The Lovely Bones, shattered memories or a vision realised?
Posted by Ms Harker | Filed under Horror Films, Horror Reading
It is not often I can say that a trailer appears to have, (perhaps) realised a great book’s vision. Maybe this is because I am at heart a bibliophile, maybe its because I am a cynical harpy… You choose. However I have just watched the trailer for the upcoming film, starring Mark Wahlberg (grrr) and Susan Sarandon, for the ‘The Lovely Bones‘. I read the book by Alice Sebold not long after it was published and adored it. So to say I was suspicious of Peter ‘hobbittssss’ Jackson taking on the material is an understatement.
Some of the scenes depicting the ‘in-between’ look gorgeous and suitably spooky yet comforting. The topic of the book, now film is confronting. It tells the story of a young girls murder from her perspective, dead, watching over as her family struggles to deal with her untimely demise and ultimately try to track down her killer. The suspense and longing Sebold built through the book was almost suffocating, which seems to be hinted at in this trailer…
This one could do the book justice, now fancy that!
Ms Harker
P.S Thanks to the folks at Dread Central for the heads up!
Tags: Horror, Horror Films, Horror Novels
‘Breathers’, zombies, altruism and necrophilia.
Posted by Ms Harker | Filed under Horror Reading
Reluctantly jumping on the Zombie bandwagon (as you all know I prefer my undead with fangs and a tidy set of glutes), I picked my self up a copy of ‘Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament‘ by S.G.Browne. ‘Breathers’ is one of a plethora of Zombie based fiction to hit the shelves in the past few months, other titles include ‘Patient Zero‘ (click for The Vault of Horror review), ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ and ‘World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War‘. So our much maligned manky friends are in the spotlight these days.
‘Breathers’ is told from the perspective of Andy, recently undead living in his parents basement, drinking his fathers expensive cellar of red wine and watching daytime television. As you see even though the zombie phenomena is growing on planet Earth, nobody really knows what to do with them. Any Zombie related disruption results in a trip to the local animal shelter/pound, as no one has figured out another way to detain the walking dead. Ergo they have no human rights, cannot work and are under the supervision of their human guardians. For Andy this is his parents. His mother tries to maintain the now decaying fabric of her family, however her husband would be happy to sell Andy off to the local science lab and take the cash to replace his ever diminishing wine collection.
Andy was killed in a car accident and laments the loss of his wife, his daughter survived the accident and has been sent to live with relatives and he reanimated without a voice (due to damage in the accident). Communicating by a chalkboard around his neck, the only social outlet he has is a government sanctioned support group ‘Undead Anonymous’. Run by undead ex-zombie counsellor Helen (gunshot victim), the group is an effort to help zombies come to terms with their newly undead status. Hilarious affirmations are rolled out at each group like ‘Hope is not a four letter word’, Andy also sees a therapist who provides him with no solace or empathy, due to his heavily botoxed face.
The group at Undead Anonymous form a tight bond throughout the book, despite their very different backgrounds and attitudes. Naomi a bitter ex-model whose husband killed her after a bad day at the golf course, chain smokes and butts them out in her empty eye socket. She fights incessantly with Carl the victim of a mugging who is equally as bitter, there is Jerry a young man who killed himself when he crashed his car after too many Jack Daniels shots and bongs. Then there is Rita, the object of Andy’s affection.
Rita, a suicide, who sits across from Andy in her pale splendour, applying red nail polish then lasciviously licking it off again… As zombies need to ingest a certain amount of formaldehyde to delay the decomposition process, which is mainly found in cosmetics and human hygiene products such as shampoo! Andy lusts after the waxen Rita and more freedom for his cadaverous comrades and embarks on a campaign to achieve his goals.
‘Breathers’ is a humourous romp cast through the eyes of an outsider, taking us on a journey of segregation, rebellion, homicide, friendship and a little necrophilia. Does it count as necrophilia if both parties are undead… Anyway this was a mirthful ride through the existence of the living dead, well worth a detour from my usual revenant reading rations.
Ms Harker
Tags: Horror, Horror Novels, Zombies
The Strain, too many eggs in one undead basket?
Posted by Ms Harker | Filed under Horror Reading
I have made no secret of my excitement at the prospect of Guillermo Del Toro’s collaboration with Chuck Logan on a written trilogy within the vampire genre; commencing with The Strain. The net was a blaze with hype, the ad campaign was brilliant, featuring a website and trailers (see below). Having now read the book, I’m going to try and explain my genuinely mixed feelings about it, with minimal spoilers.
The inside of the dust jacket reads as follows:
“A Boeing 777 arrives at JFK and is on its way across the tarmac when it suddenly stops dead. All window shades are pulled down. All lights are out. All communication channels have gone quiet. Crews on the ground are lost for answers, but an alert goes out to the CDC, Dr Eph Goodweather, head of their Canary Project, a rapid response team that investigates biological threats, gets the call and boards the plane. What he finds makes his blood runs cold.”
Th novel reads in segments, taking us to various locations, at times in quick succession giving the story a staccato feel that would give Toccato and Fugue a run for its money (look it up on iTunes kids). This at times maintains the feeling of urgency, conveying the spread of the ‘disease’ and challenges presented by the obvious conspiracy assisting its progress. However at other times it is distracting and as a reader it can feel like you are reading a movie script, going from scene to scene, being expected to suspend your disbelief just a little too much.
Del Toro and Logan have remained reasonably faithful to traditional vampire lore, however have given it a twist. There is a hierarchy of elders that reaches far back into time, the vamp’s disintegrate in sunlight (praise the gods), there is a nemesis fighting against the vamp’s and they hunger for human blood.
The twist is the form the vampires take, based around the idea of an infection, overtaking the host so that there is no remnant of the person post completion of the diseases incubation. The disease completely remodels the host, leaving them to become a walking decaying blood thirsty beastie. I can’t help feeling that in this incarnation Del Toro and Logan have put all their eggs in one undead basket. This decay of the host almost intimates zombie rather than vampire, the way they extract blood also leans a little the way of sci-fi, however it works. As you definitely feel the fear and dread as one of these ravenous creatures crawls out of the dirt at dusk, to spread the strain throughout New York.
When reading The Strain its important to remember it’s a trilogy, everything will not be tied up with a beautiful blood red bow. There is enough in the world Del Toro and Hogan have created to make this reader want to know more. Let’s be honest was the creator of Pans Labyrinth and self confessed horror fan going to create a blood clot on the canvas of horror literature? I think not, however I’m keen to see if the writers can flex their collective undead muscle and vamp up the action in the second novel.
Ms Harker
Tags: Horror, Horror Novels, Vampire
