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Book Links: Stoker Awards 2018 Final Ballot for Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

Well, we’ve come as close as we can to reviewing all the nominees in the category of Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction. We unfortunately were unable to acquire a copy of The Howling: Studies in the Horror Film by Lee Gambin. It looks like a gorgeous book, though, based on what I saw at the Centipede Press website. I encourage you to take a look, as it is difficult to acquire a copy.

Below are links to the reviews for the other nominees in the category of Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction.

 

Horror Express  by John Connolly

 

We Don’t Go Back: A Watcher’s Guide to Folk Horror  by Howard David Ingham, illustrated by Steven Horry

 

It’s Alive! Bringing Your Nightmares to Life  edited by Eugene Johnson and Joe Mynhardt

 

Uncovering Stranger Things: Essays on Eighties Nostalgia, Cynicism, and Innocence  edited by Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr.

 

 

 

 

 

Book Review: Horror Express by John Connolly

Horror Express by John Connolly.

PS Publishing, 2018

ISBN-13: 978-1786364098

Available: Hardcover

 

Non-fiction books in horror tend to be labors of love. Look to Stephen King’s Danse Macabre and Grady Hendrix’s Paperbacks from Hell for two amazing examples of examining the macro side of the horror genre. Then there are those authors who prefer to hone in on a single topic. John Connolly has done so here in Horror Express from the always quality PS Publishing. Connolly has long been a force in the thriller genre, especially with his dark thriller series starring PI Charlie Parker, ,the classic The Book of Lost Things and its successors.

Curiously, Connolly admits that he hadn’t watched the movie since he was a child. Why focus on a little known movie that he saw so long ago? Psychologically speaking, that’s a bit fascinating and intriguing, if a bit of a head-scratcher, since the film isn’t a classic either in cult status or in popular circles. but it will likely cause many to seek out the lost film.

Filmed in 1972, Horror Express is a Spanish film that stars Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, usually enough reason to watch. Set in 1906, the iconic pair discover a strange humanoid in the ice, and have to transport it across Russia on the Trans-Siberian Express. As it evokes both the best of Hammer movies and John Carpenter’s The Thing, it’s easy to see why Connelly has this movie stuck in his craw. Even though it may not be well-known, countless gems do exist, and those of us who were weaned on horror films understand the passion for movies such as this.

Connolly separates the book into four sections, each chronicling his experience with the movie. They are: “The Excavation”; “The Protagonists”; “The Autopsy”; and “The Afterlife”.  What is most impressive is the way Connolly delves into the relationship between the two stars, and how they worked on this odd piece. Upon closer inspection, one can begin to draw parallels between his own dark novels and see how Horror Express  may have influenced him as an author. That section is a piece worth the purchase for diehard Connolly fans alone. His work has, in turn, influenced countless writers in the past twenty years so to dissect how an iconic member of the thriller/horror community was shaped is something that readers rarely get to experience. Recommended for film fans and those who can’t get enough of this fine author.

 

Reviewed by Dave Simms

 

Editor’s note: Horror Express is a nominee on the final ballot for the 2018 Bram Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction. 

 

Book Review: We Don’t Go Back: A Watcher’s Guide to Folk Horror by Howard David Ingham, illustrated by Steven Horry

We Don’t Go Back: A Watcher’s Guide to Folk Horror by Howard David Ingham, illustrated by Steven Horry

Room 207 Press, 2018

ISBN: 9781722748814

Available: Kindle, paperback

Full disclosure: We Don’t Go Back: A Watcher’s Guide to Folk Horror is Ingham’s authoritative (although he would probably cringe at me using that term) look at folk horror. Pagan conspiracies, witchfinders, dark fairy tales, and cult activity are only a few of the themes of the movies he presents.

Ingham lays out some guidelines to how he wrote this book. Entries are arranged by theme and not chronologically. He states that this is not meant to be used as a reference book, and there are plenty of spoilers throughout. The author uses various icons, designed and illustrated by Steven Horry, to indicate specific information for readers (a bony thumbs up indicates he enjoyed the film, a bloody knife indicates gore, a stop sign warns readers of more sensitive material such as rape, abuse, etc.). Ingham specifies that he makes use of content warnings as a means to inform the viewer and help them make an informed decision before they watch a film. The author also provides a synopsis of each film with autobiographical information, as a means to break down the piece at hand. Similar to Kier-La Janisse’s autobiographical topography, House of Psychotic Women, Ingham includes personal information in each section. So much content blended with the autobiographical information makes for a very long read, but also an interesting one. While he states in his introduction that his purpose is not to review the films, he does provide many of his personal opinions of the works discussed.

There are 16 total chapters in this book. Ingham covers folk horror from the Silent Era to modern film, and has an international scope. I won’t go into every chapter in this review, as it would be a weighty endeavor on both myself and the reader to parse out. However, I do have some favorite chapters. Ingham begins with what he calls “The Unholy Trinity (Plus One)”, which includes Curse of the Demon (based on an absolutely beautiful tale by M.R. James, whom the author discusses in multiple chapters), Witchfinder General (a favorite of mine, given that I adore Vincent Price), and The Wicker Man (starring another favourite of mine, Christopher Lee). The “plus one” Ingham includes in the chapter is Blood on Satan’s Claw, another film based on the work of M.R. James. In the second chapter, Ingham discusses folk horror on British television from the 1970s, such as Against the Crowd, selections from the Play for Today series (Robin Redbreast, Penda’s Fen, A Photograph, and Red Shift), Ghost Stories for Christmas, The Stone Tapes, and others. Particularly interesting in this chapter is the discussion of his own experience with class hierarchy and how he felt like an outsider.

For those of us who like our horror comedies (especially of the British variety), the author presents solid reasoning as to why shows like Dr. Terrible’s House of Horrible, The League of Gentlemen, Look Around You, and Detectorists belong firmly in the folk horror genre. If you haven’t seen Inside No. 9, developed by the creative team behind The League of Gentlemen, go check it out. You won’t be disappointed. The last chapter, “The Revived”, discusses films such as The Wicker Tree, Kill List, Sightseers, A Field in England, The Witch: A New England Folk Tale, and others that have been created in the last decade.

The author includes an extensive index of films referred to in the text, which makes my horror film must-see list much longer. If you are new to folk horror, or just want to brush up on your favorite horror subgenre, I recommend picking this book up. I think the major criticism I have with this book is (and again, I read the advanced readers’ copy so some of this may have been picked up upon final edits), there is an excessive use of “and” at the beginning of many sentences, and a few sections could use a tighter edit. Otherwise I think this is a solid addition to a horror film collection. Recommended.

Contains: a lot of spoilers

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Editor’s note: We Don’t Go Back: A Watcher’s Guide to Folk Horror is a nominee on the final ballot for the 2018 Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction.