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Post by andydecker on Jun 26, 2012 10:59:26 GMT
Christopher Fowler Hell Train (Solaris 2011)  Cover art by Graham HumphreysIt is the mid-sixties and screen-writer Shane Carter has just been fired from Roger Corman´s AIP Film. Now he is visiting England and gets a meeting with Mr. Carreras sr of Hammer Film. Carreras need a movie quick, and Shane has 5 days to write a script. "Something like the Amicus´ Anthology movies, but in the good old Hammer style. With a train in it." Shane gets a bed-and-breakfast and a typewriter. In the next chapter a little girl is alone at home and finds this intriguing game in the attic. It is about a scary looking train. ´Dare You Board The Hell Train`? The girl plays, and suddenly the train named Arkangel seems to grow. And suddenly we are in our tale, and it is August 1916. Nicholas Castleford, Englishman and adventurer, is stranded in Eastern Europe. In a little village he has to stay in an inn called The Tormented Virgin. The daugther of the innkeeper is beautiful Isabella. But soldiers are coming and Isabella´s fiance gets the advice from his friends to scar her so she won´t gets raped by the enemy soldiers. Silver-tongued Nicholas and Isabella flee the town and board the strange train at midnight where the Conductor seems to know more then he says and nobody can say where the train will end. Also on board are English vicar Thomas and his nagging wife Miranda which vacation let them directly into the the war-torn country. As the train speeds into the night and new passengers climb aboard like the Red Countess, those people have to fight for their souls and their life. What a marvelous find! I stumbled quite coincidently upon this while checkling some bibliografies on Amazon. A novel about Hammer movies? Irresistable. Seems to be a sequel (?) to a story in Best New Horror 20. I am halfway through and untill now Mr Fowler doesn´t disappoint. The framing story is a lot of fun if you know a few things about the history of Hammer. And the main story is a perfect blend of old movies and modern sensibilities. While it takes its horror serious this could so be a sixties horror movies. Of course it reminds the reader of movies like Dr Terror´s House of Horrors or the begining of The Black Cat, but of course this the point and Fowler makes this his own with some great and pretty gruesome ideas. One is often complaining about plot threads that don´t make sense or could be better written, but this is a joy to read without one wrong note so far. Highley recommended if you love stuff like that. |
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Post by dem bones on Jun 26, 2012 19:08:31 GMT
Sold! Very sold! This sounds very much in the vein of Lord Probert's The Catacombs Of Fear and Faculty Of Terror. Bollocks, yet another trip to the "idea store"!
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Post by Johnlprobert on Jun 26, 2012 21:40:58 GMT
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Post by andydecker on Jun 27, 2012 11:59:19 GMT
Good review. One should have thought that this book had a wider reception at the time of its publishing. A good one is your remark about Nigel Hawthorne. But there is another tiny little error in that sequenz; Ingrid Pitt is mentioned as one of the Hammer stars. A few years too early as this is set in 1966  |
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 27, 2012 12:55:07 GMT
Good review. One should have thought that this book had a wider reception at the time of its publishing. A good one is your remark about Nigel Hawthorne. But there is another tiny little error in that sequenz; Ingrid Pitt is mentioned as one of the Hammer stars. A few years too early as this is set in 1966 I thoroughly enjoyed the review too. |
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Post by dem bones on Jun 10, 2013 7:10:19 GMT
Blurb: Imagine there was a supernatural chiller that Hammer Films never made. A grand epic produced at the studio's peak, which played like a cross between the Dracula and Frankenstein films and Dr Terror's House Of Horrors...
Four passengers meet on a train journey through Eastern Europe during the First World War, and face a mystery that must be solved if they are to survive. As the Arkangel races through the war-torn countryside, they must find out:
What is in the casket that everyone is so afraid of? What is the tragic secret of the veiled Red Countess who travels with them? Why is their fellow passenger the army brigadier so feared by his own men? And what exactly is the devilish secret of the Arkangel itself?
Bizarre creatures, satanic rites, terrified passengers and the romance of travelling by train, all in a classically styled horror novel."When the Devil was sent to Earth, he built a train to take the Damned to Hell." 1966. Fresh from his dismissal from AIP for moaning about the budget, Shane Carter, a script editor on Roger Corman's Poe adaptations, flukily arranges an interview with Michael Carreras at Bray. His luck is in. Hammer are about to complete The Mummy's Shroud shoot, and need another script before C. Lee and the Cush depart on their annual winter hols. Carreras wants a rip off of Dr. Terror's House Of Horrors, a shoestring budget triumph for arch rival Milton Subotsky's Amicus. Carter must submit the finished screenplay within five days. He heads to the Bray library for inspiration, and there, alongside the books on witchcraft & black magic, he finds a board game, Hell Train ....... Cut to Chelmsk (in the short story Arkangel, Mr. Fowler gives the location as North East Poland) and a little girl, home alone, bored witless. She explores the attic where the board games poor mad Granddad used to play are gathering cobwebs. Which to choose? How about that one tied up in string with an ominous DO NOT OPEN card attached? Inside, a clockwork train, some little metal figurines, and ... funny how the layout of the board resembles her own town in miniature. She winds up The Arkangel, sets it on the track and - oh deary me .... We rewind to August, 1916. Eastern Europe has become too hot for Nicholas Castleford, ladies man and all round beastly cad, time to return home to Park Lane. Somehow he boarded the wrong train at Sofia and now he's marooned in some desolate backwater - 'Chelmsk', according to the stationmaster, wherever the Hell that is - with the Coalition army fast closing in. With the next train not due until midnight - and, according to the local drunk, he really doesn't want to board it - there's nothing for it but to find a room. Eventually he arrives at The Tortured Virgin. It's likely owned by the same chain who sponsor such Vault favourite trad pubs as The Black Nigget, Ye Journey's End, The Lough Inn, The Lifeless Lass (formerly The Dog & Ducking Stool). "Nicholas glanced up at the inn sign, which showed a fiery crimson steam train with devil's horns sprouting from its tank. It was running over the severed body of a naked woman tied to the tracks ..."Sure enough, the locals are "cretinous yokels", the landlord is surliness personified and his daughter, Isabella, the most beautiful young woman Castleford has ever set eyes on, and indeed, a 'tortured virgin.' The drunks manhandle her at every opportunity, and she takes it because, in Chelmsk, that's just the way things are, women do as they're told, they've not even the right to secretly dream of a better life. Even Castleford considers this is a bit off. Isabella has been promised to Josef, a decent, hardworking fellow but not the sharpest. His friends are trying to persuade him that, as the army will surely gang rape and mutilate Isabella, he might as well be first and forget all this "waiting until we're married" nonsense. Isabella thinks maybe she should take the stranger up on his offer to take her to London, show her some excitement. After dining at The Pig (gloriously, Chelmsk's solitary restaurant is even less salubrious than it's drinking den), she agrees to leave with Nicholas on the midnight train .... ***** to be continued, etc ***** Forty pages in and can already understand with Andy and Lord P are enthused so. Hammer Books should have nabbed this one for sure. For obvious reasons, have deliberately put off reading the Right. Hon. Probert's review until i'm done, so something else to look forward to. Andy, hope you don't mind, but i've replaced your scan with a bigger one to show Graham Humphreys' cover artwork in something like it's full majesty. |
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Post by dem bones on Jun 11, 2013 19:40:43 GMT
Wasn't sure if i'd done the right thing reading Arkangel yesterday in case it proved a major spoiler, but that doesn't seem to be the case. This version of the train bears a plaque, "Maiden voyage, August 1887," so nowt to do with the Nazi's. That said, as with Josh, Nick and Danuta in the earlier story, Nicholas and Isabella are involved in a violent altercation at The Tortured Virgin when the fat landlord realises his daughter is intent on elopement with an English pig. Josef and fellow foundrymen assure the foreigner he's going nowhere. After narrowly escaping torture by white hot pewter tankard, Nicholas grabs Isabella and makes a dash for it, a lynch mob in hot pursuit.
Meanwhile, at Chelmsk Station, the Rev.Thomas Wellesley and his wife Miranda - sensibly attired for the outbreak of civil war in straw boater, striped blazer and cricket trousers (him) and and a too tight-bodiced green dress-coat (her) - are understandably anxious to leave town. The station master - another helpful bastard - gleefully informs them the train they missed is the day's last, although a terrified peasant boy seemingly contradicts him: something that looks like a train will stop here at midnight, but they mustn't even look at it, far less climb aboard. Thomas perks up; he never doubted that God would provide a safe journey home. Miranda is aghast that she married such an idiot.
Nicholas, Isabella and their fan club arrive just as The Arkangel pulls into the station. When Isabella realises what train this is, she hesitates, but it's too late to turn back now, and she helps the bemused country vicar and his wife to a carriage as the first shots are fired. As The Tortured Virgin hard-nuts clash with the army on the platform, the train pulls away. "They're not following. Why aren't they coming after us?"
But for a sleeping couple, a gloomy gent with a caliper, and a dusty corpse of a chap who keeps himself to himself, the train is empty of passengers. All the maps are defaced. The cadaverous conductor talks in gloomy riddles and will only confirm that their destination is the border, but not which one. Also, it is forbidden to disembark until they reach the terminus.
Next station, Snerinska, There's a crowd on the platform, but the Conductor is choosey who he allows aboard. Among those who meet the criteria, the Red Countess, Maria Theadora Grudczinska and her flunkies; a storm-faced Brigadier: a Gypsy crone with nasty manners and a line in gibberish; and a mortician, Mr. Shefen, with a coffin on his shoulder, though he'll not be traveling. It's agreed that, in lieu of a ticket, the Wellesley's will take charge of the coffin all the way to London. Mr. Shefen confides that it contains the mortal remains of a Prince. "So long as the casket remains sealed, nothing untoward will happen." The Reverend and his wife are unhappy with the arrangement long before they hear the first scraping noise from within ....
Franz Urban - the fellow with the caliper - wasn't always a a salesman of recreational sports equipment in war-torn countries. Just two years ago, he was chauffeur to a Royal Household and married to a mad minor aristocrat. But then, through a combination of circumstances beyond his control, he found himself driving the Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Duchess Sophie through Sarejevo on 28th June 1914 .... The Conductor, all sympathy, encourages the poor man to unburden his soul, and Franz, the innocent patsy of Serbian military conspirators, confides all. As The Arkangel approaches a ravine, the Conductor gently ushers him to the observation deck. His story told, Urban gratefully lets go the handrail.
With Franz Urban's suicide, everything is in place for the journey proper to begin and the Conductor could not be happier; sheer unadulterated terror is always such fun.
Up to p. 100 (of 270). So far, so brilliant.
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Post by dem bones on Jun 16, 2013 17:36:25 GMT
Minor panic on reaching chapter entitled 'The Biter', but needn't have worried as when, inevitably, Rev. Wellesley and his disgruntled missus remove the chains and raise the coffin lid, that which lies within is no rubbish vampire but something better and infinitely nastier. The Prince of Carpathia is a hideous sight, all moldy and maggoty and decayed, but Miranda's avarice conquers all. Ignoring Thomas's feeble protests, she divests the corpse of it's priceless jewellery, whereupon - sheer bloody mayhem. The Prince and the vicar - who fears premature burial above all other horrors - exchange places, and Miranda faces a terrifying game of cat and mouse, on and off the train, which has now stalled in thick fog. Someone is about to meet the grisliest of ends ....
... and we're back in the scriptwriter's hotel room. Somehow between marathon typing sessions, Shane has found time to bed Carreras' leggy personal assistant, Emma Winters, of the "extraordinary brassiere, like ribbed white armour-plating,' and jolly good she was, too. Perhaps if the film is a success he'll remain at Hammer, as there's nothing left for him in Hollywood.
Back aboard The Archangel, it's Nicholas' turn to be put through the wringer. Aghast at what they've just witness, he and Isabella approach the Conductor who remains supremey indifferent to all but his duty. When they boarded the train, they entered into a contract. To disembark before reaching ones destination is to forfeit ones soul. Whereupon Nicholas is delivered a heavy blow to the back of his skull.
When he regains consciousness, Nicholas is in the custody of Major Carstairs, facing Court Martial for desertion. It transpires that what has really nettled the army is an accusation of homicidal lunacy against a superior officer, which is seen as a very poor show and simply not done. The Brigadier in question enters the compartment, and the prisoner instinctively knows that this man has been prowling the trenches with a razor, slitting the throats of his own men .....
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Post by dem bones on Jul 13, 2013 17:29:07 GMT
Back aboard the Locomotive Breath and we have lost Nicholas, though we suspect,this is not the last we'll see of him and we are not wrong. His heroics versus the vampire Brigadier and subsequent frank admission to Isabella have earned him the right to jump from The Arkangel without forfeiting his soul. The Stoker is furious, the Conductor stoic. Rules are rules and the Hell Train no longer holds claim to him on this journey.
The train pulls into the final station before it ventures off map altogether. Rev. Thomas is all for disembarking, Isabella insistent that this has never been an option and they will just have to follow the example of Nicholas and defeat their personal demons.
The Reverend duly falls into the clutches of the Red Countess, Isabella, those of Professor Io and his beautiful clockwork singing doll ...
With the help of Dimitri the signalman and a huge black nag, Nicholas catches up with The Arkangel and hurls himself back into the fray. Dimitri hates the train, as do all inhabitants of Chelmsk, and he detests The Conductor with passion for murdering his son. Nicholas promises to bring him the miserable bastard's head.
Isabella narrowly avoids death in the bone-crushing embrace of the Professor's mechanical daughter, but she's not out of the woods yet. How will Reverend Thomas keep a lid on his lustful desires when the seductive Countess sets to work on him?
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ssppookkyy
Crab On The Rampage
Long live pulp horror!
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Post by ssppookkyy on Sept 10, 2013 21:43:20 GMT
This is a great book which really captures the atmosphere of 60s/70s British horror films. Highly recommended if you haven't already read it.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Jan 30, 2018 13:02:57 GMT
Hurtling towards the end of this, like the Arkangel speeding towards it's unnamed final destination, and agree with those above, it's really jolly good. The Red Countess is an absolute corker, and the hapless Brits abroad schtick can't help but raise a few smiles.
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Post by tynebridges on Nov 9, 2023 16:12:22 GMT
I'm very much a Fowler fan but feel that he always lavished more care on his Bryant and May novels. Hell Train, like another I've read recently, Hot Water, seemed to me like a first draft in need of further editing. I also felt that he didn't feel the affection for the characters in these novels that he had for Bryant, May, Janice Longbright, Meera Mangeshkar et al. in the Bryant and May novels. RIP CF.
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