Homicidal Vs. The Blood Beast Terror

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W002CnqpE40

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpBYBeErFes

So, one night in...maybe 1975 or 76...I begged my Mum to let me stay up and watch a horror film. The film showing on (I think) Yorkshire TV's "Appointment with Fear" segment was William Castle's Homicidal - a rip off of Psycho. We started watching it and then at about 11:00 PM my Dad came home...

"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Watching a horror film," we replied.
"This isn't a horror movie - it's some rubbishy thriller - a rip off of Psycho." He checks the newspaper listings. "There's a horror film on the Midlands TV (our other ITV channel) - It's the Blood Beast Terror."

He insisted that we switch over...it was from about the point you see in the You Tube clip...but within fifteen minutes he was asleep. Mum got up and changed the channel back to Yorkshire so we could watch the end of Homicidal (see other clip).

To this day, I'm not sure I've ever seen either film all the way through...this was my second successful attempt to 'beg to see a horror movie' the other being a [few] weeks earlier...not really sure of the timescales after all this time when I managed to see the vastly superior and infinitely more frightening "Brides of Dracula."

Only a Man who's Pure in Heart...

Wow! I'm working on a new project involving a story about a werewolf. Can't tell you much at the moment - but it's big potatoes. Right, I'm off to buy some silver bullets. And tomorrow, I'll tell you about the evening I watched The Bloodbeast Terror and Homicidal simultaneously.

The Monkeys in the Wallpaper

This is the Five Arrows Hotel in Buckinghamshire. While staying here for a family wedding when I was very small - probably about three - I came down with a fever and became delirious. At one point that long night...I was convinced that monkeys were coming out of the wallpaper in the bedroom to attack/bite me or whatever.

I'm sure that the hotel has got rid of the monkeys by now - it's probably perfectly safe to stay there. Probably.

The Blue Kite

When I was about three years old, my Dad woke me up in the middle of the night and carried me out of the house to the car. I looked back at the house and caught in the guttering was a midnight blue kite with a white (very frightening) face painted on it. The kite was rattling in the guttering making a terrible noise. My Mum was in the car too and so we drove far away - as you should if ever a kite is caught in your guttering - EVACUATE - get as far away as you possibly can. We started a new life far from the terrifying kite and though I missed our old house and my toys it was obvious why we had left - and certainly best not spoken about. Then, a couple of weeks later my Dad announced that we would be going back to our old house. How could he have forgotten so soon about the evil kite? I reminded him - he had no idea what I was talking about. Apparently, I had just had a dream; and we had not started a new life - this was just a holiday.

We returned to the house and lived a comparatively normal life. And today, of course I don't have a phobia about kites, but if I happened to see one leering down at me while it flapped against the barge boards - well I wouldn't really be exactly surprised.

NEXT: The Monkeys in the Wallpaper