Musical Monday with Strahd von Zarovich

Darkness is falling and the mists are rising. The heroes move up the steep and winding road that leads to the castle of Lord Strahd, the undisputed ruler of Barovia and all who dwell within that land. For they have been invited to dinner... and no one refuses an invitation to visit Castle Ravenloft--if they wish to continue to live.

As they reach the castle's front gates, there is a sound of music drifting through the air. Someone within is playing an organ, and he or she is clearly a master at their craft.

What is the music that's welcoming the heroes to the shadow-draped halls of Castle Ravenloft? Click below to find out!

Picture Perfect Special with Valeska Miller

In October 2020, we discovered actress and dancer Valeska Miller during the 31 Nights of Halloween (an annual event at our sister blog, Terror Titans). Today, it's exactly one year since her first appearance at Shades of Gray, so we're putting up a few more pictures of her in observation of the anniversary. (Maybe we'll see this turn into a new tradition at this blog!)

Bones Coffee's Jacked-O-Lantern

There's a coolness in the air. Groaning ghosts are being carried along on the wind, their passing causing leaves to shrivel and drop from the trees. Halloween is coming, and here's another review of a seasonally appropriate coffee blend for you to drink and possibly offset that chill down your spine.

Ida Lupino is wondering is wondering if the jack-o-lantern is talking to her,
or if she's had so much pumpkin-spiced coffee she's hearing voices.

BONES COFFEE COMPANY: JACKED-O-LANTERN

The Jacked-o-Lantern blend is another offering from Bones Coffee with a great cartoon on the cover. It also attempts to capture an eternal seasonal favorite that sends young and old running to coffee shops and stands--the pumpkin-spiced drink. 

This review is based of coffee brewed from a 4-oz sample pack that I got when I ordered the Fall Favorites bundle from Bones. When you open the bag, you get a hint of what's to come--the spicy goodness wafts deliciously up into your nostrils. While the aroma as the coffee brews isn't particularly strong, that same delightful smell of spices is evident as you pour the coffee.

The bad news when it comes to the actual flavor is that here isn't much of a pumpkin taste in this blend. While this is a great tasting medium-roast blend that goes down smooth and hits the "spice" part of "pumpkin-spice" right on the head with strong allspice and nutmeg flavors, if you are looking for pumpkin, you won't find it here. 

The good news is that when I drank a cup with unsweetened almond milk and then one with sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer, I was treated to taste sensations that put me in mind of a "dirty chai", something that used to be a favorite drink of mine at a (now, sadly, closed) indie coffee stand. Basically, a "dirty chai" is a chai latte with coffee added, and I used to get one of those a week, hot or iced, depending on my mood and the weather. So, in perhaps goes without saying, but I enjoyed the Jacked-O-Lantern blend very much with milk or creamer added.

Another bit of good news is that Jacked-O-Lantern holds up nicely as it cools, with its taste remaining steady. Whether I drank it straight or with almond milk or creamer, this blend was a smooth coffee treat with a spicy kick. At room temperature, the spiciness comes through even stronger when it's mixed with the Sweet Cream creamer. It's perfect for someone like me who often takes a while to finish off a cup of coffee.

Finally, and perhaps not surprisingly, this blend works brilliantly iced. The spicy flavors remain strong, and the coffee flavor is silky smooth when chilled. As before, the unsweetened almond milk and the sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream enhanced rather than subdued the spicy flavors, making this blend even tastier. What I still couldn't detect, though, was any hint of pumpkin flavor.

In a break from my normal protocol when drinking coffee for review rather than pure pleasure, I decided to try this blend with chocolate almond milk, to see how the spice would interact with chocolate flavor, The result was an extremely tasty spiced chocolate coffee drink that I recommend chocolate and coffee lovers should try. (I think it worked well hot, too, but I admit that I had reheat the last cup in the microwave to try it, so the result was suboptimal and even less consistent with the rest of the reviews that just adding the chocolate almond milk.)

More Cosmic Horror from Junji Ito

Sensor (Viz Media, 2021)
Story and Art: Junji Ito

Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

Wataru is a self-described "no-name reporter" who becomes drawn into a struggle between cosmic forces when he crosses paths with Kyoko, a mysterious woman with hair that literally glows.

"Sensor" is the latest work from comic book horror master Junji Ito. It was originally serialized in Japan during 2018 and 2019, and the English translation of the collected edition was released in August of 2021. Like "Uzamaki", this is a cycle of short stories that combine to tell a single novel-length tale. As such, Ito played to his strengths, avoiding the mistake he made with "Remina": He does good short stories, but long-form is definitely not his strength.

As such, this is a project that plays to Ito's strength as a storyteller. As "Remina" showed, Ito can't quite pull off a novel-length tale if he's structuring it like a novel. However, in this book, he instead is presenting a series of short stories that ultimately combine into one long story. And it works beautifully.

With "Sensor", the book opens with a prologue that initially seems only loosely connected to what follows--with the mysterious Kyoko spending decades in suspended animation within a cocoon formed around her when a village of people who worshiped a cosmic force they called the Akashi was destroyed in a sudden volcanic eruption. Each of the stories that follow, however, tell a stand-alone story that has elements that tie back to that prologue, and these ties get stronger as the book unfolds. Eventually, as the book reaches its climax with a clash between good and evil on a very literal cosmic scale, it becomes apparent that every story have, in fact, been closely related to each other; our hero, Wataru, may have seemed like he was following loosely connected threads, but we discover at the end that he had been trapped in a web of pre-destiny since even before his first encounter with Kyoko.

According to Ito's afterword to the book, "Sensor" (which was originally published under the title "Travelogue of a Succubus") was originally conceived as a story that would have had strong similarities to "Tomie", the series that propelled him to international fame.

This early piece of promotional art certainly looks like it's for a serial about a succubus and the horrors she leaves in her wake as she travels:

However, from the very first installment, "Sensor" was already showed signs of not being what the title was implying. Instead, this prologue lays the foundation for a tale of cosmic horror that the likes of H.P Lovecraft probably would have gotten a kick out of. It is to our benefit that Junji Ito followed his creative instincts and abandoned the original concept for the series (and that his editors allowed him the freedom to do so). The story he delivers is excellent, as is the way each chapter initially seems to stand alone, but that they ultimately add up to a single narrative. 

The only complain I can field about "Sensor" is that it's too short. I felt like the overarching plot seemed to resolve too quickly between the true threat to Wataru's safety coming into to focus in Chapter Five, and the climax unfolding in Chapters Six and Seven. It feels like this book needed to be at least three or four chapters longer--perhaps even twice the length of the seven that it lasts. I feel this way, partly, because because I liked Wataru as a character, and I wanted to see him have more intriguing encounters, but I was also impressed with the way Ito wove a larger story through the background of a series of short ones. I wanted more of this--brief stories that unfolded against a backdrop of events that couldn't possibly be connected yet somehow seemed to be. 

If you've enjoyed Junji Ito's work in the past, or if you're new to it and want to read some excellent horror comics, I strongly recommend you get a copy of "Sensor".

A Werewolf Tale

 We present this cartoon by Richard Sala as a time-saving device this Halloween season. Read it, and it'll be as if you've seen 90 percent of the werewolf movies out there! (Click on the image for a larger, more easily read version.)

The Avengers Dossier, Page Twenty-One

Here's another brief look at one of the great guest-stars who appeared in an episode of the classic television series "The Avengers".

PETER WYNGARDE

In "A Touch of Brimstone", Peter Wyngarde is the leader of a revived Hellfire Club that Steed and Mrs. Peel must infiltrate.

Peter Wyngarde was born in 1927, in France, to a French mother, and a father who was a career diplomat for Great Britain. His childhood was a nomadic one, moving from country to country, until in 1941 when he was swept up in the Japanese invasion and capture of Shanghai and put into a prison camp while his parents were away in India on business. It was in these harsh circumstances, under the constant threat of brutal death at the hands of Japanese soldiers that young Wyngarde first developed an interesting in acting, as he performed in plays put on by the prisoners to keep each others' spirits up. He even created a few plays himself.

After the camp was liberated in 1945, Wyngarde spent two years in Switzerland recovering from malnutrition and illnesses developed during his imprisonment. By the time he was in his early 20s, Wyngarde was back in England and studying law at university, according to his parents' wishes. He soon dropped out, however, and instead pursued a career in acting.

Wyngarde spent the late 1940s and early 1950s performing on stage with various Shakespearean repertory companies throughout England, including the famous Old Vic Theatre in Bristol where he also directed. In 1956, he had his first encounter with the filmmaking world when he was cast in the big-budget epic "Alexander the Great", but he was soured on the industry when a year's worth of work on his part ended up mostly on the cutting-room floor.

For the rest of the 1950s, Wyngarde returned to the stage, where he received much praise from critics and theatre-goers alike in both the United States and Britain. During this time, he was also honored with several several awards. 

In 1960, Wyngarde began starring in made-for-television plays for the popular ITV anthology series "Armchair Theatre" and "Play of the Week". Her starred in 30 such productions, and they led him to reconsider film work, and in 1962 he starred in the criminally under-appreciated horror film "Burn, Witch, Burn" (aka "Night of the Eagle).

During the 1960s, Wyngarde starred in 30 televised plays. In between those roles, he made guest-appearances on numerous top-rated television action series, such as "The Prisoner", "The Saint", "The Avengers", and "Department S". His character on the latter, author-turned-investigator Jason King, was such a hit with the public that he played the character in its own spin-off series for two seasons in 1971 and 1972.

Following the cancellation of "Jason King", Wyngarde's professional efforts became focused almost entirely on the stage and live theatre, both as an actor and a director. With the exception of  turns as villains in "Flash Gordon" (1980) and in the four-part storyline "Planet of Fire" (1984) for the "Doctor Who" series, and small roles in a handful of made-for-television movies and series, Wyngarde trod the boards for the rest of career.

Peter Wyngarde passed away in 2018 at the age of 90.

Death, a Banjo, and the Unquiet Grave

Death has brought his banjo by for another visit. He hopes to stir the Halloween spirit in everyone within ear-shot!

Today, he is performing "The Unquiet Grave", another American folk tune.

Halloween is coming...

 ... and Vampirella is contemplating her costume. This year, she's getting in on the ever-popular gender-bending-a-famous-character action this year. With a Shakespearean theme.

But she can't decide if she wants to go as MacBeth or Hamlet.

When horror movies go to the dogs...

... you get a fun little take on so very many of the short films that're featured over at our sister blog Terror Titans.

Horror Movie For Dogs (2020)

Starring: Koda

Director: Caleb Herring

Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A family dog (Koda) is left alone in a haunted house.

 

Filmmaker Caleb Herring wrote about "Horror Movie for Dogs: "I shot this the night before Halloween because I was insanely bored and my girlfriend was out for the night, leaving me and our good boy home alone."

His boredom is our blessing, because this is a nicely done short film. It's concise and not a moment of screen-time is wasted. The only complaint I have is that the soundtrack is a bit overblown and too omnipresent. A little more quiet in this film would have made it a lot more effective.

That aside, this is an amusing effort that is well worth checking out (which you can do from this very post). I think that those people who are down-voting it have no hearts, sense of humor, nor sense of what makes a good film.

Halloween costume ideas with Julie Newmar

You can dress like hard-rocking mime for Halloween. That's what Julie Newmar will be coming to the Shades of Gray Halloween party as.