# New Idea for a Horror Novel



## Lewdog (May 17, 2013)

So last night I came up with an idea for a horror novel if anyone is interested.  Here is the basic premise of it:

A taxidermist who's family was killed by a drunk driver, has gone off the rails and off the grid.  Mysteriously people in the small town have come up missing recently.  After awhile the local law enforcement find out that the taxidermist is to blame.  He has stitched different animal parts directly to his body, including a wolf mask, bear paws with claws, and bear feet.  The law enforcement at first thought the people were being killed by a bear because of the bear prints that were left behind at the scene.  The taxidermist had built a life size dollhouse, literally one that is cut in half so he can see everything inside.  He's been killing people and stuffing them and treating them just like a taxidermist does animals, so he can use them in his dollhouse to re-create a family.  What the law enforcement doesn't know, is that once he fills his dollhouse, he is going to start on his own entire town.  Just how far will he get, before he finally gets caught?


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## JosephB (May 17, 2013)

I’d give him duck feet. That would really confuse the authorities.


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## Lewdog (May 17, 2013)

JosephB said:


> I’d give him duck feet. That would really confuse the authorities.



I was thinking about chipmunk feet, but...well I've never seen a chipmunk kill anyone.


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## Travers (May 17, 2013)

This is sounding more b-movie than novel.

All I can think of is this guy with a wolf's face, bear's paws and chipmunk's... whatever the hell they have... sewn on, popping down to the shops for bread and milk.

More comedy horror than out and out horror.


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## Lewdog (May 17, 2013)

Travers said:


> This is sounding more b-movie than novel.
> 
> All I can think of is this guy with a wolf's face, bear's paws and chipmunk's... whatever the hell they have... sewn on, popping down to the shops for bread and milk.
> 
> More comedy horror than out and out horror.



He won't go to town...he'll live off the land goof!  Though it would be kind of funny.  It would be something like that movie I watched not long ago, _Tucker and Dale vs. Evil.
_
[video=youtube;AhF1FIiIcRo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhF1FIiIcRo[/video]


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## FleshEater (May 17, 2013)

No, this would be more Roger Corman. Very B grade, and would need a lot of charm.


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## Altan (May 17, 2013)

I can't put my finger on it, but it sounds vaguely familiar.




> This is sounding more b-movie than novel.



This too.


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## Lewdog (May 17, 2013)

Altan said:


> I can't put my finger on it, but it sounds vaguely familiar.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Well, it is kind of like _House of Wax_, but exactly.


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## Travers (May 17, 2013)

Lewdog said:


> He won't go to town...he'll live off the land goof!  Though it would be kind of funny.  It would be something like that movie I watched not long ago, _Tucker and Dale vs. Evil.
> _
> [video=youtube;AhF1FIiIcRo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhF1FIiIcRo[/video]



That film was surprisingly good, I wasn't expecting much when I watched it (although Alan Tudyk is normally excellent), but it was very original.

Ok, if not going to the shops, any of the other mundane daily tasks!


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## FleshEater (May 17, 2013)

The original House of Wax was nothing like this. And, the original is far better than that remake garbage.

The first film that popped into my head was Dead and Buried.

Then next would be Deranged, and then Maniac.

Though this would all be a few grade levels below those stories, ha-ha! Something like Mountain Top Motel Massacre comes to mind...or The Basement.


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## Lewdog (May 17, 2013)

Come on, the new House of Wax has Elisha Cuthbert and Paris Hilton in it!


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## Travers (May 17, 2013)

Lewdog said:


> Come on, the new House of Wax has Elisha Cuthbert and Paris Hilton in it!



Hmm hot women who get sort of imprisoned, albeit in wax. Maybe this therapist IS needed.


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## FleshEater (May 17, 2013)

I can't believe I'm reading this blasphemy. Vincent Price? C'mon! If you want hot women get out of the house...or use the internet. There's no reason to destroy a great film by placing TERRIBLE actors/actresses in it just because they're the hot thing. Which by the way, I'd rather vomit on Paris Hilton after a night of Jager than shake her hand.

This celebrates my 666th post!


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## Lewdog (May 17, 2013)

FleshEater said:


> I can't believe I'm reading this blasphemy. Vincent Price? C'mon! If you want hot women get out of the house...or use the internet. There's no reason to destroy a great film by placing TERRIBLE actors/actresses in it just because they're the hot thing. Which by the way, I'd rather vomit on Paris Hilton after a night of Jager than shake her hand.




Wait Vincent Price did stuff other than the voice over on Michael Jackson's Thriller song?  OMG seriously?    Let me see who I'd rather have.







 or 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




What is wrong with YOU?


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## FleshEater (May 17, 2013)

You must not know this about me, but I live and breathe horror cinema. Paris Hilton could fall off the face of the earth and most people would laugh...Price was a legend.


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## Staff Deployment (May 18, 2013)

FleshEater said:


> The original House of Wax was nothing like this. And, the original is far better than that remake garbage.



I liked the remake because the climactic scene was awesome. Doesn't make sense when you look back on it (the fire seems to selectively melt the wax and ignore the characters) but the effect was surprisingly good.



FleshEater said:


> There's no reason to destroy a great film by placing TERRIBLE actors/actresses in it just because they're the hot thing.



Paris Hilton gets her face impaled with a chunk of metal rebar. Very cathartic.



Lewdog said:


> Let me see who I'd rather have.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Guy on the left. Amazing man and inspiration, and also probably an engaging dinner table conversationalist.

You also, fittingly, chose a picture of Paris Hilton that makes her look like a wax sculpture.


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## Lewdog (May 18, 2013)

I didn't have too many pictures to choose from that I could actually post on here that wouldn't get me an infraction.  :cookie:


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## Staff Deployment (May 18, 2013)

Lewdog, I am never taking you shopping in a department store. You'll start flirting with the mannequins and get us kicked out.


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## Lewdog (May 18, 2013)

Staff Deployment said:


> Lewdog, I am never taking you shopping in a department store. You'll start flirting with the mannequins and get us kicked out.



I'm not that big of a pervert.  My birthday is coming up and my buddy wants to take me to an erotic dance club.  I told him no, I don't believe in objectifying women like that.

:-\"


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## FleshEater (May 18, 2013)

I do not watch remakes. Just like most of you would not read rewrites.


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## Staff Deployment (May 18, 2013)

Lewdog said:


> I'm not that big of a pervert.  My birthday is coming up and my buddy wants to take me to an erotic dance club.  I told him no, I don't believe in objectifying women like that.
> 
> :-\"



The joke was that Paris Hilton is a plastic person made up of plastic parts, but I suppose you had good reasons for mentioning your refusal to go to strip clubs for whatever reason.

...Which ties back to the main topic: your evil taxidermist should totally do up a strip bar of embalmed people!
Don't actually do that.
That's actually horrible.


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## Lewdog (May 18, 2013)

Staff Deployment said:


> The joke was that Paris Hilton is a plastic person made up of plastic parts, but I suppose you had good reasons for mentioning your refusal to go to strip clubs for whatever reason.
> 
> ...Which ties back to the main topic: your evil taxidermist should totally do up a strip bar of embalmed people!
> Don't actually do that.
> That's actually horrible.



You need to see a therapist more than I do!


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## luckyscars (May 18, 2013)

FleshEater said:


> I do not watch remakes. Just like most of you would not read rewrites.



Not to get off of writing completely here, but I feel the need to point out not all remakes are bad. And a remake is not the equivalent of a rewrite. A good remake (of which, I agree, there are few) is a new interpretation. It is much more accurate to compare a remake with a band covering another band's song. Most of the time the original is better. But not always.

There are numerous examples. The first one that popped into my head is 'True Grit', the original of which was a decent - albeit heavily romanticized - John Wayne saga. The remake by the Coen Brothers (who are incapable of making a bad film IMO) is a thousand times better. Another example of a remake that I think (although again, others may disagree) to be better would be 'The Fly'. Then you have 'The Departed', which is a remake of an older movie titled 'Internal Affairs', the classic horror movie 'The Thing' (the 1982 version, not the newest piece of excrement) which was, believe it or not, a remake of 'The Thing From Another World' - a fifties b-movie. And then there is the old chestnut of 'The Magnificent Seven', which is a remake of 'The Seven Samurai' and definitely better unless you really go for the Asian stuff.

These are all remakes and if you refuse to entertain giving them a chance 1) You're closing yourself off to a lot of options because practically everything is, to some extent, done before and 2) You're missing out on some good movies. What matters is whether the remake is literally transposing word-for-word a classic to 'modernize' and/or 'sexualize' it, which is nothing more than directorial laziness (a la Psycho, House of Wax, etc) or whether it is being interpreted in a new and interesting way. To go back to writing a moment, the same principle applies: There are books which simply rewrite other books' plotlines with minimal and superficial tweaks and then there are those that actually introduce something new or offer a different perspective. A distinction should be made.


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## Gargh (May 18, 2013)

Here's a poser for the remakes - Hotel California... The Eagles vs The Gipsy Kings?

And not to completely derail the thread... Lewdog, I'd like the idea better if the taxidermist was part-psycho/part-vigilante and was taking out only drunks/drunk drivers. You could have his selection criteria loosen as the story progressed and he became more concerned with completing the 'set' than his original purpose. Come now, if you don't take it seriously it will never achieve that B movie rating!


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## Jeko (May 18, 2013)

Slightly reminded me of Neil Gaiman's Coraline.


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## Dave Watson (May 18, 2013)

I actually quite like the idea for the story, but I'm a stickler for plausability. If someone somehow grafted a wolf's face and bears feet onto themselves, for a start, how would they perform that operation? The physical mechanics of such an undertaking pose a serious problem of believability! Even if this _was _done, would it not mean that the psycho taxidermist would need a lengthy period of rehabilitiation and physiotherapy in order to move around, never mind stealthily stalk and murder people?


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## Gargh (May 18, 2013)

You know, I'm kind of starting to see this... it would need to be a costume or exoskeleton of left over bits (or redundant bits where the rest of the body has spoiled?) if feasibility becomes an issue. The dolls house, now that could be his own house where he's cut out the insides (continuing with the taxidermy theme) of one half of the house and left the other half (where his original family used to abide) staged at the back, to be filled with his exhibits. He could 'live' in his garage and as far as his neighbours would know he would be undertaking a series of renovations and if one of them got too nosey, well...


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## JosephB (May 18, 2013)

You couldn't pay me to watch the majority of horror movies -- even the ones people consider classics. But especially something to do with a maniac of some kind with a mask or whatever luring or stalking people and then killing them in some signature fashion. So one-dimensional and predictable. The people in them are so stupid and do the dumbest things to put themselves into obvious danger. A bunch of people get killed, but someone one manages to escape. Maybe the crazy guy gets caught -- or not -- so there can be a sequal. Yawn.



Dave Watson said:


> I actually quite like the idea for the story, but I'm a stickler for plausability.



Well, in this case, you'd better pick one and go with it.


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## FleshEater (May 18, 2013)

Luckyscars; you do realize that two of those remakes were directed by David Cronenberg and John Carpenter right? (I only care about horror, really) Who just happen to be two of the greatest directors that have ever lived.

I don't mind remakes done before 1990...Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Blob, The Thing, The Fly. But, today, all a remake is is pure trash. I'm not missing anything, and I actually had a good laugh when you said that. And yes, most of the time a remake anymore is the exact same thing, not a re-imagining, because these directors don't have that kind of creativity.

I was thinking about this story last night and The Creature from the Haunted Sea came to mind. Not the story line, just what the masked man would look like, ha-ha!


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## JosephB (May 18, 2013)

I tend to agree. Some remakes are made to pay homage, or because they recognize the validity and power of the material and there's a chance to remake it with better technology and more naturalistic acting -- and then there are the remakes that are made because the filmmakers can't come up with their own ideas and they just want to make a buck. The newer remakes _generally_ fall into the latter category.


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## Lewdog (May 18, 2013)

Gargh said:


> Here's a poser for the remakes - Hotel California... The Eagles vs The Gipsy Kings?
> 
> And not to completely derail the thread... Lewdog, I'd like the idea better if the taxidermist was part-psycho/part-vigilante and was taking out only drunks/drunk drivers. You could have his selection criteria loosen as the story progressed and he became more concerned with completing the 'set' than his original purpose. Come now, if you don't take it seriously it will never achieve that B movie rating!



Well the idea is, at first he would be looking most, to replace his family, then it would be random people.  I'm thinking his first kill he would stalk for awhile until he found just the right one.  Then it would throw off investigators why he drug off the whole family except the father.  After that it would just be random people to make up for neighbors and whatnot.

Dave it really wouldn't be that big of a surgery to simply graft the skin of a cured dead animal hide onto the skin.  This would be easy for a skilled taxidermist, and likely only take a week or so to heal.  Now the front bear paws and claws would more than likely just have to be gloves, because it would be hard for him to do any work with them sewn on, let alone trying to sew the second one after the first.


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## J Anfinson (May 18, 2013)

If that's the story you want to tell then write it. Some people may hate it, some might love it. If nothing else you'll surely learn something along the way.


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## dale (May 18, 2013)

FleshEater said:


> You must not know this about me, but I live and breathe horror cinema. Paris Hilton could fall off the face of the earth and most people would laugh...Price was a legend.


yeah, i've downloaded most of his films off of pirate's bay. one of the greatest actors ever, imo.


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## FleshEater (May 18, 2013)

dale said:


> yeah, i've downloaded most of his films off of pirate's bay. one of the greatest actors ever, imo.



Hands down. And he can play the hero or the villain equally well. Witchfinder General has to be one of the greatest Price films of all time, right along with The Abominable Dr. Phibes.


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## FleshEater (May 18, 2013)

Lewdog said:


> Well the idea is, at first he would be looking most, to replace his family, then it would be random people.  I'm thinking his first kill he would stalk for awhile until he found just the right one.  Then it would throw off investigators why he drug off the whole family except the father.  After that it would just be random people to make up for neighbors and whatnot.
> 
> Dave it really wouldn't be that big of a surgery to simply graft the skin of a cured dead animal hide onto the skin.  This would be easy for a skilled taxidermist, and likely only take a week or so to heal.  Now the front bear paws and claws would more than likely just have to be gloves, because it would be hard for him to do any work with them sewn on, let alone trying to sew the second one after the first.



The human body has an issue sometimes with accepting foreign bones and organs, so I'd say logically, there would be a lot of issues with infection. Especially a guy stitching a tanned animal hide into his skin. Also, with him looking like that, you're pretty much shutting him off from grocery shopping for food, and from following his victims during the day time to stalk them. Not too mention that if the local sheriff actually believes an animal is killing people and not leaving a trace of a body, then no one is going to make it past the dimwitted law enforcement. Horror can be goofy, but there is a line, and I'm sure that line is even finer when it comes down to wasting time reading, instead of viewing a picture with friends.  

I'll watch Woodchipper Massacre in the company of others, but there is no way I'd read something like that.


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## Lewdog (May 18, 2013)

FleshEater said:


> The human body has an issue sometimes with accepting foreign bones and organs, so I'd say logically, there would be a lot of issues with infection. Especially a guy stitching a tanned animal hide into his skin. Also, with him looking like that, you're pretty much shutting him off from grocery shopping for food, and from following his victims during the day time to stalk them. Not too mention that if the local sheriff actually believes an animal is killing people and not leaving a trace of a body, then no one is going to make it past the dimwitted law enforcement. Horror can be goofy, but there is a line, and I'm sure that line is even finer when it comes down to wasting time reading, instead of viewing a picture with friends.
> 
> I'll watch Woodchipper Massacre in the company of others, but there is no way I'd read something like that.




In certain parts of the country, people can still live off the land and don't have to go grocery shopping.  He doesn't have to walk around town during the day to stalk people, especially in a rural community.

The main character is simply a very adapt hunter and nature survivalist who happens to be a psychopath taxidermist, whom as a taxidermist is very adept with a knife and knows anatomy well from all his years of work.  Now don't tell me a guy with those traits could be a pretty good mass murderer.


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## FleshEater (May 18, 2013)

It depends...anymore, in rural America, that guy is going to be looking down the barrel of an AR15. 

You might want to make the setting Illinois.


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## dale (May 18, 2013)

my novella has elements of human taxidermy in it. 1 of the characters creates islamic religious icons from the husks of his employers victims.
i even went online and researched the chemicals he would use to tan the hides and complete the procedure. it turned out well.


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## Lewdog (May 18, 2013)

FleshEater said:


> It depends...anymore, in rural America, that guy is going to be looking down the barrel of an AR15.
> 
> You might want to make the setting Illinois.



Well now you know why most of the time these types of movies are set in the back woods of West Virginia.  That's were _Wrong Turn_ was set.  If I can think of some other movies like it, I'll look them up too.


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## FleshEater (May 18, 2013)

Have you ever been to West Virginia? In the mountains there are only small towns ever fifteen miles. And, I can tell you that anyone caught on private property will be shot.

Wrong Turn was terrible. A group of deformed inbreds that killed people and somehow never got caught. If it was 1960 I could suspend more disbelief, but not modern times.


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## Lewdog (May 18, 2013)

FleshEater said:


> Have you ever been to West Virginia? In the mountains there are only small towns ever fifteen miles. And, I can tell you that anyone caught on private property will be shot.
> 
> Wrong Turn was terrible. A group of deformed inbreds that killed people and somehow never got caught. If it was 1960 I could suspend more disbelief, but not modern times.




They are movies, not documentaries.  I can list flaws with every movie there is.  List some of your favorite movies so I can list the flaws in them.  

How about we look at some real life stuff.  Look how long Gacy got away with killing 33 teenage boys in the big city of Chicago, Illinois!  Look how long Jeffrey Dahmer got away with killing and eating who knows how many people in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Ed Gein killed, dismembered, and did human taxidermy to his victims.  He did this to an unknown number of people in Plainfield, Illinois which sits between Aurora and Joilet, Illinois.  I'm starting to miss your point on how people like this can't exist.  If the guy that just got caught in Cleveland with the three women in his basement tells you anything, it's that there are things that can be happening under your nose at anytime.


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## JosephB (May 18, 2013)

Gacey and Dahlmer etc. looked and acted normal to the outside world --  and by all appearances operated within the boundaries of society. How  they lured and killed their victims and covered up their crimes was  horrible, but perfectly possible for an individual to carry out -- but only to a point. In a lot of these cases, the need to kill escalates -- and the killers get sloppy or over confident, run out of room for bodies etc. etc. Eventually, they're caught. When it comes to human behavior, truth is stranger than fiction. So you have a whole lot of leeway depicting the bizarre and frightening. But to allow for people to suspend their disbelief, the setting and more obvious details need to be grounded in reality.


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## luckyscars (May 19, 2013)

FleshEater said:


> Luckyscars; you do realize that two of those remakes were directed by David Cronenberg and John Carpenter right? (I only care about horror, really) Who just happen to be two of the greatest directors that have ever lived.



I do realize that That is why I found your original assertion that remakes are worthless to be false. Glad you've come around.



> I don't mind remakes done before 1990...Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Blob, The Thing, The Fly. But, today, all a remake is is pure trash. I'm not missing anything, and I actually had a good laugh when you said that. And yes, most of the time a remake anymore is the exact same thing, not a re-imagining, because these directors don't have that kind of creativity.



*sigh* So let me get this straight...anything made up until December 31 1989 is automatically all right is it? I hate that kind of view about everything. It's like people who say they *hate* modern art just because its modern. You have to be a little open minded. Like Joseph says, the operative phrase here is 'generally'. I don't deny that newer remakes (in any genre) generally suck (as a matter of fact, the older ones generally did too) but there are exceptions to every rule. Folding your arms and insisting you're not missing out doesn't mean that you're not. But that is up to you.


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## Staff Deployment (May 19, 2013)

Lewdog said:


> They are movies, not documentaries.  I can list flaws with every movie there is.  List some of your favorite movies so I can list the flaws in them.



_Princess Bride._
Oh wait that's right that movie _has no flaws_

...except for the annoying framing device of the kid and his grandpa _but besides that_.


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## Kevin (May 19, 2013)

Dave Watson said:


> I actually quite like the idea for the story, but I'm a stickler for plausability. If someone somehow grafted a wolf's face and bears feet onto themselves, for a start, how would they perform that operation? The physical mechanics of such an undertaking pose a serious problem of believability! Even if this _was _done, would it not mean that the psycho taxidermist would need a lengthy period of rehabilitiation and physiotherapy in order to move around, never mind stealthily stalk and murder people?


 Hmm...make them removable...zippers and snaps.(they  use metal staples on wounds, why not zippers?).He's(assuming he's a he) going to have to constantly check and maintain the uhm...connections (wash them, treat with topical anti-biotics, etc., for septice or infection) There's one that keeps _oozing (horror story, right?). _And then there's the stink...parts tend to smell bad. Like that head in my...uh, nevermind...You can't hook them up to a blood supply (what? he's screened them for compatibility, blood type?) so they're carion. They're going rot which will spoil the whole fashion statement(unless you're going for the rotted look) What to do? Desicate? Chemically treat? Coat them in wax? Plastic, ala _Body Works? _


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## Kevin (May 19, 2013)

Staff Deployment said:


> ...except for the annoying framing device of the kid and his grandpa....


 Says you.. You never watched _the Wonder Bread_, er, _Wonder Years?  _


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## FleshEater (May 19, 2013)

Lewdog said:


> They are movies, not documentaries.  I can list flaws with every movie there is.  List some of your favorite movies so I can list the flaws in them.
> 
> How about we look at some real life stuff.  Look how long Gacy got away with killing 33 teenage boys in the big city of Chicago, Illinois!  Look how long Jeffrey Dahmer got away with killing and eating who knows how many people in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Ed Gein killed, dismembered, and did human taxidermy to his victims.  He did this to an unknown number of people in Plainfield, Illinois which sits between Aurora and Joilet, Illinois.  I'm starting to miss your point on how people like this can't exist.  If the guy that just got caught in Cleveland with the three women in his basement tells you anything, it's that there are things that can be happening under your nose at anytime.



JosephB hit the logic right on the head. And you're discussing serial killers during an age of serial killers. Sure, the guy in Cleveland did it, but he didn't kill an entire town, he kidnapped three girls ten years ago when modern technology was still behind. Working in a modern day setting is so hard because of how much technology there is. 



luckyscars said:


> I do realize that That is why I found your original assertion that remakes are worthless to be false. Glad you've come around.
> 
> 
> 
> *sigh* So let me get this straight...anything made up until December 31 1989 is automatically all right is it? I hate that kind of view about everything. It's like people who say they *hate* modern art just because its modern. You have to be a little open minded. Like Joseph says, the operative phrase here is 'generally'. I don't deny that newer remakes (in any genre) generally suck (as a matter of fact, the older ones generally did too) but there are exceptions to every rule. Folding your arms and insisting you're not missing out doesn't mean that you're not. But that is up to you.




Yes, that's correct.

I don't have to be anything.

Wasting two hours on a film that I've already seen, and already love is nothing more than me wasting time...hence why I'm not missing anything by running out and watching some crack pot ruin I Spit on Your Grave, Last House on the Left, Straw Dogs, Carrie, Ringu, Ju-On, Premonition, Evil Dead, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Hills Have Eyes, and on, and on. Just because films have been remade with success before doesn't excuse the absolute trash that has been made in the last twenty years. 

If you think you're going to bring up some sort of point to make me change my mind, you're not. Even if my point doesn't make sense to you, it doesn't have too, because I don't care.


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## OLDSOUL (May 19, 2013)

I feel the mere fact that you have to reel off justifications for him deciding (really stupidly) to STITCH the skin of a dead animal to his head means that perhaps this is an idea worth letting go. The mere fact that people could be fooled at all by a dude with some paws and a crumpled cured mask, that would be incredibly inhibiting and restrictive, is highly improbable. What what you'd find happening is you'd have some guy calling the police saying: "yea 911, some guy wearing a bear mask attacked me last night, before he tripped over his duck feet. I think it's probably the taxidermist dude that lives nearby. If, when you go to his house, a guy in with a bears face stitched to his own answers the door, you know that's him." You're going for wild, untameable beast, but aided by the light of a full moon he'd probably pop up in readers minds closer to those reddit-browsing, politically vocal furries that think acceptance of their kind is the obvious next step in moral evolution after gay marriage. This idea is trite and you're better than that.

Criticisms aside, I could imagine this being a genre horror film with a tone like wrong turn or the hills have eyes. But instead of having taxidermy as a centralised idea, it could be a quirk of a more complex and less moronic killer. A killer we could all imagine ourselves being under the right circumstances. Although, that idea is resonating as somewhat familiar to me...

OR, you could go with the original idea, but make it a spoof like cabin in the woods. Just poke fun at all those movies where the antagonist wears horrifying masks, and just play on the fact that the masks would be really hard to see out of. It could be the story of the day to day struggle of an axe murdering, zoophile with a bear face and bear paws as he clumsily tries to maintain his junipers and eggplants while going on murderous rampages at night to fill his giant dollhouse with stuffed friends, or whatever.


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## Gargh (May 19, 2013)

Try it as a short story c.3-5000 first and see where it goes. If the character doesn't work it will show by then.


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## Lewdog (May 19, 2013)

It's funny how many people who have introduced things into this thread that I didn't even say, then argued it against it like I did.  I never said that the killer was going to walk around town like some normal guy.  In fact to the contrary.  I said he had gone off the rails and was going to live by himself off the grid.  I never said the guy was going to have duck feet, JosephB did.  I never said he killed a whole town.  I said after he filled out the members of his family for his doll house, he might start making his own town.  I'm not sure what Flesheater considers the time "of the serial killers," but Dahmer killed people up until the beginning of the 90's, and at the time, I was the same age as some of his victims.

Do some of you guys realize there are still serial killers today?  There is still a serial killer on the run in New York and New Jersey right now, and lord only knows how many others across the country.  Not counting Dahmer, here is a list of four since 1990.



> 1997-1999: Angel Maturino Resendiz was convicted of murdering a Houston woman, but was linked by confessions and evidence to at least 12 other killings nationwide. He's on death row in Texas.
> 1996-1998: Robert L. Yates Jr. was convicted of two murders but admitted to 15. He's on death row in Washington state.
> 1990-1993: Heriberto Seda, aka "the Zodiac Killer," killed three people and wounded four in New York City and is serving a 235-year sentence.
> 1989-1990: Aileen Wuornos, a rare female serial killer, was convicted of murdering six men while working as a prostitute along highways in central Florida. She was executed Wednesday.



Recent Serial Killers 1970 to present (AP list)

Feel free to browse this list and see how many are more recent than you might think.

List of serial killers in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## FleshEater (May 19, 2013)

They never caught The Zodiac from the sixties...who is that guy from New York? A copy cat?

Also, a lot of them seem to be linked with highways, and the one that isn't only killed two people and got caught. Whether they admit to killing more is irrelevant...didn't Bundy claim 300 or 600 victims over three states?

Anyways, none of these serial killers are from BFE, and none of them have animal parts sewn to their flesh. When it comes down to it, your idea is B-Rated horror and will be treated like B-Rated horror, which now a day, isn't very good.

Just get to writing the damn thing.


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## JosephB (May 19, 2013)

I'll come back and respond later -- it's almost dinner time. We're having liver -- along with fava beans and a nice chianti.


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## Lewdog (May 19, 2013)

FleshEater said:


> They never caught The Zodiac from the sixties...who is that guy from New York? A copy cat?
> 
> Also, a lot of them seem to be linked with highways, and the one that isn't only killed two people and got caught. Whether they admit to killing more is irrelevant...didn't Bundy claim 300 or 600 victims over three states?
> 
> ...



Have you ever watched the television show "Faceoff" on SyFy?  One of the shows the left over contestants were asked to create their own Horror movie with poster and killer.  One of the guys did a killer who had torn apart a Teddybear and sewed a piece of it to his face.  All the judges raved about how creative it was, and the guest judge whom I believe was Sean Cunningham, said he was twisted and hoped he would work on the character after the show was over with.  He wins the challenge.  Here's the link:

Watch Face Off Season 1 Episode 4 Bad to the Bone online free

How about this serial killer?

Anthony Sowell: also known as "The Cleveland Strangler" and "The Imperial Avenue Murderer"; convicted of raping and murdering 11 women between 2007 and 2009, leaving their bodies in his house inCleveland


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## NeoCaesar (May 19, 2013)

It seems to me the kind of 'hook' that would work in a short story but becomes harder to make realistically frightening the more you pad it out. I might be scared of a very gruesome Frankenstein's monster of a man in the cinema but for a serial killer to be truly chilling in text I think they need to be just like a normal person.


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## Lewdog (May 19, 2013)

Well the thing is, there is a morality, though distorted, to my idea.  The taxidermist used to take dead animals from people and make them into decorations where they could show off their conquests.  After society failed him, with a drunk driver killing his family, the taxidermist decided that he should change sides to the spirit of the animal world, that never really did anything wrong to him.  In the end, he feels he is actually a _part_ of the animal world, thus the fur sewn to his skin, taking revenge on society that did him and animals wrong, and creating show pieces of his human conquests.  At the same time, he is using these people he has done his taxidermy skills on, to give him some type of 'company.'


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## NeoCaesar (May 19, 2013)

But you wouldn't make amends for helping to disrespect dead animals but further butchering their corpses and attaching them to you. Surely he could feel an animal affinity without doing that? I understand that he sees the unfairness in how the animals have been treated but would that actually motivate him to start trying to be more animal?


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## Lewdog (May 19, 2013)

NeoCaesar said:


> But you wouldn't make amends for helping to disrespect dead animals but further butchering their corpses and attaching them to you. Surely he could feel an animal affinity without doing that? I understand that he sees the unfairness in how the animals have been treated but would that actually motivate him to start trying to be more animal?



Native Americans use head dresses and various pieces of garb made from animal parts to worship animals.  Through the ages, there have been several clans and groups that use the garb of certain animals as the idea that they have encapsulated the spirit of those animals to help them in war.  It's not a new idea at all.


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## JosephB (May 19, 2013)




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## Lewdog (May 19, 2013)

_Kung-Fu Panda_ has already been made.


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## Leyline (May 19, 2013)

Ideas are just that, ideas. You can't even really call them blueprints. They're more like seeds. Small, unassuming, but with the potential to grow into something beautiful or practical or strange or all three. It all depends on creating the right conditions for them to grow and tending to them as they do so.

And that's about as self-help as your gonna get from me.

Best advice in the thread, btw:



Gargh said:


> Try it as a short story c.3-5000 first and see  where it goes. If the character doesn't work it will show by  then.



Good luck!


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## Kevin (May 19, 2013)

Well JB, at least _they_ can be sure about each other's agender issues ( unlike I've heard *ahem* can happen)


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## Leyline (May 19, 2013)

I do have some advice: check out the work of Joe R. Lansdale. He specializes in taking z-movie ideas and transforming them into something rich and awful and just utterly insanely good.*  He's a mad genius, though -- and maybe a demi-god -- so don't think what he does is _easy_. But he's proof that even the oddest ideas can create _great_ stories. I especially recommend his collection _High Cotton_. 

(That's a rec for you too, Joe, and I'm slightly ashamed I haven't recommended him to you before. I once got banned from a rather snooty literary forum because I said that he was the true heir of Flannery O'Connor. A couple of days later, I got an email from the owner of the site and was re-instated: he read two of his stories and said 'I'm not sure if you're right, but those stories certainly made a case!' Ha.)


*Seriously, guys. The man wrote a story about two rednecks who got it on with dead women at a drive in and made it funny, sad, poignant and actually _resonant_. It sort of scared me.


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## Lewdog (May 19, 2013)

Sounds like Kevin has been to Bangkok.


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## Lewdog (May 19, 2013)

Leyline said:


> I do have some advice: check out the work of Joe R. Lansdale. He specializes in taking z-movie ideas and transforming them into something rich and awful and just utterly insanely good.*  He's a mad genius, though -- and maybe a demi-god -- so don't think what he does is _easy_. But he's proof that even the oddest ideas can create _great_ stories. I especially recommend his collection _High Cotton_.
> 
> (That's a rec for you too, Joe, and I'm slightly ashamed I haven't recommended him to you before. I once got banned from a rather snooty literary forum because I said that he was the true heir of Flannery O'Connor. A couple of days later, I got an email from the owner of the site and was re-instated: he read two of his stories and said 'I'm not sure if you're right, but those stories certainly made a case!' Ha.)
> 
> ...



Oh I loved _Bubba Ho-Tep_.  Great Bruce Campbell movie.  How can you beat the opening sequence where he talks about getting puss drained...well that's as far as I'll go with that.


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## Leyline (May 19, 2013)

Lewdog said:


> Oh I loved _Bubba Ho-Tep_.  Great Bruce Campbell movie.  How can you beat the opening sequence where he talks about getting puss drained...well that's as far as I'll go with that.



The movie is great fun, but the story is better. And it's not even an especially _good_ Lansdale piece. And it's one of his most tame and normal.


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## Kevin (May 19, 2013)

Thank you, Leyline. That (#60) is good advice. Pulling it off _is_ the challenge.  I've got to be fired up by the idea and even then it might fizzle.


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## Lewdog (May 19, 2013)

Leyline said:


> The movie is great fun, but the story is better. And it's not even an especially _good_ Lansdale piece. And it's one of his most tame and normal.



If you like Bruce Campbell, he has a movie called, _The Man with the Screaming Brain_.  I can't say I was a big fan of it, but it was cool to watch, because it was filmed in Sophia, Bulgaria, where I have visited once.  It was neat to see a lot of the land marks there including the huge Russian Catholic Church.


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## Leyline (May 19, 2013)

Kevin said:


> Thank you, Leyline. That (#60) is good advice. Pulling it off _is_ the challenge.  I've got to be fired up by the idea and even then it might fizzle.



Yeah. Ideas are...not _easy_ really, not workable ideas, at least. But they're unpredictable. You can think you have the most clever thing since the alphabet was invented, and find the story just dying a few hundred words in. And you may take some worked-to-death cliche and discover that you're ringing changes on it like Hendrix with blues chords.

I sometimes think that the ones that get you fired up the most also have the biggest chance to fizzle, because you're so excited right there at the start and you're just on fire and man, this is gonna be the best and you sort of wind up winded before you're halfway to the finish line.


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## Kevin (May 20, 2013)

So far I've only been able to complete the ones where I know the whole thing (start, middle, end) before I even start.


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## Gargh (Jun 2, 2013)

Saw this today and thought of this thread...

http://www.messynessychic.com/2012/06/14/derelict-farmhouse-transformed-into-a-life-size-dollhouse/


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## Lewdog (Jun 2, 2013)

Gargh said:


> Saw this today and thought of this thread...
> 
> http://www.messynessychic.com/2012/06/14/derelict-farmhouse-transformed-into-a-life-size-dollhouse/



Wow that's crazy.  So I guess some things aren't as unrealistic as they may sound!


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## Morkonan (Jun 2, 2013)

Lewdog said:


> So last night I came up with an idea for a horror novel if anyone is interested.  Here is the basic premise of it:...?



Too predictable. 

Instead, have a "down on his luck" taxidermist put out an ad on Cragslist. He's contacted by an eccentric who requests the oddest animals in the most unlikely of circumstances. Finally, the client convinces him to do a couple of cadavers for a great deal of money that ends up paying all the taxidermist's overdue bills. Then, there's that "one more time" call. Except, this time, the client requests the taxidermist to preserve.. the client, himself. (Or, you can make it into a murder deal with some poor hobo as the victim.) The taxidermist goes from "down on his luck average joe" to "willing to commit murder for money greedy so-and-so."


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## AtlanshiaSpirit (Jun 9, 2013)

Or he could be a freak of nature, born with Duck feet, or maybe his father fancied himself a mad scientist and experimented on him when he was a child. So now he is a mutant or sorts. That would be more horror than comedy.


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