England's Screaming - Sean Hogan

[Dr Strange]

PS Publishing, April 2020, hardback, 304 pages.

A real oddity this one, and I had trouble working out where to put this thread. The basic conceit is: What if the characters from a bunch of different British horror films and TV series all co-existed in the same "shared universe"? There are 36 chapters, each titled for a different character, and each is basically a stand-alone short story (of sorts), but with some links between them. I've only read the first three, but this should give some idea of how it works -

Chapter 1: The Duc de Richleau. The Duc and Mocata (from The Devil Rides Out) and Karswell (from Night Of The Demon) all play a part in a story that eventually leads to the birth of Damien Thorn (from The Omen).

Chapter 2: Hugo Fitch. Combines the evil ventriloquist's dummy stories from Dead Of Night and Magic with Karswell (again) and the antiques shop in From Beyond The Grave.

Chapter 3: Damien Thorn (Age 6). The 6 year old antichrist's account of his life so far, written for the teacher at his "new scool in America".

Like I said - odd. The first two stories are written like short non-fiction biographies: This is who these people are/were, and this is what they did and what happened to them. It does kind of make sense to do it in that way, but it took a bit of getting used to. The third one is different: First person, but written as a 6 year old would write, with spelling and grammatical errors, and clearly not understanding most of what is going on around him. Again, it works - but is also (I think) a bit obvious. But it's good that Hogan is trying out different approaches, and I am definitely looking forward to reading more. I think it's also true that sometimes I am maybe enjoying trying to work out where the characters come from, more than the story I am reading. There's an alphabetical list of films at the back of the book, but no indication of which stories they link to (probably a good thing, I think).

The author is better known as a film director and I've seen (and enjoyed) his The Devil's Business (2011), which is also a bit of an oddity - plot-wise it's a slightly old-fashioned, Wheatley-esque, black magic occult thriller. But 90% of it is just two characters (British gangsters, tasked with carrying out a hit for their mobster boss) sitting in a room talking - and was apparently inspired by the plays of Harold Pinter.

[bluetomb]

This does sound like an oddity. But in a neat sort of way. I find this kind of meta stuff can be wearisome, danger of smug cleverness over substance. But unabashed, all in nicheness is probably a good place to start. I liked The Devil's Business quite a bit myself. Saw it at a festival, hadn't initially planned to but overheard some folks speaking highly of it after an earlier screening. The Dumb Waiter is the Pinter play that substantially inspired it, being a two hander about two mismatched hitmen holed up in a room together. Good stuff, think was a BBC commission and got Pinter's career going again after it nearly tanked with the initial unpopularity of The Birthday Party. Which, come to think of it, would also make a nice jumping off point for a horror.

[Dr Strange]

Yes, and it's probably going to misfire a few times, but it's holding my interest at the moment. I'm a bit reluctant to carry on describing individual stories, as some of them are really only interesting because of the films the author has chosen to mash together, and it would be near impossible to say anything very much about them without giving the whole thing away. I shelled out for this in hardback out of desperation for some lockdown reading, but there is also a "semi-sequel" (the author's own description) titled Three Mothers, One Father, and published by Black Shuck Books in paperback as part of their "Shadows" micro-collections series, which I bought at the same time - it's a lot shorter (11 stories) but draws on a wider range of films, including quite a few Euro-horrors that I have never seen (which I suppose could make it either more or less enjoyable; I will have to wait and see).

[Dr Strange]

I've read a few more of these now. Most seem a bit more like conventional short stories, but they haven't always worked for me. Sometimes they come across as just very short summaries of the film plots, but with some otherwise completely pointless link invented to connect them. So there's a couple of stories that link Don't Look Now with Neither The Sea Nor The Sand - but the "link" is just that Julie Christie's character from the first film and Susan Hampshire's from the second (which I don't think I've actually seen) are sisters, and apart from that there's nothing much really added (although Donald Pleasence's "Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water" also makes an appearance in this sequence, which I thought was a nice touch).

There's been a few other films referenced that I don't think I've ever seen, like The Corpse (1971), Unman, Wittering and Zigo (1971), and Full Circle aka The Haunting of Julia (1977).

Helrunar - have you ever seen Unman, Wittering and Zigo (1971)? The screenplay for this was adapted by Simon Raven from an original play by someone else.

The one I have just finished is based around Prof. Parkin from the Jonathan Miller version of Oh Whistle... (definitely that version of the character, not the one in MRJ's story). Sadly, Parkin doesn't survive this time... and the manner of his ending would probably have given Monty a stroke.

"Who is coming?" indeed...

[helrunar]

Dr Strange, haven't seen Unman et al ... I had it saved to my "watch later" list on y.t. and I think the video was yanked, but it might be back on. I seem to have ridiculously little time to watch anything at the moment. I was watching the Dr Who serial The Time Monster about two weeks ago and have been unable to get back to it, not for lack of trying. It's one of my favorite serials. 

I've been reading Raven's Before the Cock Crow again and it has, as is often the case in Raven's novels, several references to MR James.

I have to say I have not been all that impressed with what I have heard about England's Screaming. But some readers have written glowing reports about it.

cheers, Helrunar

[The Lurker In The Shadows]

I really enjoyed 'England's Screaming', and also Sean Hogan's 'Midnight Movies Monograph' book on 'Death Line', which is a precursor to the book, as the bulk of it is written in character by Donald Pleasence's Inspector Calhoun, and touches on other films of the era, or with comparable themes. I particularly enjoyed the threads that become more apparent as the book goes along, and incidents or characters begin to recur. For the handful of films I hadn't seen, I thought there was more than enough context to keep me from feeling lost, though I imagine that there's more fun to be had with characters you're familiar with, even in unfamiliar settings. I've since gone back and read a few of the stories in isolation. I've also reviewed the Jamesian links in the book for a forthcoming 'Ghosts & Scholars', though as Dr Strange notes, the Jamesian figures are represented as their TV or film counterparts, not MRJ's originals.

[ropardoe]

Aug 14, 2020 18:45:06 GMT The Lurker In The Shadows said:

I really enjoyed 'England's Screaming', and also Sean Hogan's 'Midnight Movies Monograph' book on 'Death Line', which is a precursor to the book, as the bulk of it is written in character by Donald Pleasence's Inspector Calhoun, and touches on other films of the era, or with comparable themes. I particularly enjoyed the threads that become more apparent as the book goes along, and incidents or characters begin to recur. For the handful of films I hadn't seen, I thought there was more than enough context to keep me from feeling lost, though I imagine that there's more fun to be had with characters you're familiar with, even in unfamiliar settings. I've since gone back and read a few of the stories in isolation. I've also reviewed the Jamesian links in the book for a forthcoming 'Ghosts & Scholars', though as Dr Strange notes, the Jamesian figures are represented as their TV or film counterparts, not MRJ's originals.

Yes, I was just proofreading the review today, in fact.  This G&S will be going to the printer next month all being well (once we've checked that the printer still exists!).

[Dr Strange]

I am getting through this quite quickly, and enjoying it more as some of the earlier stories are starting to come together and overlap. I think it's also the case that the more I liked a film that is being referenced, the more I like the story that is being told around it - which probably says more about me than it does about either the story or the film in question. The highlights for me have also tended to be stories that are linked to more recent films like Dead Man's Shoes, Kill List and A Dark Song, though I also like how these have been connected to older films like The Wicker Man, Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Shout. Maybe that's only because my memory is just that bit fresher for these more recent films, and so it's easier for me to "see" the characters and fill in more of their backgrounds. Not sure how that's going to work when I move onto the "semi-sequel" where there's a much higher proportion of films that I have never seen.

[fritzmaitland]

That's good news, Doc. I loved England's Screaming, but found the Three Mothers, One Father a bit of a struggle. I recently rewatched The Medusa Touch, and Hogan's use of John Morlar was brilliant. Funnily enough it also made me appreciate a couple of films I wasn't fussed about, and seek out A Dark Song (which I'd never heard of before picking up the book).

[Dr Strange]

A Dark Song is a very strange film, and one I had to watch a couple of times before I made up my mind about. Like Hogan's own The Devil's Business, it's basically a two-hander, focusing on just two characters in a single setting, and so it's not going to be to everyone's taste - but I like that sort of thing when it is done well. And yes, the way Hogan uses the John Morlar character from The Medusa Touch is a definite highlight of the book, as (for me) is the part played by Crossley from The Shout.

[bluetomb]

On the matter of Three Mothers it would seem to me that Dario Argento himself lowered the bar far enough with his Mother of Tears for anyone basically competent to do good work (in my personal canon Luigi Cozzi's lesser known nutty meta sequel The Black Cat is the real one), much as I love Suspiria and Inferno and am a gory and sleazy trash fan.

On the matter of A Dark Song I liked it quite a bit for its performances, intense minimalist drama and serious approach to the occult, though I felt that its wrap up came a little quickly and neatly compared to its build up.

[The Lurker In The Shadows]

Black Shuck Books have just announced Sean Hogan's follow up to England's Screaming. Focussing on North American horror films and series, Twilight's Last Screaming is now up for pre-order...
blackshuckbooks.co.uk/tls/