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Post by helrunar on Nov 9, 2022 17:02:31 GMT
You mean the Fanthorpes are still alive and scribbling? Now THAT'S horror!
H.
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Post by helrunar on Nov 9, 2022 21:43:50 GMT
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Post by dem bones on Nov 10, 2022 13:54:20 GMT
their indomitable faith in the ultimate triumph of good. This is a big problem. Very big! They're no different to Seabury Quinn's de Grandin stories in that respect. I love the de Grandin's, but there's no way I'd want to read two on the spin - let alone a whole volume - and it's the same thing here.
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Post by andydecker on Nov 10, 2022 16:53:12 GMT
This is a big problem. Very big! They're no different to Seabury Quinn's de Grandin stories in that respect. I love the de Grandin's, but there's no way I'd want to read two on the spin - let alone a whole volume - and it's the same thing here. Hm. I had to work my way through a few of the original Supernatural Stories and have them not that rigid happy ending in memory. The series stories of course, you couldn't have your occult detectives loose a fight, but the single stories surely ended not that upbeat every time back then.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 13, 2022 12:47:19 GMT
They're no different to Seabury Quinn's de Grandin stories in that respect. I love the de Grandin's, but there's no way I'd want to read two on the spin - let alone a whole volume - and it's the same thing here. Hm. I had to work my way through a few of the original Supernatural Stories and have them not that rigid happy ending in memory. The series stories of course, you couldn't have your occult detectives loose a fight, but the single stories surely ended not that upbeat every time back then. I'd say these are series stories at heart. The names change, but the male and female leads are still recognisable fantasy versions of Rev & Mrs Fanthorpe having fun. Pretty sure good always won out over evil in the original, 'fifties and 'sixties Badgers too — at least, unless I'm much mistaken, it did in those written by R. Lionel and pseudonyms. I'm not sure if he got to demonstrate his El Santo, the masked Mex monster-wrestler moves quite so often either. The Shadow of Endor: Kilverstone, 1645. Venefica, centuries-old Wise Woman, rescues seven condemned witches from the sadistic clutches of Matthew Hopkins and John Sterne. Before fleeing North, a midwife among the party, begs Venefica to care for Susan Batford, the blacksmith's wife, who is heavy with child. Alas, before Venefica can reach her, Susan is abducted by Manducor, a particularly repulsive necromancer, who lurks among bones in a derelict Roman vault. Manducor taunts his prisoner; "I shall bring your child from inside your womb, and devour it while you watch." Venefica leads John Batsford to the Necromancer's lair where his trusty hammer makes short work of Manducor's skull. Meanwhile, Edmund Peterson, Lord of Croxton Manor, having learnt of this Mandicor, concludes that he is to blame for the district's every ill. "Some monstrous beast kills cattle; a huge, fierce dog called Cerebus kills sheep, and a demonic fire-fiend burns crops." Peterson hires a reluctant Hopkins and Sterne to hunt down the Necromancer with the help of the village Wise Woman and healer — Venefica! Mindful of the Witch finders' treatment of her kind, Venefica is only too happy to lead them deep into the tomb, where a furious Lilith is wondering what became of her loyal evil servant. My pick of the stories to date, not least for the atypically solemn tone.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 7, 2022 12:54:26 GMT
Randy Broecker Roman Remains Roman Remains: "Miley Cyrus once said that if you believe in yourself, anything is possible. That opens several doors to the unknown in this mysterious universe we live in. Maybe some weird entities really can change their shapes!" Hardly has ramblers guide Harry Edwards settled in at his new Cambridge address than he's savaged in Throgmore Wood by a creature which morphs from bear to wolf via gorilla, inflicting three different sets of bite marks. Two days later, a widow is horribly murdered in St. Bruno's churchyard while tending her husband's grave. Eyewitnesses identify the cruel-hearted killer as Harry! Enter Lex Verity, lawyer, scholar, master of the supernatural, who believes Harry's protestations of innocence and promises to clear his name. Verity cites a similar incident in 1943 when a young soldier was accused of a murder in the churchyard five days after he'd been killed in action. His occult investigations expose the killer as Marius, a Roman Legionnaire cursed by the God Arcanus to an eternity of cannibalism and shapeshifting. Verity, Harry and his filmmaker son set off into the wood to locate his subterranean lair ... Good fun, the descent into the chamber of bones and the shudder pulpy gratuitous girl-in-chains interlude, though personal choice remains Shadow of Endor. Dishonourable mentions for The Terror Below the Sea (all action, new menace at every turn, terrible ending), and The Poltergeist Peril (whose more Gothic horror moments, not least the torture-murder back story, are indeed horrible).
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Post by bluetomb on Dec 7, 2022 21:24:45 GMT
Oh, I love City of the Dead and I must have seen it at least ten times--or maybe closer to twenty. Dig that crazy beat, man! I do prefer the US release title Horror Hotel because it sounds so pulpy. City of the Dead has such a dull ring to it. Village of the Undead might have been better. H. Horror Hotel also has one of the greatest taglines in history "Just ring for doom service!"
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