Ramsey Campbell - Ancient Images (Arrow, 1989)
"an evil so ancient, so powerful, so monstrous that nothing could survive its malevolence." Sandy Allan, a Muswell Hill-based British horror editor, is searching for the print of
Tower Of Fear, a film made 50 years earlier starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. All who worked on it or owned a copy have either wound up dead or quit the industry. After the mysterious death of her friend to whom the lost movie was some kind of Holy Grail, Sandy vows to find it herself. But somebody is stalking her, causing her cats to bolt and run straight under the wheels of a car.
Her quest takes her to Redfield in Lincolnshire where the nasty tower of the title is situated, and she has a terrible time of it; the locals are openly hostile, and scarecrow-like 'watchers' dog her steps after she's made a dreadful discovery in the cemetery. It becomes apparent that every fifty years the surrounding land requires a violent death to placate it, and the anniversary is fast approaching. Meanwhile, Enoch's Army, a New Age convoy, have been invited to stay on the site by the present owner ...
It's not especially scary, but there are moments of horror and, even, fun. A nice touch is a cameo appearance by Dave Gibson and Ted Ball of the
Fantasy Centre in Holloway Road when our heroine is trying to track down an obscure ghost story. God only knows who author 'Walter Trantom' is based on, but he surrounds himself with sycophants and writes novels with titles like
The Flaying,
The Slobbering,
It Crawls Up You,
It Crawls Back Up You and
Entrails (which his publishers wouldn't allow him to release as
Puke And Die).
KillercrabI saw a copy of Ancient Images a year or two back - I didn't pick it up - but if it had been called The Flaying I probably would of!
I guess I've got little taste .. thanks for the review.
ade
demonik Relax. If it had been called
It Crawls Back Up You, I'd have gone for the hardback.
It's a good one of RC's to plunge in on if you're still not sure. It's not
Slugs, but it doesn't come across quite as obscure as some of his earlier works.
Franklin MarshAnother one I'm going to have to go for. Curse you Demonik! I can't get Elvis Costello singing Enoch's Army out of my head.
KillercrabI read Ram's THE CLAW back in the day about a sacred leopard's claw being brought back to Blighty .. pretty good I thought ..it's around here somewhere...
... the book not the claw obviously.
Did I mention DEATHBELL rocks ?!
ade
SteveWith a couple of hours to spare the other day, I hit the charity shops and turned up a copy of
Ancient Images of all things.
From all that's been said it seems to have a fair bit going for it even if, at nearly 300 pages, it may be carrying a little extra weight for my liking (remember
The Slime Beast I always say - 110 pages in his bare feet and not an ounce of fat on him). I'll add my thoughts and impressions, if any, as they occur to me.
I also picked up
The Far Reaches Of Fear edited by Ramsey Campbell and including stories by the likes of Fritz Leiber, Manly Wade Wellman, David Drake , R. A. Lafferty, Brian Lumley (and Campbell himself), many of whom are perhaps better known - to me anyway - as Science Fiction writers. Looks like an interesting collection, if Campbell's introduction is to be believed - again I'll throw in my 45 pence worth as and when.
I must say that I bought it mainly for the new-to-me story by Manly Wade Wellman, "The Petey Car". Ever since someone passed on a copy of
Who Fears The Devil? to me some twenty-odd years ago... well, what can I say?
Has anyone ever seen the film by the way?
funkdoobyAncient Images is one of the best novels I've ever read. Absolutely brilliant. For me, the only one of Campbell's to better this was The Nameless, although of course all of his output is wonderful (IMHO). I love everything Campbell writes, including his film reviews
The Nameless is one of those books that leaves you feeling genuinely scared (well, it had that effect on me and I'm not a fanciful person). Terrifying and brilliant. Get a copy as soon as you can!
I loved the Face That Must Die. Great study of an unravelling mind. In fact, I have never failed to thoroughly enjoy a Campbell novel or story, and I've read most of them by now.
CalentureI'm with Funky on these.
The Nameless opens with a grim torture scene and later has a genuinely creepy moment in an empty house (and we all know how rare genuine creepy moments are).
Doll and
Face that Must Die are also excellent. A little less impressed by
Midnight Sun, I think, although I didn't dislike it. And
Ancient Images was one I enjoyed, particularly those Jamesian moments. Recently found
The Influence but not started it yet.
demonik See if you can figure who the horror hack, 'Trantom', is based on. I thought that episode was bloody hilarious (not a phrase usually associated with Ramsey, I realise). Of course, RC may have invented him out of the ether, but he has a track record for this kind of thing. So if you're aware of a horror hack who surrounds himself with fawning acolytes - in this instance, the teen editors of his newsletter,
Gorehound - you can discreetly libel 'em here.
TheLurkerInTheShadowsSome nice Jamesian touches in "Ancient Images", as I recall, so I obviously liked it. And a far easier read than "Nazareth Hill", the only other R.C. novel I've read, which seemed to be written in a deliberately convolouted style. Either that or I was going through one of my finding-it-difficult-to-concentrate phases.
Franklin MarshThe more I read this novel the more I like it (not being particularly fond of RC). He's taking on a lot in this one. Black and white Universal horror vs the video nasties, a neat sideswipe at the 'nasty' novels, fear of travellers, the fight against censorship - a struggle for artistic freedom or the chance to watch someone getting their liver torn out? The whole thing is drenched in a weird kind of paranoia - there's perpetually something glimpsed peripherally, half-seen figures, people, animals, strange noises...plus a mystery, recognisable locations, more than a nod to film-making being collaborative and neat comparisons of Britain pre-War and circa 1989.
******
Book of the year. Spoiler - the whole film business is a bit of a maguffin, bit that can't detract from a wonderfully entertaining and frightening novel
SeanYep, 'Ancient Images' is a good'un.
Another of Ramsey's novels, 'The One Safe Place', also has a fair bit to say about censorship and the 'video nasty' debate - including a funny, but infuriating, appearance one of the characters makes on a Kilroy-type TV show
Cannibalised from a thread on the old board which quickly mutated into a The Slime Beast Appreciation Society Convention before veering back to Ancient Images!