marcrhodestaylor
Crab On The Rampage
just received fengriffen and other gothic tales this afternoon looking forward to another great read
Posts: 14
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Post by marcrhodestaylor on Mar 3, 2021 15:18:57 GMT
I was very pleased to find upon internet searching that many of David Case's stories are still available and indeed, that he has written some more since the Pan Book of Horror Stories. These collections are easy to track down and are mostly available at reasonable cost; the special collection Masters of the Weird Tale: David Case was printed in a limited edition of 200 copies and appears to unavailable at least on Amazon, and I don't think I could find it on EBay either, which I the place where I have been rebuying some of the Pan collections. Masters sounds very interesting as it reprints seventeen tales, most of them have appeared in other collections although there is one original story; the volume contains seventeen illustrations, one for each story. As to the other collections: The Cell and other Tales of Horror is, I believe, The Cell, Strange Roots and The Hunter. This is available, although slightly pricey. Fengriffen and Other Gothic Tales includes Fengriffen and The Dead End and a couple of other stories. The publisher reused a Les Edwards painting for the cover which first appeared on Brotherly Love, a completely different collection. Brotherly Love included some interesting fantasy tales alongside the horror and I may take a look at that collection at some point. Pelican Cay and Other Disquieting Tales contains Case's most recent work, including the British Fantasy Award nominated Pelican Cay about the aftermath of a zombie invasion. The collection which I stumbled across which contains several good Pan reprints was The Cell and Other Transmorphic Tales, which I shall review below. i was extremely pleased to discover this collection as i have always admired case's stories and have always liked the pan horror series. are there any other pan authors who have been published in current collections, does anyone know? This collection reprints some great horror stories which surprise even now with their powerful combination of sexual overtones, masculinity, character motivation and extreme violence and gore which would shock many readers; these stories make modern horror look very tame by comparison. What marks Case's work apart is the attention to detail and story development, and the disturbing and bizarre viewpoints ascribed to by the killers; the killers are always set apart from society by their points of view, seeing society and its individuals as inferior giving some of the plots a Darwinistic survival of the fittest overtone. If there is any criticism which I would make of Case's stories it is that it is not hard to work out who the killer is, they are usually very different in some way and usually make their views very obvious, a few more credible suspects might have created more surprise as the plots unfold. The level of violence and gore in these stories are enough to make one understand why Pan became notorious. As for the stories themselves: The Cell - classic story which I fell in love with all over again. It is related from the killer's point of view, the protagonist constantly tries to find to justify what they have done and their thoughts become increasingly twisted and evil. They are not responsible for their inherited condition which makes this story a little tragic. Part of the tension comes from wondering when and how the protagonist will be caught in time, and how far his actions might go. Strange Roots - quite humorous, but I found that there was less to this for me than some of the other stories. The lab scene with the two dogs eating each other alive is still extremely horrific, as are some of the transformations. The conclusion is fairly disturbing and undermines some of the humour which preceded it. Among the Wolves - another classic, this time entirely realistic with no supernatural elements. There are some good murders leading up to the nail biting description of the trek through the woods where an accidental encounter with an old bear trap leads to one of the most horrific scenes which I have ever read in print. A Cross to Bear - quite good but with less gruesome murders, a little more understated than Case's other stories. In this instance the killer is a were jaguar rather than a werewolf. Very readable but different, without the twisted motivations of the killer being explained. The Hunter - classic horror thriller which becomes quite tense, lots of murders and some fairly extreme gore, lots of beheadings, a strong mystery as it is not clear who or what is doing the killing. Is it a werewolf? The suspense is maintained right up until the very end. Nasty scene in the trophy room, ends on a cliffhanger. The TV movie Scream of the Wolf took the story a little further and gave it a conclusion. Clint Walker is quite good as Byron, maintaining the right level of sinister. Of all the stories this one felt a little bit longer than necessary, although the payoffs are very strong.
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marcrhodestaylor
Crab On The Rampage
just received fengriffen and other gothic tales this afternoon looking forward to another great read
Posts: 14
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Post by marcrhodestaylor on Mar 6, 2021 16:49:27 GMT
From one of the tv guides, scream of the wolf can be found on amazon and is rated 13, which seems about right. it has been heavily toned down from the original story, which would probably be an r or nr (not rated) if it was actually filmed properly. it could be adapted for television if a lot of compromises were made. in the book, kim newman provides an afterword commenting on the film.
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marcrhodestaylor
Crab On The Rampage
just received fengriffen and other gothic tales this afternoon looking forward to another great read
Posts: 14
|
Post by marcrhodestaylor on Mar 12, 2021 18:24:53 GMT
Another great Les Edwards cover. I am still wondering what she is screaming at. It looks like a very classic pose I have to say.
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Post by ramseycampbell on Mar 16, 2021 8:58:59 GMT
I've said this elsewhere, but I'll do it here too - I'd forgotten until I reread "The Cell" how much I may have learned from it for The Face That Must Die, even though that was based on quite a lot of personal experience.
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