|
Post by dem bones on Jan 5, 2016 21:22:55 GMT
If anybody's up for it, usual thing. All your reading, viewing, living highlights and lowlights of the year we've just left behind. Sorry it's five days late!
|
|
|
Post by Shrink Proof on Jan 6, 2016 9:26:27 GMT
OK, we bully off with what was surely one of the TV high spots of 2015, namely the second series of "Inside No 9". At least as good as series one. Pemberton and Shearsmith really in their stride with their trademark mix of black as tar humour, buttock-clenching social observation and genuine eeriness. Great casting too, and nice to see a number of fine actors being able to stretch out a bit outside their normal niches. "Nana's Party" and "Cold Comfort" were quite outstanding.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Jan 6, 2016 15:20:52 GMT
Thanks you for getting us started, Dr. Proof. That's one more response than I was anticipating! Right. Book stuff first. Favourite coverAnthologies New/ Recent (2015) Charles Black - Eleventh Black Book Of Horror David & Linden Riley (eds.) - Kitchen Sink Gothic Paul Finch (ed.) - Terror Tales Of The Scottish Highlands James Doig - (ed.) Australian Hauntings Jared Shurin (ed.) – The Book Of The Dead Stephen Jones (creator) - Zombie Apocalypse: Endgame Old/ New to meAllan Barnard (ed.) - The Harlot Killer Jack Adrian (ed.) - Strange Tales From The Strand RevisitedClarence Paget (ed.) - 28th Pan Book Of Horror Stories Herbert Van Thal (ed.) - 19th Pan Book Of Horror Stories Herbert Van Thal (ed.) - 24th Pan Book Of Horror Stories Herbert Van Thal (ed.) - Lie Ten Nights Awake Jeff Gelb & Michael Garrett (eds.) - Hottest Blood Mary Danby (ed.) - Realms Of Darkness Dishonourable mentionThe Vault Advent Calendar 2015 Collections Charles Birkin - Devil's Spawn (well done, Valancourt!) Kate Farrell - And Nobody Lived Happily Ever After Charles Black - Black Ceremonies Franklin Marsh - Auld Franklyn's Almanak Of Doom Ted Hart - Thriller/ More Tales From Thriller David Forrest - The Undertaker's Dozen Oscar Williams - The Dance Of Death Novels Angus Hall - Deathday Edward Levy - The Beast Within Sax Rohmer - The Devil Doctor Jere Cunningham - The Visitor Peter Saxon - Corruption Craig Herbertson - The Death Tableau Walter Harris - Saliva Edward Jarvis - Pestilence Nick Sharman - The Scourge David A. Riley - Moloch's Children Florence Stevenson - Household J. G. Ballard - High-Rise Jonathan Aycliffe - Naomi's Room Dean R. Koontz - Shattered Dishonourable mentionKenneth McKenney - The Plants Publications Paperback Fanatic 31, 32 & 33 Pulp Horror 1 The Sleazy Reader 2 & 3 Ghosts & Scholars MRJ Newsletters 27 & 28 Favourite terrible dayglo coverNon-Fiction Ronald Pearsall - Night's Dark Angels: The Forms & Faces of Victorian Cruelty Adam Riches with Tim Parker & Robert Sandland - Football's Comic Book Heroes. Nigel McCrery - The Final Season: The Footballers Who Fought And Died During The Great War Keith Dewhurst - Underdogs: The Unlikely Story Of Football's First FA Cup Heroes Tim Tate - Girls With Balls: The Secret History Of Womens Football Simon Sheridan - Keeping The British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema Denis Gifford - The International Book of Comics Part II to follow. Loads of individual story recommendations on the Best Worst of 2015 as they happen thread, except hardly a soul joined in and I couldn't keep it up for a year!
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Jan 6, 2016 21:21:59 GMT
Right, here's the TV supplement. Anonymous declare war on ISIS TV Channel: Talking Pictures (Freeview 81). Only caught up with his in mid-November and to date it's been sporadically brilliant. Highlights, in no particular order, include 'Don't Talk To Strange Men', Beat Girl', 'The Trollenberg Terror', 'Where has Poor Mickey Gone?', 'Cross-Roads', 'The Killer Shrews', 'Out Of The Fog', 'Haunters of the Deep', 'No Smoking, 'The Curse of the Wraydons' (Todd Slaughter at 7 a.m.!), 'Honey West', 'The Detectives' and two episodes of Algernon Blackwood's 'Strange Experience.' Coming soon: Harry H Corbett is 'The Cover-Girl Killer.' Elsewhere: Ripper Street: Series 3 Inside Number 9 River And Then There Were None The Detectorists Football Focus Sat 7th November: FA Cup 3rd Round Preview live from Wealdstone F.C. Norwegian Women Football team's magnificent mockumentary.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2016 8:13:58 GMT
Because I have a terrible memory for what came out this year and what came out before, and because I keep no record of what I've watched/read/imbibed, I'll probably end up adding to this thread as more and more things come back to me. Or not, because for everything good I encountered this year, so too did I encounter an awful lot of shite...
But as far as the good stuff goes:
Film I see there was some debate about this elsewhere on The Vault, but I thought IT FOLLOWS was an excellent horror film with a brilliantly simple and scary premise. I particularly loved the weird, retro set design and thought the kids were refreshingly natural in their behaviour and performances. On the flip side, I also caught up with THE BABADOOK, which I thought horribly overrated. Despite some good scenes, it just didn't work for me as either a straight horror or analogy and struck me as a horror film made by someone who didn't like horror.
I also enjoyed EX MACHINA -- not the most original tale, but very nicely told and performed -- and MAD MAX: FURY ROAD, which was pure adrenaline and probably one of the most me(n)tal things I've ever seen on the big screen.
Because I attend a few film festival showings, I've also been lucky enough to see two films that don't come out properly until this year. HIGH RISE is Ben Wheatley's adaptation of the JG Ballard novel. Being a massive admirer of both Wheatley and Ballard, this was a match made in heaven for me. Wheatley does a fantastic job of capturing the novel's brutalist aesthetic and (now) retro-futurist setting (he wisely approaches it as a period piece, all 70s trappings). First time I saw it, I thought it was a little fragmentary and slightly flabby in the middle. So I went to see it again, at which point the Nic Roeg-esque cross-cutting clicked with me. If you like the novel this is well worth a watch.
I also saw a small film called GREEN ROOM, about a Washington punk band who get into all sort of trouble after playing a gig at a skinhead club (they start their set with 'Nazi Punks Fuck Off', which really doesn't get the crowd on their side). It's a small, tense, very violent little thriller in the mould of early John Carpenter, so keep an eye out for that if you can.
Books The book that made the biggest impression on me this year was HAPPY LIKE MURDERERS, the late Gordon Burn's book about Fred and Rose West. I had to stop reading it the year before last because it was just too harsh and heartbreaking, but it's also fantastically written, not at all sensationalist, and deeply compassionate to the people abused and cast aside by the Wests. Harrowing stuff, but a remarkable piece of writing.
To be honest, much of the fiction I've read this year has been pretty average stuff, and I've read very little horror as I'm not a great fan of the majority of modern stuff. The books that have stood out for me were David Mitchell's THE BONE CLOCKS, which I admire if only for how Mitchell snuck an modern fantasy novel under the noses of the mainstream reviewers. Also recommended is BEASTINGS by Benjamin Myers, which I described elsewhere as like a 'Pete Walker film novelised by Cormac McCarthy'. Make of that what you will!
Dishonourable mentions go to THE SCARLET GOSPELS, allegedly by Clive Barker but it's hard to say that with a straight face as it's such a dismal piece of work. Should never have been published. The same applies to LITTLE SISTER DEATH by William Gay, which reads brilliantly, but is actually unfinished. Not that you'll see any mention of that on the cover or marketing for the novel. Both should be avoided at all costs.
TV I'll have to get back to you on that one, but I'll say without hesitation that FARGO season two stood head and shoulders above everything else I watched this year.
|
|
|
Post by doomovertheworld on Jan 7, 2016 18:06:35 GMT
that is a brilliant cover
|
|
|
Post by Johnlprobert on Jan 7, 2016 20:43:18 GMT
My round up of movies - worst and best - can be found here: www.johnlprobert.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/top-ten-films-of-2015.htmlAs for books, my best Vault reads of the year were: Think Yourself Lucky by Ramsey Campbell Thirteen Days by Sunset Beach by Ramsey Campbell Immortality, Inc by Robert Sheckley Year's Best Horror Stories 16 and 17 by Karl Edward Wagner 10th Fontana Ghost Stories by RCH Strange Portrait & Others by Sydney J Bounds The 37th Mandala by Marc Laidlaw As for the "worst" , that accolade goes to: Hostesses in Hell by Russell Gray Stories include Fresh Fiances for the Devil's Daughter, School Mistress of the Mad, and Girls for the Pain Dance. How could I not have loved this book? The sad fact, though, is that I didn't. Have I grown up? Matured? Or has my palate simply become too jaded to enjoy this simple 1930s / 1940s fare for what it is? Even as I read the tales contained within I fancied coming up with something really sensational for a story with a title like Girls for the Pain Dance. Perhaps we might see it in a future Black Book. And please be warned that's probably a threat rather than a promise
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Jan 8, 2016 5:49:22 GMT
that is a brilliant cover Better still, it continues across the back - see Pulp Horror 1. But best of all, it's in keeping with the content. The word on the block has it that issue 2 will be among us in the not-too-distant. As for the "worst" , that accolade goes to: Hostesses in Hell by Russell Gray Stories include Fresh Fiances for the Devil's Daughter, School Mistress of the Mad, and Girls for the Pain Dance. How could I not have loved this book? The sad fact, though, is that I didn't. Have I grown up? Matured? Or has my palate simply become too jaded to enjoy this simple 1930s / 1940s fare for what it is? Even as I read the tales contained within I fancied coming up with something really sensational for a story with a title like Girls for the Pain Dance. Perhaps we might see it in a future Black Book. And please be warned that's probably a threat rather than a promise Here's someone who'd be be up for reading it! I reckon the thing with the shudder pulps - and Seabury Quinn - is that they work best in their original environment or, if revived, in shared anthologies. They were never written with collection in mind, let alone (as in Quinn's case) the complete works deluxe edition treatment. I also saw a small film called GREEN ROOM, about a Washington punk band who get into all sort of trouble after playing a gig at a skinhead club (they start their set with 'Nazi Punks Fuck Off', which really doesn't get the crowd on their side). It's a small, tense, very violent little thriller in the mould of early John Carpenter, so keep an eye out for that if you can. Will do, sounds right up my street.
|
|
rob4
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 104
|
Post by rob4 on Jan 8, 2016 12:02:54 GMT
Best Film: Mad Max: Fury Road Worst Film: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
ok I'm cheating here to try and make a point. SW:TFA is not the worst of 2015; just far less successful than the critical accolades and boxoffice would suggest.
But there is a comparison to be made here because both of these films borrow extensively from their previous trilogies. SW:TFA is virtually a remake of the original Star Wars: A New Hope, whilst MM:FR takes the final chase from Mad Max 2 and stretches it out to feature length, and yet Mad Max, for me, is completely successful, whereas Star Wars is ok entertainment but gave me more of a 'meh' seen that before sort of reaction. Given the borrowing of both it is hard to put my finger on why this should be so, as it seemed to be happening on a completely visceral level rather than any reaction to quality of story, script, visuals, etc? I do think there was a difference in the quality of acting as Charlize Theron and Nicholas Hoult knocked their parts out of the park. Although maybe its just that I'm too old for Star Wars now?
|
|
|
Post by Dr Strange on Jan 8, 2016 16:57:32 GMT
Happy New Year everybody. Here's my pick of 2015 -
Anthologies: The 11th Black Book Of Horror (ed. Charles Black) Best British Horror 2015 (ed. Johnny Mains) Terror Tales Of The Scottish Highlands (ed. Paul Finch)
Novels: A Song Of Shadows - John Connolly #13 in the Charlie Parker series, and just getting better and better. Lost Girl - Adam Nevill I actually put off reading this for a long time, because it seemed to be a change of genre for Nevill - it is set in the year 2053, when climate change has really kicked in and the whole world seems to be going to hell - but ended up enjoying it (and it turns out that it isn't such a big change from some of his previous writing - especially No One Gets Out Alive and Last Days - though the supernatural element is only vaguely hinted at).
Non-fiction: Stranger Than We Can Imagine - John Higgs An alternative history of the 20th century - all-over-the-place and very funny, as well as being interesting and informative.
Films: The Babadook - not as good as a lot of people made out, but OK. Really annoying kid spoiled it for me. Coherence - low budget, very talky, sci-fi thriller that a lot of people hated (but not me). Housebound - very entertaining horror-comedy from New Zealand, highly recommended. Howl - low budget werewolves on a train. Recommended if you like low budget werewolves on a train. Soldiers Of The Damned - low budget WW2 Nazis in search of occult power in a haunted forest. I can't quite work out why I enjoyed this as much as I did - there's nothing very original about it, and some of the acting is pretty terrible, but I liked it anyway. Maybe it was the impressively gory FX. Spring - odd horror/romance mash-up that a lot of people seemed to hate, but I thought was pretty good (apart from some dodgy FX and a weak ending).
TV: Penny Dreadful (Series 2) - no competition, simply the best thing on TV (though I watched the DVD box set). Also enjoyed Gotham on Channel 5.
Music albums: Dying Surfer Meets His Maker by All Them Witches (heavy/psych/blues, the band's name is taken from the book in Rosemary's Baby) Sound & Color by Alabama Shakes (US Southern rock/soul with a heavy dose of 60s garage/psych) What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World by The Decemberists (introspective indie/folk/rock) Salt As Wolves by Jeffrey Foucault (folk/blues/Americana - I also saw him live, which was f**k**g amazing)
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2016 19:14:10 GMT
Happy New Year everybody. Here's my pick of 2015 - Anthologies:Best British Horror 2015 (ed. Johnny Mains) Terror Tales Of The Scottish Highlands (ed. Paul Finch) One book I;ve edited and one book I'm in! That's rather delightful to see! Thanks Dr Strange!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2016 22:34:58 GMT
Spring - odd horror/romance mash-up that a lot of people seemed to hate, but I thought was pretty good (apart from some dodgy FX and a weak ending). Ah yes, good call. I found SPRING very likeable despite, yes, some occasionally wonky CGI.
|
|
|
Post by andydecker on Jan 9, 2016 22:59:55 GMT
I think 2015 was the year I bought the fewest horror of all. It is not that I am tired of the genre, but of the conditions. Mostly I bought a few old books as a Kindle because it is easier to read sometimes. But most new novels – if there were any – were hard to find. And I don't care any longer to search the smallpress. Also the political games that are being played with genre fiction and the frenzy to jump on the wagon by people who should know better tire me. I can read and enjoy Seabury Quinn without whining about –ism.
Among the books I bought were for the first time more collections then ever. I never was a fan of the short story, but this is changing.
New (2015)
Laird Barron - X for Eyes The beautiful Thing that awaits us all
Stephen Jones - Art of Horror A beautifully done book. A bit to anglocentric for my taste. How can you do an art of horror without even mentioning artists like Thole or the italian sleazemasters? Editing could also have been a bit tighter. To each its own, but even in such a book to read S.T.Joshis unwavering assertion that Caitlin Kiernan is "one of the leading contemporay writers in the entire field" has become silly.
Shaun Hutson – Monolith
Johnny Mains – Best British Horror 2015
Price - Beyond the Mountains of Madness
Ross Lockhardt - Giallo Fantastique
James Lowder - Madness on the Orient Express
The Lovecraft anthologies were a very mixed bag. Especially disappointing was Giallo Fantastique. Some things don't translate well into other media, and this is a good example for this.
Revisited
Henry Hartman - Infernal idol
David Schow - Seeing Red
Kim Newman – Bloody Red Baron - Dracula Chachacha
I enjoy these Newmans more with every re-read.
Non-Fiction
John Cooper - The Queens Agent: Francis Walsingham Fascinating book.
Comics:
Like books I mostly bought reprints.
Vampirella Archives This has aged badly, mostly overwritten and pretentious. But compared to todays soulless art it is a joy to look at.
Ed Brubaker – Fatale - The Fade out
Fatale became bloated and the ending was a disappointment. But it had its moments. The Fade Out is a nice read if you like Hollywood conspiracies stories.
Crossed –Badlands: Still can get a chuckle out of me. Bless Avatar for their obsession with gore and sex.
Alan Moore – Providence This is a truly marvelous piece of work. I will never get how Moore does it. On the other hand, if you are no Lovecraft fan and are not willing to read the annotations on the net, you never will get the joke and be horrible bored.
Movies/TV Too much to follow.
Penny Dreadful Still the best horror series out there.
Supernatural This has become tired, but season 10 had fewer eps I fast-forwarded.
Scream Godawful doesn't cut it.
American Horror Story:Hotel This never had enough story to fill a season, but Hotel is dire from day one. As far as acting goes, Lady Gaga is laughable.
Whatever happened to Solange The new edition from Arrow is just an example. I bought a lot of italian movies, mostly Giallo, as in Germany there are currently a lot of labels which do restored editions with AC and documentaries. Some wonderful movies in terrific editions.
Sad to see Lewis finally go, but still following Midsomer Murders. I did catch most of the UK productions. Broadchurch, The Fall, Vera, Y Gwill, River, Ripper Street.
Publications Everything by Justin
|
|
|
Post by Mike Brough on Jan 10, 2016 8:23:47 GMT
I didn't keep a record last year - I'm putting that right this year - but one programme that I really enjoyed was The Enfield Haunting. I thought Timothy Spall gave a layered performance as did the young lass.
It was never really frightening, despite some explicit poltergeist activity, but the atmosphere was convincingly rooted in the 70s - which can't be a bad thing.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2016 9:57:45 GMT
thanks Andy!
|
|