The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 22

by Stephen Jones

  Regional American film-maker and actor Russ (Russell) Marker died on February 22, aged 83. He wrote, produced and directed the obscure 1963 SF movie The Yesterday Machine and co-scripted and directed Demon from Devil’s Lake, which was eventually completed by James A. Sullivan as Night Fright (aka E.T.N.: The Extraterrestrial Nastie). As well as appearing in a small role in the latter film, Marker was also in Edgar Ulmer’s Beyond the Time Barrier.

  British-born cinematographer and TV commercial director Derek [James] Vanlint died in Toronto, Canada, on February 23, aged 77. He shot Alien and Dragonslayer, and was responsible for the miniature photography on X-Men.

  British dancer, choreographer and director Wendy Toye CBE (Beryl May Jessie Toye), who created the dance for the mechanical doll in The Thief of Bagdad (1940), died on February 27, aged 92. In the 1950s she choreographed the Broadway production of Peter Pan, starring Boris Karloff as “Captain Hook”. Toye also directed the best segment of Three Cases of Murder (“In the Picture”), an episode of Tales of the Unexpected (based on her 1952 short film) and a 1961 TV version of the opera Orpheus in the Underworld.

  French-Canadian still photographer Pierre Vinet died in New Zealand of mesothelioma on March 3. Best known for his work on such Peter Jackson films as Braindead (aka Dead Alive), Heavenly Creatures, The Frighteners, The Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong (2005), his other credits include Hercules and the Amazon Women, Hercules and the Lost Kingdom, Kull the Conqueror, Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000, Willard (2003), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Water Horse.

  Russian film director Vladamir Chebotaryov died on March 4, aged 88. He co-directed the 1961 SF film The Amphibian Man with Gennadi Kazansky.

  American screenwriter and independent rural filmmaker Charles B. (Chuck) Pierce died on March 5, aged 71. Amongst his credits are the documentary-style The Legend of Boggy Creek, The Town That Dreaded Sundown, The Evictors and The Barbaric Beast of Boggy Creek Part II. He also worked as a set decorator on The Phantom Tollbooth, Pretty Maids All in a Row, Earth II, The Invasion of Carol Enders, The Night Strangler, Wicked Wicked, Scream Blacula Scream, Killer Bees, The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair and episodes of TV’s The Twilight Zone (1985) and MacGyver. Pierce made cameo appearances in some of his own films, and also turned up as a preacher in The Aurora Encounter.

  Innovative British cinematographer Tony (Anthony) Imi died on March 8, aged 72. His many credits include Percy’s Progress (aka It’s Not the Size That Counts, with Vincent Price), The Slipper and the Rose: The Story of Cinderella, A Christmas Carol (1984), Enemy Mine, The Haunting of Helen Walker (based on Turn of the Screw by Henry James) and Lighthouse (aka Dead of Night). For TV he worked on The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling, Adam Adamant Lives!, Doctor Who (“The Faceless Ones”) and The Return of Sherlock Holmes.

  American cinematographer, film historian and movie preservationist Karl Malkames died the same day, aged 83. As an editor, he cut the negative for the 1971 alternate version of John Barrymore’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1920).

  Production designer John D. Jefferies, Sr who, with his brother Matt, created the design of the original phaser pistol for TV’s Star Trek, died of lung cancer on March 25, aged 73. His other credits include the series The Greatest American Hero and Misfits of Science, plus the movies Just Visiting, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and Black Knight.

  Gregg (Gregory) Peters, who was unit production manager on the original Star Trek TV series (1967–69), died of complications from Parkinson’s disease on March 27, aged 84. He also served as an assistant director and associate producer on the show. Peters’ other credits include such TV series as The Outer Limits and The Immortal.

  British special effects technician and matte painter Bob (Robert) Cuff died in April, aged 87. He produced matte paintings (working with John Mackey, often uncredited) for The Day of the Triffids (1962), Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, The Masque of the Red Death (1964), First Men in the Moon, Hammer’s One Million B.C. and Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, Life of Brian, The Princess Bride, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Erik the Viking. Cuff also worked on the special effects for 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Vengeance of She. Along with Les Bowie, Cuff and Mackey formed Abacus Productions, which produced TV commercials, including Orson Welles’ spots for Domecq sherry.

  Controversial British music manager, songwriter and singer Malcolm [Robert Andrew] McLaren died in Switzerland after a long battle with cancer on April 9, aged 64. During the 1970s he famously managed such acts as The Sex Pistols, the New York Dolls, Adam Ant, Bow Wow Wow and Boy George, and is widely credited with creating the “Punk Rock” movement. He lived with clothes designer Vivienne Westwood for a number of years and was portrayed by David Hayman in the 1986 film Sid and Nancy. In 1999 McLaren announced that he was standing for Mayor of London.

  American film editor Dede Allen (Dorothea Corothers Allen) died of a stroke on April 17, aged 86. Starting her career as a messenger at Columbia Pictures, she went on to edit Terror from the Year 5000, Slaughterhouse-Five, The Wiz and The Addams Family, amongst many other titles. With Bonnie and Clyde (1967) she was the first editor – either male or female – to receive sole onscreen credit at the beginning of a movie.

  “The Godfather of anime”, American producer and scriptwriter Carl Macek, died of a heart attack the same day, aged 58. In 1985 he edited together three different Japanese anime series to create the popular Robotech series. He followed it with various sequels and spin-offs, and his other credits include the English-language versions of Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro, Vampire Hunter D, Wicked City, Cyber Ninja, the Crying Freeman series, Casshan: Robot Hunter and 2009: Lost Memories, along with Heavy Metal 2000. Macek also co-edited the studies McGill’s Survey of the Cinema and Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style, and he wrote The Art of Heavy Metal: Animation for the Eighties and the novel War Eagles, the latter based on a 1930s film treatment by Merian C. Cooper.

  British televison and theatre production designer [Arthur] David Myerscough-Jones died of cancer in France on April 21, aged 75. Through the late 1960s and early ’70s he worked on Doctor Who (“The Web of Fear”, “The Ambassadors of Death” and “Day of the Daleks”), and his other credits include Jonathan Miller’s TV version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream starring Nigel Davenport and a 1989 adaptation of The Yellow Wallpaper, based on the short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

  American-born Mexican director and actor Alberto Mariscal (Adalberto Ramírez Álvarez Mariscal) died in Los Angeles on April 24, aged 84. With Alfredo B. Crevenna he co-directed the 1960s horror comedies House of the Frights, Bring Me the Vampire and La huella macabre, and his other films include Kalimán el hombre increíble and its sequel Kalimán en el siniestro mundo de Humanón, La tumba de Matías and Danik el viajero del tiempo. As an actor, Mariscal appeared in El monstruo resucitado, Santo contra el rey del crimen and Neutrón contra el criminal sádico.

  Pioneering American sexploitation writer, director and editor Joseph W. Sarno died after a short illness on April 26, aged 89. Under a wide variety of names he worked on both hard- and softcore films, including Pandora and the Magic Box, The Devil’s Plaything, A Touch of Genie and Oversexed, among numerous other titles.

  British film producer Roy [William] Baird died the same day, aged 76. After working as a first assistant director or production manager on such films as Devils of Darkness, The Collector (1965), Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (aka Morgan!), Island of Terror (starring Peter Cushing) and the James Bond spoof Casino Royale (1966), he went on to produce such titles as Our Mother’s House, Lindsay Anderson’s If . . ., Ken Russell’s The Devils and The Final Programme, based on the novel by Michael Moorcock.

  Costume designer Cecelia [Doidge] Ripper, the widow of veteran British character actor Michael Ripper (who died in 2000), died of cancer
on April 29, aged 66. Her credits include several episodes of TV’s Tales of the Unexpected and The Witches and the Grinnygog (based on the children’s novel by Dorothy Edwards).

  American music and entertainment lawyer Peter Lopez, whose clients included Michael Jackson, The Eagles and Michael Bublé, shot himself to death outside his home on April 30. Lopez was 60, and was married to actress Catherine Bach.

  Innovative French cinematographer William Lubtchansky died of heart disease in Paris on May 4, aged 72. Part of the French “New Wave” movement of the 1960s and ’70s, he worked with director Jean-Luc Godard six times and also photographed Alain Jessua’s Frankenstein 90 (1984).

  David [Edward] Durston (aka “Richard Kent”/“Spencer Logan”), who wrote and directed the 1970 film I Drink Your Blood, died of pneumonia on May 6, aged 88. He also scripted a couple of episodes of the 1950s TV series Tales of Tomorrow.

  Michael Levesque, who directed the 1971 cult classic Werewolves on Wheels, died of cancer on May 14, aged 66. As an art/production designer he worked on The Trip, Phantom of the Paradise, Ilsa Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks (uncredited), The Incredible Melting Man and several Russ Meyer movies.

  American TV animation producer Peter [Eugene] Keefe died on May 27, aged 57. His credits include such juvenile series as Voltron: Defender of the Universe, Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, Denver the Last Dinosaur, Widget the World Watcher, Twinkle the Dream Being and the direct-to-video Nine Dog Christmas.

  Veteran Hollywood cinematographer William A. (Ashman) Fraker died of cancer on May 31, aged 86. The six-times Oscar nominee’s credits include Incubus (1966), Games, The President’s Analyst, Rosemary’s Baby, The Day of the Dolphin, Fritz Lang Interviewed by William Friedkin, Coonskin, Lipstick (additional photography), Exorcist II: The Heretic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (additional American scenes), Heaven Can Wait (1978), 1941, WarGames, SpaceCamp, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Street Fighter and The Island of Dr Moreau (1996). He also shot The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre, the pilot for The Haunted, Leslie Stevens’ unproduced companion TV series to The Outer Limits, and The Unknown, another pilot that eventually aired on that series as “The Form of Things Unknown”. Fraker also directed A Reflection of Fear, The Legend of the Lone Ranger and an episode of TV’s The Flash.

  “Mr Radio Drama”, Himan (Hyman) Brown, who in 1941 created, produced and directed ABC Radio’s Inner Sanctum Mysteries, died on June 4, six weeks short of his 100th birthday. The show was later adapted into a series of films by Universal starring Lon Chaney, Jr, and also a 1954 TV series. His other radio shows included Dick Tracy, The Adventures of the Thin Man, Flash Gordon, Terry and the Pirates and CBS Radio Mystery Theatre. “I am firmly convinced that nothing visual can touch audio,” said Brown in a 2003 interview. “The magic word is imagination.”

  American movie producer Steven [Daniel] Reuther, who founded Douglas/Reuther Productions with actor Michael Douglas, died after a long battle with cancer on June 5, aged 58. His credits include Big Man on Campus, Hider in the House, The Ghost and the Darkness and Face/Off. Reuther was married to actress Helen Shaver from 1979 to 1982.

  Veteran British cinematographer, scriptwriter, producer and director Ronald Neame CBE died in Los Angeles of complications from a fall on June 16, aged 99. While working at Elstree Studios in the 1920s, one of Neame’s first jobs in the industry was as an assistant cameraman on Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail (1929), the first talking pictured filmed in the UK. He went on to photograph The Crimes of Stephen Hawke (starring Tod Slaughter), the Edgar Wallace adaptation The Gaunt Stranger (aka The Phantom Strikes) and Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit. Neame produced and co-scripted David Lean’s classic adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations (1946) before he turned to directing in 1950. His later credits in that department include Scrooge (1970), The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and Meteor.

  Independent American movie producer Elliott Kastner died of cancer in London on June 30, aged 80. A former music talent agent who worked extensively in Europe, he produced Tam Lin (aka The Devil’s Widow), The Nightcomers, Absolution, The First Deadly Sin, Nomads, Angel Heart, White of the Eye, Zombie High, Jack’s Back and the 1988 remake of The Blob. Kastner was the stepfather of actor Cary Elwes.

  Prolific British cinematographer [George] Alan Hume died on July 13, aged 85. He began his career in the camera department working in various capacities on Thunder Rock, Great Expectations (1946), Svengali, The Green Man, Tarzan the Magnificent and a number of early Carry On films. From 1960 onwards he photographed many more Carry On titles (including Carry On Spying and Carry On Screaming!); the James Bond films The Spy Who Loved Me (Hume shot the stunning pre-credit skiing sequence), For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy and A View to a Kill, plus Hammer’s The Kiss of the Vampire, Dr Terror’s House of Horrors, Captain Nemo and the Underwater City, From Beyond the Grave (based on stories by R. Chetwynd-Hayes), The Legend of Hell House (based on the novel by Richard Matheson), Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold, the Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptations The Land That Time Forgot (1975), At the Earth’s Core and The People That Time Forgot, Trial By Combat (aka A Dirty Knight’s Work), Wombling Free, Gulliver’s Travels (1977), Warlords of Atlantis, The Legacy, Arabian Adventure, Disney’s The Watcher in the Woods, Caveman, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1982), Star Wars Episode VI: The Empire Strikes Back (he fell out with the producers over their treatment of director Richard Marquand and was replaced by his assistant), Supergirl, Lifeforce, Jack the Ripper (1988), Without a Clue, Eve of Destruction and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1997), along with episodes of TV’s The Avengers, Star Maidens, Space Precinct and Tales from the Crypt.

  American art director and production designer Robert F. (Francis) Boyle died on August 2, aged 100. His long career includes such films as The Wolf Man (1941), Invisible Agent, Who Done It?, White Savage (aka White Captive), Flesh and Fantasy, Abbott and Costello Go to Mars, It Came from Outer Space, Cape Fear (1962), Hitchcock’s The Birds, In Cold Blood, Explorers and Dragnet (1987). In 2008 Boyle was presented with an honorary Oscar at the 80th Academy Awards, making him the oldest Oscar winner to date.

  American film and TV producer David L. Wolper died of congestive heart failure and complications from Parkinson’s disease on August 10, aged 82. Best known for such “event” mini-series as Roots, The Thorn Birds and North and South, his other credits include The Incredible World of James Bond, The Hellstrom Chronicle, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Monsters! Mysteries or Myths?, The Man Who Saw Tomorrow, The Mystic Warrior, Without Warning (1994) and The Mists of Avalon (based on the novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley).

  Edward O. Denault, who was an assistant director on The Twilight Zone (mostly directing the linking material featuring Rod Serling) and many other TV series during the 1960s, died of heart failure on August 21, aged 86. As a production manager he later worked on Sole Survivor, The Brotherhood of the Bell, Something Evil, The Horror at 37,000 Feet and an episode of The Wild Wild West. Denault also produced the 1984 movie The Last Starfighter and was involved with the Max Headroom TV series.

  Japanese anime writer-director Satoshi Kon died of pancreatic cancer on August 23, aged 46. His films include Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers and Paprika.

  Workmanlike British film director and editor Clive [Stanley] Donner died of Alzheimer’s disease on September 6, aged 84. His credits include Vampira (aka Old Dracula, starring David Niven as the Count), the 1976 TV movie Rogue Mail, the Gene Roddenberry pilot Spectre, The Thief of Baghdad (1978), The Nude Bomb (aka The Return of Maxwell Smart), Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen, A Christmas Carol (1984), Arthur the King (aka Merlin and the Sword) and Babes in Toyland (1986). As an editor, Donner worked on Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (uncredited) and Scrooge (1951), and he co-scripted the 1966 episode of the BBC TV series Out of the Unknown, “The Machine Stops”, based on the SF novel by E.M. Forster. He was also set to direct the 1980 sequel Romance of the Pink Panther, but star Peter Sellers (who had worked with
Donner on What’s New Pussycat?) died before production began.

  French film director, writer and producer Claude Chabrol, a founding father of the celebrated “New Wave” movement, died on September 12, aged 80. His credits include Bluebeard (1963), The Champagne Murders, Le boucher, Death Rite, Alice or the Last Escapade, Dr M and Hell (based on the 1964 film script by Henri-Georges Clouzot). He contributed two episodes to the 1980 series Fantômas, and filmed a 1981 TV version of Edgar Allan Poe’s Le système du docteur Goudron et du professeur Plume. Chabrol was married to actress Stéphane Audran from 1964 to 1980.

  British TV scriptwriter and producer Louis [Frank] Marks died on September 17, aged 82. He wrote four Doctor Who stories – “Planet of the Giants” (1964), “Day of the Daleks” (1972), “Planet of Evil” (1975) and “The Masque of Mandragora” (1976). Marks also scripted three episodes of Doomwatch and he was script editor for the 1972 Dead of Night episode “The Exorcism”.

  American puppeteer and actor Van [Charles] Snowden died of cancer on September 22, aged 71. He was the puppeteer for the “Crypt Keeper” in the TV series Tales from the Crypt and the movies Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight, Casper and Bordello of Blood. Snowden’s other credits include Beetle Juice, Child’s Play 2, Child’s Play 3, Dracula (1992), The X Files and such shows as Pufnstuf The Bugaloos, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, Land of the Lost and Pee-wee’s Playhouse.

  British-born cinematographer Neil Lisk died in Los Angeles the same day. His credits include Sasquatch Mountain (aka Devil on the Mountain), War Wolves, I Spit on Your Grave (2010), Mongolian Death Worm and Night of the Alien.

  American film and TV director Arthur Penn, best known for his 1967 version of Bonnie and Clyde, died of congestive heart failure on September 28, the day after his 88th birthday. After getting his start with live television in the mid-1950s, his other movie credits include Mickey One and Dead of Winter.