Forbidden Secrets, Forbbiden Places, Forbidden Things

Back in February, I reviewed a short film called Cigarette Burns. The basic plot of the film deals with the search for a film that, when viewed, drives the viewer insane. Your basic Uwe Boll movie, say.

It's a powerful notion, isn't it? By design or accident, someone create something that can destroy you by you by seeing it, by hearing it, sometimes even just being in its presence.

It is a most interesting subject. How do you deal with something like that? Can it be stopped?

Here, for the reader's edification, is a short list of Forbidden Secrets, Forbidden Places, and Forbidden Things that should not be seen, things that should not be read, things that should not be heard, places that should not be visited. Be wary.

Click here for the list.

• The Funniest Joke in the World: a sketch done by Monty Python's Flying Circus. A failed joke writer succeeds in making people laugh with fatal consequences. As silly as the sketch is, it paints a very good picture of how a government might want to use such devastating power. It also seems to have inspired a story in the animated Fraggle Rock. It's called The Funniest Joke in the Universe, so as one can tell the difference between the two jokes, and while I can remember seeing it, I can't recall that much of it.
• Need to Know: a story from the New Twilight Zone. that I remembered called in which a man struggles to prevent a "secret" from spreading madness over the world. He doesn't do a very good job of it.
• The Haunting of Hill House and The House Next Door: Two novels of houses that were just built wrong. I've only seen the (original) Hill House, so I can't speak of how good the novel is. However, the House Next Door is, as I recall it, well worth a look
• Cell: a novel by Stephen King. A signal is sent through cell phones that changes the listeners into monsters.
• The Reaper's Image: A short story also by King. A mirror has a nasty habit of making those who peer into it... disappear.
• In the Mouth of Madness: A movie by John Carpenter. The latest novel of Sutter Cane causes madness... among other things
• The Necronomicon: What one tends to think of when one thinks of books that inspire madness. One of H. P. Lovecraft's most enduring creations, it has been used in horror stories both good and bad since it's creation. The power of the old tome has, of course, diminished with each mention.
• The King in Yellow: Perhaps the inspiration for the Necronomicon itself. It is a play so horrible that it causes madness or foul ends. Lovecraft used it to how more modern writers use his dread work. It's creator, Robert W. Chambers, used it as a basis for several of his works, included in the collection bearing the same name.