less jubilant may lie in wait. The holiday season can bring love, peace, and benevolence... but it may also spawn a darkness lurking amid the shadowy boughs of the Christmas tree, ornaments that should have never seen the light of day, let along hung on festive branches, and bones that jingle and dance, in search of Santa's crimson suit... and the flesh that resides within. In this collection of harrowing holiday tales, Ronald Kelly leaves ten frightful and horrific gifts in the Christmas stockings that hang from the mantle of your cheerful fireplace. Ghastly and gruesome presents that slowly unwrap and burst into life while you are tucked, snug and warm, in your bed and take on nightmarish form in the icy winter hours of Christmas Eve, turning comfort and joy into terror and dread. Stories included in this collection: Jingle Bones The Skating Pond Depravity Road Heirlooms The Winds Within Then Came a Woodsman As for Me, My Little Brain Beneath the Branches Papa’s Exile The Peddler’s Journey




Horror on Holiday


Book Description

Horror on Holiday: 13 Tales of Terror is a bakers dozen of illustrated chilling stories from the mind of Jolene Wightman. Each story is set during a different holiday proving once and for all that horror is a year round affair. Featuring spooky and ethereal illustrations by SF Varney. Filled with stories of aliens, frightful creatures, witches and ghostly apparitions, this book is perfect for reading by flashlight under the covers. Read if you dare!




Analyzing Christmas in Film


Book Description

Film plays a vital role in the celebration of Christmas. For decades, it has taught audiences about what the celebration of the season looks like – from the decorations to the costumes and to the expected snowy weather – as well as mirrors our own festivities back to us. Films like It’s a Wonderful Life and Home Alone have come to play key roles in real-life domestic celebrations: watching such titles has become, for many families, every bit as important as tree-trimming and leaving cookies out for Santa. These films have exported the American take on the holiday far and wide and helped us conjure an image of the perfect holiday. Rather than settling the ‘what is a Christmas film?’ debate – indeed, Die Hard and Lethal Weapon are discussed within – Analyzing Christmas in Film: Santa to the Supernatural focuses on the how Christmas is presented on the deluge of occasions when it appears. While most Christmas films are secular, religion makes many cameos, appearing through Nativity references, storylines involving spiritual rebirth, the framing of Santa as a Christ-like figure and the all-importance of family, be it the Holy family or just those gathered around the dining table. Also explored are popular narratives involving battles with stress and melancholy, single parents and Christmas martyrs, visits from ghosts and angels, big cities and small towns, break-ups and make-ups and the ticking clock of mortality. Nearly 1000 films are analyzed in this volume to determine what the portrayal of Christmas reveals about culture, society and faith as well as sex roles, consumerism, aesthetics and aspiration.




Amityville Horror Christmas


Book Description

December 24, 1975. Two innocent handymen are summoned to 112 Ocean Avenue to fix a boathouse door. Little do they know that the Lutz Family is living through a nightmare in the main house...and now they will be sharing that nightmare. In the next few hours, Owen Blake and Randy Hallowell will encounter inexplicable events, malevolent spirits, and a force beyond understanding. If they survive, it will change them...forever. Now: Experience the previously untold story of what happened at the Amityville house on that awful Christmas Eve.




Monstrous Maud: Horror Holiday


Book Description

The fifth book in the scarily sensational Monstrous Maud series! Maud loves camping and is excited about going on Wilf's family holiday in the woods. Will she be the first camper ever to solve the Monstrous mystery of the Beast Of Oddington?




Haunted Holidays


Book Description

Have you ever entertained an Angel, had an out of body experience, or encountered a miracle of paranormal proportions? These occurrences happen every day, but they are the things no one talks about. Amazingly many of them occur during the most family oriented and holy times of the year, the holidays! Haunted Holidays is a compilation of short stories that take place between Halloween and New Year's Eve. Journey into a world of limitless possibilities, unbelievable miracles, bizarre space and time rifts, and encounter spirits that cross the paths of the weary, the faithless, and the lost and help them rewrite their futures!




The Wicker Man


Book Description

Many fans of Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man (1973) may know that this classic is considered a fine sample of folk horror. Few will consider that it’s also a prime example of holiday horror. Holiday horror draws its energy from the featured festive day, here May Day. Sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward), a “Christian copper,” is lured to the remote Scottish island Summerisle where, hidden from the eyes of all, a thriving Celtic, pagan religion holds sway. His arrival at the start of the May Day celebration is no accident. The clash between religions, fought on the landscape of the holiday, drives the story to its famous conclusion. In this Devil’s Advocate, Steve A. Wiggins delineates what holiday horror is and surveys various aspects of “the Citizen Kane of horror movies” that utilize the holiday. Beginning with a brief overview of Beltane and how May Day has been celebrated, this study considers the role of sexuality and fertility in the film. Conflicting with Howie’s Christian principles, this leads to an exploration of his theology as contrasted with that of Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee) and his tenants. Such differences in belief make the fiery ending practically inevitable.




A Scary Little Christmas


Book Description

Controversial yet beloved among audiences, Christmas-themed horror movies emerged in the early 1970s and gained a notorious reputation with Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984), depicting Santa as an ax-wielding maniac. Some parents and conservative groups condemned the film, while others embraced the portrayal of Yuletide as a backdrop for fear and dread. Drawing on interviews with directors, producers, special effects artists, photographers and actors, this book celebrates the sordid, colorful history of the Christmas horror subgenre. Psycho Santa films such as Christmas Evil (1980) and 3615 code Pere Noel (1989) are examined, along with "Yule-Die" slashers like The Dorm that Dripped Blood (1982), Black Christmas (1974) and Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972). Commercial successes like Gremlins (1984) and Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010) are covered, as well as more recent releases such as Better Watch Out (2016), Red Christmas (2016) and Deathcember (2019). Rare photographs, promotional materials and an annotated filmography are provided.




The Christmas Collection


Book Description

Sixteen tales of Christmas by Hugo winner Cora Buhlert. Romance, cozy fantasy, murder mysteries, pulp thrillers, science fiction, post-apocalyptic fiction, horror and humor – we have all that and more. Watch young people find love in the pre-holiday shopping rush at Hickory Ridge Mall, at a Christmas tree lot, on the parking lot of a shuttered outlet mall and at the one bar in town that’s open on Christmas Eve. Experience Christmas in Hallowind Cove, the permanently fog-shrouded seaside town, where strange things keep happening. Watch as Santa’s various helpers unite to depose him. Massachusetts 1695 AD: Follow apprentice witchfinder Matthew Goodson and condemned witch Grace Pankhurst, as they try to dodge both witchfinders and a creature that lives in the woods and hunts around the winter solstice. Follow Detective Inspector Helen Shepherd and her team as they investigate the death of a robber dressed as Santa Claus as well as a wave of thefts at a Christmas market. Meet Richard Blakemore, hardworking pulp author by day and the masked crimefighter known only as the Silencer by night, as he fights to save an orphanage from demolition in Depression era New York City. Watch Alfred and Bertha, an ordinary married couple, as they decorate the Christmas tree and live their marvellous twenty-first century life. No one ever expected the robot apocalypse to begin in the little town of Brighthaven. And no one ever expected it to involve murderous robot turkeys and their even more terrifying brethren, robot Santas that fire laserbeams from their eyes. Experience Christmas on the space colony of Iago Prime as well as after the end of the world. Enjoy sixteen novellas, novelettes and short stories in six genres. This is a collection of 136000 words or approx. 420 print pages. Contains the following stories: Christmas Gifts Christmas Shopping with a Broken Heart The Crappiest Christmas Ever Christmas Eve at the Purple Owl Café Driving Home for Christmas The Bakery on Gloomland Street Revolt at the North Pole The Solstice Horror A Bullet for Father Christmas Santa’s Sticky Fingers St. Nicholas of Hell’s Kitchen The Tinsel-Free Christmas Tree The Robot Turkey Apocalypse Invasion of the Robot Santas Christmas on Iago Prime Christmas after the End of the World