F. Marion Crawford for Halloween

For tonight's (third) countdown to Halloween post, a reading suggestion: the stories of F. Marion Crawford. One of my favourite, I must say, as Crawford is not shy of using gory effects and violence, but never to the detriment of atmosphere and suspense. It is never gratuitous. The one I first discovered is The Upper Berth, which is about a drowned corpse haunting the cabin of a ship, but you also have For the Blood is the Life, which is a classic vampire story and The Screaming Skull which is a ghost story about a... well, a skull that screams. And bites. And kills. Deliciously dark stuff. Now, I must confess, I haven't read The Witch of Prague yet. Because it's more magical realism and fantasy than proper horror, or so I have been told, and because I was kind of hoping to read it the city where it is set one day. We did discuss taking holiday there last year and before. That said, I might make it part of next year's countdown TBR, early in the season.

Le Vourdalak

Mon frère PJ a porté à mon attention un film d'horreur français datant de 2023, donc assez récent. Il a pour titre Le Vourdalak. Il est inspiré d'une novella de Tolstoï, La Famille du Vourdalak. Si comme moi vous vous connaissez un peu en folklore vampirique, vous saurez que vourdalak est le thème russe pour désigner le vampire. Vourdalak est donc notre mot du jour. Dans tous les cas, j'ai vu la bande-annonce, que je partage plus bas. On dirait un fim d'horreur de facture très vieille école, dans le meilleur sens du mot. Alors j'ai un double objectif: 1)trouver le film pour le regarder et 2)trouver et lire le bouquin qui l'a inspiré.

M&S in Halloween Mode

Okay, so the Halloween countdown starts tomorrow, but all the same, I have been in the mood for it since AUgust at least. And I have been happily surprised that many shops are also preparing in advance. Our local cMarks & Spencer had this window image in the window.A  Jack O'Lantern (or two), a vampire, a witch (with her bubbly, creepy cauldron), a ghost, a black cat, a skeleton... It's like the perfect gathering of Halloween critters. It will almost make me forgive them for having Christmas stuff already. Otherwise, going there this time of year is a treat.

The Dracula Game Anniversary

Today is a special day for the nostalgic man that I am: some thirty odd years ago, around this time, my brothers, my friends and I invented and played what I call to this day the Dracula Game. I sometimes blog about it. Long story short, on the last day of a teachers strike, while we were bored stiff, we met an acquaintance, friend of a friend, and we decided to spend time with him and fight boredom together. We discovered that, like us, he enjoyed make belief games. So we drew inspiration from J.H. Brennan's gamebook Dracula's Castle, which our new friend had, and we created a make belief game where we were vampire hunters trying to vanquish Count Dracula. We explored his castle and the surroundings, fighting various monsters among his minions, vampires of course, but also zombies, wolves, demons, ghouls, what have you. I was thinking about it recently and thinking about why I was so fond of it and remember it fondly to this day. First, because Halloween was already on my mind when we played it, so I was in a spooky mood. Also, this improvised make-belief game triggered our interest to many things: role-playing games and classical horror especially. I hadn't even read the original novel, but getting my hands on it became my new literary obsession. Finally, we made a new friend that day, a true kindred spirit, one that would remain friend with us for years and years. So we owed the Dracula Game quite a lot.

Haunted Mansion (Lego)

 Well, it's not because I'm a grown-up that I cannot enjoy Lego play sets. So, for my last birthday, I received the Lego Haunted Mansion. I wish there were these kinds of sets when I was a kid. It's a three sets in one, as you can also make a ghost train and a ghost ship. But truly, what I wanted to have is a proper haunted house. This one not only has a ghost, but a ghostly tree, a lady vampire, a werewolf, a skeleton and a Frankenstein's monster, among other things. Wolfie and I have started building it. We will keep it on display until Halloween. And we will not only have it on display, but we will play with the critters that come in it and I intend to invent a few scary (but suitable for children) stories.

Dracula on Stage at Whitby

Oh the cool things you are made aware of on social media. I found this picture on the Facebook page of Whitby Abbey. They are making a stage adaptation of Dracula by Bram Stoker. I know it has been adapted for theatre plenty of times, with various degrees of success, and this photo looks cheesy as hell, so this adaptation might be rubbish for all I know. That said, as Whitby and its abbey are closely associated with Dracula, so if nothing it could be a great immersive experience. Anyway, you can buy your tickets here. Don't think I can do it this year and Wolfie would be too young to appreciate (as in: he'd be scared). But one day (or one night), I hope I can watch a performance for my countdown to Halloween.

Seeing Carmilla

During our time in Brighton, we went to the local Waterstones. I behaved: I only bought one book. But I was very tempted to buy another edition of Carmilla. But since I own the story in at least two different books, including In a Glass Darkly, I resisted temptation. It's more or less the same edition as the one I saw last year in the local bookshop. The colours on the cover are different, darker and more sinister. If, like me, you love classical horror and you start Halloween countdown months before October, Carmilla is a great scary story to get you in the mood early. In fact, I first read it during the summer holidays on 1990. Maybe it's time for me to revisit it. In any case, I suggest you give it a go.

Dracula (a memory)

Well, the solstice is done and dusted, so days are slowly getting shorter, hopefully the heatwave should be over soon and this is thus time to... get ready for Halloween. I'm not kidding: I start preparing round this time of year. Yes, because this. But it is nothing new to me, I've always started getting on a spooky mind and preparing for Halloween months before. More than 35 years ago, if I'm not mistaken, in the summer of 1990, I first read Dracula by Bram Stoker. Before I watched any adaptation of the famous novel. I had been wanting to read classics of horror for a while and found a copy of Dracula in the local library. I blogged about it in details in a post from 2018. The memory came back to my mind recently. The novel was a revelation to me and it truly started my love of horror. I was interest in the macabre and scary stories before, but as a child my mother wouldn't let me read such things. As a teenager, she couldn't stop me.

Dracula Day

 Today is World Dracula Day, as it is the anniversary of the publication of Dracula by Bram Stoker. It is by far my favourite horror novel ever and also one of my favourite novels all labels aside. I have lost count on how many times I read it. So I find it important that I commemorate today. Also, in my long countdown to Halloween, or my countdown to the countdown, today is also a stepping stone. Stoker's novel is an essential read for any horror fan ans it remains to this day the greatest vampire story ever told.

The Dracula Puzzle

I an not a fan of jigsaw puzzles per se, that said I can enjoy doing one if the image on it talks to me. So I saw this one during my last visit in a Waterstones. I did not buy it: we already have many, many, many jigsaw puzzles and we seldom play with them, even though Wolfie likes them a lot. But I regret it and I just might buy it one day, just to have a Halloween-themed game to play during the countdown and because Dracula is, as you probably all know by now, my favourite horror novel. The puzzle shows quite a few key events of the book, albeit it has been tainted by the popular image of Dracula (the black and red cape for instance). All the same, I think it looks gloriously eerie and it deserves a place here among our games.

Dracula and the Spook

For today's countdown to Halloween post, more on Count Dracula. As Dracula is my favourite horror novel, heck, one of my favourite novels, period, I think he deserves some exposure on this here blog. During our visit at the York Castle Museum last April, I saw this mechanical puppet booth (I think that's the term): you put a coin in it, a mechanism puts in motion a little dramatic scene with characters and sounds. I have seen then before, in other places, they usually display a scene with monsters or ghosts, or some kind of supernatural story. This one's title/name caught my attention.

I will try to add a video to it, because of course I videoed it. It was quite pleasantly spooky. There's just something about these old pieces of technology, they just work for scary stories. of course, Dracula looks like the lounge lizard he has been depicted in movies and nothing like in the novel, but it makes sense that I found Dracula and the Spook in York. The Count, after all, entered England in Yorkshire. Anyway, I hope you like the pictures.

Why read Gibbet Hill for Halloween

I have blogged last Saturday about horror stories of Bram Stoker, recomending that you read them this year for Halloween. I mentioned the recently rediscovered Gibbet Hill. This Halloween 2025 has been for me, so far, the year of Gibbet Hill. Because it is the perfect read for Halloween, for many, many, many reasons, which I have listed here:

• It's set in mid-October, so it's already both autumnal and of course fittingly in the Halloween season.
• The autumn atmosphere is brilliantly rendered by Stoker. 
• Gibbet Hill is a real place in Surrey, for added authenticity. Also, you can actually visit it, if you live in England, for a sort of scary pilgrimage.
• It has snakes in it. Seriously, snakes deserves a more prominent place among Halloween critters.
• It features a strange and mysterious cult, practiced by two Indian girls and a blond boy. It's not merely a ghost story witha single antagonist, Stoker gives us a glimpse of something larger scale, a threat to civilisation. He will develop this in Dracula, of course, see this post from 2024.
• In the end, nothing is fully explained or rationalised, which adds to the unease. 
• There's just something about an old ghost story set in late XIXth century. 

 So yes, if you have to read one horror story this Halloween, it has to be Gibbet Hill.

Bram Stoker for Halloween

For tonight's countdown to Halloween reading suggestion, this book, a small collection of short stories by Bram Stoker. Not for The Burial of the Rats of the title, which is maybe not purely a horror story (although since I'm scared of rats, it's pretty much one for me), but for the other ones: The Squaw, The Judge's House, Dracula's Guest (well of course) and Gibbet Hill. The latter being the recently rediscovered ghost story and worth the purchase in itself. It's a genuinely scary ghost story, with creepy, cruel children and snakes, fittingly set in mid-October. I will blog more about it later in the month, but otherwise, the other stories, particularly The Judge's House and Dracula's Guest, are really great Halloween reads. You get the ghost of a hanging judge, more rats, a vengeful cat, weird cults, creepy children, an iron maiden and, well of course, vampires. My happy discovery this year, even though I read them all same one. And you can't go wrong with Stoker.

Vampires, sorcières, zombies, etc.

Photo prise par mon père il y a quelques jours. Je partage parce que c'est vraiment superbe. Bon, il y a une faute à zombie et je crois que les autres créatures devraient être écrites au pluriel, mais bon. C'est une belle danse macabre (je vais d'ailleurs en partager une bientôt). Alors donc, morale de l'histoire (de la photo?): on fête l'Halloween proprement au Saguenay.

Baobhan Sith

For today's countdown to Halloween post, a new critter I learned about recently. In one of the pages I follow on social media, I saw this meme about the baobhan sith, a sort of Scottish fairy vampire. Read this and tell me if you find it perfectly sinister. The baobhan sith deserves to be better known and deserves to be featured in modern horror stories (is it in any?). So does Scotland, come to think of it: it's a perfect setting for scary stories. In any case, baobhan sith is the word of the day.

Dracula climbing up a wall

 For today's countdown to Halloween post, a bit more about Count Dracula. Again. Be warned: I am obsessed about the novel (if you haven't noticed) and every Halloween I blog about it. This year, expect to see even more, because I read a lot of Bram Stoker and I want to share my discoveries. Anyway, I saw this in Vienna, from this ferris wheel. Which of course reminds me of a scene in the novel, when the count climbs down the walls of his castle. Climbs down head first and at night, but I suspect the display was inspired by the novel anyway. Fitting, as Stoker had initially wanted to have what would become Dracula set in Austria. Anyway, it looks very cool and scary.

Crab, Mayonnaise and Vampires

 This may come as a surprise, but this post is another one for my countdown to Halloween. Because allegedly, crab mayonnaise and horror are somewhat related. Or rather, a famous horror classic. Because there is a claim that Bram Stoker found the inspiration to write Dracula after a nightmare caused by an indigestion of crab mayonnaise. It is only a claim and everything leads to believe that is unfounded. Be that as it may, I ordered crab mayonnaise a month ago for our wedding anniversary meal. Because why take a chance? It was delicious, but unfortunately gave me no nightmare to work on. To my wife's dismay, however, it made me snore.

The Dracula Game (a memory)

 Long time readers may remember that I blog from time to time about the Dracula Game. This was a make belief game my brothers and I played with some friends back in 1989, freely inspired by J.H. Brennan's gamebook Dracula's Castle, before I read the original novel. We only truly played it once, but it was one of the most exciting games we ever played, one that got us in an early Halloween mood, and I remember it fondly to this day. I am mentioning it again because after doing a bit of research I can say with a fairly strong amount of certainty that today is the anniversary of the day we played. It might sound silly to keep track of time like this, for one afternoon in our childhood, but that fateful day was important: my brothers and I made a new friend (read the original post for more details) and it was my first proper introduction to classic horror and to my favourite horror story.

So I read Gibbet Hill

 You may remember that I blogged last October about the rediscovery of Gibbet Hill, a ghost story of Bram Stoker that had long been forgotten. Well, I did not waste time and bought it a few months ago. As this is now my officious countdown to Halloween, since we are after all in Augtober, I read it already, along other scary or supernatural stories. It was first on my to be read list this year for the spooky season. And I loved it. I will blog about it in more details in the future, but to all the horror fans among those following this blog, I heartily recommend it. There is a lot to love about it: it's set in October, it's beautifully eerie and atmospheric, there is plenty of horror and a fair deal of gore too. Some of the ideas he placed in there, he deveoped them later in Dracula (but I guess all his writing ultimatey leads to his most famous novel). Oh and, bonus point for those living in England: Stoker used real places for the story's settings, so you can visit them if you are so enclined. I will mention more about it in a future posts, but one in particular isn't so far away from where I live. So yes, read it if you can.

Les jeux de la comtesse Dolingen de Gratz

Après avoir écrit mon billet de dimanche dernier, j'ai appris grâce à mon frère PJ qu'il existe un film d'horreur français inspiré librement de la nouvelle de Stoker. Il s'appelle Les jeux de la comtesse Dolingen de Gratz. J'ai peu d'expérience sur les films d'horreur français, mais je crois me rappeler qu'il y en a d'excellents. Et puis comme je suis obsédé par les vieux vampires gothiques, ainsi que par l'oeuvre de Stoker, il faudrait bien que je le regarde un de ces quatre, alors que je me mets dans l'ambiance de l'Halloween. Ce sera une nouvelle quête cinématographique et macabre pour moi.