The Shirley Jackson Awards have been established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.

NOVEL

* Baltimore, Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden (Bantam Spectra)
* Generation Loss, Elizabeth Hand (Small Beer Press)
* Sharp Teeth, Toby Barlow (William Heinemann Ltd)
* The Terror, Dan Simmons (Little, Brown)
* Tokyo Year Zero, David Peace (Knopf)

Go to this link to find the finalists in the other categories and for more info about the Shirley Jackson Awards.

http://www.shirleyjacksonawards.org/sja_2007_finalists.htm

I initially thought that this was some sort of ‘net joke, but it’s just too weird to be made up.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUKL2290323220080422

Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men’s penises…

“But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it’s become tiny…”

I’m watching yet another movie about Jesse James- and this one is better than the Brad Pitt vehicle The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford . The one I’m watching tonight is The Long Riders. And it occurs to me while watching this movie that we haven’t learned anything from our own American history. The James Brothers were insurgents not unlike the insurgents we’re now fighting in Iraq. In both cases, we won the war but lost the peace. Jesse James is looked upon as some kinda hero- hell, The Assassination makes him out to be as holy as Jesus, for Christ’s sake. But they were on the losing side, let’s not forget. They were Southern patriots, or at least that’s how they saw themselves. Just because Robert E. Lee surrendered, they weren’t about to give up the cause- and they were transformed into heroes. Just because Saddam Hussein is dead and his sons killed, that doesn’t mean the fighting is over. Quite the opposite, in fact. The more insurgents we kill, the more Muslim heroes we make. Anyone that’s watched any TV about the war shows us barging into houses and rousting people- not unlike what the Yankees did to Southerners after the Civil War. That’s why the James gang was able to hang on- because they’d captured the hearts of the local population. Have we captured the hearts of the Iraqis? For that matter, did we capture the hearts of the Vietnamese? The only question that remains in the Iraq war is the same one that ultimately remained in the Vietnam war- how the hell we get out.

Here’s a list of horror movies I dredged from a horror listserve, supposedly all released in 2007. I’ve seen some of them; of course most of them I haven’t seen. I’ll bold the ones I saw, and put stars. Five stars is the highest rating.

The 13th Alley
1408 ****
28 Weeks Later ***
30 Days of Night **
666: The Beast
Abandoned, The (U.S. release)
Albert Fish: In Sin He Found Salvation
All Hallows Eve
All The Boys Love Mandy Lane
Am I Evil?
American Zombie
And The Woods Fell Silent Again
Antisocial Behavior
Asylum
Attack of the Baby Doll
Alien Vs. Preditor: Requiem
Babysitter Wanted
Banshee!! (yes, two “!”)
Barricade
Bats: Human Harvest
Belly of the Beast, The
Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon *
Beverly Hills Massacre
Black Christmans (remake)
Black Dalia Movie ***
Black Sheep (U.S. release)
Black Waters of Echo’s Pond, The
Blood & Chocolate
Blood Car
Bloodmonkey
Bone Eater
Boogeyman 2
Brutal
Brotherhood of Blood
Bug
Buried Alive
Butcher, The
Captivity
Carnivrous
Case 39
Catacombs
Chicago Massacre: Richard Speck
Chill
Closet Space
Clubbing To Death
Countess Bathoria’s Graveyard Picture Show
Creepshow 3
Cry, The
Cthulhu
Curse of LaLlorona
Curse of Smoke O’ Lantern
Curse of the Zodiac
Dark Floors
Dark Infestation
Darkness Surrounds Roberta
Darkness Waits
Day The Dead Weren’t Dead, The
Dead Man’s Hand
Dead Silence
Dead Tree Hotel
Dead Undead, The
Dead@17
Deadwood Park
Death of a Ghost Hunter
The Deaths of Ian Stone **
Deathtrap
Decadent Evil II
Decoys 2: Alien Seduction
Demonology of Desire, The
Devil’s Trade
Diary of the Dead
Disturbia **
Doctor Inferno
Dream Slashers
Driftwood
Drive Thru
The Dunwich Horror
Dying God
Eat The Parents
Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield
Electrical Skeletal!
Etruscan Mask, The
The Evading
Exorcist Chronicles
Experiement 18: Das Hexenhammer-Projekt
Exquisite Corpse
Eyes of Samir, The
Familiar Spirits
Fear of Clowns 2
Fear of Lemonaid
Feast of Flesh, A
Ferryman, The ****
Fido
Fist of the Vampire
Flight of the Living Dead
Forest of the Dead
Frontiere
Frostbitten
Funny Games
Gallowwalker
Gay Bed and Breakfast of Terror
Gay Zombi
Gimme Skelter
Girl Next Door, The
God Thinks You’re A Loser
Gong Tau: An Oriental Black Magic
Goregoyles 2
Goth Girls: The Return
Grindehouse
Hack!
Hallowed Ground
Halloween (Rob Zombie’s) ***
Hannibal Rising **
Harvest Moon
Hatchet
Haunted World of El Superbeasto
Haunting of Sorority Row, The
Hell Awaits: A Portrait of Maddness
Hide and Seek
Hills Have Eyes II, The (remake)
Hitcher, The (remake)
Hogzilla
Hood Has Eyez, The
Horror Convention Massacre, The
Host, The (technically 2006) **
Hostile: Part II
I Am Legend ***
I Am Zombie Man
I Am Omega
In Search of Lovecraft
Inside
Irish Vampire Goes West, The
Isolation (in U.S.)
Joshua *****
Kaw
Killa Zombies
Killer Bikini Vampire Girls 3: A New Hope
Lake Dead
Last Zombie, The
Legend of Bloody Jack
Llorona Gone Wild
Long Pigs
Magus
May All Your Christmases be Black
Mega Snake
Messengers, The
Mist, The
Motocross Zombies From Hell
Mr. Halloween
Mulberry Street
Murder Party
Necroville
Netherbeast Incorporated
Nightmare Man
Not Quite Dead
Number 23, The *
Nympha
Orfanto, El (The Orphanage)
Ouija
P2 ***
Pan’s Labrynth (technically 2006) ****
Pirates of Ghost Island
Pop Skull
Postal
Poughkeepsie Tapes, The
Premonition, The
Primeval
Psycho Hillbilly Cabin Massacre!
Pumpkin Hell
Pumpkinhead: Blood Feud
Rage, The
Rapturious
Reaping, The
Resident Evil: Extinction
Return to House on Haunted Hill
Rise
Rise of the Ghosts
Rising Dead
Rock Zombie
Roman
Sam Hell
Satan’s Cannibal Holocaust
Savaged
Saw IV
School of Horror
Severance
Shadow Puppets of Doom
Shrieking Violet
Sick Bastard
Signal, The
Skinwalkers
So, You’ve Downloaded A Demon
Splatter Disco
Statement
Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming
Stitcher, The
Subject 8
Sublime
Succubus XXX
Supergater
Sweeney Todd
Sympathy
Teeth
They Wait
Thing in the Corner, The
Timber Falls
Torture Room
Trick ‘R Treat
Trigger Man
Tripper, The
Undead or Alive
Unearthed
Unholy, The
Vacancy ***
Vampire Biker Babes
Vampires of Zanzibar
Weenie Roast Massacre
Werewolf: The Devil’s Hound
White Noise 2: The Light
Wind Chill
Wraiths of Roanoke
Wrong Turn 2: Dead End
Yeti: The Curse of the Snow Demon
You’re So Dead
Zodiac *****
Zombie Cheerleader Camp
Zombie Farm
Zombie Hunter
Zombie Jesus!
Zombie Love
Zombie Stripper
Zombies Gone Wild
Zombies! Zombies! Zombies!