Hell Train

Hell Train

3.54 of 5 stars 3.54  ·  rating details  ·  153 ratings  ·  41 reviews
Imagine there was a supernatural chiller that Hammer Films never made. A grand epic produced at the studio’s peak, which played like a cross between the Dracula and Frankenstein films and Dr Terror’s House Of Horrors... Four passengers meet on a train journey through Eastern Europe during the First World War, and face a mystery that must be solved if they are to survive. A...more
Paperback, 320 pages
Published December 27th 2011 by Solaris (first published December 23rd 2011)
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Colin Leslie
The recent revival of Hammer Films (The Woman In Black, The Resident, Wake Wood) has been very welcome but for most folk it's still the output from its heyday in the 1960's that fascinates. So Christopher Fowler's novel Hell Train, set in that world of swinging sixties Hammer, should be a delight for fans but does it live up to expectations?

Ostensibly a novel about a Hammer film script that was never made, the book is actually made up of two interwoven narratives. The story of the scripts creati...more
Tim Pendry
Christopher Fowler is not always a consistent writer but what he does do very well is gut existential horror, the sort that really suggests the possibility of loss and despair.

This novel spends its first third being a tolerable pastiche of the Hammer genre (deliberately so) but it really takes off around page 100.

What can be said straightaway is that he has made a real effort to understand the Hammer Horror studio, its history, its business and its 'memes'. The picture he draws matches precisel...more
Carissa
Synopsis:
An American screenwriter is up for a job at Hammer Studio in 1960s England and to prove his talent he must write a new script for the studio. The movie must showcase the studios actors, notably Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, must have the requisite amount of horror, gore, and tantalizingly revealed young women, and must be finished in a week. What follows is the script, starting with its own prologue of a girl in Chelmsk finding an old board game in the attic called "Hell Train." Th...more
Mark
Mar 06, 2013 Mark rated it 3 of 5 stars
Shelves: horror
“Imagine there was a supernatural chiller that Hammer Films never made…” This takes that enticing prospect and builds on the conceit brilliantly, with Shane Carter - a screenwriter in 1966 who has been working with Roger Corman - taking on the challenge from Hammer to write a screenplay in five days. What he produces - and we read - is a horror tale set during the First World War. Nicholas is an adventurer, an upper class Englishman who encounters Isabella in a small Eastern European town that i...more
Jeannie and Louis Rigod
The year was 1966 and a screenwriter, Shane Carter arrives in Great Britain to attempt to snag a job with the greatest Horror filmmaker of it's day and age, Hammer Films. Shane notices the decay of the studio, but, this is hard times for the industry all over the world.

Almost too easily Shane is hired to write an epic in less than five days. For inspiration, Shane searches the library where he is set up and finds an old game board "The Hell Train."

The story takes off from that stage to one of t...more
Canyonxplorer
I really wanted to love Hell Train. The nostalgia of watching horror double-bills on BBC2 on Saturday nights. The romance of travelling by steam train. However, in the end the book was a victim of the success of the author in mirroring the Hammer and Amicus films of the 1960s. It does a great job of replicating both the plot and atmosphere of films of that era especially those where the story uses the portmanteau format. However, therein lies what is in my opinion the book's flaw as many of the...more
Paulo Carvalho
An Hammer production movie script meets Night Train & Strangers on a Train. This is what I say. I always enjoy watching Hammer films so when I read the synopsis of this book I had to read it. The first read of the year 2012. I had never read anything by this author and after reading this book I will try again I guess (If I have the time).

This story is a story within a story. The story is about a writer who has come from America to write a script for Hammer Production but the great chunk of t...more
David Keith
I'm a huge fan of Hammer movies, so this books was written just for me! It's a terrific set up and the author executes it quite well. I devoured this book in two short sittings. But I do have a couple of quibbles. I got confused in some of the action bits as they weren't fully detailed, a bit to sketchy for my tastes. But it does read like a first draft of a screen play which is what it's supposed to be, so that's okay. Not that it's written like a screen play; it's in prose, there's no stage di...more
Kristin  (MyBookishWays Reviews)
You may also read my review here: http://www.mybookishways.com/2012/02/...

The year is 1966, and a screenwriter from the states travels to Hammer studios in the UK, where he is given 5 days to come up with a new horror script for consideration. So begins the story of the Arkangel, a big, dark, beast of a train that travels through Eastern Europe during the horrors of WWl, collecting souls for harvest. Four rather unlucky passengers will meet on the Arkangel and will be put to the test; a test tha...more
Ade Couper
Now , this is lovely!

Christopher Fowler (@peculiar on twitter...!) is a brilliant writer , & , like me , he's obviously got Hammer Horror as 1 of his guilty pleasures...so , welcome to Hell Train!

The main plot is simple - 4 characters (Nicholas , a deserting soldier , Tom & Miranda , a vicar & his wife , & Isabella , a local peasant girl) are trapped at a railway station in Carpathia in WW1 - there's only 1 train out , & guess where it's going.......

There is a veritable gall...more
Paul
Imagine there was a supernatural chiller that Hammer Films never made. A grand epic produced at the studio’s peak, which played like a cross between the Dracula and Frankenstein films and Dr Terror’s House of Horrors…

Four passengers meet on a train journey through Eastern Europe during the First World War, and face a mystery that must be solved if they are to survive. As the Arkangel races through war-torn country side, they must find out:

What is in the casket that everyone is so afraid of? What...more
Shawn Manning
This was a different kind of horror novel. It's really a great love letter to the old Hammer horror movies, in particular, their anthologies. However, the modern horror fan will also be pleased as the author doesn't stint on the gore. There is also a dash of humor, that I found out of place given the tone of the story, but it made me laugh nonetheless. When I was finished with Hell Train I wanted nothing more than to sit down and re-watch those old Christopher Lee & Peter Cushing films.
David J Corwell
Great horror novel, definitely in a similar vein as Hammer's other monster classics. With its motley crew of deadly and monstrous passengers, this is one train you don't want to board. I especially loved the short cameo appearances of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, discussing their roles in the proposed "film." The prose is sometimes hard to follow, as are the transitions between the frame story and the main plotline, but overall, a well written, entertaining book.

Shortly after finishing th...more
Neil Robarge
Nov 29, 2012 Neil Robarge rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Horror Fans
Recommended to Neil by: My mom
I thought the story of the abandoned tale was hard for me to follow. I am only 13 years old and this book is meant for adults, but I still think it should've been easier to follow the story. What I got from this book is that the main story of the book is a horror movie that Hammer Horror Films abandoned because they didn't think that it was worth the money. The only part of this book that I could really follow was the part where Nicholas meets Isabella in a small rotten town, where women are tre...more
Mark Waters
Fans of classic Hammer movies will love this evocation of Bray Studios at its height with a dark fable of human frailty woven through the pages in a portmanteau style. Very much a homage to the Hammer and Amicus movies of the 1950s and 1960s this sees the classic stiff upper lipped Brits in peril in a vaguely Romanian Eastern European setting aboard a possessed train hurtling towards damnation.
All will be tested but who will save their soul?
MaryAnn
I liked the beginning of this book so much I had really high hopes. Unfortunately it went downhill from there in terms of obvious plot twists, but I did enjoy the framing device(s) used and the kind of meta discussion of the portmanteau film. The idea that the bulk of the story was a film treatment helped ease some of the gore/over the top writing. I look forward to reading some of Fowler's other works.
Jen
May 21, 2012 Jen rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: classic horror fans
This is a well-written, fast moving horror story that reminded felt like a gorier version of the stuff I watched on Creature Feature as a kid. Fowler's intention (I'm asssuming) was to evoke that sixties horror vibe and he did so very successfully. Sit back, imagine the characters being played by Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and heck, even some Vincent Price for good measure (look 'em up, kids), and enjoy a gruesome, scary tale.
Stephanie
I enjoyed the film setting, and the classic, creepy style of horror writing. But Nick and Isabella just didn’t speak to me as characters, particularly in their, as a colleague said, “depth of loyalty,” and the whole plot device seemed so flimsy. Cheesy and creepy and gory like an old B movie? Yes. Superb horror? No.
David Jordan
I quit reading this with about 100 pages to go. It's not interesting to me. Not terrible, but I'd rather watch a movie version of it. I was intrigued by the tie-in with Hammer Films, but I wouldn't like to read a novelization of, say, "Taste the Blood of Dracula."
Louise
really liked this one, it had a nice dated feel to it, which suited the horror book without too much gag inducing horror... no shock tactics, just good old fashioned story telling.
a train ride to hell is a great idea, well done Fowler, fab book.
Brian Williams
This is an offbeat story presented in the story-within-a-story way. The horror story was good -- lots of suspense-- and was way over the top. I cannot figure out the need for the rest of the structure, other than to introduce the main story.
Frazer Lee


Fowler's rip-roaring yarn is truly the Hammer film that time (and, sadly, the development executives) forgot, with enough camp to fill Glastonbury Festival, plenty of claret to satisfy the gorehounds, and characters presented in glorious Technicolor. The prose leaps off the page, with rapier-sharp humour (see the description of the Henley housewife's love life) and touching nostalgia (ditto the description of Thorley Walters). Truly a thrill ride!
Gary
As insight into the workings of Hammer Studios in the late 60s, this is great. As a horror novel, this borders on OTT. More Hammer, less Horror might have been better.
Kay
Aug 09, 2012 Kay added it
Hugely fun horror novel with driving pace and gripping grisliness.
Mark Birchall
great read for anyone who grew up watching the hammer horror films of the sixties and seventies.
Lynne - The Book Squirrel
Not read a horror book in ages so this was refreshing.
Honorio
A hell of a ride!!!
Tamahome
Dec 30, 2011 Tamahome marked it as to-read
Cute cover.
Mary
I really liked this horror book, it had a very well thought out build up and a great atmosphere. A great nod to the genre.
Chelsea
I absolutely loved Hell train! It was so creepy! Had everything that I could possibly want out of a horror book!
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Hell Train (Paperback)
Hell Train (Kindle Edition)
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Christopher Fowler is an English novelist living in London, his books contain elements of black comedy, anxiety and social satire. As well as novels, he writes short stories, scripts, press articles and reviews.

He lives in King's Cross, on the Battlebridge Basin, and chooses London as the backdrop of many of his stories because any one of the events in its two thousand year history can provide ins...more
More about Christopher Fowler...
Full Dark House (Bryant & May, # 1) The Water Room (Bryant & May, # 2) The Victoria Vanishes (Bryant & May, # 6) Seventy-Seven Clocks (Bryant & May, # 3) Ten Second Staircase (Bryant & May, # 4)

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