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Ancient Images

3.43 of 5 stars 3.43 · rating details · 330 ratings · 39 reviews

Mass Market Paperback, 320 pages
Published June 15th 1990 by Tor Books (first published 1989)
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Ancient Images

A colleague's violent death and its apparent cause--a stolen copy of an old, never-released Karloff/Lugosi film--set film editor Sandy Allan on the trail of the film's origins and history. Mystery surrounds the movie, and as Sandy learns of the tragedies...more

Mass Market Paperback, 320 pages

Published June 15th 1990 by Tor Books (first published June 13th 1989)

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Jul 21, 2010 Nick rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: gothic

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May 03, 2012 Colin Leslie rated it 3 of 5 stars

The arrival of Don D'auria (ex leisure books) at Samhain Publishing has seen the beginning of an exciting new line of interesting horror including several books by Ramsey Campbell. The combination of new writing and the re-release of some older titles will give a new generation easy access to Campbell's earlier work but how does it stand up in comparison to his more recent writing.

The plot of Ancient Images revolves around the discovery of a "lost" film starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Wh...more The arrival of Don D'auria (ex leisure books) at Samhain Publishing has seen the beginning of an exciting new line of interesting horror including several books by Ramsey Campbell. The combination of new writing and the re-release of some older titles will give a new generation easy access to Campbell's earlier work but how does it stand up in comparison to his more recent writing.

The plot of Ancient Images revolves around the discovery of a "lost" film starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. When Sandy Allan's friend tracks down a copy and invites her to a private screening she jumps at the chance, but this film holds a darker secret and following a tragic accident (or was it?) at the screening, Sandy begins to explore it's real history. What she discovers is a tangled connection to ancient pagan practices centred around the Redfield estate and the dangers still associated with it. The danger becomes ever more real as those around her and those involved in the film get caught up in a series of tragic events.

Ancient Images is a good horror novel but despite being a Stoker winner when first published, I found its mix of themes diluted rather than added to the threats. The strongest elements here relate to the ancient threat and its connection with the film but this is diluted somewhat by additional themes such as the new age travelers and romantic interludes which dominate proceedings at certain points.

The ending is also rather disappointing and the book doesn't seem to address some of the plot points it raises at the beginning. The writing is enjoyable and pacy throughout and very few people can create a threatening atmosphere as well as Ramsey Campbell but ultimately, this book is merely good rather than great. As an introduction to Campbell's writing it works but as an example of his best you should probably look elsewhere (The Grin of The Dark has a similar theme but is much more powerful). A fine slice of eighties style horror but there are much better examples of Ramsey Campbell's greatness many of which I hope to review soon.(less)

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Mar 23, 2012 Kevin Lucia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Oxford Companion to English literature calls Ramsey Campbell Britain's "most respected living horror writer", and Ancient Images, a Samhain Publishing re-print of one of Campbell's earlier novels, bears excellent testimony to this assertion. As with all of Campbell's works, the prose is smooth, his attention to detail immaculate, and the tension winds tighter and tighter as the story progresses.

Campbell's pacing is also excellent, as he slowly builds a solid foundation upon which to sprint...more The Oxford Companion to English literature calls Ramsey Campbell Britain's "most respected living horror writer", and Ancient Images, a Samhain Publishing re-print of one of Campbell's earlier novels, bears excellent testimony to this assertion. As with all of Campbell's works, the prose is smooth, his attention to detail immaculate, and the tension winds tighter and tighter as the story progresses.

Campbell's pacing is also excellent, as he slowly builds a solid foundation upon which to sprint toward the novel's end. An enthralling read, one that evokes very primal emotions - fear of the dark, of isolation, and of the things we can't see moving in the shadows, hiding just beyond the light's reach.

After her friend and co-worker dies under mysterious circumstances, film editor Sandy Allen embarks upon a quest to unearth a mythic film, a lost horror-movie starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. It was this film she was to screen with her friend the night of his death, and, much as she can't prove it, Sandy can't shake the feeling that her friend died BECAUSE of this film... and not just because someone killed her friend to steal the lost film.

But because the film itself brought death to him.

Every step Sandy takes closer to the film's secrets - interviewing retired actors, camera men, descendents of those involved in the film's production - Sandy senses something drawing closer to her. Shadows become figures dogging her steps at night. Windblown branches claw at her windows like talons. And when Sandy is finally drawn to the small community whose history provided the basis for the film, Redfield - a harvest community whose past is drenched in bloodshed - Sandy realizes she may have stumbled upon an ages-old power that will not only do anything to cover its tracks....

But will also kill to continue its legacy.

For Redfield's rich soil is thirsty, once again. It demands to be sated. And just about anyone's blood will do.

Horror comes in many shapes and sizes, and the genre's big enough for all kinds of tastes, but it's always refreshing to know there still exists writers like Campbell, who can invoke fear simply through the power of excellent story-telling, through emotional cues, creating psychological disquiet subtly, with great care and restraint. And this is also a nice homage to movies and the enduring power of their stories and images, how they preserve things...as well as a haunting concept.

That maybe some things shouldn't be preserved at all.(less)

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Jan 05, 2013 Patrick rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was my first encounter with Ramsey Campbell, a writer whose work I’ve been drawn to following a number of citations of him from other writers I admire. And I really, really enjoyed reading this, and am now quite eager to read his other stuff. I’ve noted before on here how much I enjoy what might be considered fairly trashy horror fiction, but if this novel is anything to go by, Campbell ought to occupy a much more prominent status in modern literature (not just genre fiction) than he curren...more This was my first encounter with Ramsey Campbell, a writer whose work I’ve been drawn to following a number of citations of him from other writers I admire. And I really, really enjoyed reading this, and am now quite eager to read his other stuff. I’ve noted before on here how much I enjoy what might be considered fairly trashy horror fiction, but if this novel is anything to go by, Campbell ought to occupy a much more prominent status in modern literature (not just genre fiction) than he currently does.

The plot revolves around a lost film starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff; made in Britain in the 1930’s, it was never released and virtually disappeared after the death of its director in mysterious circumstances. In the book, a print of the film emerges, but quickly vanishes again after the grisly suicide of the man who discovers it, and the novel follows the efforts of film editor Sandy Allen to track down the origins of the movie, and to discover what really happened to the man who made it.

The book is written (and set) in the late 1980’s, with the whole ‘video nasties’ horror movie scare very much lurking in the background. But there are also frequent references to an earlier moral panic of the 1930’s, when the first horror films first scandalised the establishment and effectively forced the creation of a government-subsidised film industry for films made in (and about) Britain.

And yet despite the modern setting, it’s very much a careful, toned-down horror story in the vein of writers much older than Campbell. The novel actually goes to some lengths to distance itself from the contemporary tendency towards lashings of gore and increasingly spectacular effects. The author is a master at the art of undercutting an apparently normal scene with a subtly unsettling touch: a shadow where there was none before; the sound of footsteps in the hallway outside; a lingering glimpse of a dark figure at the side of the road. Campbell has described his own work as a ‘comedy of paranoia’, which perfectly describes what occurs here, though it certainly couldn’t be called a comedy in any conventional sense. The whole thing has a deeply dreary atmosphere of modernity, one that reminded me somewhat of the later novels of J.G. Ballard in its oppressive vision of Britain.

I don’t expect that everyone will like this book, and I suppose many will object to the fact that the central conceit of the novel is never properly explained. Even though the reader does get to ‘see’ the film in its entirety, the links between it and the unsettling events of the plot remain somewhat obscure. Yes, in some ways it rushes towards a conclusion which feels uncertain and altogether too abrupt, but I didn’t much care: for me, enjoying this book was about entering the uncanny ambience of the author’s world. I hope I get to go back there soon.(less)

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Oct 22, 2011 Alisa Hedden rated it 4 of 5 stars

We have a film that doesn’t exist (really, but easily could have) the censorship of horror films that occurred in Britain and a family curse (that the family doesn’t really know the extent of). Unfortunately the family curse does come with a blessing for the family and all the people dependent upon them. After all, the sacrifice isn’t every year, or even every generation. This also begs the question, what would you do to defend a dead friend’s honor? What sacrifice would you make, what danger wo...more

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Oct 02, 2011 Jason rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2011

I liked the part where nothing happened for 280 pages and then everything that did happen was really stupid and happened for no reason.

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Jan 18, 2013 Randolph Carter rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, horror

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This really wasn't up to Campbell's usual standards and I was surprised. Other than the early apparent suicide of Graham Nolan and presumably a flashback to an earlier death from a car accident (and something else), which both happen in the first 50 pages, nothing much frightening happens in this book. Campbell attempts to build a disturbing atmosphere with vague suggestions that also telegraph all too well what WILL happen in the last 20 pages, but it never works. The confrontation by Sandy wit...more This really wasn't up to Campbell's usual standards and I was surprised. Other than the early apparent suicide of Graham Nolan and presumably a flashback to an earlier death from a car accident (and something else), which both happen in the first 50 pages, nothing much frightening happens in this book. Campbell attempts to build a disturbing atmosphere with vague suggestions that also telegraph all too well what WILL happen in the last 20 pages, but it never works. The confrontation by Sandy with the townspeople, which ultimately leads to nothing, is the only mildly menacing scene. He doesn't even use the incident of the crippled Roger alone dumped at the side of the road to do anything. The final monster(s) and brooding evil turn out to be fairly easy to thwart. The ultimate film screening is a big nothing as well.

The premise is also preposterous: a "lost" and suppressed British film called Tower of Fear starring Lugosi and Karloff and a famous director that nobody except a few film buffs seems to know anything about or even knows still exists. It was supposedly suppressed suggestively for being too disturbing (its not it turns out, just personally offensive to one British family and a little prosperous, but deadly, town). The director is considered to be some type of James Whale or Tod Browning type who dies mysteriously in a car crash after the film is made. This is what the flashback presumably is, although a monster supposedly devours whats left of him after the crash, so the death should be more mysterious and notorious than it is actually considered.

This flimsy premise of the novel takes its story from the actually lost silent Lon Chaney Sr. vehicle London After Midnight. Real life people who have actually seen London After Midnight, despite still photographs of Chaney's truly demonic appearance, say the entire film is so laughably silly that it would be considered comic by today's standards. Campbell throws in his usual hippie flourish with the Enoch and his roving pariah caravan tribe looking for a place that will "accept them." There is also an early theme about the rampant meaningless violence, grue, and its sinister adherents in current (for 1989) film and media which is abandoned after the first quarter of the novel; never developed or used again. It was like Campbell just didn't know where to go with it but decided to leave it in as a little social commentary.

Campbell is usually a master of urban horror but the bucolic and only vaguely menacing rural setting for the novel never lets him apply what he is best at. I got the feeling Campbell wanted to try something altogether different, but it ultimately fails.

This is no place to start (but maybe a place to end) with the usually excellent Campbell.(less)

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Nov 15, 2012 Allana rated it 3 of 5 stars

Ancient Images is the first Ramsey Campbell story I have read and I was wondering how I would take to this well-known, British Horror author.

As it turned out, I found the book an enjoyable read. A little unchallenging, but nevertheless with an interesting plot line.

We follow the main character in her quest to discover an old horror film which was never released. She feels that in some way the film, or the mystery surrounding it, has been the cause of the death of her friend - the only man though...more Ancient Images is the first Ramsey Campbell story I have read and I was wondering how I would take to this well-known, British Horror author.

As it turned out, I found the book an enjoyable read. A little unchallenging, but nevertheless with an interesting plot line.

We follow the main character in her quest to discover an old horror film which was never released. She feels that in some way the film, or the mystery surrounding it, has been the cause of the death of her friend - the only man thought to have discovered a copy of the film and about to show it before his mysterious and untimely death.

Without giving away any more of the plot, the story is set in the late 1980's and the film (the subject of the book) was made in the 1930's. Both of these times are significant in their antipathy towards horror movies. In the after-word of the re-published version of Ancient Images, Campbell talks about this relationship and also about how certain things rather date the story.

For example, a great deal of the plot is taken up with the heroine trying to contact people by telephone. In the days before mobiles this was a tiresome task and led to uncertainty and in the heroine's case put her life at risk at times. All this would be irrelevant today.

As a horror story, Ancient Images is not a blood and gore type horror, although there is plenty of blood in it. Its main emphasis is on what we don't quite see - what is hiding in the shadows - and it does this very well (although on a couple of occasions I felt like yelling at the MC 'for heaven's sake, surely by now you must think something is following you around', as she took an awfully long time to realise that she was in danger).

There are a couple of places in the book where the creepiness builds up and up until we see the horror and, although we have been waiting for it, it is still a shock when it finally appears. So, in this sense, there are a couple of excellent places which should make you jump.

Ramsey Campbell appears to be a very 'English' type of author of the old 'gentlemanly' style. He doesn't spare us, but he likes to treat his characters with respect. I found this quite endearing.

After reading Ancient Images I will read more Ramsey Campbell books (although I have been told this is one of his better works). They are not something I 'must' read right now, but when I want to read an easy-to-read, quite relaxing horror story (a strange mixture, I know :)), then I will look up Campbells' work again.

I gave this story 3 stars, because, although I enjoyed it, it didn't make me want to go out and read another Campbell book immediately, but later on, I definitely will.
For me, it was that kind of book. :) (less)

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Feb 06, 2013 Andrew rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The set up for this book is excellent – a long-lost horror movie starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff surfaces only to be censored by people and forces desperate for it to remain forgotten. Why? And to what lengths will they go to keep it quiet? A mysterious death befalls the finder of the movie reel, and it’s left to his close friend to continue the crusade in his memory. Throughout the book there is a tremendous sense of foreboding, of shadows watching just out of sight. The tension is palpa...more The set up for this book is excellent – a long-lost horror movie starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff surfaces only to be censored by people and forces desperate for it to remain forgotten. Why? And to what lengths will they go to keep it quiet? A mysterious death befalls the finder of the movie reel, and it’s left to his close friend to continue the crusade in his memory. Throughout the book there is a tremendous sense of foreboding, of shadows watching just out of sight. The tension is palpable as the plot moves along. It’s a slow burn but an enjoyable one. The atmosphere is really the highlight of the book. Our intrepid crusader, Sandy, travels around England following different leads, interviewing people involved in the film, piecing together where the stolen movie could be. The people she meets are interesting. Conversations with these characters about the movie and their usually hostile reactions to it are the most fascinating interactions in the book. I really liked the idea of the missing movie reel. While tracking the movie our heroine travels to the town of Redfield, which has more than its fair share of Wicker Man-esque, ‘we don’t like strangers ’round here‘ pagan villager types. The main characters are likeable enough, but the relationship between Sandy and her new-found writer boyfriend doesn’t really come off. He is the one character who comes across as bland. The forces opposing the surfacing of the film reel are a mixture of powerful old aristocracy, corporate wealth and a supernatural agent.

The tension of the plot builds as Sandy gets closer to finding out what’s on the film reel that everyone is so desperate to repress. Unfortunately, the almighty climax that I was expecting didn’t really materialize. The final conflict was minor. The main antagonist died rather boringly and not at the hand of the heroine. The supernatural never really had the impact I felt it should have and questions were left unanswered. The book ended too soon, failing to provide a satisfying resolution. For me, some of the surprise at the abruptness of the climax and the subsequent ending came from the fact that I was reading the eBook and the page numbers assured me I still had 70 pages to go. Unfortunately, those 70 pages were author notes and an excerpt from The Seven Days of Cain. Don’t you hate it when they do that? The book is low on deaths, low on scares and low on gore, but high on tension and atmosphere.

Overall, it’s not a bad book. I just have the sense that after such a gripping build up it could have been so much more.
(less)

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Mar 19, 2011 Bandit rated it 5 of 5 stars

I wanted a change of pace from blood guts and gore of last week's Deathbringer, so I picked up Ancient Images, which has sat on my TBR list for a long long time. This is only my second book by Campbell, first one was Overnight, which has left me interested in the writer, but not overall impressed by the book. Ancient Images "wowed" me. I could barely put it down, the San Francisco Chronicle claims on the book cover that it's to be read in one sitting, took me 4 days on and off(life kept getting...more

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Jun 21, 2012 Isidore rated it 3 of 5 stars

A tight, well-constructed novel, and for once Campbell's trademark barely-glimpsed-inhumanly-thin scarecrow-figures are actually integrated into the plot. But I do feel that Campbell developed some of the ideas and themes of this book with greater skill in later novels; this relatively early effort seems sketchy by comparison. The idea of strange horrors preserved in elusive old films is revisited with much greater effect in THE GRIN OF THE DARK, for example.

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Aug 13, 2012 proXy124c41 rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Never before have I been let down by a novel's delivery as severely as I have been here. This novel is absolutely rife with cliché suspense and unimaginative plot devices.

At times I had to flip back to the front cover to assure myself that what I reading was indeed the product of a well respected author's hand. The superficial suspense created by the cat-and-mouse game between protagonist and persuer had me throwing the book against the wall in annoyance. You thought you saw something but it tur...more

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Oct 25, 2009 Jim rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 03, 2013 Sharon Hattingh rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle-reading

This was such a wonderful story.....but definitely NOT for the fainthearted at all! Although its been written many years ago and reflects the politics of the 1980's, I still found it a refreshing take on legend and history. The constant suggestion of 'something' lurking in the shadows had me look over my shoulder more than once. A very clever book and I'll gladly suggest it to fellow horror fanatics.

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Jul 26, 2012 Bill rated it 2 of 5 stars

I just finished reading this book and I am not entirely sure what I think of it. I did like it I guess – but thought it could have been much more. There were parts of the story that I felt could take off and get pretty intense and then they just kind of petered out. The story was a little disjointed - sinister corporation, ancient ritual, lost cursed film, historical fiction etc. and the ending was a bit abrupt. Maybe I was just expecting too much but the story appeared all over the place and ne...more

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Apr 18, 2012 Suzanne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am so glad I do not have to drive anywhere tonight! I love Ramsey Campbell's "what's that hiding in the shadows?" horror. His stuff is just so organic and textured. He is one of the few authors I read that can make me actually smell something. I squealed aloud numerous times during this book. Spooky!

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Sep 30, 2012 Deborah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Hmmm, what to say. it kept me reading, but it was a little dramatic and sometimes boring because Campbell spent too much time building the suspense. It was also fairly predictable, but not a bad read for a free book from Bookbub.com.

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Mar 13, 2013 Amanda rated it 1 of 5 stars

UK humor and slang with American pop culture references. Confusing and too much back story to bother with. I suggest that you avoid this book unless you are a film student with a desire to waste a couple of hours.

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May 13, 2011 Adam Wilson rated it 2 of 5 stars

Ancient Images is not my first Campbell read, but it is the first one I have managed to finish. I thought this novel had a lot of good ideas but overall was a mess of everything it was trying to do. I love the idea of trying to track down a surpressed film from the thirties and finding out why it was hidden but then weird monster/creatures get involved, ancient rituals, and I just didn’t really care about much of it. The plot totally lost me after the first half of the book and I had to force my...more

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Sep 07, 2011 Tamera rated it 3 of 5 stars

interesting premise, but deeper exploration of the redfield family history/background with flashbacks would've been much more interesting. ending was too easily wrapped up.

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Dec 09, 2012 Terry Skinner rated it 1 of 5 stars

England... a woman driving around in a car... a woman who can't quit thinking about useless stuff... for pages and pages and pages. Oh, and there are scarecrows. Shrug.

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Sep 18, 2011 Wil rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: gym

A slightly entertaining story about a 'banned' Lugosi and Karloff film. Not incredibly imaginative, but it did make my hair rise a time or two.

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Feb 19, 2013 Joe Noir rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is without a doubt the most atmospheric horror novel I've ever read.

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May 25, 2012 Katherine rated it 3 of 5 stars

It was ok..I felt a little drawn out and sometimes confusing..but it was free and not a bad read

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May 25, 2012 Mars rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime, horror-thriller, read-in-2012

This was a wonderfully creepy book, done so very subtly - no graphic gory messes or obvious horror. I loved it. I also enjoyed learning about classic British horror films (though I admit, I expected ancient Egypt to be the topic, based on the title and author's name).

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Nov 27, 2012 Mika Lietzén rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

An enjoyable read with good ideas that unfortunately never quite came together.

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Jan 21, 2012 Jackie Simpson rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery

Horror movie mystery with pagan english village - spooky

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Aug 13, 2011 Tara Wowra rated it 1 of 5 stars

If I could give this book negative stars I would.

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Oct 24, 2010 Abby rated it 3 of 5 stars

Good Halloween book!

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Jan 02, 2013 Wendy rated it 4 of 5 stars

This story has a lot of interesting and vivid descriptive language. Some of the unusual choice of words really intrigued me and kept my reading. The actual horror story had me hooked. Lots of strange stuff with shadowy creatures from old films woven in and out of the mystery. I liked the mixture of film, history, creepy English villages and village folk plus ancient family secrets. I wasn't all that thrilled with the ending, but than, it's often hard to wrap up so many loose ends.

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About Ramsey Campbell

John Ramsey Campbell is a British writer considered by a number of critics to be one of the great masters of horror fiction. T. E. D. Klein has written that "Campbell reigns supreme in the field today," while S. T. Joshi has said that "future generations will regard him as the leading horror writer of our generation, every bit the equal of Lovecraft or Blackwood."

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Books by Ramsey Campbell

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