The book release of Dracula The Un-Dead by Dacre Stoker and Halloween itself, together with all the scary movie previews everywhere, have all made me think about what scary entertainment does to us.

Are scary movies and books bad for your mental health?
When I was a little girl, I slept with my long hair wrapped around my neck because I thought it would protect me from vampires. Even in college, as an English major, I still didn’t read Dracula.
The few times I’ve watched scary movies, I’ve dreamed about them, and I was a stabbing victim in one of those dreams. So, …read more

Poor Transylvania.  It gets such a bad rap as a result of its place in literature (home to Count Dracula and a prominent location in the horror genre), and the reality is that it’s a perfectly lovely region in Romania.
Still, I can’t blame them for wanting to capitalize on their literary heritage during the Halloween season, with special tours and events that capture the unique flavor of the season and the location.  And indeed they are trying to capitalize on their destination’s popularity with a number of Dracula tours, specially themed for the Halloween season, and lasting from a few …read more

With the rise of vampire literature and film lately, Romania is poised to become a tourist destination for both the vampire-curious, as well as the traveler looking for an outstanding budget destination.
While decrying the branding of Romania as a vampire destination, the tourism office still intends to capitalize on it.  Not many people can cite any specifics about the country of Romania, but most remember the legend of Bram Stokers, Dracula.  Subsequent vampire genre literature has only seemed to reinforce the uneasy, but successful, branding of Romania and vampires.
Rest assured, there are lots of other things to see and …read more

Oh, man. I freaking love Halloween. Not only does it kick off a serious season of celebration here in America, but it’s also just plain ol’ awesome.
Unfortunately, I won’t be doing anything this year (unless you count listening to the really scary coyotes behind my house), but that didn’t curb my desire to find out what kinds of bone-chilling Halloween goodness I could collect in my virtual trick-or-treat bag.
And, the full-sized bag of Skittles from the entire bunch? WebMD’s 5 Halloween Character Case Files.
This article offers “case files” of five popular Halloween characters: the witch, the zombie, the ghoul, the …read more