LINK: MexicanSugarSkull.com PRESENTS Day of the Dead & the Sugar Skull Tradition
Our lovely friend Tananarive Due is noted for her work in many fields, genres and media but for Dark Matters’ POCtober, we want to draw your attention to her work in horror- on the page and on the screen.
Here’s a profile of Tananarive in The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror
Check out her films, videos & more at Tananarive Due’s YouTube Channel
And have a look at Tananarive Due’s official blog: Reading Circle
And her website TananariveDue.com
Watch and read about the horror short she made with Steven Barnes: Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes’ Horror Short ‘Danger Word’, an adaptation of their novel “Devil’s Wake”.
And finally take a listen to this in-depth interview Tananarive had with Farai Chideya for National Public Radio in 2006:
A Conversation with Tananarive Due PART ONE
&
A Conversation with Tananarive DuePART TWO
Here are some site recs to celebrate horror and history through out Latin America!
Latin Horror
The first English-language website dedicated to the genre of Latin horror. Features the leading Latin/Spanish/International “dark creative expressionists” working in film, theater, music, photography, illustration, graphic novels, “dark art” novelas, comic books, literature, and games—from the seasoned masters—to the up-and-coming Latin horrorphile whose work is grounded in horror, the macabre, and gothic arts.
100 Must See Brazilian Horror Films / 100 Filmes Brasileiros de Horror
A REC LIST CREATED BY Created by C Primati for IMDb
100 recs from site member C Primati.
Latina.com: 7 Terrifying Latin American Legends
Mexico Less Travelled: Haunted Mexico
BikeHike: The Spookiest Ghost Stories of Central and South America
Peru This Week: Five Famous Peruvian Ghost Stories
Beyond Samba: Brazilian Folklore: Magical Creatures that Inhabit the Forests
Remezcla: The Top 5 Latino Horror Legends & Monsters
Wander Argentina: Haunted Buenos Aires: Ghost Stories of the City
YouTube: Las Leyendas de Guatemala (The Legends of Guatemala)
Latin Times: Top 5 Scariest Latin American Ghost Stories
Travel Basecamp: Exploring Roatán’s Haunted Caverns In Honduras
“What would happen if a country of 97 million people were taught at a young age that the boogie man was real? In the Philippines, for the last 400 years, the ‘aswang’ has been used as propoganda and social control by Spanish Colonizers, the Catholic Church, the Philippine government, and even the CIA.”
Thanks to Bram Stoker’s Dracula and all the eventual Hollywood adaptations of that prim, Victorian body horror, much of the west sees vampires from a very narrowly European perspective. But the living dead and tales of feinds lapping up the blood of mere mortals are recurring fixtures through out the world’s folklore and popular cultures. Below are listed but a few of the world’s many and varied takes on these creatures and the lore that makes them a global trope in supernatural story telling.
• Native American Vampires of Myth and Legend
• Bloodthirsty Vampires Of India
• Bats in South American Folklore and Ancient Art
• Enchanted Doorway: Vampires in Japanese Myth
• The Camazotz of Mayan Legend
• True Vampires of the Philippines and Malaysia
Site Rec: 百物語怪談会 Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai aka Translated Japanese Ghost Stories & Tales of the Weird and the Strange
This blog showcases work translated by @ZackDavisson- who, in and of himself, is pretty impressive.
“Zack Davisson is an award winning translator, writer, and scholar of Japanese folklore and ghosts. He is the author of Yurei: The Japanese Ghost, The Ghost of Oyuki, and The Secret Biwa Music that Caused the Yurei to Lament (Chin Music Press). He has also contributed to Weird Tales Magazine, Japanzine, Metropolis Magazine and the comic book Wayward (Image comics).”
And that’s just the headlines.
Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai brings together Japanese folklore, art, history, ghost stories and other mythic and mystical aspects of Japanese culture. Presented in an engaging style that both informs and delights, Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai also accepts inquiries from readers looking to track down and identify “yōkai” and discover the stories behind them.
Big ups.
LINK: “Those Things” and “You People”: Issues of Racism in Zombie Cinema
An Essay by Kyle Allkins
Oakland University
Dark Matters 
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