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Post by ripper on Nov 25, 2018 10:42:28 GMT
This week I finished watching Mike Flanagan’s handsomely mounted reimagining of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. I didn’t care for this at all, for much the same reason that I disliked the Hammer version of The Woman in Black. It’s basically the ‘hero’s journey’ I object to – or rather, the tendency of modern screenwriting to bend stories to fit some template derived from it. For me, this approach too often results in films with predictable beats and a grating sentimentalism. The ending of the new Hill House, like the ending of The Woman in Black remake, is particularly unforgivable in this regard. To add insult to injury, there was nothing of the cold dank grave about the ghosts in this Hill House; they seemed at times to function more like spectral superheroes. Credit to the director for trying to do something fresh with the source material, but this has to be the disappointment of the year for me, though I seem to be in the minority in disliking the series as everyone I’ve spoken to about it seems to love it. A much happier viewing experience was had while revisiting two old favourites, Killer’s Moon and Tower of Evil, which I watched as an accompaniment to my reading of Nigel Taylor’s 70s set faux portmanteau novelisation, Mystery Tour. I had intended to watch The Devil’s Nightmare instead of Tower of Evil, as this also featured an ill-fated coach journey like Nigel’s book, but my old DVD of this looked awful; Blu-ray has somewhat ruined the humble DVD for me, though Devil’s Nightmare did look particularly bad, I have to say. Killer’s Moon, for those unacquainted with the film, is an eccentric and oddly charming (given its lurid subject matter) 1978 production with a great central idea. Four escaped lunatics embark on a rape and murder spree in the English Lake District while mistakenly believing they are experiencing a vivid lucid dream, part of their prescribed ‘dream therapy’, in which they are free to indulge their most depraved impulses. These sordid urges are mostly inflicted on a bunch of schoolgirls whose coach has broken down. Standing in the way of the Clockwork Orange inspired madmen are two of the most quintessentially English leading men ever committed to film. In an ideal world, James Bond would be played by these two chaps in endless rotation. One of our heroes says to his departing lover after a lovemaking session in a tent, ‘Was my performance lacking? It usually is.’ Throw a heroic, three-legged dog into this oddball mix, along with dialogue that would make Harvey Weinstein wince, and you have the recipe for a good time. If you enjoy the work of Guy N. Smith, then the chances are you will love Killer’s Moon. Does anyone know if this was ever novelised? A job for Ken Johnson, surely. Tower of Evil is even more fun. In keeping with the theme of ill-advised jaunts around Blighty, this one contains a boat trip to the splendidly creepy and fogbound Snape Island. This was the first time I’d watched Tower of Evil on Blu-ray and the UK disk from A2B Media looks absolutely amazing. My highlight of the week was seeing Robin Askwith skewered by a golden Phoenician lance in glorious high-definition! (I know, I need to get out more.) This proto British slasher from 1972 has an interesting structure as it cuts between suave shrink Anthony Valentine’s attempts to unlock the traumatic memories of a potential murderer (and the only survivor of a killing spree on Snape Island) with the soapy shenanigans of a bunch of archaeologists who have gone to the island in search of a potential Phoenician treasure horde hidden beneath Snape’s disused lighthouse. I like to think that Valentine’s doctor is the same psychiatrist who treated the loonies in Killer’s Moon. In Tower, he is somehow able to use flashing disco-light technology to fix his patients! Chock-full of brutal murders and both male and female nudity, Tower of Evil is about as pulpy as 70s British horror gets. Barely a minute goes by without something exploitative taking place! I first saw this back in the 80s, I think, when it was shown late one night by ITV. But I hadn’t really appreciated how well the film was shot or the quality of the art direction until seeing it on Blu-ray. The Blu-ray has a commentary by Richard Gordon and Tom Weaver and a droll analysis of the film by Jonathan Rigby. The only thing Jonathan’s lively chat fails to make clear is whether the ‘hero’s journey’ played any part in the writing of Tower of Evil; somehow, I rather doubt it. I can remember the controversy around Killers Moon when it was first released. There was a discussion about it on one of those afternoon talk show/magazine type programmes and it came in for quite a bit of criticism due to its violence and casual portrayal of the aftermath of sexual assault. It was a few years before I managed to see it as our local cinema didn't screen it, despite displaying forthcoming attractions posters for it.
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Post by helrunar on Dec 4, 2018 0:30:03 GMT
I just started listening to part 1 (of 10) of this offbeat adaptation of HP Lovecraft's novel The Case of Charles Dexter Ward: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06spb8w/episodes/player?page=2Story is updated to 2017-2018 and is done as if the "case" is being invested by a hip Brit podcast team (who seem extremely well-funded). The narrative thus far departs substantially from the original book, but that is to be expected given the the setting in the present "enlightened" age. I had to guffaw when the school librarian assured the reporter that he would have taken steps to make sure little Charles did not go home with those "horrifying" grimoires... We've had helicopter parents for some time now--perhaps next in the march of Neo-Puritanism is helicopter librarians. (Perhaps I'm reacting just a bit to the news that "tumbler," an internet platform, has been taken over by a cabal of prudes, lawyers and self-styled "Christians" and is about to delete all my favorite pages featuring dudes showing off their goodies. Oh the infamy.) Yours in prayer and fasting, Helrunar
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Post by helrunar on Dec 4, 2018 13:39:51 GMT
So, I have listened to the first 3 episodes now of this serial. I am enjoying it, but I'd call it a pastiche of The X-Files with some homage references to the original book. The story seems quite different as we go on. I do have 7 more episodes left of it. Very well done, of its type, and not afraid to venture into some schlock moments. Some of the writing for the Americans is a real scream. The Mulder and Scully characters are pretty well done.
cheers, Hello (not the mag, nor do I play one on TV)
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Post by bluetomb on Dec 4, 2018 15:39:19 GMT
I just started listening to part 1 (of 10) of this offbeat adaptation of HP Lovecraft's novel The Case of Charles Dexter Ward: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06spb8w/episodes/player?page=2Story is updated to 2017-2018 and is done as if the "case" is being invested by a hip Brit podcast team (who seem extremely well-funded). The narrative thus far departs substantially from the original book, but that is to be expected given the the setting in the present "enlightened" age. I had to guffaw when the school librarian assured the reporter that he would have taken steps to make sure little Charles did not go home with those "horrifying" grimoires... We've had helicopter parents for some time now--perhaps next in the march of Neo-Puritanism is helicopter librarians. (Perhaps I'm reacting just a bit to the news that "tumbler," an internet platform, has been taken over by a cabal of prudes, lawyers and self-styled "Christians" and is about to delete all my favorite pages featuring dudes showing off their goodies. Oh the infamy.) Yours in prayer and fasting, Helrunar As an archivist/librarian, I wouldn't let anyone go home with a grimoire itself, but scans or photographs are fine if a researcher has signed a document stating that they are for their own use and any publication has a separate permissions process.
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Post by helrunar on Dec 4, 2018 20:28:52 GMT
Maybe I shouldn't bother with such a literal clarification, but the grimoires mentioned in the serial are clearly meant to be the regular trade editions published and widely circulated in the mid to late 20th century, such as the Key of Solomon. That sort of thing. Most of these are Christian ceremonial magic--nothing remotely Satanic or nasty involved. Now, the Lesser Key of Solomon, aka The Goetia, is another matter.
H.
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Post by helrunar on Dec 5, 2018 3:13:33 GMT
I found the ending of the Charles Dexter Ward serial rather underwhelming--I simply found it very much in the vein of so much other current media. Just left me with a big "so what" feeling. The author of this serial was Julian Simpson, who wrote a modern ghost story radio play with Nicola Walker (who also appeared in the Lovecraft-inspired play), Steven Macintosh, and Rupert Graves, Bad Memories. It's available here: juliansimpson.uk/index.php/radio/I might give it a spin the next time I'm in a radio mood. H.
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Dec 5, 2018 10:56:09 GMT
The author of this serial was Julian Simpson, who wrote a modern ghost story radio play with Nicola Walker (who also appeared in the Lovecraft-inspired play), Steven Macintosh, and Rupert Graves, Bad Memories. It's available here: juliansimpson.uk/index.php/radio/I've listened to Bad Memories a couple of times. Nicely played and effectively chilling, I thought, and it makes good use of the audio medium.
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Post by helrunar on Dec 17, 2018 18:52:55 GMT
Here's an odd old chestnut. I'd never heard of this short film adaptation of William Hope Hodgson's story "The Whistling Room." Distinguished character actor Alan Napier played Carnacki, apparently as a comically bumbling eccentric. I haven't had time to view yet. www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHERcU-MzH4&t=7sMentioned in a short entry on "Carnacki on Television" in a Hodgson "blog" six years ago, but I just today learned of it. cheers, H.
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Post by helrunar on Dec 18, 2018 15:40:14 GMT
I'd say this "adaptation" of Carnacki is a curio for completists only. I haven't read the story in so many years and alas, memory fails, but I think the only thing this has in common with WHH is the story title, the fact that there's a haunted 'whistling room" (actually a cottage here), and that somebody named Dr Carnacki, who seems to have subsequently changed his name and emigrated to America to find more lucrative employment as butler and housekeeper to Millionaire Bruce Wayne in Gotham City, appears as a "ghost finder" in this spavined, florid little screenplay.
The Irish heroine's accent appears and disappears with more regularity than the phantasmal phenomenon--and so does the viewer's interest. Still, glad I had the chance to view it if only to satisfy my curiosity. Alan Napier is fun to watch.
cheers, H.
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Post by ripper on Dec 20, 2018 11:16:25 GMT
I'd say this "adaptation" of Carnacki is a curio for completists only. I haven't read the story in so many years and alas, memory fails, but I think the only thing this has in common with WHH is the story title, the fact that there's a haunted 'whistling room" (actually a cottage here), and that somebody named Dr Carnacki, who seems to have subsequently changed his name and emigrated to America to find more lucrative employment as butler and housekeeper to Millionaire Bruce Wayne in Gotham City, appears as a "ghost finder" in this spavined, florid little screenplay. The Irish heroine's accent appears and disappears with more regularity than the phantasmal phenomenon--and so does the viewer's interest. Still, glad I had the chance to view it if only to satisfy my curiosity. Alan Napier is fun to watch. cheers, H. Thanks for posting about it. I don't think I have ever heard of this adaptation. The only one I was aware of is the "Horse of the Invisible" episode from Rivals of Sherlock Holmes. I saw it when it was first transmitted and I was 8 or 9, and it was one of the programmes I saw as a child that really scared me.
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Post by ripper on Dec 20, 2018 12:51:22 GMT
Agree on that dodgy accent on our heroine. She is vying with Dick Van Dyke for worst accent, but I think Dick still holds the title. That 'whistling' sound made me think of the Clangers.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Dec 20, 2018 13:53:59 GMT
I hope The Dead Room does well. From Digital Spy: If the BBC does come knocking next Christmas, Gatiss is enthused by the possibilities of what type of ghost story he might tackle next, naming "James's hero" J Sheridan Le Fanu and EF Benson as two more authors he's eager to adapt. "What excites me a lot is honouring a tradition but pushing it forward," he says. "I mean, if someone asked me to adapt [James's 1904 short story] Count Magnus, set in 1890, I would absolutely do it." The article is here: www.digitalspy.com/tv/a25613311/mark-gatiss-dead-room-bbc-four/
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Dec 20, 2018 14:32:09 GMT
"I mean, if someone asked me to adapt [James's 1904 short story] Count Magnus, set in 1890, I would absolutely do it." I know that Mark Gatiss did try to get an adaptation of Count Magnus off the ground at the BBC as a follow-up to The Tractate Middoth, to no avail. Hopefully it'll happen sooner rather than later, and I do hope The Dead Room will be the first of a proper, sustained revival of the BBC Christmas ghost story.
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Dec 20, 2018 14:39:31 GMT
In fact, I'm so keenly anticipating The Dead Room on BBC Four that I've been compelled to unearth some of the original, classic radio episodes to listen to in the build up to Christmas Eve...
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Post by Michael Connolly on Dec 20, 2018 14:42:48 GMT
In fact, I'm so keenly anticipating The Dead Room on BBC Four that I've been compelled to unearth some of the original, classic radio episodes to listen to in the build up to Christmas Eve...
You're seeing things again. Or maybe not. I saw that man once in a cellar in London!
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