Connect with us

News

31 Scary Story Nights: October 3rd “Swamp Witch”

Published

on

Welcome again readers to my series of 31 scary stories!  Our countdown to Halloween is in full swing, and our last two tales were chilling to say the least!  Tonight’s selection is slightly different.  Swamp Witch isn’t a traditional story.  In fact, it’s not necessarily a regular story at all.  It is in fact a song.

Written by Jim Stafford in 1974, Swamp Witch‘s lyrics tell the story of Hattie the Swamp Witch and her effect on one small town out in the bayou.  The lyrics work well as a stand alone poem that can be read aloud as a story, and I hope you and your family enjoys it as much as I do!  As a bonus, however, I’ll place a for the song before the lyrics!  There’s just something about Stafford’s delivery that makes the song even creepier…

Let’s take a trip to the bayou together!

***Writer’s Note:  We here at iHorror are big proponents of responsible parenting.  Some of the stories in this series may be too much for your little ones.  Please read ahead and decide if your kids can handle this story!  If not, find another story for tonight or simply come back to see us tomorrow.  In other words, don’t blame me for your kids nightmares!***

Swamp Witch music and lyrics by Jim Stafford (1974)

Black water Hattie lived back in the swamp
Where the strange green reptiles crawl.
Snakes hang thick from the cypress trees
Like sausage on a smokehouse wall.
Where the swamp is alive with a thousand eyes
An’ all of them watching you.
Stay off the track to Hattie’s Shack in the back of the Black Bayou.Way up the road from Hattie’s Shack
Lies a sleepy little Okeechobee town.
Talk of swamp witch Hattie lock you in when the sun go down.
Rumors of what she’d done, rumors of what she’d do,
Kept folks off the track of Hattie’s shack
In the back of the Black Bayou.

One day brought the rain and the rain stayed on
And the swamp water overflowed.
Skeeters and the fever grabbed the town like a fist
Doctor Jackson was the first to go.
Some say the plague was brought by Hattie
There was talk of a hangin’ too.
But the talk got shackled by the howls and the cackles
From the bowels of the Black bayou.

Early one morn ‘tween dark and dawn when shadows filled the sky
There came an unseen caller on a town where hope run dry.
In the square there was found a big black round
Vat full of gurgling brew.
Whispering sounds as the folk gathered round
“It came from the Black Bayou.”

There ain’t much pride when you’re trapped inside
A slowly sinkin’ ship.
Scooped up the liquid deep and green
And the whole town took a sip.
Fever went away and the very next day the skies again were blue.
Let’s thank old Hattie for savin’ our town.
We’ll fetch her from the Black Bayou.

Party of ten of the town’s best men headed for Hattie’s Shack.
Said Swamp Witch magic was useful and good
And they’re gonna bring Hattie back.
Never found Hattie and they never found the shack
Never made the trip back in.
There was a parchment note they found tacked to a stump
Said don’t come lookin’ again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, then…what do you think readers?  It doesn’t get much creepier than that!

Join us again tomorrow for the next installment of 31 Scary Story Nights here at iHorror!

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

Movies

‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

Published

on

It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading

Movies

‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

Published

on

Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading

News

Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

Published

on

Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading