The Dark Arts of Halloween VII

Film has it's magic and in the early days it was a silent magic. Alister Crowley, the famous black magician of England claimed film for the anti-Christ, although many of are not willing to cede that claim.  But it's okay to have a little fun with the darker side of film.  I have decided to seduce you into a world of dark desire and flying in the night from the earliest days of film.  Nosferatu was one of the greatest silent films of it's day, made by the great director,  F. W. Murnau. This adaptation was more faithful to the novel than most later adaptations, although departures from the novel by film were usually not as severe as film departures from Shelly's Frankenstein. 



Here is a little on the film:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosferatu

The novel itself was extraordinarily well written.  To give you a little chilling effect I have an excerpt from the novel describing the vampire.
"His face was a strong-a very strong-aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples, but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth; these protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale and at the tops extremely pointed; the chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor."

Here is a little more on the famous novel by Bram Stoker it was based on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula

The Dark Arts of Halloween VI

Now we get to the dark art of puppetry.  These inoffensive little pieces of cloth and string here conjure up Halloween for us:

The Dark Arts of Halloween V

Poetry, an angelic art, may also be a dark art, leading use to experience the emotions of fear, horror and disgust. After all isn't poetry about emotions, and who are we to refuse to explore these emotions also.

I found this wonderful u-tube presentation  of a contemporary poem by it's author, presented here with puppets, a Confessional for Puppet's Halloween.:



And here by the conjurations of an animator, Edgard Allen Poe has come tapping at our door to read a poem:

The Dark Arts of Halloween III

Okay kiddies --now it's time for another "dark art" --the art of the mask. We'll keep this one simple. Hold on tight.

The Dark Arts of Halloween

Well it's an arts blog and it's Halloween so it's time for a little of the spooky arts --like pumpkin carving. The winner of our pumpkin carving contest is my friend Greg Bau, who owes me a beer for appointing him the winner. Here is Greg's pumpkin, courtesy of his mobile upload.

I am willing to consider a runner up contest, of course, and I prefer dark beers, especially porters.

In the comments anything you have to say about other dark arts, like costume making and baking goodies would be welcomed. For the right brew I can award winners there also.

As to why pumpkin carving is a dark art, I am including this U-Tube: