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Post by lemming13 on Aug 5, 2010 21:22:39 GMT
Yes, that was HPL's real skill - the depiction of the crumbling of communities, families, and minds into a cesspool of despair and decay, and the evocation of sensory impressions of that. To be honest, I live in a city which has vast areas which remind me of Innsmouth; to the point where I walk around with the H P Lovecraft Historical Society's jolly little song 'It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Fishmen' playing on my Ipod, and know exactly what they mean. And we're landlocked.
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Post by lemming13 on Aug 5, 2010 21:17:53 GMT
I confess to a fondness for Peter Tremayne - as a college student I had a fad on his stuff (it made a very refreshing break from English literature as personified by King Lear, Sean O'Casey who wasn't even English, and DH Lawrence, who should have been beaten to death by sweaty young men with daffodils. If he wouldn't have loved it.). And the college librarian did too, because they stocked ALL of it. Haven't even thought of it in years - thanks for the nostalgia! Oh, and though it isn't a proper review, just a word on his Dracula stories; think Twilight with Victoriana...
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Post by lemming13 on Aug 5, 2010 21:11:43 GMT
I have to agree; I like a lot of Lumley's early work, but it does get rather weak later. Seems to run out of steam, or possibly just to be milking veins of material which have proved profitable long past any possibility of producing original or interesting work.
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Post by lemming13 on Aug 5, 2010 21:07:16 GMT
Oh, yes! No ads, and the trailers limited to maybe two short clips and a sedate announcement of what was coming up later. And no bloody atrocious onscreen blurb advertising some trash you weren't interested in anyway, ruining the end of something. Last night I enjoyed Dead Set (insane cackles of laughter) with no ads, no trailers, no breaks, except for my convenience and caffeine addiction. Tonight I'm treating myself to a double bill; Murnau's Nosferatu, full restored edition, followed by Shadow of the Vampire. Insomnia has its up side...
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Post by lemming13 on Aug 5, 2010 20:57:36 GMT
You're right about Lost Hearts and Boys and Girls; but I do believe you're wrong about the Rose Garden. I definitely recall a full version, though I believe it may have been given another title - The Rose Arbor, or The Summerhouse or something of that ilk. I am almost sure it was Rosalie Crutchley who played the lady of the house, and for some reason Michael Denistoun won't get out of my brain as her husband.
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Post by lemming13 on Aug 5, 2010 20:49:49 GMT
Thanks for the shot, Craig, but I don't think that was it - our local library has always been a bit bizarre in its classification (Sandman novels always get put into the Children's section, no matter how often I tell them not to) but I don't think even they would have let that creep into the kids' section. HP, I do believe it was the origin of A Chinese Ghost Story, and may have inspired some of A Touch Of Zen.
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Post by lemming13 on Aug 5, 2010 20:43:21 GMT
I'm still going to hold out for Captain Kronos. I'll concede that Horst Janson is as charismatic as a lolly stick in the lead role, and that is a big flaw, though possibly some of it was due to him not being a native English speaker. The sultry gypsy routine is also tired and hackneyed to the point of embarrassment, though I reckon the nude scene is done with real class. And the sequence involving the hired thugs set to kill Kronos is just plain bad. Ian Hendry clearly couldn't care less about the part, and the sidekicks were really poor. But there is a lot going for the film that often gets overlooked because of that. For starters, there are some first-rate performances among the supporting cast, especially John Cater as the hunchbacked academic, Grost, and John Carson as Dr Marcus. And there are some really original features. Vampires that can move by day, and drain youth instead of blood; vampire hunters who don't start with the premise of locating the coffin and driving home a stake, but have to not only identify the vampire, but also its species, and find out how to kill it; and the lovely little legend of passing vampires bringing dead toads to life. Kronos is an unusual hero in that he is thoroughly dislikeable, arrogant, smug and idle (though when Grost is abused by the thugs, Kronos does get to show a more pleasant side), and does not seem to make vampire hunting a noble quest but rather a profitable career. There are some nice pieces of misdirection in the plot, a rather good duel between the vampire duke and Kronos, and the scene in which Kronos and Grost attempt to kill Marcus after he has realised he is now a vampire and a killer, is in my opinion one of the best things Hammer ever filmed. It could have been even better if there had been any real chemistry between Janson and Carson to begin with. I reckon this is one that would stand a remake (but please Cthulhu by a British company and not Hollywood), with a decent lead and less gypsy.
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Post by lemming13 on Aug 3, 2010 16:25:17 GMT
I'm alternating between Wordsworth's collection of H P Lovecraft collaborations, The Horror In the Museum; the John Joseph Adams collection of zombie stories, The Living Dead; and the 13 volume manga set, Death Note (I'm just at the end of Volume 1). Got to admit, though I'm a big fan of HPL and zombies, Death Note is one hell of a piece of work - if only more modern western writers realised you can tell a good story with fantasy elements and teen appeal, while still retaining intelligence, edge, and discussion of ethics.
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Post by lemming13 on Aug 3, 2010 16:07:04 GMT
As yet another of the nostalgic brigade, I'd love to bring back horror to tv, but sadly I can't bear to watch television any more; I've been traumatised by too many trailers on the BBC, and advertising of the commercial kind on the other channels. If so many people want to watch Celebrity Pig-Wrestling or A*se-enders, why do they need to promote the stuff at every possible opportunity? Anyway, my dvds never get cancelled because there is some truly tedious sporting event in the offing. Or because somebody in Milton Keynes just lost their dog and might be offended by a screening of Zoltan Hound of Dracula. If you want to campaign to get the license fee made conditional on actually watching the crap it's used to produce, though, I'm right behind you. Subscription only BBC!
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Post by lemming13 on Aug 3, 2010 15:55:48 GMT
So many of my favourites made it (especially QatP and The Mummy), but I'm saddened nobody ever thinks of Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter; it may have its flaws, but it was a really original piece for its day. I also enjoyed Hammer's remake of The Old Dark House (I liked the original, too) and Blood From the Mummy's Tomb.
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Post by lemming13 on Jul 30, 2010 15:47:18 GMT
Come on, guys, no Voltaire? Ooky Spooky, To the Bottom of the Sea, the Devil's Bris? Surely the creator of Graveyard Picnic, Dead Girls Like Me, Cannibal Buffet and the classic Brains should be here! And I have to put my oar in for Nox Arcana, Avenged Sevenfold, Mad Alice Lane's A Ghost Story, The Bllodhound Gang's Something Diabolical, Bonde da Role's Danca do Zumbi, the awesome soundtrack to Stubbs the Zombie, Bonzo Dog Doodah Band's Noises For the Leg, The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets, Insane Clown Posse (especially the astonishing Geat Milenko album), Drowning Pool, Finntroll, Gorillaz' Ghost Train and Dracula, The Hp Lovecraft Historical Society's three stupendous albums (A Very Scary Solstice, An Even Scarier Solstice, and A Shoggoth On the Roof), Lemon Jelly's creepy Experiment Number Six, Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Opeth, Rob Zombie, Russian rockers Slot, Tom Wait's Earth Died Screaming, Murder in the Red Barn and The Black Rider, Landscape's Norman Bates, John Carpenter's groundbreaking Halloween theme, Wednesday 13, Insolence's Death Threat, The Gothic Archies, Nightmare Revisited (the remake album of the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack), Spiritus Mortis, Richard Cheese's version of Down With the Sickness, and Redbone's Witch Queen of New Orleans. And that's just for starters. ;D
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Post by lemming13 on Jul 30, 2010 15:17:55 GMT
Am I the only other Bal-Sagoth appreciator here? They may not be Cradle of Filth, but they have a lot going for them. My favourite album is A Black Moon Broods Over Lemuria; best track, Hatheg-Kla.
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Post by lemming13 on Jul 30, 2010 15:15:04 GMT
So much good stuff! Right now I'm listening to Switchblade Symphony's Gutter Glitter, but I've been on a major Nox Arcana kick, the Necronomicon album and Carnival of Lost Souls. And also Japanese band Polysics, the Polysics or Die album; Tom Waits' Black Rider, Bone Machine and Mule Variations; and Asian Dub Foundation's Punkara album.
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Goth!
Jul 30, 2010 15:06:30 GMT
Post by lemming13 on Jul 30, 2010 15:06:30 GMT
I have almost every band mentioned here in my media library, and a few more besides, and I owned the CD mentioned right at the start till I had to make more space for books and dvds, and sent it to permanent storage in my external hard drive. Mind you, I do have 26.5 GB of music on my pc alone (okay, 26 GB music and .5 GB of old radio shows), so I'm surprised if there's anything at all that I haven't got. Thank you for a wonderful trip into memory, and for reminding me that stuff is in there - Switchblade Symphony are playing even now...
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Post by lemming13 on Jul 30, 2010 14:51:04 GMT
Thanks for the info, Demonik; yes, Furisode is in the Wordsworth collection, though I orginally came across it in an illustrated book of Oriental ghost stories when I was a schoolkid. If anyone could tell me what the title of the collection was, I'd be eternally grateful. It also included some Korean tales and a very disturbing Chinese thing about a monk and a haunted temple.
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