Graveyard Worms and Werewolves

My new story is out and I have thoughts on The Wolf of Snow Hollow

"The devil!" screamed the pious old lady.

"Then Goody Cloyse knows her old friend?" observed the traveller, confronting her, and leaning on his writhing stick.¹

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Hi, my name is Buck Weiss and I am a writer, Early American Literature scholar, and horror lover from Chattanooga, TN. No matter how you found my substack, I am glad you are here.

“The Graveyard Worm”

I have a new story just out in Night Terrors vol. 21 from Scare Street Press.

“The Graveyard Worm” is a ghost story inspired by the work of the great Joe R. Lansdale. It even mentions Deadwood Dick, the real-life black cowboy that Lansdale writes about in the great novel, Paradise Sky and the wonderful novella, Black Hat Jack. It also contains a great warning about eating strawberries when you find them growing wild on someone’s grave.

The Night Terrors anthology is 99 cents on Kindle right now and the audio version (a first for me) should be out soon.

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Of Werewolves and Toxic Men

I finally sat down to watch the horror comedy, The Wolf of Snow Hollow the other night. Now, this is a movie that I have been avoiding for a while. One, because I love werewolf movies and I like to torture myself. I’m the guy who waits years to watch the finale of his favorite show because he never wants it to end. I did this for Justified and Battlestar. I finally got around to watching them. Go ahead, shake your head. I am a strange one. 

So, I have been flipping by The Wolf of Snow Hollow for months. I kept telling my wife that I wanted to rent it when it was on VOD. Then, it came onto Amazon Prime and I added it to my watch list there. We would set down to pick a movie and I would hover over it for a while before moving on to something else. 

Two, because I had heard that it is not a traditional werewolf movie. Now, I might have slight spoilers here, so go watch the movie if you have not seen it. It is worth it.

When I heard it was not a traditional werewolf movie I got a little worried. Clearly, the main character is a bit unhinged. You could tell that from the trailer. I was worried that the wolf was all in his mind. I’m happy to say that this is not a mind-wolf movie. There is a “werewolf.” It’s just not what we think of in the tradition. 

Speaking of the tradition - We need more werewolf movies!

A few I dig in no particular order.

Dog Soldiers 

Ginger Snaps 

The Howling

Silver Bullet 

Wer

Howl

Late Phases

Let me know what I am missing the in the comments 

I was a huge fan of the tv series Werewolf and still really want to do a re-watch of it.

We have had some great novels as well. King’s Cycle of the Werewolf (of course), Jonathan Janz’s Wolf Land, The Wolf's Hour by Robert R. McCammon, Those Across the River by Christopher Buehlman, and Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones to name a few amazing ones. 

Yet, there is room for a lot more.

The Wolf of Snow Hollow fits into this lack well. The werewolf is awesome looking and the kills (though mostly off-screen) are brutal. The ending is a bit left field, but I dug it. 

The main character, wow! I could write an essay just about that guy. 

Played by writer and director, Jim Cummings. The main character, John Marshal, is one of the most well-rendered examples of someone with anger issues that I have seen on the screen. Here is a man who treats everyone around him like shit as he tries to live up to some notion he has about what his father expects of him. In true form, everyone in his life either makes excuses for him or weakly tries to knock him off the pedestal that he would never believe he is on.

Marshal is one of those horrible alpha males that would never see himself as a leader even as he cows everyone around him into submission through sheer brute rage. The worst kind of man. One who has the physical power and presence to demand the false respect he could never get through being a good person. The laughs come awkwardly at times because the guy is just being a dick and we knew someone just like him (or close enough) at one point in our lives.

This is clearly shown as he physically dominates the officers in his command, gets upset when he takes himself out of leadership roles, makes his teen daughter carry his drunk ass around, and goes to extremes of rage and violence when there is no need to. The real shock of the ending comes from him instead of the reveal of who the wolf is. His violence and the willingness of those around him to cover for him are the real horrors of the movie. 

When he shows the tiniest bit of restraint at the end of the film, the action does not feel hard-won or an accomplishment. Everyone knows that he will be exploding at the next problem that comes up and we are glad to be rid of him. Hats off to Cummings for creating such a horrible character that is all that can be toxic about the modern man. 

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Stepping into the Woods

I am almost 40,000 words into a novel I started writing at the beginning of summer tentatively titled, The Bloodiest. The book started out being about a Blob-like monster made of blood that is hunting down two rival sets of mobsters. So, Sopranos vs the Blob.

Since then, it has morphed into a full-blown cosmic horror novel that uses the same dark god of the hendecagon that was in my Christmas story, “Oh Unholy Night.” Check out that story in the December 2021 issue of Cosmic Horror Monthy.

So far, I am loving it and I see it coming in between 60k-70k. Writing has slowed down a bit since the fall semester started. Yet, I am making headway a little at a time.

My Eyes and Ears

I just started, Reluctant Immortals by Gwendolyn Kiste. Two chapters in and I am really loving it. I wasn’t expecting the touch of camp that it has. I find myself smiling when I think of Dracula and his situation at the start. We will see if his fate changes and he becomes a problem for our gothic heroines as we move forward.

I’m listening to everything The Decemberists since I just saw them live at the Ryman. Their best live album is Live Home Library Vol. 1

Until next time, find me on Twitter @WhyBuckWhy.

1. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “Young Goodman Brown”