calliopes_pen

The Yuletide 2025 Commentary Post

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 22:55:36 GMT

( Beneath the cut, you will find commentary on the writing of From Graves Forgotten Stretch Their Dusty Hands for Yuletide 2025. It's rather long. )

comments

Fic: From Graves Forgotten Stretch Their Dusty Hands

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 21:14:36 GMT

The fic commentary post will be up shortly, but for now, here's the reveal!

From Graves Forgotten Stretch Their Dusty Hands (42124 words) by calliopes_pen
Chapters: 9/9
Fandom: Nosferatu (2024)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Thomas Hutter/Orlok, Friedrich Harding/Thomas Hutter, Ellen Hutter/Thomas Hutter
Characters: Thomas Hutter, Friedrich Harding, Albin Eberhart von Franz, Wilhelm Sievers, Orlok (Nosferatu), Greta the Cat (Nosferatu)
Additional Tags: Crueltide, Nightmares, Mind Control, Brainwashing, Demonic Possession, Post-Possession, Vague mention of canon necrophilia, Offscreen Cannibalism, Necromancy, Comes Back Wrong, Evil Detecting Animals, Found Family, No Animals Are Harmed, Fog, Tons of research, Fainting, Unholy mental connection, Bittersweet Ending, Decapitation, Thomas has been used horribly by the great beyond, Von Franz is in research mode, Von Franz adores his cats, Grief/Mourning, Post-Canon

Summary: Three months after his presumed final destruction, Orlok’s essence comes forth to seize control of Thomas, and bid him to perform an act of necromancy as revenge. What comes back is Friedrich Harding...and yet not. It is a man transformed into a Nachzehrer, a being hungry for the life and soul and flesh of the only one left of those it once loved: Thomas.

comments

Dear Yuletide Writer 2025

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 20:58:23 GMT

( Beneath the cut, you will find my Dear Yuletide 2025 letter. Fandoms are: Bram Stoker’s Van Helsing (2021), Count Dracula (1970), Count Dracula (1977), Dracula (TV 1968), Fright Night (Movies 1985-1988), Legend (1985), Mr. Boogedy (Movies 1986-1987), and Nosferatu (2024). )

comments

Dear Yuletide Letter 2024

Sun, 06 Oct 2024 21:08:57 GMT

( Beneath the cut, you will find my Dear Yuletide 2024 Letter. Fandoms are: Bram Stoker’s Van Helsing (2021), Count Dracula (1977), Dracula - Bram Stoker (Novel 1897), Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972), Hrabé Drakula (1971), and Phantasm (Movies). )

comments

The Yuletide 2023 Commentary Post

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 13:36:16 GMT

( Beneath the cut, you will find commentary on the writing of Harmless Phantoms On Their Errands Glide for Yuletide 2023. )

comments

Fic: Harmless Phantoms On Their Errands Glide

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 13:24:15 GMT

The fic commentary post will be up shortly, but for now, here's the reveal!

Harmless Phantoms On Their Errands Glide (14346 words) by calliopes_pen
Chapters: 4/4
Fandom: Dracula - Bram Stoker (Novel 1897)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jonathan Harker/Mina Murray Harker
Characters: Jonathan Harker, Mina Murray Harker, Quincey Morris, Abraham Van Helsing, Arthur Holmwood, John Seward
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Journey to the Castle, Kissing in the Snow, Mina tackle hugs Jonathan, Jonathan's skills concern everyone, Quincey has a secret, Ghosts, Found Family, Friendship, Happy Ending, Sharing a Bed, Quincey Morris Lives, Seward's bed might be haunted
Summary:

In the wake of the Count’s final defeat, it has begun to snow in earnest. Having nowhere else to go, as night falls our crew is forced to head for the castle for sanctuary from the storm. During the course of the night, they will forge a new destiny for themselves.

comments

Dear Yuletide Letter 2023

Sun, 15 Oct 2023 16:34:14 GMT

( Beneath the cut, you will find my Dear Yuletide 2023 Letter. Fandoms are: Bram Stoker’s Van Helsing (2021), Count Dracula (1977), Dracula - Bram Stoker (Novel 1897), House of Dark Shadows (1970), House of Usher (1960), and The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023). )

comments

Dear Yuletide Letter 2022

Fri, 14 Oct 2022 20:12:38 GMT

( Beneath the cut, you will find my Dear Yuletide 2022 Letter. Fandoms are: Bram Stoker’s Van Helsing (2021), Count Dracula (1977), Dracula - Bram Stoker (Novel 1897), Dracula: l'amour plus fort que la mort – Ouali, The Fall of the House of Usher (TV 1966), and Supernatural (TV 1977). )

comments

Rest In Peace, Larry Storch And Lenny Von Dohlen

Sat, 09 Jul 2022 22:22:10 GMT

Larry Storch passed away in his sleep at the age of 99. May he rest in peace.

I remember that I loved F-Troop back when Nick At Nite aired it in the very early 90’s. Over in the Columbo subreddit, someone linked to the time Storch was in an episode as a driving instructor who was terrified of Columbo’s driving skills, or lack thereof.

I had forgotten the trivia that he was in 1975’s The Ghost Busters, so kudos to Ghostbusters News for that reminder. I never watched that series, but knew of the headache it caused for Ghostbusters (1984). I did watch an episode of Filmation’s cartoon of it (rented by mistake in the 80’s; movie store gave that rather than The Real Ghostbusters, since that was next to it on the shelf).

Oh, and Storch was also in an episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker as Swede; the episode was The Vampire.

Lenny Von Dohlen passed away on July 5th, at the age of 63, following a long illness. May he rest in peace.

Evidently, he was mostly known to people thanks to Twin Peaks. I never watched that, and almost thought I had never heard of him before. However, after checking his filmography, I see that he was in Dracula’s Widow (1989) as Raymond, which I watched earlier in the year. He’s the guy bitten and controlled by Vanessa.

Looking through his other work, I may need to track down Jennifer 8 (1992). I believe that Electric Dreams (1984) is on Tubi.

(In honor of Storch appearing on the show, have a Columbo icon)

comments

Rest In Peace, Fred Ward

Fri, 13 May 2022 17:19:50 GMT

Fred Ward has passed away at the age of 79. At this time, no cause of death was given. May he rest in peace.

Not being a fan of the Tremors franchise, I didn’t think I was truly acquainted with his work. And then, I scrolled through his filmography. To my amusement, he played Sgt. Hoke Moseley in Miami Blues (1990), which I had just finished watching on Tubi last night. His performance was genuinely fantastic in a movie that was not the best. He was almost the only reason I stuck with it to the end.

Looking beyond that, I need to track down Cast A Deadly Spell (1991). Would anyone recommend Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985)? I’ve heard of the title in passing before, but never knew if it was worth watching.

comments

Rest In Peace, Kenneth Welsh And George Pérez

Sat, 07 May 2022 19:57:23 GMT

Kenneth Welsh has passed away at the age of 80. May he rest in peace. Based on what I’m reading in his obituaries, a lot of people remember him as Windom Earle from Twin Peaks. I have never seen that series, as it never really appealed to me.

I knew him as Watson from the Sherlock Holmes movies that starred Matt Frewer. The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire is currently on Tubi, and I recently rewatched it. If you want to view Hallmark’s version in order of release, it was thus: The Hound of the Baskervilles (2000) (not to be confused with the Richard Roxburgh version released elsewhere around the same time). The Sign of the Four (2001). The Royal Scandal (2001) (which I have yet to see). The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire (2002).

Reading through his filmography, I believe that I need to track down The Lizzie Borden Chronicles (2015). And, of course, the aforementioned The Royal Scandal (2001).

Just a couple of minutes after I posted the above, I heard of the following death. George Pérez has passed away, at the age of 67, due to complications from pancreatic cancer. May he rest in peace. I loved his work, and he will be deeply missed.

Via a posting to his Facebook page, which was quoted on Bleeding Cool: "George's memorial service will take place at MEGACON Orlando at 6pm on Sunday, May 22nd. It will be open to all."

comments

Rest In Peace, Nehemiah Persoff

Wed, 06 Apr 2022 17:01:06 GMT

Nehemiah Persoff passed away yesterday at the age of 102. May he rest in peace.

I briefly wondered why I believed that he had died in 2016, before I realized I was just mixing him up with Frank Finlay. As it is, the first thing I think of when I hear Persoff’s name is the Purple Playhouse production of Dracula from 1973, which I finally tracked down thanks to it getting leaked to Youtube back in 2017. He was a great Van Helsing. I also loved his episode of Columbo.

I went through his filmography to see if I knew him from anything else. I had forgotten that he was also in The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1969); when I was going through a giallo phase, it was one of the better ones. Thanks to Heroes And Icons, I have seen his episode of The High Chaparrel. He was also in three episodes of Barney Miller, as two different characters, and five episodes of The Untouchables (as four different characters).

Later today, I will watch Voyage of the Damned (1976), since I spotted that one on Tubi just a few days ago.

comments

Rest In Peace, June Brown

Mon, 04 Apr 2022 22:20:31 GMT

June Brown has passed away at the age of 95. May she rest in peace.

I presume a lot of people will know her from EastEnders, based on everything that I have read. I have never seen that particular soap opera, so I remember her in the role of Annie Chapman in Murder By Decree (1979). For Doctor Who fans, she was also in the serial The Time Warrior, where she played Lady Eleanor of Wessex.

Looking through her filmography, I believe that I need to track down Gormenghast (2000), which also evidently has Christopher Lee, Ian Richardson, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and Neve McIntosh (Madame Vastra from Doctor Who). Another which appears to be of particular interest to me would be The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1982), which also starred Anthony Hopkins, David Suchet, and Derek Jacobi (so two Van Helsings and a Master in one place).

ETA: A few minutes of searching on Youtube later, and I see that Gormenghast is up on Youtube, along with that particular version of Hunchback. If anyone else wants to watch the latter for free, someone evidently uploaded it 14 years ago, cut into 12 parts.

comments

Rest In Peace, William Hurt

Mon, 14 Mar 2022 16:23:51 GMT

William Hurt passed away yesterday, at the age of 71, as a result of complications from prostate cancer, which had already metastasized to his bones in 2018. May he rest in peace.

I mostly think of his role in Mr. Brooks (2007) when I think of him, since that’s the first thing I ever watched with him in it. It’s currently on Tubi. Thanks to Tubi, I’ve also recently seen him in Winter’s Tale (2014).

I would recommend the two part miniseries Frankenstein (2004), which starred Alec Newman as Victor Frankenstein; Hurt was wonderful as Professor Waldman. In the same movie, you can also find Dan Stevens, two years away from being Arthur in Dracula (2006). For fans of Mary Shelley's novel, this is one of the more faithful versions. At the time of this writing, you can find a few uploads of it on Youtube. Just know that in its entirety, it’s 3 hours, and 24 minutes long. (When it aired on Comet last year, it then became a six hour event.)

Looking through Hurt’s filmography, I see a few films that I need to track down: Body Heat (1981), Jane Eyre (1996), and The Countess (2009).

comments

Rest In Peace, Veronica Carlson

Sun, 27 Feb 2022 23:26:41 GMT

Veronica Carlson has passed away at the age of 77. May she rest in peace.

I was just looking up some of her work yesterday, and was actually planning to watch The Ghoul (1975) tomorrow, for the first time. So I believe I will also be doing a rewatch of a few other films of hers in the not too distant future: Dracula Has Risen From The Grave (1968), Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969), and The Horror of Frankenstein (1970).

comments

Powers of Darkness: The Swedish Version Recap, Part 2

Tue, 15 Feb 2022 22:36:15 GMT

( And now, the conclusion. Beneath the cut, you will find part two of the recap. )

comments

Powers of Darkness: The Swedish Version Recap, Part 1

Tue, 15 Feb 2022 21:50:15 GMT

( Beneath the cut, you will find part one of my two part blow by blow live blog of the Swedish Powers of Darkness. It was 26 pages total for both parts, according to LibreOffice. )

comments

Rest In Peace, Ivan Reitman

Mon, 14 Feb 2022 18:23:41 GMT

Ivan Reitman passed away in his sleep Saturday night, at the age of 75. May he rest in peace.

He will be best known to me as the director of Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II. I remember reading how proud he was to see the three surviving leads from the first two movies appear in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Part of that interview is even in the obit at The Hollywood Reporter.

comments

Rest In Peace

Mon, 10 Jan 2022 16:52:03 GMT

I’m going in the order in which these five died or were announced. I ran out of space in the post title, or I would have included all of them up there, too.

Rest in peace, Dr. Elizabeth Miller. She passed away peacefully on January 2nd, at the age of 82. She will be missed. If you haven’t heard of her, she was into the academic side of everything that involved Dracula, as well as Bram Stoker. I hunted down and devoured her published works back in the late 90’s and very early 2000s, and was thrilled by the fact she wrote the foreword for Lord of the Vampires, by Jeanne Kalogridis, back in 1996.

She won two Lord Ruthven awards for her work, and was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Dracula Society in 2012.

Via Vampires.com, which was quoting her obituary: “Between 1997 and 2012 she wrote or edited and published seven books on Dracula, the latter, entitled The Lost Journal of Bram Stoker, on which her co-editor was Dacre Stoker, grand-nephew of Bram Stoker. She was also the impetus behind 20-plus articles on aspects of Stoker and Dracula; she delivered lectures at universities, learned studies, conferences, ballet productions and private functions, as well as becoming involved in several television documentaries and scores of newspaper and magazine articles on the two.”

Sidney Poitier passed away on January 6th, at the age of 94. May he rest in peace. Unfortunately, I am not acquainted with any of his works, so I’ll need to rectify that shortly. Tubi has They Call Me Mr. Tibbs, as well as Lilies of the Field, so I’ll start there with his filmography.

Peter Bogdanovich passed away on January 6th, at the age of 82, due to complications from Parkinson’s disease May he rest in peace. I was previously only familiar with his work thanks to him directing Targets (1968), which was one of Boris Karloff’s final films. However, last night I watched The Cat’s Meow (2001) on Tubi.

Dwayne Hickman passed away yesterday, at the age of 87, due to complications from Parkinson’s disease. I used to watch so much of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, when the series was rerun on Nick At Nite back in the 1980’s. Thanks to the presence of Vincent Price, I had actually already seen him in Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965). Until I consulted his filmography, though, I wasn’t aware that he had directed three episodes of Designing Women, too.

Bob Saget has passed away at the age of 65. May he rest in peace. I loved America’s Funniest Home Videos back when it was first starting out, probably when I was around the age of 8 or 9. I drifted away from it, though I did also watch Full House for a very brief period of time.

Looking through his filmography, I had forgotten that he was in an episode of The Greatest American Hero, back in 1983; I watched that particular episode a few weeks back on Heroes And Icons. He was also the voice of the future Ted in How I Met Your Mother, throughout the duration of the series.

comments

Dear Chocolate Box Author

Tue, 04 Jan 2022 21:21:47 GMT

( Beneath the cut, you will find my Dear Chocolate Box Author letter. Fandoms are: Count Dracula (TV 1977), Dracula (Movies – Hammer), Dracula (TV 1968), and Dracula the Musical - Wildhorn/Black & Hampton. )

comments

The Yuletide 2021 Commentary Post

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 18:27:44 GMT

...or I can just post this today, instead of a few days from now!

( Beneath the cut, you will find commentary on the writing of The Dread of Vanished Shadows for Yuletide 2021. )

comments

Fic: The Dread of Vanished Shadows

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 12:41:18 GMT

The Dread of Vanished Shadows (28425 words) by calliopes_pen
Chapters: 6/6
Fandom: Dracula - Bram Stoker (Novel 1897)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jonathan Harker/Mina Harker
Characters: Jonathan Harker, Mina Harker, Abraham Van Helsing, Dracula
Additional Tags: Vampire Bites, Possession, Mind Control, Blood Drinking, Sleepwalking, Post-Canon, Exorcism, Fog, Bats, Friendship, Found Family, Dabbling in the dark arts can save lives, Mina will do anything to save her husband's soul, Stake through the heart, Canon-Typical Violence, Minor Character Death, Jonathan has a rough night

Summary:
The Count’s reign of terror was not truly ended with his destruction. While there was a year of peace, Jonathan and Mina soon discover that there were many strands in the Count’s web; he planned ahead for this eventuality. When Jonathan begins to sleepwalk, and is preyed upon by the vampire’s progeny, Mina and Van Helsing are locked into a battle with the solicitor's blood, life, and very soul on the line.

Thank you for the Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) fanfic, laughingacademy! Thank you for the Hellraiser story, Dracothelizard!

In a few days, I'll probably be posting my round-up on the writing of this Yuletide story, just as I do every year.

comments

Rest In Peace, Betty White

Fri, 31 Dec 2021 20:27:37 GMT

Betty White passed away today at the age of 99. May she rest in peace.

(She would have turned 100 on January 17th. I had a bad feeling they were jinxing things when I started seeing those promos for her 100th birthday celebration, but hoped I was wrong.)

comments

Rest In Peace, Anne Rice

Sun, 12 Dec 2021 16:34:22 GMT

Anne Rice passed away last night, at the age of 80, as a result of complications from a stroke. May she rest in peace.

She will be forever known as the author who wrote the entirety of The Vampire Chronicles*. I never got around to reading those, though did stumble across several fanfic crossovers with Highlander: The Series back in the late 90’s/early 2000’s. (And still recall various author’s notes begging her not to come after them given how she disliked fanfic at that point in time.)

At some point soon, I think I need to rectify that omission, and at least read Interview With The Vampire. I did watch and enjoy Interview with the Vampire (1994), though that was primarily as a result of the performances of Kirsten Dunst and Tom Cruise. I recently heard the novel was going to be adapted into a tv series on AMC, though I don’t have cable.

*There are more books in that series than I realized!

comments

Rest In Peace, Dean Stockwell

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 18:35:04 GMT

Dean Stockwell passed away on Sunday, at the age of 85, from natural causes. May he rest in peace.

While I may not have been the biggest Quantum Leap fan, I did love Al. My favorite episode is probably the one that aired around Halloween one year, where Al was Satan. When I finally watched him on Battlestar Galactica within the last couple of years, I found Cavil fascinating; here’s my favorite moment with him.

Looking through his filmography, I didn’t realize that he was the older Tim Drake in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. I had no idea that he was an uncredited valet attendant in Once Bitten (1985). At some point, I need to track down his episode of Hammer House of Mystery And Suspense, titled The Sweet Scent of Death.

comments