Hey, check out the shortlist.com article, "Horror Movie Locations On Google Maps." Interesting to see where things were filmed. And YIKES -- the poltergeist house is in Southern California. Actually, most of these are in California.
Included is The Mist with these notes:
Location: Tom's Market, Vivian, Louisiana
Known for: The supermarket where a variety of nightmarish creatures attack
Also mentioned are:
The Omen, All Saints Church in Fulham, London
Rosemary's Baby, The Dakota, New York
Halloween, 1530 N. Orange Grove, Los Angeles
Poltergeist, 4267 Roxbury Street, Simi Valley, California
Scream 2, The Rialto, South Pasadena, California (I've been there)
Drag Me To Hell, 1031 Everett Street, Echo Park, California
The Fog, Point Reyes lighthouse, Marin County, California
The Birds, 17110 Bodega Lane, Bodega, California
Shaun of the Dead, Monson Road at Balborough St, London
Have you started your Christmas list yet? Well, if not, shortlist has posted great news -- you could own Christine.
There were actually 23 "Christine's" (1958 Plymouth Furys) used in John Carpenter's film. However -- shortlist notes that only two are known to still be in existence, and one of them is up for sale as part of an Arizona auction from the estate of Ron Pratte.
Pratte is believed to have a personal fortune of $350m (£218m) - it's not known why he's decided to sell off his collection - widely regarded as one of the biggest and most impressive private car collections in the United States, but everything must go at the annual Barrett-Jackson auction, which will take place in Scottsdale, Arizona early next year.
The entire collection is estimated to be worth $50m (£31m); as yet there's no guide price on 'Christine' but we'll get saving anyway.
shortlist.com has a fun list of 25 songs that were inspired by books. What's even cooler -- the videos are embedded in the article, so you don't have to hunt them down.
Several of my favorite books were mentioned, authored by people like Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, George Orwell and J.R.R. Tolkien.
Below is from the article. But the full post at shortlist.com is great.
PET SEMATARY
Artist/Song: Ramones – Pet Sematary (from 1989’s Brain Drain) Book: Stephen King’s Pet Sematary Lyrics: “Molars and fangs, the clicking of bones/Spirits moaning among the tombstones.” Also: The Ramones’ Pet Sematary was written for the movie adaptation of Stephen King’s novel. It was also covered by the German industrial metal band Rammstein.
THE ROCKET MAN
Artist/Song: Elton John – Rocket Man (from 1972’s Honky Chateau) Book: Ray Bradbury’s The Rocket Man (short story) Lyrics: “She packed my bags last night pre-flight.” Also: Bernie Taupin’s lyrics condense the plot of Bradbury’s short story, which tells of an astronaut leaving his wife and son on a journey into space.
1984
Artist/Song: David Bowie – 1984, (from 1974’s Diamond Dogs) Book: George Orwell’s 1984 Lyric: “They’ll split your pretty cranium and fill it full of air/And tell that you’re eighty, but brother, you won’t care/Beware the savage jaw of 1984.” Also: Other tracks on Diamond Dogs feature other Orwell references including the song titles Big Brother and We Are The Dead (Winston Smith’s final words before being captured by the thought police in the book). Bowie was intending to do a 1984 musical, though the project was killed off when Orwell’s widow objected.
LORD OF THE RINGS
Artist/Song: Led Zeppelin – Ramble On (from 1969’s Led Zeppelin II) Book: Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings Lyric: “'Twas in the darkest depths of Mordor/I met a girl so fair/But Gollum, and the evil one crept up/And slipped away with her.”
PARADISE LOST
Artist/Song: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Red Right Hand (from 1994’s Let Love In) Book: A poem, more specifically – the title is taken from John Milton’s Paradise Lost Lyric: “On a gathering storm comes/a tall handsome man/in a dusty black coat with a red right hand”
BRAVE NEW WORLD
Artist/Song: The Strokes – Soma (from 2001’s Is This It?) Book: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World Lyric: “Soma is what they would take when/Hard times opened their eyes.” Also: Soma is the name of a hallucinogen given in Huxley’s Brave New World – the drug is also referenced by the Smashing Pumpkins and deadmau5 in their songs of the same name.
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH
Artist/Song: Rick Wakeman – Journey To The Centre Of The Earth (from the 1974 album) Book: Jules Verne’s Journey To The Centre Of The Earth Lyric: “Five days out on an infinite sea, they prayed for calm on an ocean free/But the surface of the water ws indicating some disturbance…”
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
Artist/Song: Alt-J – Breezeblocks, from 2011’s An Awesome Wave Book: Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are Lyric: “Do you know where the wild things go? They go along to take your honey, la la la”
FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
Artist/Song: Metallica – For Whom The Bell Tolls (from 1984’s Ride The Lightning) Book: Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom The Bell Tolls Lyrics: “Men of five, still alive through the raging glow/Gone insane from this pain that they surely know.” Also: The same book also inspired a Bee Gees song of the same name. Proof that literature doesn’t care how it sounds.
shortlist.composted a story today announcing that the visiting public can now take a tour of The Ohio State Reformatory, which was the main location for the 1994 movie's prison.
is now being opened for tours. The move came after the prison, which closed as a working building around 25 years ago, had successfully hosted ghost tours, a Halloween and murder mystery festival last year and a Shawshank anniversary celebration last weekend. The roof has now been fixed and plans are afoot to upgrade the rest of the building so that it will be visitable all year round.
The article says that the tour will be a 13-stop bus tour which includes:
The reformatory
The bench where Brooks fed the birds,
Malabar Farm State Park where Andy followed his wife
The Bissman building where Brooks and Red live after they have been released.
The article explains,
Up until now, fans have organised their own tours, but these have carried their own dangers; tour guide Pastor Ron Puff has said that, "To be honest, we don’t have keys for some of these [cell doors]", so don't close them behind you, or you could be doing some time yourself.
Want to take a literary vacation? I'd love to! Check out shortlist.com's article, A Literary Travel Guide To The USA. It includes such legends at John Steinbeck, Pacific Grove, CA, Jack London, Glen Ellen, CA, William Faulkner – Oxford, MS, Harriet Beecher Stowe - Hartford, CT, Mark Twain, Hartford, CT, Cormac McCarthy – Knoxville, TN, Ernest Hemingway – New Orleans. (Yeah, they missed Poe, Baltimore) But they didn't miss Stephen King.
The article advises trip goers to visit Bangor for a taste of King's literary Derry. The added bonus is that Bangor is King's home town. How often he's still in residence there I have no idea; but somehow I get the feeling he spends a lot of time in Florida these days.
Shortlist offers as a "Must-see" the Mount Hope Cemetery, which was an inspiration for Pet Sematary and was used as a filming location for the movie. Of course, there is also the Thmoas Hill Standpipe from IT.
The shortlist article also gives suggestions on where to stay. Since the Stanley Hotle is clear out in Colorado, and King is not offering his house up on Airbnb, the article suggests The Hilton Garden Inn,
boasting a an eerily similar entrance and interior as bucolically grand. Don’t be upset at the lack of bloodless elevators and ghoulish staff, mind - king rooms are available.
King rooms are available? That would be cool -- but it just means suites. Man, now I'm wishing for a Stephen King themed hotel. COME ON AMERICA!
In short, readers both familiar and unfamiliar with Stephen King's novels will find a motherlode of interesting information inside the pages of Brighton David Gardner's insightful and illuminating treatise.
I can't recommend it enough, so be sure to get it either for your Kindle or e-Reader of choice, or buy the print version because it's easily worth twice the cover price.
