Friday Links: Embrujada, Charles Herbert, and Devil Times Five

As we start the next holiday countdown, this time to Thanksgiving, let's look back at what happened in the world of the strange, the unusual, the horrific:

• Nev Murray, the UK's foremost fan of turkey dinosaurs, reviewed the novel The Other Boy at his Confessions of a Reviewer!!: "Now, for whatever reason, I didn’t fancy this one. Don’t ask me why. I have no idea. I think it may be because I have never heard of either authors. I am generally a bit sceptical of collaborations, especially when it is authors I have never heard of. Very especially if it’s a husband and wife team. I have been there before. It didn’t work out so well. However, I have faith in the chaps at Dark Chapter Press so decided to give it a go. How did it work out?"
• Professor Kinema talked about the late, great Charles Herbert from inside Zombos' Closet: "At one Monster Bash several years ago Charles Herbert was sharing a table with B-movie/schlock producer/director Bert I. Gordon and his daughter, Susan.  He was very fan-friendly and we had one brief chat.  I bought a few items, he autographed a few items and, with Susan, posed for a few photos."
• The Horror Digest had this to say about the movie Last Shift: "It's not that I'm in awe by what I just saw but more like ummm what the fuck just happened? Also I need to change my underwear. Also seriously what just happened? Oh right THAT. Hot tip: If you're not into shitting your pants every 5 seconds, maybe stay away from this one." (I'm not into shitting my pants at all, so this is a no-go for me.) 
  
• At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, Mike Duke reviewed the movie Stung: "Later, once its dark and the party is in full swing a horde of the wasps burst out of the nest entrance and begin flying around and stinging some of the guests who, within in a couple of minutes collapse with seizures and then have a human sized wasp sprout out of their now shredded bodies. Here’s where the blood and gore begins to run rampant."
• Continuing our film theme, House of Self-Indulgence reviewed the 1981 movie The Loveless: "These cats have the market on coolness cornered, and no small town is going to cramp/undermine their style. Whether they're lighting a cigarette or dragging a comb through their greasy hair, everything they do has the potential give off an air of cool. In a way, I kind of feel sorry for those saddled with the task of being cool nowadays. I know, nothing's technically been cool since at least 1985, okay, maybe 1986, but that doesn't stop people from trying."'
• Embrujada was the subject of a post at Die, Danger, Die, Die, Kill!: "The problem is that Sarli’s character, Ansise, is married to Leandro (Daniel de Alvarado), a despotic lumber baron with a malfunctioning pee pee. This means that we get to see scenes of Leandro futilely humping the leg of a supine Isabel Sarli while weeping. In fact, if watching a voluptuous woman have blighted sex with catastrophically ugly old men is your thing, you can put those worn Ron Jeremy tapes away, because Embrujada is the only film you will ever need from now on."
• Sean Eaton reread Herbert West: Reanimator at his incisive, brain-ripping R'lyeh Tribune and analyzed the experience for our reading pleasure: "Herbert West: Reanimator is for the most part a pre-Mythos tale, and like The Horror at Red Hook (1927) derives some of its weird imagery from vaguely Judeo-Christian or Greek and Roman mythological sources.  (The latter story contains appearances by Satan, Lillith, incubi, succubi, Moloch and so forth.)"
• I Think, Therefore I Review brought us four movies from the 1970's involving bizarre children and/or horrific mothers: "Devil Times Five – Teen idol Leif Garrett and his sister Dawn Lyn make for some creepy youngins in this 1974 picture also known as Peopletoys – and a dozen other titles for good measure. Eerie seventies lullaby notes ironically accent the snowy vacation spot, yuppie couples, and old fogies as perilous, icy, winding roads lead to vehicular disasters. Nuns and kids should be a sign of safety, however, real snow filming, old fashioned cars, and past technological isolation up the apprehensive mood."
• Here, I reviewed the movie Bone Tomahawk and The Mighty Jewmanberg's book Super Syndicate: When Heroes Divorce.

Illustration taken from Call of Cthulhu's The Complete Dreamlands supplement.