Plot
On Mars, tough smuggler Northwest Smith encounters a young woman being chased by a mob. Instinctively, he decides to protect her. The crowd identifies her as "Shambleau", but Smith does not recognize the name. He is surprised when the mob disperses without violence when he claims her as his own. To his puzzlement, he senses disgust, not hatred, aimed at him.
When Smith takes a closer look at the woman, he realizes that she is not human, though she is attractive. Feeling some responsibility for her, he allows her to shelter in his room, while he conducts his illegal business.
Smith eventually discovers firsthand that a Shambleau feeds on the life-force of others using the extensible, worm-like appendages it has instead of hair, while addicting its short-lived victims with pure ecstasy. Fortunately for Smith, his Venusian partner Yarol comes looking for him and finds him before it is too late. Unlike Smith, he knows what the creature is. Though he himself is drawn to the Shambleau, he manages to avert his gaze; then, using the Shambleau's reflection in a mirror, Yarol is able to shoot and kill it. Later, he speculates that the story of Perseus and Medusa had its origins in the activities of a Shambleau on ancient Earth.
Catherine Lucille Moore was an American science fiction and fantasy writer, who first came to prominence in the 1930s writing as C. L. Moore. She was among the first women to write in the science fiction and fantasy genres. Moore's work paved the way for many other female speculative fiction writers.
Sexual themes are frequently used in science fiction or related genres. Such elements may include depictions of realistic sexual interactions in a science fictional setting, a protagonist with an alternative sexuality, a sexual encounter between a human and a fictional extraterrestrial, or exploration of the varieties of sexual experience that deviate from the conventional.
In Greek mythology, Medusa, also called Gorgo or the Gorgon, was one of the three Gorgons. Medusa is generally described as a woman with living snakes in place of hair; her appearance was so hideous that anyone who looked upon her was turned to stone. Medusa and her Gorgon sisters Euryale and Stheno were usually described as daughters of Phorcys and Ceto; of the three, only Medusa was mortal.
Frankenstein's Daughter is an independently made 1958 American black-and-white science fiction/horror film drama, produced by Marc Frederic and George Fowley, directed by Richard E. Cunha, that stars John Ashley, Sandra Knight, Donald Murphy, and Sally Todd. The film was distributed by Astor Pictures and was released theatrically as a double feature with Missile to the Moon.
Northwest Smith is a fictional character, and the hero of a series of stories by science fiction writer C. L. Moore.
Summerland is a 2002 fantasy young adult novel by American writer Michael Chabon. It is about young children who save the world from destruction by playing baseball, the central theme and symbol throughout the novel. Summerland weaves elements of a World Series, parallel-universe road trip, and a hero's odyssey. The book received mixed reviews; The New York Times called it "bewilderingly busy" and likened it to "the novelization of an animated action film".
The Hook, or the Hookman, is an urban legend about a killer with a pirate-like hook for a hand attacking a couple in a parked car.
"The Fly" is a science fiction horror short story by French-British writer George Langelaan. It was published in the June 1957 issue of Playboy magazine. It appeared in SF The Year's Greatest Science-Fiction and Fantasy, Dell First Edition B119, 1958. It was first filmed in 1958, and then again in 1986. An opera of the same name by Howard Shore premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, in 2008. The short story "The Fly" is included in Langelaan's short story collection Out of Time (1964).
"Jenifer" is the fourth episode of the first season of Masters of Horror. It originally aired in North America on November 18, 2005. It was directed by Dario Argento and written by and starring Steven Weber. "Jenifer" is adapted from a 10-page black-and-white comic book story, written by Bruce Jones and illustrated by Bernie Wrightson, that originally appeared in issue #63 of the horror anthology title Creepy.
Island of Lost Souls is a 1932 American science fiction horror film directed by Erle C. Kenton. Produced and distributed by Paramount Productions, it is based on H. G. Wells' 1896 novel The Island of Doctor Moreau, and stars Charles Laughton, Richard Arlen, and Kathleen Burke. Island of Lost Souls is about Edward Parker (Arlen), a sailor who finds himself stranded on an island that is occupied by the scientist Dr. Moreau (Laughton). Parker agrees to stay until the next boat arrives; Moreau introduces him to Lota (Burke), who unknown to Parker, is part-panther. It is revealed all of the island's inhabitants are the results of Moreau's experiments to create humans from animals. Moreau tries to persuade Lota to have sex with Parker so he can continue his experiments.
King of Thorn is a Japanese fantastique manga series written and illustrated by Yuji Iwahara. It was published by Enterbrain in the seinen magazine Monthly Comic Beam between October 2002 and October 2005 and collected in six bound volumes. It is licensed in North America by Tokyopop, with the final volume published in November 2008. The series is about a group of people who are put in suspended animation to escape a mysterious plague that turns people to stone, and upon waking there appears to be only seven survivors in a world run wild—including a Japanese teenage girl named Kasumi Ishiki and a British man named Marco Owen. The survivors soon discover that the entire ruin is filled with strange, dinosaur-like creatures and other monstrous aberrations of nature. Thinking that a great amount of time passed since their arrival on the island, soon the survivors discover not only that their sleep was indeed too short to label such dramatic changes as natural occurrence, but also that the situation in and of itself is far greater than they could imagine.
"Medusa's Coil" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop. It was first published in Weird Tales magazine in January 1939, two years after Lovecraft's death. The story concerns the son of an American plantation owner who brings back from Paris a new wife. It mixes elements of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos with the ancient Greek myth of Medusa, but it has also been noted for its racist aspects.
Curse of the Faceless Man is a 1958 independently made American low-budget black-and-white horror film, produced by Robert E. Kent, directed by Edward L. Cahn, that stars Richard Anderson, Elaine Edwards, Adele Mara, and Luis van Rooten. Science fiction writer Jerome Bixby wrote the screenplay. The film was theatrically released in the U.S. by United Artists as a double feature with It! The Terror from Beyond Space.
Shambleau and Others is a 1953 collection of science fiction and fantasy short stories by American writer C. L. Moore. The book was originally announced by Arkham House but never published by them. It was first published by Gnome Press in 1953 in an edition of 4,000 copies. The collections contains stories about Moore's characters Northwest Smith and Jirel of Joiry. The stories all originally appeared in the magazine Weird Tales.
Geometria is a 1987 short fantasy horror comedy film written and directed by Guillermo del Toro. It is based loosely on Fredric Brown's short story "Naturally", which was originally published in Beyond Fantasy Fiction and later reprinted in the short story collection Honeymoon in Hell. Geometria was shot in Guadalajara, Jalisco in Mexico. It is the tenth short film del Toro directed, though all but 1985's Doña Lupe remain unreleased.
A Boy and His Dog is a 1975 American black comedy science fiction film directed by actor L. Q. Jones, from a screenplay by Jones based on the 1969 novella of the same title by fantasy author Harlan Ellison. The film stars Don Johnson, Susanne Benton, Alvy Moore, and Jason Robards. It was independently produced and distributed by Jones' company LQ/Jaf Productions. The film's storyline concerns a teenage boy, Vic, and his telepathic dog, Blood, who work together as a team in order to survive in the dangerous post-apocalyptic wasteland of the Southwestern United States. Shout! Factory released the film on DVD and Blu-ray in August 2013.
The Woman Eater is a low budget 1958 British horror film directed by Charles Saunders and starring George Coulouris and Vera Day. Produced by Guido Coen, the film recounts the story of a crazed scientist who feeds women to a flesh-eating tree in return for a serum that can bring the dead back to life. The film was released in the UK in 1958 by Eros Films on a double bill with the Swedish crime drama Blonde in Bondage (1957).
"Chapter 1" is the premiere episode of the sixth season of the anthology television series American Horror Story. It aired on September 14, 2016, on the cable network FX. The episode was co-written by creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk and directed by Bradley Buecker.
Medusa is a supervillain appearing in DC Comics publications and related media, commonly as a recurring adversary of the superhero Wonder Woman. Based upon the eponymous Greek mythological figure whose story was chronicled in Ovid's Metamorphoses, she is a snake-haired Gorgon with the ability to turn living creatures to stone with her gaze. Since her debut in 1964, Medusa's physical appearance has been presented variously as DC Comics' continuities have shifted and evolved. Though she has routinely been depicted with snakes for hair, she has sometimes been shown as bipedal and sometimes with a serpentine lower body. However across continuities, she has consistently been written with the ghostly ability to possess or influence other beings after her physical body has been killed, as well as an uncanny capacity for resurrection after death. Her characterization has been that of a dangerous immortal creature who is at turns both vengeful and sympathetic.
The Best of C. L. Moore is a collection of science fiction and fantasy short stories by American author C. L. Moore, edited by Lester del Rey. It was first published in hardback by Nelson Doubleday in November 1975 and in paperback by Ballantine Books in March 1976 as a volume in its Classic Library of Science Fiction. A second hardcover edition was issued by Taplinger in 1977, and the paperback edition was reissued by Del Rey/Ballantine in December 1980 and January 1981. The book has been translated into German and Italian.
