Happy October 13th! If you are one of the many people today who suffer from Triskaidekaphobia, an abnormal fear of the number 13, then today may be one in which you lock yourself safely indoors to protect yourself from the forces of evil. If you do so, here are some entertainment options in the spirit of the season that may help allay your fears.

In the recent Poe-related posts and reader comments there have been many mentions of Edgar Allan Poe’s story The Tell-tale Heart. Hardly surprising as it is a great short tale of suspense. The Puphedz are the concept of producer Jürgen Heimann. The Puphedz are essentially a theatre troupe of carved wooden puppets who perform their interpretations of various classic tales of horror. Their interpretation of Poe’s tale, entitled The Tattle-Tale Heart, was released to DVD in February of 2003 and was supposed to be the first of many such tales. Unfortunately there has been no activity on their site indicating any work on future projects. The Tattle-Tale Heart is a hilarious, albiet short, story. Told from a padded cell by the straight-jacketed Woodrow J. Larchbottom, III:

The Tattle-Tale Heart is his accounting of what occured that fateful night when he could no longer stand the presence of his roomates’ eye:

The Tattle-Tale Heart is filled with wood-related puns, bad jokes, and unrestrained silliness. The detail in the sets, as well as in the ‘actors’, is wonderful and you can tell that this is a project that was lovingly tackled by its creators. The DVD contains 2 versions, the second being slightly longer with a ‘judgement of God’ sequence that is intended for more mature audiences. When I purchased this I bought it directly from the Puphedz website and recieved an autographed copy. I also joined the Puphedz Navy and was sent a wonderful initiation packet complete with wood shavings from the Puphedz workshop…it was all very silly fun. I encourage you to visit the website and watch the trailers…the quality is slightly dated but they are still entertaining.
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If you choose to get out and drive I recommend the Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection.

This 5 disk collection contains a large assortment of the poems and short stories of Edgar Allan Poe read by veteran horror actors Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone. Both men do a marvelous job. Other than The Raven I find it easier to “get” the poems if I’m reading them along with the audio, but the short stories are very easy to follow. My only complaint with this collection is that in some spots, particularly when the story calls for a character to be whispering, the audio quality is lacking. Overall the sound quality is very clear but for some reason I have to turn my car stereo speakers to the maximum volume to hear the reading at a normal speaking volume. In addition to bookstores and Amazon.com this CD set is most likely available in your local library. It is well worth an October listen.
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Last but not least, if you feel like tackling your Triskaidekaphobia head on I recommend the under-appreciated movie The Thirteenth Floor.

Starring the lovely Gretchen Mol, the always creepy Craig Bierko, and Vincent D’Onofrio (one of my absolute favorites) this is an interesting science fiction film that suffers mostly from being released too close to The Matrix. This film is very much in the vein of films like The Matrix, Blade Runner, The Imposter, and Dark City. While not a classic science fiction masterpiece this film does make for a good rental and is an enjoyable sci-fi adventure with a little romance thrown in for good measure.
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Be careful out there today, avoid black cats, don’t break any mirrors, and beware the number 13!