Why the Vampire Myth Won’t Die
Bloodsucking monsters are avatars for our cultural anxieties. Especially now.

by Jason Zinoman

Have you heard that the Covid vaccine turns you into a vampiric monster — and that the proof is right there in the 2007 Will Smith movie “I Am Legend”?

This conspiracy theory appeared online last year and spread so widely that Reuters actually ran a fact check debunking it (and clarifying the plot). One of the screenwriters of the movie also felt compelled to tweet that it was fictional.

While such ludicrous disinformation may seem peculiar to the social media era, it’s also a throwback to the origins of our most famous monster.

No, the first vampires did not appear in books or movies. They weren’t debonair Transylvanian counts or good-looking, disaffected teenagers. Rooted in folklore, they were symbols of epidemics — and a plausible explanation for disease, at least for the time.

…

To scare audiences, artists must adapt. Fanged Europeans don’t terrify like they once did, but contagion does. As societal fears become oriented around the pandemic, what will happen to the future of the vampire?

Joe Dante, a veteran horror director, speculated that we have so much more to be scared of today than in recent years, both politically and medically, that “it may be difficult to go back to the purely supernatural approach.” But Larry Fessenden, who starred and directed in one of the best vampire movies of the 1990s, the intimate New York indie “Habit,” sees new opportunities for horror.

“The pandemic has heightened our fear of each other, of infection and contagion, invisible droplets delivering a cataclysmic blow to our physical beings, leading in turn to an atmosphere of deep mistrust and isolation,” he wrote in an email. “And always, there will be those who don’t believe the monster even exists. I think a wave of vampire stories that captures a claustrophobic preoccupation with death and paranoia may be filling our screens next.”

Take a deep-dive into Zinoman’s article at The New York Times

GEP fans will know Jason Zinoman
from his interview in Rob Kuhn’s documentary The Birth of the Living Dead
and we can’t recommend Zinoman’s book “Shock Value” highly enough!

During the TALES 10th anniversary Bash October of 2020, hosted by The Pale Men, McQuaid and Fessenden, longtime TALES thespian and man of letters John Speredakos insisted on reading Edgar Allan Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death. But, pressed for time, we only let him read excerpts, promising to properly pay homage to Poe in another setting. When John suggested a sax and vocal reading of Poe as a stand-alone recording (“Sax of the Red Death”), the idea of TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE “readings” was born: unabridged readings of literature with a musical accompaniment. 

John Speredakos (selection and reader)

Halloween and Poe. The two have become inseparable. I grew up adoring the language of Master Poe, the extraordinary and unique vocabulary that sent chills and shudders regardless of whatever he was describing. It was the WAY he described it- somehow familiar and exotic at once, redolent of all matters of the crypt, of the ghastly, of the macabre. And his poetry! My God, his poetry. And not just in The Raven, Annabel Lee, The Bells, The Conqueror Worm, To Helen, but woven throughout his prose like a snake through Medusa’s hair. The opening lines of The Fall of the House of Usher are as evocative a piece of poetry as anything written in the 19th century. The reader is caught up in the cadence without even realizing it, and hopelessly compelled to read on and share this mad journey into Roderick Usher’s bizarre world. But unlike in The Cask of Amontillado and The Tell-Tale Heart your narrator, your guide- your only link to sanity and stability- is NOT insane. He provides a witness, a window through which to view the madness, and it’s even more horrendous given the seeming normalcy of our guide. The contrast shows the madness more acutely.

Which brings us to The Masque of the Red Death. Poe’s shortest gothic Tale, it manages to pack an unforgettable punch through the sheer narrative drive and transcendent power of his imagination. Very little actually occurs in the tale. A plague ravages the countryside, The Duke Prospero invites his minions to a formal masque; they are locked inside. There is exactly one line of spoken dialogue. And the castellated abbey he describes in such detail sets the stage for a scene of shocking horror. But WHERE it occurs, HOW it occurs and the gripping inevitability of its unfolding, are etched with such glorious specificity that the story lodges in the deepest recesses of the psyche. If ever a Tale begged to be read aloud it is this one. To let Poe’s language wash over you and seep inside is to be in the grip of a true master.

The Masque of the Red Death has been filmed and recorded many times of course, most famously in the Roger Corman/Vincent Price collaboration. But I’d never heard it relayed with a saxophone accompaniment. It struck me as a potentially powerful device, as the sax is capable of deep, sonorous tones, and jangly, cacophonous, abrasive, discordant bleatings. Just the range the Tale needed. When the clock strikes out and the revelers are forced to stop and reflect before resuming their gaieties, the sax could provide the necessary punctuation. As Clarence Clemons remains unavailable, a sax player needed to be engaged. Enter Mr. Larry Fessenden. Larry’s sax has been used sparingly in prior Tales, I thought this might be a perfect venue for more exploration: language and music winding together to create a soundscape that would expand the impact of the reading, and underscore the drama. 

And a final word about the relevancy of Masque. Given what we’ve all endured in the last year, it’s shocking to realize this was written 179 years ago. Poe’s world was shaped quite literally by blood- his Mother, step-Mother, brother and wife all died at young ages from, essentially, consumption. The redness of blood he alludes to in the opening of Masque was a color he was familiar with from birth, it stained him in a way most of us can’t appreciate. Until now. Now we’ve been reminded again that our mortality and our frivolity go hand in hand. The Red Death is still out there, waiting to crash the party. We ignore it at our peril. And our Prince Prosperos would be wise to recognize the fact, and prepare.

Enjoy the genius of Poe, and the double-edged joys of Halloween.

Larry Fessenden (saxes and percussion)

I played the score by recording while listening to John’s reading. I had no preconceived idea and once I found a pattern I might double it, often without listening to the original line: I wanted a dissonant off kilter sound. I have always been inspire by Michael Nyman’s use of saxophones in a more orchestral setting as he did in several scores for Peter Greenaway’s movies. More recently I have enjoyed listening to Colin Stetson, who Glenn McQuaid had alerted me to some years ago; imagine my delight when I heard Stetson on the Hereditary score. Throughout my process I hoped to create space for the words to resonate while still building a sonic nightmare to enhance the text. Success is in the ears of the listener. Happy Spooktober.

poster by Brian Level

Episode #49 “Masque of the Red Death”
written by Edgar Allan Poe

a Tales from Beyond the Pale READING

selected and read by John Speredakos
saxophone score by Larry Fessenden
mastered by Glenn McQuaid

 posted October 28 2021 • poster by Brian Level

for more TALES physical media, info and Swag, visit
www.talesfrombeyondtheplae.com

“waiting… waiting… waiting til Nov 2 to see ISOLATION“

“Looking For The Magic” – Dwight Twilley Band (You’re Next)

The ominous opening piano chords leading into the groovy celebration of unbridled optimism that is Dwight Tilley’s “Looking for the Magic” almost make it a perfect companion to the jet black comedy throughout Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett’s You’re Next. Otherwise, the 1977 tune is effectively juxtaposed into two scenes from the brutal and brilliant 2011 home invasion thriller – first in the cold open featuring horror icon Larry Fessenden as Erik Hanson and second when Kelly (Margaret Laney) runs toward Harson’s house (where the song has apparently been playing on repeat this whole time) only to fall prey to one of the masked assassins targeting her family.

Read full list at Cinemablend

from setthetape.com:

Five Scary Podcasts for Halloween – Spooktober

Tales from Beyond the Pale

Last but not least, and sadly on hiatus for now, is Tales from Beyond the Pale, a collection of audio dramas presented in a style reminiscent of old radio pulp tales but also like Tales From the Crypt.

Larry Fessenden and Glenn McQuaid have been creating together since 2010, releasing audio CDs, and performing live until the podcast was launched in 2019. There are forty seven unique and uncanny stories, leaning heavily into black comedy and real scares, that still draw new listeners today and have veterans hoping that there will be more to come.

Mostly written by Fessenden and McQuaid, with some shows featuring guest writers, Tales has featured a number of famous voices lending their performances to these macabre stories, including Misha Collins (Supernatural), Doug Jones (Star Trek: Discovery), Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan (The Lord of the Rings), Ron Perlman (Hellboy) and Tony Todd (Candyman).

You could pick any of the forty seven tales to play on Halloween night and we guarantee you will not be disappointed.

read article here

The Pale Men talk about the latest TALE to drop, “Game Night” which had been performed live at Lincoln Center’s Walter Read Theater on a double bill with “Who Killed Johnny Bernard” back in August of 2016 (!)

Fessenden: Hello Glenn, Congrats on getting Game Night done in time for a Shocktober release! What took so long….?

McQuaid: We had plans to get it out earlier with the launch of the podcast but it got delayed and then life got complicated and it ended up gathering a bit of dust. I’m glad we waited to release it though as it’s been a nice trip down memory lane and I think it holds up nicely.

Fessenden: What sort of adjustments did you make in post?

McQuaid: I sat with it for a while obviously so when I started post production on it I was in a completely different headspace and my instinct was to speed things up a bit, whereas on the night I had directed the actors to take things oddly slow. I like where it’s ended up, it’s got a stiffness to it that loosens up when things get strange and there’s some nice rhythmic edits happening throughout.

Fessenden: What tone were you going for? How did the piece come about?

McQuaid: The inspiration for Game Night really came from Terrence Fisher’s The Devil Rides Out. I wanted to have fun with a bunch of characters standing inside a protective magic circle as various demons try to trick them into thinking all is safe on the other side of the chalk. Also, there was a cartoon show based on Dungeons and Dragons that I absolutely adored when I was a kid and I think that had an influence on the tone, there’ something almost cartoonish about the piece, particularly with the character April (named after April Snellings). I think this might just be our first audio drama horror cartoon!

Fessenden: Lauren Ashley Carter does triple duty in the piece!

McQuaid: She is amazing and it was only in rehearsal that we decided to do that because I hadn’t cast anyone else for those roles yet. She was really excited by the challenge and it was wild seeing her switch so effortlessly between the different characters and great fun to revisit as I had forgotten the ins and outs of the thing.
The rest of the ensemble is quite charming: a lot of TALES regulars!
And all going by their real names. I wanted it to feel like these guys have been hanging out together since childhood and their goal when together is to always try to match the excitement of their formative experiences, and so we have four grown ass men who are acting like children, free of responsibility; free of maturity, and this is why they deserve the demonic bollocking they get, they’re brats.

Fessenden: I noticed you used the TALES theme for the ring-tone in the story. Wanna divulge what that used to be and why we changed it?

McQuaid: On the night of the performance we used the Murder She Wrote theme song because I am a huge fan of the show, and though it went over really well I felt it was a shame to, after so many Tales, risk infringing on copywrite, so I swapped it out with something we own.

Fessenden: You had a funny story about the last minute shift in the music on the night…

McQuaid: Prior to the performances I was using ambient drones to underscore the play but on the morning of the show I created a more exotic piece that alluded to a grander world outside of the men’s group; it hinted at the pleasures one might find if one were a demon. I was really excited to share it with you but when you heard it on the night you grumbled something about me going all “I Dream of Genie”, maybe I did! Tough crowd.

Fessenden: I must say the poster by Brian Level is particularly appealing: Very simple and iconic. Did you notice the label on the beer bottle: “Beyond Pale Ale.” Ha.

McQuaid: I really love the poster, done during the same sessions as Who Killed Johnny Bernhard and Reappraisal. Brian’s a wonderful artist and a great guy, also I think there’s actually a real bear named that.

Fessenden: Well Glenn, I think you mean “beer.” Nice to chat. I hope everyone will buy our collectable Collection of TALES scripts now available from amazon.

McQuaid: Here here!

Fessenden: And I hope everyone will tune in next week for another special Halloween treat from the Tales HQ.

visit the tales website !!

buy the new Tales Book !!

Episode #48  GAME NIGHT

Something is not quite right
for the fellas on Game Night…

Performed Live August 20, 2016 •  Poster by Brian Level

for more TALES physical media, info and Swag, visit
www.talesfrombeyondtheplae.com