As an unusual tribute to WW I, the History Channel created an allegorical secret history of a war against Martian invaders.

On its 100th anniversary, The Great Martian War tells the story of the catastrophic events and unimaginable horrors of 1913-17, when Humankind was pitted against a savage Alien invasion.

With powerful and detailed First World War parallels, The Great Martian War fuses sci-fi fantasy with specialist factual history to explore the real-world tragedies and unique horror of World War One.

The accompanying video is weirdly plausible.

(There are a lot of complaints about the choice of music, so watch it with the sound off if it irritates you.)

(via BoingBoing)

This concludes yet another Link Dump Explosion. Regular posting (and once-a-week Link Dumps) return Monday.

Cthulhu Wedding Cake – Pretty design with lotsa tentacles.

Ethereal Dreams – A “gothic Christmas” music mix.

Little Brown Bat Plush – Sweet little stuffed bat to cuddle. The same manufacturer also has a vampire bat, a tarantula, and a vulture.

It to be a Movie – After years in development, a big-screen version of Stephen King’s It is set to start production next spring. It’s apparently planned as a pair of movies, one following the children’s lives and how they come to know Pennywise, and the other detailing the kids as adults, still fighting him.

Hades Footwear – All kinds of spiky, steampunky, weird-looking shoes, including some very goth sneakers.

Aztec Death Whistle – I can definitely see how a bunch of warriors blowing on these before heading into battle would cause some psychological trauma for their opponents. Also soiled undergarments.

Moss Graffiti – It’s pretty common to use a slurry of moss and yogurt to give flowerpots and lawn ornaments a rustic overgrown look, but I’d never thought about painting it on walls. This is a really neat idea.

Chocolate Spider Web Drinks – Cute edible drink garnishes (chocolate martinis for the grownups, and chocolate milk for the kids).

Le Heart Design – Amazing ethical mouse taxidermy. You can see a piece that the artist did for The Bloggess here.

Molt – Neat short video of a tarantula molting. Watch with the sound off because the soundtrack is really irritating.

Cthulhu’s Pizza Kitchen – Amusing faux commercial.

Literary Christmas Ghost Stories – A few vintage selections, including a couple by Charles Dickens.

Monster Cocktail Stirrers – Great-looking drink decorations made from candy.

The Creature Vault – New book of concept art for the Harry Potter movies. A few of the images can be seen here.

Nobody Bought the Tiffany Bat Lamp – Short article about bats in Art Nouveau design, mentioned here not only for the gorgeous lamp of the title, but also for a couple of other lovely pieces like this Lalique necklace.

The Bourbon Legends – “They’re like urban legends…only drunker.”

The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft – Big ol’ book of eldritch horrors, with introduction by Alan Moore.

Deathmøle – Jeph Jacques’ “fictional band that makes actual music” with song titles like “Fifty Goddamn Skeleton Warriors.”

Gardening for Bats – Short video discussing “wildlife gardening” with the aim of attracting bats.

Notes on a Case of Melancholia – Perry Bible Fellowship creator Nicholas Gurewitch has a Kickstarter for a great-looking Gorey-inspired picture book about Death’s despair that his son doesn’t want to continue the family business.

Ultimate Beetlejuice Costume – This completely over-the-top costume not only includes a sandworm puppet, it also features the Maitland’s entire house.

Domsai – These anthropomorphic terrariums are pricey, but really interesting.

Cthulhumas Wreath Creature – This is a pretty neat tentacle-y wreath.

Middle of Beyond – Lots of great holiday merchandise like Cthulhu Christmas sweaters, Krampus knit scarves, and Baphomet glass ornaments. (via Burning Prairie)

Mari Lwyd – Welsh Christmas/New Year tradition involving a horse’s skull. This would be way more fun than caroling.

10 Real-Life Laws That Regulate The Supernatural World – It somehow doesn’t surprise me that Texas is exorcism-friendly.

Raven Hand Puppet – I want to snorgle his fluffy feathers. There’s also a smaller finger puppet version.

Little Bat – Ridiculously adorable art print of a sweet little hanging bat. This would be perfect for a child’s room.

Skull Necklace – This “pearl necklace” made of little skulls is gorgeous. (Hat tip to xJane)

Scorpion Chair – Amazing wooden chair. I’m not sure how comfortable it would be to sit in, but it’s got all kinds of style.

Bronze Age – This vareigated yarn by Zen Yarn Garden is the very essence of Halloween. (via Burning Prairie)

Love Manor’s Flickr Photostream – All kinds of fantastic ideas for spooky decorating and entertaining. In particular check out their album of potion labels and other printables.

“Jaws” Necklace – Clever necklace design which mimics the iconic movie poster.

My dead girlfriend keeps messaging me on Facebook – A great bit of realistic horror fiction from Reddit’s NoSleep.

Sick Roses – Interesting interview with Richard Barnett, who’s written a book on disease and the art of medical illustration.

Dark Literary Classics Calendar – Neat calendar featuring works like Macbeth and “The Yellow Wallpaper.”

Christmas Comes Early to Pottermore – J.K. Rowling has announced that she’ll release 12 Harry Potter stories this month, beginning on Friday.

Corporate Spirit – Peculiar stock photography, many with captions.

Saint Gomez and Morticia Addams – This set of prayer candles featuring “the patron saints of Eternal Love” almost makes me want to convert. The seller also has Saint Elvira, Saint Jareth, and a lot of other great designs.

Animated Christmas Cards by Terry Gilliam – These Pythonesque cards are awesome.

Y’know, I swear I do things besides surf the web all day finding links for your amusement, but you’d never know it to look at my Drafts folder. So you guys get another full week of link dumps. Egad.

Vampire Vodka – Easy DIY for making homemade cherry vodka. There’s even a downloadable label.

Rupert Giles, MLS – “Course List for Rupert Giles, Master of Library Sciences Candidate, Michaelmas Term 1982”

#RejectedSpells – Amusing Twitter hashtag imagining the spells that didn’t make it into the new D&D 5th Edition. I think my favorite is Summon Wilford Brimley.

Ordinary Mushrooms in a Magical World – This gorgeous macrophotography is like a glimpse into fairyland.

The Love Crafts – ‘Toon about toys from a sex-positive mythos. NSFW-ish.

Goth Xmas Shirt – As a bonus, I’m pretty sure that’s Krampus in silhouette.

“Portrait of Poe” Cake – Great-looking red velvet cake decorated with a fondant portrait of Edgar Allan Poe. The stencil-type nature of the portrait looks reasonably DIY-able. (Hat tip to hng23)

The In Vitro Meat Cookbook – This exercise in “recipes as design fiction” envisions a future of lab-grown meat.

Coolest Movie Monsters – Screen Junkies had a “showdown” to determine the coolest movie monsters of all time.

Alien Queen Cosplay – Weirdly elegant riff on the xenomorph from Aliens.

Zombie Snowflake – Papercraft pattern for “monstrous” snowflakes. If you cut the hair off it’d be a decent Frankenstein’s Monster, too. Stick one or two of these in amongst a bunch of normal paper snowflakes and see who notices.

Texting the Underworld – Fun book for older kids about a “perpetual scaredy-cat” who has to prevent a fledgling banshee from taking one of his relatives.

Creepmas Trees – Some cool ideas for spookily-decorated Christmas trees. (Hat tip to Fiend4Halloween)

Humans are Terrifying – Great thread discussing how humans could be the scariest monsters in the galaxy.

Hocus Pocus Cowl – Knit cowl pattern with lovely vintage-y Halloween imagery. Could be adapted for hats, bags, and other items.

The Jar – As Pixel Pixie, who linked me to this, put it, “Tim Burton directed Ray Bradbury story on an Alfred Hitchcock show, scored by Danny Elfman. You’re welcome.” It’s like the Goth Singularity.

Go to Hell – Atlas Obscura has a neat roundup of “gateways to Hell” around the globe.

Skull Chair – This soft skull chair has a hinged jaw. It doesn’t look tremendously practical, but it has a very high Awesomeness Quotient. (Hat tip to Fiend4Halloween)

How to Be Goth – Just in case you needed a guide.

The 13 Days of Christmas – A Nightmare Before Christmas take on The 12 Days of Christmas. (Hat tip to Sally)

The Wandering Mermaid Etsy shop sells “vintage inspired treasures” such as antiqued journals and little charms. The shop also offers a variety of pretty bottles labeled with things like “Fairy Godmother Wishes” and “Mermaid Song,” but the one I was particularly taken with was their bottle of Nightmares. It’s filled with black glitter and little sparkly stars, in which are nestled bits of paper listing “classic nightmare themes” which you may wish to keep bottled up.

I love the idea of having a place to capture bad dreams where you can keep an eye on ’em. Although the ones on Etsy are surprisingly inexpensive–for $15, you could hardly buy the glitter–something similar would be pretty easy to DIY if you wanted to use a different bottle or otherwise adjust its appearance. I’d also add a pretty pen and a supply of blank paper slips for writing down personal nightmares to bottle up.

This would be a particularly great gift for a child, but it’d be nice for anyone who could use a little midnight reassurance. The bottle or jar could be personalized with the recipient’s name, and little “magic charms” representing pleasant things like flowers or teddy bears could be attached to the outside or mixed in with the glitter. Nightmares aren’t nearly as scary when they’re sulking in a jar instead of running around freely, so having a place to store them might help ensure pleasant dreams.

Martha Stewart recently did a feature on an Etsy shop called Andie’s Specialty Sweets, and when I saw the thumbnail for the Edible Autumn Leaves I thought, “Wow, $60 for two dozen leaves is kind of pricey for something so easy to make.”* Then I clicked over to the store and discovered that the leaves are pretty much the only thing that are easy to make and their stuff is worth every penny.

They offer a wide range of astonishingly realistic-looking edible items, from steampunky buttons and gears to delicate coral (I particularly love their black bird feathers and their ridiculously-detailed toadstools.

They also sell themed decorating kits, such as their Woodland kit featuring wild mushrooms, toadstools, ferns and fiddleheads, acorns, fill-in foliage, and ladybugs: All gorgeous, and all edible.

Although certainly not cheap, their stuff would be perfect for decorating something special like a wedding cake, and some of the smaller items like gears and sea glass could be included as part of a themed party favor.

Even if you’re not currently in the market for sculptural candy, be sure to click over to their shop just to browse around. The artistry is just astonishing.

*Which they are. You make standard chocolate leaves by painting melted chocolate on real (non-toxic) leaves and then carefully peeling them off when dry. For pretty multicolored leaves, use tinted white chocolate instead.

1. Bob Clark, who directed the classic A Christmas Story, also directed this holiday horror movie about a group of sorority sisters who are stalked and murdered over Christmas vacation by a killer hiding in their sorority house.
   A) Santa Claws
   B) Slay Bells
   C) Silent Night, Deadly Night
   D) Christmas Evil
   E) Black Christmas
2. Telling “scary ghost stories” at Christmas is an old tradition, sadly less prevalent than it used to be, but still mentioned as one of the anticipated activities in this song popularized by Andy Williams.
3. This story by H.P. Lovecraft, set at Christmastime, follows an unnamed narrator’s visit to his ancestral town and his discovery of its dark past.
   A) “The Dunwich Horror”
   B) “The Festival”
   C) “The Picture in the House”
   D) “The Cats of Ulthar”
   E) “The Colour Out of Space”
4. The novelette “Overtime,” set in the horror/spy thriller “Laundry” milieu, details Agent Bob Howard’s fight to keep something which definitely isn’t Santa from coming down the chimney and into our reality. Who writes the “Laundry” series, which includes novels like The Atrocity Archives, The Jennifer Morgue, and The Apocalypse Codex?
5. “The story had held us, round the fire, sufficiently breathless, but except the obvious remark that it was gruesome, as, on Christmas Eve in an old house, a strange tale should essentially be, I remember no comment uttered till somebody happened to say that it was the only case he had met in which such a visitation had fallen on a child.” Which classic ghost story begins with this sentence?
   A) The Turn of the Screw
   B) The Haunting of Hill House
   C) The Old Nurse’s Story
   D) The Poor Clare
   E) Green Tea
6. This mythical being of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld is somewhat akin to Father Christmas, granting children’s wishes and bringing them presents on Hogswatchnight.
7. What is the name of the Grinch’s long-suffering dog?
   A) Rex
   B) Sam
   C) Brutus
   D) Max
   E) Spot
8. “Boz” and (occasionally) “Timothy Sparks” were pseudonyms used by this writer of a very popular Christmas tale.
9. The Buffy the Vampire Slayer Christmas episode “Amends” marks the first appearance of this entity, which was the Big Bad of the final season.
   A) Glorificus
   B) The First
   C) Acathla
   D) Mayor Wilkins
   E) Kakistos
10. In this novel by Christopher Moore, subtitled, “A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror,” an angel grants the wish of a child who had witnessed the death of a man dressed as Santa. In his inept attempt to bring “Santa” back to life, he raises everyone in the local cemetery as zombies.

(Answers below the fold)

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