Monthly Haiku Corner – March 2025

Happy March! Today’s full moon is a Worm Moon, a blood moon, and there’s been no shortage of bad blood around here. I admit to being on a rampage of sorts lately. Who needs horror movies when you can turn on CNN!

While the misery is palpable, I must remember to lean on my love for Halloween, horror, and haiku to save me from the insanity. I’m committed to creating my art every full moon and on special occasions, like St. Patrick’s Day coming up on March 17th.

March is my favorite non-Ber month. It’s a magical month full of mystery, fun, and my favorite mythological supernatural creatures of all time, such as the frightening Dullahan aka the Headless Horseman, mischievous leprechauns, enchanted fairies, scary or not, and of course, the wailing banshee, a ghastly female entity known to roam the countrysides of Ireland whose cries serve as warnings for legendary families of impending death and doom.

It seems those keening spectres have made their way to America. Will anyone listen?

disturb the silence
warnings of death and mayhem
when the banshees cry

Happy World Storytelling Day!

I always love March because it gives me a chance to mention my favorite spooky creature, the headless horseman. You mean the guy from that story with Ichabod? Yes, that guy! The Legend of Sleepy Hollow written by Washington Irving was most likely inspired by the legendary Dullahan, a menacing spectre of Irish lore, that travels the countrysides of Ireland and Scotland, collecting souls of the recently departed.

The Dullahan is a demonic fairy or wicked hobgoblin, often accompanied by a wailing banshee, and typically depicted riding a black horse, carrying his head under one arm and a whip made of boney human spine in the hand of the other. When the Dullahan calls out your name, death is nigh. It’s also said that just hearing or seeing the Dullahan is an omen that a death in the family is immenient.

Sometimes, the headless horseman is drives a silent black carriage, known as the coiste bodhar (Ireland) or the hell wain (Scotland), which is led by six black horses and emerges out of nowhere from the dark night sky. Legend says once the death coach sets out, it can never return empty, but if you carry even a single gold coin in your pocket, you have nothing to fear, for supposedly, any item made of real gold can send the Dullahan away. However, if you steal the entire pot of fairies’ gold, well…look to the skies.

Of all the Irish legends, the story of the Dullahan is by far the scariest, again, inspiring the legendary Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow and countless other stories, books, movies, comics, video games, you name it. There are four movies featuring the Dullahan or coiste bodhar, the banshee, and other creatures that I absolutely adore and highly recommend. Be sure to move these into your queue:

Walt Disney’s Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, 1949

Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow, 1999

Darby O’Gill and the Little People

The Phantom Carriage, 1921 (silent)

St Patrick’s day may have past, but we can keep the mythical stories of Irish folklore alive all year long.

Haiku of the Week

Part IV and the conclusion of the March Mischief series.

black death carriage
ale with the dullahan
pub crawl continues

March Madness – Ten Great Psychological Horror Films

Originally, my monthly theme was March Madness, but I didn’t like the story. However, I already put together a list of my fave spooky movies about going insane. Is it all in their heads or is something more sinister afoot? Gotta watch to find out.
In keeping with the theme of March Mischief, I’m totally posting a March Madness movie list!🤪😄

Haiku of the Week

Part III of the March Mischief series.

Banshees wailing
as I stumble out the door
home bound

Haiku of the Week

Part II of March Mischief series.

lights of a jukebox—
Puca on the dancefloor,
testing her new feet.

Monthly Haiku Corner – March

The theme this month is March Mischief. All the haiku posted every Monday will connect to tell the tale of a magical night in an Irish pub filled with legendary creatures telling tall tales.

late night pub visit
whispers of a dark rider
fairies sure can talk

Cryptid Monster Marathon – Monstrous, The Retreat, and Dawn of the Beast Movie Reviews

After missing my own self-imposed deadlines in January and February, where I was to present a movie review for the month, I am determined not to miss March! Thus, I decided to triple down and do three movie reviews in celebration of our legendary creatures theme.

The truth is, earlier this March, I watched Dawn of the Beast, but it was only when I started writing the review did I realize the movie was actually the third cryptid monster film, following Monstrous and The Retreat, all directed by Bruce Wemple. Naturally, I had to watch the other two films.

Armed with a great love for campy horror films and his trusty cast of relative unknowns, New York director Bruce Wemple creates fresh horror that makes the socially conscious Gen Z crowd proud. All boxes checked. Wemple knows all the horror tropes, and these films felt like proper indie horror movies. There was decent acting, strong female characters, and lots of action. The camerawork makes good use of those shadows, close-up shots, and practical effects to perpetuate the scares and despite the low budget, the production quality was pretty good. I was even forgiving of the few man-in-a-monster-suit shots, which were super cheesy, but hey look, considering the third film was entirely developed during the pandemic, all of us should be impressed by that. I’ll be honest, I never gave much thought to Adirondack mountains before watching these films, and whatever location Wemple chose to shoot on location is some damn beautiful country. If I wasn’t so scared of the real Wendigo, I’d run out and buy a Winnebago.

There’s a lot of good psychological horror here too, especially in the second film, The Retreat. The biggest flaw of this cryptid trilogy was the films suffered from having too much story. I guess having too much story is better than having no story, right? It’s just these long drawn out or overly heavy exposition scenes take away our monster time, and when you make a feature film starring these two legendary creatures, you have got to have more monster!!

I should also mention upfront, each of these movies is stand-alone. You’ll understand each of them on their own just fine, but movie marathons are so much more fun.

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