Tag Archive: Whispers of the Old Hag

A Month of Kurosawa: Dreams (1990)

November 29, 2018 1 Comment

To celebrate the upcoming release of my book, Akira Kurosawa: A Viewer’s Guide, due out Dec. 15 from Rowman & Littlefield — preorder here! — I’ll be doing capsule reviews all month covering every single Kurosawa film and posting (very) brief excerpts. These will be short impressions and recommendations, nothing more. For a full, detailed analysis of each, grab the book! Dreams (1990) It would perhaps be overstating the case to call Dreams the final masterpiece by Akira Kurosawa, as this anthology of short films doesn’t quite rise to the level of his greatest works, but at times it comes pretty damn close. Dreams, sometimes called Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams, is a collection of loosely connected short films that have some similarity of theme (most either…
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Films

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Whispers of the Old Hag: why Sleep Paralysis is probably behind some of our creepiest myths

October 31, 2015 6 Comments

This piece originally appeared in the July/August 2008 edition of Weird Tales magazine, issue #350. It once appeared online, but their online archives appear to be gone, so I’m taking it upon myself to post it here for posterity’s sake. Halloween seemed like the perfect day to do it, too. If you’ve ever suffered from sleep paralysis — waking up and being unable to move — you should read this. WHISPERS OF THE OLD HAG by Eric San Juan The thing was made of light and shadow; skeletal, pale, with ribs like talons and deep eager eyes. I did not know the time. Didn’t care to know, really. Midnight; 4 a.m.; whatever. How could I care when it stood there, just outside my bedroom door,…
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Works by Eric, Writing

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Taking the FaceBook plunge

January 8, 2009 0 Comments

You know, I’ve had no want, need, or desire to sign up for those big social media sites. They’ve been all the rage the last few years, so being the sort of knee-jerk, closed-minded guy I am, I decided I wanted no part of them. Well, that’s not entirely true. I used to work with this fella, Pete Chen. Great guy. I’d like to say hello. Oh, and Jeff Combs, too, a guy who seems to have fallen off the face of the Earth. But mostly, no. Keep them away, please. They’re like cell phones to me, or Aquaman. But also … sigh … also, I kinda sorta guess it’s a good thing to do these days, what with the networking possibilities and all. I…
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Comics & Graphic Novels, Random Musings, Uncategorized

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