Books of Blood are a series of horror fiction collections written by the British author Clive Barker.
There are six books in total, each simply subtitled Volume 1 through to Volume 6, and were subsequently re-published in two omnibus editions containing three volumes each. Each volume contains four or five stories. The volume 1–3 omnibus was published with a foreword by Barker's fellow Liverpudlian horror writer Ramsey Campbell. [ed. Who by the way is also a Mythos author so we are inline with the whole Cthulhu thing again.]
They were published between 1984 and 1985. With the publication of the first volume, Barker became an overnight sensation and was hailed by Stephen King as "the future of horror". The book won both the British and World Fantasy Awards.
Although undoubtedly horror stories, like most of Barker's work they mix fantasy themes in as well. The unrelentingly bleak tales invariably take place in a contemporary setting, usually featuring everyday people who become embroiled in terrifying or mysterious events. Barker has stated in Faces of Fear1 that an inspiration for the Books of Blood was when he read Dark Forces in the early 1980s and realized that a horror story collection need not have any narrow themes, consistent tone or restrictions. The stories could range from the humorous to the truly horrific.
Volume Two
Dread
A young student, Steve, becomes acquainted with an older student named Quaid. Quaid is an intellectual with a morbid fascination with fear. He eventually shows Steve how he, Quaid, kidnapped a vegetarian woman and imprisoned her in a room with merely a steak for sustenance, only releasing her when she finally overcame her dread of eating meat to prevent starvation; she eats the meat even though it has spoiled. Steve becomes Quaid's next candidate for his experiments, held captive in a dark, silent room, forcing him to relive a childhood period of deafness that terrified him. Steve is driven insane by this forced sensory deprivation and eventually returns to Quaid's house and butchers him with an axe. Quaid's experiments, all along, were to try to help him understand the nature of fear, but ironically his experiments in phobias made his own worst fears come to life.
This story has been made into a film, with Jackson Rathbone playing Steve.
 | Dread (2009)
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At a small college, Quaid and his friend Stephen do a "fear study" as a school project, recording people talking about their greatest fears. Quaid however is quite insane and wants to take the fear to 'the next level'. Quaid had seen his parents killed by an axe murderer as a child; this is his greatest fear, and he wants to learn what makes others afraid and what it takes for them to overcome their fear. Stephen's brother had died while drunk-driving, and Stephen wonders if his brother would still be alive if he had driven instead.
Cheryl, who is the project's editor, was molested by her father as a little girl. He worked at a meat-packing plant and smelled of meat while molesting her; to this day, she can't stand the smell of meat and refuses to eat it. Quaid kidnaps her and locks her in a room with a slightly salted, well cooked beef on a plate. After about a 
week, she finally eats the entire piece of rotten beef. Joshua is a student whose fear is becoming deaf again because he temporarily lost his hearing after a childhood accident. The following night, Quaid knocks him out and fires a gun next to his ears, shattering his eardrums and leaving him deaf again. Abby, another student, has a dark birthmark covering half her face and body, which she doesn't want anyone to see, terrified of being teased or shunned because of it. Quaid sets up video footage of her stripping naked before sex on every TV on campus, showing her naked and covered in birth marks. Humiliated, Abby fills her bathtub with bleach and starts scrubbing off her skin with steel wool. Stephen finds her naked and bleeding and gets her to the hospital. He then goes after Quaid with a fire axe. Joshua follows him, assuming Stephen and Quaid are working together.
When Stephen confronts Quaid, he is knocked out and awakens tied to a chair. He manages to break free but runs into Joshua, who stabs him with the fire axe. Quaid shoots Joshua, killing him, and watches Stephen die from the axe wound. He drags the body to a room in the basement, where Cheryl is. He throws Stephen's body in along with a switchblade and says, "Let's see how hungry you have to be to get through that." He leaves her crying with Stephen's dead body with only a matter of time before she starts eating his flesh from hunger.
The 104 page script was shot in just 28 days. The paintings in the film were created by Nicole Balzarini. The film had its world premiere at the 2009 Montreal Fantasia Festival, where it picked up a distributor in After Dark Films. It was announced that Dread would be included in the films in the fourth After Dark Horrorfest in 2010. The film was released on 29 January 2010 in US Cinemas.
Allan Dart of Fangoria called it "a mixed but overall positive" adaptation of Barker's story. Scott Weinberg of Fearnet called it "a clever balancing act between basic scares, a creepy concept, and something a little more (dare I say) cerebral." Paul McCannibal of Dread Central rated it 4/5 stars and called it "a well made adaptation of the short story" that "is well worth your time." Dennis Harvey of Variety said that the film "intrigues, even if it doesn’t entirely satisfy". Noel Murray of The A.V. Club called it "overwritten and more than a little pretentious". Brett Cullum of DVD Verdict called it a good Barker adaptation that is "certainly worth checking out". Ian Jane of DVD Talk rated it 3.5/5 stars and called it "a nasty, twisted little thriller that features some good performances and stand out set pieces that help you look past its low budget." And most importantly Mike at Monster.Movie.TV found it to be not much more than the of equivalent of fast food for horror movies and bordering on torture prom but if that is what you want than that is exactly what you’ll get here.
Notes:
1. Faces of Fear is a World Fantasy award-winning book (Berkley Books 1985, revised 1990) where writer, critic and lawyer Douglas E. Winter interviews seventeen contemporary British and American horror writers about their life and art. The writers are V. C. Andrews, Clive Barker, William Peter Blatty, Robert Bloch, Ramsey Campbell, John Coyne, Dennis Etchison, Charles L. Grant, James Herbert, T. E. D. Klein, Stephen King, Michael McDowell, Richard Matheson, David Morrell, Alan Ryan, Whitley Strieber and Peter Straub. The book was a finalist for the 1986 Hugo Award for Best Non-Fiction Book.
Sources:
- Books of Blood - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Faces of Fear (interview book) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Dread (2009) – IMDb
- Dread (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Dread (2009) - Official Trailer | HD – YouTube
All Images Found Via Google Image Search
Dünyayi Kurtaran Adam (The Man Who Saved the World) is a 1982 Turkish adventure film commonly known as Turkish Star Wars because of its notorious use of unauthorized footage from Star Wars worked into the film.
The musical soundtrack is entirely lifted from popular hit movies. The main theme used is "The Raiders March", composed by John Williams, from the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark. Other scenes incorporated the music of Moonraker, Ben-Hur, Flash Gordon, Giorgio Moroder's version of Battlestar Galactica1, Planet of the Apes, Silent Running, Moses and Disney's Black Hole. In the scene where Cüneyt Arkın and Aytekin Akkaya find the graves of old civilizations, the director selected Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata to play.
The film follows the adventures of Murat and Ali, whose spaceships crash on a desert planet following a battle, shown by using footage from Star Wars as well as Soviet and American space program newsreel clips. While hiking across the desert, they speculate that the planet is inhabited only by women. Ali does his wolf whistle, which he uses on attractive women. However, he blows the wrong whistle and they are attacked by skeletons on horseback, which they defeat in hand-to-hand combat. The main villain soon shows up and captures the heroes, bringing them to his gladiatorial arena so they can fight. The villain tells them he is actually from Earth and is a 1,000 year old wizard. He tried to defeat Earth, but was always repelled by a shield of 
concentrated human brain molecules, which looks like the Death Star from Star Wars. The only way he can bypass this impenetrable defense is to use a human brain against it. The heroes escape and hide in a cave full of refugees who already fled the villain's tyrannical rule. Murat develops a romantic connection with the only woman there, who looks after the children. (The romance is shown through many long eye-contacts and smiles from the girl, but nothing more.) Zombies of the dark lord attack the cave and turn several of the children into zombies, their blood used to renew the evil wizard's immortality. The three then flee the cave and find a local bar, lifted directly from Star Wars (the Mos Eisley Cantina). The two men quickly get into a bar brawl, but the villain suddenly appears and captures them again.
The wizard separates the men and tries to convince them to join him. He sends his queen to seduce Ali, while he orders Murat to be brought before him. He offers Murat the chance to rule over the earth and stars if he joins him. He possesses the power of Earth's ancestry in the form of a golden brain, and all he needs to conquer Earth is a real human brain. After Murat declines, the wizard shows that he has the woman and child in captivity. Enraged, Murat fights the wizard's monsters and skeleton guardians. Meanwhile, monsters attack Ali when he is about to kiss the queen. He defeats the monsters and joins Murat's fight. They are both disabled by laser-armed guards and then unsuccessfully tortured by the wizard. Finally, the wizard pits Murat against a giant monster in the arena. Murat defeats the monster and flees, taking the woman and the child with him. Ali is left in captivity.
Murat finds out about a sword made by "the 13th clan," who melted a mountain thousands of "space years" ago. Murat later finds this sword, shaped like a lightning bolt, in a cave defended by two golden ninjas. He takes the sword after dispatching the guards in an uncharacteristically short fight. Renewed by the sword's power, Murat goes to free his friend from the sorcerer's dungeon. However, Ali becomes envious of the sword, knocks out Murat and takes both the sword and the golden brain. The wizard then uses trickery and deceit to make Ali hand over the artifacts. Having 
touched these items, the wizard now has increased powers and traps Murat, Ali, the woman and the child. Ali is killed in a foolish attempt to escape.
Foleyvision, an Austin, Texas-based comedy troupe who showed films with the original soundtrack off while providing dialogue, music, and sound-effects live in the theatre, used Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam as one of their performances in 2004, providing what troupe leader Buzz Moran said was "the first English translation of this film ever in the world." During the introduction to the show, Moran stated that the translator had told them that "It doesn't make any more sense in Turkish."
The movie is set in the fictional New England town of Ravensback. After a couple of local chemical plant workers named Jim and Slim decide to call it a day and head for the bar. Unfortunately a large build up of pressure causes a yellow toxic cloud that drifts across the ground from a leak in one of the pipes to form. Meanwhile, a school bus is taking children home. After dropping one child off, Kathy, there are only five children left on the bus: Paul MacKenize, Jenny Freemont, Ellen Chandler, Tommy Button, and Janet Shore. Kathy's mom arrives to pick her up and drives pass the school bus. She waves to the children, as they are singing road songs. Suddenly the bus passes through the toxic cloud. Kathy arrives home, but the school bus is detained somewhere.
Meanwhile, Dr. Joyce Gould, Tommy's mother's female lover, who's hostile towards the sheriff for no reason goes with him to investigates. She hops on the school bus where she finds Tommy's things onboard. She ends up at the cemetery, goes looking for him, but she ran up to a nearby gravestone and falls over on the bus driver's badly burnt corpse. Soon after, when Tommy approaches Joyce she gives him a hug. When they embrace, Joyce suddenly screams while yellow steam comes from Tommy's hands, and burns Joyce alive before Tommy finally releases her corroded body and trudges on.
Paul MacKenize comes home and startles his sister. He then starts walking towards her with his arms outstretched while she backs away from him, she slaps him in the face, trying to rouse him from his apparent trance. They wind up in a workroom part of the house where, off-camera, he kills her as she screams. Paul's father, Cyrus, is then killed after discovering Paul with her body.
Eventually, the zombified Ellen, Tommy, and Paul meet and walk together to congregate. They are spotted by Deputy Timmons, who radios the station, but is soon killed. The three children converge in front of the general store where an overjoyed (and misguided) Molly comes outside to hug them—and is (in typical form) roasted to death.
Billy shoots the zombies with his pistol, but the bullets have no effect on them. Cathy, who is still not aware of the children's zombified state, knocks Billy out with a glass object, in order to stop him from shooting them. She then finds Clarkie's roasted body, and tells John, who runs upstairs and tearfully puts the child's body back to bed.
While an exhausted John collapses to the ground near the barn, Billy wearily goes to his car to radio for help—while Ellen suddenly rises from the back seat who grabs Billy by the neck and roasts him to death. John hears Billy's screaming and approaches with his sword to finish Ellen, after which he flings his sword in disgust, and collapses into a deep sleep next to Billy's corpse.
Colossus (1966) is a science fiction novel about super-computers assuming control of man. Two sequels, The Fall of Colossus (1974) and Colossus and the Crab (1977) continued the story. Colossus was adapted cinematically as Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970).
States are one country, the USNA) to announce the completion of Project Colossus, a computer system in the Rocky Mountains, designed to assume control of the USNA's nuclear defenses. Although the USNA President eagerly relieves himself of that burden, Prof. Forbin voices doubt about conferring absolute military power to a computer. Advised, yet undeterred, the President announces to the world the activation of Project Colossus computer system, and its irreversible control of the nuclear defense systems of the USNA.
Upon disconnection, Colossus immediately demands reconnection; when the national leaders refuse, Colossus fires a nuclear missile at the USSR, in response, Guardian fires a nuclear missile at Texas, in the USNA. Guardian and Colossus refuse to shoot down the rockets en route until their communication is reconnected. When the American and Soviet leaders submit, the computers destroy the flying missiles, but the explosions kill thousands of people. In confronting the computers, Prof. Forbin confers with his Soviet counterpart, the Russian Academician Kupri — Guardian's creator — to enact a plan for stopping the Colossus-Guardian computer network, by disabling the nuclear weapon stockpiles of the USSR and the USNA, under guise of regular missile maintenance.
Originally Charlton Heston and Gregory Peck were considered for the lead role, but Stanley Chase insisted on an unknown actor for the lead and German-born actor Eric Braeden was cast, enabling Peck to film I Walk the Line and Heston to film Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Originally born under the name Hans Gudegast and cast on TV as a German Afrika Korps officer on The Rat Patrol, Braeden became famous and he landed other films and TV roles in the 1970s and 1980s. Today he can be seen on the TV soap opera The Young and The Restless.
Shortly after, Colossus sends a cryptic message: "Warn: There is another system". Moments later, the President learns the Soviets will shortly be activating their own version of Colossus, a computer known as "Guardian". Forbin tries to figure out how Colossus learned of Guardian's existence.
This alarms the President and the Soviet General Secretary, who agree to disconnect the link. The machines insist that the link be restored. When the President refuses, Colossus launches a nuclear missile at an oil field in the USSR, Guardian launches one at Henderson Air Force Base in Texas. Demands to stop the attacks are ignored, and the link is hurriedly reconnected. Colossus is able to shoot down the Soviet missile, but the US missile destroys the oil field and a nearby town. Cover stories are released to the press.
The computer demands that Forbin be placed under 24-hour surveillance so that it can watch him at all times. Before this is done, Forbin meets with his team outside and proposes that his associate, Dr. Cleo Markham, pretend to be his mistress to keep him in touch with clandestine operations against Colossus (in the novel, they become lovers, and eventually marry, but this is only implied in the film).
When a voice synthesizer is set up, Guardian/Colossus announces that it has become one entity. Guardian/Colossus then instructs the governments to retarget all nuclear missiles at those countries not yet under its control. Both governments see this as an opportunity to covertly disarm the missiles much faster under the pretext of carrying out these orders. The process starts with a missile in Colorado. The procedure is successful.
Guardian/Colossus, which has so far only communicated with the American and Soviet governments, arranges a worldwide broadcast. It announces it is "the voice of World Control" and declares that its mission is to prevent war, as it was designed to do so. Mankind is given the choice between the "peace of plenty", or one of "unburied dead". It also states that it had detected the attempt to disarm the missiles and detonates two of them in their silos "so that you will learn by experience that I do not tolerate interference". Guardian/Colossus tells Dr. Forbin that "freedom is just an illusion" and that "In time, you will come to regard me not only with respect and awe, but with love". Forbin replies, "Never!"
Imagine Entertainment and Universal Studios confirmed that a remake titled Colossus, to be directed by Ron Howard, would be in production as of April 2007, but has been in development hell for years. In October 2010, the project moved forward with the announcement that Will Smith will star in the lead role, with the script being written by James Rothenberg. In July 2011, Variety reported that Universal replaced Rothenberg with Blake Masters of Law & Order: LA to do a new draft of the script. In March 2013, it was announced that Ed Solomon, screenwriter of Men in Black and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure has been brought on board to rewrite the film's script. Because Colossus just screams to be done as a screwball comedy? Seth Rogan IS Colossus, cracking wise and lighting a bowl!
David Ely was born in Chicago and was educated at the University of North Carolina, Harvard, and Oxford. He is a former newspaperman and the author of seven novels as well as two collections of short stories. His novel Seconds was the basis for the 1966 Rock Hudson film of the same title. He and his wife live on Cape Cod, in Massachusetts.
Arthur Hamilton (John Randolph) is a middle-aged man whose life has lost purpose. He has achieved success in his career, but finds it unfulfilling. His love for his wife of many years has dwindled. His only child is married and he seldom sees her. Through a friend, a man he thought was dead, Hamilton is approached by a secret organization, known simply as the "Company." The Company's business is helping wealthy people who are unhappy with their lives to disappear and create new lives.
Hamilton's death is staged to make it look as if he perished in a hotel fire; a corpse is left at the scene that can be identified as his. Through extensive plastic surgery and mental and physical conditioning, Hamilton is transformed into Tony Wilson (Rock Hudson), a man who looks and acts much younger. He is provided with a new home, a new identity, new friends and a devoted manservant. The details of his new existence, including diplomas and other evidence of professional accomplishment that appear genuine, suggest that there was once a real Tony Wilson, but what became of him is a mystery.
At a dinner party he hosts for neighbors, Wilson drinks himself into a stupor and begins to babble about his former life as Hamilton. It turns out that his neighbors are "reborns" like himself, sent to keep an eye on his adjustment. Nora is actually an agent of the Company and her attentions to Wilson are designed merely to ensure his cooperation with the Company's program.
Wilson returns to the Company and announces a desire to start again with yet another identity. The Company offers to accommodate him, but asks if he would first provide the names of some past acquaintances who might like to be "reborn." He refuses since he now knows of the drawbacks to being "reborn" and also doesn't want to delay the Company's process for giving him a new identity.
Wilson refuses to cooperate with the Company to locate potential reborn candidates, which prompts the company to take a drastic measure. Wilson/Hamilton finds himself suddenly being awakened by the Old Man, who discusses the Company's mission, before suddenly informing Wilson that he is to be taken to surgery to be given his new identity. But as he is wheeled down the hallway a priest reads him the last rites and he realizes he is going to his death. Hysterical, Wilson is then strapped down and wheeled into an operating room where he learns that failed reborns are not actually provided with new identities but instead become the cadavers used to fake new clients' deaths. As he lies drugged and helpless in the operating room, the surgeon who conducted Wilson's reborn operation claims to Wilson that Wilson was his proudest achievement, and apologizes as he reluctantly euthanizes Wilson.
John Frankenheimer directed Seconds just after the period he worked on his most notable films, Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), and Seven Days in May (1964). These last two films together with Seconds are sometimes known as Frankenheimer's paranoia trilogy.
When theraphosids were encountered in the Americas, they were named "tarantulas", causing usage of the term to shift to the tropical spiders. Nevertheless, these spiders belong to the suborder Mygalomorphae, and are not closely related to wolf spiders.
The film is one of the better-remembered entries in the "nature on the rampage" subgenre of science fiction/horror films in the 1970s, due in part to its memorable scenes of people and animals being attacked by tarantulas; its availability on home video and airing on cable television, particularly on the USA Network; but primarily because of Shatner's starring role. The film was released by Dimension Pictures (not to be confused with the distributor Dimension Films).
A few days later, Diane Ashley, an arachnologist, arrives looking for Hansen. Ashley tells Hansen that the calf was killed by a massive dose of spider venom, which Hansen greets with skepticism. Undaunted, Ashley tells him the problem is serious and that she wishes to examine the animal's carcass and the area where it became sick. Hansen escorts Ashley to Colby's farm. Moments after they arrive, Colby's wife, Birch, discovers their dog is dead. Ashley performs a quick chemical test on the dog's carcass and concludes that like the calf, it died from a massive injection of spider venom. Hansen is incredulous, until Colby states that he recently found a massive "spider hill" on a back section of his farmland. He takes Hansen and Ashley to the hill, which is covered with tarantulas. Ashley theorizes that the tarantulas are converging together due to the heavy use of pesticides, which are eradicating their natural food supply. In order to survive, the spiders are joining forces to attack and eat larger animals.
Hansen and Ashley return to the Colby farm. As the scientists and the Colbys are walking past a barn, a bull stampedes out; it is being attacked by tarantulas. Ashley notes that the spiders likely will not be afraid to attack people either. Colby douses the spider hill with gasoline and lights it on fire, seemingly destroying the spider menace. However, many of the spiders escape out of a tunnel. Colby is attacked in his truck the next day, sending it over the side of a hill and killing him. Hansen happens upon the accident scene and helps the sheriff, Gene Smith, examine the wreckage. Colby's body is found encased in a cocoon of spider webs. Meanwhile, Ashley is notified by her colleagues that a sample of venom from one of the spiders is five times more toxic than normal. Hansen is then told by the sheriff that several more spider hills have been located on Colby's property.
Hansen, Ashley and the sheriff examine the hills along with the mayor of Camp Verde, who orders the sheriff to spray the hills and the surrounding countryside with a pesticide. Ashley protests, arguing that pesticide use is what caused the problem to begin with and that the town would be better off using birds and rats (tarantulas' enemies in nature) to eradicate them. The mayor dismisses the idea, fearing that having a large number of spiders and rats all over the countryside will scare away patrons of the annual county fair. A crop duster is enlisted to spray the pesticide. Once the pilot is airborne, he is attacked by tarantulas, and crashes the plane before he can disperse the spray.
The spiders begin their assault on the local residents, killing Birch and Hansen's sister-in-law, Terri. Hansen arrives at their home and rescues Terri's daughter, Linda from the spiders. Hansen and Ashley take Linda to the Washburn Lodge. They consult with the sheriff, who tells them that the spiders are everywhere and Camp Verde cut off from the outside world. Smith drives into town, while Hansen and the other survivors at the lodge plan to load up an RV and escape. However, the spiders trap them in the lodge, and they barricade themselves inside. Meanwhile, Smith arrives in Camp Verde and finds the town under siege by the spiders. Smith tries to escape, but is killed when another car crashes into a support post under the town's water tower, causing it to fall on his vehicle.
Back at the lodge, the power goes out, and Hansen is forced to venture into the lodge's basement to change a blown fuse. He succeeds, but is besieged by spiders who break through one of the basement windows, by using their combined weight. He makes it upstairs just in time to be saved by Ashley.
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