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The argument over who directed Poltergeist - the credited Tobe Hooper or producer and co-writer Steven Spielberg -  weirdly reflects the tone of the 1982 hit, which starred Craig T. Nelson as a father who moves his family into a California suburb built on a Native American burial ground. The film melds some genuinely strange and galvanizing images of the home rebelling against its new owners with a healthy dose of the thoughtful family dynamics that made E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind so distinct. In a way, one could see Hooper as the malevolent, unbound spirit trying to burst through the veneer of Spielberg's impeccably designed environs and relatively mild strain of sentimental hokum. [caption id="attachment_461657" align="alignright" width="350"] Image via Associated Film/caption] Both Hooper, the ingenious wild man behind The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and Spielberg are obsessives when it comes to the realms of the supernatural onscreen, clearly versed in creature features,...

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Written by Robert Louis Stevenson, Clara Beranger, and Thomas Russell Sullivan

Directed by John S. Robertson

USA, 1920

During the silent era, the reinvention of visual horror allowed filmmakers and producers to experiment in film techniques that would become a mainstay in the genre’s mode of expression. Many of these relied heavily on makeup (Frankenstein, Dracula) or early pioneering special effects (The Haunted Castle, The Phantom Carriage), but some relied on more human sensibilities. Mere movement and facial expressions dominate the horrific tone in F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu; Max Schreck’s grotesque, almost Korinian features have remained a cornerstone of vampiric imagery for nearly a century. In the same vein, John Barrymore managed a horror portrait in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde that has left John S. Robertson’s vision of the Robert Louis Stevenson story a target for restoration and preservation against countless other Jekyll remakes.

First built in 1963 in Panama City, Florida, the Miracle Strip Amusement Park was a small park across the street from the beach, whose claim to fame was the Starliner wooden roller coaster, the first roller coaster in Florida and the only ride to have existed throughout the park's duration. The park was segregated until the late 1960s, which is about when expansion on the park started, and more rides were added throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

The Miracle Strip Amusement Park closed in September 2004, due to waning attendance and increased expenses. Many of the existing rides were sold off to other amusement parks. Those that remained turned into the terrifyingly beautiful abandoned constructions you see here.

Dante's Inferno

Clearly, walking through the gaping maw of a lecherous cartoon demon is weird enough; add the ravages of time and disrepair, and it is enough to give you chills. When operational, Dante's...