daniel1976
Crab On The Rampage
hello all,
Posts: 39
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Post by daniel1976 on Oct 19, 2013 14:43:32 GMT
at present, ideas that i have for anthologies are:
a: stories that inspired ridley scott's "alien", with an introduction by him, which would include: 1: who goes there? by campbell, 2: at the mountains of madness: lovecraft 3: 1 night of 21 hours : renato mastriniero 4: this angry red planet: sid pink.
and possibly others that were used. either originally for "alien" or as the basis for earlier films.
b: stories about universal studios versions of classic monsters, as well as the hammer interpretations thereof. the differences between those films as sources and the original written novels and stories is self-explanatory. c: horror stories of the great war: from frankenstein in the somme to the mutants of the marne...
your thoughts?
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Post by ripper on Oct 27, 2013 13:26:17 GMT
I've read that an inspiration for Alien was a low-budget 1958 film titled It! The Terror from beyond Space, in which a spaceship returning to Earth from a rescue mission to Mars accidentally picks up an alien stowaway, who picks off the crew. I don't think it was based on a short story or novel.
I suppose the most well-known supernatural story about WW1 would be The Bowmen by Arthur Machin. I read an article in Fortean Times a few years ago about the legend that a devil dog roamed the allied trenches, and Agatha Christie wrote a short story called The Hound of Death, though I don't know if the legend inspired Christie. A couple more, though not sure if any stories sprouted from them. Rumours of Russian soldiers being transported in blacked out railway carriages from ports in the north of England/Scotland to the channel ports to join the anglo-french forces swept the country with many eyewitness statements. In the years prior to WW1, there were many accounts of mysterious lights in the skies of Britain and these were blamed on german airships...I think the sightings continued after the outbreak of war before the waves of zeppelin bombing raids actually began.
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daniel1976
Crab On The Rampage
hello all,
Posts: 39
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Post by daniel1976 on Oct 27, 2013 18:30:38 GMT
ripper, is the film you mention related to "the space vampires?" if it is, then the story by mastriniero is the source of it. about ww1, machen has another story called "the terror" which he may have even turned into a novel, about nature itself revolting against the horror of the war. in the anthology i hope to see one day, his stories about the war would certainly be prominent.
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Post by ripper on Oct 27, 2013 19:51:29 GMT
Hi Daniel. Is the space vampires film you mentioned Planet of the Vampires, directed by Mario Bava? No, It! The Terror from beyond Space is an american production starring Marshall Thompson and directed by Edward L. Cahn. Thompson plays the survivor of an expedition to Mars. The rest of his crew are dead and he is suspected of killing them. He is rescued by a second expedition. Just prior to take-off from Mars the rescue ship is boarded by a stowaway alien monster, who spends the rest of the film picking off the crew as they head for Earth. Of course, it is the creature that killed the crew of the first ship, but Thompson isn't believed until the creature shows itself. The story seems to be original to the film. I've seen it several times on TV down the years. It is low-budget but the cramped ship's interior gives it a claustrophobic atmosphere and it's well worth a viewing.
I had forgotten about Machen's The Terror. I'm sure there must be more tales set in WW1 by other writers.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 28, 2013 8:14:33 GMT
will give it some thought but three that come to mind Mrs. Belloc Lowdnes' The Unbolted Door from When Churchyards Yawn is a particularly grim ghost story set during the last months of WW1. Kim Newman's Three On A Match is a typical Kim Newman 'what if?'/ alternate history fantasy from the trenches. I found it a little annoying, but others will likely disagree. His The Bloody Red Dragon plays out against a backdrop of the war to end all wars that didn't. C. E. Montague's non-'supernatural' The First Blood Sweep still strikes me as a superb WWI horror story.
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daniel1976
Crab On The Rampage
hello all,
Posts: 39
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Post by daniel1976 on Oct 28, 2013 18:59:55 GMT
ripper: yes i was referring to the bava film.
demonik: i'll check out the stories you mention. whats "three on a match" about?" i've enjoyed the bloody red baron immensly.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 28, 2013 19:46:28 GMT
demonik: i'll check out the stories you mention. whats "three on a match" about?" i've enjoyed the bloody red baron immensly. It's included in Peter Crowther's Narrow Houses anthology; i think my summery may err toward the MASSIVE SPOILER, so approach with caution. Peter Haining includes an eight-strong selection of 'Supernatural at War' stories in the Mammoth Book of Modern Ghost Stories, and Ronald Holmes includes another (?) C. E. Montague war effort in Macabre Military Stories. Dion Fortune's Blood Lust sees a young man possessed by a dead German soldier with a fondness for blood-drinking. Originally appeared as one of The Secrets of Dr. Taverner, later reprinted in Michel Parry's The Supernatural Solution. There seem to be a whole lot more WW2 supernatural stories, most likely because of the American involvement in the conflict. Manly Wade Wellman's The Devil Is Not Mocked - Dracula versus the Nazi's - is pure pulp gold, and other big names who got in on the act; Ray Bradbury ( The Ducker, Bang! You're Dead!), Robert Bloch ( Underground: aka The Living Dead). When I've some time, will try come up with another of my boring lists.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Oct 31, 2013 17:07:01 GMT
I just read these stories earlier in the week. I've never liked Machen's "The Bowmen," and Dunsany's "The Punishment" left me cold. Blackwood's "'Vengeance is Mine'" was a major disappointment, as well--it has an interesting idea, but it might be my vote for the worst story of his I've read. His general approach strikes me as ill-suited to a war-themed story. Minto's "The Ghost of U65" (I'd read about the same case years ago in Fifty True Mysteries of the Sea, edited by John Canning), Barnes's "A Gremlin in the Beer," and [Alec!] Guinness's "Money for Jam" are more interesting, though more as slice-of-wartime-life tales than horror stories (the second and third are both set in WWII, if I'm not mistaken).
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Post by ripper on Nov 3, 2013 10:28:07 GMT
I remember reading a story (can't remember if it was fiction or supposedly true) about a nurse encountering the "comrade in white" in a medical clearing station on the western front. The comrade in white was an apparitional figure who gave comfort to injured soldiers.
Don't know if anyone wrote any stories about it but there was a belief in the trenches that a band of deserters from both sides lived in no-man's-land, robbing and murdering to stay alive.
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Post by ripper on Nov 12, 2013 11:52:39 GMT
I believe that Reginald Hill used the idea of bands of deserters living in no-man's land in his novel, appropriately titled, No Man's Land.
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