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Fairy tale

4 stories
Horror Fuel

Rumpelstiltskin: The Tragic Hero

Back in 2017 I wrote an article on Rumpelstiltskin. It was part of a collection (that is slowly ongoing) about how fairy tales are the original horror stories. In that article I called the manikin an “unheralded villain” and wrote about how he tore himself in half in rage when the queen guessed his name. But here is the question: Is Rumpelstiltskin truly evil? Is he a villain? Should he be reviled and cursed? I know that it is easy to villain-ise a little man-troll who threatens to steal children; I know that it is easy to make him a gold-mongering charlatan like in the show ‘Once Upon a Time’ (and Robert Carlyle does an amazing job); I know (as I explained in my other article) that his name is shares etymology with the word poltergeist and it’s hard to put that in a good light; I know it’s easy to fall victim to the motif of a princess always

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Capt McNeely
Jun 9, 2020
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Ever After (2018)

Zombies; love them or hate them you have to admit their apocalypses are always rather grand. Well, after one such incident, the human race is in a serious slump… like the kind where most of it has been eaten to shit and back. Into that maelstrom of flesh nibblers and ghoulish fiends stride Vivi (Gro Swantje Kohlhof) and Eva (Maja Lehrer), two lasses from ol’ Weimar towne; a city that survived the mess beyond it’s walls by simply killing every last mother fucker they even remotely felt could become a zombo. The duo are trying to make their way to Jena, a city that’s trying to find cure this whole gut-munchin’ biz, but that plan turns right shit right quick, and our heroes find themselves going through the Black Forest where they will do their doggone ding-dong damnedest to survive. Kicking out the mother fuckin’ jams with some positives; I must say Kohlhof and Lehrer are the perfect odd couple;

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DanXIII
Dec 14, 2019
Horror Fuel

The Little Mermaid – Pain, Love, and Death

Years ago, when I was in school, the entirety of students were shuffled into the gym for a long-forgotten reason, sat down on the hard, wooden floor and “The Little Mermaid” was projected for us all to watch. I think that my favorite part of this Disney version was the singing seagull who walloped through the hit song “Kiss the Girl” with guttural la-la-las until he was physically silenced by the little red crab. I loved the juxtaposition of a happy little tune on a romantic date trying to set the mood for some smooching and this seagull is bellowing in the background just trying to fit in…why is he the only animal in the whole Disney-oceanic world who can’t sing? In this well-known version of this cartoon the foul-singing fowl is painful on the ears, but the original story is filled to the brim with pain and misery. Hans Christian Anderson wrote a tale of a young mermaid who

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
Dec 29, 2016
Horror Fuel

The Pied Piper – An Original Horror Story

One of my favorite stories growing up was a tale that my third grade teacher read to the class called “The Pied Piper of Hamelin.” The story stuck with me and I have often lamented that it is not only fairly unknown (or at least not a prominent fairy tale), but even if it is known, this gem of a tale is censored and bubble-gummed up to have a happy ending. Granted, Mrs. Kratz — my third grade librarian — read us the buttered up version where all the children are retuned happily to their home, but like most fairy tales, the original is far darker. For those who are not familiar with this horribly dark tale, it sprouts from the rat infestations during the black plague epidemic in the 1300s. The small village of Hamelin was overrun with rats and the people were all dying. A brightly dressed stranger with a flute came and offered his services of purging

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
Dec 10, 2016

More from Fairy tale

Horror Fuel

Rumpelstiltskin: The Tragic Hero

Back in 2017 I wrote an article on Rumpelstiltskin. It was part of a collection (that is slowly ongoing) about how fairy tales are the original horror stories. In that article I called the manikin an “unheralded villain” and wrote about how he tore himself in half in rage when the queen guessed his name. But here is the question: Is Rumpelstiltskin truly evil? Is he a villain? Should he be reviled and cursed? I know that it is easy to villain-ise a little man-troll who threatens to steal children; I know that it is easy to make him a gold-mongering charlatan like in the show ‘Once Upon a Time’ (and Robert Carlyle does an amazing job); I know (as I explained in my other article) that his name is shares etymology with the word poltergeist and it’s hard to put that in a good light; I know it’s easy to fall victim to the motif of a princess always

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
Jun 9, 2020
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Ever After (2018)

Zombies; love them or hate them you have to admit their apocalypses are always rather grand. Well, after one such incident, the human race is in a serious slump… like the kind where most of it has been eaten to shit and back. Into that maelstrom of flesh nibblers and ghoulish fiends stride Vivi (Gro Swantje Kohlhof) and Eva (Maja Lehrer), two lasses from ol’ Weimar towne; a city that survived the mess beyond it’s walls by simply killing every last mother fucker they even remotely felt could become a zombo. The duo are trying to make their way to Jena, a city that’s trying to find cure this whole gut-munchin’ biz, but that plan turns right shit right quick, and our heroes find themselves going through the Black Forest where they will do their doggone ding-dong damnedest to survive. Kicking out the mother fuckin’ jams with some positives; I must say Kohlhof and Lehrer are the perfect odd couple;

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Dec 14, 2019
Horror Fuel

The Little Mermaid – Pain, Love, and Death

Years ago, when I was in school, the entirety of students were shuffled into the gym for a long-forgotten reason, sat down on the hard, wooden floor and “The Little Mermaid” was projected for us all to watch. I think that my favorite part of this Disney version was the singing seagull who walloped through the hit song “Kiss the Girl” with guttural la-la-las until he was physically silenced by the little red crab. I loved the juxtaposition of a happy little tune on a romantic date trying to set the mood for some smooching and this seagull is bellowing in the background just trying to fit in…why is he the only animal in the whole Disney-oceanic world who can’t sing? In this well-known version of this cartoon the foul-singing fowl is painful on the ears, but the original story is filled to the brim with pain and misery. Hans Christian Anderson wrote a tale of a young mermaid who

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
Dec 29, 2016
Horror Fuel

The Pied Piper – An Original Horror Story

One of my favorite stories growing up was a tale that my third grade teacher read to the class called “The Pied Piper of Hamelin.” The story stuck with me and I have often lamented that it is not only fairly unknown (or at least not a prominent fairy tale), but even if it is known, this gem of a tale is censored and bubble-gummed up to have a happy ending. Granted, Mrs. Kratz — my third grade librarian — read us the buttered up version where all the children are retuned happily to their home, but like most fairy tales, the original is far darker. For those who are not familiar with this horribly dark tale, it sprouts from the rat infestations during the black plague epidemic in the 1300s. The small village of Hamelin was overrun with rats and the people were all dying. A brightly dressed stranger with a flute came and offered his services of purging

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
Dec 10, 2016