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Post by dem bones on May 18, 2010 15:29:35 GMT
Stephen Gilbert - Willard (Panther, 1971, originally Michael Joseph, 1968 as "Ratman's Notebooks") Blurb: Where your nightmares end, Willard begins ....
Rats - one of man's deadliest enemies. They can out-breed him, kill him with carried plague, and strip his flesh to the bones with their teeth and claws. But what if there was a man who didn't find rats repugnant? What if he had such a power over them he could lead them on a campaign of murderous revenge against his enemies? Willard was such a man - and this is his story in all its horror. The book that was made into a smash-hit movie.another ancient crap review recycled ... The narrator (unidentified) is a clerk in the company founded by his late father which now belongs to former employee Mr. Jones. Nagged by his ailing mother and shunned by girls, the lonely outcast train the colony of rats his mother has ordered him to destroy before they infest the property. Fortunately, the old girl hasn't got long to go and, shortly before her death, Ratman sends eight of his fast expanding army on a mission to bite through the tyres of Jones' car because the skinflint "usurper" refused him a wage rise. Once his mother is consigned to the soil, the raids become more ambitious. Led by Socrates - the most devoted and responsive rodent - they rob the Malcolmson's place and the lady of the house informs the press of her encounter with "a rat the size of a man". This prompts our hero to dig out a theatrical mask to wear on future missions. All goes well until Socrates is killed and a new leader emerges. Ben - as creepily eulogised by Michael Jackson - has dominion over all the rats and can apparently read. Ratman is deeply perturbed at this development so, once they've murdered his worst enemy, he abandons the rodents at the scene of the crime. He's going to start a new life, enjoy his recent inheritance, marry the girl .... Maybe Ben doesn't like the idea of that too much. There's something very Best of Pan Horror Stories circa '67-70 about this novel. Offsetting the murders and mayhem are episodes of macabre humour and heartbreaking sadness as, having found happiness for the first time in his wretched, downtrodden, lonely existence, the clerk watches helpless as his best friend is killed and then finds himself usurped all over again.
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Post by Johnlprobert on May 18, 2010 15:46:13 GMT
I've always wanted to read this, & I prefer the original title to the 'movie tie-in' one.
I never saw 'Willard' (1971) although I have seen the remake with Crispin Glover which has its moments, but sadly that's all.
The sequel to the 1971 Willard was of course called 'Ben' and finished with the infamous Michael Jackson end title song. I have seen that one, but not as many times as I believe Lady P has.
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Post by David A. Riley on May 19, 2010 8:18:31 GMT
Interestingly, Ratman's Notebooks appeared 6 years before James Herbert's more well known The Rats.
I always wondered whether Herbert got his idea from this earlier book. It was also one reason why I felt no inclination to read The Rats for quite a few years after it was first published, having already read Gilbert's book. The idea of killer rats had begun to seem old hat to me, especially since one episode of the popular science fiction TV series Doom Watch also featured some.
David
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Post by dem bones on May 19, 2010 9:30:44 GMT
I think they're both brilliant! My entirely speculative guess would be that Herbert saw the film and realised the idea had infinite possibilities, although i believe he's always maintained that the germ grew from watching the rats run amok in some Bethnal Green dump during his childhood? Willard (film & book) work for me because the lonely, tragically flawed anti-hero is so convincing, whereas JH's all-action 'everyman' leads invariably come across like civil-servants gone Rambo. Herbert's is certainly the more vicious and gory of the two, but i guess the main thing i love about The Rats is his very real depiction of an East London that's since been virtually redeveloped out of existence. Shadwell Station which he uses to great effect, was unbelievably decrepit way into the eighties, looks like bloody Cape Canaveral these days.
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Post by dem bones on May 28, 2012 17:37:57 GMT
Stephen Gilbert - Willard (Panther, 1971) Blurb Rats — one of Man's deadliest enemies. They can outbreed him. Kill him with the plagues they carry. Strip the flesh from human bones with their needle-sharp teeth and claws. No wonder the hero of George Orwell's classic 1984 found contact with rats the ultimate torture.
But if there was a man who didn't find rats repugnant . . . if, on the contrary, he had such power over them that he could lead them on.a campaign of escalating revenge against those humans he hated — then the world would see such a mind-wrenching horror as it had never seen before. WILLARD is the story of just such a man. And just such a horror ...
What they said about the film is doubly true of the book: 'Makes Hitchcock's The Birds look like a stroll through the park' -KING FEATURES SYNDICATE 'One of the more terrifying, deliciously scary thrillers' - NEW YORK MAGAZINE
CINERAMA Releasing presents WILLARD Starring BRUCE DAVISON, SONDRA LOCKE, ELSA LANCHESTER and ERNEST BORGNINE as Martin Produced by Mort Briskin, it is A BCP Production in Colour Directed by Daniel MannWas delighted to finally nail a copy of the tie-in edition at the market yesterday. It's the same image used for the poster, 'cept that one ran the tag-line "Where your nightmares end, WILLARD begins. This is the one movie you should not see alone." The back-of-the-van-man seems to have undergone a minor rodent infestation as he also did me a nice shiny copy of Willard's evil spawn: James Herbert - The Rats (NEL, 1988: originally 1974) Blurb: It was only when the bones of the first devoured victims were discovered that the true nature and power of these swarming black creatures with their razor sharp teeth and taste for human blood began to be realized by a panic‑stricken city. For millions of years man and rats had been natural enemies.
But now for the first time – suddenly, shockingly, horribly – the balance of power had shifted ...
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Truegho
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 135
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Post by Truegho on May 21, 2017 15:45:20 GMT
Now that Scream Factory have released Willard and Ben on Blu Ray, I wouldn't be surprised if Ratman's Notebooks by Stephen Gilbert's, which was the original novel that inspired the Willard movie, enjoys a surge in interest again. Although not quite as horrifying and gory as James Herbert's The Rats, Ratman's Notebooks is still a darned good read. Alan Toner Horror Author www.alantoner.com
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Post by dem bones on May 21, 2017 20:55:00 GMT
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Truegho
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 135
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Post by Truegho on Jul 17, 2017 20:28:11 GMT
I watched the Scream Factory blu release of Willard on blu ray over the weekend and loved it.
Can't say the same for the sequel, Ben, though. At times, I thought I was watching a Disney movie rather than a horror one. Nowhere near as good as its predecessor.
Loved, loved, loved the original novel, Ratman's Notebooks!
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