Re: Hallowe'en Reading and Viewing, 2009!
There was one character's death who really knocked the wind out of my sails; I'm sure you know whose. That's some good writing.
Indeed. That was shocking; and it was the point where the story turned the corner. Although there were a couple of deaths that were very sad.
You may or may not like
A Winter Haunting. It's not a sequel
per se, but the protagonist is Dale returning to Elm Haven as an adult. The tone is very different; it's much more of a ghost story than a horror novel. I liked it, though I think I got more sheer enjoyment out of the shocks in
Summer of Night.
Here's the description:
The old saw "You can't go home again" is a chilling understatement for this highly effective supernatural shocker, Simmons's first horror novel since Fires of Eden (1994) and a sequel to Summer of Night (1991). The latter was an eerie chronicle of a summer of lost innocence for a group of preadolescent chums who confront an entity of irrepressible evil in rural Elm Haven, Ill. Four decades later Dale Stewart, a survivor of that summer, has returned to endure a winter of adult discontent: his wife has left him, his sideline career as a novelist is sputtering and a disastrous love affair has driven him to attempt suicide. Medicated to the gills for depression, Dale seeks inspiration for his next novel in a house that figured in events of the summer of 1960. But remnants of the old malign influence have survived and they manifest as vicious spectral dogs, threatening neo-Nazi punks, cryptic messages that appear magically on his computer screen and delusions that suggest he's losing his mind. Simmons orchestrates his story's weird events craftily, introducing them as unremarkable details that only gradually show their dark side. In a nod to Henry James, whose psychological ghost story "The Jolly Corner" is repeatedly invoked, he blends jaw-dropping revelations of spiritual intrusion with carefully manipulated challenges to the reader's confidence in Dale's faculties and motivations. Though it features its share of palpable things that go bump in the night, this novel is most unsettling in its portrait of personal demons of despair that imperceptibly empower them.
The
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein showing was great. It was a much larger venue than I expected. It was a proper theater with a stage, balcony, etc., and with a packed house. There were a few hundred people there.
They really go all-out with the whole experience, with an organist playing before the show, followed by an old newsreel and a cartoon (fittingly enough, it was
A Tale of Two Mice, with cartoon versions of Bud and Lou). Then we got trailers for
Gorgo and
Munster, Go Home. People cracked up at the effects in the former, and as soon as they recognized Herman in the latter, they exploded with applause.
The movie itself
killed. Sometimes people were laughing inappropriately, like when the Wolf Man would change, but they mostly reacted to the gags. It might have been due to the size of the crowd, but I've never heard an audience laugh that much at a movie. It was a great experience.
As for Hallowe'en itself, I didn't do anything unusual as far as movies. I re-watched
Trick 'r Treat, which was still great. After that, I gave in to the urge to just throw in
Frankenstein and
Bride of Frankenstein. I always like to watch them back-to-back, and they're great Hallowe'en viewing.
I recently watched Dracula's Daughter. What an awesome movie. I would argue that it is better than the original.
I love
Dracula's Daughter. It's certainly better than the original in most respects. The big strength in the original is Lugosi, but I think in just about every other respect,
Dracula's Daughter trumps it. Supposedly, James Whale was originally going to direct it, and I really would have liked to have seen that version, but I'm glad it went the way it did.
You were right,
Spiff, the ocean phobia does seem to have shifted from one person to another in
Deeper. Odd. And they mentioned that Golden Cove is built upon the ruins of Innsmouth.
I have a feeling the plot was going to go a different way, and when it was revised, the bit about the ocean phobia was missed. It turned out to not impact the story too much, as once it changes, it stays that way, but it's an unfortunate error in a novel that had few other editorial mistakes.
I knew you'd like the part about Innsmouth.
Speaking of things you might like, I had a 40% off coupon for Borders and some gift card money remaining, so I figured I'd just look over their selection. I didn't expect to find anything, but as I got to the anthologies, I spotted
The Mammoth Book of Wolf Men. It was the only copy, so I snapped it up as a blind buy, based on some of the names on the cover (Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, Graham Masterson, etc.), and that I generally enjoy Stephen Jones's anthologies, like the yearly
The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror.
I looked it up when I got home, and it turns out that it's a reprint, which isn't surprising, as Jones used to put out anthologies like
The Mammoth Book of Vampires,
The Mammoth Book of Frankenstein, etc. This was obviously reprinted to take advantage of the new movie. I bet they're annoyed with the film's delay.
I haven't read it yet to know whether or not to recommend it. These Mammoth Books can be pretty uneven, but with so many stories, you're bound to get some gems.
I love those old-fashioned venues and showings of old movies; I hope business is good enough for them to continue.
