Carve out some time to read a book or watch a movie.
Here is a selection of films and books that can be found in the Library in a spirit of Halloween.
Selection of films:
Roeg, Nicolas. Don’t Look Now. Studio Canal, 1973.
“John and Laura Baxter are living in Venice when they meet a pair of elderly sisters, one of whom claims to be psychic. She insists that she sees the spirit of the Baxters’ daughter, who recently drowned. Laura is intrigued, but John resists the idea. He, however, seems to have his own psychic flashes, seeing their daughter walk the streets in her red cloak, as well as Laura and the sisters on a funeral gondola.”
https://aup.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/33AUP_INST/1n1ctv/alma99750903406026
Kubrick, Stanley. The Shining. Warner Home Video, 1980.
“Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), becomes the caretaker of the Overlook Hotel in up in the secluded mountains of Colorado. Jack, being a family man, takes his wife (Shelley Duvall) and son (Danny Lloyd) to the hotel to keep him company throughout the long, isolated nights. During their stay, strange things occur when Jack’s son Danny sees gruesome images powered by a force called ‘the shining” and Jack is heavily effected by this. Along with writer’s block and the demons of the hotel haunting him, Jack has a complete mental breakdown and the situation takes a sinister turn for the worse.”
https://aup.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/33AUP_INST/1n1ctv/alma99690173406026
Powell, Michael. Peeping Tom. Canal + Video, 1960.
“As a boy, Mark Lewis was subjected to bizarre experiments by his scientist-father, who wanted to study and record the effects of fear on the nervous system. Now grown up, both of his parents dead, Mark works by day as a focus-puller for a London movie studio. He moonlights by taking girlie pictures above a news agent’s shop. But Mark has also taken up a horrifying hobby: He murders women while using a movie camera to film their dying expressions of terror. One evening, Mark meets and befriends Helen Stephens, a young woman who rents one of the rooms in his house. Does Helen represent some kind of possible redemption for Mark – or is she unknowingly running the risk of becoming one of his victims?”
https://aup.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/33AUP_INST/11556pr/alma99695303406026
Moll, Dominik. The Monk. Metrodome Distribution, 2011.
“Based on one of the most controversial novels ever written, The Monk is the tale of a holy man’s terrifying descent into the darkest depths of depravity… Renowned for his faith, Brother Ambrosio’s sermons earn him the admiration of all. But when his brotherhood takes in a mysterious stranger, he uncovers a shocking revelation that dangles unimaginable temptation before him. With his very soul in jeopardy, Ambrosio’s resolve slips away as demonic forces lead him to the most deadly sin of all and threaten to drag him down to the fiery pits of Hell”.
https://aup.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/33AUP_INST/11556pr/alma991804433406026
Ducournau, Julia. RAW. Universal Pictures, 2017.
“An innocent teenager, studying to be a vet, develops a craving for human flesh”.
https://aup.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/33AUP_INST/11556pr/alma991850313406026
Nakata, Hideo, et al. The Ring 1. Tartan Video, 2010.
https://aup.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/33AUP_INST/11556pr/alma991791133406026
“A mysterious video has been linked to a number of deaths, and when an inquisitive journalist finds the tape and views it herself, she sets in motion a chain of events that puts her own life in danger.”
Nakata, Hideo. The Ring 2. Palisades Tartan, 2010.
https://aup.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/33AUP_INST/11556pr/alma991792883406026
“Reiko takes Yoichi into hiding when her son begins to display frightening powers. Meanwhile, Mai Takano and the authorities begin a desperate search for them, as the mysterious Ring curse spreads…”
Selection of books:
Walpole, Horace. Four Gothic Novels. Oxford University Press, 1994.
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole: “On the day of his wedding, Conrad, heir to the house of Otranto, is killed in mysterious circumstances. His calculating father Manfred fears that his dynasty will now come to an end and determines to marry his son’s bride himself – despite the fact he is already married. But a series of terrifying supernatural omens soon threaten this unlawful union, as the curse placed on Manfred’s ancestor, who usurped the lawful Prince of Otranto, begins to unfold. “
Vathek by William Beckford: “The caliph Vathek is a blasphemous voluptuary who constructs a tower so tall that from it he can survey all the kingdoms of the world. Vathek impiously defies Muhammad in the seventh heaven, thus condemning himself to eternal damnation and expulsion to the netherworld.”
The monk by Matthew Lewis: “The Monk is the story of Ambrosio, torn between his spiritual vows and the temptations of physical pleasure. His internal battle leads to sexual obsession, rape and murder, yet this book also contains knowing parody of its own excesses as well as social comedy. “
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: “Obsessed with the idea of creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material with which to fashion a new being, shocking his creation to life with electricity. But this botched creature, rejected by its creator and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy Frankenstein and all that he holds dear.”
https://aup.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/33AUP_INST/bbk083/alma99537093406026
Dacre, Charlotte, and Kim Ian. Michasiw. Zofloya, or, The Moor. Oxford University Press, 1997.
“`Few venture as thou hast in the alarming paths of sin.’ This is the final judgement of Satan on Victoria di Loredani, the heroine of Zofloya, or The Moor (1806), a tale of lust, betrayal, and multiple murder set in Venice in the last days of the fifteenth century. The novel follows Victoria’s progress from spoilt daughter of indulgent aristocrats, through a period of abuse and captivity, to a career of deepening criminality conducted under Satan’s watchful eye. Charlotte Dacre’s narrative deftly displays her heroine’s movement from the vitalized position of Ann Radcliffe’s heroines to a fully conscious commitment to vice that goes beyond that of `Monk’ Lewis’s deluded Ambrosio.”
https://aup.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/33AUP_INST/bbk083/alma99625323406026
Collins, Wilkie. The Haunted Hotel. The Floating Press, 2010.
“Best known for his popular forays into detective fiction, Wilkie Collins” The Haunted Hotel’ blends elements of the classic whodunit with creepy overtones of Gothic horror. The tale delves into the mysterious disappearance of a newlywed aristocrat whose blushing bride may be harboring a dark secret.”
https://aup.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/33AUP_INST/bbk083/alma992029133406026
Stoker, Bram, et al. Dracula : Authoritative Text, Contexts, Reviews and Reactions, Dramatic and Film Variations, Criticism. 1st ed., W.W. Norton, 1997.
“The aristocratic vampire that haunts the Transylvanian countryside has captivated readers’ imaginations since it was first published in 1897. Hindle asserts that Dracula depicts an embattled man’s struggle to recover his “deepest sense of himself as a man”, making it the “ultimate terror myth”.”
https://aup.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/33AUP_INST/bbk083/alma991790993406026
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