Gritty Reboots has reimagined the classic children’s book Goodnight Moon as a horror movie. It’s surprisingly effective.

(via BoingBoing)

Scarfolk Council is an odd little site on which a “Dr. R. Littler” reports upon the mysterious town of Scarfolk.

Scarfolk is a town in North West England that did not progress beyond 1979. Instead, the entire decade of the 1970s loops ad infinitum. Here in Scarfolk, pagan rituals blend seamlessly with science; hauntology is a compulsory subject at school, and everyone must be in bed by 8pm because they are perpetually running a slight fever. “Visit Scarfolk today. Our number one priority is keeping rabies at bay.” For more information please reread.

It’s filled with perfect vintage images and strange anecdotes, all of which chronicle a twisted community full of horrifyingly banal evil.

Back in 1975 the children of Scarfolk primary school released their own 45rpm record to commemorate their music teacher Mrs Payne who disappeared in 1972, but whose body was found encased inside one of the thirteen ancient standing stones just outside Scarfolk.

A young girl was found wandering the streets of Scarfolk in 1976. She claimed that she had escaped from a secret school hidden beneath the town hospital.

She was sent to Scarfolk Hills mental facility where, in brief lucid states between medication regimes and electro-therapy, she created this image again and again.

Her claims were never investigated.

Scarfolk’s 1972 tourism campaign was as successful as the mayor had hoped. Seven tourists visited that summer. Oddly, they were all called Timothy, wore identical clothes and appeared to communicate with each other telepathically. Everyone in Scarfolk called them ‘The Tim Seven’.

Three days after they arrived in Scarfolk all the birds disappeared and for months after the Tims left whenever Scarfolk residents tried to use their telephones all they could hear on the other end was distant, frantic backward birdsong.

If the citizens of Midwich built a town on Summerisle, Scarfolk would be the result.

(via BoingBoing)

Artist Benjamin Dewey’s Tragedy Series consists of, quote, “Depictions drawn from regrettable accounts of the less fortunate for purposes of instruction; so that one may avoid similar missteps.” They are wonderful, unlikely, tragedies, all drawn in a vintage style that somehow make the surreal nature of their subject material seem plausible. A few of my favorites are 265, 255, 277, 290, and 48 (also Sassy Yaks is totally going to be the name of my next band).

Fortunately, lest the plight of these multiple tragedies become too overwhelming, he also presents occasional Sadness Reprieves such as this and this.

He sells prints of some of the tragedies on Etsy and you can see examples of his other art (he’s a professional comic book artist) here.

Karen Gillan (lately of Doctor Who fame) did an amusing series of fake ads for The Nerdist.

GrittyReboots has done a faux trailer for a live-action “Calvin and Hobbes” movie.

While growing up, Calvin’s imagination always kept him sane. He didn’t have many friends, so he created one. As he got older, he tried to leave childish things behind. But his imagination had a different plan.

I don’t know about you guys, but I would watch this so hard. We need a Kickstarter to make this sucker a reality.

(via Blame It On the Voices)

I became aware of this project wrong-way-to (found the Twitter feed, which led to the podcast, which led to the site), so bear with me whilst I try to string things together with something approaching coherence.

Commonplace Books is, as nearly as I can tell from their less-than-pellucid Who We Are page, a sort of artists’ collective which leverages the internet to help artists find a wider audience. Their first effort was A Commonplace Book of the Weird, a collection of stories done in the style of H.P. Lovecraft (also on Kindle).

They’ve recently started a podcast:

Welcome to Night Vale is a twice-monthly podcast in the style of community updates for the small desert town of Night Vale, featuring local weather, news, announcements from the Sheriff’s Secret Police, mysterious lights in the night sky, dark hooded figures with unknowable powers, and cultural events.

Turn on your radio and hide.

You can see their list of past episodes here, which sound highly entertaining. A couple of my favorites are, “A protest against the removal of the Shape In Grove Park That No One Acknowledges Or Speaks About. Plus, changes to the school curriculum, a growing tarantula problem in town, and musical auditions!” and “The search for a dangerous fugitive finally comes to an end, but he’s gaining some unexpected popularity. Plus, what to do about those noisy sunsets, City Council rejects ‘breath entitlements,’ and more issues with Santa Claus at the Night Vale mall.”

And the podcast has its own darkly hilarious Twitter feed. A sample of their tweets:

When a person dies and no one will miss them, the mourning is assigned to a random human. This is why you sometimes just feel sad.

St Patrick drove the snakes from Ireland. No one knows where he put them. He knows. He lays his hand lightly on the latch. Not yet. Not yet.

The mayor, in a press conference today, said only “BLOOD”. No follow-up questions were asked, but all reporters chanted “BLOOD” in unison

Fun science fact: If you look deep into a deer’s eyes without blinking, you become a deer. This is how they breed.

Missing: dog. Black, obsidian. 22,000 lbs. Buried deep under the earth. Likes coptic script and pyramids. Last seen by early humans.

Mandatory fire drill this afternoon. When you hear the siren, burn as many things as you can.

A man wearing red pajamas who carries around a handwritten list of children’s names will break into your home tomorrow night.

Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog there is a weird dark staircase. Been walking down it for years. Help

No one knows what will happen when they die. And only a small secret society knows what will happen when you die.

In summary, these guys seem to be right up our collective alley and are definitely worth checking out.

I’m always deeply impressed by the planning involved in those split-screen “sing with yourself” videos. YouTube user Paint takes it to a whole ‘nother level. Not only is his timing impeccable, the songs are spot-on.

It’s time for another round of Death is Not an Option! The rules, as always, are simple: Given the choice of a pair of people, you have to decide which one you’d rather sleep with; choosing death instead is not an option. This time it’s vampires.

The Classic Spooksters Matchup
Dracula – Christopher Lee	vs.	Dracula – Vincent Price

The Buffy the Vampire Slayer Matchup
Angel	vs.	Spike

The Barnabas Collins Matchup
Jonathan Frid	vs.	Johnny Depp

The Cuddly Matchup
Count Chocula	vs.	Count von Count

The True Blood Matchup
Pam	vs.	Jessica

The Creepy Matchup
Count Orlok (Nosferatu)	vs.	Marlow (30 Days of Night)

The Interview with the Vampire Matchup
Louis	vs.	Lestat

The Lost Boys Matchup
Michael	vs.	David

The Smouldery (Male) Matchup
Dracula (Bram Stoker’s Dracula)	vs.	Kit (The Forsaken)

The Smouldery (Female) Matchup
Santánico Pandemónium (From Dusk ‘Til Dawn)	vs.	Selene (Underworld)

Leave your choices in the comments. And remember…Death is not an option.

I bet unscary monsters like to hang out at the back of marathons and imagine all the athletes are running from them.
– rolldiggity

“Oh, no. No, no, no. Are you kidding me?” -First thing I would say if someone raised me from the dead
– bridger_w

When someone looks over my shoulder while I’m on the computer, I open up a new tab and start searching, “HOW TO KILL THE PERSON BEHIND ME.”
– KevinFarzad

< jbms> (btw, I am rather new to this channel, but you have a rather, eh, unusual nickname)
< l0ng_d0ng_s1lv3r> i like it
< l0ng_d0ng_s1lv3r> i have a procedure i follow when i choose a new nickname for the internets
< l0ng_d0ng_s1lv3r> you know that scene in ‘the matrix’ when agent smith is interrogating neo and he says "and in your other life, you go by the hacker alias… neo…"
< l0ng_d0ng_s1lv3r> the purpose is, choose an alias where if you are ever in that situation, no straight laced agent can ever keep a game face while reading your ‘hacker alias’ aloud
– Seen on cmubash

Shoutout to nature for not giving wings to snakes.
– FUCKIPEDIA

“So how are you qualified to administer torture for the CIA?” “I raised 2 girls, & used to brush their hair.” “You’re hired!”
– daemonic3

Pretty psyched that I’d still have two wishes left after giving dogs the ability to roll their eyes.
– GuyEndoreKaiser

“Ugh.” *makes air quotes* “‘Brains’.” – hipster zombie
– sween

“Only one man can defeat the giant monster. Unfortunately, we’re not budgeted for his services.”–And like that my horror movie pitch fails.
– fmarciuliano

Googly eyes don’t taste good, but it’s worth it to get to eat an apple that has fear on its face.
– rolldiggity

As long as we’re trundling along recommending things like books and movies and whatnot, I may as well continue the trend and suggest some Webcomics that y’all might find appealing. Or not. They amuse me, anyway. (Comics with an asterisk have additional text if you mouse over the image.)

Please feel free to make your own suggestions in the comments!

Para Abnormal – Splendidly dark-and-goofy single panel comic.
Sample Comic

Hijinks Ensue* – “Geeking for the sake of geekery.”
Sample Comic

Indexed* – Humor by way of charts, graphs, and similar infographics.
Sample Comic

A Softer World* – Rather than illustrations, this comic is comprised of photographs with odd, often dark, text.
Sample Comic

Liō – Pantomime strip involving the adventures of a little boy for whom weird, dark, supernatural stuff is loads of fun.
Sample Comic

Oglaf!* – NSFW. The setting is kind of a quasi-D&D milieu, with the occasional monster and barbarian warrior and whatnot. Mostly hilariously dirty. Some storylines are multi-page, so keep an eye on the navigation.
Sample Comic

Basic Instructions – “How-to” advice, amusingly illustrated.
Sample Comic

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