Tag Archives: fairies

Scary Stories

Scary Fairies: Laurell K. Hamilton’s Merry Gentry Series

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Today is International Fairy Day, and since it’s also time for a Friday Night Frights post, I thought we’d do a mashup.

I know what you’re thinking.  Fairies?  On a horror blog?  You must be trippin,’ yo.  (That’s what you’re thinking, right?)  But while most people think of Tinkerbell when they think of fairies, you should know that not all of them are sugary sweet.  Some fairies are downright scary.

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Like this one, but not as hot. Heh. Hot. Get it?

Monstrous fairies pop up in folklore from all corners of the globe.  There’s the Celtic fairy, Ankou, who is doomed to collect souls forever.  The Berberoka are a race of fairies from the Philippines that are basically mermaids who lure fisherman to their deaths.  And we really can’t talk about fairies without mentioning the fairies of Scotland.

Scotland, in particular, has quite a few in their legends that take on some very menacing forms, including – my favorites – the sluagh and Red Caps.  The sluagh were believed to be spirits of the restless dead, and Red Caps were a group of fairies that would mop up the blood of their vanquished foes with their caps.  Cool, right? These guys actually feature pretty prominently in one of my favorite book series: Laurell K. Hamilton’s Merry Gentry novels.

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As you can see from this pic of my well-worn copy of the first book in the series, I’m a fan.  And if you’re interested in reading about some very non-Disney fairies, I suggest you check these books out.  As of right now, there are only nine in the series (Ms. Hamilton isn’t quite finished yet), and if you like them as much as I do, they won’t take long to read.

What are they about?  I’ll give you a quick rundown (Spoiler Alert?).  Merry is a faerie princess of the Unseelie court (look it up) who comes out of hiding involuntarily and must return to court to find a suitor to give her a child (i.e., knock her up) so she can win the throne.  Along the way, she encounters a whole host of freaky fairies with all sorts of cool, creepy powers.

For real.  Read these. They’re fun.  I wouldn’t lie to you.

Let me know if you end up reading the series, or if you already have (and in that case, kudos to you), let me know what you think in the comments.

I hope everyone has a very Happy International Fairy Day! What are you going to do to celebrate?

List, Movies, Top Horror Lists

Top 5 Most Disappointing Movie Monsters

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We’ve all been there.  You’re watching a horror movie.  Strange, scary things are happening, and you just know whatever is the cause has got to be equal parts creepy and awesome.

Then, it shows up.  And it kinda sucks.  Why did it have to suck?

So in honor of our shared disappointment, this Top Tuesday post is dedicated to the Top 5 Most Disappointing Movie Monsters.

Quick disclaimer: I will not be including any SyFy movies in this list or else it would’ve been too damn long.  And it would have been redundant.  Most of them are supposed to be stupid, right?

5.  Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark

I was pretty excited for this movie when it was advertised. I only saw the trailers that didn’t show the creatures (I try to limit my views of horror movie trailers so they aren’t ruined), so I had no idea that the BIG BAD THINGS were cute, little fairy-like creatures. I mean, I wouldn’t mind having one of these little guys as a pet. I’d dress it up, take it to the park, feed it nice things. One thing I wouldn’t do is be terrified of it.

4.  Cloverfield

I can’t say so much that I was disappointed in what this monster looked like; I was just disappointed they showed it all. It wasn’t that bad or anything. In my opinion, the movie just went downhill after they fully showed the big guy. I liked the glimpses, just not the whole enchilada. It was too much enchilada. Like when you think you can eat three at a Mexican restaurant, but you really should have only tackled two. You don’t hate the enchiladas. You just know you had too much.

3.  Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension

I’ve said before that I love the Paranormal Activity movies. I just do. I enjoy the subtle effects and the storyline.  Toby, little Kristie’s best friend, is the malevolent force behind all the chaos in the movies, and I think Toby, in his invisible form, was pretty cool.

And then they gave us the sixth installment, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension.

It wasn’t exactly terrible.  It just sorta ruined the air of mystery surrounding Toby.  I admit I was pretty excited to find out that they were going to “show the activity” in this one, but I was pretty disappointed to see Toby as just another CGI ghost.  Oh well.  It didn’t ruin the series for me. I just wasn’t a fan of visible Toby.

2.  Stephen King’s The Langoliers

This one’s a little obscure if you aren’t a fan of 90s-era Stephen King TV movies, but it makes the list because it annoyed me soooooo much as a kid. I was so excited about The Langoliers when it was advertised.  I remember even asking one of my teachers in fifth grade if he knew what they were at recess.  Surprise, surprise. He didn’t.

So I watched this movie.  If you don’t know, it’s about a group of people on a plane that flies through the aurora borealis.  Everyone who was awake when that happens disappears, and those that were asleep awake to find themselves wondering why the hell all these people left without their clothes, wigs, pacemakers, and dentalwork.

Thankfully, one of the sleepy passengers just so happens to be a pilot who is able to land the plane at a deserted airport.  After some quick sleuthing and leaps of logic, they figure out they went back in time, proving what middle schoolers already know – history is boring.

One of the passengers, an annoying businessman expertly played by Bronson Pinchot, tells a story about the Langoliers, monsters his dad used to tell him would come and eat him alive if he was bad.  They end up hearing a buzzing noise off in the distance and decide they should get out of there before the source makes it to them.   When the source finally shows up – the titular Langoliers – they are nothing but flying cannonballs with teeth, eating the landscape and devouring time as we know it. WTF, guys?

1.  Stephen King’s IT (*Not Pennywise. He’s Cool.*)

Yep.  Another King entry.  It makes me a little sad to add this one to the list, but as much as I love Stephen King’s It and as much as it holds a very special place in my heart, even I can admit the monster reveal at the end was a let-down.  Maybe it was because Pennywise was so awesome.  There just wasn’t anything they could do to top him, so I imagine the conversation went something like this:

Guy 1: “Okay, we need something to be the actual monster at the end, so what could be scarier than this clown guy?”

Guy 2: “Giant spider?”

Guy 3: “…Yeah. Giant spider.”

Guy 1: “I guess. Let’s tell the effects team.”

Fin.

So those are the top 5 monsters that disappointed me.  Are there any that I missed that made you a little sad?