#which is why the church and dracula are both the enemy- their love comes at a cost whether you realize it or not

[cursezone]

whenever a character i like has big trauma i always gotta slap some kind of chronic pain hc on there. whether through some metaphor or good old fashioned psychophysical c/ptsd symptoms

[aion-rsa]

Midnight Mass: It’s Time to Talk About That Monstrous Twist

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This article contains huge spoilers for Midnight Mass. So help me God if you read this without watching the series first…

The version of Midnight Mass that Netflix advertised still would have made for a compelling horror series. 

An isolated, insular island community? Great. A young, charismatic preacher suddenly coming to town to shake things up? Perfect. That preacher proving capable of performing minor miracles? Love it, no notes! 

Of course, as viewers who have watched at least four episodes of the seven-episode series now know, Midnight Mass has one extra supernatural twist in mind that elevates an already interesting story to true mind-blowing status. Critics were understandably asked to keep this aspect of the show a secret before it premiered. So please indulge me as I finally slay these embargo demons and get it off my chest.

Vampires. Vampires! V-A-M-P-I-R-E-S. VAMPIRES! VAMPIRES VAMPIRES VAMPIRES! Literally like Dracula. And Nosferatu. Anne Rice’s Lestat. Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot. Vampires. VAMPIRES, BRO, VAMPIRES.

For creator Mike Flanagan, a filmmaker influenced by all manner of classic horror, bringing the fanged bloodsuckers to life was a long time coming.

“My favorite vampire movie is (Werner) Herzog’s Nosferatu,” Flanagan told Den of Geek and other outlets prior to the premiere of Midnight Mass. “That film is the vampire story as high art. I also adore From Dusk Till Dawn. I read Dracula young enough for it to really burrow in for me. And I read ‘Salem’s Lot early enough to color an enormous amount of work that I’ll do for the rest of my life.”

Midnight Mass’s depiction of the mythological undead beast and how it can neatly fit into Christian dogma is one of the most satisfying horror twists in years. Now that the truth is out, let’s discuss Midnight Mass and how it conflates vampires and biblical angels. 

Mistaking a Vampire for an Angel

The interesting thing about Midnight Mass is that it clearly takes place in a universe where the average person has no knowledge of what a vampire is. Even Sarah Gunning (Annabeth Gish), arguably the most well-read person on Crockett Island, has to do some research into “porphyria cutanea tarda” (a.k.a. the real life “vampire disease”). This is similar to The Walking Dead’s approach to zombies, in which the “z” word and George A. Romero’s name are never spoken. This strategy in Midnight Mass allows for a truly fascinating case of mistaken identity.

While viewers immediately know that the creature Monsignor John Pruitt (Hamish Linklater) encounters is a vampire, he believes it to be an angel. Given how studied Pruitt is in the Bible and Cathloic theology, it’s entirely understandable why he would think a tall, muscular, bald-headed beast with fangs and leathery wings is an angel. As it turns out, the angels of the Old Testament can be truly terrifying. 

Not all angels are soft-featured human-like creatures with fluffy white bird wings. Some, like Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones are designed to intimidate God’s enemies. In the New Testament’s Book of Luke, an angel visits Zechariah and immediately asks him to “be not afraid” because the angel can see the poor guy absolutely shaking in his boots upon his arrival. Angels being terrifying is even something of an Internet meme, with users contrasting the phrase “be not afraid” with images of truly monstrous beasts. 

Not only does Pruitt’s vampire have the vague appearance of an angel, it also apparently holds the secrets to eternal life as promised in the Bible. By merely drinking some of the “angel’s” blood, a good Christian can live forever just like God says. Does that blood-drinking sacrament sound familiar? It did to Mike Flanagan.

“In Bible school I used to say ‘if the wine turns into Jesus’s blood literally and we’re drinking it so that we can live forever … that seems like a short leap to vampiric myth.’”

Of course, drinking the angel’s fluids in the case of Midnight Mass also leads to some unwanted side effects like a thirst for blood and extreme sensitivity to sunlight. Thankfully, good ol’ Bev Keane always has a Bible quote ready to go for that. When read through the proper perspective, the Holy Bible may as well be the original vampire story. 

The Rules of Vampirism

“The thing that I love about the vampire as a cinematic tool is how malleable it is,” Flanagan says. “We all agree that there is no canon. There are no rules. In fact, part of the joy is seeing what rules people cherry pick as they approach a vampire story.”

All depictions of vampires are indeed quite different. Vampires can range from the classic Stoker-ian monster to Twilight’s nigh-invulnerable sparkle bois. Midnight Mass’s version of the vampire leans towards the classic, albeit with some tweaks. In terms of appearance, The Angel (as we will be calling Midnight Mass’s O.G. vampire for simplicity’s sake) has a more bestial look like Nosferatu rather than an aristocratic one like Count Dracula or Anne Rice’s creations. 

“We winked at (Nosferatu the Vampyr actor) Klaus Kinski a few times when we designed our guy,” Flanagan says.

Though the Angel resembles Nosferatu in appearance, its vulnerabilities owe more to Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles. Religious iconography does not appear to hurt the Angel nor its thralls. Traditional human weapons like bullets or blades also do no harm (at least not mortally). These vampires are, however, tremendously susceptible to both fire and sunlight. Exposure to the latter for even a few seconds is enough to kill the Angel and his many acolytes. 

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Like in Rice’s works as well, the path to creating a new vampire is quite simple. Step 1: Drink its blood. Step 2: Die. In Dracula and ‘Salem’s Lot, the method of vampire creation is merely being bit by one, zombie-style. Rice and Flanagan’s approach is quite a bit more intentional and interesting. It also opens the door for perhaps Midnight Mass’s most ingenious storytelling quirk: communion. John Pruitt is able to get nearly the entirety of Crockett Island to become a vampire by spiking the communion wine with his buddy’s blood. Then, all that remains is for them to poison themselves to death, Jonestown-style. 

The mass “resurrection” scene in which the congregation awakes as their new vampire selves also provides some insight to just how hard it is to contain the vampire’s overwhelming hunger. Riley Flynn was able to resist it when he turned because John Pruitt babysat him like a psychedelic mushroom guide. The plan for the rest of the congregation was to have their babysitters as well but that didn’t quite work out. Still, Riley’s dad Ed makes it clear to his wife Annie, that even if it’s hard to resist the call for blood, it’s not impossible. 

“When I saw them at the church, I thought it was something they really couldn’t help. Like something impossible not to do. But it isn’t, Annie,” he says.

Maybe if more vampires were like Ed Flynn, a whole island full of vampires wouldn’t be too bad of a thing in the first place. 

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How to Defeat a Vampire

While every vampire story presents its own unique take on the creature, the answer on how to defeat a vampire is usually the same: by doing it together.

“We poor humans only have so much that we can give,” Flanagan says. “We’re ill-equipped as individuals to make any kind of meaningful stand. The only way evil in the world can be brought down is through collective effort. That’s something Stoker understands inherently. It’s clearly something King understands.”

Alongside the aforementioned Bram Stoker and Stephen King, Flanagan presents a small team of humans at story’s end who will do what it takes to defeat evil, even if it means dying in the process. Erin Greene (Kate Siegel), Dr. Sarah Gunning, Sheriff Hassan (Rahul Kohli), Annie Flynn (Kristin Lehman), Warren Flynn (Igby Rigney), and Leeza Scarborough (Annarah Cymone) are the six residents of Crockett Island brave enough to try to take down the Angel. All but two (Warren and Leeza) die. They do succeed in eliminating the immediate threat on Crockett Island but it’s possible the Angel made it away to suck blood another day, damaged wings and all.

What’s interesting about Midnight Mass’s “final crew” is that six appears to be the magic number when it comes to taking down a vampire. Stoker’s Dracula has six heroes: Jonathan Harker, Mina Harker nèe Murray, Arthur Holmwood (Lord Godalming), John Seward, Quincey Morris, and Abraham Van Helsing (of which, only poor American cowboy Quincey Morris dies). King’s ‘Salem’s Lot also has six: Ben Mears, Matt Burke, Susan Norton, Mark Petrie, Jimmy Cody, and Father Callahan (of which, decidedly more than one of them die). This strange bit of arithmancy is something we asked Flanagan about.

“The number was certainly not intentional,” he says. “Once it was clear that Riley was not going to be carrying the torch to the end it really was about asking ‘who are the characters who seem in the very beginning to be at a disadvantage and how do we empower them in the end?’ This was gonna be played out by Sarah Gunning, Sheriff Hassan, and everyone else who would get to just give a little piece.”

Considering that Erin and company were outnumbered about 117 to six, it was a pretty good showing for Crockett Island’s last humans standing.

All seven episodes of Midnight Mass are available to stream on Netflix now.

The post Midnight Mass: It’s Time to Talk About That Monstrous Twist appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[darkspellmaster]

Sex and the Castlevania series

So you may have all heard by now that the new seasons of Castlevania will have more gore and sex involved in the series. And for me at least this is a bit of a surprise. Not because Castlevania has not had sex as part of its storyline, (how else are the Belmonts going to be born), nor that nudity would be shown (see the Succubus for example) but in how it’s going to be used. 

As a player of the games, one thing has always stood out to me about the Castlevania series and the idea of fan service and sexuality and sex itself, it’s never used as a means of just titillation. There’s always a meaning behind it. And the reviews have me wondering if this is going to still be the case with the show, or is it going to be used as an “Oooh look how edgy we’re being this season.” because that’s not what sex in Castlevania is about. 

Sex, or the idea of intimacy between two romantic partners, has always been at the heart of the backstory of the Castlevania series. From the outset there’s has always been a sense of family and love and devotion in Castlevania. Even with the Arcade edition of Haunted Castle in 1988, the addition to the story of Simon was that he was newly married to his bride Selena, who was taken by Dracula. Years later Selena and the Mysterious Woman in Simon’s Quest II were mixed to create Linda Entwhistle who was Simon’s girlfriend in the book series based on the games. 

Years later during the more story-driven games that came out, sexuality and intimacy became part of the game in how it was presented. Namely the use of sex as a way to pull the innocents to the darkness ala the Vampire Brides in the original Dracula, and the loss of innocence (as with Lucy in the novel) and the idea of devotional love that conquers that darkness and temptation. 

In this sense, we’re seeing the use of the deadly sin of Lust acting as a temptation to the heroes as a means of making them be killed for their wanton desires. Yet love and intimacy also plays a huge part in fixing issues in the story and leading to tragic and happy endings. 

So with that in mind, I want to do a quick walkthrough of the way sex and love is used in these games and discuss why the idea of sex and violence shouldn’t be on the table with Castlevania as a metaphor as much. 

Let’s start with the timeline, rather than the game order because it makes more sense that way. 

The story of the Belmont Clan and Dracula are intertwined for all time, this is just a fact of the matter and not just some random accident. And Love plays a huge part in this story as the cannon story stands right now. Prior to this, Castlevania was a fun romp through the idea of beating up Old Universal Monster Movie characters (every one of the main bosses in the first game was tied to some form of Universal Horror Monster and it even has some Hammer Horror connections as well). But with the growth of the franchise, it was clear that a story needed to be told, so over the years, that story had evolved until in the early 2000s we got the very first story in the Belmont vs Dracula timeline in the form of Lament of Innocence. 

Now Lament isn’t just a story about the loss for Leon and his world view that there is nothing lurking in the dark. It’s the loss of friendship and of love, but also it’s the reinstatement of belief of the good of people and that there are those that can and will stand up to the darkness and that even as one loses everything, you don’t have to lose your soul in the processes. 

But let me start from the beginning in this case. Leon Belmont was a knight templar in the crusade. He was best friends with and cared deeply about his fellow Crusader Mathias Cronqvist. Now Mathias was a man of science and of learning and of a lot of things, he wasn’t a fighter the same way Leon was, so he was more into spells and magics, something that his family kept mostly from the Church at the time. 

Both Mathias and Leon were in love and devoted to the women that they felt deeply for, that being Leon’s fiance Sara Trantoul, and Mathias’s wife Elisabetha. Leon’s devotion to Sara was known by everyone, especially Mathias and this is very important since it’s Leon’s Love of Sara that drives him to abandon his cause with the Crusades and pretty much take up Vampire Killing for the rest of his life, training his children and their descendants, on how to defeat the man that took that love from him. 

Mathias, on the other hand, was emotionally devoted to Elisabetha, and, given the way he speaks of her, it’s clear that the devotion and love was returned. So much so that his love for her basically poisoned his mind and made him into the monster that would later come to regret his actions. As it was, Elisabetha died due to illness and Mathias abandoned the Crusades, became ill, and holed up in his home unable to be reached by any of his friends, Leon and Sara. It’s only when he learned that Sara was in danger from Walter Bernhard that he was able to get out of bed and warn his friend Leon of the danger, but, by then, it was too late and Sara was captured and taken to Walter’s castle. 

Now one of the huge parts of the story of Lament is is that it deals with devotion, honor, and the choices we make based on love. So while Leon is trying to save Sara he meets up with an alchemist, Rinaldo, who had lost his daughter Justine to Walter and was unable to save her. 

Leon renounces everything; his baron title, his home, his lands just so he can cast off his duty to go and save Sara. His love for her runs that deep that he’s willing to go into the Castle of Walter with just a sword and prayer and god save anyone that gets in his way. Rinaldo is far more of a pragmatic person and in this way juxtaposes Leon’s love of Sara.  Whereas Leon is far more optimistic about his chances against Walter, Rinaldo knows the bitter truth, that Sara has no hope of making it out of the castle and not becoming a vampire in the process. 

This becomes an important part of Leon’s story as he traverses the castle to try to locate Sara and comes across a number of characters that play a part in the story and the idea of love. Medusa, though not a sexualized being in this one, mentions that the whip he’s using is far more powerful than that of the version that Rinaldo used to save his daughter. 

Now, why is that? One could speculate that Rinaldo lacked the will to save his child, or that he knew the truth and couldn’t bear to have to take his daughter’s life. His feelings, however, whatever they lacked, caused the Whip to fail in what it needed to do, and thus he was forced to kill his own daughter. Leon on the other side of things has nothing but the will and drive to save Sara, and his love for her and desire to bring her home urges him on. This love, this need to help her, is what makes that whip work. That need for protecting something, it’s why Trevor needed to find Sypha and Alucard to eventually come to a reason why the Vampire Killer came to him. 

Joachim is an interesting one in regard to love in this game and how it is presented. Walter seduced the young man with the idea of immortality and when Joachim gained his Vampire state he realized that Walter was above him and rebelled. This lead to Walter putting him in captivity and driving him mad, for his own amusement. But how is this love? It’s a very dangerous and bad form of it, as Joachim both loathes Walter but also seems obsessed with him. He hates him with all he is, and at the same time wants to overpower and control him. This same sort of hate and love is what drives Mathias as well in his story. 

Then there’s the Succubus, the one character that really hammers in the idea of desire/Sex and love in this game and the differences between them. So the Succubus in Lament is an actual boss, vs. just being an enemy. She has no name, but her role is critical in understanding what’s going on in Walter’s castle. This succubus had previously disguised herself as Justine for Rinaldo, allowing him to lower his guard and possibly may have harmed him in the process. His rejection of this form of his daughter may have to lead him to make some critical mistakes. Mistakes that Leon doesn’t seem to make. Namely, after a bit, he sees through the Succubus using Sara’s form to trick him. 

Leon recognizes that the woman isn’t Sara based on her actions and way of moving, showing that though his connection with Sara he can’t be tricked and lured in by kind words from a monster. This is the opposite of what happened to Mathias. 

As I said there’s a tragedy to the love and sex in this game and the use of it. Walter luring Justine away with his beauty and her desire for him lead to her downfall, which leads us into Mathias. (We will circle back to Leon, I promise.) For Mathias Elisabetha was his whole world and when she died while he was away it leads him to reject all of his desires for hope and love and feelings. He lost his way and decided to renounce God and live as an immortal as revenge for God taking away his beloved wife. In order to get what he needed, he made a deal with Death, and the two decided to use Sara as bait for Walter and Leon was to be his sword. Mathias’s own devotion to Leon, and some of his humanity as well, shows up later in the story where he sympathizes and connects with Leon in regard to his own loss. Showing that they’re the same and that Leon should join him, which Leon rejects. 

This moment in the game is interesting because by this point in the story Leon has learned about how to defeat Walter and that Sara was bitten. In a lot of Vampire lore, biting is used as a way to indicate, in some cases, a sexual desire or a need that is fulfilled in a more intimate way. After all the neck is a body part that is known for being very much something that can be used for erotic aspects of lovemaking or showing desire. Which brings us back to the fact that Sara didn’t want to be turned. This wasn’t a choice on her part, unlike Joachim, and it leads to her rejecting the idea of wanting to remain a vampire. She desires death over having to be a monster and leads to Leon, at first vehemently rejecting Rinaldo’s order to kill her, and then accepting Sara’s desires to become one with the whip. 

It’s an important moment because it shows that Leon is willing to ignore his own desires for that of Sara’s, again showing his selflessness in putting what she wants ahead of his own, showing his love and devotion in a more adult and complex way. Sara’s own love is what fuels that whip and her need to protect Leon are the quintessential factors of  Love (Leon) to the opposing one of Lust (Walter) and in this case. 

Trevor and Sypha come next in regard to the issue of love and sex and while the show is clearly going to be showing more of their romantic escapades, it should be noted that the game doesn’t really make much mention of it at first, as Sypha in the game has a bit of a love triangle going on with Grant and Trevor as the main choices, although it seems like she only had eyes for Trevor. We know the two eventually had children but Sex, or lust, in the game never was a thing. Their devotion to each other in the show is telling, and in other games, both do pair up frequently, even in Judgement there’s an underlying tension between them. 

It’s of interest that in the show, we get to see the two of them acting as a couple, much like how Lisa and Dracula were shown acting like a couple. But actual sexual acts are, as with Lisa and Dracula, put on the side and in the case of Trevor and Sypha it’s only hinted at and not a full on display. Which falls into the same idea that most Castlevania games seem to have, the hero’s love interest typically is not shown engaging in sexual activity, or rather, only after bad things happen. 

I’ll jump to Richter and Annette, because that seems to be the next one in regard to how sexuality is used heavily in Castlevania. So in Rondo of blood, Dracula has Shaft take Annette since she is engaged to Richter Belmont. In a scene with him during the game, Annette threatens to take her own life rather than have relations with Dracula who intends to drink her and turn her into his bride. For the original version there’s a dramatic moment where Annette is talking to Dracula and he tries to lure her into becoming immortal to stay with him. She says she will not fall in such a cheap manner, the implications there are more along the lines of sex and him taking her physically from her fiance Richter. In the PSP game, if you take too long or go the wrong route you get the bad end where Annette has been transformed into a vampire and is placed in an overtly sexual outfit, down to a thong and bodice. Her hair goes down rather than the updo she has when she’s not turned and she very certainly is meant to be a temptress and a signal that Richter failed to save her from the deviousness of the vampire. 

This idea of sex, or the sexual, being used as a temptation and a devious thing in Castlevania has been around for a long time. However for every moment of some devious succubus being in the way of the hero, there’s always a moment of love that shows the positive side of it’s nature vs. the lustful side. Again, looking at Annette and Richter we get a moment when he frees her of her embracing him and happy that he’s there to be with her. That she knew he would come and that everything will be okay. 

Sexuality plays a heavy role in tempting Gabriel Belmont in his game, Lords of Shadow. During the game, as he tries to get to see his dead wife with a specialized mask. During the game he meets the Vampire Carmilla who offers to him a chance to become a vampire and enjoy the idea of a lustful existence. Every inch of her in the game is designed to pretty much be a temptress and lure Gabriel from his path to finding a way to see his dead wife. Yet it’s in this moment that we get to see how deeply his affection for his wife runs as Gabriel rejects this offer even more violently than with other Lords of Shadow that he’s faced. It’s a pretty strong moment for him as a character, and shows a deeper feeling in regard to his connection to his late wife. 

The reason I bring all these moments up is because even in the games where there’s hints of the sexual, as Vampires now are associated with Lust and temptation, the show uses sex as a means of connecting it with violence and some pretty dark ideas. Which contradicts the idea of how Love is the most powerful thing to defeat the darkness in Castlevania. 

Take Hector’s story right now. In the show we have his sexual encounter with Lenore which is contrasted with Isaac’s battle with Legion. The idea here is to show that both Isaac and Hector are being used, one being brought to his knees via false affection and entrapment by a woman who doesn’t love him and is using him as her own pet, who later slips the ring on him to collar him as she would a dog or cat. While the Isaac, even though he’s doing a good thing in defeating Legion (and i’m still damn sure that woman is Death in a false form) was used to destroy the wizard in the tower, releasing the village. In both cases manipulation was used in order for the opposing party to achieve their goal. 

For Lenore it was to get Hector to trust her enough to trap him and use him in her own way and for her own needs. She controls him now, making it impossible for him to escape from them, or so we are told to believe. On the other hand you have Isaac who, while used, acknowledges that he was so, accepts it, but is free to move on as the use of him wasn’t against his will, nor was it something changing him down. Rather the manipulation was used to not only stop something terrible, but also show him that there were others out there that were worth saving. Thus, in the poster, we have Lenore holding onto a bound and trapped Hector, and Isaac not quiet twisted up in thorns. 

The use of violence that we see shows that there’s a thin line in this world causing people to become entrapped by their own desires. For Isaac it was his revenge, for Hector it was his need to feel human again. Which brings us to the point where Rosaly comes into play in regard to Hector’s story. In Hector’s game Curse of Darkness, we see how his life drastically changed when he and she connect. From where he was in the story she brought the idea of hope and light to him, vs the darker aspects in the game that hint at someone who was cursed to believe he is a monster. In this way, I hope that if they bring in Rosaly we can see the opposition to Lenore’s way of using him for gratification and chaining him to her. 

On the other side of things, and something a bit easier to get at, is the idea of  trauma through the use of sex as shown in Alucard’s story. In the show we get to see Trevor and Sypha in bed, but it’s clear what’s happened there and the idea is that it’s less about their sexual encounters with one another than about their growth as a couple and how they interact outside of the bedroom and how they show love for one another. We see also they have a sense of betrayal when dealing with the Judge and the idea of Sypha’s world going from it just being fun and doing the right thing, to realizing the world is not black and white, and that not all people are good. 

In Alucard’s case we see the idea of the twins (I’m using the term as it’s easier for me to call them this, it doesn’t mean I’m saying they are twins just that they look alike) as filling a void and clearly being a representation of Trevor and Sypha (They even share the first initial of their names) that Alucard is looking for. Through their interactions we see that Alucard is, like Sypha in the other town, trusting them regardless of how many red flags they raise. The whole issue comes to a head when, after sharing a lot of things with them, Alucard is seduced by the two while trying to sleep. During the scene, as with Hector and Isaac, we see the sex as being connected to the violence of the battle that Sypha, Trevor and Germain get into. The twins end up wrapping Alucard in iron rings, much like Hector is imprisoned by Lenore with the ring, so to is Alucard. We see then that like Hector he’s betrayed and harmed by the emotional aspect of the betrayal. But unlike Hector who feels trapped, Alucard now feels anger at those that hurt him. 

The sexual act leads into the idea of him no longer trusting humans, especially with his heart. This of course is being used to drive Alucard to decide to lock himself back to sleep until the time of Richter and Maria (the warrior and the Mage), three hundred years later. The idea here is that the physical act of it is being used to show people being harmed in vulnerable states, and that sex is used as a tool to harm or destroy others just as certain acts of violence can. 

Yet, part of the story line of Alucard is that Maria chooses to go after him even after he says he’s cursed. Again, like Hector and Rosaly, showing that love is more of a counter to the anger and hate that seem to embolden those that would do bad in the world of Castlevania. So then, I must ask, why is the sex in the show being used not as it should be, showing how love can change someone, but rather as a connector to the violence. That wasn’t the idea of Castlevania, so I have to wonder what Warren is driving at here. 

[militant-holy-knight]

Clarifying the Crusades as “Defensive War”

Or How NOT to Do Crusader Apology

I felt the need to write this blogpost because there is a massive (but understandable) misconception that comes with defending the Crusades among people that know they have been smeared by liberals and revisionists, but are prone to commit serious blunders themselves because they lack historical knowledge about them. Some view it as a proper belated response after centuries of Islamic aggression which may be the case, but that is a gross oversimplification of what actually happened. But there are a lot of subtle details that get lost which result in constructing a very idealized view of the Crusades as an pan-Christian cooperation effort to destroy Islam. As an historian specialized in this time period and someone who goes at great lengths to defend them from political activists, I must advise fellow apologists to not fall into certain traps when talking about it.

The Context of Islamic Aggression

The Crusades officially began in 1095, but their origins can be traced back as further as the rise of Islam almost five centuries prior. Previously Christian lands such as Egypt, Syria, Palestine, the entirety of Northern Africa and Spain fell at Muslim rule and even then this didn’t stop further attacks all over the Mediterranean and Southern Europe from Arab pirates.

It’s important to note that the vast majority of this aggression directed at Europe was committed by the Umayyad Caliphate, which was established after the death of Ali, Muhammad’s cousin, the fourth caliph of Islam (and first Imam of Shia Islam). This caliphate practically continued the policies of expansion laid out by it’s predecessors but following the Battle of Portiers and the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople (both Christian victories that halted any expansion into Europe), the Umayyads entered a period of decay and a lot of infighting took place where they were replaced by the Abbasid Caliphate. This one was a lot less violent and more interested in consolidating it’s power by fighting rival Islamic empires than waging war on the infidels. One such rivals were the Seljuk Turks, a recently converted people that became displaced from the Turkic regions into the Middle-East.

The immediate cause of the Crusades was the Seljuk’s advance into Eastern Anatolia gobbling up huge parts of the Byzantine Empire and eventually culminated in the Battle of Mazinkert where they dealt a crushing defeat and the Emperor was captured, throwing the Empire in disarray. Alexios Komnenos was the emperor that sent letters of help to the Pope asking for relief - which was no easy task since the Catholic and Orthodox churches have parted ways over a series of theological, ecclesiastical and political disputes. Pope Urban assembled the Council of Clermont where he pledged Catholics to take up arms to 

This is No “War on Terror”

A often cringy apologist statement I see thrown out is that “The Crusades were waged to stop Islamic aggression” because I know any debater is gonna pick that one apart and embarrass the one who said it. The reason why its said is because 1) apologist observes there was historical preceding violence against Christians 2) therefore the Christians are fighting back. However, it’s important to note that by the time the Crusades were declared, there was no realistic chance of Islam ever taking Europe by military power because of the dispute between the countless Islamic states like the Abbasids, the Umayyads, the Seljuks, the Fatimids and etc. 

The contemporary rhetoric of the Crusades at the time was “retake the Holy Land”, not “stop the invasion”. While it’s perfectly plausible that Urban II did fear a potential invasion in the future should the Byzantine Empire collapse, the average crusader at the time did not sell his possessions and donated his lands to fund the expedition to possibly die in a far away land to preserve their Earthly way of life. He did it for the salvation and expiation of his soul - that is what he believed in. I think this isn’t acknowledged by apologists - whether they be actual Christians or secularists themselves (yes they exist) - because it’s embarrassing to admit at one point this is what Christians believed, but that is what history taught us whether we like it or not.

The one context where you could conceivably call this particular campaign a “defensive war” was to lend assistance to the Byzantine Empire, given they were in a time of crisis and needed all help they could get. Might as well call the ones to preserve the established Crusader states that were under threat. The problem is that it leads to another misconception made by Crusade defenders...

Christian Unity Was Lacking

While it’s true that Pope Urban was successful in inflaming the crowds of Europeans at Clermont about the atrocities reaped on the Christians of the East, another common misconception made by modern apologists is that they were acting like how Catholics and Orthodox do today, they were going to liberate their brethren and then leave them be. Due to the East-West Schism that took place just a few decades ago, the reality was far more cynical: The Catholic Church had no intention of restoring of restoring the reconquered lands to the Byzantine Empire and all Crusader states were to be under Latin jurisdiction, ruled by Latin Catholic monarchs with Catholic clergymen. As far as the Catholic Church was concerned, the Eastern Orthodox Church was schismatic and was to be brought into heel rather than left to coexist.

It’s well documented that Western knights disdained Byzantines for their seemingly effeminate and hedonistic manners, finding them unmanly fuccbois, while Byzantines wrote how Catholics were rough, uncivilized brutes, unworthy of being considered “Romans” and more akin to the Germanic tribes that overwhelmed the Western half centuries ago (though to be fair they weren’t entirely lying about that last part). And that is not even getting into the countless conflicts between Crusaders and Byzantines because I’d be here all day.

It’s inconvenient to point that the Crusader states were often in a very fragile state and requesting aid from Europe, since after the First Crusade was successful, many Europeans returned home and very few capable people were left to manage it. Yeah, yeah, we have better things to do so hold tight, m8s. This reality shIts all over the commitment that Christians had in solidarity for their co-religionalists. So Crusade apologists need to be careful in framing these campaigns as motivated by that motive.

There Were Actual Defensive Crusades

The real irony is that they existed after the period even if we don’t traditionally associate with them. the Fall of Constantinople heralded a new chapter in the war between the Cross and the Crescent with the Ottoman Empire beginning an expansion campaign rivaling that of the ancient Umayyads. Even before the city fell, the Ottomans had already consumed chunks of the Balkans including the entirety of Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia and Wallachia. Even though the Crusades to retake the Holy Land fell out of fashion by the time of their rise, the situation now changed - the enemies were right at the door instead of thousands of miles in faraway lands and the Byzantine bulwark that withstood for 1000 years is no more.

This time there would be no bullshitting - Catholics and Orthodox would have to cooperate again to deal with the Ottoman dragon and there was no time for squabbling. Cooperation was increased with Albanian Catholics and Orthodox setting aside religious differences and form the League of Lezhe, Pope Pius II interacting with Wallachian Orthodox ruler Vlad III Dracula and Catholic king Matthias Corvinus lending his Black Army to Moldavian prince Stephen III to triumph against the Ottomans at Vaslui. There were officially sanctioned Crusades like the Crusade of Varna and the Crusade of Nicopolis, but they were major Islamic victories over the Christians. 

There can be no denying that the Christian campaigns (whether they were Catholic and Orthodox) against the Ottomans were defensive and fit the conventional understanding of a crusade, whether it’s a military campaign sanctioned by the Pope or simply any war waged by Christians. The reason why the Balkans are ignored is because the Holy Land Crusades are the more lasting ones in the modern public consciousness and still believed to be the cause of many political problems today between the West and the Islamic world (which is rich, since the latter never gave a flying shit about the Crusades until they were on the receiving end of colonialism for a change). Other factors can be accounted like the Protestant Reformation taking everyone’s else attention and being more comparatively significant and that these particular wars were not for people’s souls, but for their lives, their lands and loved ones.

So to my fellow apologists: be careful when you say “the Crusades were defensive wars” because if the other side is more knowledgeable than you, they are going to take up to task and debate you if they can. You need to be prepared to acknowledge the little subtleties of history and remember that the current “bro” relationship between Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy was not the same as it was for medieval times, let alone was a motive for the Crusades because one side viewed the other as f*gg*ts and the latter viewed the former as brainlet cavemen. And more importantly, educate yourself about the wars in the Balkans and Eastern Europe which is surely a fun subject to study since many historical legends emerged from this period like Saint Stephen, Vlad the Impaler, Skanderbeg and John Hunyadi. 

They were all crusaders but you didn’t knew about it.

[belovedbelmont]

Alright, I’ve got it. The details for a Castlevania Silent Hill AU.

The protagonist is Dracula, and he’s looking for his wife. (Very SH2-esque) There’s appearances/mentions from/of Julius, Leon, Alucard, Simon, Trevor, Richter, Jonathan, Eric, John, Charlotte, etc.

I’ve bolded the main points of interest in each paragraph if you want to find specific part or want to scroll through.

He wakes up in a forest before Silent Hill, he’s smaller, slower and weaker than normal. Bats and crows follow him and increase in numbers the closer he gets to the town, before disappearing abruptly once he reaches a graveyard. 

A gravekeeper that vaguely looks like a 19-y/o Julius greets him into the town, he’s obviously suspicious of Dracula. He never asks him what his reason for being there is, though. Dracula passes into the town. The first thing he sees is a red and white coat on a signpost, which he mistakes for a monster. Angry at being deceived, Dracula tears the coat from the signpost and it disappears as soon as it’s off. Dracula doesn’t seem to notice. 

Most of the enemies are clearly flammable. bundles of sticks, wooden things. Dracula has to use fire to destroy them. Other enemies look a bit similar to fleamen, but they’re made of chains and try to grab his face. Lots of enemies are attached to ropes and chains, and try latching onto him and pulling him back.

Dracula meets a small, blond boy, who’s somehow familiar. This boy fills him with intense rage that he doesn’t understand the reasoning behind, and the rest of this section of the story is Dracula chasing the boy, who continuously cuts-off his ways of getting to him. So, Dracula must be creative and find new ways to pass through areas to reach the boy.

After this segment ends, and Dracula finally decides chasing the boy isn’t worth it anymore, he approaches a building with neon, blue lights. Inside of it is a man who is too ashamed of himself to tell his name. He says he’s in Silent Hill because he has a cross he must bear for eternity, as punishment for his own foolishness. He has the key to the back exit of the building, which Dracula must get to. In order to get the key from this man, Dracula has to bring three letters to him, that spell ‘ANN’. The man leaves the key for Dracula, and leaves the building with slow feet, staring at the letters in his hands and repeating a name that only the beginning can be heard of.

The next notable part of the story, Dracula walks through a hallway that soon becomes a long bridge out in the open. At the end of the bridge is a figure. The figure is taller than him, which makes him uncomfortable. The figure keeps getting further as Dracula approaches, and when Dracula’s finally made it to the end of the bridge (which is now just a short hallway, again) he sees the red and white coat hanging on the door into the next room.

The regular enemies Dracula encounters after this are somewhat familiar. If Dracula steps in even the smallest puddle, he’ll get bitten. Either by a red half-formed fish creature, or by an eel who’s skin on it’s face peels back when it opens it’s mouth. There are the undead... but their skin is also their robes. They’re easy to kill, but there are so many, and in the areas they do appear, they spawn without end. 

In the next area, Dracula sees the blond boy again. He’s kneeling in front of a fire, weeping. Dracula just feels in his soul that this is as good a time as any to come up behind the boy and strangle him, but once he’s near enough, the boy stands up and he’s fully grown. He just walks away, and Dracula just goes about doing his own business like nothing had happened, suddenly tired.

The next interesting scene sees Dracula visit an area that looks out over the lake. Staring out over the lake at the railing is the man with the red and white coat, and Dracula approaches him and starts talking to him like they’ve known each other forever. The exchange is strangely normal, just talking about mundane things. The man in the coat makes Silent Hill feel less lonely, and reminds Dracula that he’s got someone else who’s going through a similar journey. Until the man with the coat asks about Dracula’s wife. Dracula doesn’t have time to respond. The next time he blinks, the man is gone, and Dracula must carry-on wandering alone. In the distance, across the lake and through the fog, one can faintly see fire on the horizon and the water almost looks red.

The more Dracula wanders, the more powers he remembers he has, but they’re all so weak compared to what he feels like they’re supposed to feel like. The more monsters he kills, the more powerful his magic becomes, but he is always unsatisfied with his power, and the enemies just keep seeming to get stronger.

Next, two men and a woman are approached. They are both angry with Dracula immediately, and Dracula can’t understand why. The first man looks mostly like Trevor, wielding a whip, the second is a bald man wielding knives and the woman’s face is obscured under a blue hood. The first man challenges Dracula to a fight. Just before Dracula can kill him at the end of their fight, that blond man from before appeared to repel Dracula’s magic and rescue Trevor. Dracula realizes now who that blond man is, it’s Alucard. He could tell because of the sorrow and fire in his eyes. A blonde woman wearing green is standing, watching from the distance.

After the exchange, Dracula carries-on like nothing. At some point, he sees the man who he’d met before, the one that had given him the key, and recognized him as Richter. He was more suspicious of Dracula, this time around, but their exchange concluded without a conflict. Dracula has no ill-will towards this man, he realizes.

Dracula eventually meets Death, who’s inside of an art gallery. Dracula appears the have the same level of familiarity with Death as he had with the man in the red and white coat. Death keeps pointing out the portraits, and keeps reminding Dracula that he’s the real Dracula. Eventually, the two go together into a portrait who’s frame is as long as a door, and when they’re inside, Death has disappeared but Dracula feels stronger. Two creatures that Dracula somehow knows are supposed to be young adults stand in front of him. In the first half of the fight, they’re attacking him individually, and in the second half of the fight, they combine with an odd war cry that sounds like the mixture of two names. 

When they combine, they create a monster that looks familiar, but it’s face is obscure. It has a very large torso, and it’s weapon is a spear, with the spearhead being able to lash-out like a whip using a chain. Every time it’s knocked-down, it disappears and reappears in some other part of the room laying down with it’s weapon through it’s abdomen. It’s a slow-moving monster, but it jumps around and swings the spear/chain with moves that look like they should be deadly, but Dracula soon realizes it’s impossible for him to die in this fight, because this monster isn’t real. Or rather, it wasn’t a real monster or enemy to Dracula. Once he realizes this, the monster lashes-out a final time before it begins to burn and crumble like an old war-torn building, standing triumphantly alongside it’s weapon. Dracula is left standing alone, back in the art gallery.

Later, Dracula would find himself in a church. Only... there are no crosses nor crucifixes, there was no one praying. The church was empty. The stained-glass windows show the images of two different, but very similarly-appearing women. Both blonde, both fill Dracula’s heart with love. The glass turns green and dark blue, and disembodied footsteps enter the church and walk up to where the altar was, beside Dracula. The footsteps stop, and a sound is heard. Dracula can assume the spirit is kneeling, and for some reason, he can assume it has it’s head to the hilt of it’s sword. It begins mumbling prayer, and the sound of a red and white coat in the wind can be heard. Dracula leaves the building, he decides it’s time to go.

The next time he sees Richter, Richter is enveloped in energy, he’s burning with blue fire and passion. His skin is melting, he knows this will be his last fight, and he challenges Dracula. Richter explains that Alucard had visited him only a moment before Dracula had appeared. They fight. When Dracula lands a final blow on Richter, the whip Richter had been fighting with flies from his hands, and he reaches for it desperately. The fires are burning his skin at a faster rate, now, and upon seeing his hand reach up for the whip, Richter realizes it’s his time to go. He bows his head, sits back on his heels, and sighs in relief when he dissolves into the ground.

At this point, Dracula’s barely heard or seen anything about his wife. He couldn’t even remember her name, it escaped him each time he thought about it. The two names he was thinking of continued to merge in his head. They sounded like ‘Elisa.’

There’s a point where Dracula needs to take the offspring of a monster that he’d encountered before, and it had run away after wounding him. He felt no regret, taking this offspring. He needed it to pull a key from it’s insides. However, the parent of the spawn soon caught-on to Dracula’s plan, and hunted him down. Dracula had to carry the offspring in a canvas bag across the town in order to extract it, the tools hiding in four different buildings. Throughout this whole time, Dracula could sense the monster following him. When Dracula finally was able to set the offspring down and open it, the monster ambushed Dracula and the two engaged in a battle. Once the monster was defeated, the offspring on the table let out a terrible wail that sounded like the enraged, pained screams of a young warrior. The offspring grew suddenly into a similar form as it’s parent had been, before rushing away and disappearing. The key it had is left behind.

Dracula soon feels his wife’s energy in the air. It makes him desperate, he needs to do whatever it takes to get to that energy. This eventually leads him back to the graveyard where Julius greets him again. Dracula descends into an unmarked, shared grave. He soon finds himself in a throne room, far underground. Shattered glass is pushed against the wall, the carpet is made of blood and the brick is dark. The throne is before a coffin, and no one sits in it. When Dracula sits, he’s alone for some time. He reflects. He remember his wives’ names. Elisabetha and Lisa. All of the anger and thirst for power he’s felt up until this point leaves his body. 

When he grows tired, he hears more footsteps come from the stairs that lead into the room. They were slow and encroaching, and when they finally get into the room, it’s shown that the footsteps belonged to a man who is clearly Simon Belmont. There’s fire in him, but it doesn’t consume him like it had with Richter. Suddenly, as Dracula stands from the throne, he notices he’s suddenly become much larger, more powerful. He realizes Simon is his last challenge to overcome before he can see his wife. In this same moment, he realizes that he, too, is Simon’s last hurdle to redemption. They engage in battle immediately, without need of words. 

When Dracula defeats Simon, Simon stands triumphantly. He doesn’t look dead, he looks like he’s defeated Dracula. A door opens at the other end of the throne room, and Simon slowly turns to stone. When Dracula casts a glance back one final time, he sees chains drag Simon’s crumbling body into the ground. A key is dropped at his feet. Dracula decides he doesn’t need the key-- his last door is already open to him.

The door leads into a dark world. A replica of old Wallachia and Transylvania, only everything was shrouded in darkness. Screams could be heard in the distance. Dracula ran towards it and the only source of light and heat in this world. Once he made it there, he found the body of an ambiguous woman attached to a burning cross, she was the one screaming, but her screams were inhuman. Searing chains shot from the fire, and figures hidden in the shadows around the fire would attempt to stab Dracula if he got too close. He realized he must kill this monster before him now. Her energy was very strongly like Lisa and Elisabetha’s, but she was not they. 

After killing the monster, the screams died. The flame died. The darkness started to fade away into lightness, and Dracula was falling through the sky. In the distance, a red eclipse. His hair was short and white, his hands looked human. When he fell, the wind almost sounded like music. When he hit the ground, his vision cut, but he could feel his body, unable to move, laying on the ground. Images came to his vision. Images of what was to come. Chaos, souls. A young lady with brown hair was the last image that came to him before Mathias died.

No, Mathias had been dead for a long time. Dracula died when he closed his eyes, and he awoke as a newborn Soma.

[renegade-is-in-my-blood]

Hey. In summer 2015 my family and I went to Bulgaria. Why do I mention Bulgaria if this is supposed to be story about Dracula in Romania ?

Well as I’m from east of Slovakia on our car ride to Bulgaria we had to ride quite a journey and most off our ride was through Romania.

As a teen fascinated by popular vampires like Twilight saga, Vampire diaries, True blood or classic Bram Stoker’s Dracula I convinced my fam to make a stop and explore Romania for a bit and visit some notorious places connected to Dracula. After our online search we picked 2 places – Dracula’s castle and grave. Plan was to visit grave, stay the night at a hotel we booked ahead and continue our long drive to our final destination – Bulgaria, and on our way back visit castle, also stay the night and continue home.

But reality was slightly different.

Here is the rough distance we took from our place to Bulgaria:

We clearly went through a lot of Romania and unfortunately there were very few, almost no high ways and we was stuck behind trucks that were slowing us way down all the time. Because of this terrible road experience we did not have enough time to visit Dracula’s grave and we headed straight to our place for the night and continued to our holiday destination so we’ll be on time at our hotels check up.

All along our ride we could notice this incredibly marvelous houses. It would probably look luxurious in different setting , but in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by pretty much nothing it looked so odd. We could see 5-7 of this fairytale houses in a row and then just road and fields. It was not even like a village cuz there would be no other buildings just this huge houses. I also noticed them in bigger towns as well. It was still very spectacular to look at them.

We arrived safely and had amazing time in Bulgaria but I’m gonna talk about that in separate article soon.

So on our way back we had full program for one day – we wanted to visit both of attractions we planed and stay the night in Romania as well.

Let’s talk about Dracula for a while. Ofc we were not looking for actual Transylvanians vampires but tracking the life of Vlad III/ Vlad the Impaler/ Vlad Dracula – ruler of Wallachia. Vlad’s life and especially his cruelty inspired famous Bram Stoker in his novel Dracula which added great popularity to this historical figure. Not that he needed any more popularity I mean this dude was not called impaler just for a fun. This guy was impaling people through their rectum all the way up ( I once saw this brutal documentary where scientists were testing if it was possible that the victims of this kind of piecing could actually survive several days while being impaled as legends tell (spoiler alert – they could but it required a great amount of skills)), dipping bread in his enemies blood while dining near their dead bodies (allegedly – who can really tell)

I once saw this documentary explaining why legend of vampires came from countries like Romania or  Bulgaria.  I don’t remember the dates or name of the plague but to explain it simply, somehow dead people were not actually dead and they were waking up in their graves and dying horrible death, so to prevent this you had to imply them with a stick to make sure they are actually dead. I guess not everyone was familiar with this. Also they were making very shallow graves for their dead so when the float came and brought up the dead implied with the stick – obviously people freak and the legends begun.

There’s a bunch of articles about Vlad and his life if you’re curious for more.

Truth remains Vlad Dracula’s sadism and Stokers book are great for Romania’s tourism.

  We had all of the directions in our GPS so it was easy to find the place while we were in a car. Turns out the grave of Vlad – Comana Monastery is in the middle of lake on a small island. What surprised me the most was the lack of people,  I assumed we would just follow other tourist and won’t have to do such search on our own.

And the strangeness just began.

We came to this island where we could see the towers of the monastery and small pavement leading to it. When we came closer we met this family that were clearly residents as they were all in their comfy home clothes just chilling in front of their house right next to the monastery. The had this 2 small dogs that were laying in the heat on the grass. I remember this 2 old ladies, probably grandmas, small kids and one middle-aged lady all staring at us as we just entered their property in the middle of the day. I still have no idea what really went on cuz the weirdness was just too much. We quickly considered leaving but decided to go on and see what happens. The lady came to us and of course she did not speak english, nor could we speak Romanian, but somehow we let here know that we’re looking for Dracula’s tomb. She understood and led us to the monastery, actually unlocked the door with a key from her pocket in font of us – obviously there were no other tourist beside us.

We wanted to ask how much is for the ticket and lady handed us paper where she wrote the number (as it was easier to understand the number that just words) but it was in Romanian currency called lei, and all we had was Bulgarians lev and euros. Lady picked up calculator and paper with all of currency written on it. I guess she was not very good at math at school cuz the price she wanted for ticket to see the monastery – where we were already standing and it was  just this one room – was over 1000 euros. We laughed and tried explain to her that it must be a mistake that  she can’t charge 1000 euros for this place, so she was calculating it again and again for several minutes and the language barrier was making this all so hard for both of us. It turned out to be 10 euros in the end but no one can be really sure so my dad gave here like 20 euros just in case and joined us – while we already seen everything there was.

It looked like any other orthodox church in our place, gold, pictures of saints, mosaics, crosses and on the ground simple grey rectangle with picture of Vlad III and I guess there was a candle on the ground and that was it – that was the tomb.

We did not take any photos as we figured it was forbidden as lady just said “no” and pointed to our camera. She actually tried to tell us something about this place using hands instead of words and it was like playing charades. From what we guessed she was telling us about tunnels that was underneath the monastery, and Vlad was probably hiding there at some point, and most interesting part was when she “told” us that this was grave of Vlad’s headless body. Dracula’s head is buried in some other place but I might have guessed her gestures all wrong.

What was most fascinating for me was the strange feeling of this place AND (!!)   there were satanic looking symbols all over the holly pictures and walls painted  with deep dark reddish color.

It was creepy as hell. And I’m really not making this up even when this was 3 years ago ( i could never forget this) me and my sisters were just checking them all like what the fuck is that. There were pentagrams, stars, birds and other animals just simple ornaments all over the lower parts of walls on this place and it remind me of literally any episode of TV show called Supernatural ( cool show I would recommend  watching if you’re into creepy horror like theme but it has like 20 series and I got bored after half of it) I tried to search for it online but I can’t seem to find the proof of my words anywhere. It might be just local vandals or something but it was odd like this whole experience.

BTW how cool is this family – imagine you have Dracula buried in your backyard. Forget the part about  the vampire stuff  but you have a guy who’s famous for his sadism buried in your backyard. Forget about that as well but you have your country’s ruler’s headless body buried in your backyard. This family is wild.

  All of our Dracula’s grave visit took us around 15 minutes and we wet out, sat in a car and headed to Dracula’s castle – Castle Bran

Storm was coming, air got thicker the closer we got, dark clouds and Dracula’s castle in the distance. This image looks like straight out of Dracula’s novel:

As I mentioned – great for tourism – the closer we got the more of this gift shop we saw alongside the roads.

Make sure you remember the opening hours to this castle – or any other place you want to visit – otherwise you’ll be standing 5 minutes after closing hours like we did. We missed it. So we adjusted the plan again – we had dinner under the castle, checked out some souvenirs and headed to our place for the night. We stayed with some locals that offer a room, or whole floor in our case for tourists. It’s much cheaper and feels more at home than hotel.

  We tried it again in the morning – opening hours of Bran castle 9:00 – 19:00 – price 15 euros. The place was lovely , lot of tourists though. There were huge gardens underneath the castle and you had to climb you way up to the castle.

  Insides had quite small ceilings, so someone as tall as my dad would need to be very careful. You could find descriptions and stories in every room in different languages. Old rooms, displays of fashion, weapons, furniture, combs, torture instruments and incredible view – here are some photos:

  Fun fact: even thought its famous as Dracula’s castle – actual Vlad Dracula spend there only very short period. All of the tourists are there for the place where Bran Stokers novel occurs. And tourism is benefiting – I myself got shit ton of Dracula’s souvenirs.

To be fair I was not as thrilled about this castle. Being from middle europe I’m very well familiar with castles or monasteries as we have a lot of them in my country and since I was a kid I took family or school trips to almost every of them. And in the end they all start to look the same (sorry) I’m sure it would be fascinating for someone who never visited such place – it was just nothing new for me. And the connection to Dracula was very little – his tomb was at least creepy and I would never forget that but I can hardly remember the castle now.

I would still recommend both places as they were both very interesting and memorable experiences for me.

Thank you so much for your attention

xo Natalia

Visiting Dracula in Romania Hey. In summer 2015 my family and I went to Bulgaria. Why do I mention Bulgaria if this is supposed to be story about Dracula in Romania ?

[brain-leakage-blog]

Running Castlevania with Old School D&D, Part 5

This is part of a continuing series. For part one, click here. For part two, click here. For part three, click here. And for part four, click here.

While the previous posts in this series have mainly been concerned with showing how to adapt Lamentations of the Flame Princess' various character classes to Castlevania-appropriate archetypes, this post will handle the setting of Transylvania itself. And while I dipped into Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse and Symphony of the Night to build a D&D style adventuring party with, neither game really offers much in the way of setting material outside the castle.

For that, I'm going to go back a little farther into the franchise's history, to the much-maligned proto-Metroidvania, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.    

Please, hold all torches and pitchforks until the end.

Just a brief side note: If I really were to run a Castlevania-themed campaign for a group of PC's, I'd probably lean heavily on Simon's Quest to do it with. While the 8-bit NES wasn't quite up to the developers' ambitions, the game has some good bones to build off of. 

I would probably have the players roll up original characters, with at least one being the next heir to the Belmont line. I'd have the game take place a few years after one of the "major" Dracula battles outlined in the main series, and have the Belmont player character's relative be suffering from the same curse Simon did: The wounds taken in his battle against Dracula are not healing. He is slowly dying. As his condition worsens, he has visions of becoming a creature of the night. A fortune-teller reveals the truth. If he dies before the next full moon, he will become a vessel for Dracula to be re-born, stronger than ever. The only way to lift the curse is to bring Dracula's spirit back into its previous body. But Dracula's minions have scattered his remains, to ensure that his curse will run its course. 

Honestly, the only major difference in the set-up would be that the "cursed" Belmont wouldn't be accompanying the PCs. I'd hole him up in the basement of a church, surrounded by garlic and crosses, with monks praying over him day and night. It would then be up to the group of relatively green and inexperienced adventurers to run a desperate race against the clock, with only minimal guidance from their mentor. 

(I'd also make sure that the enemy kidnapped the cursed Belmont as the night of the full moon approached, giving the PC's one more thing to worry about. But that's just me...)

Anyway, there are a few resources I'd recommend using here. First and foremost is A Guide to Transylvania, which I mentioned back in my Alucard post. The PDF is available on DriveThruRPG for about eight bucks. The crunch inside is AD&D 2e specific, but everything else is system agnostic. This book details everything from Transylvanian history, to peasant superstitions, to secret societies. No other supplement will help you fill in the details of the Transylvanian countryside as well as this one.

The second (more expensive) resource is the current D&D 5e Curse of Strahd campaign book, which is an update and expansion of the original Ravenloft module. Why this one instead of the (many) older ones? First, it's widely available in hardcopy. And while I'm not completely in love with what I've seen of 5e's rules, you just can't deny that Wizards of the Coast puts out a high quality product these days. This thing will survive some wear and tear at the table. Second (and more importantly), it maps out and expands the land of Barovia far beyond what the older editions did. 

The third (completely free) resource is the Transylvania map that appeared in the old NES Game Atlas. A high-quality scan is available here at castlevaniadungeon.net.  

The simplest, easiest way to take care of mapping the Transylvania countryside is just to use the foldout map that comes with Curse of Strahd and swap out the names. For example, swap out the starting village of Jova from Simon's Quest with the Village of Barovia from Curse of Strahd. Swap out Yomi—the nearly-abandoned town just outside Castlevania—with the destroyed village of Berez.

While this won't be 100% faithful to the geography on the Castlevania map, enough of the landmarks in Simon's Quest have a rough Barovian equivalent to make it work. Below are some suggestions, with corresponding map and page references.

Castlevania Location / Barovia Location / Curse of Strahd Foldout Map Location / Curse of Strahd Page Reference

Town of Jova (Area 1) / Village of Barovia / Location E / Page 40 - 48

Town of Aljiba (Area 16) / Village of Valliki / Location N / Page 95 - 124

Yuba Lake (Area 14) / Lake Zarovich / Location L / Page 38

Town of Veros (Area 6) / Village of Krezk / Location S / Page 143 - 156

Town of Yomi (Area 48) / Ruins of Berez / Location U / Page 161 - 166

Laruba Mansion (Area 36) / Wachterhaus / N/A (Located in Vallaki) / Page 110 - 115

Brahm Mansion (Area 21) / Argynvostholt / Location Q / Page 129 - 142

That should be enough to get the idea. That said, I'd probably also swap out some of the obviously non-European names with some real-world Transylvanian ones. Targoviste for Aljiba, for example.

One pro to this approach is that it requires relatively little prep time, especially for an inexperienced DM. Curse of Strahd has plenty of fleshed-out NPCs, side-quests, and description boxes for just about every building and room, if you decide to use them. You can use the encounters, too. Stat conversions from 5e to LotFP are simple: Just use the closest equivalent monster from the free Basic Fantasy Roleplaying Game, and add two to the creature's Armor Class. Don't sweat the other details. 

Me? I probably wouldn't go that far. I'd probably just use the maps, crib or ad-lib all of the descriptions from the Transylvania Guide, and wing it with the NPCs and encounters. Similarities aside, Castlevania and Ravenloft are two different properties, with two entirely different feels to them. Relying too heavily on the published material just means you're playing Curse of Strahd. Which is okay. But it isn't Castlevania.

Which, of course, leaves open the question of Castlevania itself. 

The Castle Ravenloft layout in Curse of Strahd is unchanged from the original I:6 Ravenloft module. It makes a perfectly serviceable stand-in for Dracula's Castle, provided you're taking your inspiration from the first couple of games. But if you want something closer to the sprawling, changing, living embodiment of Chaos featured in Symphony of the Night and most of the later games, you'd be better off creating your own funhouse-style Mega-dungeon. As with anything, which you choose will depend heavily on your group, their preferences, and their play style. 

Before I close this installment out—and since I'm already mining Castlevania II for ideas—I'm going to give some sample stats for that game's two Boss monsters. For Carmilla, I used the Basic Fantasy Roleplaying Game version of the Vampire, with almost no modifications. For Death, I re-skinned the BFRPG Lich, added a bunch of Hit Dice, and swapped out his spell casting for a handful of specific, spell-like abilities.

If neither one seems challenging enough, both are easy enough to scale up in power. After all, when it comes to "end game" content, you're bound to have a pretty high level party. Watching them effortlessly steamroll the final bosses would be sort of anticlimactic. If that's a concern, my personal preference is to creatively choose the location for the encounter.

Instead of meeting Carmilla in her vampire lair right away, why not have the PC's encounter her at a masquerade ball, using the powers of her enchanted mask to appear as one of the living? Force them to use roleplaying and guile to maneuver her to a place they can fight her without harming innocents. What about having the PC's run into Death on the grounds of an old battlefield or cemetery? He could raise dozens of allies among the dead, forcing even the most powerful group of PCs into a pitched battle for survival.  

Granted, if you're planning to use Castlevania II as your template, you could always just let the PC's walk right by them with no consequence...

(Note: the Lamentations of the Flame Princess rules assume ascending armor class and a base, unarmored AC of 12. If using these creatures with a system that has a base AC of 10, simply subtract 2.)  

CARMILLA

Alignment: Chaotic

Armor Class: 21

Hit Dice: 9 (attack bonus +8)

No. of Attacks: 1 weapon or special

Damage: 1d8, or by weapon, or special

Movement: 40' or 60' (fly)

No. Appearing: 1 (Unique)

Save as: Lvl 9 Fighter

Morale: 11

Treasure Type: Special

XP: 1,225

Beautiful, vain, and cruel, the aristocratic vampire Carmilla is one of Dracula's most ambitious servants. Famous for her inventive and sadistic tortures, she is best known for bathing in the blood of young women. She possesses Carmilla's Mask, a powerful, cursed artifact.

Like all vampires, Carmilla casts no shadow and no reflection. She cannot cross running water, and may not enter another's home unless invited. She cannot tolerate the strong odor of garlic, and will recoil from a mirror or from a cross presented with conviction (for more information on these weaknesses, see the Vampire, p. 124 of the Basic Fantasy Roleplaying Game). 

Carmilla is immune to Sleep, Charm, and Hold spells. If unarmed, she will treat her hands like claws, raking her target for 1d8 damage. When armed, her vampiric strength gives her an additional +3 to damage when using melee weapons. Her bite (though seldom used in combat) inflicts 1d3 damage, and drains one level of energy from her target for each round she continues to feed. Feeding places her in a vulnerable position, and she suffers a -5 to her Armor Class.

Victims reduced to 0 hit points by Carmilla's feeding die, and they will rise as vampires during the next sunset. These new vampires are permanently under Carmilla's control, and always act as if under a Charm spell.  

Carmilla can command common nocturnal creatures. Once per day, she can summon 10d10 rats, 5d4 giant rats, 10d10 bats, 3d6 giant bats, or 3d6 wolves. The creatures must be nearby to be summoned. Once called, they arrive in 2d6 rounds and obey her commands for 1 hour.  If she chooses, Carmilla can also assume the form of a giant bat or a giant wolf at will.

In addition to the above abilities, Carmilla also shares the common vampire's Charm gaze, which her victims can save vs Spell to resist. Unlike her more common brethren, Carmilla's charm is exceptionally powerful, imposing a -3 penalty rather than the standard -2. 

Carmilla cannot be harmed by non-magical weapons. Exposing her to direct sunlight for more than 1 round destroys her, and submerging her in running water causes her to lose 1/3 of her Hit Points per round for three rounds, with death occurring on the third round. Any other method of reducing her HP to 0 merely incapacitates her, causing her to fall into an apparently death-like state. But if her body is not exposed to sunlight, submerged in running water, or burned, she will begin to regenerate 1d8 hours later, at a rate of 1 hp per turn.

Carmilla's Mask (Artifact)

This artifact is a smooth, silver mask, closely resembling the kind commonly worn during masquerade balls. When the mask is placed onto a human or a dhampir, dozens of hollow, silver spikes appear in the inside, causing it to latch onto the victim's face, and inflicting 1d3 damage. Each round the victim is prevented from removing the mask, it drains 1 energy level, feeding as a vampire, until the victim is reduced to 0 Hit Points. Once dead, the victims do not rise as vampires.

If the mask is freshly fed, bloody tears will pool in the corner of its eyes, and for the next 1d12 hours it will convey several abilities on any vampire that wears it. While wearing the mask, the vampire casts both a shadow and a reflection. Garlic, holy symbols, and holy water have no effect. The vampire may enter any home with no invitation, cross running water, and even walk in the sunlight—although this last will still be uncomfortable. 

Additionally, victims of the vampire's Charm gaze suffer a further -2 penalty to their saving throw.  

DEATH

Alignment: Chaotic

Armor Class: 26

Hit Dice: 15 (attack bonus +10)

No. of Attacks: 1 touch, weapon.

Damage: 1d8 touch+drain, by weapon.

Movement: 30' or 60' (fly)

No. Appearing: 1 (Unique)

Save as: Lvl 15 Magic User or Cleric (use lower)

Morale: 11

Treasure Type: Special

XP: 3,150

Death is Dracula's top lieutenant. Fiercely loyal to his master, Death will fight to protect him at all costs. Death's actual nature is unknown, although he is believed to be an evil manifestation of pure Chaos. His physical form resembles that of the classical "Grim Reaper," a skeletal body wrapped in a tattered cloak. He carries Death's Scythe, an artifact-level magical weapon.

Upon first encountering Death, all intelligent, living creatures must save vs Spell or flee in terror for 2d6 rounds. Even on subsequent encounters, Death's gaze is terrifying. All creatures that meet it must make a save vs. Spell or be paralyzed with fright for 2d4 rounds. Dhampirs, due to their half-undead nature, get a +2 bonus to this check.

Death prefers to attack with his scythe when possible. If forced to make a physical attack, his touch causes 1d8 points of damage and drains 1d4 points of Constitution, while simultaneously healing him for the equivalent amount.

The Constitution loss is permanent. It can only be healed by the casting of a Restoration spell, at a rate of 1 point per casting. If a character's Constitution score falls to 0, he or she immediately dies, and rises the following round as a lesser wight. This creature is identical to the wight described on p. 126 of the Basic Fantasy Roleplaying Game, except its attack causes 1d4 points of damage and 1 point of Constitution loss. All characters killed and transformed into wights are considered permanently dead, and cannot be Raised. They may still be Reincarnated. 

Death is able to cast Speak With Dead, Animate Dead, and Raise Dead at will. And while he rarely feels the need to disguise himself, he is able to do so with the aid of Polymorph Self. Additionally, Death is always treated as having an active True Seeing spell cast on his person. For purposes of spell duration and saving throws, Death's caster level is 20. 

Death is immune to all non-magical weapons. Like all skeletons, Death only takes half damage from bladed weapons, and only one point from arrows, bolts, or sling stones (plus any applicable magical bonus). Additionally, he is immune to Sleep, Charm, and Hold spells. Death cannot be turned by the cleric's Turn Undead spell.

Death cannot be permanently killed. When reduced to 0 Hit Points, Death's physical form is destroyed, and his spirit re-joins the primordial Chaos outside the world. After 1d10 months, Death will Reincarnate on the physical plane, although in a weakened form equivalent to a wraith (see Basic Fantasy Roleplaying Game, p. 127). He must then drain the equivalent life force of 2x his normal Hit Dice (a combined 30 levels) in order to regain his full strength and powers.    

Death's Scythe (+3 Great Weapon)

Like Death himself, Death's Scythe is believed to be an evil manifestation of Chaos. In combat, Death's Scythe delivers 1d10 damage, with an additional +3 magical damage bonus. On any natural attack roll of 18 or better, the target must save vs Magical Device or die instantly. Any mortal being who attempts to touch the handle of Death's Scythe must make the same saving throw, but at a -4 penalty.

3 times per day, Death's Scythe can create 1d3 Phantom Sickles. These are smaller, ghostly sickles that spin out towards their intended victim. The sickles last for 1d4 rounds, continuously attacking, and causing 1d6+1 damage per successful hit.

Creatures killed with Death's Scythe may not be Raised, but they may still be Reincarnated.

[movieswithkevin27]

Dracula

A truly horrifying descent into Dracula lore and superstition, Francis Ford Coppola's take on Dracula is far longer than the original 1931 version, yet so much more terrifying to watch. Demonstrating the backstory to Dracula (Gary Oldman) and providing the vicious vampire with more depth and emotional connection than in the original, Coppola allows his central monster to be felt as an extremely human character who only turned to evil as an expression of his incredible pain. With all of the classic characters from Bram Stoker's Dracula popping up throughout this film, Coppola's bloody descent into the very depths of hell set in Transylvania is one that lingers in the air like a dense, blue or green fog. Chilling to one's very soul, Coppola's take on Dracula may be infamous for the poor acting of Keanu Reeves, but it is so much more than anticipated.

With Gary Oldman portraying the titular monster, Coppola's take on Dracula is one laced with menace from the very beginning. Sinister, morose, and sadistic, images of Dracula's demonic horde of women seducing Keanu Reeves' Jon Harker or consuming a baby for strength are seared into the very fabric of this film. However, comes after revealing what has sent Dracula into this hellish descent into sin with Satan as his tour guide. Renouncing God and stabbing a crucifix after learning that his enemies had deceived his bride Elisabeth (Winona Ryder) into believing he was dead, which caused her to kill herself, Dracula turns his back on the Lord rather violently and becomes a vampire. Capturing souls for Satan via the seduction of spiritually vulnerable women such as Lucy Westenra (Sadie Frost), Dracula's discovery that Jonathan is set to marry Mina (Winona Ryder) who is a spitting image of Elisabeta is one that sets him on a course for London. Roping her into his world of sin and evil, Dracula is a man who is intent on mending his broken heart and delves into sin, immortality, and violence, as a method of soothing this ache in his now-dead soul. A shockingly tragic figure who, along with his minions, commits abhorrent violence, Dracula is a man who instills fear into the hearts of all those who hear of him and his ways. Yet, through his anguish, he becomes a man who is sympathetic in the sense that he was once a force for good who, through loss, let his soul and sword be used a weapon of Satan.

It is through this that the film's demonic exploits work in spite of the controversy surrounding them and why the film's "love conquers all" finale is so powerful. Tempting and using sin as a weapon against their targets, Coppola shows the bare-breasted demonic concubines seducing Jonathan by sliding through his spread legs and presenting themselves for his pleasure. Seducing him into lusting after them and committing a sin of the flesh, the women secure Jonathan's soul via this method. The disorienting camera work from Coppola and the decision to end the scene by showing the women swarm around a baby to drink its blood make the scene one that sends chills throughout the viewer's entire being. Yet, together with the characterization of Lucy as a sinful, worldly, and intensely sexual seductress of the men in her life, the film demonstrates the path by which one's soul is corrupted. Giving into this temptation leaves them open to sin, one which Lucy fully embraces and one that Jonathan stands strong and resists.

This descent into hell and corruption of good is demonstrated in Mina as well. At the beginning, she is envious of Lucy. Well-mannered, strict, and hardly a seductress, Mina is shocked to see nude images in a copy of Arabian Nights. When Lucy sees these images, however, she explains to Mina what is going on, giggles, and puts deviously sexual thoughts into Mina's head and expresses her own. Planting these seeds of sin, Mina is set up perfectly for the arrival of Dracula. Unleashing her inner sexual being, he gives her the carnal pleasure she so desires in the scene in which he takes turns her into a vampire. With Jonathan - her husband - unwilling to go into such sexuality even with his wife, she turns to Dracula as the only possible source of this pleasure and the one who makes her feel most in touch with her most forbidden desires. Demonstrating the immediate ecstasy and pleasure garnered from giving into temptation, Dracula quickly shows the downside with Mina expressing immediate regret and guilt over her sin when she collapses into Jonathan's arms after Dracula leaves.

It is through this necessary hellish descent into sin that Coppola expresses the soul of Dracula. A torn, broken, and hideously sinful man, he resents God so he corrupts those that would belong to Him. Putting sin, lust, and deceit, into their hearts due to the wrongs that he perceives to have been done to him, Dracula brings the hellish hurt and anguish of his soul onto the Earth in order to spread the pain, hunger, and forbidden lust that he feels in his soul. He is a man who cannot suffer alone, thus he brings lost souls along with him. Seeing the goodness in Mina, he does show hesitation before finally going along and giving into his temptation to bring her soul with him into the pits of hell. This demonic, often shocking, and deeply horrifying portrayal, is what really lays the ground work for this film to often feel akin to a Vampire-laden version of The Exorcist. Armed with a Bible and a crucifix, Professor Van Helsing (Anthony Hopkins) performs many an exorcism throughout this film and serves as the chief-beheader of vampires in the film. Chewing significant amounts of scenery throughout, Hopkins' priestly role is demonstrably different than his subtle and reserved performance a year prior in The Silence of the Lambs. Yet, he is every bit as good here as he stands as the damaged, broken, and often just as dark figure that stands in Dracula's way and is intent on finally sending his soul to hell where it belongs.

These representations of absolute evil against the face of Christianity - the cross - the film ends the only way it can: redemption and salvation. As a fairy tale about a hurt man who turns his back on Christ, the film ends by finally giving him the spiritual closure he wanted for so long. Through the love of Mina, Dracula's soul is finally released from his chambers in the pits of hell, the crucifix he destroyed is fixed, and he is restored to his youthful ways as a soldier from a by-gone era, though finally dead. A powerful salvation sequence for a man who was such a force of evil, the film's truly beautiful and emotional finale is one that demonstrates the beauty and forgiving nature of God. Though Dracula had turned his back on him in anger and pain, God never forgot his son and is willing to once more wrap him under his wing when Dracula is finally willing to turn his back on Satan and the rage inside him. In essence, he had become a prisoner of Satan via that rage and grief, which forced him into nothing more than a constant spiral of anguish. He was unable to come out of it until he finally felt the love of his beloved Mina once more. Able to bring him out of his spiritual trance, Dracula's soul is saved and his sins are forgiven. No longer must he dredge about in the dark, lurking in the shadows, and be consumed by his guilt and terror. Now, he is engulfed in a ray of light at the end of the film and finally lifted back up to where he belongs as a man who fought for the Church so many years ago.

Prior to this powerful finale, Coppola delivers a horror film of tremendous proportion, namely due to fantastic directorial work and lighting. Perhaps his greatest trademark is the usage of lighting with the chiaroscuro lighting in The Godfather being infamous and even his usage of light through the windows in Peggy Sue Got Married being incredibly ingenious. Here, Coppola relies on the lack of light and shadows to communicate the terror and horror of the film. With Dracula's shadow always seeming to act independently of his body, we see it strangle Jonathan when Dracula sees an image of Mina. Later, we see it turn between bats and wolves or creep about in his absence. Along with allowing Dracula to hide amongst the fog and be nothing more than a wisp of wind, Coppola provides the film with a consistently ominous feeling. It is hard to not believe that Dracula is always right around the corner, waiting for his next victim to just walk a few feet until he is in his grasp. Terrifying and always a nice touch in the cinematography, this usage of shadows is one that Coppola is certainly known for but one that perfectly for this gothic-set horror romance.

Coppola's directorial muscle is also flexed in one of the true highlights of the film. Cross-cutting between Lucy being consumed by Dracula's wolf form as she is mounted via missionary position with the wolf biting her neck and the scene of Mina and Jonathan getting married in Romania with the ceremonial drinking of the blood of Christ and kissing to seal the marriage, the film is chilling. Showing the ritualistic nature of both and juxtaposing the sanctity and beauty of the wedding ceremony with the violent brutality of the vampire-ing ceremony in Lucy's bedroom, Coppola creates a sin similar to the infamous cross-cutting in The Godfather. Going between the brutal murders of those who oppose Don Corleone and the Don baptizing his son, Coppola juxtaposes the horror and blood with the beauty of this family moment. In Dracula, he goes back to that very same well to very chilling effect, showcasing the ritualistic nature of both but with very different outcomes in the two separate occurrences. A chilling moment that rides on the brutal juxtaposition between these two vastly opposing forces of good and evil, Coppola's directorial instinct is shown to be just as sharp as ever with this sequence.

The film's use of sound, especially, in the climax is also noticeable and quite apt. Thrilling, unsettling, disorienting, and disquieting, the frequent cuts by the camera and the heart racing and unappealing music combine to make the climax one that is as horrifying to watch and hear as it is to experience. It captures the moment brilliantly, sending chills down the viewer's spine and truly making them feel the moment in every gory and uncomfortable detail. Though brilliantly put together and crafted by Coppola and his team, the scene is one that is hard to watch due to how rapid, disorienting, and how jarring the music often can become. As a result, it often stands as one of the greatest achievements of this film as a work of horror. Though scenes such as the ones in Castle Dracula with the baby or Jonathan being attacked by the demonic women are chilling and unsettling, it is partially due to what is on-screen as much as it is about Coppola's jarring close-ups and cutting in the moment. With the climax, the cuts combine with the off-beat and chilling score to make this race to the Castle embarked upon by Dracula and Van Helsing's team one that plays far scarier and horrifying than a simple chase sequence. It is one laced with tension, building to a crescendo that works perfectly and leaves the audience both satisfied and hungering for more.

The film's production design is similarly brilliant, especially in Castle Dracula. Dark, ominous, and brooding, the looming image of Dracula in his youth that is hanging constantly right behind his now aged appearance, is a great touch and one that truly sets the mood perfectly. As in all great gothic horror films, the sets become a character and deliver just as much tension and chill as any directorial decision that Coppola could make. With these long, dark hallways looming ominously all over the set, the home of Dracula and the surrounding area is one that fits perfectly into how one would imagine the home of Dracula to look and it is just as scary. Compared to the 1931 film, Coppola did not have to make the home dirty and unkempt to make it eerie. Instead, it allowed the barrenness of the home and terrifying mystery of what secrets and people the home hides do that job.

A near-perfect work from a legend of the directing world, Dracula is a film whose merits have been questioned in the years since its release due to Keanu Reeves. Though he is awkward in his role as Jonathan, he is hardly in this film long enough to make a noticeable impact on the film's quality. With a strong cast otherwise - especially Gary Oldman as Dracula, Hopkins as Van Helsing, and Winona Ryder in a stunningly nuanced and strong turn as Mina - the film hardly bears the brunt of some of Reeves' awkwardness. Even then, he is hardly all that bad, just out-acted by his incredibly talented counter-parts. Beautifully designed with smart themes regarding love, evil, sin, and forgiveness, Coppola's take on Bram Stoker's Dracula is far more expansive than the one starring Bela Lugosi and, as a result, it resonates far more on an emotional level and winds up being all the more horrifying as well.

[adambstingus]

7 WTF Sex Scenes That Will Destroy Your Sanity

Sex scenes, while occasionally controversial, are a fairly regular part of cinema, from Eyes Wide Shut to Boogie Nights to Casablanca before they had to cut out all the orgy scenes. But in addition to their ability to titillate, certain movies (especially horror) like to get real creative with how far they can stretch the definition of erotica. And while some sexual experimentation can make for a great anniversary, too much of it might just put you off having sex for the rest of your life.

We’d warn you of all the nudity in this article, but it’s honestly the least inappropriate content you’re going to find compared to …

7

Denise Richards Does A Striptease For A Dinosaur’s Disembodied Brain

Post-Jurassic Park Hollywood tried to jam dinosaurs into just about every movie, from The Flintstones to that movie where Whoopi Goldberg was legally forced to solve crimes with a dino buddy. Then there’s Tammy And The T-Rex, an instant classic where Denise Richards plays a girl whose dead boyfriend (played by Paul Walker) has his brain transplanted into a robotic dinosaur. Why not a real dinosaur? Because that would be ridiculous.

You’d think the screenwriters would have their hands full with the whole cyborg tyrannosaurus plot, but they somehow managed to also find time to add in a whole bunch of weird sexual tension throughout the movie– like a schoolyard fight that results in a surprising amount of dick-grabbing.

Scenes like the penis pinch seem out of place in Tammy And The T-Rex, which is quite the achievement if you think about it, but that’s not the movie’s fault — it’s the fault of uptight censors. You see, the movie was originally intended for mature audiences, with its violent scenes eventually cut out for the American release, such as this moment where the lovable T-Rex rips a guy’s head off.

But the weird sex stuff was totally fine for preteens, so that was left in. The very final moment of the film features a particularly baffling attempt at sexiness. After removing her boyfriend’s brain from the T-Rex, it now lives a hellish existence in a petri dish in Denise Richards’ room, wired to a camcorder that cruelly has the lens cap on while she’s out.

So what does she do to satiate Paul Walker’s existential agony? In a moment that was trimmed down for the PG version, she does an elaborate striptease. It’s pretty much the closest we’ll ever get to seeing what Krang’s bachelor party would look like.

And because the brain that lives on her nightstand obviously doesn’t have a penis, it reacts to arousal by ejaculating sparks all over her teddy bear, which is a fire hazard.

The movie ends with Richards jumping on the bed for the really naughty stuff to happen. Of course, we don’t get to see any of that because the movie fades to black.

The brain in the jar also can’t see any of that, because the bed is out of its field of vision. Brains don’t have arms, Denise, you need to move the camera for him! Or, y’know, unplug him and let him pass blessedly on into eternity. Whichever.

6

Ninja Women Dispatch Enemies With Their Magic Genitals

It’s a common movie trope that the femme fatale assassin uses her sexuality to eliminate her target. But Female Ninjas Magic Chronicles 3: Sacred Book of Sexual Position (not a porno) boldly asks the question, “What if female assassins literally used their genitals to kill people?”

The sequel to a movie in which the Catholic Church hides treasure maps in vaginas, Female Ninjas Magic Chronicles 3 finds a gang of (not surprisingly) female ninjas seeking an ancient book of sexual positions. Along the way, they have to best a series of warriors with their feminine ninjitsu skills … which mainly involves them getting molested and then erupting vengeance from various orifices. For example, one ninja quickly transitions from sex to squirting a guy in the face with acid breast milk, like some misguided erotic version of the dilophosaurus attack in Jurassic Park.

Cinefile Videos

Cinefile Videos “No use dying over spilt milk.”

In another hectic battle, one ninja busts out the aptly named “Vagina Bubbles From Hell”– a slow-moving mass of vaginal soap suds …

Cinefile Videos

… And this lethal bubble bath literally kills a dude, who we can only assume went to the afterlife red with embarrassment.

That’s not even the dumbest vagina-related magic power in the movie. That honor is reserved for the powerful mystic who turns her enemies’ … uh, goo, into a weapon with her vagina silly-string (from Hell).

5

The Hilarious Werewolf Threesome In The Howling II

Werewolves combine the worst parts of puberty: the rampant hormonal rampages and the unfortunate body hair. So, despite the Twilight saga’s most mediocre efforts, you can’t make a werewolf sexy. Case in point, The Howling II.

A sequel to the werewolf classic, with a subtitle that sounds like a line from Dracula’s Friars Club roast, Howling II: … Your Sister Is A Werewolf opens with Christopher Lee. In space. Talking about werewolf boning. Don’t worry, the British accent totally sells it.

After all that build-up about “beasts” and “fornications,” we finally see the Werewolf Queen’s castle, a temple of sin filled with … old people, for some reason. Apparently, the werewolf community is totally cool with senior citizens getting bussed to their Zorro-themed orgies.

Three of the werewolves splinter off to a candelabra-filled bedchamber to have a threeway. Well, we say “threeway,” but it’s mostly just a whole lot of watching and not a lot of movement. For all of Christopher Lee’s ranting about the abject sin of lycanthropy, these two hairy asses are fumbling about like it’s werewolf prom night at their werewolf Catholic school.

Eventually, the Werewolf Queen joins in, but seemingly goes to great effort not to physically touch the other werewolves, probably because the filmmakers didn’t want her $200 manicure getting tangled up in all that recycled pubic hair.

If there was a porn parody of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats directed by someone who had never had sex before, this is probably what it would look like:

4

A Nurse Bangs An Anatomically Correct Medical Dummy In Front Of A Child

Pin is a Canadian horror movie about a young man who kills people because a medical dummy told him to.

In a flashback, the killer’s backstory shows that his doctor father used the anatomically correct dummy to teach his kids. He even did the voice of the dummy, just to maximize the chance of future psychic traumas.

Eventually, his son starts to think the dummy is real. It doesn’t help his delusion when the kid catches a nurse using the dummy as a marital aid.

What starts as some gentle petting quickly turns into a speedy run-through of years of sexual education for the peeping tom …

… Then she crushes that dummy’s ass in what the Kama Sutra calls the “Loveless Marriage Lotus.” The kid’s reaction shot says it all.

With this brief but potent girl-on-medical-equipment action, we now know exactly (through shared trauma) why this child becomes a deranged killer. That’s one psychosis out of the way, but what about the nurse’s? The movie never explains what the hell is going on with her. Do the filmmakers think that this how health care providers spend their coffee breaks? Why don’t we follow her around for ninety minutes and see where that angel of death vibe may lead? Probably to a mannequin store.

3

Jason Voorhees Kills A Potential Threesome In The Wackiest Way Possible

We all know Jason X wasn’t exactly the strongest of the Friday The 13th movies; it has a cast of terrible actors, a spaceship set that looks like a sci-fi-themed Motel 6, and a musical score that was likely played on a toddler’s bumblebee-shaped keytar. But it did do the one thing all Friday The 13th movies are supposed to: make teens everywhere regret wanting to have sex.

The movie finds a group of futuristic students on a field trip in space when the frozen body of Jason Voorhees comes to life and starts murdering people — another good reminder of why permission slips always need to be signed. At one point, the intrepid group of survivors trap Jason in what’s basically a holodeck simulation of a country resort, in a desperate attempt to slow him down with wistful nostalgia.

Worried that Jason won’t simply drop his machete in favor of drinking mai tais in a deck chair, they add in some horny teenagers …

… Who immediately get naked and try to seduce a confused Jason …

Jason, even though it wasn’t on the menu, picks the murder option. He lets the naked child-supervisors get into sleeping bags and then beats one sleeping bag against the other sleeping bag …

… And to neatly wrap things up, kills the other counselor with one whack of a sleeping bag to a tree.

Which is both a call-back to Friday The 13th Part VII, and a handy way to save money on gore effects. But let’s go back to the holodeck for a sec. Which future pervert thought it was a great idea to program a university research vessel with the simulation of a summer camp sex fantasy that hasn’t been relevant since the late 80s? Even more disturbing, these topless gals are specifically simulations of Camp Crystal Lake counselors, a place only known in this universe as the site of a famous massacre. What we’re saying is that that sleeping bag whack-a-mole we just saw Jason do is probably the least gruesome act ever performed on that holodeck.

2

Troll 2: The Goblin Queen Bangs A Dude With A Corncob (And Ejaculates Popcorn)

Aside from the fact that it was technically the first Harry Potter movie, Troll 2 is most well known for being possibly the worst movie of all time. Troll 2‘s human protagonists were maybe even less believable than the puppets, so it’s not surprising that the movie’s brief dalliance with eroticism would be about as sexy as sticking your junk into a thresher just because it said it loved you.

The scene in question starts with All-American boy Brent sitting in front of the TV, channel hopping, when suddenly he lands on a woman seductively caressing some corn on the cob — which is some kind of black magic, or the Green Giant commercials used to be a whole lot more fun.

The mysterious temptress then tells Brent to go outside because she’s waiting near his trailer and holy shit, all those beer commercials were right after all!

What Brent doesn’t know is that she’s actually the Goblin Queen, presumably hanging out in trailer parks because she’s fed up with her husband’s baby-stealing and their unnecessarily muppet-filled house. But we can forgive him for being … distracted.

They go back inside the trailer to do it, hard. But she has one condition: the corn gets to play too.

Because this is all part of her evil trick, Brent’s orgasm causes an explosion of popcorn as if he’s part of Orville Redenbacher’s wet dreams …

… Which then almost kills him as he drowns in his own salty, butter-soaked sex corn.

Troll 2 obviously performed very badly at the box office, but this scene makes us wonder if that was merely due to the movie being terrible, or the fact that it showed audiences the most popular concession-stand food covered in sex mucus?

That’s the difference between a regular bad movie and Troll 2. A regular bad movie will ruin 90 minutes of your life; Troll 2 will ruin your moviegoing experience forever.

1

Faust Has The Most Disgusting Sex Scene Of All Time

Faust: Love Of The Damned tells the story of an artist named John Jaspers (thus dodging the litigious wrath of famed artist Jasper Johns) who sells his soul to the devil in order to become a demon superhero and avenge his girlfriend’s death. Think Spawn, but if his mom made his costume for him.

One memorably horrifying scene finds the devil (who in the movie looks like a 90-year-old woman doing her best John Malkovich impersonation) about to get it on with his girlfriend — because in the age of internet dating, there’s always the odd chance that you accidentally wind up going out with the Prince of Darkness …

… But it turns out the woman has crossed him, so as a punishment he uses his evil magic to make her boobs and butt turn gigantic, and then melt. Again, he’s the devil, so we can’t be 100 percent sure this isn’t just some weird demonic foreplay.

Eventually, the seductress is reduced to nothing but a shuddering, liquid, four-leaf clover of female sexuality. It’s a pretty fucked-up, gross scene. If David Cronenberg ever directed an episode of Red Shoe Diaries, this is probably the nightmare factory he’d produce.

You (yes, you) can follow JM on Twitter, or check out his podcast Rewatchability.

For more all time awkward moments in fictional fornication, check out 5 Most Unintentionally Hilarious Movie Sex Scenes and The 6 Creepiest Sex Scenes in Video Game History.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel, and check out 5 Sex Scenes Made By People Who’ve Never Had Sex, and other videos you won’t see on the site!

Follow us on Facebook, and we’ll follow you everywhere.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/7-wtf-sex-scenes-that-will-destroy-your-sanity/ from All of Beer https://allofbeercom.tumblr.com/post/176327569462

[allofbeercom]

7 WTF Sex Scenes That Will Destroy Your Sanity

Sex scenes, while occasionally controversial, are a fairly regular part of cinema, from Eyes Wide Shut to Boogie Nights to Casablanca before they had to cut out all the orgy scenes. But in addition to their ability to titillate, certain movies (especially horror) like to get real creative with how far they can stretch the definition of erotica. And while some sexual experimentation can make for a great anniversary, too much of it might just put you off having sex for the rest of your life.

We’d warn you of all the nudity in this article, but it’s honestly the least inappropriate content you’re going to find compared to …

7

Denise Richards Does A Striptease For A Dinosaur’s Disembodied Brain

Post-Jurassic Park Hollywood tried to jam dinosaurs into just about every movie, from The Flintstones to that movie where Whoopi Goldberg was legally forced to solve crimes with a dino buddy. Then there’s Tammy And The T-Rex, an instant classic where Denise Richards plays a girl whose dead boyfriend (played by Paul Walker) has his brain transplanted into a robotic dinosaur. Why not a real dinosaur? Because that would be ridiculous.

You’d think the screenwriters would have their hands full with the whole cyborg tyrannosaurus plot, but they somehow managed to also find time to add in a whole bunch of weird sexual tension throughout the movie– like a schoolyard fight that results in a surprising amount of dick-grabbing.

Scenes like the penis pinch seem out of place in Tammy And The T-Rex, which is quite the achievement if you think about it, but that’s not the movie’s fault — it’s the fault of uptight censors. You see, the movie was originally intended for mature audiences, with its violent scenes eventually cut out for the American release, such as this moment where the lovable T-Rex rips a guy’s head off.

But the weird sex stuff was totally fine for preteens, so that was left in. The very final moment of the film features a particularly baffling attempt at sexiness. After removing her boyfriend’s brain from the T-Rex, it now lives a hellish existence in a petri dish in Denise Richards’ room, wired to a camcorder that cruelly has the lens cap on while she’s out.

So what does she do to satiate Paul Walker’s existential agony? In a moment that was trimmed down for the PG version, she does an elaborate striptease. It’s pretty much the closest we’ll ever get to seeing what Krang’s bachelor party would look like.

And because the brain that lives on her nightstand obviously doesn’t have a penis, it reacts to arousal by ejaculating sparks all over her teddy bear, which is a fire hazard.

The movie ends with Richards jumping on the bed for the really naughty stuff to happen. Of course, we don’t get to see any of that because the movie fades to black.

The brain in the jar also can’t see any of that, because the bed is out of its field of vision. Brains don’t have arms, Denise, you need to move the camera for him! Or, y’know, unplug him and let him pass blessedly on into eternity. Whichever.

6

Ninja Women Dispatch Enemies With Their Magic Genitals

It’s a common movie trope that the femme fatale assassin uses her sexuality to eliminate her target. But Female Ninjas Magic Chronicles 3: Sacred Book of Sexual Position (not a porno) boldly asks the question, “What if female assassins literally used their genitals to kill people?”

The sequel to a movie in which the Catholic Church hides treasure maps in vaginas, Female Ninjas Magic Chronicles 3 finds a gang of (not surprisingly) female ninjas seeking an ancient book of sexual positions. Along the way, they have to best a series of warriors with their feminine ninjitsu skills … which mainly involves them getting molested and then erupting vengeance from various orifices. For example, one ninja quickly transitions from sex to squirting a guy in the face with acid breast milk, like some misguided erotic version of the dilophosaurus attack in Jurassic Park.

Cinefile Videos

Cinefile Videos “No use dying over spilt milk.”

In another hectic battle, one ninja busts out the aptly named “Vagina Bubbles From Hell”– a slow-moving mass of vaginal soap suds …

Cinefile Videos

… And this lethal bubble bath literally kills a dude, who we can only assume went to the afterlife red with embarrassment.

That’s not even the dumbest vagina-related magic power in the movie. That honor is reserved for the powerful mystic who turns her enemies’ … uh, goo, into a weapon with her vagina silly-string (from Hell).

5

The Hilarious Werewolf Threesome In The Howling II

Werewolves combine the worst parts of puberty: the rampant hormonal rampages and the unfortunate body hair. So, despite the Twilight saga’s most mediocre efforts, you can’t make a werewolf sexy. Case in point, The Howling II.

A sequel to the werewolf classic, with a subtitle that sounds like a line from Dracula’s Friars Club roast, Howling II: … Your Sister Is A Werewolf opens with Christopher Lee. In space. Talking about werewolf boning. Don’t worry, the British accent totally sells it.

After all that build-up about “beasts” and “fornications,” we finally see the Werewolf Queen’s castle, a temple of sin filled with … old people, for some reason. Apparently, the werewolf community is totally cool with senior citizens getting bussed to their Zorro-themed orgies.

Three of the werewolves splinter off to a candelabra-filled bedchamber to have a threeway. Well, we say “threeway,” but it’s mostly just a whole lot of watching and not a lot of movement. For all of Christopher Lee’s ranting about the abject sin of lycanthropy, these two hairy asses are fumbling about like it’s werewolf prom night at their werewolf Catholic school.

Eventually, the Werewolf Queen joins in, but seemingly goes to great effort not to physically touch the other werewolves, probably because the filmmakers didn’t want her $200 manicure getting tangled up in all that recycled pubic hair.

If there was a porn parody of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats directed by someone who had never had sex before, this is probably what it would look like:

4

A Nurse Bangs An Anatomically Correct Medical Dummy In Front Of A Child

Pin is a Canadian horror movie about a young man who kills people because a medical dummy told him to.

In a flashback, the killer’s backstory shows that his doctor father used the anatomically correct dummy to teach his kids. He even did the voice of the dummy, just to maximize the chance of future psychic traumas.

Eventually, his son starts to think the dummy is real. It doesn’t help his delusion when the kid catches a nurse using the dummy as a marital aid.

What starts as some gentle petting quickly turns into a speedy run-through of years of sexual education for the peeping tom …

… Then she crushes that dummy’s ass in what the Kama Sutra calls the “Loveless Marriage Lotus.” The kid’s reaction shot says it all.

With this brief but potent girl-on-medical-equipment action, we now know exactly (through shared trauma) why this child becomes a deranged killer. That’s one psychosis out of the way, but what about the nurse’s? The movie never explains what the hell is going on with her. Do the filmmakers think that this how health care providers spend their coffee breaks? Why don’t we follow her around for ninety minutes and see where that angel of death vibe may lead? Probably to a mannequin store.

3

Jason Voorhees Kills A Potential Threesome In The Wackiest Way Possible

We all know Jason X wasn’t exactly the strongest of the Friday The 13th movies; it has a cast of terrible actors, a spaceship set that looks like a sci-fi-themed Motel 6, and a musical score that was likely played on a toddler’s bumblebee-shaped keytar. But it did do the one thing all Friday The 13th movies are supposed to: make teens everywhere regret wanting to have sex.

The movie finds a group of futuristic students on a field trip in space when the frozen body of Jason Voorhees comes to life and starts murdering people — another good reminder of why permission slips always need to be signed. At one point, the intrepid group of survivors trap Jason in what’s basically a holodeck simulation of a country resort, in a desperate attempt to slow him down with wistful nostalgia.

Worried that Jason won’t simply drop his machete in favor of drinking mai tais in a deck chair, they add in some horny teenagers …

… Who immediately get naked and try to seduce a confused Jason …

Jason, even though it wasn’t on the menu, picks the murder option. He lets the naked child-supervisors get into sleeping bags and then beats one sleeping bag against the other sleeping bag …

… And to neatly wrap things up, kills the other counselor with one whack of a sleeping bag to a tree.

Which is both a call-back to Friday The 13th Part VII, and a handy way to save money on gore effects. But let’s go back to the holodeck for a sec. Which future pervert thought it was a great idea to program a university research vessel with the simulation of a summer camp sex fantasy that hasn’t been relevant since the late 80s? Even more disturbing, these topless gals are specifically simulations of Camp Crystal Lake counselors, a place only known in this universe as the site of a famous massacre. What we’re saying is that that sleeping bag whack-a-mole we just saw Jason do is probably the least gruesome act ever performed on that holodeck.

2

Troll 2: The Goblin Queen Bangs A Dude With A Corncob (And Ejaculates Popcorn)

Aside from the fact that it was technically the first Harry Potter movie, Troll 2 is most well known for being possibly the worst movie of all time. Troll 2‘s human protagonists were maybe even less believable than the puppets, so it’s not surprising that the movie’s brief dalliance with eroticism would be about as sexy as sticking your junk into a thresher just because it said it loved you.

The scene in question starts with All-American boy Brent sitting in front of the TV, channel hopping, when suddenly he lands on a woman seductively caressing some corn on the cob — which is some kind of black magic, or the Green Giant commercials used to be a whole lot more fun.

The mysterious temptress then tells Brent to go outside because she’s waiting near his trailer and holy shit, all those beer commercials were right after all!

What Brent doesn’t know is that she’s actually the Goblin Queen, presumably hanging out in trailer parks because she’s fed up with her husband’s baby-stealing and their unnecessarily muppet-filled house. But we can forgive him for being … distracted.

They go back inside the trailer to do it, hard. But she has one condition: the corn gets to play too.

Because this is all part of her evil trick, Brent’s orgasm causes an explosion of popcorn as if he’s part of Orville Redenbacher’s wet dreams …

… Which then almost kills him as he drowns in his own salty, butter-soaked sex corn.

Troll 2 obviously performed very badly at the box office, but this scene makes us wonder if that was merely due to the movie being terrible, or the fact that it showed audiences the most popular concession-stand food covered in sex mucus?

That’s the difference between a regular bad movie and Troll 2. A regular bad movie will ruin 90 minutes of your life; Troll 2 will ruin your moviegoing experience forever.

1

Faust Has The Most Disgusting Sex Scene Of All Time

Faust: Love Of The Damned tells the story of an artist named John Jaspers (thus dodging the litigious wrath of famed artist Jasper Johns) who sells his soul to the devil in order to become a demon superhero and avenge his girlfriend’s death. Think Spawn, but if his mom made his costume for him.

One memorably horrifying scene finds the devil (who in the movie looks like a 90-year-old woman doing her best John Malkovich impersonation) about to get it on with his girlfriend — because in the age of internet dating, there’s always the odd chance that you accidentally wind up going out with the Prince of Darkness …

… But it turns out the woman has crossed him, so as a punishment he uses his evil magic to make her boobs and butt turn gigantic, and then melt. Again, he’s the devil, so we can’t be 100 percent sure this isn’t just some weird demonic foreplay.

Eventually, the seductress is reduced to nothing but a shuddering, liquid, four-leaf clover of female sexuality. It’s a pretty fucked-up, gross scene. If David Cronenberg ever directed an episode of Red Shoe Diaries, this is probably the nightmare factory he’d produce.

You (yes, you) can follow JM on Twitter, or check out his podcast Rewatchability.

For more all time awkward moments in fictional fornication, check out 5 Most Unintentionally Hilarious Movie Sex Scenes and The 6 Creepiest Sex Scenes in Video Game History.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel, and check out 5 Sex Scenes Made By People Who’ve Never Had Sex, and other videos you won’t see on the site!

Follow us on Facebook, and we’ll follow you everywhere.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/7-wtf-sex-scenes-that-will-destroy-your-sanity/

[lemmeg0]

Brasov, a medieval city surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains

Brasov pronounced as Bra-Shov is one of the most visited cities of Romania. Located in the center of Romania, it makes a perfect base for exploring the surrounding regions and trust me, you do wanna go see those surrounding regions. Why? Well, I am sure your trip to Romania is incomplete without visiting the Bran Castle and Bran castle is only a 40 minute bus ride from Brasov. Similarly, there are many other cool things to see around Brasov, which I would mention later. We stayed a total of 9 nights in Brasov and we found everyday something to do. 

The old town of Brasov

Brasov was founded by the Teutonic Knights in 1211 by order of king Andrew II of Hungary. On the site of the village of Brașov, the Teutonic Knights built Kronstadt – the city of the crown, and thus the coat of arms of the city is a crown with oak roots. "The location of the city at the intersection of trade routes linking the Ottoman Empire and Western Europe, together with certain tax exemptions, allowed Saxon merchants to obtain considerable wealth and exert a strong political influence.” Saxons played a major rule in the architecture of Brasov.

Things to do and see in Brasov

1. Free walking tour of Brasov with a local guide

The first thing we did in Brasov was to take a free walking tour of Brasov with a local guide. It is a perfect opportunity to get to know the city from someone local. From April to September, the tour starts at 6 PM everyday from Piata Sfatului (Town Council Square), next to the fountain, and from October to March, the tour is at 3 PM everyday. Look for a girl with an orange umbrella.

Our guide, Kinga with her orange umbrella

We took this tour in April and there were a good amount of people mostly from England. Our guide was a well informed girl, named Kinga. She took us to some of the major landmarks including the Black Church, the Town Council Square and the city's 14th Century fortifications. You can find more information here. 

2. The Council Square aka Piata Sfatului 

I have been to many squares to a point it’s getting a little repetitive, but this square impressed me. It is big, like really big, surrounded with beautiful red-roofed merchant houses. 

The Council Square aka Piata Sfatului 

It has a beautiful waterfall in center of the square. There are restaurants and cafes throughout the square with people sitting outside. 

The Council Tower which is now a museum

Tons of restaurants, cafes, and pubs around the square

This square shows how medieval towns were built and organized by population originating from the germanic states of the time. Back in the day, Saxon population called it as the Marktplatz. 

3. The Black Church (Biserica Neagra)

The Black Church is the largest Gothic church in Romania. It was built between 1385 and 1477 on the site of an earlier church, whcih was destroyed by Mongol invasions in 1242.

Black Church, the symbol of Brasov

It used to be called Marienkirche by Germans, but it got destroyed during the fire in 1689 including the rest of Brasov. The church got almost black and hence, it got the name Black Church.

4. Black Tower (Turnul Negru)

The black tower was built in 1494 to prevent the enemies from approaching the city walls. You must have guessed it by now how it got its name. Yes, thanks to the devastating fire of 1689, but it looks white due to the recent renovation.

The Black Tower, which looks white

The tower happens to be closed on Monday and that’s when we visited. What a luck! Nevertheless, this tower is situated on a hill and even without going inside the tower, the views are awesome once you hike up the hill. It only takes few minutes. 

5. White Tower (Turnul Alb)

Right next to the Black Tower, there is a White Tower, which you can’t go inside at all. It is always closed, but the views from the entrance are amazing, but similar to the Black Tower’s view.

The White Tower which looks white alright.

View from the White Tower

6. Mount Tampa

Whatever means of transportation you are taking to come to Brasov, you would see Hollywood style “Brasov’ sign written up on the mountain, and I am sure you wanna go up there.

Brasov style

Well, it is pretty easy. We hiked up the Mount Tampa and it took us about 2 hours total to reach the top. There are several trails and the easiest one if the Crocky trail marked with red triangle. The trail starts from the old town along the southeastern side of the fortress walls, next to Billa supermarket.

The trail starts from here, close to Billa supermarket in the Old Town

If you are not up for hiking, you can also take a cable car, which costs 16 Lei round trip. In winter, the last cable car going up is at 4:30 PM and the last one coming down is at 5:00 PM. 

7. Seven Ladders Canyon

If you enjoy hiking and looking for some change from sightseeing in Brasov, say no more. Seven Ladders Canyon was a unique experience for us. 

“The canyon has been carved in Jurassic limestone and is composed by seven waterfalls, the tallest being 35 metres (115 ft) high. The trail within the canyon is arranged with metal stairs and platforms.” You can read more about the 7 ladders canyon here.

8. Catherine's Gate (Poarta Ecaterinei)

Catherine’s Gate is a Lovely gate, well worth taking a walk from the square. Erected in 1559 by the Tailors' Guild, it looks like a fairy tale tower. It is the only original gate to have survived from medieval times.

It has four small corner turrets (as seen in other Saxon citadels), which means the town council is capable of death penalty.

9. The Schei District

Romanians were forbidden to own properties inside the citadel walls during the time of Saxons. They were even charged just to enter the walls. Well, they needed somewhere to settle and they chose the Schei district.

We walked around the Piata Unirii, which is a small square with some monuments. The major attraction of this neighborhood is is Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church or Biserica Sfantul Nicolae.

Even though it is an orthodox church, it doesn’t look like one. It is beautiful from both inside and outside.

Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church or Biserica Sfantul Nicolae

.

10. Day Trips from Brasov

That’s all I can think of attractions in Brasov, but there are a lot of places to see outside Brasov in its surrounding. I am listing down the names below:

Rasnov Fortress and Bran Castle - I know if you wanna see the Dracula, but please go visit the Rasnov Fortress as well. It falls between Brasov and Bran and can easily be combined with your day trip to Bran. 

Peles Castle and Pelisor Castle - Peles Castle is a real castle and Bran is nothing in front of it, honestly. Pelisor castle right next to Peles is worth checking out. 

Poiana Brasov - A mountaintop ski and summer resort. Did not get a chance to visit it, but heard great stuff about it especially if you are into skiing. Bus ride from Brasov is only about half an hour. Take bus 20 from Livada Postei bus station.

Sighisoara - A medieval town, which is listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It takes about 2.5-3 hours by train to get there. It’s citadel still got people living here, which is one of a kind. 

[aion-rsa]

Resident Evil Village: Lady Dimitrescu and the Real Serial Killer Who Inspired Her

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Resident Evil Village, Capcom’s newest vision of horror, unleashed its villain, Lady Alcina Dimitrescu, onto the world in January, and the internet has hardly been the same since. Before we’d even seen anything substantial from the new game, the nine-foot “Tall Vampire Lady” was already the sequel’s most popular character, the subject of countless memes and even a few…salacious mods and videos.

With the release of the game this month, Dimitrescu’s star is shining even brighter. We just can’t stop talking about our Lady. And when you hear who the developers at Capcom turned to for inspiration when creating this character, you get the sense that she was always destined for infamy, designed specifically to go viral.

One major influence, according art director Tomonori Takano, was the Japanese internet urban legend Hasshaku-sama (or “hachishakusama”), an eight-foot-tall evil spirit in a wide-brimmed hat who lures her young male victims to her by imitating the voices of their loved ones. Impossibly tall, pale as a corpse, and wearing a wide-brimmed hat, the resemblance is uncanny.

But it’s Dimitrescu’s more gruesome, real-life inspiration that will likely keep you up at night. To create a bloodthirsty lady of a castle with a taste for torturing and mutilating her victims, Capcom needed only to look to Hungarian noblewoman and convicted serial killer Countess Elizabeth Bathory. One of the most wicked figures of 16th-century Europe, Bathory is said to have tortured and killed up to 650 girls and women between 1590 and 1610, although the final tally of victims is disputed to this day.

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Even centuries after her heinous crimes, there’s still much we don’t truly know for sure about Bathory and her long-rumored vampiric tendencies. It’s impossible at times to tell what is a true account and what is tall tale. The story we know today is likely a mix of both. Did she bathe in the blood of young virgin girls to retain her youth? Did her cruelty stem from the supposed Satanic rituals and witchcraft she witnessed from a young age in her family home in Transylvania? Was she really in the middle of torturing her latest victim, drenched in blood, when she was finally detained by the King of Hungary’s lead investigator, Gyorgy Thurzo?

By the time she was arrested and sentenced to life in house arrest inside Csejte Castle, her house of horrors in Upper Hungary (now modern Slovakia), Thurzo is said to have collected 300 statements from witnesses who attested to the brutal killings of young peasant girls abducted by the Countess, as well as confessions from servants (although they were being tortured by the authorities at the time). Few witnesses could actually give first-hand accounts of Bathory’s crimes, and many of the testimonies amounted to little more than hearsay, but Thurzo’s investigation and the eyewitness accounts of two court officials who claimed to have watched the Countess kill several girls were enough to lock her inside a room in her castle until her death in 1614.

The crimes recounted at the trial, in the history books, and in the folktales grow more and more gruesome the deeper you dig, like descending down to the darkest depths of Lady Dimitrescu’s castle.

“Bathory’s torture included jamming pins and needles under the fingernails of her servant girls, and tying them down, smearing them with honey, and leaving them to be attacked by bees and ants,” writes History.com. “She often bit chunks of flesh from her victims, and one unfortunate girl was even forced to cook and eat her own flesh.”

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While some historians and scholars claim that Bathory was actually the innocent victim of a conspiracy propagated by the Catholic Church and a rival family trying to rob her of her extensive wealth and land, the Countess’ dark legacy as an alleged bloodthirsty cannibal is what has solidified her place in history and turned her into an influential figure in horror fiction. In fact, debates have persisted over the years regarding whether the “Blood Countess” helped inspire Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Although fellow Transylvanian Vlad the Impaler is largely accepted as the foremost historical source for the seminal vampire novel, Bathory is sometimes referred to as “Countess Dracula.”

In 1971, Hammer Films loosely adapted Bathory’s story in Countess Dracula, which follows noblewoman Elisabeth Nádasdy who, yes, bathes in blood in order to retain her youth. The 2008 historial drama Bathory casts a more sympathetic eye, portraying the Countess as the victim of manipulation.

According to Takano, while Bathory provided the foundation for Lady Dimitrescu’s story, the character evolved from other ideas floating around Capcom.

“The concept started out as a castle with a hundred witches inside, but that was hard to implement into a video game format, which is why we ended up making it like this,” Takano told IGN. “But actually, when you play the game you might notice that the setting is still pretty close to that idea. All the enemy types inside the castle are female. With Lady Dimitrescu as the cult’s guru, we have created this hierarchy of women. Men have their blood drained by these women, so you could say it’s the opposite of Dracula.”

Indeed, Lady Dimitrescu isn’t a 1:1 recreation of Bathory, but the similarities are there in gruesome detail. Like the Countess, Dimitrescu is the matriarch of a castle, complete with a dungeon where she murders and bleeds her victims (it is said Bathory also had her husband build her a torture chamber as a gift before his death). Due to her unique mutation, Dimitrescu must drink the blood of her victims in order to retain her youth and her powers. She also has three “daughters” who help her hunt down her prey, not unlike the four servants (including a local witch) who were charged as Bathory’s accomplices and executed.

Much more will be said about Resident Evil‘s newest villain in the days to come. Does Lady Dimitrescu live up to the month’s of social media hype? That’s up to each player to decide. But when it comes to the woman who inspired her and what’s fact or fiction about her life, the truth is likely somewhere in the middle.

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