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While we're on the topic of creepy fun, Terror4Fun is offering a free e-zine, Zombie Times, along with all the zombie related downloads you could ever want! Great competitions too.

Wolfman Review!

So we FINALLY got the chance to go see this movie. Booked the tickets on Friday and went to see it today.

Highly atmospheric; the setting in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire (which incidentally is right next door to Pinewood Studios) is perfect. Massive, seen-better-days mansion, lots of open heath with brooding grey skies, woods and a lake that looks icy cold. It's a popular location and I thought it looked familiar, so it probably will to some of you too. I did a bit of research and now know why.

Excellent score by Danny Elfman. Another aspect of the movie that was deja vu for me. You can hear shades of Coppola's Dracula in it. A movie which Elman also scored.

And of course, wow factor effects by the master, Rick Baker. No one does the legendary Wolfman quite like Baker. Though I have to say, I didn't think they surpassed his work on the 1981 American Werewolf in London. If they did, it was only marginally. I guess Baker really is that talented!

Good acting, although Del Toro was a bit wooden I thought. Emily Blunt was a nice change from the stereotype hand-wringing Victorian heroine. You got the impression her character had some grit to her. Anthony Hopkins was better in some scenes than others. I'm a big fan of his, so if it doesn't sound too lame, I'll excuse him by saying horror movies aren't his usual venue. A nice surprise was Hugo Weaving as Scotland Yard's Inspector Frederick Abberline. Perhaps it was unintentional, but he delivers some of his lines early on in the movie with wonderfully dry manner that make them quite funny. By the way, if you weren't already aware of it, there really was an Inspector Abberline with Scotland Yard. He figured prominently in the investigation of the Ripper murders in 1888.

I'm assuming you know it all ends in tragedy. The Wolfman is like the Titanic that way. You sit through the whole thing, knowing damn well the stupid boat is going to sink. But you're glued to the screen regardless. However, there is a wee surprise at the end of this telling of the big hairy beast.

This is one we'll definitely get for the home collection when it comes out on dvd.

A Hollow 8/10!

Shrove Tuesday

Or "Pancake Day" as it's more popularly known here in England. I suspect the number of people who actually know what it means is pretty small. And I'll confess, while I knew it was part of the lead up to the season of Lent, I had to do a bit of research on where the pancake thing comes from. However the custom of having pancakes today, or what looks more like crepes to my Canadian eye, is still popular in Britain. Give me a box of Aunt Jemima any day.

So without further maple syrup, here's a short history of Shrove Tuesday;

Shrove Tuesday is a term more commonly associated with the U.K. and it's Anglican religious traditions. The practice can still be found in other Commonwealth countries and the U.S. To be "shriven" means to seek absolution for one's sins and transgressions. Considering events since the last Shrove Tuesday, I can think of more than a few people who've got a lot of shriving to do before they're even close to forgiveness. You know who you are.....anyway, back to the history lesson.

Shrove Tuesday preceeds Ash Wednesday, which begins the Lenten season of fasting and penance before Easter. The eating of rich foods was traditionally forbidden during Lent, so pancakes, which contain sugar, fats and eggs, would be part of the feast day foods you would enjoy before buckling down to some abstinence.

I suppose you could consider it the last blow out before the Medieval detox. It's called different things in different countries. "Fat Tuesday" is one I can think of. Mardi Gras (which by the way is French for "Fat Tuesday") in the U.S. and Carnival in Brazil is also associated with the pre-Lent festivities.

That photo at the top of the post is another strange British Shrove Tuesday custom. In a town called Olney in the county of Buckinghamshire, they have a "pancake race". And have done so since the 15th century. No one seems to know for sure how it started, but here's a few stories:

A woman hearing the church bell and being late, ran to church without realising that she was still holding her pancake pan or

The pancake was being made as a gift for the bell ringer that he might ring the church bell earlier, thus starting the day's holiday.

Regardless, the tradition is still strong today and at 11.55am on Shrove Tuesday the women of Olney (who must be over 18, have lived in the town for 3 months and wearing traditional "housewife" costume) will race 415 yards tossing their pancakes in a pan. The winner receives a kiss from the vicar!

You can't get people over here to don costumes and go trick or treating, but you CAN get a group of otherwise normal women to dress up like hausfraus and run through the streets with frying pans and flapjacks. Go figure.

*Thanks to Hannah's Country Kitchen for the pancake race info, and Wilson's Almanac for the picture.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day. Like Christmas and Easter, it's increasingly denigrated as "just another retail op" and is waning much faster than the other two, religiously based holidays in popularity. But we'll do the history lesson anyway.

Keeping it brief; a Christian bishop named Valentine was martyred on February 14 in 271 A.D., but there is nothing in the legend to account for the custom of choosing a sweetheart on this day.

By the early 1600s, it was a popular custom to send handmade valentines and cards were usually sent anonymously. Commerical cards for Valentine's Day first appeared in the 1800's.

Depending on your age, you may remember buying small, cardboard boxes of Valentine cards to give out to classmates. Community organized Valentine's Day dances were once common too. Perhaps a contributing factor to it disappearing in schools is the the desire to see no child left out. You know the scenario; the popular kids get all the cards, some don't get any. By such small, vicious social rituals your place in the precarious world of childhood and adolescence is decided. So perhaps it's for the best. After all, you can't enforce the spirit of giving.

But you can teach it at home and keep it alive. Besides, who said you needed Hallmark's approval to show your affection for family and friends?

The Hollow Spotlight

Today's Hollow Spotlight is shining on a site by fellow Halloween forum member, Johnny Thunder. Midnite Spook Frolic is one of the finest Halloween and horror themed blogs on the Net. Johnny covers everything from vintage to current movies, Who's Who, news, trends and reviews.

"J.T." is also a regular contributor to Hauntcast.net, the premier radio show for everything Horror. Don't miss it!