Hub - issue 7

by The Right Hand

  After the theatre on Saturday night Elena went to the rock club. She drank with the boys again, and they were all for taking her back to their place after the beer and dancing. The music gave her a headache and she didn’t want to get too drunk so she only had the three beers. A few of her old one night stands saw her leave with the boys. She didn’t care that she was seen with them. It didn’t matter to her. She was intent on her plan. They caught a taxi to the student house. The rooms were just as untidy as usual. It wasn’t difficult to get the stuff into the beer bottles. Powder in a bottle when a boy was in the toilet, some more in another when Maurice was rooting about in the fridge for something to eat, and the last of it when the third went upstairs to throw all his junk off the bed onto the floor in preparation for her.

  Within ten minutes and as the first student was entering her, they all passed out within seconds of one another. She pushed the boy with the dirty hands out of her; one slumped to the floor from the bed. The last tried to stand up, his knees gave way beneath him and he crumpled like a string puppet she had let go of, to the floor. The first part of Elena’s plan was complete. The hardest part was trying to drag them all onto the bed in the right position but she managed it. Soon – there they were, all in a row – like the paper men she often cut out but the paper men had all been joined together. One boy was naked from the waist down so she took off his shirt. One was completely naked already and the last was still dressed. When she had removed his clothes and they were sleeping like little butcher’s dogs – that is how she now saw them – she began to carry out the next part of her plan. From her bag she removed a large, black wrap around pouch and placed it onto an old bed side table. From it she removed the sharp knives. As she withdrew the first she wondered if it would be sharp enough. It was. With careful precision she cut across the abdomen of the first boy, not too deeply at the first attempt. He groaned a little and shivered on the low bed. Elena sat back on her heels, pursed her lips a little, shrugged her shoulders a little more, sprang forward and drove the knife straight through his heart and then quickly through the hearts of the other two. She then proceeded with her work carefully, cutting and pulling the slippery, pink - grey guts out of each of them, arranging and rearranging them until they looked just right. They would be hers forever.

  Then she stood up, smiled, admired her handiwork again and used the boy’s clothes to wipe her red hands.

  The boys were perfect. All lined up in a row like the paper men she liked to make – and – all joined together.

  Allyson Bird can be found online at www.birdsnest.me.uk

  ReviewsThe Witch’s Dungeon and The Killing Floor reviewed by Paul Kane

  The Witches Dungeon: 40 Years of Chills

  Directed by Dennis Vincent

  Featuring: Christopher Lee, Dick Smith, Tom Savini, Bela G Lugosi.

  Colourbox Studios. www.preservehollywood.org

  The story of ‘The Witch’s Dungeon’ is an amazing one, and definitely deserves telling in this new documentary from Dennis Vincent. The first ten minutes or so set the scene, giving us some idea of how it all came about: basically the brainchild of the young Cortlandt Hull, who used to watch horror movies in his bedroom and make models of the creatures… We’ve all been there, right? Only difference is that he wasn’t satisfied to leave it at that, and wanted to make bigger, life-size wax models. This expanded into a museum which featured replicas of such monster greats as The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein and Dracula. Supported by some of the most influential names in the genre, the collection swelled and became the place to visit at Halloween, where Cortlandt would open the doors for three weekends and let people have a look around. It also expanded to include movie screenings in 1966 called ‘Hollywood at the Bijou’, introduced by the people involved and often – if silent, as was the case with Metropolis – would include live scores played by an orchestra.

  Little wonder, then, that this non-profit project came to the attention of people like Dick Smith, the Oscar-winning make-up artist on The Exorcist, Tom Savini, Christopher Lee, and the families of Lugosi, Karloff and Lon Chaney. Vincent Price, who became a close friend of Cortlandt’s, even defended the museum when legal action was threatened by the studios for using likenesses of their creations – and now they even donate material to it. Here, in this lovingly-crafted documentary, you will find interviews with some of the stars and their relatives, talking about their careers, but also about how The Witch’s Dungeon has been a major part of their lives and how they want it to continue and actually expand further with the ‘Silver Screen Movie Museum & Archive’.

  There are some true gems of interviews to be found in the two-hour DVD. Savini is on first chatting about how he met George A. Romero, and about how he designed that infamous spear through the neck for Kevin Bacon’s end in Friday 13th (we even get to see the blueprint drawings!). His mentor Dick Smith then tells how he used to make himself up as Quasimodo to frighten people when he was younger and reveals how Jack Palance’s Mr Hyde make-up was based on a Satyr. Movie experts and collectors such as Bob Burns and Richard Sheffield share their love of The Creature from the Black Lagoon (whose true colour is green, no matter what the posters might make you believe) and Dracula (we get to see one of the original capes and find out more about the ‘Dracula Ring’ that was made for Lugosi, although Chris Lee has a copy).

  Speaking of the Hammer legend himself, probably one of Lee’s most candid interviews is included, where he talks about the fun he had flinging women into graves as the pointy-teethed one, though he had significantly less fun when he dislocated his shoulder breaking through that door as The Mummy! It’s also quote poignant when he speaks of Peter Cushing: “I miss him very much.” Basil Gogos’ poster artwork is the focus of another section, with the highlight being his Phantom portrait. And in a rare treat, Bela G. Lugosi talks about his grandfather’s career – plus the joy of visiting the set of Abott and Costello Meet Dracula; Sara Karloff drives home just how much of an impact Boris had on actors’ rights in his time, to the extent of forming The Screen Actors’ Guild; and Ron Chaney is filmed introducing some of his famous family’s legacy on the big screen.

  But all that’s just the tip of the iceberg really. Tributes from such notables as Elvira, Caroline Munro, Zacherley (who bookends the show), Rex Reason, Dee Wallace Stone (who, strangely, talks about E.T. rather than that famous werewolf flick she once made…), Final Destination’s Don Roebuck (whose singing has to be seen to be believed), and June Foray (the voice of the witch in those original Chuck Jones cartoons, and the museum’s witch, Zenobia, who graces the front of the DVD box) all contribute to make this an essential item in any genre-lover’s collection. All profits go towards the running of the museum and archive, so order your copy today and prepare to be bewitched!

  The KILLING FLOOR

  Directed by Gideon Raff

  Featuring: Marc Blucas, Shiri Appleby, Reiko Alesworth

  Revolver Entertainment. £12.99

  Where do you go when you’ve been in a successful genre TV show, but now it’s finished? While Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jason Behr have ended up in major Hollywood productions like The Grudge, Marc Blucas (Riley from Buffy) and Shiri Appleby (Liz Parker in Roswell) have fared slightly worse than their co-stars in terms of high-profile projects. But then, sometimes you find it’s the smaller, lower budget end of the scale that comes up with more interesting subject matter, often allowing actors to play against type. The Killing Floor is a case in point; it might not have come out to a trumpet fanfare of a thousand horns, but it’s a riveting psychological thriller in the Hitchcockian vein that isn’t afraid to take risks.

  Blucas plays David Lamont, a literary agent who has been dubbed ‘The King of Fright’ because of his list of horror writing clients (although in this day and age, realistically I doubt whether he’d be doing as well as shown here unless he had King, Koontz, Barker and Herbert on his books). Lamont is looking for a new place, and falls in love with a three-storey
penthouse in a building built in 1879. Moving in, he comes into contact with the mysterious Audrey Levine (Reiko Aylesworth) which sets him at odds with an old client, Garret Rankin (Derek Cecil). There’s also a stranger claiming that Lamont is living in the house illegally, and that the property belongs to him – to the extent that cop Det. Soll (John Bedford Lloyd) is called in to make enquiries.

  It’s then that things start to become a little strange. Photos of a murder which has taken place in the apartment are waiting for him when he gets home one night, but he can’t find any record of it by trawling the internet. The tiles in the bathroom have been replaced for some reason, and Lamont receives the knife that the killer apparently used. Windows are left open, he’s getting bizarre phone calls, and an intruder even breaks in and films him while he is sleeping. As his relationship heats up with Audrey, much to the chagrin of his PA Rebecca (Appleby), he suspects his neighbour might not be everything she claims to be. There are plenty of other suspects for who might be trying to drive him out of his mind, though, and in the end events spiral out of control, leaving him a man on the edge, desperate for answers.

  If The Killing Floor had been a novel, it would have been by James Patterson or even John Connolly. The plot twists and turns, leaving the audience just as alarmed as the main protagonist – and I really love movies that isolate leads so that no-one knows which way is up or down any more. The acting from all concerned is very good, with Blucas and Appleby leaving behind any traces of their former personas, and there’s even a hint of spiciness to liven things up part way through, when most thrillers sag. Lloyd is terrific, however, as a creepy policeman who you know right from the start isn’t quite on the level, while Aylesworth smoulders in the traditional femme fatale role – but, again, with a twist.

  The suspense is built up well, with some moments of genuine fright – teaching the more gory movies a thing or two about subtlety. But it is for the ending that The Killing Floor will be remembered, one that I personally didn’t see coming and is just the right mix of bittersweet. You have to wonder why it didn’t get a wider release, as it’s definitely better than some of the dross you see on the big screen, but then maybe it would have spoilt the whole thing anyway to have made it bigger. I’d recommend this one in a heartbeat, just watch out that yours doesn’t beat too fast – or even stop completely. This one will floor you.

  Coming Next Week:

  Fiction: One in a Million by Kate Kelly

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