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Post by dem bones on Sept 7, 2021 9:08:39 GMT
John Douglas - The Late Show (Headline, 1994) Steve Crisp Blurb: It's an all-night movie horrorshow — but this time it's for real... It seemed like a good idea at the time: get the run-down old cinema packed for once by putting on an all-night screening of splatter movies. Bring the teenage punters in by the carload.
But what the organizers hadn't reckoned on was the embittered owner of the Plaza entering into a nightmare pact with the evil entity that haunted the site - and that, after decades of enforced abstinence, it would be ravenous for real gore.
Which was how the carnage on the screen became nothing compared to the real-life bloodletting in the stalls, circle and corridors of the Plaza. The audience screamed and screamed again - but there was no exit ...
The Late Show marks the spectacular arrival on the horror scene of a brilliant new terror-talent.Ollington, a grim town on the outskirts of Manchester circa Baggy/ecstasy/Brit Pop, etc. Bill Anders, pushing sixty, has devoted the past thirty years to keeping the Plaza Cinema an ongoing concern in the face of local apathy. Bill loves the movies, specifically those of the 'forties and 'fifties — nowadays its all sex and violence and foul language. Every Friday, he enters the talent contest at blue comedian Bernard Manning's Dennis 'Fat Bastard' Dougal's Royale Night Club, performing credible impersonations of his screen idols to an ever hostile audience, not least heckler in chief Fat Bastard himself. And now, with a new Multiplex opening the other side of town, the bank is about to pull the mortgage. Two weeks, and the Plaza will shut for good — might just as well put a bullet in him, too, while they're at it. His love of the picture palace is all that's kept him going since Dot died eleven years ago. God, how he detests modern life and everything about it! Everything! Except, obviously, Topper, his mangy cat. With Bill at his lowest ebb, the thing that haunt's the building senses it's chance. Andy Perkins, a geography student at the local Poly, loves the Plaza almost as much as Mr. Anders. Andy helps out in his spare time, promoting the films among goth and acid friends and acquaintances, displaying posters at the penny arcade, running the sweet stall with girlfriend Susie. It was Andy suggested that a Gore-Fest all-nighter should at least raise a few quid to keep the place going that bit longer. Mr. Perkins has been acting kind of strange. He's taken to wearing reflective glasses and barely bats an eyelid when some bastard hangs Topper in the alley. Andy has a good idea who was responsible. Vodka-swilling flick-knife girl Harriett Grady, the local hard-nut, all filthy leathers and Metallica T-shirt, had a row with the theatre owner a few nights back which ended with her looking small in front of her cronies. She's not the kind to let a grudge go unsettled. Tonight's the night. Two-hundred and seventy horny kids from aged eleven to late thirties hit the Plaza for a night of blood, screams and naked flesh. The thing inside feeds on the life essence of the young — preferably virgins but, this being the tail end of the twentieth century, beggars can't be choosers. The more terrified the victim as they realise their time is up, the more satisfying the feed. The murders are inventive utilizing vintage magazines, an usherette's torch, hot-air hand-dryer, swordstick, toilet bowl, etc. That's about the story up to page 108 (of 216). Very pacy, short splatter fun for Madchester nostalgics. Pop culture references abound and abound some more. Lambs Navy, The Hacienda, Michael Barrymore, New Order's World in Motion, Philip Schofield, Stone Roses, Inspiral Carpets, Oasis, Credit to the Nation, Blur, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Our Price, British Home Stores, Claire Rayner, Siouxsie, Alice Cooper, a Fat Slags t-shirt, Freeman Hardy & Willis, Beadle's About .... TBC ....
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Post by dem bones on Sept 8, 2021 5:58:28 GMT
All done. With 270 potential victims and only 216 pages to kill them in, you'll appreciate things move fast in The Late Show. As one character, introduced but three pages earlier, meets a bizarre and grisly end, so the next lines up for his or her turn. Reader fast catches on that it pays not to visit the toilet in this novel. And watch out for blobs of chewing gum stuck beneath seats.
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