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Post by carolinec on Nov 27, 2008 14:12:27 GMT
I'm not sure if this will be of interest to people here but I spotted this on the BFS forum - text copied from there: No, it's not MR James again. This year, BBC4 have commissioned something new, from Mark Gatiss (League of Gentlemen / Lucifer Box). CROOKED HOUSE looks gratifyingly similar to the Amicus portmanteaux horrors beloved of all right-minded folk, and you can read about it here:
tinyurl.com/4gto5n
and here
tinyurl.com/5w9l3l
and here!
tinyurl.com/6bnyhy
Can't wait...
Just how similar it's likely to be to the Amicus films I don't know - those are the BFS poster's words, not mine - but it sounds quite interesting. Gatiss does some weird and wonderful stuff. ;D |
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Post by David A. Riley on Nov 27, 2008 15:50:28 GMT
This looks interesting stuff. Something to look forward to over the Yuletide Season.
Gatiss wrote the script for a recent Midsomer Murder episode which was pretty good.
David
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Nov 28, 2008 15:30:54 GMT
Mark Gatiss and the rest of The League of Gentlemen are huge fans of the 1970s Ghost Story For Christmas films. Their wonderful Christmas Special was equally a tribute to these productions as to Amicus, while Jeremy Dyson's short film of Robert Aickman's "The Cicerones" has the feel of one of the GSfC.
The plot for the third chapter of this latest production certainly has a whiff of the "door" segment of "From Beyond the Grave". I'm certainly looking forward to some Christmassy chills.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 28, 2008 16:14:33 GMT
Another influence on Gattis & Dyson is The Unexplained magazine from the 'eighties if their mischievous book The Essex Files: To Basildon and Beyond is anything to go by. Borrowed a copy from the library not so long back and what they've done is taken the original articles and rewritten them as Spring-Heeled Chris: The Terror Of Brentwood, The Case Of The Romford Fairies or some-such.
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Post by pulphack on Nov 28, 2008 20:48:55 GMT
this should be something to look forward to - like many of us, they seem to have grown up watching the portable, late at night, under the covers, and trying to get the arial to stay in tune for an ITV 'appointment with fear' sort of season. if any of you have the Tigon box set, i recommend listening to their commentary on Blood On Satan's Claw for some very enlightening and amusing stories.
i picked up mark gatiss' 'Nightshade' a few years back, a doctor who novel. i don't know if he did more than one, but even if you wouldn't go near a who novel in a month of sundays i'd still say read this, as it's set in the sixties and features a shape changing evil that preys on the subconscious fears of those around, and happens across an ageing actor who was once Nightshade, a very thinly disguised homage to Quatermass. ticks all the boxes, and even makes you forget he's had the sylvester mccoy dr fosited on him, which also gives us the execrable ace.
i say 'even if you wouldn't...' as that's me generally. but the first Lucifer Box tempted me to give it a go. as should you.
and let's hope xmas lives up to what we're expecting of him!
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Nov 29, 2008 1:36:24 GMT
If I remember rightly, one of the things that drew the League of Gents together is that they all remembered watching Carry On Screaming on the same night during their childhood.
Personally, I remember watching the TV series and thinking it was a brilliant horror series far more than I watched it as a comedy. Still laughed loads, but found myself thinking, This is lit and dressed and directed far better than any attempt at horror drama I'd seen in years.
Couldn't quite get into MG's Lucifer Box series, but thoroughly enjoyed the Quatermassy elements of Nightshade (one of the few "New Doctor Who" books I could be arsed with. They made the character of Ace far too important and Ace, as any right thinking person would attest, was the nadir of Dr Who... a cartoon attempt at a modern female companion, played by a charisma-free actress, drooled over by fans and turned into some ultimate force of femininity in the fan fiction that poured out afterwards.)
I seem to have diverted myself, somewhat. Should never post when I've been out celebrating.
Anyway, should mention Jeremy Dyson's antho, "Never Trust A Rabbit", which has touches of Aickman and Lovecraft about it and is well worth a read.
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