Legend of the Werewolf By Robert Black

Legend of the Werewolf
By Robert Black
Based on a screenplay by John Elder
1976 Sphere Books
Paperback, 158 pages

                                                 

                As a Peter Cushing fanatic, I have long been a fan of Tyburn Studio’s Legend of the Werewolf (1975). I am the proud owner of the kick-ass one sheet poster and as I wait for Tyburn’s Kevin Francis to become less insane about licensing the title for Blu Ray release, I wanted to revisit the story via the novelization. While Les Edwards’ amazing cover is enough to make me open my wallet, I wondered if Robert Black’s (Robert Holdstock, 1948-2009) adaptation of John Elder’s (Anthony Hinds, 1922-2013) screenplay would do the film justice. I need not have worried. Even though “Elder’s” name isn’t on the cover or title page, “Black” follows the script to a T and does so with excellent, descriptive and often eloquent prose.

 

                If you’ve seen the film (and you should seek it out if you haven’t), you know the plot. Etoile is a young man who was raised by wolves who joins a traveling circus and then winds up in Paris. He finds work with crusty old Duvic, a sleazy zookeeper who gives Etoile a place to live and a tiny bit of money for his services. While there, Etoile meets Christine and becomes smitten, not knowing she’s a prostitute. When he does discover her line of work, the men who see her wind up shredded. Morgue doctor Cataflanque (the Cushing character) starts looking into what is making Christine’s clients become his clients despite the police’s warnings to back off the case. Meanwhile, Etoile is obviously conflicted for many reasons, as is Christine.

 

                As noted, the novel follows the script quite closely, but Black fills in a lot of background detail and employs many colorful descriptions to make this much more than a carbon copy. Cataflanque’s detective work is very exciting despite the reader knowing a werewolf is at large. The scenes in the bordello are perfectly elegant and sleazy and provide a welcome sense of humor while Cataflanque investigates. It was easy to read that character as played by Cushing and that made my experience with the book that much better. The written gore is plentiful and the suspenseful ending is a rip-roaring good time. This is one novelization that gets it just right and I recommend it howlingly!

 

                Now, Mr. Francis… don’t be a putz. Get this film out on home media soon. My creaky old VHS tape wants to retire.

                                   

                                                            My one-sheet from the film.

Entombed By Guy N. Smith

Entombed
By Guy N. Smith
1986 Arrow Books
Paperback, 191 pages

 

                              

           Arrow, 1986. Art- Les Edwards                                             Dell- 1987. Art-?

                When I was a kid, my mum took me to Howe Caverns, a 150 foot deep hole in the ground in Schoharie County, New York. It is a massive underground cave with a subterranean river and there is a lovely tour that you can take. The rock formations are lit with beautiful colored lights, yet the scenery (and cool air) can feel a bit sinister. I loved it so much, I took my own kid there when she was 10 or 11. With that, I think I might have gotten a little more out of Entombed than I might have had I never been that far underground.

 

                Priest Simon Rankin has been questioning his faith after a failed exorcism. To clear his mind, he packs up with his girlfriend Andrea and heads to Cwmgilla in Wales. The town’s claim to fame is a retired slate mine that has been opened as a show cave, taking tourists down into the caverns for tours. Rankin wasn’t keen on taking the trip down but acquiesces to Andrea’s suggestion. While down there, he senses an evil presence, and it all goes to hell (quite literally!) from there. His faith, whether or not he knew it, is enough to shake up the evil in town.

 

                A kid wanders off and disappears in the mine. Workers going to look for him have the roof cave in and trap them. Mysterious children’s voices, visions, and Satanism all rear their evil heads. Andrea is demonically raped and possessed and Rankin’s faith had better be damn strong to fight the kind of nastiness that now runs rampant in Cwmgilla! The power to the mine is gone so nobody gets in or out unless you happen to know a spelunker. Luckily, Rankin does.

 

                Obviously, the claustrophobia is massive in this book. The scenes in the mine, with its uncharted depth and underground lakes is a labyrinth of dark, airless fear. There are many chilling moments of anxiety and agitation. That said, at about the three-quarter mark, the narrative started to slow a bit for me. But I never doubted that GNS would pick it back up and, holy shit, he sure did! The prose approaching the climax is amazing, especially when the Satanist group is gorging on the blood of a sacrificial victim. “Like maggots in a jar, a grotesque entwinement of all that was vile.” It doesn’t get much better than that.

 

                Obviously, if you have read the Sabat books, some of this might sound familiar. Rankin seems to be a tryout for Mark Sabat, whose first book came next from GNS. (The first publication of this one was from Hamlyn in 1982.) Both are ex-priests and exorcists, there is a violated church, a body exhumed for Satanic reasons and other similarities. Overall, Rankin is a more likeable hero than Sabat. As much as we all love our Hamlyn Horrors, hold out for any of the Arrow reprints to relish the amazing Les Edwards cover.

Mania By Guy N. Smith

Mania
By Guy N. Smith
1988 Sphere Books
Paperback, 234 pages

 

                Another excellent book from the Great Scribbler with another excellent cover by Les Edwards. You just can’t go wrong with that potent combination.

 

                Suzannah Mitchell and her 14 year old daughter Rose are caught in a massive blizzard and have to abandon their car and seek shelter. They wind up at the Donnington Country House Hotel, formerly the Donnington Nursing Home, which was a looney bin, a head farm. The thing is, since the name change, the clientele has remained pretty much the same. Suzannah and Rose feel very uncomfortable the moment they step inside and with good reason. There are loonies living in and running the hotel. Luckily for the Mitchells, Owain Pugh, a young man who is also stranded in the storm, shows up seeking shelter as well.

 

                The cast of characters is the best part of this book. You get a drunk, a flasher/ religious zealot, a chronic masterbator, and a pregnant virgin, among other eccentric and potentially dangerous tenants. The pregnant girl is of the most interest as she is either carrying either the second coming of Christ or the Devil’s spawn. Evil things are afoot in the hotel. A shadow of a beastly hand crawls across the ceiling and warnings of Satan’s presence are proof of that evil. But is there real evil in the hotel or is it just the collective madness of the unfortunate people who call the hotel home, the power of suggestion? And that is the crux of this story to me; is it real or is it craziness?

 

                GNS is ever the romanticist. Once again, he has Suzannah and Owain developing feelings for each other in record time. It works here because it gives them some sort of motivation. You see, with all of the wonderfully wacky hotel inmates, the two leads are pretty dry characters. They hope to save Rose from being a pawn in the plans of the bad guys, like anyone would, but offer little color to the proceedings. The story works much better for this. Also, despite being fourteen, I was reading Rose as much younger.

 

                Top shelf GNS right here; fun, fast paced, ambiguous and nerve-wracking. As an added bonus, one character is a picky book collector and has received a shipment from Black Hill Books, Guy’s own real-life mail-order book business at the time, and mentions that “the bloke was bleating for his cheque”. I always appreciate a little in-joke to lighten the proceedings.

The Island By Guy N. Smith

The Island
By Guy N. Smith
1988 Arrow Books

Paperback, 191 pages

                    

                             Art by Les Edwards                                                Polish Edition, Phantom Press 1991

                                                                                                                     artwork by Radoslaw Dylis

                I really liked this one. As good a GNS read as any of the classic nature-runs-amok masterpieces. Completely different in every way from every other book of his that I have read, but still pure Guy N. Smith.

 

                The Laird of Ulver is a dick. He repeatedly assaults his wife to keep her pregnant in hopes of a son to call his heir. When the fifth birth is yet another daughter, though stillborn, Marie, the wife, has had enough. Her four daughters and she try to escape but his lordship instead catches them and abandons them on Ulver Island, along with his deformed boatman, Zoke. Nobody on the mainland ever saw them again.

 

                In modern times, widower Frank Ingram, trying to get over his wife’s tragic death, decides to buy a small island “for a snip” to get away from it all and do some farming alone and uninterrupted. It’s a fine plan and it more or less works until one stormy night when five women show up on his doorstep. Their story isn’t very cohesive, and Frank finally learns that they are a mother, Samantha, and her four daughters. We, the readers, have a good idea who they really are.

 

                The story is played out with Marie and her clan alternating every other chapter with Samantha’s brood and we follow Frank’s plight as they take over his house, his land and his life. His frustration becomes our frustration, and Smith ratchets up the tenseness of the situation (in both eras) brilliantly until we just want it all to end! I don’t mean that in a bad way. I was just looking for relief for Frank.

 

                The only problem I had with the book was remembering all of the daughters and mothers’ names while reading. Somebody on less medication than me would likely have no problem with that but I got confused a few times about which daughter was acting out during some moments. But the book is very satisfying, and I plowed through the last 100 pages just hoping to speed things up for poor Frank!

  Top shelf GNS right here. And check out that Les Edwards cover!! Wow!

 

                                                

Originally published in GNS2: A Guy N. Smith Fanzine by Chris Elphick

The Camp By Guy N. Smith

The Camp
By Guy N. Smith
1989 Sphere
Paperback, 288 pages

    Just what did Guy N. Smith have against vacationers? He set loose his crabs on them, he sicced a manitou doll on them and this time out, things get even weirder! Thank goodness he held some kind of grudge against people on holiday. We got a lot of great stories out of it.

    This time out, we’re at Paradise Holiday Camp. It has everything. Chalets, amusement parks, bars, restaurants, and a covert project where certain campers are being tested on a new mind-altering drug. The project gets mixed results; one couple thinks they’re in the new ice age (in the middle of a hot summer), one woman thinks she is a prostitute while her abusive boyfriend doesn’t even know her, and one older woman thinks she’s pregnant. Jeff Beebee fares better. Ann, the woman who is to dose his food with the drug, kind of falls for him and she is reluctant to administer it.

    We have a little soap opera here, too. Ann is the (older) drug scientist’s mistress, and Jeff’s girlfriend has just dumped him at the Camp. We also have a little classism as the more affluent guests stay in better digs than the riffraff (you know, like me). GNS throws a lot of different characters into the mix, and they are all well-rounded, even if only through their hallucinations. There is some shocking violence and plenty of frustrating moments where you just want to yell and let people know what’s happening to them.

    The book chugs along at a good pace but slags a bit going into the last 50 or 60 pages. It is almost as if as he was in the homestretch, Guy thought up a better ending and tried to tie everything up before getting to it. If that’s the case, then I’m glad it happened because the ending is a fiery, violent burst of mayhem. It is hard to not recommend any GNS book and The Camp is another winner. Les Edwards’ cover captures the angst and horror admirably, too.

Polish edition, Phantom Press 1991

art by Radoslaw Dylis

    Originally published in GNS2: A Guy N. Smith Fanzine by Chris Elphick

Cannibals By Guy N. Smith

Cannibals
By Guy N. Smith
1996 Sheridan
Paperback, 208 pages

Artwork by Les Edwards

    This is top-shelf GNS all the way. Filled with detestable people that have horrible, gory things happen to them. You really can’t ask for more.

    Invercurie is a tiny village buried in the Scottish Highlands. The people there like… no, demand their privacy and plan on keeping outsiders out. Doug Geddis decides to build a few chalets on his property, much to the consternation of his fellow villagers. You see, Invercurie has a secret living up in the mountains, and they’d like to keep it hidden. But, of course, tourists do start to show up to Geddis’s chalets and despite warnings from the short-tempered locals, the outsiders hike up into the mountains. And that’s where the cannibals live.

    A man and his 19-year-old arm candy, a dysfunctional family of four (and their doomed dog), and a young couple making their first getaway: these are the folks who rented the chintzy chalets and might live to regret it. The mutated cannibal folks visit in the night and yum, that human meat is the tastiest of all. Smith doesn’t shy away from anything in the telling of this tale. The gore is nauseating (i.e. wonderful), and you can almost really smell the caves that the cannibals dwell in.

GNS does his usual expert job on setting the stage. The village is a very real place and the mountains around it are very easy to put yourself right into. The sketchy chalets couldn’t keep out a raccoon, much less a pack of hungry cannibals. Despite the spacious outdoor setting, a real sense of claustrophobia is achieved. Those cannibals are stealthy. I wonder how many readers would agree with me that GNS purposely set up this narrative with a Psycho-like structure.

Cannibals was first published in 1986 by Arrow Books with a somewhat dull cover of what looks like a dog’s snout. When they reissued it in 1988, they wisely changed it over to a great Les Edwards painting, one that respectfully depicts the cannibals as described in Smith’s prose. That cover was retained for Sheridan’s third printing, I’m happy to say. Smith plus Edwards equals perfection. This one comes highly recommended.

The less effective cover for Arrow's first edition.

The Wood by Guy N. Smith

The Wood
by Guy N. Smith
1985 New English Library
Paperback, 171 pages

A little something different from the master. While he is untouchable with nature-strikes-back novels, it is always interesting to read Smith step outside his comfort zone and stretch his imagination. The Wood isn’t perfect, but GNS always spins a powerful tale and this book goes by very quickly.

Beware Droy Wood when the mist comes in from the sea…

Droy Wood stood between the town and the sea and everybody avoided it. Lots of shit went down there through the years and the past never really went away. The Wood is technically a ghost story… characters from the past who met their demise in the woods hanging around to terrorize and kill the living who are unlucky enough to venture into the woods on a misty night.

Sure, some of this sounds pretty familiar (can you say The Fog?) and despite Smith’s descriptions of the horrors within the woods, the specters really take a back seat to the modern day horror that sets the story into motion, i.e. a rapist/ murderer’s abduction of a woman on a dark, lonely road. It’s hard to take the Nazi ghost and old-timey apparitions in pantaloons too seriously after that grueling scene.

But with the victims, the rapist, ghosts, mind control, dank bogs, befuddled police and small-town fears, there is a lot to keep you going in this book. It’s not as satisfying as a giant cancerous crab, but The Wood  has a lot to offer when you’re in the mood for something different. Be sure to grab the New English Library edition with the nice Les Edwards cover!

This review originally appeared in Midnight Magazine #7 (Jan. 2021)

Midnight Magazine 

Books of Horror