The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 19

by Stephen Jones

  The incredibly popular Wii platform put players right into the zombie action in Resident Evil 4, although Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer was as dull as the movie that inspired it.

  Celebrating the first decade of the successful video game franchise, Tomb Raider: Anniversary combined new technology with a nice retro feel.

  Neil Gaiman’s novel Anansi Boys was broadcast by BBC World Service in November as an hour-long drama starring Lenny Henry and Matt Lucas.

  BBC Radio 4’s M. R. James at Christmas broadcast five fifteen-minute adaptations of the author’s work by Chris Harrald, each introduced by Derek Jacobi as James. The series comprised “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You”, “The Tractate Middoth”, “Lost Hearts”, “The Rose Garden” and “Number 13”.

  Meanwhile, Robin Brooks’ radio play A Warning to the Curious involved a feminist film-maker and her crew visiting the Suffolk coast to make a documentary about James and his work.

  Radio 4 also adapted Roald Dahl’s The Witches as two two-hour dramas, featuring Margaret Tyzack and Amanda Lawrence.

  Produced by The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society and Dark Adventure Radio Theatre, the CD of At the Mountains of Madness presented Lovecraft’s novella as it might have been adapted for radio in the early 1930s. Recorded in “Mythophone”, the package also included various documents pertaining to the story, including a newspaper clipping, pencil sketches and never-before-released photographs.

  From Rainfall Records and The Society of the Yellow Sign, The King in Yellow CD was inspired by the story by Robert W. Chambers and included words and music by Chambers, Richard L. Tierney, Robert M. Price and Steve Lines, among others.

  While the writers’ strike crippled the US movie and TV industries, theatre stagehands also went on strike for the first time in November, closing down more than twenty-five Broadway shows over the Thanksgiving holiday, including The Little Mermaid, Phantom of the Opera and Wicked. However, having signed a separate agreement with the union, How the Grinch Stole Christmas was given special dispensation by a judge to remain open until the dispute was settled the following month.

  London’s Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, was closed for four months prior to the opening of the £25 million, three-hour stage production of The Lord of the Rings on 9 May so that a £1 million revolving stage could be built. Unfortunately, it jammed during the first performance. As if that was not bad enough, during previews a performer playing a Ranger injured himself on stage in front of an audience of 2,300 people. The actor was thought to have got his leg caught in the hydraulic machinery that controlled the spectacular stage designs, and two performances were cancelled. During its initial six-month run in Toronto, Canada, The Lord of the Rings lost millions of dollars and was heavily panned by the critics.

  From the same creative team who came up with The Producers, Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein arrived on Broadway in November following previews the month before. The stage musical, based on the 1974 movie spoof, starred Roger Bart as the hysterical Dr Frederick Frankenstein, Megan Mullally as Elizabeth, and Shuler Hensley as the tap-dancing Monster.

  Meanwhile, Frankenstein was a rival Off-Broadway musical starring Hunter Foster as mad scientist Victor and Steve Blanchard as the Creature.

  Xanadu was an unlikely stage adaptation of the 1980 musical fantasy movie, with Kerry Butler mimicking the Australian accent of Olivia Newton-John’s original roller-skating heroine.

  The Peepolykus production of The Hound of the Baskervilles was a clever spoof version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic novel that had a limited run at London’s Duchess Theatre. Javier Marzan gave a thick-accented performance as a Spanish Sherlock Holmes.

  Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood starred in Rupert Goold’s new production of Macbeth, which reset Shakespeare’s play in a 1940s Stalinist state. The critically-acclaimed production transferred from Chichester’s Minerva studio to London’s Gielgud Theatre at the end of September.

  Audiences sang along with The Buffy Musical, which presented the “Once More With Feeling” episode from the TV series’ sixth season on big screens in a number of US cities, until Fox abruptly pulled all its TV shows from theatrical exhibition over licensing issues in early October.

  A Matter of Life and Death at London’s National Theatre was based on the 1946 Powell and Pressburger film, while the Lyric Hammersmith mounted a production of Don’t Look Now inspired by the Daphne Du Maurier short story and Nicolas Roeg’s movie.

  Kenneth Cranham, Rosamund Pike and Andrew Woodall starred in The Old Vic production of Gaslight, based on a Victorian stage play by Patrick Hamilton.

  Over Christmas, London’s Almedia theatre staged an adaptation of Catherine Storr’s classic 1950s children’s book Maríanne Dreams.

  The Edgar Allan Poe-inspired The Masque of the Red Death, was an interactive experience created by Felix Barrett of London’s Punchdrunk theatre group at the Battersea Arts Centre. Audience members were asked to put on masks and then guided through various Gothic rooms in which a bizarre Victorian vaudeville was being performed. The show was so popular that its run was extended until April 2008.

  Doctor Who merchandise such as the Cyberman Voice Changing Helmet and the radio-controlled Dalek were the hit toys of Christmas 2006, resulting in a thirty-five per cent increase in sales for manufacturer The Character Group.

  After Jakks Pacific dropped the Universal Monsters licence, Toy Island stepped in with five action figures of the Frankenstein Monster, Dracula, The Wolf Man, The Mummy and Creature from the Black Lagoon. Each set came with pieces for a “Build-a-Frankenstein” figure.

  Meanwhile, The Bride of Frankenstein Premium Figure was eighteen inches high and hand-painted.

  For fans of 1950s “B” movies, Ultratumba Productions released display models of the monsters from Angry Red Planet and It Conquered the World, limited to just 150 and 200 pieces, respectively.

  Lovecraft fans could keep their feet warm in winter with a pair of Cthulhu plush slippers from Toy Vault.

  “The Village of Horror Classics” from Hawthorne Village included sculptures of “842 Elm Street”, “The Hewitt House” and “Camp Crystal Lake Cabin” from the New Line Cinema movies A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th. Each mail-order set came with free figurines.

  Hallmark created a series of musical birthday cards based on Bride of Frankenstein, The Munsters, King Kong, Beetle Juice, The Twilight Zone and, best of all, The Birds (“A little birdie told me it’s your birthday . . . Actually, it was like a million little birdies, and they kind of screamed it. You might want to stay indoors. Anyway, Happy Birthday!”).

  In June, a 1933 German poster for King Kong sold to a mystery buyer at the London branch of Christie’s for £60,000. Designed by Josef Fenneker, only two copies of the poster are known to exist.

  That same month, the original costume worn by the late Christopher Reeve in Superman (1978) sold at Bonhams in London’s Knightsbridge for £8,400.

  In October, the original cape worn by Christopher Lee in Hammer’s 1958 version of Dracula was discovered in a London fancy dress shop. The shop called upon the actor to verify that the item was authentic. Apparently missing for thirty years and worth an estimated £24,000, the cape was discovered during an annual stock check at Angel’s Fancy Dress, who had been hiring it out to customers for Halloween. The long overcoat worn by Peter Cushing’s Van Helsing in the film was found at the same time.

  Available from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, The Neil Gaiman Scent Collection (“a tribute to the literary corpus of the inimitable master of fiction”) consisted of seven scents “based” on the author’s characters. Proceeds from every bottle went to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

  Britain’s Royal Mail issued a series of seven “Harry Potter” stamps on 17 July to commemorate the publication of the final volume in the series. Each of the stamps featured a book cover from the series, and they were also available as postcards. An additional set of five stamps
included the badges of the different houses and school crests at Hogwarts. Pre-orders totalled a record-breaking 340,000 sets.

  For the first time since it was founded in 1991, the World Horror Convention was held outside the United States from 29 March – 1 April in Toronto, Canada. Celebrating “The Diversity of Horror” as a theme, the international line-up of Guests of Honour included authors Michael Marshall Smith and Nancy Kilpatrick, artist John Picacio, publisher/author Peter Crowther, editor and pulp magazine expert Don Hutchison, and scriptwriter Peter Atkins. Author Joe R. Lansdale was the popular recipient of the 2007 Grand Master Award, and veteran cartoonist Gahan Wilson was the Special Horror Writers Association Guest.

  Many other major names from both sides of the Atlantic attended the up-market event, and the convention produced a hardcover souvenir book that was limited to just 600 copies.

  The Horror Writers’ Association Bram Stoker Awards were presented at a glitzy banquet at World Horror on the evening of 31 March. Mistress of Ceremonies Sephera Giron hosted the event, and various guest presenters revealed the winners. The previouslyannounced Life Achievement Award went to Thomas Harris. PS Publishing picked up the Specialty Press Award, and Poetry Collection went to Bruce Boston’s Shades Fantastic. Non-Fiction was a tie between Michael Largo’s Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die and Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero’s Vision of Hell on Earth by Kim Paffenroth.

  Anthology was another tie between Mondo Zombie edited by John Skipp and Retro Pulp Tales edited by Joe R. Lansdale. Gary Braunbeck’s Destination Unknown (from Cemetery Dance Publishing) won for Collection, the Short Fiction Award was presented to Lisa Morton for “Tested” (Cemetery Dance Magazine), and Norman Patridge’s Dark Harvest (also published by CD) won for Long Fiction. Jonathan Maberry’s Ghost Road Blues picked up the First Novel Award, and Stephen King’s Lisey’s Story won the Novel category. Donna Fitch also received the special Silver Hammer Award for services to the HWA.

  All of the winners, except for Harris, King and Fitch, were present to collect their trophies.

  The British Fantasy Society’s FantasyCon 2007 returned to Nottingham over the weekend of 21-23 September. Guests of Honour were Terry Brooks, Michael Marshall Smith and Stephen Jones, and Peter Crowther was Master of Ceremonies.

  The winners of the annual British Fantasy Awards were announced at the impressive Banquet on the Sunday afternoon. Ellen Datlow was the recipient of The Special Karl Edward Wagner Award, and Joe Hill was named as the winner of the inaugural Sydney J. Bounds Best Newcomer Award, which came with a cheque for £100.00.

  The Best Non-Fiction Award went to Mark Morris’ Cinema Macabre from PS Publishing, and Peter Crowther’s imprint also picked up the Small Press Award. Vincent Chong won Best Artist.

  Neil Gaiman’s Fragile Things was voted Best Collection, and the Best Anthology award went to Extended Play: The Elastic Book of Music edited by Gary Couzens. Best Short Fiction was Mark Chadbourn’s “Whisper Lane” (from BFS: A Celebration) and Best Novella was Paul Finch’s “Kid” (from Choices). Dusk by Tim Lebbon won The August Derleth Fantasy Award for Best Novel.

  The 2007 World Fantasy Convention, held over 1-4 November in Saratoga Springs, New York, was the largest in the event’s history. Guests of Honour were authors Carol Emshwiller, Kim Newman and Lisa Turtle and French artist Jean Giraud (“Moebius”), with Canadian writer Guy Gavriel Kay as Toastmaster.

  The 2007 International Horror Guild Awards were given out at a lacklustre ceremony on 1 November, when many people had not yet arrived for the convention. Presenter John Picacio nearly had to accept from himself when Cover Story: The Art of John Picacio tied with Aeron Alfrey’s online Exhibits from the Imaginary Museum for the Art award. Lewis Trondheim’s A.L.I.E.E.N. won Illustrative Narrative, Bill Schafer’s Subterranean topped the Periodical category and the Non-Fiction award went to Icons of Horror and the Supernatural edited by S. T. Joshi.

  After the judges refused to give any awards in the category in 2006, Lords of the Razor edited by William Sheehan and Bill Schafer was the welcome Anthology winner, while Collection was a tie between Terry Dowling’s Basic Black and Glen Hirshberg’s American Morons. Stephen Gallagher’s “The Box” (from Retro-Pulp Tales) won the Short Fiction, Mid-Length Fiction went to “The Old North Road” by Paul Finch (from Alone on the Darkside), and Norman Partridge’s Dark Harvest won Long Fiction.

  The Novel award went to Conrad Williams’ The Unblemished, although nobody had bothered to inform the winner. At least Ramsey Campbell was on hand to collect his long overdue Living Legend Award from British editor Jo Fletcher.

  The World Fantasy Awards were announced at the crowded Sunday afternoon banquet. The Special Award, Non-Professional went to Locus reviewer Gary K. Wolfe, and the recipient of the Professional Award was Ellen Asher for her outstanding work at the Science Fiction Book Club. Australian illustrator Shaun Tan won Best Artist, M. Rickert’s Map of Dreams was awarded Best Collection and Salon Fantastique edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Winding picked up Best Anthology.

  M. Rickert was also the winner of the Best Short Fiction award for her story “Journey Into the Kingdom” from the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Jeffrey Ford’s “Botch Town” (from The Empire of Ice Cream) won for Novella, and GenéWolfe’s Soldier ofSidon was presented with the Best Novel award. The author had celebrated his 55th wedding anniversary the day before.

  Previously announced Life Achievement Awards went to publisher Betty Ballantine and children’s author Diana Wynne Jones.

  In 2007 I was involved in the running of the very successful World Horror Convention in Toronto, Canada. I would like to say that, overall, it was an enjoyable experience, but in fact it wasn’t.

  This was mostly due to a small – but vocal – minority in the horror community who decided to attack the event before we had even announced most of our plans.

  I attended the first World Horror Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1991. Since then, I have probably been to more of them than many people. For the most part, they have been well-organized events but, over the past decade, it has become obvious that the convention has been struggling, with some reportedly having problems covering their costs.

  Also, for a so-called “world” event, the convention had never even been held outside the United States before Toronto.

  This was why, somewhat reluctantly at first, I agreed to become involved in the Canadian bid. It was obvious to me, and others, that the convention needed to be put on a much more professional footing. Otherwise it was in danger of eventually failing altogether.

  With the rising cost of air travel, hotel rooms and other ancillary expenses, it no longer made sense to have a number of different literary horror events held throughout the year across North America. The key was to bring everything under one umbrella organization.

  To this end, we decided to hold the convention in a major metropolitan city just across the US border. We brought on board the Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Awards, which had previously been held as a separate event. Chicago’s respected Twilight Tales group was asked to oversee the reading programme, while our distinguished line-up of guests drew upon the best writers, artists and editors from three countries.

  As a result, for the first time in years, attendance numbers increased dramatically. We attracted some of the biggest names in the genre, along with publishers, editors, agents and enthusiastic fans from all over the world. The extra revenue allowed us to sponsor parties, publish a handsome hardcover souvenir book, refund groups and individuals, and award bursaries to various book-related organizations. In short, we achieved everything that any well-organized convention should.

  Unfortunately, all this was not good enough for a vociferous group which continued to criticise the event in hateful terms on such seditious message boards as Shocklines. This group of people was disgruntled that the convention was being held for the first time in a country other than America. They were surprised that, lik
e everybody else, they were expected to pay a modest admission fee for the various talks, panels and other scheduled entertainments. But, most of all, they were outraged that they would not automatically be given programming slots, even though most of them had few or no professional credits to speak of.

  Therefore, they not only used the Internet to spread false rumours, but a few people were also downright abusive and threatening in the months running up to the convention. I was left feeling ashamed that these individuals were even a part of the horror community.

  In the end, of course, none of it really mattered, and the vast majority of those who actually attended the convention had a great time, with many considering it one of the best World Horror Conventions they had ever participated in. That, at least, was gratifying after two years of ceaseless hard work by everybody involved.

  Unfortunately, what that small group of troublemakers did not realize was that they were not just attacking the convention, but the very genre itself. Whereas all we had wanted to do was revitalize the convention so that it would continue for many years to come, this group was only interested in having a good time and selfishly promoting themselves and their work.

  These people simply could not care less about the bigger picture, and they had no interest in meeting or listening to the advice of their peers. No matter how desperately some of them may have needed that guidance.

  For these people, it became a “them” or “us” situation, where the self-published and self-promoted considered themselves equal – or even superior – to those who make their living professionally working in the genre. This is a problem that has already infected some of the award processes within our field, and it would be a tragedy if conventions were also ultimately hijacked by such groups, who have little experience and even less credibility.