Greetings, everyone!
Summer is here, and that means trying to keep cool. How about some spine-chilling tales to help beat the heat?
There’s a new film out this week: Longlegs. It’s written and directed by Oz Perkins, who happens to be the son of Anthony Perkins of Psycho fame. The buzz around this film is big. What I’m hearing reminds me of Se7en and Zodiac. Here’s the official blurb for the film.
-FBI Agent Lee Harker is a gifted new recruit assigned to the unsolved case of an elusive serial killer. As the case takes complex turns, unearthing evidence of the occult, Harker discovers a personal connection to the merciless killer and must race against time to stop him before he claims the lives of another innocent family.
Go check it out at Alamo Drafthouse this week, and tell ’em Dragon’s Lair sent you…and then come back afterwards to check out some other chilling tales.
First up is From Hell, the classic from Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell.
When speaking of serial killers, the name most likely to come up is Jack the Ripper. There are recognizable elements, such as the taunting of police and the psychopathic misogyny. More than the dissection of the murders, this story is about the birth of the modern day media response to serial killers. It’s disturbing on many levels. Take heed if you decide to stroll along the darkened streets of Whitechapel…
Next we have Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? by Eric Powell and Henry Schecter.
Ed Gein is the prototypical American serial killer. If you’ve ever seen The Silence of the Lambs, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or even Psycho, you’ve seen Gein’s gruesome legacy. This man and his infamous actions left such a stain on the early 20th century American mind that he became a kind of ur-bogeyman. This book is an absolutely chilling look into the mind of the man who became the national bogeyman.
Lastly, we have Green River Killer by Jeff Jensen and Jonathan Case.
There was a killer stalking Seattle in the 1980’s. In 1990 Detective Tom Jenson took over the case. Using DNA profiling, Gary Ridgway was arrested for 49 murders in 2001. This book is written by Detective Jenson’s son, based on hours of interviews with Ridgway. This is another long look into the darkest shadows of the human mind. There’s plenty to give you nightmares here.
So there you go, folks. Remember to come back to the light after your brief foray into hell. We’ll keep a space open at the gaming table for you.
-Article by Rob H.
