Juvenile Delinquents!

[dem bones]

Some to set the pace.

Robert Bloch - Sweet Sixteen: Packs of Hells Angels descend on remote Kettle Moraine County each weekend, building fires on the hill and drinking the bars dry, much to the consternation of aged anthropologist Kerry, who is studying their nihilistic, often brutal behavior for a paper he intends to write. He comes to the conclusion that these "psychopaths" are fiends, "the spawn of a union between a demon and a mortal woman ... during the war ... the women had nightmares - the kind of nightmares women have had through the ages. The nightmare of the incubus, the carnal demon who visits them in sleep. It happened before in the history of our culture, during the Crusades. And then followed the rise of the witch cults all over Europe." His young friend Hibbard wonders what this batty old timer on about. I'm sure we can rely on Mr. Bloch to set him straight ....

Charles Birkin - 'Dance Little Lady': Set around the late 'fifties, early sixties. Juvenile delinquents (Teds?) Buzz, Lofty and Rosie are trying to evade the police after a run-in with West Indian youths in The Golden Plover. They break into a building and contrive to get themselves locked in for the night. Turns out it's a mortuary. Still, they've plenty of booze, a transistor radio, a good-looking stiff to dance with, and Rosie is allegedly a soft touch ...

Rick Cadger - Scrawl (Dark Side, June 1991). Football hooligan Slasher is hacked to pieces and shoved down the toilet by an undead United fan. Cadger doesn't scrimp on the graffiti either: Duran Duran, The Shamen, The Sex Pistols, Talking Heads, Bros, Pere Ubu, Soup Dragons, Cardiacs, Pixies and the Wolfhounds all get a look in as do rival firms ("The ICF will eat your dead", "Avengers from the Shed") and sundry scribbles including 'a detailed account of what one writer wanted to do to Patsy Kensit."

Charles Birkin - Spawn Of Satan:

"Not that I'd want a coloured man in the family! I mean, dear, who would? They're different from us. Have different standards, hygiene- and the things they eat - I'd not put up with one as a son-in-law! But some of those Teddy Boys, or whatever they call themselves these days, are a sight worse than Nazis."


Venetia Palmer takes up a teaching position in Auldburn and books in at the plush Arbour Hotel, advising the landlady Mrs. Snagge that her husband, a journalist on the local newspaper will be joining her shortly. His name is Lindo, charming, intelligent and - oh dear - black. There has been much racial tension in the area, much of it stirred up by 'Jacko' Persicot and his thugs, and the Palmers soon find themselves subjected to a hate campaign. Not a good time, then, for Venetia to suffer a stroke while driving home one night and mowing down little Neelia on the corner of The Swan and The Gaitered Ploughman ...

"Those Teddy Boys, or whatever they call themselves these days", prove that Mrs. Snagge was not being entirely over-dramatic in her assessment of their behaviour, and the ending is a choker. An instant Birkin classic which may well owe something to Billie Holiday's timeless Strange Fruit.

[killercrab]

The Boys are Dudley Sutton, >>

Probably the standout ruffian ! Sutton specialised in such roles before he became the lovable rogue in LOVEJOY. He plays a nasty piece in one of the b/w SAINT episodes too.

HELL DRIVERS is perhaps the achetypal british tough guys film - every performance is nail hard - look out for a class act from William Hartnell - another forgotten tough guy actor.

ade

[dem bones]

Ralph Thornton - I Was A Teenage Werewolf

"At the time I Was A Teenage Werewolf was released [1957], the scriptwriter Ralph Thornton wrote a short story version of the film for the magazine Screen Chills, and I am pleased to reprint this tale for the first time in book form."

Peter Haining, introduction to Werewolf: Horror Stories Of The Man-Beast(Severn House, 1987)

"What's wrong with you? Why the heck don't you smile now and again. You're suspicious of everybody ... you act like the whole world's your enemy ... the way you flare up."

"Oh, finish your beef will ya! People just bug me. .... I've had enough yakety-yak to last me to the end of term!"

Tony is a pupil at Rockdale High, a nice enough kid, but he's got problems. Of late he's been acting all surly, prone to flying into terrible rages, beating up on his pals and neglecting to cook his burgers before he eats them. In other words, as the title suggests, he's a teenager. Once he's had his leg over, it will all be dismissed as a "phase he was going through".

After being called to the school to break up yet another bundle, well-meaning detective Donovan, rather than drag him back to the precinct, plant drugs on him and bust him for resisting arrest, adopts a namby pamby wet lib approach. He urges him to go see Dr. Brandon who's been working with the Police Department, "trying to help difficult kids get adjusted." What's more, he refuses to accept a cent for his time!

After bashing another classmate at the Halloween party when the youth blew a horn in his ear, Tony decides to take Donovan's advice because he doesn't want to keep upsetting his girlfriend, Arlene (sorely underused. Absolutely nothing for the Globeswatch gang to get their teeth into: looks lovingly at Tony with tears in her eyes every now and then, but that's it. ). Needless to say, Brandon, far from being the philanthropic, saintly man he promotes himself as, is an evil mad scientist who hypnotises Tony, pumps him full of drugs and makes him regress to a beast whenever he hears loud noises. Like, the school bell, for instance. Nice one, Dr. Brandon, you barking megalomaniac - that's just what the poor boy needs! And him with his dead mom and all. Shame on you!

The first killing takes place when classmate Frank decides against accepting a lift home from the club with Tony and Arlene and heads off into the woods, humming the latest hit parade favourite. When his body is found ripped to shreds, one of the students, Pepe, starts blabbering to Detective Donovan about "the old country ... in my little village in the Carpathian Mountains ... fangs ... werewolf!", etc.. Donovan tells the schmuck to quit talking like that or he'll wind up in the "booby hatch", but he's more troubled by the boys theory than he lets on.

Next to the slaughter is Theresa:

" ... the school's top athlete, was practicing on the parallel bars. A well-built girl, she was dressed in a form-hugging black jumper and tights. Every movement she made showed off her lovely young curves.""

Tony happens to be passing the gymnasium when .... the electric bell rings!

This time the beast is spotted scampering from the scene of the crime. It is a wolf - but it's wearing Tony's jacket and trousers!

As a Police search gets underway, the desperate Tony, horrified at his actions, makes for Dr. Brandon's laboratory ....

In short, thirteen pages of pure trash horror platinum.

[redbrain]

Richard Matheson - The Likeness of Julie

You'll find Julie's likeness find in:

Shock 2 (Corgi, 1965) or Collected Stories Vol. 3 Edge Books, 2005. The Corgi is a good book, but the 3 volume Edge Books edition of Richard Matheson's short stories is just too good to miss.

Eddy Foster suddenly notices Julie Eldridge in English class. He invites her to a drive in movie, drugs her coke, photographs her in a motel room... Dark teenage sexual desire, but... Well - it's only 10 pages, and I hesitate to post any spoilers.

[pbsplatter]

Stephen King - Sometimes They Come Back

Tony Richards - The Lords of Zero

Richard Matheson - Dance of the Dead

Richard Christian Matheson - Hell