Best demonic possessions in fiction

Now this might seem a trivial matter but consider what demons are supposed to be and how hard it is to create a believable possession scene. An by believable I mean as far as is acceptable with the suspension of disbelief re religion that atheists must use and the suspension of disbelief that anyone following the story must use. Both are the ultimate critics of a possession scene in fiction.
I would like to point out though, that if a believable scene isn't possible then you should go straight for the outlandish and never look back.

So here are some of the best that I know of:

Must be added as the character Rafi, who's possessed, is written extraordinarily well. He's strong, manipulative, torturous, has a split personality between original owner and possessor, heals quickly, is gross and incredibly dark. Oh, and imprisoned in a nuthouse where he still manages to wreak havoc. I would really love to see these books made into movies or comics because Rafi just needs to be seen. 

The Exocist

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 (hesitantly added as Freddy is classed as a nightmare rather than a demon but then, demons are out nightmares)

Onibaba

The Exorcism of Emily Rose

Futurama (hesitantly added as this is a were-car but it is also demonic in nature. Perfect example of make it outlandish)

Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2

Ghost Busters (And back to outlandish)

Morgan Kingsley's continued possession throughout the Morgan Kingsley series by Jenna Black.

Werewolves and war

The topic of war, real war, usually sends me into a complete twist brought on by rage at humanity’s faults and a lack of someone to punch over the excess death and misery caused by our own actions.

So, to bring something a little different to the day, I thought I'd write about where fiction and reality meet, and not just in your standard war movie or war book. I mean really fantastical fiction meets reality.

What better than werewolves and war? 

Have you ever noticed that werewolves are often connected with war in fiction? Wonder why? At first, if approached from the most recent stories, it seems a little far-fetched. You see and read of werewolves and zombies and Nazis battling away, sometimes a combination of these in one being, or you see and read of Nazi werewolf experiments as another of their scientific trials in bringing about a greater weapon with which to defeat their enemies. The theme has become almost a genre in itself, sustained by its own memes and not particularly connect to history in any way.

A Nazi werewolf zombie

It all gets quite detached from reality except in reference to war, Nazi symbology and Nazi gold and also werewolves. That last bit probably comes as a shock but yes, there was such a thing as the Nazi werewolves, or Werwolf. As you may have guessed, “Werwolf” is German for "werewolf". But how could there possibly be Nazi werewolves? By them not actually being werewolves, of course. They were purely human. Just a crack unit of soldiers formed in 1944 and named Werwolf. The Nazi’s weren’t experimenting to create super human soldiers. They already had the like through use of amphetamines and cocaine.

No, they were named Werwolf to strike fear, reference a purpose and promote the idea that this unit was an incredibly effective fighting force. Propaganda, in other words. It was all propaganda and hype even though there was a unit and they likely did achieve what tasks were given them, to some degree or another. Werwolf was promoted as a commando force that would operate behind enemy lines, dismantling the Allied war machine by guerrilla warfare and sabotage. Not much has been confirmed as having been actually done by these soldiers so it is likely they were more figureheads of terror than active soldiers.

I mentioned that the name Werwolf references a purpose. That purpose comes from a book. “The name was chosen after the title of Hermann Löns' novel, Der Wehrwolf (1910). Set in the Celle region, Lower Saxony, during the Thirty Years' War (1618–48), the novel concerns a peasant, Harm Wulf, who after his family is killed by marauding soldiers, organises his neighbours into a militia who pursue the soldiers mercilessly and execute any they capture, referring to themselves as Wehrwölfe. While not himself a Nazi (he died in 1914) Löns' work was also popular with the German far right, and the Nazis celebrated his work.”  - Monstrous.com. So this unit was designed and promoted to be merciless in their slaughter of the enemy.

Nazi werewolf doll

And that was the real Nazi Werwolfs. The popularity of Nazi werewolves, fictional Nazi werewolves that is, is due to several things that are either related to war and the Nazis or related to the history of werewolves in popular culture. Our love of a Nazi werewolf story though, comes more from out love of seeing monsters defeated after a fair amount of blood has been spilled. It is also one of those rare genres where the monster is two-fold or a hybrid, whichever you’d like to refer it as, and because of that it intrigues us because we can’t tell just what makes this creature more monstrous. Is it the Nazi aspect of the human side or the werewolf’s features and blood lust? 

A Nazi werewolf woman: wild but not so wolfish for obvious reasons.

Aside from the history of the Nazi Werewolf unit I believe there are two other things to influence the Nazi werewolf genre:

• The saying " Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war" that Shakespeare wrote (although the history of the saying goes at least as far back as 1385 with "Item, qe nul soit si hardy de crier havok sur peine davoir la test coupe" from The Black Book of the Admiralty, 1385 is a collection of laws in French and Latin that relate to the organisation of the English Navy). “The military order ‘Havoc!’ was a signal given to the English military forces in the Middle Ages to direct the soldiery (in Shakespeare's parlance 'the dogs of war') to pillage and chaos” - Phrase Finder
• The fear of the well trained and often lethal German shepherd war dog, used by any party who could get their hands on them. The reason why German shepherds still have a stigma of fear about them is because of their exceptional abilities during war. But to me the German shepherd is only fearful for its sometimes inability to distinguish poop from food (yuck!) and its size, given that I’m small enough to be bowled over and then subsequently licked by the dog that can’t always distinguish poop from food (double yuck!). That aside, German shepherds are awesome dogs and with the right love, care and training they are capable of some pretty amazing things, as soldiers, policemen and German shepherd owners alike will attest.

Allergy free lemon mousse pie recipe

In progress shot: This is just after pouring the filling in. I have another couple of hours until it sets properly I think but that's just right as this will be for after dinner.

Ingredients

• 1 pack Orgran Pastry Mix
• ½ cup Orgran Gluten Substitute
• 65g caster sugar
• 125g Nuttlex
• 5 tbsp iced water (may need more for chill a cup of water)
• 2 tsp gelatine
• ½ cup lemon juice (2-3 lemons)
• ¼ cup water
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 225g plain soft goat’s cheese
• 1 cup icing sugar
• ½ cup goat’s milk beaten with ½ cup plain soft goat’s cheese

Method

• Grease your pie dish.
• Add ½ Orgran Pastry Mix to a bowl along with Gluten Substitute, caster sugar and any other flavourings of your choosing.
• Spoon in Nuttlex and then rub in with your fingers.
• Add iced water and mix together.
• Slowly add other ½ of the pastry mix, adding extra water if necessary, until mix resembles dough in dryness if not texture.
• Do not knead, instead roll and press together.
• Roll out pastry, dusting the counter with flour, until it is wide enough to cover your pie dish and some. If the pastry cracks then reform in bowl with a little extra water. If your pastry sticks to the counter then reform and add a little flour. Then try again.
• Once the pastry is rolled out lift it gently into the pie dish and press in place.
• Cut the edges with a knife.
• Cook for approximately 15-20 minutes at 180°C or until cooked properly.
• Take pastry from oven and set aside.
• In a saucepan, combine gelatine, lemon juice and water.
• Stir over medium heat until dissolved.
• Remove from heat and stir in grated lemon zest then set aside.
• In a large bowl, combine goat’s cheese and sugar until smooth.
• Blend in gelatine mixture.
• Refrigerate 15 minutes until thick.
• Fold half and half goat’s mixture into lemon mixture.
• Spoon filling into the pastry.
• Refrigerate until firm and set.

The translation of comics to movies

The history of comics being made into movies is fairly long, having started in the 1940's, and the comics in question weren't always from DC or Marvel. There has been a public perception for many years that comics don't translate well to live action movies but at the same time we were actively supporting and promoting (by our ravings) movies that had in fact come from comics, we just hadn't realised it. Yes, there were some live action movies made from comics that were terrible; Daredevil, Catwoman and one or two of the Batmans for example. But even if this is the where you find out their comic origins it will not mean that you loved and still love Alien vs Predator, 30 Days of Night, Iron Man, Kick-Ass, The Men in Black, Sin City , From Hell and Tank Girl any less. You certainly didn't hold it against Batman and Superman for half a century when there were a few dud movies amongst their number too.

So here's a list of live action movies made from comics. There are probably more, I had to add a few from the list I was using as a source and I haven't kept up with the origins off all those movie I've watched.

• 30 Days of Night 2007, 2010
• 300, 2007
• Adventures of Captain Marvel, 1941
• Alien vs Predator, 2004
• American Splendor, 2003
• Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again, 1990
• Art School Confidential, 2006
• Barb Wire, 1996
• Batman, 1943 - 2008
• Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, 2000
• Blackhawk 1952, serial
• Blade, 1998-2004
• Bulletproof Monk, 2003
• Captain America, 1944-2001
• Catwoman, 2004
• Congo Bill, 1948
• Constantine, 2005
• Cowboys & Aliens, 2011
• The Crow, 1994 - 2005
• Daredevil, 2003
• Doctor Strange, 1978 - 2007
• Dylan Dog: Dead of Night, 2011
• Elektra, 2005
• Fantastic Four, 2005 - 2007
• Faust: Love of the Damned, 2001
• The Flash, 1990
• From Hell, 2001
• G-Men from Hell, 2000
• Ghost Rider, 2007-2012
• Ghost World, 2001
• Green Lantern, 2011
• Hardware 1990, unauthorized
• Hellboy, 2004 - 2008
• A History of Violence, 2005
• Hop Harrigan, 1946
• Howard the Duck, 1986
• Hulk, 1978-2008
• Iron Man, 2008 - 2010
• Jonah Hex, 2010
• Josie and the Pussycats, 2001
• Judge Dredd, 1995
• Justice League, 1997
• Kick-Ass, 2010
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, 2003
• The Losers, 2010
• Man-Thing, 2005
• The Mask, 1994 - 2005
• The Men in Black, 1997 - 2002
• Model by Day, 1994
• Monkeybone, 2001
• El Muerto, 2005
• Mystery Men, 1999
• Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., 1998
• Painkiller Jane, 2005
• The Phantom, 1946 - 2008
• Power Pack, 1991
• Prehistoric Peeps, 1905
• Punisher, 1989 - 2008
• Red, 2010
• Red Sonja, 1985
• Richie Rich, 1994 – 1998
• Road to Perdition, 2002
• The Rocketeer, 1991
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch, 1997
• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, 2010
• Sheena, 1984
• Sin City, 2005
• Spawn, 1997
• Spider-Man, 1977 – 2007
• The Spirit, 2008
• Spy Smasher, 1942
• Steel, 1997
• Supergirl, 1984
• Superman, 1941 – 2006
• Surrogates, 2009
• Swamp Thing, 1982 - 1989
• Tales from the Crypt, 1972 - 2001
• Tank Girl, 1995
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 1990 - 1993
• Thor, 2011
• Timecop, 1994 – 2003
• Up in Flames 1973, unauthorised
• V for Vendetta, 2006
• Vampirella, 1996
• The Vault of Horror, 1973
• Vigilante, 1947
• Virus, 1999
• Wanted, 2008
• Watchmen, 2009
• Weird Science, 1985
• Whiteout, 2009
• Witchblade, 2000
• Wonder Woman, 1974
• X-Men, 1996 - 2011

The accurate and impressive translation of comics to movies has improved as technology has progressed. Computers can now produce decent flames, glowing lasers, sky and cityscapes and can be used to speed up and slow down motion where before it was a much more manual task, results not always convincing enough. Costume design and makeup have improved too as new materials have been produced and gone into mass use. More money is being poured into the average comic movie now than ever before.

But in the last few years, especially since the production of Iron Man and Transformers (oop, there's another one), public expectations have grown enormously. What passed as a good live action comic movie before these can no longer pass muster with the viewers. Even the acting, how seriously the role is taken or how woodenly it comes across due to an actor's inability to move freely or the comic character's own stiffness, can make a big budget movie with all the bells and whistles completely flop. Now, comic book movies have to be well acted, be doctored with CG, contain real action and stunts, have well constructed costumes and a whole whack of cash spent on production. Anything less and the movie won't meet mass expectations. One to tread that fine line of late is Thor.


New heights have been reached and now the movie makers are expected to reach them every time. This is a little unreasonable but I guess it is how the movie industry goes. Unfortunately, it isn't just the movie makers who suffer from making what the public perceive as a dud. Those who aren't fans of the particular comic are turned away and those not fans of comics in general say it is because comics aren't any good anyway.


Even with this new wave of expectation and big spending, comic book movies and comic books themselves are not always viewed in the best of lights. They are seen as less than literature and requiring, funnily enough, less art. To me this opinion can only be resultant from a complete misconception as to what a comic is and just how much skill is involved in making one that is publishable to the mass market, the ones so often derided.

The writing is on a level with poetry or script writing due to the brevity required: the plot and dialogue have to be squished down into an easy flow or words that will portray each character accurately, convey their internal reasoning without seeming forced and provide enough quick information to fill in all the gaps that occur between panels. The art has to be of top quality and the skill involved in endlessly repeating the same faces and figures accurately is phenomenal. Try it and see. Tracing only gets you so far. It cannot even be said that no serious topics are addressed within comics. All that can be said is that those serious topics are amusingly presented using costumed (or not, depending) men and women as their mouthpieces.

Personally, I'm glad to see so many comics being taken seriously enough to be made into movies and appreciated by viewers. At the same time I wonder at the percentages of those actually produced solely by scriptwriters. Between comic books, novels and remakes there aren't nearly as many original ideas coming out of the movie industry as previously thought. And there had been some cynicism there already.

Scariest children in horror movies

The acting of a child can make or break a movie, especially a horror movie. Here are a few of the best child actors. There is another that springs to mind but she played in an Asian horror movie I can't remember the name of so I'm finding it rather difficult to look up. When I figure it out, I'm definitely adding her to the list. She was FREAKY.

Blonde Alien Children - Village of the Damned based on The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham.

Harvey Spencer Stephens - Damien Thorn from The Omen.

Isabelle Fuhrman - Esther from Orphan

Rie Inō - Sadako Yamamura from The Ring adapted from the novel Ring by Kōji Suzuki.

Linda Blair - Regan from The Exorcist

Will Sandin - Michael Myers from Halloween

Daeg Faerch - Michael Myers from Rob Zombie's Halloween

Lina Leandersson - from Let the Right One In based on a novel of the same title by John Ajvide Lindqvist.

Kare Hedebrant - from Let the Right One In (spooky and far too accepting of the slaughter going on around him).

John Franklin - Isaac from the Children Of The Corn based on a short story of the same title by Stephen King.

Danny Lloyd - Danny Torrance from The Shining based on a novel of the same title by Stephen King.

Lisa and Louise Burns - The Grady Twins from The Shining

Drew Barrymore - Charlene 'Charlie' McGee from The Firestarter based on a novel of the same title by Stephen King.

Miko Hughes - Gage Creed from Pet Cemetary based on a novel of the same title by Stephen King.

Abbey-May Wakefield - Little girl from 30 Days Of Night based on the comic book miniseries of the same name by Steve Niles.

Patty McCormack - Rhoda Penmark from The Bad Seed based on a 1954 novel by William March of the same name.

Yuya Ozeki - Toshio Saeki (Cat Boy) from Ju-on: The Grudge.

Macaulay Culkin - Henry from The Good Son.

Ethan Cutkosky - Jumby Barto the Dybbuk from The Unborn (best thing about the movie).

Fans having a say in a story's ending

Allowing fans to have a say in a story's ending has a longer history than many readers and writers realise. For the greater part, its history revolves around serialisation of publications, serialisation also having an extraordinarily long history. One Thousand and One Nights was published as a series of stories. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales was written tale by tale within an overarching structure although it is difficult to tell how they were originally printed. Early tales on Arthurian legend was built up not just by revision after revision but section by section. The Bible was constructed in sections and pieced together at a later date (I am not entering the fact/fiction debate but have included this title as it is an incredibly famous piece of serialised writing).

Canterbury Tales manuscript

But serialised books, the publication of books in succeeding parts, became vastly popular during the nineteenth century with the rise of newspapers and magazines. As a way of garnering a wide and stable audience and a steady living authors published chapters weekly or monthly in the magazine or newspaper of their choice (or the other way round depending on how the deals were made).

Charles Dickens, beginning with The Pickwick Papers in 1836, had his works published chapter by chapter. He listened to public response before he continued on, making sure the readers got what they needed even as he followed his own plot lines. Acceptance in a magazine or newspaper was not for those starting out or producing short works or inferior work, it was more for those who produced high quality pieces. Other famous authors who did likewise were Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry James, Herman Melville, Gustave Flaubert, Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky.

The original The Pickwick Papers

Serial publication continues to this day although to a lesser extent in newspapers and magazines, which now focus on the news and producing short advisory pieces for mass consumption. Along with fading publication opportunities went an author's acceptance of fan feedback as well as fan guided plotting. Authors now generally love positive feedback, are baffled, upset or annoyed by aggressive or negative feedback and fret over stalkers and the unsolicited questioning and demands from strangers. The direct connection and acceptance of fan feedback was affected by stranger danger, Internet stalking, a greater awareness of the need for privacy and the idea that authors are the sole owners of their works, as promoted by copyright.

All such things are valid enough but they do detract from the connection Dickens would have had with his readers. The Internet and multimedia have gone a long way towards reintroducing fan feedback but the connection is generally disjointed, with no great roar for a particular plot direction but rather hundreds of voices demanding or suggesting different things. Feedback is sometimes too intrusive for the author and the demand for plot changes unwanted. Mostly, the author and publisher already have their plans and little the fans say will change them.

Still, serialisation of books continues despite the involvement of fan feedback in plotting being reduced by the standard processes of novel publication. Serialisation has become the continued story of a set of characters over several books, called a series, rather than the publication of single chapters at a time. The great roar of fan feedback has changed to the mass popularity and demand for continued titles of those series that have become multi-formatted phenomena. Books are in some ways like comics to the masses with regards to the need for more information on a single set of characters.

The Harry Potter series

But out of all the genres and all the books sold there is a rather extraordinary type of story telling that involves fan guided plotting to a greater extent than any other. It is the Choose Your Own Adventure genre or series or publication, however you like to look at it. Series is a generally accepted term so I'll stick with that.

Choose Your Own Adventure books were based on a concept of Edward Packard's. They originally appeared as Adventures Of You, beginning with Packard's Sugarcane Island in 1976. Choose Your Own Adventure books were of the most popular children's series during the 1980s-1990s and sold over 250 million copies from 1979-98.

Choose Your Own Adventure books

Personally, I was a fan. As a child I'd read them forwards, then backwards starting from a winning page and then backwards again multiple times to figure out how many different ways I could die. Endless amusement if you counted in the fact that there was a whole shelf of them at the library. I died so many different ways. Exploding in space being one of the most interesting ones to me then.

But as a fan, a young and not very connected to mass cultural fads fan, I had no concept of being able to provide feedback to an author with regards to plot direction. But with Choose Your Own Adventure books what I did do was directly alter the plot as I read. I could, in fact, choose what I wanted to happen and read on, whether forwards or backwards, winning or losing. I cannot tell you how great an impact it had on me but suffice it to say I will always be a fan of this type of fiction even if it does go out of favour and print.

Aside from allowing extensive reader guidance of plot, Choose Your Own Adventure books also provides a small glimpse into what it was like to be an author like Dickens. Dickens sought popular acclaim and delighted in his works being admired by the masses. After each chapter or section was published he could track his popularity by the sales of the publication, gather popular opinion on what should happen and why as well as adjust his stories or the publications to gain wide/r reader acceptance (only some adjustments are documented but he did take his readers into account and played with their expectations to gain the greatest response - this does not mean he always wrote what they wanted). "Readers, periodically renewing acquaintance with Dickens' characters over nineteen months, came to think of them as living people; and they did not hesitate to communicate to the author their hopes and fears over what future instalments might hold in store." - Dickens And His Readers. Dickens was one to respect the admiration for and connection of readers to his characters and so he endeavoured not to disappoint.

Does this sound much like what it is to deal with fans over the Internet nowadays? "I have had a pretty large experience of the interest my hearers are so generous as to take in these occasions, and of the delight they give to me, as a tried means of strengthening those relations — I may almost say of personal friendship — which it is my great privilege and pride, as it is my great responsibility, to hold with a multitude of persons who will never hear my voice nor see my face." This feeling of immediate connection and responsibility over an unknown reader's reactions has returned with the Internet as it is quicker and easier than ever for readers to respond to events within a book. Immediate response, as all salesmen and buyers known, counts a great deal.

Dickens always wrote to his own plan but he did take readers into account far more than the latest round of published authors. He especially took note of the opinions of those who were a source of inspiration for him and of those he respected and sort to acclaim from. He was like a thespian in this respect, a politician in others and a dancer upon the public stage. When he performed he did it with the intention of capturing attention with his story, not with the intention of filling his pockets. He loved performing for an audience, no matter how, and he did it extremely well.

Charles Dickens performing

Choose Your Own Adventures takes this reader plot guidance to a whole new level. Instead of an author asking of or listening to readers the books simply set out all the options available to a character at each vital stage of the story and you, dear reader and self made protagonist by reading, get to follow the path you'd like or want. What happens after that is on your own head.

As far as fan input into the creation and ending of a story goes, the best has already been done. This does not mean that an author couldn't or shouldn't do something fan based but that an extremely brilliant idea will be required to top either Choose Your Own Adventures or the lost times of direct feedback and involvement created by closely knit media, performance and audience response.

A brief mention on performance: I wrote earlier of multi formats for a single story gaining an author vast amounts of feedback. This is a rare thing as only a few authors find their works popular in multi formats even if they do appear in such. Performance on stage or through movies garners the greatest response. Even Dickens valued performance. He would hold readings and enact scenes in ways to purposely terrify or move the audience with their intensity.

To gain wide enough public feedback to appropriately alter a plot line so as to gain further public acclaim may mean an author will need to jump through a great many hoops. Authors, often a little shy or introverted or unwilling to take the spotlight, may need to get up on stage and perform in order to successfully become writers of fan-guided fiction. Either that or send someone else in your place and pay them. Oh, and remember that performance doesn't necessarily mean on stage or camera. Readings, interviews etc count as well but these would have to be consistent and extremely engaging if you want to create popular acclaim enough to get feedback to follow. By this point I believe you would have already established yourself as an author who didn't follow fan guidance so a change of image would mean starting all over again in gaining popularity.

Where you will be

Authors of fan-guided fiction who don't write their own ideas over those of another are in fact puppets to popularity. I am not denigrating the role of a puppet, just making sure you as the prospective author of fan-guided fiction know just what you have to do. Dance, perform, listen, accede to wishes or apologise for not and largely forgo your own ideas. It is a difficult life to do such things so be prepared. A job in the service industry will help you gain experience.