Tom Baker

Joined June 2018

860 stories

Bio

Author of Haunted Indianapolis, Indiana Ghost Folklore, Midwest Maniacs, Midwest UFOs and Beyond, Scary Urban Legends, 50 Famous Fables and Folk Tales, and Notorious Crimes of the Upper Midwest.: http://tombakerbooks.weebly.com

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The Sorry Fate of Mary Daily
Note: The following is sourced from the incredible, RARE book Play the Yellow Tape by Bobbi Lee (self-published, 2007) ***
By Tom Baker3 years ago in Criminal
The Elephant Man (The Stage Play)
When I was a child I threw the tantrum of all tantrums because I didn't want to watch the stage play of The Elephant Man on television. I think the year may have been 1982.
By Tom Baker3 years ago in Horror
Metropolis (1926)
There has never been a film like Metropolis, which was lensed nearly one hundred years ago, and which has an enduring power that verges on the supernatural. You may think I exaggerate; I do not. I first saw the film in a dream, as a child, before I EVER SAW A SINGLE FRAME OF IT.
By Tom Baker3 years ago in Futurism
The Terror (1963)
Helene: The crypt! It must be destroyed, and with it the dead. Andre: Don't speak of the dead anymore. You're with me now. Helene: I am possessed of the dead. Andre: You're a warm living woman. Who has told you these things? Helene: The dead.
By Tom Baker3 years ago in Horror
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
The Day the Earth Stood Still is an exemplary example of Cold War jitters. Made in 1951, based on the story "Farewell to the Master" (the particulars of which I can remember very little about at this point), it begins with a glowing "flying saucer" with a classic look, landing on the Washington Mall. A ramp cooly slides from the surface, as the military and curious onlookers surround the alien craft. A being in a weird silver suit and a helmet covering its face points a weird object with a springy antenna at the crowd, but is promptly shot by some Army grunt and falls to the ground. His robot, Gort, a hulking mass of Fifties sci-fi aluminum comes to life, and strides like Karloff's Creature down the ramp. A visor slides back, and a ray beam melts the grunts' rifles.
By Tom Baker3 years ago in Futurism
The Murder of the French Family
Note: The following account is sourced from the incredible, rare book Play the Yellow Tape by Bobbie Lee (self-published, 2007)
By Tom Baker3 years ago in Criminal
Naked Lunch (1991)
***The curious thing about David Cronenberg's film Naked Lunch is that it seems to have very little to actually do with the book Naked Lunch. Instead, it follows the general arch of its author, William S. Burroughs', life, and a few of his themes: addiction, possession by strange forces, and vast conspiracies to enslave mankind that may not even originate in the human world.
By Tom Baker3 years ago in Horror
Edison's Frankenstein (1910)
What can one say about a film that is a century old? Thought lost for many, many long decades, a complete (if deteriorated) print was finally found in the attic of an ancient theater, and restored until it was watchable. Its "Monster", predating Boris Karloff's iconic flat-topped ghoul, is a semi-idiotic-looking medieval peasant in filthy rags, Kracow shoes (pointed toes), and a few lengths of rope twisted about its torso. Its face is held in a stroke victim's frozen rictus of numb, unfeeling ugliness, and his eyes are wonderingly cow-like orbs under a fright-wig of filthy frizz.
By Tom Baker3 years ago in Horror
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a Cold War-era Red Scare parable about giant seed pods" from outer space. They suck the mental and physical attributes of sleeping humans and disgorge identical replicas of them. We know this because of the smooth, featureless body that is laid out later on a pool table, just waiting to assimilate the features of the bartender. This happens in Santa Mira, California. Where else?
By Tom Baker3 years ago in Futurism
Close Encounters of the Third KInd (Director's Cut)
***I've seen a UFO. Up close. Matter of fact, I've seen a couple of them. I don't know, specifically, what that means about ME, but, as far as the influence of the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind on m life, it WAS one of the first films from infanthood (along with Time After Time (1979) and Salem's Lot (1979), and the TV adaptation of the stage play of The Elephant Man (1982)) to indelibly etch its scenes into my subconscious. Especially the mantis-like alien that first appears during the final scenes of the film.
By Tom Baker3 years ago in Futurism
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
The Blair Witch Project, as I remember when it first came out, all those many, many years ago when I was a Sophomore at BSU, was an endlessly-hyped "event" film allegedly based around the "found footage" of three disappeared college film students, Heather Donohue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael C. Williams--all of whom are still alive and well, and all of whom essentially play themselves in the picture.
By Tom Baker3 years ago in Horror
Apocalypse Culture (1988)
"Pod People aspire to a manicured destiny--soft, serene, controlled, filtering any information that does not impinge on their pre-fab gestalt. Their retreat from reality is tempered with enough minor but manageable worries and decisions to negotiate boredom and furnish the mirage of individual mastery. These narcoleptics find sublimity in a jar o mayonnaise. As a consequence of the atrophy of the survival instinct, the Pod People can only breed monsters. The disenfranchised offspring, along with an entire ageless class of human discards, know only that they are doomed."--Adam Parfrey, Apocalypse Culture, (1988)
By Tom Baker3 years ago in Futurism

Tom Baker

Bio

Stories .css-1svwz57-Text{display:inline-block;color:var(--text-default-mute);}(860)

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The Sorry Fate of Mary Daily

The Elephant Man (The Stage Play)

Metropolis (1926)

The Terror (1963)

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

The Murder of the French Family

Naked Lunch (1991)

Edison's Frankenstein (1910)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Close Encounters of the Third KInd (Director's Cut)

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Apocalypse Culture (1988)

Stories (860)