Amazon Recommends - Night School (1981)

Amazon has made several more excellent slasher DVD recommendations for me to purchase, one of which is titled Night School. Until seeing this recommendation, I had never actually heard about this early 80’s slasher flick, yet now, having come face to face with it, really, really, REALLY want to see it. The movie cover, Amazon description and the trailer I found on YouTube all cemented this desire. I’m not sure why, but this one just looks like the type of slasher film I will enjoy.

Amazon Description:

“They work by day, take a full schedule of classes all night and somehow find time for study and an occasional date. Women in the evening curriculum at Boston's distinguished Wendell College do a lot to get ahead in life. But there's someone who will go to even greater heights. Someone will do anything to get a head. A killer whose m.o. is the ritualistic decapitation of victims makes terror a required course at Night School, directed by Kenneth Hughes (Casino Royale) and starring Rachel Ward (The Thorn Birds; After Dark, My Sweet) in her screen debut. Leonard Mann plays the homicide lieutenant assigned to the puzzling case. He has hunches, not clues. Suspects, not evidence. And a rising body count. Finals are coming early this year at Wendell. And for those who don't make the grade, heads will roll.”

Trailer via YouTube:



Unfortunately, it does seem like this one is going to be a bit of a tough find for me. Blockbuster, whose DVD by mail service I subscribe to, does not have it, nor does the online used section of a video store I frequent. In fact, the only location where I have found the DVD for sale is on Amazon itself, and while I really want to see it, I’m not willing to spend almost thirty dollars for it. If it was a movie I had seen before and couldn’t live with out, then yeah, I probably would, but one that I’ve only been able to speculate about, not a chance. I also have no experience with renting videos from Amazon through their streaming On Demand service, and given my really poor Internet connection, this isn’t something I was to try. So, it looks like I may be out of luck for the time being, which leaves me with my final question: anyone out there ever see this one, and if so, what did you think?

Blood Related by William Cook

Nurture or nature?  Anyone involved in such a debate would probably have a hard time pinning an answer to this question when concerning the Cunningham twins Charlie and Caleb.  Brought up by abusive parents, one of whom is a savage serial killer that often encouraged his children to take part in his horrible crimes; one could easily argue that the two were nurtured into the monsters they eventually become.  At the same time it’s hard to say nature didn’t play a part because how else could one explain the generational bloodlust the Cunningham family displays, bloodlust that seems to have begun with Charlie and Caleb’s grandfather?  Whatever the cause, the result is a pair of psychotic serial killers who show no empathy for their fellow human beings; serial killers who actually view themselves as separated and on a higher plane of existence than mankind and thus entitled to do whatever they wish to them. 

As noted above, it begins early on for the twins, usually with over the top physical punishments that would easily knock any sense of goodness from within the mind of a growing child.  After that came the introduction to murder as their father brought female victims back to the basement and allowed his children to watch and sometimes take part in the torture and eventual slaying of the captive or captives.  However, the act of murder was not limited to the basement or even the house.  Lacking any control on his impulses, their father will also sometimes commit murder while the family is out and about, a situation that then calls for disposable of evidence and the cleaning up of the crime scene.  Such moments are a ‘hands on’ learning experience for Caleb and Charlie, one that will prove invaluable later in life as each matures into individual serial killers.  Of course this isn’t to say suspicion isn’t leveled on the father.  The local police -- and one man in particular -- are pretty sure the father is responsible for the crimes, ones that eventually become attributed to a killer known as the Dockside Ripper.  Being able to nail him down as the Dockside Ripper, however, isn’t easy, which in turn allows the body count, and the education of two budding serial killers, to grow.

Of the twins, Caleb seems the most level headed, which in turn makes him the scarier of the two when it comes to the two serial killers.  That said, Caleb does have some impulse control issues just like his father, which sometimes causes close calls with the police.  At one point it also puts him in conflict with his brother due to the slaying of a young woman that Charlie wanted to keep alive, his desire to cause chaos and the eventual breakdown of civilization leading to a different type of torture and murder than what Caleb usually takes part it.  The question is will the two be able to work together to the end that Charlie wants, while also allowing for Caleb’s desires to be realized, or will the two come into such conflict that they destroy each other.  Also, will the detective obsessed with their family and the savagery it displays be able to put an end to their reign of terror, or will he just become another victim? 

Mostly told from the point of view of Caleb, but also occasionally from some of the other individuals within the story, Blood Related by William Cook is a wonderfully twisted tale of two serial killers who have no redeeming value whatsoever, yet are somehow fun to read about.  In fact, not only are they fun to read about, but at times you find yourself actually rooting for them, which can be very unsettling.  Equally unsettling is the disgust one starts to feel toward the father and Charlie, yet not toward Caleb despite his being just as ruthless as the other two.  Adding to the story and its authentic feel were the newspaper accounts, books segments, and clinical observations layered throughout the story, all of which had the feel of being real documents one would find in such media forms.  Having seen and used these types of documents in the real world when studying such subjects in school, I can honestly say the author nailed it when penning his own, and had I read them as part of a case-study I would have assumed them to be genuine.  I also would have been horrified to know that two such killers had done the things they did for as long as they did, and that a family had had produced three generations of serial killers. 

Needless to say, I found Blood Related to be an excellent read, one by an author who hopefully will be releasing more works in the near future.  Until then readers will have to keep their bloodlust sated with the tale of Caleb Cunningham and his twin brother Charlie.  I promise, if this type of story is your thing you will not be disappointed.     
    

Amazon Suggests – Mardi Gras Massacre (1978)

Any other horror fan get this movie suggested to them by Amazon today?  If not then maybe it was just a coincidence based on the types of films I have been looking up and adding to my future purchase wish list.  Whichever is the case I’m glad Amazon brought this movie to my attention despite how bad it sounds.  After all, who doesn’t love a cheesy B grade slasher flick (though from the looks of it, and based on what others have said all across the web, B may be too good a rating for this)?  Now I just wish I actually had the DVD is person because I never before watched a Mardi Gras themed slasher film, especially not on Mardi Gras day itself.  How cool would that be?  The only thing better would be a girl I could toss beads too, but apparently my credit card was declined when setting up the call girl so that option was out.

Here are two descriptions if you’re interested.  I was, which is why I looked them up.   

Amazon Description: MARDI GRAS MASSACRE is a nasty horror film that centers in New Orleans as a killer picks up prostitutes and sacrifices them to the Wind Gods. This nut stops at nothing to make his killing as he pulls out the hearts from his victim. Only two rogue cops are hot on the trail as they go to the seedy side of Bourbon Street to find him. Banned in U.K. for being too violent, now it can be seem on DVD un-CUT!

Wikipedia Description: In New Orleans a serial killer wearing a welder's mask strikes during the Mardi Gras festival. He goes into a bar and asks for the "most evil" prostitute he can find. He then takes her to a basement where he ties her up and cuts off her limbs and genitals. He then kills more prostitutes to get their hearts to sacrifice to an ancient Aztec goddess. A policeman who uses a prostitute as a lover and source of information then hunts down the killer based on her tips.

Finally, the IMDB rating.  A whopping 3.7 out of 10.  Not bad.  I have enjoyed worse.

NOTE: I wanted to add the trailer but whoever uploaded it to YouTube disabled the embedding so you'll just have to go there yourself if interested.

I Just Couldn’t Finish Them

The last couple of weeks have been incredibly frustrating when it comes to reading and enjoying some of the old out of print horror titles that dominate my bookshelf.  I don’t know happened, but the last several novels I have attempted to read (not counting the book I’m currently reading, which is a wonderfully twisted tale about serial killers titled Blood Related by William Cook) have just been impossible for me to get through.  Making this even more bizarre is that they have all been by authors I love, ones that I have read several times each, my eyes barely able to stray away from the page because they were so good.  This time around my eyes wanted to do everything but look at the page, the journey back into the world of the novel being one that seemed daunting rather than appealing.  With one, just getting to page two hundred was a struggle because the characters seemed so out of touch with reality that I just couldn’t allow the scenes to unfold in my head.  With another, the events of the novel were so cliché to the depictions of an exorcism that I wanted to just go back to The Exorcist and read it instead.  Adding to the frustration is the sense of failure that arrives in putting a book back on the shelf unfinished.  I don’t know if others ever experience this, but it is something I just can’t stand.  Thankfully, it looks like this odd occurrence is coming to an end.  Blood Related by William Cook is turning out to be a great read, and had it not been for my cats always jumping in my lap when I sit down with the computer to read it (it’s a Kindle novel and I don’t own a Kindle, just a laptop with the app on it), I would have had it finished it within a day or two.  After this I’m not sure what I will read next.  So many wonderful looking used horror paperbacks are sitting on my shelf, but I don’t want a repeat of what just occurred.  Instead I may re-read the first four books of The Dark Tower saga by Stephen King as a way of refreshing myself for Wind Through the Keyhole in April.

 Note: Since I didn’t finish the books I won’t be reviewing them here.  Writing negative reviews is something I really don’t like to do anyway with books (though I have done some in the past), and since I wouldn’t want to inadvertently turn people away from the other works by these authors it just seems best to simply let the disappointment fade away.       

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - Trailer

As some of you may remember, I got to work as an extra on this film in the Spring of 2011 down in Covington, Louisiana. It was a really cool experience. Eye opening as well, for I will never again look at a movie without remembering how much work actually goes into each shot. My time working on the film was about a week, yet the screen time of those shots will probably be something like fifteen to twenty minutes, if that. They were long days too. Every morning we would be on set before sunrise and usually wouldn't be back at the hotel until around eight that night, which, even when being treated as well as we were, is exhausting.

Now, of course, I can't wait to see the results of that work, though I have to admit, the historian in me may cringe a few times while watching it.  Then again, if its entertaining and gets people somewhat interested in history I'm all for it.  Plus I love being able to say I worked on the same set as Tim Burton. 

My Amazon Kindle Publishing Experience: January 2012

I’m a little late with this monthly report I have been doing on my Amazon Kindle Publishing Experience, the reason being I got kind of stressed out in the beginning of February at the sudden lack of sales my novels saw.  I really have no idea what could have caused a sudden ‘no one is buying any of my books’ scare for those first couple of days, but if I was forced to guess I would say it probably had something to do with the sudden and overwhelming availability of free books on Amazon.  Success, especially reported upon success, causes others to follow suit, and during the month of January many authors were reporting impressive sales figures following the limited time free listing of their kindle titles (something that Amazon has only recently allowed self published authors to do). I was not above testing this out, and sure enough, my titles saw a very impressive jump in sales following the free period.  Each title also spent quite a bit of time in several top 100 lists in the UK, and in the case of my novel TEXT MESSAGE, which has been struggling ever since its release, reached its all time best sales ranking in the US. 
  

On February first things changed.  I went from averaging between thirty to sixty sales a day to averaging zero sales a day, which is something that has never happened to me since the release of my first novel JIMMY back in July (unless I missed a no sale day when out of town for a week in August).  Looking at each Amazon page for my novels provided a clue as to why this might have been occurring – seventy five percent of the books listed in the ‘what other customers bought’ section had a price of $0.00.  Adding to my suspicion were the comments from readers all across the web expressing amazement at how many free books they had downloaded in recent days.  One reader actually claimed to have downloaded sixty books during their lunch break from work, which really startled me because even if he read one book a week all year, which is a lot for most people, he would never finish all the titles he had gotten.  Fortunately, my sales did return.  Even better, JIMMY has made it back onto several top 100 lists in the UK, and, for the most part, has stayed within the 10,000 sales ranking in the US.  Both have also continued to receive mostly positive reviews from Amazon customers, and from readers on various websites (here is one of my favorites posted on the Goodreads website for TEXT MESSAGE).  Needless to say seeing reviews like these makes my day.  I’m sure many other writers feel the same way. 

So, what are my thoughts on listing books for free?  My answer: I don’t know.  Early in January listing a book for free could have an amazing effect on sales.  Now, given the sheer volume of books that are being listed for free at any one time, who knows?  I for one have already made the decision that once my time in the Kindle Prime library thing is complete I will not allow my books to be listed in it again, thus I will not be able to list my books for free on Amazon.  My reason for this is simple, why limit myself to one avenue of sales?  In addition, I’m guessing there has been a huge drop in titles available on other e-book sites due to Amazon’s conditions for joining the library thing, so it would be silly for me to not take advantage of that.  Truth be told, I’m kicking myself for not thinking about this sooner (like before I signed up for the Kindle Prime thing).  Some of my business class professors would probably be sharing in the kicking if I told them about my failure to think about this before my decision.  Of course, this isn't to say I wouldn't have followed the same path, I just probably should have taken a little more time to think about it.      

Now, for those of you wondering how January actually went, let me just simply say it was my best month ever in the history of my writing career (which has spanned twelve years).  The only thing topping the excitement I felt during this month was the excitement I felt back in 2002 when I received my first ever acceptance letter from a magazine (Black Petals Magazine accepted my story ‘Red Pickup’ in April of 2002).  Nothing short of having a major book deal from a publisher will ever top that, though; and yes, even though I’ve gone the e-book route with some titles, I would still like to go the traditional route with other titles (maybe even these e-book ones if publishers are interested).  I know many in the self-publishing / independent publishing world says doing that would be stupid, but I frankly don’t share the same disgust of the traditional publishing world that they do (some publishers, yes, but the entire industry, no).  Until then, however, I will not shy away from making my titles available independently through the electronic marketplace.  One thing I’m still not sure about is whether or not I will make my titles available in print without the aid of a traditional publisher.  Many people have been asking me to do this, but I’m still undecided on it.  The reasons are many and a bit complicated, so I won’t get into it here. 

January was a good month.  Hopefully, I will be able to say the same in a few weeks as February comes to an end.  I also hope I will never again go through a period of no sales like I did during the first few days of February.  A drop in sales is one thing, I can handle and expect that from time to time, but no sales on any titles for several days . . . that is just scary.

Stephen King's Most Frightening Book: Guest Post: The Stand

What’s the most frightening book Stephen King has ever written? Today's answer to this fun question is brought to us by Colin Corlett who hails from Northumberland, UK where he enjoys writing about the countryside on his site  www.northumberland-tales.com. 

Let’s talk about horror and Stephen King.  We are so used to seeing these words side by side that often we miss the fact that there are different kinds of horror and that they are not all equal. I see four main types within Stephen King’s books:

1. It’s behind you horror. This is the fear of the unknown and the feeling that it is coming to get you. Think of The Shining and you have it in a nutshell.  A world made more terrifying because it is seen through the eyes of a small boy.
2. Supernatural horror. You know damn well what it is that is coming to get you and it isn’t nice at all. Think of Salem’s lot or Pet Sematary. This is horror for grownups who have strayed somewhere they shouldn’t be. This is what Stephen King does best.
3. The evil that people do horrors. Think of Misery and how this pales against the cumulation of evils across the centuries. Whilst the first two types above are “outside” this is different. Here we have the fear of strangers and not wanting to leave your village in case you meet Annie Wilkes.

Now all the three types above can terrify you. I am proud that I read The Shining, but I couldn’t manage Pet Sematary.  You see I am the kind of guy who would literally hide behind the sofa with the sound muted or would skip the “bad pages”, read the conclusion and then come back to the pages I had missed. So no hero then but what is the 4^th kind of horror?

Well this is where it gets interesting, this is where you stop hiding and start to think. For you see I am talking about The Stand. 

Oh that book, nothing too frightening there you say?

But here I beg to differ for we are starting to stray into some very old ideas and they are not nice at all.

There comes a time, for some of us, when we have to make a choice. One road to the left and one to right, which should you follow and all the time you know that the wrong choice will lead to damnation. In The Stand the choices are clear, just two and they are diametrically opposed. Couldn’t be more simple could it and you know that you would make the right choice.

Well maybe you will but you see there is also the thought that you don’t have free will, that the choice is predestined and for all that you want to travel to Denver you just might end up in Vegas and unable to resist.

Here we are starting to enter the thoughts and beliefs of the Calvinists. Two of their central pillars of faith are:

1. Unconditional election. God has already chosen who will come to him and who will be left behind.
2. Irresistible Grace. Once God has chosen you then his Grace will find a way to rescue you.

Does this start to sound familiar? Are we straying into the story line of The Stand?

So this is the fourth “horror”. The fear that you will be found wanting. The fear that God has decided and you are not on his team. In many ways the terrors of the books listed above do indeed fade. The ghosts and vampires dissolve into memory and how many of you will really read those books time and again?

One of the enduring memories from The Stand is the clarity with which Stephen King creates the characters. You can imagine yourself in their shoes, walking through a beautiful but empty American countryside. You can face the challenges secure in the knowledge that you were right. But how many of us think of those in Las Vegas with Randall Flagg? How many of those people were there through small coincidences or one bad choice?

I sometimes wonder if we all have an inner need to believe in a story, to learn from what has happened to those who went before and to say “There but for the Grace of God”. How shall we prove this? Well let’s look at the Stephen King books mentioned here and see where they rank on the Amazon best sellers list, in descending order:

Pet Sematary:  313,512

The Shining:  60,586

Misery : 45,392

Salem’s Lot:  17,070

The Stand: 4,120

To me that is proof enough of the enduring allure of The Stand.

What other books has Stephen King written which address this issue? Well to me The Dead Zone starts to encroach on this territory. It is a great story based around the old conundrum of “if you knew what Hitler would do would you have killed him back in the 1930’s?” God has chosen John Smith, he is shown to be right time and again and just in case Johnny tries to renege well then he knows that is will soon be dead has little to lose by doing God’s work. A more concise examination of some of the issues seen in The Stand and perhaps no coincidence that it is at 24,494 on the Amazon best sellers list.

In conclusion there were many Stephen King books which frightened me more but for enduring fear, the kind which stays with you and nibbles around your conscience I can’t think of any better than The Stand. That is why a book which I first read 25 years ago is still on my bookshelf without dust on its cover.

A Thought By William: I have to say, I've never really looked at The Stand or any other Stephen King novel in quite this way before.  Taking this viewpoint, however, does bring about a scary thought.  What if decisions about us, ones that we can't control, have been made?  What if we are just puppets in a bigger plan that doesn't really take into consideration the choices we want, or wish, to make.  Such was the reality for many of the characters within The Stand.   

My Laptop Buying Ordeal

Is it just me or do retail employees seem a lot less enthused and helpful these days? I’ve noticed this at several different places lately and given my experience working such jobs, I just can’t imagine managers allowing it to the extent I’m witnessing. Yesterday while shopping for my new laptop was the worst of these experiences by far. It was so bad that I actually considered the possibility that I was on some hidden camera show for a moment. It occurred at the electronic store Fry’s, which is located near my parent’s house in the city of Downers Grove. I needed a laptop that would allow me to write and update things to the internet when at the library, something my really old laptop of nearly six years was no longer allowing me to do (it would only turn on half the time). After about fifteen minutes of browsing with my brother I had settled on the one I wanted. Price was the biggest factor. I make a living from my writing, but just barely, and until I knock down some credit card debt that has been acquired in recent months, I’m not really comfortable making really big purchases. Thankfully I didn’t need a super high-tech laptop for games and movies, so finding something in the four hundred to five hundred dollar price range was very doable.

So, laptop selected I walked up to a group of employees who were all standing around a main computer and mentioned that I wanted to buy a laptop – not look at a laptop and then go back and forth on whether or I really wanted it, but BUY IT. A nice easy sale. The response: empty headed stares. Thinking maybe I had accidentally spoken in my home planet language I repeated myself in English. Again, several empty headed stares, though this time they did look back and forth amongst themselves. A third inquiry got the job done. A young man steppedforward and mumbled a “which one do you want?” question. I pointed to the laptop and he selected the card and brought it to the main machine. “Oh,” he then said after spending a minute there, “we don’t have that one anymore.”

GAH! This same thing happened the last time I was there looking for a printer. Why is it on display if they don’t have it?

Keeping my cool I was about to tell him I had a second choice in mind, one that was a bit more expensive but still within my price range when he informed me they did have a few of the one I wanted that had been returned. “They are cheaper too since they were opened,” he said. My brother than informed me that they had probably been Christmas gifts that were eventually returned due to the poor gaming quality which sounded fine with me. I did, however, ask if anything was wrong with them and was assured they were all in good working order.

Five minutes passed, during which I felt pretty happy thinking I was not only getting a decent laptop, but one at a cheaper price than I initially planned for. But then he came back empty handed.

“Um, I can’t find them,” he said.

Wait, what? Out loud I asked, “Are you sure you have them in this store?”

He assured me they did but then told me he didn’t know where they were. At this point I’m thinking: then go get someone to help. Rather than suggest it I just told him to go get the other laptop I had picked out.

Another five minutes began to pass. During this time I realized how absurd his inability to find the first laptop was and walked up to the group of employees who were still standing by the main computer, all of whom gave me an odd look. Pushing the look aside I asked them if maybe someone could go help the young man find the laptop I wanted. The reply, “No, probably not,
it’s a mess back there.”

Seriously, that was the response I was given. My brother and I didn’t even know what to say. Making it worse the young man started to return with my laptop and while doing that another employee – I’m thinking his supervisor – started to inform him that he hadn’t finished with something from earlier. Thankfully he was not detoured and brought the laptop forward. Before buying it, however, I asked if he could check again on the first laptop. He did and this time he found one, but, alas, it was broken.

Anyone else feel there was something completely wrong with that experience?

Used Bookstore Find - Alone with the Horrors by Ramsey Campbell

Despite having more novels, anthologies, and short story collections than I could possibly read in a lifetime -- especially a lifetime like mine which was likely shorted a bit by some of my early Crohn’s disease complications -- I still frequently visit and buy things from used bookstores with little hesitation. The reason for this is simple; I’m a sucker for books, especially ones that are priced lower than fast food value meal selections (until you add up everything in my arms and then I could have gotten a nice steak dinner as some fancy restaurant for less). Anthologies and short story collections are even more addicting, because, while there might be some debate as to which novels I want to buy that day due to the knowledge that they will be spaced out by the chunks of time it requires to read them, there is no debate when it comes to the time required to read short stories because one can dip in and out of such collected works over the course of a year or more and never feel lost. In and out, a story here, a story there, either from the same collection or different collections, and in time one will finish everything within the covers of one, but at a far slower pace than it takes to read a novel -- unless the stories are so good that one drops everything to read them back to back (I’ve done this a few times, but only when between novels). So, there I was, browsing the cluttered shelves of the used bookstore by my parents house, hands grabbing books as if they were free, when my eyes stumbled upon Alone with the Horrors by Ramsey Campbell.

I hate to say it, but Ramsey Campbell is one of those authors I have always wanted to read but never have. This wasn’t a conscious choice, but instead it just kind of happened, my hands never picking up one of his novels while at the forgotten bookstores of my youth simply because I always seemed to be in there for a different title or titles. Chances are, given the really poor horror selection of the bookstores I used to frequent, his works weren’t even on the shelf, or at least weren’t easily visible while browsing (the standard selection always seemed to be, in their entirety King and Koontz, and randomly, a few works by Andrews, Barker, Keene, Laymon, Lumley, McCammon, Simmons, Wilson, and, toward the end of the stores existence, trade edition zombie novels by the dozen). They might have also put his books elsewhere. I’ll never forget the day I went in looking for an Anne Rice book, this being after I had read a gift copy of Interview with a Vampire during high school and realized I enjoyed it, but being unable to find her selection amongst the horror titles. It wasn’t until I asked for help that I was pointed to the literature section, which had nearly two whole shelves dedicated to her. Anyway, in interest of not getting too far off topic, I never did manage to read a Ramsey Campbell book, something which I now plan to rectify. I shall start with this short story collection, but I will not wait to finish it before ordering some of his titles from Amazon. Before jumping into that, however, I would like to know if anyone has any suggestions. It will be a few days before I can actually sign onto a web connection that I trust enough to put credit card information into (my parents house), so hopefully by then I will have a list to go off of. If not I will just select titles at random, which, given all the great things I have heard, will probably be just as effective. Still, I always enjoy being given suggestions due to the wonderful reads it has provided me with in the past.

Stephen King's Most Frightening Book: Guest Post: 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King (1975): Because The Night Belongs to Us

What’s the most frightening book Stephen King has ever written? Today's answer to this fun question is brought to us by Will Errickson, the writer behind the wonderful blog Too Much Horror Fiction, who has allowed me the honor of re-posting his wonderful piece that originally appeared on his blog in May of 2010.

To this day, Stephen King's second novel, 'Salem's Lot, is one of only two or three works of horror fiction that, upon first read, instilled in me a palpable sense of fear and trembling not simply for the characters but for myself as well. Over a quarter of a century later I can still feel the chilling vice that clamped around my scalp, recall how my stomach flared hot and sick and how the goose-flesh quickened along my arms, neck and shoulders, as if someone were behind me. I was up way too late on a school night, alone in my teenage room and I was afraid to look outside. But why would I want to look outside that late at night? In that I know I am not alone.

But I wonder, is that feeling even possible today? Is it because I was a not-so-experienced horror fiction reader at the time I read 'Salem's Lot? That I had yet to experience Lovecraft and Straub and Machen and Blackwood and Jackson and Leiber? Or was it that King so effortlessly wrote about simple fears of wrongness and malevolence in a common world that is perhaps inured to such things that I couldn't help but respond as if I myself were in danger? Honestly I don't even read horror (or watch horror films) to be scared anymore. Sometimes I wish I could recapture that feeling.

King has said this novel was his attempt at bringing Dracula - one of the few other books to physically frighten me, in the middle of 8th grade study hall - to the modern age, at imagining how this Old World villain would fit into a New World environment. Would the master vampire, in all his darkest wisdom, choose to arrive in New York City or Boston, or would he perhaps choose a quiet, near-forgotten rural town far from any outsider's concern? King felt the latter would provide the best cover and placed upon 'Salem's Lot the curse of the undead through cultivated Mr. Straker (I cannot see anyone else but James Mason in my head) who prepares the way (where have I heard that before?) for the dread Kurt Barlow, vampire king. Their locus is the black and shuttered Marsten House, which overlooks (where have I heard that before?) the Lot; the distasteful and perhaps satanic owner of said house Mr. Barlow had illicit communications with decades before the novel begins. The town has its secrets, King informs us, but it keeps secrets even from itself:


They know that Hubie Marsten killed his wife, but they don't know what he made her do first, or how it was with them in that sun-sticky kitchen in the moments before he blew her head in, with the smell of honeysuckle hanging in the hot air like the gagging sweetness of an uncovered charnel pit. They don't know that she begged him to do it.

This was the first novel of King's in which he employed a rich panoply of everyday men and women, giving them believable backgrounds, interior lives, conflicting desires, and fears that finally make themselves manifest just past midnight. While no one would mistake King's depictions of such for those of an Updike, a Cheever, a Carver, his characters don't have the preciousness of those who populate more, ahem, lit'ry fiction. Ben Mears, the protagonist, is the first in a long line of King stand-ins, young writers obsessed with childhood fears who struggle to move past them. Mears grew up in the Lot, left it, and now after the accidental death of his wife and the nightmare of what happened to him inside the abandoned Marsten House have drawn him back again, he wonders aloud if it could be anything like Hill House in that famous book by Shirley Jackson. Oh it is, it is that and more. And worse.

Although I've owned the hardcover of the book since high school, I found this '70s paperback recently; I'd forgotten how simple it was. I like that you can barely see Stephen King's name on the cover (didn't even appear on the first Signet paperback printing), so obviously this edition was published before he was a name-brand author. The androgynous, angelic face looks like it's carved from stone, or maybe forged in iron; it reminds me of the Jacob Marley doorknocker from "A Christmas Carol." And blood so subtle, just a drop, just a drop to hint at the immortal terrors within, those terrors that millions know and have never forgotten, but they are terrors that sound strangely like a child laughing, laughing right outside your upstairs bedroom window, long after the sun has gone down on the final night of your life... or on the first night of your new one.

A Quick Thought by William: 'Salem's Lot has always held a special place on my bookshelf, not just because it was a wonderful read, but also because it was my first Stephen King read. To this day I will never forget the comment the guy at the cash register made when I brought the book up to purchase. "Best damn vampire book ever!" Being so young the swear caught me off guard, yet it also made me realize I was probably holding something special, something that I would remember for a long time.

The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

Have you ever felt dirty after watching a movie? Not physically dirty, but mentally dirty. I feel this way from time to time, usually after watching movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer. The subject matter of such films is part of it, but not the overall reason. Instead the biggest reason I feel dirty after watching these is due to the look of the film. Both these movies have a rough almost grainy bleakness being projected that, when coupled with the disturbing elements within the tale, just soils the mind. The Hills Have Eyes, which I watched for the first time last night, managed this ‘dirty after viewing’ feeling as well. In fact, the soiled sensation was so powerful that I just had no choice but to jump into the shower afterward, my mind needing the physical bombardment of hot water against my flesh to symbiotically cleanse the movie from my pores. I also texted my brother and told him we had to buy a copy of this one so we could watch it together in the future, though not right away. After viewing a movie like this I always have to put some space between it and the next viewing. The other two movies I mentioned above and the amount of times I have viewed them are perfect examples of this. Despite being listed amongst my all time favorite movies I have only watched them three times apiece during the last decade. Mentally this is all I can handle. Also, this one will never be on the favorites list, so my futures viewings of it will be even more distanced from each other.

The Hills Have Eyes is the tale of the Carter family and the mistake they make in attempting a detour on their trip to California in order to see an old abandoned silver mine. Well, ‘supposedly abandoned’ is probably a better way of describing the mine because a group does live in the area. Ignoring the warning by an old weather-beaten gas station owner, the family soon finds themselves stranded near the hills where the mine is located, a freak accident with the map having caused the vehicle to go off road. Realizing they are miles away from civilization, and that chances are good no one will pass by that area to help, the father of the family heads back to the gas station while the son-in-law goes further down the road. What none of them realize is they are being watched from the hills by a savage cannibalistic family, one who has been on the verge of starvation for a long time and will do anything to bring some meat home from the stranded family. Caught off guard by the savages, but able to repel them -- though not without some losses -- the Carter’s do everything they can to set up a defensive perimeter around their car and trailer. Unfortunately the baby of the family was taken in the first raid, and fearing for its safety a rescue attempt is made. Will it and the defensive perimeter succeed, or will the Carter family soon find themselves the main course of a long awaited meal in the desert hills. Only time will tell.

Disturbing and somewhat shocking in its depictions (though not overly so in my opinion) The Hills Have Eyes is a decent little horror movie that has the ability to startle audiences. Unfortunately one thing it lacks is sympathy for the victims. I may be unique in this thought, but I couldn’t wait for several members of the family to die, not because I’m sick and twisted, but because I just couldn’t stand them. Everything they did just seemed ridiculous and, at times, overly stupid. The hysterics many of them displayed were also mind numbing. The worst by far, however, was the mother of the family. Now, maybe at the time of this films creation that was the norm for women in her position, but to me she seemed a ready-made helpless victim, which is something I just can’t stand. Fortunately, given how horrible and grotesque the hill people were I had no choice but to root for the Carter family. Given the actions of the crazy hill people, I not only wanted the Carter family to win, I wanted them to brutalize their attackers. I wanted them to make them regret everything they ever did even though such regret in people like that probably isn’t possible. All in all, not a bad movie, but at the same time not one I will watch over and over again, not when I felt so detached and disgusted by just about every character on screen.