Plasmid by Jo Gannon

[Johnlprobert]

Plasmid by Jo Gannon (Star Books 1980)

While Norman J Warren was busy prepping his 1981 Alien rip-off Inseminoid (itself the subject of an unforgettable novelisation from NEL) Stanley Long, who had spent the previous four years producing sub-Confessions sex comedies Adventures of a Taxi Driver and its two sequels, was trying to get financing for his first horror film since his involvement in Tigon's 1968 The Blood Beast Terror

The money fell through but the screenplay (by Jo Gannon) and its novelisation (by Robert Knight) remain for us pulpy horror enthusiasts to enjoy. In fact it's a real shame this wasn't made as with a bit of tweaking it could have been a British Rabid or even Zombie Flesheaters.

At the sleepy seaside town of Oakhaven mad Professor Fraser has been busy at the Genetic Reseacrh institute up on the hill experimenting on psychotic prisoners who have elected to be part of his research programme rather than serve their life sentences. This research, which as ever is 'for the good of mankind' has produced an individual so strong he promptly rips the intestines out of two doctors on page 2 and heads off into the sewers on account of his genetically induced albinism preventing him from coming into the light.

And it's infective! Cue lots of scenes of manhole covers being thrown off in the middle of the night. The usual collection of prostitutes, tramps and innocent bystanders walking their dogs are roped in as victims and pretty soon the little town has a sewerage-smelling zombie army to deal with.

I loved Plasmid. It embraces its cliches gleefully and is full of the kind of Dodgy Science that Kind of Makes Sense that I love. Even their definition of a plasmid is correct. Seriously obsessive BritHorror buffs like me can also get an extra kick out of casting it with the usual bunch of TV actors of the time who ended up in this sort of thing. My vote was for Susan Penhaligon as the sexy intrepid reporter.

[erebus]

Never heard of this but it sounds fabulous. An old Italian/Spanish film shot in the uk called PANIC (1980) instantly popped in my head when I read this synopsis.
That book sounds great.

[dem bones]

Now this sounds very much like my bucket of raw sewage. Don't have a copy myself, so had to borrow the cover scan from Alwyn's Trash Fiction. There are quite a few posts about Plasmid on the latest finds thread, starting here.

[markewest]

Picked this up last week - never heard of it before, so thanks John for all the background info. Will get to it soon, just reading "The Medusa Horror" by Drew Lamark (Alan Launay) at the mo!

[Johnlprobert]

Aug 20, 2011 22:49:36 GMT markewest said:

Will get to it soon, just reading "The Medusa Horror" by Drew Lamark (Alan Launay) at the mo!

What's that like, Mark?

[markewest]

Hi John - probably exactly what you think, it's rubbish if you spend too long deliberating on the logic but it's briskly written, the characters are sketched in enough and the threat sequences (it's about a massive shoal of killer jellyfish that might, or might not, be sentient) are well handled.

I'm really quite enjoying it!

[ssppookkyy]

Just starting reading this and so far enjoying it's! Will let you know how is goes ??

[ropardoe]

Is this not the book with the cover strap line "it came from the sewers in a holocaust of horror"?  I can't speak for the book, which I've not read, but that line is one of the great classics and is oft quoted as such in this household.

[ramseycampbell]

Forgive me if I've said this elsewhere on the board, but the script on which the book was presumably based is in my archive at Liverpool University.

[dem bones]

'Robert Knight' (Dr. Christopher Evans), from a screenplay by Jo Gannon - Plasmid (Star, 1980)

"This is like something out of Edgar Allan Poe ... it reads like a work of fiction."

Scene. The Fairfield Institute of Generic Research, a top secret, maximum security facility on the South Coast of England. Mindful that continued Government funding is reliant on tangible results, MAD PROFESSOR Eugene Fraser dispenses with pesky safety precautions and presses ahead with his 'infectious alteration' program. Who cares if he puts his patients' lives at risk? Murderers and rapists to a man, these human guinea pigs only volunteered for the project on the promise of early remission. A regrettable accident or ten would be doing society a favour. As the Nobel Prize winner will later explain at a fraught press conference; "Anything we might do to them can only make them better men than they were before."

Fraser injects patient Thomas Barker with a massive dose of contaminated plasmid which drains all the melanin from his body, leaving him hypersensitive to the light. He tears apart two doctors, rips a metal grille from the wall and escapes into a storm tunnel, a mindless red-eyed albino of prodigious strength and an appetite for human flesh! Dawson, head of security, follows him down, armed with just a torch. Dr. Brett tries to warn him what he's likely to face in the tunnel but Bradley from the Ministry angrily intervenes, reminding Brett that he's bound by the Official Secrets Act not to disclose such sensitive information.

Next time we see Dawson, he looks about as good as he smells.

The staff are bullied into silence over the affair, but the story leaks out....

Cut to Metropole Radio, Oakhaven. Obnoxious rock star Big Willy is in town promoting his current chart smash, and where Big Willy goes, screaming hordes of wannabe groupies follow. The station's roving reporter, "Here's Paula Scott in the Newsmobile!" battles her way through the crowd to break the story of the night's sensational double murder at Fairfield. Ms. Scott loves to sink her teeth into a big story, especially if it involves taking on the corporates, hence her frequent clashes with Stephen Sharp, program controller. Paula has the hots for Steve, but, despite encouragement, he's as yet shown no indication that a BAD SEX INTERLUDE is high on his agenda.

An old man out walking his dog is set upon by a malodorous, milk white maniac in a hospital gown. Prostitute unknown is slain by same powerful hand. Veteran down and out Mickey Dunn is dragged down into the sewer via a manhole. Big Jack the trucker is attacked in the bogs at Max's Cafe. Barker feasts upon some, contaminates the rest. The Plasmids proliferate.

Outraged that Fraser and the Ministry have colluded on a cover up, biologist Julia Croxley turns whistle-blower. Julia's fiancée, Dr. Jim Forrester, was ripped to pieces in the initial attack, and she's supposed to pretend it didn't happen? Julia invites Paula for a drink at the Maroc Night Club and tells everything she knows. Paula celebrates by finally seducing her boss.

Back at the Institute, morale is at an all time low. Dr. Fraser cautions Dr. Brett that this is no time for cold feet. PR disaster though it be, Barker's mutation and subsequent killing spree is extremely fortuitous as "it proves we can induce genetic changes in man!" This time we'll get it right. Lessons will be learned. We're all in it together. The NHS is safe in our hands, and so on.

Brett realise he needs away from this madman fast.

TBC

According to Trash Fiction supremo Alwyn Turner, 'Robert Knight' was psychologist Dr. Christopher Evans (1931-1979), editor of the Mind At Bay (Panther, 1969) and Mind In Chains (Panther, 1970) anthologies. If so, Dr. Evans took to the job like a natural. As Lord P. notes above, none of the essentials are overlooked. He even provides a tasty soundtrack, including the aforementioned Big Willy's controversial Pull It (banned by the BBC), Phone Me by Hot Box, Jenny Juniper's "plaintive" Backseat Love, and, appropriately enough, Dr. Freud & The Analysts, "with the title track from their new album, You Make Me Feel So Jung"

[helrunar]

Big Willy's latest hit was called "Pull It," and Auntie Beeb did.

I think I really and truly just died.

cheers, H.

[dem bones]

Sept 27, 2017 13:36:57 GMT helrunar said:

Big Willy's latest hit was called "Pull It," and Auntie Beeb did.

I think I really and truly just died.

cheers, H.

I think Mr. Rock God may have come to regret that particular open invitation. Seems his fans got wise to operation 'Smuggle Big Willy off Radio Metropole premises in a laundry basket.' According to eyewitness Bert on the gate; "They got him. Tore the clothes off him as if he was a chicken ready for plucking."

Meanwhile, it's all kicking off.

As the plasmids wade through the sewer, the thing that once was was Jack the trucker tears open a random fuse box and rips out the wires sending the town's traffic lights on the blink. The ensuing multiple pile-up considerably raises an already highly respectable body-count. Several power cables are similarly vandalised? Can nothing stop these hooligan zombies?

The Cabinet approve a proposal to unleash biological warfare versus the plasmids, fumigate the underground network with nerve gas irrespective of the risk to the immediate public. If they can't abide by a 7pm curfew it's their look out. Dr. Fraser commends this as a great idea, what was it again?, do what you like, only leave me in peace to get on with my creating my next batch super-improved mutants!

The army commandeer Radio Metropole terminating Sinful Sinclair's popular show. The curfew is imposed. A young couple are too busy necking to notice. Barker & Co. emerge from beneath the manhole covers ....

Julia's appalling revenge on the megalomaniac Fraser is EC-style poetic justice for sure, but it only makes matters worse ...

Kind of happy accident coming to Plasmid directly from Mark Ronson's Bloodthirst. Both are as breakneck an all-action horror romp you could wish for, but no question which is the total classic. How deeply sad that Dr. Evans did not live to see his solitary genre novel hit the bookshops.

[dem bones]

Frightening It COULD HAPPEN premise, multiple scary set-pieces and vicious vignettes, a proper pay off worthy of Laymon/ GNS at their most nihilistic/ gloomy - £1 well spent and no mistake. According to one of the security guards at Fairfield, Paula Scott looks like "one of those groupies that follow rock musicians around," but don't be deceived - she's maybe the nearest we have to a female equivalent of James Herbert's action art teacher Harris (a man so tough he doesn't even have a Christian name). Paula can do anything brilliantly and fears no-one. Like Harris she sees those who hold positions of authority as self-serving tossers with a complete disregard for their fellow man. Like Harris, she's proved right.

Only slight disappointments, the solitary, non-lewd BAD SEX INTERLUDE (weird quirk: seemingly everyone in this book has corporal punishment on the brain, recreational or otherwise) and ultimately underwhelming performance of Richie as Paula's pet stalker and #1 fan (only vaguely slimy; seems all he really wanted was to take her to a Meteor's gig).

Totally recommended.