In response to Joseph’s revelations about those times when he has been seriously freaked out by horror books and movies etc, here are a few of my own experiences (I should just say that there may be one or two spoilers in what follows – you have been warned!):
1. I remember, at the tender age of nine, creeping into the living room to watch a movie the Beeb had trailed earlier that evening. It was one of those 1970s made-for-TV affairs – a real gem, as I remember it, with the same quaint production values, great actors, terrific script and direction that marked out Speilberg’s own movie-of-the-week debut, ‘Duel’. It was well past my bedtime, and so I had the volume turned down low. Huddled in my duvet, I watched this story about a young couple who take a vacation in the hope of rebuilding their marriage. They pitch up at a farmhouse where the wife begins to have weird dreams about the bloody past of this patch of New England. Turns out they sacrificed witches here, don’t you know. Anyway, there’s a scene which haunted me for years afterwards: the young wife is placed beneath a board while the townsfolk, including her now deranged husband, pile rocks on top. Slowly the screaming woman is crushed to death. This kooky old movie must have had a big effect on me because, years later, I reference it twice in ‘Through A Glass, Darkly’. Jamie Howard has seen the movie and discusses it with Jack. And check out the film’s title – ‘Crowhaven Farm’ – ring any bells?
2. Just as the last scene of ‘Crowhaven Farm’ has haunted me, so the final image of ‘The Wicker Man’ continues to chill me to the bone. I heard an interview recently with the comedy group, The League of Gentlemen. Anyone who has seen their work cannot fail to realise the impact ‘The Wicker Man’ has had upon the gents (‘You did it beautifully, Tubs!’). I think it was Reece Shearsmith who pointed out that, even after multiple viewings, you still long for a police helicopter to appear on the horizon and rescue Edward Woodward’s Sergeant Howie from his horrible fate. Of course, getting the cop out would have been a major cop-out! It is a testament to the terrifying, primal power of this film, however, that we want the puritanical and priggish Howie to live. But the crops must not be allowed to fail…
3. MR James is the greatest writer of the ghost story. I will have words with anyone who says I’m wrong (although I’ve always had a soft spot for Robert Aickman’s ‘strange stories’ too). Sir John Betjeman loved MR James, and Betjeman knew his onions when it comes to the creepiness of the East Anglian Fens. I still get goosebumps whenever I read ‘Oh Whistle And I’ll Come To You, My Lad’ – and I know the story backwards. I live on a similar coastline to that described in ‘Oh Whistle…’ and, whenever I walk it alone, I always look back to see if a dark figure is following me – a shadowy presence getting closer, closer…
4. When I was quite young my dad took me up West to see a play. I was an uncouth youth and the idea of sitting through a couple of hours of two actors talking wasn’t my idea of a Saturday night. The play was Susan Hill’s ‘The Woman in Black’, masterfully adapted by Stephen Mallatratt. It is an utterly spellbinding piece of work that reminds us that horror doesn’t have to be all blood and guts. A simple scream echoing across the marshes can instil nightmares Freddie Kruger could only dream of. Seventeen years later the play is still haunting London’s Fortune Theatre.
5. ‘Salem’s Lot’. I read it when I was twelve years old. It is, quite simply, the 20th Century’s ‘Dracula’.
6. Stephen King opens ‘Salems Lot’ with a quotation from Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Haunting of Hill House’. He admires Jackson because ‘she never had to shout’. Hill House is, in my opinion, the greatest haunted house novel ever written. A subtle and psychologically complex horror story that is full of poetry and imagery that lingers in the dark corridors of the mind. Here’s a bit of the opening – get reader to shudder!
“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.”
This was a fun idea. I think I’m going to have to write a Part Two!
October 13th, 2008
Garry Charles is a horror writer, interviewer and reviewer. His first novel ‘Heaven’s Falling: Volume 1: Ascension’ was published by Hadesgate Publications in September 2005 and was quickly followed by a sequel entitled ‘Redemption’, and has been compared to the final part of Stephen King’s ‘The Dark Tower’ series. More information about Garry and his writing can be found at his website at www.garrycharles.co.uk
Bill Hussey: Hi Garry – good of you to join the damned and lonesome souls here at Horror Reanimated. Let’s kick off with your earliest memories of the horror genre. Can you trace back to the moment when the horror bug crawled under your skin and laid eggs in your brain?
Garry Charles: Hi Bill, nice of you to ask me over. Now where’s the tea and cakes you promised?
My earliest memories of Horror – at least what I found scary back then – was watching the old sci-fi movies on BBC2. You know, stuff like INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, IT CAME FROM OUT OF SPACE and THEM! I was probably only nine or ten, but I loved the aspect of being scared even back then.
Then I moved onto real horror movies, watching DARIO ARGENTO’S INFERNO when I was about eleven. Now that scared the shit of me but I was hooked and followed it up with classics like THE OMEN, HELL NIGHT and BLACK CHRISTMAS (Hell, I still can’t enter an attic without a shiver running down my spine).
I’d always enjoyed reading but only started reading horror as I entered the teenage years. I read anything and everything I could get my hands on from the Library, amazed that a kid could walk out the door with a book that contained graphic depictions of death and sex…. Fucking awesome times!!!
BH: Agreed. Long may librarians continue turning a blind eye! I fear for young horror fans if these dreadful age advisory stickers start appearing on library books. Anyway, I’ll just climb down from my soapbox for a moment. Tell me, when did you start writing, and did you kick-off with dark fiction?
GC: The first thing I ever wrote was in the last year of primary school. I stole an exercise book and filled it from front cover to back with the terror filled tale THE RADIOACTIVE CREAM CAKE. Yes, that cake came alive and began eating people. I wish I still had it knocking about somewhere. Who knows I might write it again for an adult market.
Can you imagine the tagline?
“It will make you cream until you die”
“You won’t want to lick this icing, but it wants to lick you.”
I followed that up with a few short stories over the years and started a novel entitled LOGAN’S LEGACY. I reached about page sixty and just as many people had died. Not the most mature of stories.
All of these went missing during a house move a few years back. Oh well, that’s life.
BH: Have you been tempted by any other genres?
GC: Yes, other genres do interest me. I’m dabbling with sci-fi and I am tempted to try my hand at a real life comedy based around my time working down the coal mines. Not sure if it would work, but one day I’ll give it a go.
BH: Tell me, who were your early horror influences?
GC: Early influences – or, as I prefer to call them inspirations – would include GUY N SMITH, SHAUN HUTSON, RICHARD LAYMON, F. PAUL WILSON, CLIVE BARKER, GRAHAM MASTERTON and JAMES HERBERT.
BH: Do you consider any new horror writers up there with those guys?
GC: There are plenty of new writers emerging on the scene today who should be destined for great things: STEPHEN ROMANO, JEFF STRAND, BRIAN KEENE and FRAN FRIEL from the states are all must reads.
The UK also has its fair share with the likes of C J LINES, RAKIE KEIG, SHAUN JEFFERY and then there’s these two other guys that write a blog on some website or other. God, their debut novels were great, but I’ll be buggered if I can remember their names (laughs).
BH: A related question: you can go back in time and talk to one dead horror/dark fantasy writer. Who would it be and what would you ask?
GC: RICHARD LAYMON and I would ask him to have a word with his estate and allow me to finish off one of his unfinished novels. Just because it would be great to see my name on the cover of the same book as his.
And you were hoping for something deep and meaningful. Well, that’s me… a shallow fucker.
BH: Reading interviews you’ve conducted with other horror writers, I’ve noticed an admirable ability on your part to cut through the BS so often associated with the business of writing. Therefore, at the risk of you telling me to f**k off, what is your attitude to ‘the craft’? How do you go about researching, planning and writing a new project? And can you give us any tricks of the trade you’ve picked up?
GC: Thanks for the compliment. My previous interviews – whether as interviewer or interviewee – have usually caused some people to get riled. It’s usually because my intentions are misconstrued and/or misread. I’ll try to be as clear as I can for the remainder of this interview.
‘THE CRAFT’ I thought it was a great movie. Who can argue with school girls with magic powers?
But, seriously… I would say my attitude is one of laid back calmness. I have fun whilst writing, telling myself a new story for the first time. I don’t plan things out. I have an idea for a start and – most times – an ending. Then I let the rest just tell the tale as I go along. I like to surprise myself.
When it comes to research I’m a real lazy bastard. If I want something in a story I will do a quick Google search. If I can find what I’m looking for and it works then great. If I can’t find it then I tend to think ‘Fuck it. It’s only fiction’.
Though I did do quite a lot of research for Heaven’s Falling. Only problem was I did it after I’d finished writing the bloody thing. Luckily my religious knowledge ain’t too shabby and most of it worked out quite well.
As to tips. Just write what you have in your head. If the seed of a tale is there you’ll find that you can write it. Then you have to grow a thick skin and hope that people like what you’ve done.
BH: Another related question: in your interview with Shaun Hutson (informative and hilarious!) you both profess a dislike for the navel-gazing, self-aggrandising writer. What is it that particularly bugs you about this kind of writer’s attitude to writing, the genre and their position within it?
GC: Self absorbed! The lot of them!
They walk around as if they own the writing world, spouting gobshite about how only literary horror fiction can save the genre and how all these continuously mass released writers are unworthy of being published.
If they could just pull their heads out of their arses and wipe the shit from their eyes they might just see that when they slag off such writers they are – for all intents and purposes – slagging off the thousands of readers who keep those writers in business. This is the horror audience and they are alienating them.
Mass reading audiences want to be entertained when they read. If they are reading horror they want to be entertained, scared and maybe horrified. They want pace and a story line that drags them along and gives them a satisfying conclusion. They don’t want some poncy twat taking up pages and pages describing how foreboding a piece of peeling wallpaper is or just how dark, heavy and pendulous the clouds are only to shy away from the horror just as it’s about to arrive.
Yes, there is a place for literary horror fiction, but it isn’t the be all and end all of the genre. Not by a long shot.
BH: Like you, I’m particularly irritated by those who look down their noses at so-called ‘splatter horror’. To my mind horror should not be judged by its gore content but by the quality of the writing and the merit of the story. In fact, it seems crazy that a genre already under attack from other literary fields should turn on itself. Horror writers should support each other. What are your thoughts on this kind of snobbery?
GC: It’s fucking ridiculous. At the end of the day it’s all about the story. Hell, if you believe the hype from the snobbish types it can’t be about the quality or we wouldn’t see some of the names on the shelves that we do.
You take FILTH KISS by C J LINES. It is one of the most beautifully written books I have ever had the pleasure to read yet, at the same time, it is probably one of the most stomach churning. Because of this it will be sneered upon by others who find this kind of thing degrading to the genre.
I think this kind of snobbery should be ignored. For too long I let it annoy me but now I turn the other cheek and give them a sly finger and chuckle at their schoolyard behaviour.
Some of the newer writers and publishers surfacing at the moment have seen how this snobbery and class divide has damaged the genre and I can see them making different decisions and appearing more open to cooperation. This is a good thing and I take my hat off to them. They are the way forward.
BH: Your books, especially the Heaven’s Falling sequence, have dealt with mythical horrors. Would you consider writing a more domestic kind of horror novel, dealing with more personal terrors?
GC: I find myself drawn more towards the fantastical side of horror, I find it more entertaining. We see enough domestic horror in the news everyday so I feel I don’t need to write about it. I want my fiction to be just that, nothing more and nothing less. If I entertain a few readers, then great. If I scare them, even better. So long as they enjoy the trip.
BH: Horror seemed to be in the publishing doldrums throughout much of the 1990s and early 00s. What are your thoughts on why the genre went through such a bleak period, at least as far as publishers were concerned?
GC: The main argument I see online (kind of brings us back to the arsey types in questions 6 and 7 don’tcha think?) is that when horror boomed the publishers flooded the market with too many poorly written tales of terror. In turn this put the reading public off the genre and they moved elsewhere.
My opinion? I have two.
Number 1: Take the above scenario and turn it on its head. Yes, the publishers flooded the market. But they did so with just as many literary masterpieces. Could it be that the reader got fed up of being conned, of picking up a book with a cool cover only discover that the writing inside was overblown, drawn out and, in conclusion, totally fucking boring.
This isn’t an opinion I hold strong and true, just a way of showing that the argument can go each way.
Number 2: Surveys always showed that the majority of readers were women aged between 18 and 35 (the ages maybe wrong, but you get the idea). Well this is the problem. Times are changing and women have moved on. They no longer stay at home, repressed by the male. They have taken life by the balls and are riding high. More women are out working during the day, not stuck at home feeling pissed off and undervalued.
This demographic no longer has as much time to read and this will have affected not just the horror genre, but fiction across the board.
Then we have the younger generation. Not quite as interested in reading as we may once have been. If they can’t watch it on a screen or have a control pad in their hand then it’s old news. What do they care for books?
In 2006 book sales across the board in Waterstone’s were down. All, that is, except for horror and this was only because Stephen King had quite a few releases that year and the book stores did very well with DAVID WELLINGTON’S modern classic MONSTER ISLAND.
We moan about the genre fiction suffering when it’s printed fiction in general we should be worrying about. Horror was a niche market to start with so obviously it appears to have almost disappeared. In terms relative to the market as a whole it’s probably still the same size it’s always has been.
BH: What are your impressions of the modern horror market? Is it undergoing a renaissance or is that wishful thinking?
GC: In all honesty… neither. We are nowhere close to having a renaissance of horror fiction. But, at the same time its not quite wishful thinking.
A renaissance can only happen if more publishers get books on shelves. It’s no good turning up at small conventions and selling books to the people you hook up with each and every year and convincing yourself that it makes you well read.
Bill, I know you attended a convention recently. Be honest, what was the ratio of readers to writers?
BH: Admittedly, there were a lot of writers there…
GC: See, that kind of bullshit thinking will get the genre absolutely nowhere pretty fucking quick. Go to conventions with nothing more than the intention of having fun, but don’t kid yourself that it’s the book-selling event of the year.
If books are in bookshops they will sell. If those books are actually any good they will sell more as word of mouth grows amongst the true reading public.
Any small press that has moved into the realms of the independent press will tell you the same thing.
BH: There are lots of new trends in horror publishing: zombie books, young adult horror, gothic romance, issue-led horror, even a bit of a return to the so-called ‘literary horror novel’. But which of these trends will survive? Where do you see the future of the horror novel?
GC: As I’ve said above. As long as it entertains the reader it should do well. Most importantly it needs to be original. The market needs new ideas, or at least a few old ones that haven’t been seen for a while given a brand new twist.
I think the zombie novel will soon have run its course. Unless someone comes up with something originally amazing I doubt tales of shambling corpses have much life left in them (pun intended).
The young adult market will probably die out as this generation of young adults move onto bigger and better things. It would be nice to see a next generation of young readers, but it’s going to get harder to find them. I can only cross my fingers and hope for the best.
Gothic romance… I don’t know enough about this particular sub-genre, but I would expect that people will soon tire of vampires fucking and sucking. Just my opinion.
And the so called ‘Literary horror novel’. It has a very small niche audience, mainly derived from writers who do the same thing. I just don’t think (with one exception) it is entertaining enough to entice the few new readers wanting horror.
No, I won’t give you the one exception, as I will not be accused of liking his work.
BH: What are your current/future projects?
GC: I’m currently reworking a novel entitled BOOKEND. It’s taking some time but might, one day, see the light of day.
Due to the high level of emails insisting on a HF3 I am working on it and it will be finished for late next year.
HOTEL HOLLYWOOD is another dark fantasy novel I am slogging away at whilst also churning out DEATH TIDE, which has just been picked up by GHOSTWRITER PUBLICATIONS as part of their GUY N SMITH SIGNITURE SERIES. The people behind this new press are amongst the ones to watch with some good ideas on how to take the genre forward.
I have spent this summer completing screenplays for a sci-fi TV series I am hoping to get picked up. I have an executive producer onboard and now it’s just a case of playing the waiting game.
I should have news on a project entitled STRAWMAN very soon. I’m very excited about this one for reasons people will realise next year.
SLAVIS, co-written with US author ERIC ENK should see the light of day soon and, if it goes down well may well be followed up by STONE COLD SNAKE EYES.
I think that’s most of it.
BH: Wow. That’s what I call busy! Okay, it’s time for Horror Reanimated’s innovative stock questions. First off, it is within your power to award ONE work of horror, in any medium, The Sword of Ultimate Darkness. This is an example of horror that you consider to be the most outstanding in the history of the genre.
GC: Jesus, do I deserve such an honour, can I wield such power?
I could go for ASSASSIN by SHAUN HUTSON because that was the first novel to make me do a little bit of sick in my mouth.
Or I could hand it over to CLIVE BARKER for WEAVEWORLD because it showed me that fantasy could be horrific.
Then there’s always NIGHT OF THE CRABS by GUY N SMITH just for being so much bloody fun.
I know what I’ll do. I have the power and you can’t stop me. Plus I just love breaking the rules.
Shaun gets the blade, Guy gets the jewel encrusted handle and Clive gets the handsomely embossed leather scabbard.
BH: Secondly, you must consign to The Plague Pits the worst example of horror fiction you have ever come across.
GC: This is so unfair, but seeing as I got away with sharing out the sword I will be forced to make a choice.
INCARNATE by RAMSEY CAMPELL. The biggest waste of 20p at a car boot sale ever. I spent a week on nights in the bowels of the earth reading this one when I could have been getting some shuteye.
And now I feel I should justify my choice. I just found it to be a vacuous, over long story that never really did anything for me as a reader. I wasn’t entertained and I wasn’t scared. Sorry RC!
BH: Cheers, Garry – just as entertaining, interesting and controversial as I’d hoped! Those of you visiting this infernal region – keep your peepers out – more horror writer interviews are on the way!
October 2nd, 2008
[Note well: The following ‘chat’ with Elaine Lamkin – Writer/Interviewer for www.BloodyDisgusting.com – took place as an email exchange over the space of a few weeks. During that time Elaine’s home town in Kentucky was hit by a hurricane – that’s right, a hurricane in Kentucky. She was without power, web access and air conditioning for much of the time but still managed to give us a great interview…]
Joseph D’Lacey: Elaine, I want to welcome you to Horror Reanimated, the voice of Bloody Books. If there’s anything you need while you’re visiting, just say the word – cup of lukewarm plasma, saint-on-a-stick – nothing is too much trouble. (Our boss does a nice line in unsullied virgins, if that’s your bag, but we never seem to get a sniff of them…)
Meanwhile, let’s get down to business. Forgive me for being direct, here, but you strike me as a person who doesn’t always toe the line, someone who’s a little outside what people might refer to as ‘polite society’. Is this true or am I way off the mark?
Elaine Lamkin: You are spot on. I have never toed the line, done what was expected (and have occasionally suffered for that). I’ve always been the “strange” one, both in my family and amongst my friends. And I am quite proud of it. I think the world needs more people who want to ruffle some feathers.
JD’L: Do you think your interest in the macabre was a natural result of your ‘black-sheepness’ or did you at some point decide it was your duty to plunge into the shadows? I suppose what I’m asking is, were you born this way or made this way?
EL: I think I was born “macabre”. I read “Dracula” when I was 8 years old, discovered Stephen King VERY early on and was watching horror movies on television every chance I got. I would actually cry when Halloween was over! My family had no idea (and still don’t) what to “do” with me as they are your typical Southern WASPs and my interests were completely outside their realm of knowledge. I used to believe I had to be a “changeling” as I didn’t fit in with anyone.
JD’L: 8 is definitely an early start…
What effect did Stoker’s tale have on you at that age – or King’s work for that matter?
EL: I’ve always been scarily precocious. I’m quite sure my parents would say I was marked for life but I just wanted MORE! I discovered Lovecraft (he’s difficult to read once one passes adolescence), Poe, Robert McCammon, Dan Simmons (McCammon’s “The Night Boat” and Simmons’ “Summer of Night” frightened me to death as well as Simmons’ short story, “Iverson’s Pits”), Robert E. Howard’s “Pigeons from Hell”, W.W. Jacobs’ “The Monkey’s Paw”, Michael McDowell’s amazing Blackwater series and on and on. I would haunt bookstores waiting for the next Stephen King release. I would TRY and get my mother to buy me magazines like “Fangoria” but the lurid covers just didn’t set well with her so I had to wait until I had money of my own.
After reading “Dracula”, I became obsessed with finding out more and discovered the history of Vlad the Impaler as well as that of Countess Elizabeth Bathory and did a LOT of research on them – even corresponding with the Hungarian State Archives and Dr. Raymond T. McNally (remember, I’m still under the age of 12!). Reading “Carrie” just made me Stephen King’s “Number One Fan” and he has never disappointed. One goal of mine is to someday interview The Man in person. And I started checking out the film versions of his books – many of which DID disappoint.
So I entered the world of horror through books and glided into the world of film but I have to confess to preferring literary horror. Especially nowadays with the films sucking so badly.
JD’L: (Perhaps, the easier it is to make a movie look good, the easier it is to let the quality of the plot, story and characters slip – a topic for another time, I think…)
Do you still get scared or repulsed these days, Elaine? Now that you’re all grown up? Is horror still thrilling entertainment or has the genre lost its power over you?
I ask because it seems to me that the virgin mind is like the virgin liver: the first few times you take a drink, it’s like paradise. Then, as time goes by, you get used to it. Finally, it becomes a routine.
How is it for you, now, this literary addiction?
EL: I actually HAVE been frightened by a FEW recent movies: “The Descent”, the original “Shutter” and “[Rec]” spring to mind immediately. Repulsed…? Not to the point that I have turned off a film but the gore/torture subgenre, I feel, has had its day. I prefer a film that creeps me out, makes me want to look over my shoulder or sleep with a light on and with only a few exceptions, no one seems to be making those anymore. Folks, check out “The Changeling” or “Let’s Scare Jessica to Death” or “The Other” (NOT “The Others”) or even the more recent “Session 9″. Now THOSE are creepy films that don’t need all of the splatter and entrails most filmmakers seem to think all filmgoers want.
“This literary addiction” – if you are asking about being frightened or repulsed by something I’ve read then yes. The most frightening book I’ve read in quite a while is Tim Curran’s “Skin Medicine”, a period piece, set in the Old West, but absolutely horrifying. Also, the books of Mo Hayder are pretty horrific. “Repulsed”? Not repulsed as in I quit reading but your book, “Meat”, was VERY disturbing and…gross. But something I HAD to finish. Amazing first novel!
And horror, whether it’s film or literary, will always be thrilling for me.
JD’L: It’s heartening to know this dark affliction isn’t just some passing phase for you. You’re obviously rotten to the core, lady!
(Here at Horror Reanimated we really know how to compliment our interviewees…)
But let me ask you this: if gore/torture has had its day, what happens now? And, if it was up to you, Elaine, where would the genre go next?
EL: You are a sweet talker (“rotten to the core”).
I would like to see the film side of the genre return to the creep-inducing films I mentioned earlier. As for the literary side, I am thrilled to see books like Thomas Tryon’s classic “The Other” being reissued (by Millipede Press) and hope more writers will realise that, while there will always be a market for the gross-out, gore-filled books, the unsettling, keep-you-up-at-night tales need their day in the sun again (so to speak). How many horror fans out there can honestly admit to reading the still-in-print “Summer of Night”? I have found that it seems to be the British horror writers who are returning to the “disturbing” days of yore: James Herbert, Phil Rickman, Mo Hayder among them. It’s a trend I hope continues and REALLY hope filmmakers get a clue and get on the bandwagon as well.
JD’L: You’ve managed to anticipate me somewhat there, Elaine. I’d been planning all along to ask you to compare and contrast British and American horror – particularly on the literary side. Where do we meet and part company, do you think? Fundamentally is it a matter of being unsettled by slightly different demons or are we all scared of the same things?
EL: We are definitely frightened by the same things – “what lives in the shadows”, to quote from Neil Marshall’s film, “Dog Soldiers”. But British horror draws on the much older history of the country itself, which has so many legends and stories to work with, whereas American horror seems to have had to “invent” itself, growing out of a tradition that had a decidedly British flair to it in its infancy (Poe, Lovecraft, etc.). The US has created a few sub-genres in its horror literature such as Southern Gothic (which is pretty far removed from the Gothic traditions of English literature, in my opinion) and the “splatterpunk” of the 1980s (although there were a few British authors who contributed). So far, I have not seen a British writer as extreme as Edward Lee or Jack Ketchum but there are a few “quiet” authors: Charles L. Grant, Stewart O’Nan and maybe Dan Simmons, who seem to have touched on the British tradition of not putting it all out there for the reader. Letting the reader’s imagination do the work.
But then again, American horror writer Richard Laymon is embraced much more by British readers than American ones but wonderful British writers such as Phil Rickman and James Herbert have never seemed to hit the right nerve here in the States. And British horror films are either “dumbed down” for US viewers (the ending of “The Descent”, for example) or never get released at all in the States. Perhaps British publishers feel the same about American readers, which is a sad commentary on how the US is perceived (but not undeserving).
JD’L: See, now that’s the reason I wanted so much to interview you, Elaine. Because you – as Jimmy Hendrix might phrase it – are experienced.
I’m going to move on from the serious stuff now and ask you to do something we’ll be asking all our interviewees to do.
Over the years, as in any genre, horror has had its highs and lows. Looking back we can see, in terms of quality, what refuses to lie down and what should never have walked.
You, Elaine Lamkin, now have the power to bestow two tributes:
First, you may award The Sword of the Ultimate Darkness to the work, in any media, you consider most outstanding in the history of horror.
Second, you may banish forever to The Plague Pits the worst item of horror you’ve ever come across in all your years of travelling the shadowside.
Make your nominations, Elaine…
EL: I only get to nominate ONE in each category?? Although there IS one and only one nominee for The Plague Pits 
. But The Sword of Ultimate Darkness?? Just ONE? Have pity, kind sir.
JD’L: I’m sorry, Elaine – that’s how it is.
Bill and I are imprisoned here in purgatory for a looooooong time and we have certain ‘duties’. Maybe, one day, if we perform our master’s bidding faithfully enough, we might be released.
Meanwhile, unfair though it is, one nomination in each category is all we’re able to grant. I do apologise.
EL: I DO understand about the need to keep the master happy. At ALL cost. I will give this some serious thought as I can only choose one each.
LONG PAUSE…
EL: After MUCH thought on this, I would have to award The Sword of Ultimate Darkness to George Romero’s seminal 1968 film, “Night of the Living Dead”. Sure, there were amazing horror films prior to “NOLTLD” but Romero brought horror into our homes. Literally. No more worrying about crumbling castles in Transylvania, crazed scientists and their laboratories in Germany or desert tombs and their curses in Egypt. Now the horror was right next door or actually within your own home. And by bringing horror home, so to speak, Romero opened the door for folks like Thomas Tryon, Stephen King, Robert McCammon, Dan Simmons, Jack Ketchum, James Herbert and a HOST of other writers of what I like to call “domestic horror” (rather lacks a fearsome-ness but…). And filmmakers such as David Cronenberg, John Carpenter, Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper, etc., etc. To paraphrase AC/DC, for those of us who like to shock, we salute you, George.
I would like to banish to The Plague Pits all PG-13 (Cert 15 in the UK…I believe) horror and most remakes as well as this current trend of romantic horror in “literature”. Of course there have been a FEW respectable PG-13 horror films such as “The Ring” (remake) and…well, that’s the only one I can think of offhand so enough already! And with all of the horrifically imaginative writers, one would think there would be more film adaptations of works by popular horror writers BESIDES Stephen King (who does better on television anyway). So quit with the remakes!!
Also, vampires are not meant to be sexy. Re-read “Dracula”. He was NOT described as looking like Gary Oldman or Frank Langella. Count Orlock in F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu” was closer to Stoker’s ideal. So all these sexy vampire novels and TV shows should be consigned to the deepest realm of the Plague Pits.
I think I overstayed my “welcome” of just picking one but when I get on a roll…
JD’L: So, Romero, is the very first winner of the The Sword of the Ultimate Darkness! And The Plague Pits are already swimming with worthless, unimaginative spawn!
What a wonderful start to my day. I just know Master Petherick is going to be pleased – I think both Bill and I will now qualify for a protracted eyeball biopsy, sans anesthésique. I can hardly wait.
It’s also a wonderful end to our first Horror Reanimated interview. My sincere thanks to you, Elaine, for being a good sport and for putting so much consideration into your answers. I do hope you’ll come back some day and join us for something more recreational – an acid enema, perhaps?
Meanwhile, the very best of luck to you on your continuing journey into the darker corners of the human imagination. I hope you’re leaving a trail of breadcrumbs…
September 25th, 2008
In response to Joseph’s revelations about those times when he has been seriously freaked out by horror books and movies etc, here are a few of my own experiences (I should just say that there may be one or two spoilers in what follows – you have been warned!): 