Three things remind me of June, cherries, delicious bit size fruit, great for milkshakes and pie; camping, which is not my cup of tea, but certainly makes for great stories; and werewolves. The werewolf, a terrifying beast that hides deep in the forests, waiting for its next victim. Is this creature part of nature’s evolution or an abomination from Hell? Our theme this month is a werewolf summer.
red cherries so sweet
in the graveyard at midnight
a werewolf summer
Strange Films
Hellmouth 2014
Director Joe Geddes teams up with Pontypool writer and lead actor Stephen McHattie for visually stunning spooky adventure about a terminally ill grave digger who travels to hell to rescue the beautiful woman he falls in love with.
This highly-stylized CGI endeavor pays homage to 1950’s horror and sci-fi cinema, but lacks the campy fun of any such movies. Truth is this is more of an offbeat fantasy drama than horror and it takes itself quite seriously, which would have been fine if the story had made any sense. Despite the eye-popping visuals, the movie slogs along without actually going anywhere, which is a real shame for Stephen McHattie, who does a fine job playing Charlie Baker, a graveyard caretaker suffering from episodic pran disease (brain clunk). In addition to his head pounding pain, Charlie endures daily harassment from local children and starts to notice some bizarre vandalism happening in the cemetery. Problem is Charlie can’t be sure if this isn’t all an illusion. Charlie is tired of looking after the dead and wants to move to Florida, but after a visit from his employer, Charlie learns he’ll have to delay retirement for reasons not entirely clear and inherits a box with a mysterious map, which he can’t stand more than 10 feet away from. While on an afternoon drive, he meets an alluring woman named Fay, who is running away from an unseen force. The two quickly fall in love and Hell doesn’t seem to like it very much. Fay disappears just as quickly as she showed up.Â
The movie then introduces a subplot involving a squirrelly policeman on the hunt for two dangerous escaped criminals from the local insane asylum. The copper tells Charlie several small and strange tales of the cemetery’s more notorious residents. These small stories are perhaps the most interesting part of the whole movie. Unfortunately, the escaped criminals storyline goes nowhere fast, and soon after, Charlier Baker uses the mystery map to find his way into Hell, where he battle the forces of evil to win back his beloved Fay.
Unfortunately, the Sin City-style visuals and amazing set design are not enough to carry this one. I didn’t really have any problem with any of the other actors, particularly Julian Richings, who I felt was criminally underused here, but the characters needed more fleshing out and more clarity to their relevance to the main story. The end is one big beautiful muddled mess.
Horror fans won’t find any scares here, but for those who want weirdness and to witness some really cool visuals, this one’s for you.
Our theme this month is cemetery life.
midnight guardians
watching over the dead
no trespassing here
During this last week in April, Halloween lovers reanimate after a long hibernation. Walpurgisnacht marks the halfway point to Halloween and revelers are planning for a ghoulish good time.
Our theme this month has been Zombie Spring.
trampled gardens
flowers covered in blood
spring of the undead
Our theme this month is a zombie spring.
shattered honeycomb
beehive mentality
zombie swarm
Our theme this month is love and death.
a hint of red rose
love, a deadly poison
til death do us part
Artists have really been taking a hit these past two years. Many are unable to attend shows and conventions where they can sell their art and connect with fans. It’s more important than ever to help bring these two groups back together. Give the gift of spooky Creepmas art this holiday and support great Halloween and horror artists at the same time. Win-win!
Rhode Montijo is the gift to Halloween lovers that keeps on giving. You can purchase blind boxes, Krampus-Grams, original art prints, sketches, pins, and more.
Diana Levin, Ghoulish Bunny Studios
Diana Levin is the queen of spooky cute and she also draws up these hauntingly beautiful images all year long. Patreons members can get an exclusive art feed, behind-the-scenes, first crack at original art listings, merchandise discounts, and more.
Celebrate the Hallow days with Visionary artist John Pelico inside his spooky world of killer pumpkins. You can pick up pins and stickers for the stockings, unique original art prints, and one-of-kind luminaries, like the Batty tripod lamp.
You don’t need a Disneyland reservation to access fabulous art from master Disney illustrator and Tiki enthusiast Jeff Granito. The man shows off his legendary style all 365 days of the year, but there’s something special about the way Creepmas collides with tiki culture.
Shane Murphy, Theater of Creeps
I heard Santa has a Krampus tattoo from master tattoo artist Shane Murphy somewhere only Mrs. Klaus can see. I don’t know if that’s really true, but if you can’t make it out to Massachusetts, Shane offers amazing art prints, posters, enamel pins, t-shirts, and sweatshirts all year round.
My Creepmas wish is for Santa to bring all Halloween lovers everywhere a copy of Ray Bradbury’s The Halloween Tree, illustrated by Gris Grimly. He also has a lot of great Halloween art and cool holiday cards.
From magnets to enamel pins, prints to stickers, comic book illustrator and Halloween enthusiast Drew Rausch has all your stocking stuffer needs covered. Stop by his booth at Seasons Screamings and finish your holiday shopping.
Apofiss is one of my favorite cat artists. I love her gorgeous and whimsical style. I dug her cute black cat Halloween art prints and changed my Google background to her art and even bought last year’s cat calendar, which was absolutely stunning and made with good-quality materials. Pick up your own 2022 calendar and count down the year with these festive felines.
From superheroes to supervillians, it’s simply magical the way fantasy illustrator Joe Roberts brings characters to life with stunning realism and beauty. Joe hails from the UK, but we can find his art prints on Society 6, Red Bubble, and Fine Art America.
Full disclaimer, I have no idea what NFTs are, they seem really scary, but some of them are very expensive and people are tripping over themselves to say they own one, unlike the pet rock, which no one admits to owning anymore. I figure if NFTs are your thing or the Halloween lover you’re gifting, this spot seemed like a very nice place to find one.
Our theme this month is A Vampire’s Fall.
hunger pains
welcoming new family
Vampsgiving dinner
On Sundays, we celebrate the Master of Macabre, Edgar Allan Poe
Fun Fact: Readers of the day were so horrified by the story’s violence, they complained to the editor of the Messenger, the first magazine to publish Berenice. Poe himself later removed 4 paragraphs of text, thus, many early publishings are missing the detailed heinous act of Poe’s story.
Poe was angry at being forced to self-censor his own work, believing a story should be judged solely by how many copies it sold.
You can read Berenice in its entirety here:
https://poestories.com/read/berenice
Our theme this month is Halloween icons and what could be scarier than the scarecrow?
Halloween Horror Haiku 
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