John Rozum's Blog, page 40

31 Days of Halloween - Day 11

Guillermo del Toro's The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth - Studies in the Horror Film  edited by Danel Olson

Centipede Press. 2016.

Part of Centipede Press' Studies in the Horror film series, this book is a collection of essays and interviews pertaining to the pair of Guillermo del Toro's outstanding fantasy films set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War. As someone who finds that dry academic analysis of anything tends to tell more about the pomposity of the writer than the subject, I'm happy to report that the analytical essays here are informative and insightful and only one of them crosses the line into going into intellectual grandstanding, but even that essay had its moments. The interviews with various cast and crew members from both films, along with a group with del Toro himself were also insightful both to art of filmmaking and the construction of character and story. Recommended.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 10

Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth - edited by Stephen Jones
Titan Books. 2013.

This is the second of a trilogy of anthologies edited by Jones based around "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" by H.P. Lovecraft. This volume is an improvement over its predecessor, which was filled with stories that were fine tributes on their own, but lacked enough diversity between them to make anything other than monotonous reading when taken one right after the other. The short stories which make up Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth, while all derived from elements of Lovecraft's tale, vary in content enough that they avoid the redundancy that occurred in the first volume, and to be honest, most of the stories here are of a better quality. It's actually nice to see the range of stories that were created out of elements from the same source material and to feel like there is still enough left over for further stories which means I will be picking up the third volume. If you are a fan of Lovecraft, or Weird fiction in general this is worth picking up.






 

31 Days of Halloween - Day 9

Memento Mori by Paul Koudounaris
Thames & Hudson. 2015

From ossuaries to Catholic mummies, Bolivian ˜Natitas, to gilded skulls, and fully dressed skeletons, photographer, Paul Koudounaris, a specialist in the culture of death takes us on a world tour of places where the remains of the dead are still part of the day to day culture and customs of the living. The photographs are exquisite, and the text informative. Like his two previous books (The Empire of Death and Heavenly Bodies), Memento Mori is a must have.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 8

Roy Thomas Presents Frankenstein - The Classic Series Written and Drawn by Dick Briefer Volume 3
PS Publishing. 2014.

Cartoonist Dick Briefer had previously crafted a comic book series starring a gruesome and often violent version of the Frankenstein Monster, but this volume (the first actually published in this series of collected reprints) presents a less horrifying, friendly, gentle monster who serves as the occasional protector of the town of Mippyville from an assortment of weird and malicious supernatural foes and criminals. While this is a humor book, there are some pretty dark images and character designs and some gruesome deaths. This is a very entertaining collection of stories.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 7

Witches & Warlocks - Marvin Kaye, editor.
Guild America Books. 1989.

I've already written about a couple other anthologies edited by Marvin Kaye in Halloween Countdown's past. This one, centered around witches and warlocks, obviously, is varied enough in its content that it never becomes monotonous. Like any collection, there are going to be some stories more outstanding than others, and this is no exception, only here there are far more hits, and no outright duds. All of this beneath a gorgeous wrap around cover by Edward Gorey ( a print of which adorns one of the walls in my home).

31 Days of Halloween - Day 6

The Witch of Lime Street by David Jaher
Crown. 2015.

In the 1920s, in the wake of World War I, Spiritualism boomed in popularity as people yearned to know that their lost sons and husbands continued to exist after death, and hoped that they could still communicate with their loved ones. Drawn to believe in Spiritualism was celebrated author, Arthur Conan Doyle, following the death of his own son. Drawn to Spiritualism with a desire to find proof that it was real, and not a sham, was Houdini, who longed to communicate with his dear mother.

Houdini spent a lot of his time traveling and debunking mediums everywhere he went, often with great ease. Then along came Mina Stinson Crandon, a Boston woman, known to the world as "Margery" who was skilled enough in her performance that a scientific inquiry into the validity of her claims to communicate with spirits was about to declare her the genuine thing. Houdini didn't believe it though, and his efforts to prove her claims false proved to be problematic.

Jaher's book covers a fascinating rivalry with real drama and intrigue. My only quibble is that much of the material is presented without specific dates, making the timing of events difficult to keep track of, especially when there are a few points where the story jumps back and forth in time. Otherwise this was an interesting reading experience.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 5

The Art of Horror - edited by Stephen Jones
Applause Theater and Cinema Books. 2015.

While many would argue that horror works best when letting the reader imagine the horrors themselves, the genre has inspired artwork going back to the dawn of time. Divided into sections by theme - Vampires, Werewolves, Ghosts, Witches, Lovecraft, Giant Monsters, etc., accompanied by an informative text by a panel of experts, this books displays a range of fantastic imagery from pulp illustrations to modern digital paintings, all of them glorious and beautifully presented.

There is no way that a single book can thoroughly cover the subject matter, but this is a great start and it allowed me to finally put the names of the artists to a number of images that have haunted me for years. I would have preferred less devotion to movie posters, as central an element to the theme of fine art and horror as they might be, but perhaps a follow up volume will appear that will fill in some of the gaps and expand the range of material and artists covered. This is really an excellent book and is a must have for any fan of the genre.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 4

Slade House by David Mitchell
Random House. 2015.


Beyond an obscure iron door set in the wall of a hard to find alley, lies Slade House. Every nine years, its residents lure in a special person in order to devour their souls in order to extend their own lives. Fascinating characters, strange hallucinatory imagery, a sense of dread and fascination, and beautiful writing, make this a book that's almost impossible to put down. Captivating in every sense, Slade House lures you in and refuses to let you go, just like one of its victims.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 3

Snowblind - by Christopher Golden
St. Martin's Press. 2014.

During a terrible winter storm, eighteen citizens of Coventry, Massachusetts meet their end. There are  a number of rational explanations given, but the truth, as one of them knows from witnessing one of the deaths first hand, is that there are terrifying creatures in the snow. Nearly invisible, icy bogeymen which are one with the storm, pulled and propelled through the gusts of snowy wind.

Every Winter since, the citizens of Coventry are made uneasy with every heavy snowfall. Twelve Years after the mysterious deaths, another big winter storm is on its way, and the survivors, those who were most directly touched by the deaths, find themselves in the midst of fresh supernatural manifestations, as they prepare for the return of the murderous ice creatures.


This is the perfect book to read against the backdrop of an actual blizzard, especially if you live in New England. Golden perfectly captures the weight and intensity of being caught in a blizzard and amplifies that with the addition of his wraithlike ice creatures. The book is eerie and tense with dread, but also moving as the varied characters cope with loss and the way their own lives turned out after the deaths from the initial assault. I read the first half of this book in one sitting as a blizzard raged beyond the window behind me, and finished it two days later when we were hit again by an even bigger winter storm.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 2

Haunted Castles by Ray Russell
Penguin Books. 2013.


Haunted Castles collects seven short stories by former Playboy fiction editor, and screenwriter, Ray Russell. The stories included are the loosely linked trilogy, Sardonicus, Sagittarius, and Sanguinarius, as well as Comet Wine, The Runaway Lovers, The Vendetta, and The Cage. Russell is a master of the modern Gothic, mixing in a gleefully cruel streak akin to the Grand Guinol. Twisted, more than twist endings are to be found here. This is a perfect collection for the season from this underrated writer.

As a bonus, the book comes with a special introduction from Guillermo Del Toro which is no mere fluff piece from a name genre director, but an insightful look into this (and the other five volumes in this set of horror masterpieces that Del Toro oversaw [see the links below]) collection, showing that Del Toro has explored the deepest recesses of horror and fantasy.