THE SHADOWED MIND

An insane asylum set South African horror-sexploitation oddity from 1988 that was heavily informed by FAREWELL JOHNNY, the granddaddy of South African horror/cult films. Taken on its own terms THE SHADOWED MIND is agreeably bizarre, though not nearly as deep as it purports to be.

CONSUMED

CONSUMED is the better-late-than-never debut novel 71-year-old David Cronenberg. It has a thoroughly unique and individual voice that falls somewhere between those of William Gibson and Don DeLillo in its concentration on technological minutiae and elegant perversity. It’s also fully in keeping with the obsessions and subject matter of Cronenberg’s films.

A BOOK OF BARGAINS

The premiere work of fiction by an author who seems destined to be known forevermore as a “friend of Oscar Wilde.”

BEREAVEMENTS

Eccentric, humorous and decadent: all those things adequately sum up BEREAVEMENTS, with its perversely humorous depiction of grief-born insanity.

BAD RONALD

A “hider in the house” tale in the mold of the 1989 film of the same name and THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS, but it actually predated them by several decades.

The PLEDGE of Our Discontent

Friedrich Durrenmatt’s 1957 novel DAS VERSPRECHEN, or THE PLEDGE, is perhaps the most cruel and sardonic crime novel ever written. It contains all the twisted wit and macabre invention that tend to characterize Durrenmatt’s other novels and plays—TRAPS, THE...

South African Horror Essentials

It’s a fact that South Africa isn’t exactly known for quality cinema. The “best” South African film, after all, is widely reputed to be Jamie Uys’ patronizing and nonsensical comedy THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY. With that in mind it’s hardly a surprise that when choosing worthwhile South African horror flicks the pickings tend to be slim…