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Post by erebus on Apr 27, 2014 16:09:06 GMT
Had a re cap of this one over the easter holidays, and a theme seemed to be present in quite a lot of the stories. People trapped or put somewhere and/or imprisoned. Its in over a dozen of the tales within. The most bizarre being An Experiment of Choice. Which also has to be one of the vaguest in the whole Pan collection. Who puts them there ? How and for what reason ? And How on earth do you manufacture such a blade to come from such a ridiculous place ? I could go on.
Also has anybody seen the 2010 film by Adam Green called FROZEN ? Well its virtually a movie version of The Ski Lift. Did he read this perhaps.
I loved The Fat Thing and this is probably the best in what is for me a poor pan. Of course its coming off the wonderful number 9 but only a few stories like The Acid Test and The Thing in the Cellar remain memorable. And yes I also believe The thing in the cellar left me feeling redundant.
Terror at Two Hundred Below is more of a subtle sci fi story for me. And Pussy Cat Pussy Cat is one of those stories which always has me thinking why and how on earth did this get published. As soon as we see there is a baby in the narrative we gather the outcome instantly too. All that being said Baldie does indeed have a good cover. So much I remember nicking it from my sisters, boyfriends Nans house when I was a lawless Eight year old. I am in no way condoning the theft of Pan books or any other for that matter. Just to set that record straight.
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Post by charliegrenville on Jun 18, 2014 2:16:12 GMT
OK, my overview:
This wasn't one of my faves when I first got it (I was about 11): both it and the 7th came into my possession at a time when I just wasn't getting on with my folks and not doing very well at school, so I found myself reading more and more to take my mind off it, but generally allowing the negative feelings to overspill into what I was reading. And with tales like the ones in some of these books, that could be very negative indeed!! Thankfully I can see the funny side now and they're like old friends.
As Franklin pointed out earlier though, a lot of the stories do betray their end-of-the-60s, post-flower power acid casualty burnout origins: not just in the deliberate faux-psych stylings of MAGICAL MYSTERY TRIP, but the general feeling of desolation that occupies so many of the stories, from LONG SILENCE OLD MAN and MARMALADE WINE (the latter also being an admirable exercise in 'restraint', in both senses of the word) through to perhaps the ultimate, TERROR OF TWO HUNDRED BELOW. What could be more damning of the era than to express a desire to escape it entirely by freezing, in order to be woken at some 'later' time when things were 'better'? Talk about pessismistic. The irony being that in the 70s, things would indeed become even more interesting- but that didn't always hold true if you were a penniless horror writer living in a bedsit on Social Security trying to flog your scribblings to Bertie Van Thal. Somehow, I've always imagined a certain population of horror writers to have existed in a vacuum where the Sixties swung past them completely...
There are slightly more 'traditional' terrors in here also in the shape of PUSSY CAT PUSSY CAT and THE CURE, and Rosie T is up to her usual 'woman going crackers' scenario again in SUPPER WITH MARTHA (a favourite of my brother's): elsewhere Walter Winward and Dulcie Gray's contributions (SELF EMPLOYED and THE NECKLACE respectively- "fith eyethe!! lubberly fith eyethe!!" being ANOTHER favoured chant of my elder sibling, who did so love me to read these things to him aloud so he could take the piss) plump, as usual, for the sick and twisted quota. And, talking of 'plump', there's always THE FAT THING. Nuff said. Waddell waddell waddell (and I'm sure that's the sound it made too)
But for an imaginative approach to an otherwise hackneyed subject, first prize has to go to John 'Tripods' Christopher for RINGING TONE. Genuinely well thought out and rather poignant. A bit of a mixed bag in general- but isn't that the idea?
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Post by dem bones on Jun 18, 2014 9:47:55 GMT
A bit of a mixed bag in general- but isn't that the idea? Would certainly go along with that and, personally, that's the appeal of anthologies. Over the years, the "lesser" stories and obvious fillers seem to take on an attractiveness of their own. Loved the review, Charlie. Thanks for registering, and I hope you get something out of your time here. |
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Post by dem bones on Mar 8, 2015 8:57:17 GMT
Martin Waddell - The Fat Thing: A primeval slime oozes from the sewer to prey upon East Londoners who share their names with nursery rhythm characters. The Fat Thing is smart. It pours itself into a rubber body suit and dons plastic mask and raincoat to avoid suspicion. It even learns to type. All of which proves bad news for Peek-a-Bo, the Wapping pub chanteuse, Minnie from the Mile End Wimpy Bar, and ne'er-do-well, Cambridge-educated bus inspector, Jack Horner.
Frances Stephens - The End Of The Line: Poor, disturbed Mary revisits the derelict station at Alder's Lea, the place she and Steve enjoyed many a romp in the long grass. But Steve didn't want the baby, and she couldn't keep it hidden from her hateful aunt forever. Which is where the rat-infested tunnel comes into the story.
Robert Duncan - The Evil One: Evie cheats on her fiancée Andy with a party-goer who introduces himself as Luke Morningstar. As he lies asleep, Evie takes a peek under the sheet and spots the handsome stranger's cloven hooves. Satan! What if she were to kill him? Surely that would make up for her one night stand?
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Post by dem bones on Mar 9, 2015 7:22:10 GMT
Walter Winward - Self-Employed: When Fred Chalmers found out that wife Mary was sleeping around with every Tom, Dick and Harry, it nearly destroyed him. Little could he realise that divorce would be the first step to a new career and, for the first time in his life, complete job satisfaction. As to Mary, she just keeps swinging. Reads like something you'd find in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Norman P Kaufman - A Sharp Loss Of Weight: Narrator is released from Wormwood Scrubs after serving thirteen years for the rape and murder of a girl named Shirley. Meanwhile the true perpetrator, Fat Morrie, has remained free to pursue his life of luxury - or so our man believes. In fact the former Fat Morrie is skeletally Thin Morrie these days, having employed a housekeeper without first running a thorough check on her identity. I've read not a one of them, but, like Rosemary Timperley (and GNS), when he wasn't writing for the Pans, Norman kept himself occupied by knocking out stories for the London Mystery Selection. Appointment at Four (#78, September 1968) Observance of the Sixth Commandment (#101, June 1974) Head (#102, September 1974) The Man Who Dared (#109, June 1976) Nice Day for Dying (#109, June 1976) The Man Who Dared (##111, December 1976) When Charles Came Back (#115, December 1977) Sweet, Sweet, the Memories You Gave Me... (#118, September 1978) The Bermingham Factor (#119, December 1978) This Year...Next Year...Sometime...? (#122, September 1979) The Results of My Enquiries (#126, September 1980) Desmond Stewart - An Experiment In Choice: Trapped on the narrow rim of a tower hundred of feet above the earth, the 148th involuntary participant in the deadly experiment. As a razor sharp blade rises to meet him, he must decide between jumping outward to certain doom, or inward, down the dark mouth of the tower to land on ....what?
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Post by ripper on Mar 9, 2015 15:27:31 GMT
Something in the Cellar was fine apart from the ending, which I thought was a bit of a let-down. Magical Mystery Trip was just a tad too 'way-out' for my tastes. Overall, an average Pan, with nothing really standing out, but good enough to pass the time nicely without feeling let down.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 10, 2015 8:11:55 GMT
Something I love about the Pans is, revisit a particular volume after a long interval, and there's a fair chance that, after years of maintaining that so and so story is rubbish, you'll now see it in a more favourable light. Not that the first of this next batch is any great shakes but it plays its part.
Frances Stephens - Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat: "You've got your baby, I want my pussy cat!" A stray cat comes between stressed mum Lorna and her subnormal nine-year-old son, Benny. New-born baby gets caught in the crossfire.
B. Lynn Barber - The Flatmate: "What ghastly revelation was he going to make now? What was wrong with the flat? Rats? Coloured neighbours? Ceiling falling in?" Now here's a horror story designed to hit the male reader straight between the legs. Laura, a socially isolated young woman has just moved into a recently vacated flat, the previous occupant, Tom, having committed suicide in the most grisly manner. On studying the dead man's papers, Laura's curiosity fast turns to obsession, until she's deluded herself into believing that she and Tom were an item. When Simon, his former flatmate, explains what Tom was really like, a promiscuous homosexual who wouldn't take no for an answer, she gets busy with a carving knife.
John Christopher - Ringing Tone: Captain J. F. Hall (retired) scrutinises the telephone directory for the names and numbers of single women to pester with obscene phone calls. Tonight's lucky winner is a Miss Spalding, who has been having a tough time of it of late, so much so that she's decided to end it all ...
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Post by dem bones on Mar 11, 2015 15:27:04 GMT
The Fat Thing - the more I think about it, the more I'm sure the way I write has been influenced by the mix of stories you could find in these books. This is gloriously stupid and horrible, and having all those sleazy characters named after nursery rhymes is just the icing on the tub of lard. A Sharp Loss of Weight - I think this is horror, you know. Old Norman P was always at his best staying away from supernatural or surreal tropes (Vivisectionists is a rather painful one-joke example) but the image of 'Fat Morrie' suspended from all those wires in that woman's ordinary suburban house has stayed with me for years, and again I'm sure has had an effect on what I write now. There's certainly more than a touch of Norman Kaufman circa the revolting Contents (PH 20) about The Anatomy Lesson and I'm thinking Supper With Martha eventually festered into Two For Dinner. Beauty of it is, you bring so much of your own to the party. Rosemary Timperley - Supper With Martha: Martha is the ideal wife and Paul Fellow loves her dearly, but, dammit, Estelle Montjoy is so exciting and so available! But how dare she stand him up this evening when she knows full well that he reserves his Friday nights for "business meetings"! Nothing for it but to return home to Martha and hope she's put something nice in the oven. "He let his eyes linger on the cover of the book before he began to read. It pictured a voluptuous blonde, standing with her back to him, and clad in nothing but her golden hair and a silver chain-anklet. The girl looked rather like Estelle ..." . Can anyone (e.g., Severance) identify the "paperback thriller" in question? It's a must for Down the back of the Vault. Disturbed children, gangland violence, hallucinogenic drug trips, backstreet abortions, a homosexual would-be rapist, and a heavy breather on the line - perhaps it was a response to "the permissive society," but Pan 10 reads like a concerted effort to get with the times and dispense with 'supernatural' trappings in favour of kitchen sink realism. So what's up next? A screw-ball 'forties sci-horror throwback. Well it was a good half-baked theory while it lasted .... William Sinclair - Terror Of Two Hundred Below: When Sir Arthur Wayne, big shot philanthropist, offers £½ million in prize money to whichever team submits the worthiest research project, Jason Sloane, MAD SCIENTIST, is furious to be beaten into second place by Professor Maxwell's piffling "cure for the common cold" programme. As he will soon prove to everyone's satisfaction, Sloane will stop at nothing to finance his cryogenics programme, even if it means freezing out the opposition. Narrated by poor Linda Reynolds, former assistant to Prof. Maxwell, now one of the demented Sloane's involuntary patients. Terror Of Two Hundred Below reminds me a lot of classic The Saint episode The Man Who Gambled With Life, but minus the mini skirt girls and gorilla suit. Dulce Gray - The Necklace: Here comes little Bernard Stubbs. You can never miss Bernard on account of his massively disproportionate head, puny, crippled body and the cruellest lisp. Despite it all, Bernard is happy enough when he's making one of his necklaces, i.e., threading eyes through a piece of string. Fish eyes mostly, from the poulterers, though he'll occasionally catch and throttle a sparrow or robin. His poor, devoted mum assures him they're "lovely" while struggling to keep down her dinner. Now Bernard is eighteen, all growed up, and he's been such a model patient that the nice people at the special hospital are allowing him home to stay with his parents for a holiday. What could possibly go right? Four to go, two of which I found incredibly tedious on first acquaintance and one I can remember nothing about. Anything on the box tonight? |
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Post by Johnlprobert on Mar 12, 2015 8:39:00 GMT
How very kind! I shall do my best to…ahem…party on….
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Post by dem bones on Mar 12, 2015 9:41:44 GMT
Please do! In all seriousness, I think the spirit of the Pan's lives on in the Black Books more than any anthology series I've seen. Restores a man's belief in contemporary horror fiction. David Lewis - Long Silence, Old Man: A tyrannical father who was quick to take the lash to his son and humiliated him in front of his first sweetheart "for his own good" makes the fatal mistake of growing old and frail. Now Manello returns, new bride in tow, determined to give the old bastard a taste of his own. Doesn't seem to be much love for this story on here but I can't help thinking that, had it been the girl tied over the rocking horse, Long Silence ... may have gone up in (some of) our estimations. Doing it to an old codger is just plain distasteful! I still reckon Mary Danby's similarly themed Nursery Tea ( Fontana Horror 11) does the job so much better. Diana Buttenshaw - The Ski- Lift: Best pals Klaus and Werner fall out over the lovely, manipulative Brigitte. Despite their feud, the pair holiday together in Innsbruck where they gradually rekindle their old friendship until news reaches them that Brigette has booked in at a local hotel with a stinking rich "cousin." In the race to reach her before said cousin can take advantage, the love rivals jump the last ski-lift of the day, only to be stranded halfway to the terminal in sub-zero temperatures. Not particularly original - had there been a ©1924 against Miss Butterworth's story in the credits I'd not have been at all surprised - but works for me. |
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Post by dem bones on Mar 12, 2015 18:30:45 GMT
Alex Hamilton - The Image Of The Damned: Unlike Long Silence, Old Man, this black comedy is miles better than I remembered it. The narrator, who learned his craft during the French Revolution under the tutorship of Mme Tussaud, has since set up in England where he takes casts of Newgate's most notorious criminals to immortalise in wax. Such is his talent that the resemblance is often so uncanny that, stood side by side, man and waxwork are indistinguishable from one another. Which gives the Hon. James Beresford an idea. The celebrated gambler and ladies man is due to swing tomorrow on a trumped up charge. Can the hangman be bribed to string up the wax effigy in his place while he escapes as part of the narrator's exhibit?
And a minor masterpiece to end on.
Dorothy K Haynes - The Cure: Local superstition has it that the touch of a hanged man heals all ills, so how much more powerful the spell if the rotting corpse in question happens to be that of your own father? Davey Weir, a frail and sickly child who's Dad went to the gallows for stealing money to buy his medicine, is about to put the old wives tale to the test.
Reads like Ray Bradbury's The Crowd relocated to some Scottish backwater. The horror is provided by the community who get a huge morbid cheap thrill from the Weir's tragedy, and treat both the execution and today's sequel as a jolly-up.
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Post by andydecker on Aug 2, 2019 11:11:18 GMT
After Pan 9 I managed to get hold of 10-15. So onward with 10. As the content is well documented in this thread, just a few random thoughts.
The Acid Test – Terrific opener. That's Paula's trouble. She talks too much. Heh. I still marvel how many stories van Thal did include which so much later became the Torture Porn theme and was hailed as never done before. Which of course is just nonsense. This one would make a nice scene in a horror movie.
Something in the Cellar – Also it is a bit of a headscratcher how many revenge of the cheated spouse stories there are. Have all those writers read too much EC Comics? I quite liked this, but the end is stupid and kills the story.
The Ringing Tone – Those good old days when obscene phone calls couldn't be traced 😊 Quit and nice, it's relevance even grew over the 50 years it is old. And I also mean you, Mi***oft calling: you have a virus on your computer. An absolute contrast to the first stories.
The Necklace – A bit short, but it gets the job done.
Self-Employed - Another of the unfaithful wife stories. I guess in the current climate this would file under misogynist crap, which in this case is quite apt. The ending is nice, but can't save this hypocritical nonsense.
Supper with Martha – And after the unfaithful wife comes the unfaithful husband. Again? It is a bit of a groaner, frankly. To become Martha the Ripper because hubby had a mistress seems a bit excessive. If ever one doubts the necessity of counselling should read Pan Horror. Still it is nicely written. "I must be a frustrated surgeon, really." Heh. In hindsight it is interesting that all those murderers are so normal, upstanding citizens. It shows again how old these stories are. Still no evil hippies or serial killers in sight, just you everyday meltdown.
Punishment by Proxy – I guess one wouldn't see that one in a contemporary Best New Horror. Still very well done with a chilling ending.
The End of the Line – Only 5 pages, and still I thought it kind of a chore to read.
The Fat Thing – I am not really sold on the writing style, but the Fat Thing in a corset made me laugh. Utter ridiculous.
The Flatmate – And the next repressed woman sliding into madness. Another one which wouldn't go to well with a lot of people today, but classic Pan stuff. A truly revolting character becoming more revolting. A bit long, but I liked the ending.
The Ski-Lift – This, on the other hand, just merits a meh. Two immature idiots doing idiotic things. I guess Stephen King could have made a novel of those two assholes freezing on the lift, but I thought even this too long.
Magical Mystery Trip – A story which is remarkably timeless and could have been written today, nicely done with the hallucinations. But I thought the ending a bit of a cop-out.
To be continued …
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Post by andydecker on Aug 5, 2019 9:42:08 GMT
Onward with Pan 10.
Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat – Another meh. Stephens obviously doesn't work for me.
Long silence, old man – Another family horror. Truly unpleasant and disturbing.
Terror of Two Hundred Below – This, on the other hand, reads like it comes straight out of a shudder pulps of the 30s. I liked it, especially the gloomy ending, but it seemed a bit out of place in a Pan.
The Cure – Another disturbing one.
The Image of the Damned – Seems I am in a minority with this, but I couldn't get into it. Too rambling, not enough plot or too much. Normally I am a fan of historical horror, but this left me cold.
A sharp loss of weight – It is just another EC, done consciously or not, but it works. Short and to the point, with some very well written and memorable parts. "She gestured at the chains with a certain pride, as if she were a child with a new toy".
An Experiment in Choice – I like stories where not everything is spelled out, but this is a head-scratcher. It is a re-telling of Poe's Pit and the Pendulum, this I get, only without the happy ending. But what is the point of all this effort? This would work also in an abandoned plant instead of this SF setting. But if you mark it under surreal horror, it works well.
The Evil One – I wonder how many readers in 1969 recognized the meaning of the name Luke Morningstar at the beginning, which nowadays kind of tells what this is about. And the in places overly flowery prose made me roll with the eyes, especially the sex-scene. But the twist at the end was well done and saved it for me. I really thought it would become another of those sex is evil type of stories.
Marmalade Wine – Well done. A simple, even basic plot, but the conclusion is great.
Monkey Business – Great story. Another reminder how the world has changed.
On the whole Pan 10 is more entertaining than a lot of contemporary stuff. The stories are not so self-consciousnessly, less burdened with expectations. Also they don't suffer from overlength.
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Post by Shrink Proof on Sept 16, 2019 15:44:49 GMT
Can I just say that one of the things I really rate about the Vault is that, despite the vast size and scope of the internet, with millions upon millions of sites covering everything from the latest discoveries about Bronze Age agriculture to fantasies about the inside leg measurements of various boy band idols, this is the only place I know of online where a discussion with the title "Baldie With Insect Tonsure" could still be alive after twelve years.
Sorry for derailing the thread. As you were...
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