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Post by dem bones on Sept 27, 2014 18:03:17 GMT
Drew Lamark - The Medusa Horror (Futura, 1983) Blurb YOU'LL NEVER FEEL SAFE IN THE SEA AGAIN!
The Adventure
A party of carefree, fun-seeking treasure-hunters set off to find a sunken vessel off the Cornish coast. Hot sun, I gourmet food and – perhaps – a fortune from
beneath the waves await them.
The Horror
Moving remorselessly towards them is a ghastly swell of venomous jellyfish. They exude aggression – and their sting is deadly. Ensnarled in their slime is a horrible assortment of malevolent creatures intent on destruction.
The excitement of the hunt quickly turns to panic. And the goal becomes: survival.
Also by Drew Lamark: THE SNAKE ORCHARDS Will get to it soon, just reading "The Medusa Horror" by Drew Lamark (Alan Launay) at the mo! What's that like, Mark? Hi John - probably exactly what you think, it's rubbish if you spend too long deliberating on the logic but it's briskly written, the characters are sketched in enough and the threat sequences (it's about a massive shoal of killer jellyfish that might, or might not, be sentient) are well handled. I'm really quite enjoying it! A typically thrilling, possibly ecologically suspect 'nature is revolting' extravaganza with Cornwall's sea-going community coming under threat from a plague of Portuguese men-o'-war, the pulsating throbbers forming a huge jelly slick along the South West coast. Our story centres on one particular hapless bunch, the ten-strong crew of the Unity III plus mandatory ship's poodle, whose number are swiftly sucked to slime by the face-eating jellyfish. These include Gillian Kempsley, a pushy young freelance journalist and frustrated stripper: George Furoed, henpecked millionaire and fanatical scuba-diver; his wife Laura, manageress of the exclusive Knightsbridge Cordon Bleu Caterers, who'll sleep with anything in trousers, and her put-upon employee, Sylvia, a capable young cook who is a bit on the dim side but it's clear from the first that she's the author's favourite. Other potential victims include Alan Clegg, draughtsman and graphic artist; Charles Randall, a full of himself marine engineer and master of rotten jokes, Frank Whinter, veteran skipper of the Unity III, and retired couple Harry and roly-poly Rowena Powers, who are sponsoring the treasure hunt (see blurb) and treating it all as a holiday. Sylvia is caught in a dilemma. Her boyfriend, Tim 'Goose' Greene, a decorated Falklands hero, has proposed marriage. Tim's a chauvinistic pig, not all that in bed and prone to raging furies whenever somebody says no to him. She's not even sure she likes him. Tim would go ballistic if he knew she was away at sea with Laura and a bunch of chaps, hunting a sunken German warship, so she fibs that she's spending the week in Gloucester on unavoidable business. Tim, for once, has cause for concern. He's flown a copter over the white slick and knows that these jellyfish are different; rather than avoid humans they hunt them as legitimate foodstuffs. Meanwhile on a remote island somewhere between Lands End and the Scilly Isles, old-timer 'Captain Ahab' is keeping the tourists entertained with the latest version of how he came to lose his legs. The 'Captain,' who keeps a secret stash of whiskey provided by Frank Whinter in return for information on the likely whereabouts of the sunken warship, is one of very few likeable characters in the novel, so we hope he's not the one who fatally mistakes a particularly vicious jellyfish for an item of lingerie .....
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Post by markewest on Oct 1, 2014 13:52:29 GMT
How are you finding it, Demonik?
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Post by dem bones on Oct 1, 2014 17:03:06 GMT
How are you finding it, Demonik? Hi Mark. I reckon you called it spot on. I devoured it in two hits and, bar the insipid ending, had a good enough time with it. Captain Ahab and Gillian the journalist apart, I found the cast neither sympathetic nor particularly interesting but happily there are enough jellyfish strikes and nasty deaths to keep the attention from flagging. For some reason, I've always loved the cover, too. Have since added The Snake Orchards to impossibly lengthy wants list. |
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Post by markewest on Oct 2, 2014 11:29:40 GMT
I have a few other Andrew Lawrence/Andre Launay books and saw The Snake Orchards on ebay for a reasonable price just this morning, as it happens. I love the cover too, did you ever see the cover for Nightmare? I spotted an ad for the 30th anniversary edition in The Dark Side and couldn't believe they'd duplicated the head!  |
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Post by dem bones on Oct 2, 2014 11:41:07 GMT
I have a few other Andrew Lawrence/Andre Launay books and saw The Snake Orchards on ebay for a reasonable price just this morning, as it happens. I love the cover too, did you ever see the cover for Nightmare? I spotted an ad for the 30th anniversary edition in The Dark Side and couldn't believe they'd duplicated the head! You'll have to excuse me, mark, but my snake-eyes aren't up to the challenge. Who wrote Nightmare? |
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Post by markewest on Oct 2, 2014 12:19:21 GMT
"Nightmare" is a film (never seen it myself) but the DVD cover art uses the Medusa Horror lady on the art.  That's better, it came out slightly bigger this time! Sorry about the tiny image last time |
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Post by dem bones on Oct 2, 2014 12:37:16 GMT
Thanks! Actually, it's nice to see the original (?) painting in all its full colour glory after all this time, but what's that levitating arm all about?
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Post by markewest on Oct 2, 2014 14:00:43 GMT
 Ha! No idea on the levitating arm!
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Post by mattofthespurs on Oct 2, 2014 14:41:27 GMT
The film 'Nightmare' (Nightmares in a Damaged Brain, to give it it's full title) is a former video nasty (still denied a certificate in it's full state).
It's a pretty sick little film. The effects were purported to have been by Tom Savini, but he has denied this despite pictures of him being on the set.
It's worth a watch if only for the great severed head effect at the start.
Also interesting (to me at least) was that the first instance of someone being sent to prison for distributing a 'video nasty' was to do with this film.
It was the original distributor in this country and he was sent down for an outrageous six months!
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Post by markewest on Oct 2, 2014 23:36:19 GMT
Thanks for that - never seen it myself, it's always been one of those I fancied seeing but never actually caught.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Oct 3, 2014 8:23:10 GMT
Ah - NIGHTMARES IN A DAMAGED BRAIN - that's one in poor taste if there ever was. Its distributor - World of Video 2000, piled on the tastelessness by having a competition where individuals who frequented the earliest UK video shops had to guess the weight of a human brain in a glass jar. It's not an entertaining watch but it does have some gruelling disturbing effects. One of the FX guys apparently rang Tom Savini for advice - one phone call, one question - and then Savini's name ended up on the US posters! So it's had legal trouble all over the world!
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Post by ripper on Oct 27, 2014 9:17:49 GMT
Many of the films banned as video nasties are now available uncut in the UK. I wonder why Nightmares in a damaged Brain is not one of them. I saw it once circa 1983 when I rented it from a video shop. I can't remember much about it at all, though I seem to vaguely recall a decapitation scene possibly in a bedroom, though I am not sure if I am correct.
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Ha! No idea on the levitating arm! 