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Post by dem bones on Jun 27, 2011 20:59:29 GMT
Death - in the Iron Maiden!Other adversaries were definitely out to get Blake. One of the more ruthless arranged to have him flown to the Moon by rocket, but Blake, with nine hours to go, cut himself free with his pocket hacksaw. King Karl locked him in an Iron Maiden which happened to be lying about the place, but because the Maiden had received inadequate care and maintenance the iron spikes which should have pierced Blake's flesh and eyeballs had rusted at the tips sufficiently to cause him only minor discomfort. Then there was a scientist who sought to rob Blake of some of his surplus energy. This 'man who stole life' sat the detective in a glass chair and threw over the master switch. Blake seemed well worth robbing, in contrast to the previous occupant of the chair ('That girl was tired. I was only able to take a little life from her'). But Blake was able to escape with his life force unimpaired. E. S. Turner - Boys Will Be Boys: The Story of Sweeney Todd, Deadwood Dick, Sexton Blake, Billy Bunter, Dick Barton, et. al (Penguin edition, 1986)] Landed a neat anthology of pre-WW II Sexton Blake stories from friend the back of the van man yesterday, so it was back to Mr. Turner, hoping beyond hope I'd finally landed some of the more horror tinted Blake adventures he writes about so beautifully in Boys Will Be Boys, or, failing that, the case which brought him to the polling booth to do battle with the Suffragette movement. I hadn't. So to cheer myself up started thinking about death and misery and scribbling down all the best torture-themed horror stories I could think of. By the time I'd covered two sides, realised that there was likely enough material for an entire imaginary series. To make a start, this lot feature Death - in the Iron Maiden!. In Bram Stoker's The Squaw, the narrator and wife Amelia are honeymooning in Nuremberg where they befriend loud Nebraskan Hutcheson, a well-meaning but somewhat clumsy adventurer with a neat line in grim reminiscences. When Hutcheson gormlessly kills a kitten, its mother trails him everywhere, finally getting its opportunity for revenge in the Torture Tower where he will insist on climbing inside the Iron Virgin to try it for size. In the first chapter of Raymond Rudorf's episodic "non-fiction" outing The Dracula Archives, Karl endures agonising death by spikes when his misguided friend Franz treats him to a guided tour of Castle Cjesthe and unwitting disturbs the undead Elizabeth Bathory. In Roger Johnson's macabre ghost story Mädelein (aka Love, Death and the Maiden), lovestruck Valerie Beddoes is only too successful in locating the hellish contraption for her playwright lover. It's less a surprise when Elizabeth and her favourite toy shows up yet again in Alejandra Pizarnik's The Bloody Countess, this being essentially Valentine Penrose's biography of Bathory rewritten as an out-and-out Gothic horror story (a brilliant one, at that). In Basil Copper's The Academy Of Pain, Carstairs, an unabashed sadist, furnishes the basement of his West Country home with a fully operational torture chamber. Wife Pauline doesn't take the hint, falls for another man. Carstairs, all innocent, invites him around for the weekend. It's a dead horrible story, it really is. In James Jauncey's The Veritable Verasco The veteran magician is playing his annual monthly stint at the Empire Variety Theatre, the only time of the year the venue packs out and makes some money. Of the chorus girls competing to be his assistant, only two are in with a realistic shout - the beautiful, fiery Liza and cute, good-natured Rose. So you've guessed who wins and you've guessed who skulks off nursing a grudge. Verasco's latest prop is his Turkish box, an iron maiden by any other name except, of course, perfectly harmless. Unless somebody with revenge in their heart were to tamper with the safety mechanism ... according to Peter Haining, the illustration reproduced below is by E. S. Hodgson and it illustrates a tense scene from Max Pemberton's The Iron Maiden from a 1903 edition of The Strand. This may be true, but i've been unable to trace any reference to the story elsewhere and knowing Mr Haining's approach to accurate biblio data was sometimes as fluid as my own, i'd like if someone could confirm? E. S. Hodgson
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Post by andydecker on Jun 28, 2011 9:17:50 GMT
It doesn´t really qualify, but there was a nice Iron Maiden in action in Midsomer Murder Talking to the Dead
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Post by dem bones on Jun 28, 2011 13:48:18 GMT
It was repeated on sunday! One of the best of the supernatural episodes I thought, with the ghostly monks of Barton Woods, a fraudulent celebrity psychic and the grisly murder of slimy Lynton Pargeter, the crooked antique dealer, impaled inside his own iron maiden. the final image of the dead man in the tree is pretty disturbing too. arguably even better though is the climax of Roger Corman's super adaptation of The Pit And The Pendulum with Vincent Price gone completely gaga and the divine Barbara Steele receiving her just desserts yet again!
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 28, 2011 14:04:03 GMT
It was repeated on sunday! One of the best of the supernatural episodes I thought, with the ghostly monks of Barton Woods, a fraudulent celebrity psychic and the grisly murder of slimy Lynton Pargeter, the crooked antique dealer, impaled inside his own iron maiden. the final image of the dead man in the tree is pretty disturbing too. arguably even better though is the climax of Roger Corman's super adaptation of The Pit And The Pendulum with Vincent Price gone completely gaga and the divine Barbara Steele receiving her just desserts yet again! ] Got me there Dem. The Pit and the Pendulum hit me at just the right age. That final scene, the terrified eyes sent me up the stairs to the land of nightmares. Still looks scarey now.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 28, 2011 14:10:56 GMT
But those eyes were from the Black Cat? Christ, old age...
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Post by dem bones on Jun 28, 2011 16:43:00 GMT
I think this one, as the search party leave the chamber and slam shut the door, is even grimmer ... More trad torture chamber action, a mixed bag this time, much of it recycled from elsewhere on board, so my advice is go read something else. Ray Russell - The Runaway Lovers: shades of The Torture Of Hope meets Raymond Williams' possibly less celebrated The Assassin (see below). When his comely young wife and her troubadour lover are hunted down and captured, the Duke sentences them to spend seven days in the torture chamber, at the end of which they will be "irrevocably demised." This is most unlike the Duke, who has a reputation for mercy to the point of meekness, a veritable Nun of a man, and the troubadour's guess is that the old fool won't have the stomach to harm them. So, nothing to worry about then. Until the jovial warder explains, in explicit detail, exactly what's in store for them this coming week. Then the lovers panic. Each curses and denounces the other. But look ... the warden has dropped his keys on the floor just beyond their tiny cells ... H. Warner Munn - The Chain: The unnamed victim wakes to find himself in the rat-infested oubliette of Rutzau Castle. The man who stands atop the pit is his cousin, Franz. Evidently Franz has found out just who caused the 'accident' that left him a cripple, and who has been sleeping with his fair wife, Olga. He lowers a chain, and beckons to his captive to climb ... H. Warner Munn - The Wheel: A companion piece to the above. The American, Preece, is given a guided tour of Bohorquia's torture chamber, the centre piece of which is a customised treadmill suspended over a trough of bubbling pitch. Once you're on there, it's a case of keep walking, keep awake, as the guy operating the fiendish contraption has all these snazzy coloured levers he can pull to flick you over the side. Mein host, who is clearly a loose cannon, relates the grim fate of three of his ancestors at the hands of the Inquisition and the campaign by generations of Bohorquia's to obliterate the families responsible from the face of the earth. Now there's only one person to be rid of and the revenge is complete. Rotten moment for Preece to realise who he's descended from ... Raymond Williams - The Assassin: Set in 1079 which is surely a first for a Pan horror story. Rufus Flaubard has been approached by William de Burgh and his sister Matilda to rid her of husband Sir Hubert Marshal. His prize: lovely Matilda plus Hubert's castle, so it's not as if the challenge lacks an incentive. Unfortunately Rufus is betrayed by a creaking door, overpowered and dragged down to the torture chamber. Hubert wishes to know who's behalf he's acting upon and a poker and brazier full of red hot coals suggests it's only a matter of time before Rufus tells him. Can Matilda murder her sadistic other half before her lover blabs? "Miss Inquisitor" (artist unknown) from, where else?, Web Terror Stories. Because it would be rude not to. George Fielding Eliot - The Copper Bowl: "God! What a position! Either betray his flag, his regiment, betray his comrades to their deaths - or see his Lily butchered before his eyes!"That's the unenviable dilemma facing brave Lieutenant Andre Fournet of the French Foreign Legion. He's endured all the tortures the evil Wong can inflict upon him without revealing the location and strength of his colleagues on the Mephong River so now the even more evil mad mandarin Yuan Li has a crack at breaking his resolve. With Andre held secure, Yaun Li summons his guards who lead in the innocent Lily, some heavy duty bondage equipment, a copper bowl and a nice, mangy grey rat .... August Derleth - The Coffin Of Lissa: Gruesome tale of torture at the hands of the Spanish Inquisition. The narrator is placed in the titular contraption. Rats gnaw his hands. The lid slowly descends ... Coming soon - torture today and a 'live at the witch trials' special.
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Post by andydecker on Jun 28, 2011 17:52:14 GMT
I think this one, as the search party leave the chamber and slam shut the door, is even grimmer ... The Corman movies are still a lot of fun. Just re-watched Pit on the telly some lazy sunday. What Corman did with some pocketmoney - compard to todays 300 mill+ - is a creative marvel. one of the best of the supernatural episodes i thought, with the ghostly monks of Barton Woods, a fraudulent celebrity psychic and the grisly murder of slimy Lynton Pargeter, the crooked antique dealer, impaled inside his own iron maiden. the final image of the dead man in the tree is pretty disturbing too. Loved it. I still can´t believe they used the Iron Maiden ;D I hope the series doesn´t hit rock bottom with the new actor and more important the new producer.
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Post by dem bones on Jun 29, 2011 8:56:06 GMT
Neil Dudgeon's doing not so bad and the recently shown The Oblong Murders had its moments, DS Ben Jones's growing a beard and wearing a scarf so he could infiltrate a touchy-feely new age cult was class as was the performance of whoever played the dirty old git with a comb-over who'd joined the Oblongs because he'd heard there was plenty of free sex up for grabs. But George the pathologist retired at the close of the case, so what with Tom, Joyce and Cully gone, Ben's the last bridge to the past. This episode even began in London! Also there was ... man, what the f**k am i blabbering on about Midsomer Murders for when EVERYBODY's so riveted by all this amazing torture stuff they can barely breath in anticipation of the next thrilling instalment? !! Live At The Witch Trials!a popular beat group & busty page three girl reenact a chilling scene from James Darke's The Witches #8: The Plague short fiction first, then maybe a crack at some of the stand out novels. here are six of the most horrible i could think of. William Meinhold's The Amber Witch was shortlisted but lost precious points on account of its tragic happy ending. another to pull its best punch is Mrs. Ballie Reyolds' endearing melodrama, A Witch BurningFrederick Cowles - The Witch Finder: Madingley, East Anglia. Master Hugh Murray, a contemporary of the infamous Matthew Hopkins, falls into the clutches of Alice Lane and her mother old Margaret Bell. But how can that be? The one he recently tortured and gibbeted, the other he tortured and burnt at the stake five years ago. Now he’s safely strapped to the rack the two get to work. Needless to say they show him as much mercy as he did them in this revolting six pager. Dorothy K. Haynes - "Thou Shalt Not Suffer A Witch ...": Beatrice the dairymaid has designs on farmhand Jack Hyslop, the betrothed of Minty Fraser. She prevails upon the simple, friendless Jinnot to throw a fit and accuse Minty of giving her the evil eye. Jinnot eventually complies, sells out her kindly guardian for sixpence. The villagers duly drag Minty away to be swum in the pond, an ordeal she doesn't survive. Witnessing the violent episode has a dreadful effect on Jinnot. What if she herself is a witch? She easily convinces herself that it's at least a possibility, which would make her duty bound to avenge Minty. And Beatrice, now Mrs. Hyslop, is about to give birth. What better opportunity for Jinnot to put her powers to the test. It's beyond me to do the sheer grimness of this one justice, but the overall effect is like some literary equivalent of Witchfinder General. Robert Anthony (Anthony Rudd) - The Witch-Baiter: Justice Mynheer van Ragevoort tries and condemns 'witches' with commendable impartiality: one a confession has been tortured from them, they're hung and quartered in keeping with the law. Comes the night when he's blindfolded and bundled from his home by the men of the village to preside over the trial of 'the witch of witches'. Having passed sentence, he's again abducted, this time by members of the Vehmgericht, a secret society who've decided that his insane reign of terror must be curtailed. He's given an extended session in the dungeon, and then released to discover his latest victim .. Ramsey Campbell - Dolls: Father Jenner's congregation moonlight as members of the local coven. Terrified of the Priest, they use wooden dolls versus their enemies, one of whom turns black and chokes to death before she can denounce them during Jenner's sermon. Anne suspects that her husband, the doll carver, is also the "Devil" who conducts their orgies but has yet to select her as his partner. When she gets her wish, things don't quite go as she'd hoped and it all turns very violent and messy. Although not specifically 'witch trials' it has the atmosphere right and god knows, plenty of suffering goes on. Simon Walsh - The Inquisitor: Toledo. Don Sancho has fallen for Donna Isabella D'Cruz, the beautiful wife of the Grand Inquisitor who certainly didn't get where he is by being merciful. Donna is burnt as an adulteress ("She lived a long time in the flames. Even I closed my ears from the sound of her screams" gloats D'Cruz) while her lover is subjected to prolonged and gruesome torture until he reveals the names of his fellow "heretics". He goes one better and denounces their leader ... Eliza Lynn Linton - The Fate Of Madame Cabenal: Pievrot, a hamlet in Brittany. Jules Cabanel, father of his housekeeper Adele’s child, returns from Paris with an English bride. Adele welcomes her new mistress with a bouquet of scarlet poppies, belladonna and aconite, and, in concert with Martin Briolic, is soon plotting her rivals downfall. The high rate of infant mortality in the region gives them all the ammunition they need … True, the pathetic heroine is accused of vampirism, not witchcraft, but the principle and the outcome are the same. See also Basil Copper's Justice At The Crossroads. Jim McGarry – The Clonmel Witch Burning: Because there's no substitute for the real thing.
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Post by rayocass on Jun 29, 2011 13:54:17 GMT
While it's only tangentially related, I'd have to throw Clark Ashton Smith's "Isle of the Torturers" into the mix. Not only are the endless tortures lovingly bizarre but they're exquisitely described as only Clark could.
Such as: "Anon the drowned and dripping corpses went away; and Fulbra was stripped by the Torturers and was laid supine on the palace floor, with iron rings that bound him closely to the flags at knee and wrist, at elbow and ankle. Then they brought in the disinterred body of a woman, nearly eaten, in which a myriad maggots swarmed on the uncovered bones and tatters of dark corruption; and this body they placed on the right hand of Fulbra. And also they fetched the carrion of a black goat that was newly touched with beginning decay; and they laid it down beside him on the left hand. Then, across Fulbra, from right to left, the hungry maggots crawled in a long and undulant wave..."
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Post by David A. Riley on Jun 29, 2011 14:17:39 GMT
While it's only tangentially related, I'd have to throw Clark Ashton Smith's "Isle of the Torturers" into the mix. Not only are the endless tortures lovingly bizarre but they're exquisitely described as only Clark could. Such as: "Anon the drowned and dripping corpses went away; and Fulbra was stripped by the Torturers and was laid supine on the palace floor, with iron rings that bound him closely to the flags at knee and wrist, at elbow and ankle. Then they brought in the disinterred body of a woman, nearly eaten, in which a myriad maggots swarmed on the uncovered bones and tatters of dark corruption; and this body they placed on the right hand of Fulbra. And also they fetched the carrion of a black goat that was newly touched with beginning decay; and they laid it down beside him on the left hand. Then, across Fulbra, from right to left, the hungry maggots crawled in a long and undulant wave..." He makes it sound almost beautiful! An amazing writer.
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Post by dem bones on Jul 1, 2011 21:29:55 GMT
Witch Trials 2: The Novels If it's vile you're after, any one of eight from 'James Darke''s justly notorious The Witches series (Sphere, 1983-6) should do you. Despite having no discernible faith in either, witch-finder Robert Monk and his appalling entourage persecute all and sundry in the name of God and England. The tortures inflicted - and the relish Laurence James takes in describing them - are unlikely to hold appeal for paranormal romancers. i survived the first three, enough to know that should the rest come my way i'd set aside a weekend, tear through the entire series from start to finish. Justin of Paperback Fanatic has acclaimed final instalment The Plague as particularly revolting. The authentic period cover photo's - authentic as in 'Essex disco, circa Frankie Goes To Hollywood' - constitute another violent yank on the purse-strings. 'S. F. Roland''s Witch Mark begins like it means serious horror business, travels that route until around the halfway mark before abruptly changing its mind, mutating into a Gothic Romance with dashes of comedy. Despite, possibly because of these schizophrenic tendencies it's an engrossing read, as we follow young Mary True on her lonely walk to London where her parents are to be burnt at the stake on tricked-up witchcraft charges. You really want the NEL edition, if only for the cover painting depicting Mary coming on like a brawling barmaid. Ronald Bassett - Witchfinder General (Herbert Jenkings, 1966, Pan 1968). A biography of Matthew Hopkins tarted up with some fictional embellishments (not too many, according to the author). Provided the basis for Michael Reeves supremely nihilistic movie. 'Peter Saxon' Satan's Child. What this is is not ponderous. Starts with Elspet being burnt as a witch, doesn't let up from there. Enough to say that this is Wilfred McNeilly at his brilliant best and leave it at that. Wray Hunt Satan’s Daughter. Have not long reposted turgid anti-review of this neglected minor classic from Vault Mk I, so no need to trouble you with it twice in same day. Robert Neill Witch Bane: Another meeting of historical fact and pseudo-fact set against a backdrop of the English Civil War. A blur to me now but i remember liking it well enough. A crafty peek at blurb suggests a plot not dissimilar to that of Witch Mark. will make a start on his Witchfire At Lammas just as soon as I can get past what must be the most boring cover photo ever to appear on cover of an Arrow paperback. any recommendations?
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Post by dem bones on Jul 15, 2011 11:40:11 GMT
More witch trial shorts: Enjoyable it is in other respects, Peter Haining's A Circle Of Witches is woefully lacking in the witch trials department - even A Witch Burning doesn't result in one while Ye Lyttle Salem Maid would have it that Cotton Mather was a big softie at heart (albeit one who takes "great relish" in attending the assizes whenever a woman is on trial for her life over alleged dabbling in mumbo jumbo). To get back with the program. Can't believe I overlooked M. R. James's The Ash Tree (!), or for that matter, this winning tale of the grotesque. L. A. Lewis - Hybrid: In his youth Chambers was plagued by nightmares which a clairvoyant later convinced him were flashbacks from a previous life in which he was an adept black magician. When Chambers marries and takes up home in Sussex he realises that this is where his diabolical incarnation practised evil and the adjoining field is where he was burnt at the stake. His familiar, a raven-like bird, gradually takes him over until - as his devoted wife explains to Dr. Cole - "His body is mad, but his mind is sane." Chambers degenerates into a hopping, squawking sex maniac and ravishes his wife. Dr. Cole eventually gets a specialist to take care of him but in the meantime Mrs. Chambers gives birth ...! Figured there might be a witch variation on the Basil Copper & Eliza Lynn Linton vampire mania stories and so it proves with: Carl Schiffman [Ian C. Strachen] - Throwback: Richard Hargreaves, anorak, is playing with his metal detector when he finds an old coin. Digging deeper, his spade strikes a cylindrical object ... and he's thrown back in time to the 15th century. The villagers are the of the usual superstitious bent and Hargreaves is put on trial for witchcraft.
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Post by dem bones on Jul 30, 2021 15:57:04 GMT
Mixed bag. Emory Connor - Mistress of the Six Gates of Horror: ( Web Terror Stories, April 1964). No one has ever surpassed the Chinese at torture - but beautiful Hsui T'ang added one last refinement to the worst yet devised! Every issue of Web Terror Stories is a torture fest, the difference between these and the late 'thirties shudder pulps being they provided equal opportunities for female flagellants and torture monsters. Case in point being, Hsui 'Black Dragon Woman' T'ang, a lead player in the Boxer uprising. Kent L Bowman's Drums of Torment from same issue is disgusting. Zeke Lake - The Iron Lady in the Crypt: ( Weird Tales, March 1925). Modern Revenge by Medieval Means. Millionaire Lothario and collector of instruments of pain insists on private tour of the museum's torture chamber after closing time. He gets one. Len O'Dell - Satan's Studio of Sin: ( Sinister Stories, Feb. 1940). "Pain! Agony! There's something fascinating about it!" Dorothy K. Haynes - The Head: (Angus Campbell [ed], Scottish Tales of Terror, 1972). A thief endures cruel and unusual punishment. He's a better man than his tormentors. Major George Fielding Eliot - His Brother's Keeper: ( Weird Tales, 1928: 100 Wild Little Weird Tales, 1994. Another day, another authentic iron maiden left unattended, this one in the torture chamber at Nuremberg. Eliot succeeded W. J. Stamper, master of Haitian voodoo bloodshed as WT resident torture fiend.
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Post by helrunar on Jul 30, 2021 17:14:38 GMT
Although it's thin gruel compared to much of the torture porn you so lovingly review, Bela Lugosi's performance in the 1935 classic The Raven for this viewer/reader is the ne plus ultra in erotic sadism on speed.
Bela the Immortal's ecstatic utterance of such lines as "I LIKE to TORTURRRE!!!!" and "POE!!!! YOU... ARRRE.... EVENGGGGED!!!" may have single-handedly been responsible for the infamous horror movie ban of 1937 (which nearly wrecked Bela's career). Of course, Peter Lorre's portrait of torture fiend (and damp-pawed fan of blithely unaware Grand Guignol actress Valerie Hobson's performances) Dr Gogol in Mad Love may have played a role, as well.
H.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 8, 2023 11:54:50 GMT
Live at the witch trials continued; A. K. Macdonald Lady Flavia Giffard - The Green Lady of Lacings: ( The Illustrated London News Christmas number, 22 November 1933). The haunting dates back to the fourteenth century, when a Lacey rid himself of an inconvenient wife by using his influence to have her burnt as a witch. With her dying breath, the Green Lady brought down her curse upon the family, promising to return once every hundred years to seduce and kill the favourite son. She is due an appearance on Christmas Eve - and Anne's fiancée, Julian Lacey, is missing ... Attractive artwork and a suspenseful story, marred by abrupt and soppy girly ending (runs away). A. K. Macdonald
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