Wherein ChillerPop presents a short, unwordy lazy roundup of the month in phantasmagoric, creepy, spooky, speculative, fantastical, wonderful, science-fictiony, monstrous, psychotronic and strange...and stuff like that...

I almost started this off whining, but whining begets more whining.  And work begets work, so my brother-in-law says.  And blogging for fun begets no money.  Blah.  Let's get to it.

I didn't get to see the movies that I wanted to this month.  Blame a credit crunch.  I'm dying to see Joss Whedon's Cabin in the Woods.  And yes, he'll have a certain little film opening on May 4th, one I'm sure will make no money at all.

Speaking of Mr. Whedon, I wanted to write a post this month about Buffy trading vampires  for the culture wars.  Stay tuned, even if it will be a little dated by the time I publish it.

The dollar theater (well, $2 on weekend evenings) allowed me to catch up with The Woman in Black.  Effective scares, to be sure, a reason to fear ghosts, even if the story was uneven and thin.  The good thing is that I could buy Daniel Radcliffe as a young husband and father, and didn't expect him to - *ahem* whip out a wand - and vaquish his supernatural foe.

The film, as you may recall, is a production of the newly revived and beloved Hammer House of Horror.  For Record Store Day, they have recently released (in sadly a limited vinyl edition) what promises to be a wonderful treat for fans of 60's/70's music scores: “We decided to focus on the two Dracula films from the 1970s as these scores were enjoyable blends of traditional horror and funky contemporary sounds,” says Silva Screen’s David Stoner.

May is going to be rich in must see cinema......

John Cusack on Edgar Allan Poe:  "“The horror of disease, causal violence of his time. He was always juxtaposing beauty with horror, and that’s why he’s the godfather of goth...Without Poe’s work, there would be no Sherlock Holmes, no CSI: Miami and no Souxsie and the Banshees"

RIP Jonathan Frid.  Nineteen hundred and eighty two, I believe it was.  I was in fifth grade, and just the mere thought of a vampire still induced night terrors.  The NBC station began airing  a black and white soap opera, with eerie theme music, and the wizened, fanged form of Barnabas Collins getting up from his coffin.  I couldn't bear to watch, yet I couldn't bear to not watch.

I remember having very vivid dreams about vampires during that period (including one about vampires playing freeze tag in my backyard...huh).

Thank you Mr. Frid, for bringing the elegant, tortured, vengeful and romantic monster Barnabas Collins to  - well, life - in Dark Shadows.

On second thought, don't rest in peace.  I need to know you're still haunting Collinwood manor at night. 

I hope Bauhaus records a single titled "Jonathan Frid has Risen From the Grave".

And yes, Depp will be awesome in the role.  Is anyone expecting otherwise?