These days it’s common for would-be filmmakers to turn their unproduced scripts into novels, although I’m not sure how prevalent that practice was back in the seventies. Yet reading David J. Michael’s DEATH TOUR, a largely forgotten but fairly potent seventies horror fest, I couldn’t help but picture it as a low budget movie: it’s extremely action heavy and has a tightly contained setting, not to mention a distinct three act structure.
Much of the THE DEADLY PERCHERON’s critical attention has tended to focus on the opening chapter, but I believe the focus should instead be on the novel’s middle section, which is as mind-bending in its audacious twisting of reality as anything written by Philip K. Dick.
CUJO carries Stephen King’s well-known penchant for bloat to hellacious extremes. It includes just about every extraneous detail you can think of.
This gorgeously designed graphic novel fleshes out an ancient Inuit folktale.
The impressive debut novel by the late William Relling, Jr.
This 1946 novel, one of two A. Merritt novels “completed” by Hannes Bok, has intrigued me for some time. Unlike the other Merritt/Bok collaboration, 1948’s THE BLACK WHEEL, which was reprinted in the seventies, THE BLUE PAGODA has remained quite obscure (at least until the 2008 reprint under discussion). I’ve long wondered why that was, and after finally reading the thing I understand: quite simply, it just isn’t very good.
eemingly everyone has praised this novel to the skies, and after reading it I’ll have to say that in this case everyone is right. A first novel of uncommon nuance and conviction, THE BIRTHING HOUSE has a probing intelligence and depth of characterization that aren’t supposed to be able to co-exist with supernatural scares. Those wanting a primer on what’s wrong with much of today’s horror fiction should read this book, as it gets most everything right!
This is the graphic novel adaptation of Lucio Fulci’s 1981 splatter masterpiece THE BEYOND
Another enjoyably depraved relic from the anything-goes seventies.
Today marks the 40th anniversary of the June 20, 1975 release of Steven Spielberg’s JAWS