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Reposted by Jamie

Hellebore @helleborezine.bsky.social · 1d

British folk horror and occult characters to be on Halloween, a thread.

1. Mr Fisher from Robin Redbreast (1970).
Catchphrase: “The study of religions is one of my many interests.”
You’ll need:
- Tweed trilby
- Mutton chops
- Cracked spectacles
- A copy of The Golden Bough

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Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 1d

The damage on the print (frames burning up) also added to a general sense of weirdness. It was an agreeably gothic flavour.

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Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 1d

The fantastic coincidence of the framing device kept me occupied, if nothing else.

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Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 1d

A random find: melodrama A Window on Washington Park (1913, dir. Laurence Trimble). A melancholy millionaire keeps seeing an old man shivering in the park. He gets his butler to bring the man inside, and he tells a sad story. Loved the high-angle shot of the park. Strangely compelling little short.

High-angle shot of the park with several people walking through it. To the left, an older man, dressed in a black coat, leans against a tree.

The older man now inside, in a well appointed room. A younger man is looking at him. The younger man's butler stands behind the older man.

The older man, in a flashback - not quite as old - sitting in a chair. Having just had some bad news on his investments, he has taken a gun out and is holding it, contemplating a significant action.

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Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 1d

The 42 books I've sold so far? Well, whoever actually read it, while they were doing so, they weren't reading other stuff. You know, shit stuff. Anyway, your art is valid, important, *necessary*. It doesn't have to be perfect. Get it out there as an act of rebellion, if nothing else.

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Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 2d

Not saying people can't or shouldn't enjoy a wide range of stories across books, film, television, theatre et al. They can, even if it's shit. Lots of people really like shit stuff. I dunno, I'm just saying, your novel, idea, whatever gives people a different path, so believe in it, and yourself.

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Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 2d

Meanwhile, you ('a writer' you sheepishly said one time, to try on how it felt when someone asked "What do you do?"), beshitted by self-doubt, agonise a mild plot twist might be too much for some people to be 'convinced' by. And you used 'delicate' twice on one page. Your novel remains unpublished.

Stefan Mohamed @stefmowords.bsky.social · 2d

honestly why do we even bother

Substack post from Lincoln Michel:

"Alchemised debuts at #1 with massive sales, making it the THIRD Harry Potter Draco-Hermione friends-to-enemies fan fic to be turned into a bestselling novel in 2025. It's easy to say that publishers are just feeding readers slop, but harder to admit that they... enjoy it. They’re going to keep publishing it if people gobble it up by the ton."

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Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 2d

Even when it's so-so, turns out I'm still a sucker for old dark house shenanigans (again, also see House of the Long Shadows)

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Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 2d

Its 65 minutes are filled with characters and pretty much no one can be trusted. The sheer volume of cross and double cross probably plays better on stage, but Ford tries to include some interesting imagery and energy. Most striking: how intense Cohan's blue eyes are every time he's in close up...

Cohan in close-up, looking up - the character of Magee is meant to be thinking, pondering the mystery unfolding before him. But Cohan's strikingly blue eyes on film make him look very intense, like he's concentrating on summoning a demon.

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Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 2d

Seven Keys to Baldpate (1917, dir. Hugh Ford) has George M. Cohan adapt his own stage play version of Earl Derr Biggers' 1913 novel (later the inspiration for 1983's House of the Long Shadows). A convoluted, old dark house-ish tale of crime, cross and double cross. Overcooked but enjoyable enough.

Poster for Seven Keys to Baldpate shows George M. Cohan and Anna Q. Nilsson in the film, he dressed in a suit, she in a dress, fur shawl and hat. She has her hand on the handle of Baldpate Inn's safe, he is pointing at her accusingly. The title is at the bottom, and seven Keys are overlaid on the illustration.

George M. Cohan as the writer Magee, sat at a desk with a typewriter in from of him and a lamp to his side.

Magee again, looking intensely at a closed door, a shadow from a window covering the door in the shape of a cross.

The outside of the inn, wrapped in two balconies (one ground level, one first floor). To the left of the image, a woman is walking along the path. To the right, from the upper balcony, a man is dangling, ready to drop down.

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Reposted by Jamie

Movies Silently @moviessilently.bsky.social · 2d

"Cave man stuff" referred to the craze in the 1910s and 1920s for macho guys taking charge and getting handsy.

This 1918 Gale Henry short, despite its prehistoric ad, was set in the then-present day.

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Reposted by Jamie

P.G. Wodelouse 💀 @pgwodelouse.bsky.social · 2d

Beyond the bombastic score, occasional caricature, iffy narration and odd moment of Hammer unsubtlety, Dr Jeykll and Sister Hyde is a surprisingly probing exploration of duality, gender identity and sexuality, full of lovely symmetry, dramatic irony and Norman Warwick’s gorgeous cinematography

Dr Jeykll - or is it Sister Hyde - losing control of who and what they are in the reflection of a mirror shattered by a dagger

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Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 2d

Found a sad ghost on this battered old coaster

A battered coaster with a blue and white pattern on it, part of which has been peeled back, making a white shape, like a distored Caspat. Two bits of the blue show on it like eyes, giving it the impression of looking down with a sad expression.

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Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 3d

Very much well worth your time reading this (also, includes an announcement of Ray's next short story collection 👀)

Ray Newman @raynewman.bsky.social · 3d

BLOG POST: Reading, thinking, doing October 2025.

precastreinforced.co.uk/2025/10/09/r...

Reading, thinking, doing October 2025

I’ve been reading about the end of the world, walking from Kings Cross to Wapping, and making zines. This blog is what I do instead of starting yet another Substack newsletter. You can subscribe to…

precastreinforced.co.uk

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Reposted by Jamie

Silent London @silentlondon.bsky.social · 3d

A night in Le Giornate del Cinema Muto that I won't forget silentlondon.co.uk/2025/10/08/l...

Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2025: Pordenone Post No 5

It may seem that the Giornate is in its own bubble, a hundred years or more removed from the real world, wrapped up in the fashions and the fads of the past. But we’re still looking out at th…

silentlondon.co.uk

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Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 3d

'You, uh, you... don't *believe* in that sort of stuff, do you?'

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Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 3d

Ha ha yeah, when are you going to do some *real* writing, Rory?

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Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 3d

How I respond when people ask me why I write horror and not 'proper' literature

Intertitle reads "Anybody can write the stuff this critic means. Mine is the work of genius---real blood curdling situations---plot and counterplot---hair raisers!"

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Reposted by Jamie

Rose Ruane @regretteruane.bsky.social · 4d

Imagine a 1970s Alan Partridge on a mind bending trip through long lost London, so breakneck & fragmentary, full of incredible characters & handbrake turns that it feels like a dream where the cast & context keeps mutating & it still won’t be as wild as the actuality of this
youtu.be/hTIkSgNC4ww?...

1975: BERNARD FALK's Tour of HIDDEN LONDON | Nationwide | Weird and Wonderful | BBC Archive

YouTube video by BBC Archive

youtu.be

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Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 4d

Was also telling how uncomfortable some people got when (in previous roles) people using services used - their own choice - archaic or out of favour terms to describe themselves. But, that's easier than wrestling with the dissonance of trying to do good in ever-shifting, unsupported infrastructures.

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Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 4d

Perhaps tangential, but the field I work in often wraps itself up in knots over 'acceptable language' to the extent it feels like another self-made trap we've walked into, like endless meetings, where an illusion of progress masks no *actual*, tangible benefit for those systems are meant to support

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Reposted by Jamie

Silent London @silentlondon.bsky.social · 4d

Day four of Le Giornate del Cinema Muto brought a return to East Lynne and a visit to the women of Chaplinland. silentlondon.co.uk/2025/10/08/l...

Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2025: Pordenone Post No 4

Last night I dreamt I went to East Lynne again… Ellen Wood is directing my subconscious now. I love this mini melodrama strand and I really enjoyed today’s instalment, which was the lavish 1925 Fox…

silentlondon.co.uk

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Reposted by Jamie

Rose Ruane @regretteruane.bsky.social · 5d

New Puffin Post acquisition. What can I say, I am powerless before the incredible art of Jill McDonald.
I have a personal Puffin pusher and everything now, one who knows my proclivities, my weaknesses, my unappeasable appetite for 20th century illustration

Cover of a 1968 puffin post magazines with two carton puffins in wizard robes and hats patterned with stars, on the left red, on the right bright blue, standing over a cauldron filled with bubbling yellow and orange liquid over a fierce burning fire emitting grey curls of smoke from which are emerging sparkly clouds filled with cartoonish characters - the three little pigs, a witch, a lion, a dog, a puffin and some musical instruments with faces.
To the top right, puffin post is written in curly black letters inside a zig zag shape in pink

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Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 5d

A great police show that challenged and shocked.

archivetvmusings @archivetvmusings.bsky.social · 5d

R.I.P John Woodvine. Seen here in New Scotland Yard - Point of Impact (22nd April 1972).

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Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 5d

Also, don't fuck with Hop-Toad, it's the *last* decision you'll ever make

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