Mary Shelley’s cautionary tale Frankenstein turned two hundred years old this year, accompanied by essays, conferences, and celebrations of its enduring influence. Many of these have focused on what is most often taken as the book’s main theme: a warning against pursuing scientific progress and invention heedless of social cost or ethical responsibility. While ambition channeled through […]
Ian & Blake's Terrifying Top Fives: This Season's Best Horror Double Features
Welcome to Ian and Blake’s annual Halloween series about a genre that does what few others can. This month, look out for weekly top-five horror lists–with blistering #hottakes below. Trick ’r Treat (2008) / Southbound (2015) There is nothing better than an anthology horror film that actually attempts to weave its stories within a grander wraparound […]
A Soundtrack For All Hallow's Eve, Pt. II
In the second half of our short series on Halloween music, here are Ian Olson‘s selections with my commentary. ”Saignee/revelations” by Year of No Light I: Year of No Light brought their blackened sludge to bear on Carl Theodor Dreyer’s classic film Vampyr (my favorite horror film, incidentally) in 2013 and succeeded in crafting a very […]
A Soundtrack For All Hallow's Eve, Pt. I
Because Ian Olson and myself could not quite leave it alone without making our devilish imprint on Mbird during the Halloween season, we decided to each choose a five song playlist, explain them and then comment on the other’s choices. What follows are Blake’s choices with commentary by Ian. “Hurdy Gurdy Man” by Donovan B: Scottish […]
Costumes Required: When Church is a Halloween Party
A scary-good reflection from our friend, Scott Brand! The fall is wonderful. I spent the last five years living in the perpetual summer of Florida weather, so being back in the Midwest for the leaves changing has been a wonderful recovery of the wonder of Autumn. I can wear sweaters and jeans without losing a […]
Happy Halloween Décor: The Day of the Dead Comes to Target
There is something truly wonderful happening in the Halloween aisles of Target. Stay with me. Last year was the first time I began to notice Dia de los Muertos décor mixed in the mummy tablecloths and witch aprons, but this year it is everywhere. Unbeknownst to the executives at Target, they are putting the hallow […]
Another Week Ends: Death Row Hymns, L'Arche Communion, Heresy Polls, Haunted Houses, Gossip Law, Andy Warhol, and 70s Halloween
1. A nice change of pace this week, with not one but two stories of grace to get the tear ducts working. First, via The NY Times Magazine, lawyer and writer Bryan Stephenson recalls “The Man on Death Row Who Changed Me”. During law school, Stephenson was asked to visit an inmate on death row, […]
A Short Guide To Hammer Horror
“Born into a land of brutality and evil…it came from terror and fear! The curse…laid on a baby!” A brief list you’ll find in Issue 3 of The Mockingbird, right in time for Halloween! The Gospel According to…Hammer Horror! Nearly all are available to watch in full on YouTube. Ah Ah Ah Ahhh! “Don’t look […]
Merry Halloween
Halloween has become more Christian than Christmas. Christians have long had issues with Halloween. We’re not sure what to make of it, we’re not sure if it’s ok to celebrate it, if we’re celebrating demons, monsters, and evil things. Michael Jackson, at the beginning of the landmark video for “Thriller,” felt compelled to provide a […]
"Strange Fascination, Fascinating Me": John Carpenter's The Thing (1982)
The third installment for Blake & Ian’s four-part series is Ian’s second selection, the 1982 classic creature flick The Thing, directed by John Carpenter andstarring Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley & T. K. Carter. Ian: John Carpenter’s The Thing is a masterpiece of cosmic/body horror which viscerally manifests the alien abjection of sin. Through masterful use of freezing, tension-fraught […]
"Just The Two Of Us": Robert Harmon's The Hitcher (1986)
The second film selection for Blake & Ian’s four-part series comes from Blake’s selection of favorite horror films, the 1986 version of The Hitcher, starring Rutger Hauer, C. Thomas Howell and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Blake: Jim Halsey: Why are you doing this to me? John Ryder: You’re a smart kid…figure it out. Whether it’s the rise […]
"Is This Real Life or Is This Just Fantasy": Carl Dreyer's Vampyr (1932)
Ian Olson (who brought Mbird a wonderful reflection on Law and Grace in the new Godzilla) and I decided to put together a 4-part series in celebration of October and Halloween–Mbird-style, of course! We both chose two of our favorite horror films and wrote an article for each one and then allowed the other to […]
