32 Days of Halloween X, Day 22: The Snake Woman!

For tonight’s festivities, let’s start with a story that I’ve learned–to my great horror, I might add–is no longer a must-read for kids these days. It’s only one of the most famous short stories ever written and it used to be the one story (along with Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”) that you could count on having been read by everybody. I’m talking about, of course, “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell. Here we have it adapted for radio for the show Suspense. It’s from 1945 and as Zaroff stars some bloke named Orson Welles.

Then for our feature presentation let’s go to 1961 and let’s have a very, very small budget to work with. Sidney J. Furie (Superman IV) directs this tale of using alternative medicine (i.e. snake venom) to work on mental illness. It can have bizarre effects on the next generation. Apparently. Enjoy.