The Dark Angel (1989): A Gothic Nightmare Worth Revisiting

Uncle Silas is one of author’s Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s best, and best loved novels. It’s a Gothic nightmare filled with memorable, broadly drawn characters, an immersive sense of atmosphere, and a command of language and pacing that is nothing short of masterly.

Although Le Fanu was best known for his ghost stories, Uncle Silas hasn’t a single element of the supernatural or the uncanny. Instead, Le Fanu weaves a tale of greed, corruption, illusion, and tremendous evil preying on the innocent. The book tells the tale of an adolescent girl named Maud, an heiress living with her reclusive father, in their formidable mansion. After her father's sudden death, she becomes the ward of her uncle Silas, a once infamous gambler, and who now claims to be a devout Christian, living a quiet, secluded life in his mansion, Bartram-Haugh. But soon after moving in with him, Maud begins to sense that something is amiss, with her uncle Silas behaving strangely, even sinisterly, while Bartram-Haugh, with its history of murder, seems to be haunted by an air of menace and evil.

The novel has been adapted to the big and small screens many a time, but one of the most effective, and provocative versions, is The Dark Angel, a mini-series which aired on the BBC in the winter of 1989.

This version is almost forgotten now, but upon release, it was quite a sensation, and later, when it came out on VHS, it turned into a cult classic. And for good reason.

The Dark Angel, takes Le Fanu’s slow-burn novel, and turns it into a hallucinatory, intense Gothic thriller, or as the promotional material calls the series, "the archetypal Gothic thriller."

Veteran TV director Peter Hammond, and writer Don MacPherson, attack the material with manic energy, leaving no opportunity to explore the darkest and seediest aspects of the original novel, sometimes stylishly, sometimes with what borders on bad taste. But throughout the three episodes that make up the series, there is never a dull moment, or an uncaptivating scene.

Maud is played with earnest innocence by Beatie Edney, and like all the other characters from the novel, is more or less an exaggerated version of the original character.

Peter O’Toole, as Uncle Silas, delivers one of his typically uneven performances from the 1980s, oscillating between brooding charisma, and annoying hamminess. But in his quieter moments, O’Toole is a scary, unforgettable Silas, a vicious, calculating scoundrel, masquerading as a tortured Byronic figure.

But the real star of this adaptation is Jane Lapotaire as Madame de la Rougierre, Silas’s emissary and dark accomplice. Lapotaire delivers a performance so sinister, so mesmerizing, that it has to be seen to be believed. A performance that is kinetic, exaggerated, and grotesque, yet never unbelievable or risible. It is a near magnificent acting feat, and showcases the breadth of talent of Lapotaire, one of the most underrated actors to come out of Britain. Lapotaire takes a character that was merely intriguing in the novel, and transforms her into a force of cruel nature, a sadistic villain who nonetheless manages to be entrancing and even sympathetic.

And although director Peter Hammond’s excesses, and the series’ overwrought tone threaten to overwhelm the viewer at any moment, by the end of the three hour tale, one is left with a sense of a dark journey worth taking, through a haunted, grotesque, and occasionally beautiful nightmare.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa.

Video Version:

Halloween Treat: Rediscovering HAUNTED HONEYMOON (1986)

© Orion Pictures.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Gene Wilder was one of the highest paid and most successful actors in Hollywood. With hits like Silver Streak in 1976, and Stir Crazy in 1980 under his belt, and Oscar nominations for his work on Mel Brooks’ The Producers, in 1967, and Young Frankenstein, in 1974, which Wilder also co-wrote, it was expected that Wilder would make the transition from actor to writer director, and he did so, with 1975's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother, which proved to be a hit.

He then directed The World’s Greatest Lover, in 1977, which was a commercial and critical disappointment.

After taking a long break from directing, Wilder bounced back with his next effort, 1984's The Woman in Red, which was one of the surprise sleeper hits of that year, and which garnered an Oscar nomination for best song as well.

The success of The Woman in Red, led to Orion Pictures offering Wilder another project of his choice to write and direct.

The result was Haunted Honeymoon, released in 1986.

The film was instantly dismissed by critics as an unfunny disaster, and, after proving to be a commercial failure, quickly disappeared from theaters.

At first glance, it is easy to see why Haunted Honeymoon failed so miserably upon release.

Wilder, who, up to that point, was mostly known for his quirky brand of bombastic comedy, produced something quite different with Haunted Honeymoon, a mishmash of genres, including horror, mystery, freudian thriller, and slapstick comedy. An uneasy mixture that would have been challenging to pull off for any filmmaker, let alone a relatively unseasoned director like Wilder.

But, apparent flaws aside, Haunted Honeymoon has a lot to offer.

The film takes place in the 1930s, and tells the story of Larry Abbot, a man who has everything going for him. He is starring in the most successful show on the radio and he’s about to get married to Vickie, the love of his life. But underneath all the fame and success, something is troubling him, leading him to freeze while performing on the air. So he decides to go on a trip with Vickie to the eerie castle where he grew up, and where his family still resides. But upon arrival, Larry is entangled in a web of murder and dark family secrets, and discovers that one of the residents of the castle might be a werewolf.

Like all of the films Wilder has written or directed, Haunted Honeymoon is more of an ensemble piece than a starring vehicle for Wilder, with Wilder providing his terrific cast with plenty of opportunities to shine.

From Bryan Pringle as Pfister, the imposing but lovable alcoholic butler, to Jonathan Pryce as Charles, the sleazy ne’er do well, to the delightful Eve Ferret as the bubbly Sylvia.

Surprisingly enough, two of the film’s biggest stars don’t fare so well. Gilda Radner is woefully miscast as Vickie, Wilder character’s love interest, and Wilder himself admitted in his autobiography, Kiss Me Like A Stranger, that he only cast Radner under pressure from her and to spare her feelings. And although Radner shines in a moment or two, she’s too good a comedienne not to, her performance is awkward and distracting.

And Dom Deluise, performing in drag as Katherine, Larry’s aunt and the family’s imposing matriarch, almost has nothing to do, with Wilder and Deluise seemingly depending on the mere sight of Deluise in woman’s dress to do the work.

And like all the films Wilder directed, Haunted Honeymoon comes off as incoherent, occasionally overwrought, and too self-indulgent, jumping from one scene to the next with little rhyme or reason, and feeling more like a series of episodes than a cohesive story.

So it’s easy to see why Haunted Honeymoon doesn’t work on many levels.

But despite all the film’s problems, it still has its charms.

The film has a brilliantly stylish Gothic atmosphere, with dazzling production design by co-writer Terence Marsh, who, in spite of a modest budget, manages to enrich the film’s sets with plenty of lush period detail. This provides one of the film’s highlights, as Haunted Honeymoon is obviously Wilder’s loving tribute to the horror comedies of the 1930s and 40s, with thundering skies, secret passages, evil villains with glowing eyes, and even a werewolf or two.

And the film’s second half is a fast-paced delight, featuring one scary gag after another, with Wilder arguably doing some of his best work as director, as the film is undeniably Wilder’s most visually accomplished effort.

Even if the climax is a bit abrupt, and there’s one revelation too many, Haunted Honeymoon is an enjoyable misfire, a visually stylish, unique, and absorbing horror comedy from a one of a kind comedic artist.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2023.

Subscribe to the YouTube channel.

Buy A. Kale's books, published by The Dark Fantastic Network and VHS Books.

Subscribe to The Dark Fantastic podcast on Acast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox, Amazon Music, Deezer, Podchaser, iHeart, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Watch/Listen to the video version of this article:

Quick Review: DEAD OF WINTER (1987) *** and a 1\2 out of *****

Compelling, atmospheric Gothic mystery, dripping with mood and menace, about a young, struggling actress getting embroiled with a couple of disturbed elderly men in an isolated old house during a winter storm. Roddy McDowell is terrific as a servile but unhinged assistant to Jan Rubes' charming - and over-the-top - psychopath. Arthur Penn directs with a steady hand, with lots of sly nods to Hitchcock, and Mary Steenburgen gives one of her better performances. The climax goes all-out Gothic shocker, and devolves into silliness, but, overall, this is a timeless suspense piece that is good for a chilly winter's night.

* A loose remake of Joseph H. Lewis's My Name Is Julia Ross (1945).

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2022.

Watch/Listen to review here:

Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of several short films and a feature, which was released on Netflix, and the author of a number of novels and short stories, including the YA horror novel, Beware The Stranger, available on Amazon. He is also the host of The Dark Fantastic Podcast. Find him on Twitter @AFKhalifa and on Facebook @DFantasticPodcast

Book Review: DRACULA UNBOUND By Brian Aldiss *** out of *****

Following on his hugely successful and tremendously entertaining novel Frankenstein Unbound, which combined time-travel with a post-modernist revision of Mary Shelley's life and her most famous novel, Brian Aldiss dips into the same well with Dracula Unbound, his attempt to do something similar with Bram Stoker's Gothic masterpiece.

Alas, the second time is not the charm. Where Frankenstein Unbound was fast-paced, coherent, and thought-provoking, Dracula Unbound is slow, meandering, and intellectually lukewarm.

The plot (from the publisher's blurb): In the barren dust of the far future, the sun leaks energy in a darkening sky and the only remaining humans are imprisoned by spectral, bloodthirsty beings. Back in the brilliant Utah sunlight of 1999, two ancient graves yield evidence that a species of human coexisted with the dinosaurs . . . Linking these scenarios is impetuous inventor Joe Bodenland (the protagonist of Frankenstein Unbound), who has just created a machine that manipulates time to dispose of hazardous waste . . .

Where's Dracula, you ask? Well, without revealing too much, let's just say that Bodenland manages to go back in time, meet Bram Stoker, and together they hunt down the vampiric creature that will later inspire Stoker to revise his masterpiece.

As is obvious from the synopsis, the plot is confusing and confused, and Aldiss, never a writer to dwell on characters' motivations and psychology, is at his worst here, with characters that are mere sketches, and dialogue that is woefully artificial.

And unlike in Frankenstein Unbound, where he treated the source material and its author with reverence, here, Aldiss foregoes the tone and mood of the original novel, and seems intent on ridiculing Stoker, portraying him as a staunchly conservative, syphilitic hypocrite, who is always eager to do battle for "God and Country" at the drop of a pin. Aldiss, who has a penchant for psycho-sexualizing his stories at the expense of quality, misses the mark here, and his portrayal of Stoker is nothing less than offensive, especially since in his afterword he mentions relying for his research on two highly-contested biographies: A Biography of Dracula: The Life Story of Bram Stoker by Harry Ludlum, and The Man Who Wrote Dracula: A Biography of Bram Stoker by Daniel Farson *.

But all could have been forgiven if the story had been compelling. But it isn't, and fans of Stoker and his novel will be disappointed by what Aldiss does with and to them.

Still, the novel is high on imagination, even if it is low on craft, and it is an interesting misfire by a singular author.

* For a more balanced analysis of the novel Dracula, and the life of Bram Stoker, check out Elizabeth Miller's brilliant essay, Coitus Interruptus: Sex, Bram Stoker, and Dracula, available here.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2022.

Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of several short films and a feature, which was released on Netflix, and the author of a number of novels and short stories, including the YA horror novel, Beware The Stranger, available on Amazon. He is also the host of The Dark Fantastic Podcast. Find him on Twitter @AFKhalifa and on Facebook @DFantasticPodcast

Book Review: DRACULA: ASYLUM by Paul Witcover **** out of *****

Designed as a sequel to Universal's infamous 1931 film adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, starring the immortal Bela Lugosi, Dracula: Asylum is a rare book, in that it is a sequel that took me by surprise. As a huge fan of the 1931 film directed by Tod Browning, I sought out the book primarily due to it being an official sequel to that film, expecting a fun, quick read, with a thick-accented Dracula roaming the streets of London, drinking blood and spouting one-liners. What I got was something else entirely.

Author Paul Witcover uses the 1931 film and Stoker's novel as a starting point and then proceeds to transcend both, with a novel so well-written, so ambitious in its complexity and ideas, that it becomes a masterpiece of dark fantasy that manages to achieve the impossible: Add a new twist to the Dracula mythos.

The book takes place in London during WWI, following Dr. Lisa Watson, a psychiatrist who is transferred to the Seward Sanitarium for shell-shocked British soldiers, hoping to help her fiancée get back his memory, which he's lost due to the traumatic experiences he suffered in battle. Now he thinks himself Sherlock Holmes and doesn't remember anything about his true identity. Meanwhile, in the catacombs of the asylum, Renfield, who is still alive, but has become a mentally damaged mute, discovers that the corpse of Count Dracula, his master, is still there, with a stake through its heart, waiting to be revived. So he pulls out the stake, reviving the dark Count, and all hell breaks loose, as Dracula, whose slumber for the past twenty years has strengthened his psychic powers, plans to destroy the world.

Although the above synopsis doesn't do the story justice, the less told about the twists, turns and revelations of the plot, the better. Suffice it to say that if you think you know where the story is going, think again, as Witcover has a multitude of ideas and surprises under his sleeve, and, with his rich, stylized Gothic prose, lays them out one by one, continuously delving into darker psychological territory. Witcover's Dracula is the most cunning, malevolent version of the Count since Bram Stoker's; an evil, shrewd master of darkness and manipulation who is much more dangerous than previously thought. This Dracula's evil is almost biblical in scope. While the main characters, Lisa and Denis, are three-dimensional and flawed, and Witcover allows us to go under their skin to see the light and darkness within them.

Despite the novel's overly dark tone and Witcover's lifting of a couple of ideas from the films They Might Be Giants and Dracula 2000, the writing is so rich, the attention to detail so admirable, the story so original and well-plotted, that this novel deserves to be called a near-masterpiece of dark fantasy that transcends genres. And, if there's any justice in the world, it should become a classic.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2011 - 2022.

Video Version:

 

Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of several short films and a feature, which was released on Netflix, and the author of a number of novels and short stories, including the YA horror novel, Beware The Stranger, available on Amazon. Find him on Twitter @AFKhalifa and on Facebook @Dark.Fantastic.AK·Writer

Book Review: UNCLE SILAS (1864) by J. S. Le Fanu **** out of *****

(c) Penguin Classics

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu was a master of Gothic horror and suspense. Henry James and M. R. James were both admirers of his work, and his vampire novella Carmilla (1872) is considered one of the most influential horror stories ever written, predating Bram Stoker's Dracula by decades. Most of Le Fanu's work is either forgotten or dismissed now, which is unfortunate, since he was a good prose stylist, and a master of atmosphere.

Uncle Silas (1864) is considered by many, including M. R. James, to be Le Fanu's masterpiece. While that is arguable, Uncle Silas is indeed one of Le Fanu's best, as it features all of the main ingredients of his special brew: a likable heroine; terrifying villains; plenty of intrigue; and an incomparable mastery of atmosphere.

It tells the tale of an adolescent girl named Maud Ruthyn, an heiress living with her reclusive father, Austin Ruthyn, in their mansion at Knowl. After her father's sudden death, she becomes the ward of her uncle, Silas Ruthyn, a once infamous gambler, and who now claims to be a devout Christian, living a quiet, secluded life in his mansion, Bartram-Haugh. But soon after moving in with him, Maud begins to sense that something is amiss, with her uncle Silas behaving strangely, even sinisterly, while Bartram-Haugh, with its history of murder, seems to be haunted by an air of menace and evil.

As is obvious from this synopsis, the plot is typical of the “sensational Gothic” novels of the time. But the plot isn't really the main attraction here, although it is well constructed and intriguing enough. What grips the reader and makes the novel near unputdownable despite its creaky characterizations and often distracting Gothic melodramatics, is Le Fanu's complete command of mood and his uncanny ability to suggest terrifying things with nary a wasted word. Below the surface of this seemingly dated story is plenty of bite. Using the Gothic melodrama as his launching pad, Le Faun touches upon such topics as child abuse, psychological torture, sadism, religious hypocrisy, and absolute evil. Although Maud, and, to a lesser extent, her young cousin Milly, are likable, sympathetic heroines, it is the villains that linger in the memory: Madame de la Rougierre, a despicable, twisted governess who takes pleasure in torturing Maud; and Uncle Silas, a strange, imposing, and almost supernatural figure, whose passive malice is a terrible marvel to behold, as it unfolds chapter after chapter. And, like Dracula in Stoker's classic, Le Fanu keeps his main villain off the page for most of the novel's duration, with each appearance being more disturbing than the one before it.

Then there's the climax, which M. R. James described as one that “can hardly be forgotten.” While I don't agree with Mr. James on the potency of the ending, which I felt was a bit rushed, Le Fanu still makes it work, with a nighttime murder that, despite being hardly surprising, is brutal and disturbing. But again, the plot, including its conclusion, isn't really the thing with Uncle Silas. It is the journey that Le Fanu takes us through, page after page, chapter after chapter, that is darkly enjoyable, like an expertly guided tour of a haunted house. Or a haunted mind.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2021.

Video Version:

 

Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of several short films and a feature, which was released on Netflix, and the author of a number of novels and short stories, including the YA horror novel, Beware The Stranger, available on Amazon. Find him on Twitter @AFKhalifa and on Facebook @Dark.Fantastic.AK·Writer

The Overview: 30 DAYS OF NIGHT: DARK DAYS - THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF WOLF MEN - CUTTHROAT

(C) Sony Pictures

Film Review: 30 Days Of Night: Dark Days (2010): I liked the feature film adaptation of the graphic novel 30 Days Of Night, but I didn't love it. The film was suspenseful, atmospheric, even occasionally frightening, and stylishly directed by David Slade. But the characters weren't that appealing, and the vampires pretty annoying. The sequel, 30 Days Of Night: Dark Days, is a far better film, in my opinion.

Co-scripted by Steve Niles (the author of the original graphic novel, and who wasn't involved in the making of the first film) and stylishly directed by Ben Ketai, Dark Days, is far more loyal to the source material, and the characters much more well-defined. The pace is better, and, despite the much lower budget, the atmosphere is thicker and the fright-factor higher.

Following the adventures of Stella Oleson (Olemaun in the graphic novel) and her quest for vengeance for the death of her husband, Eben, the film's pace never lets up while never sacrificing characterization for cheap thrills. Kiele Sanchez shines as Stella, a strong-willed warrior struggling with depression and trying to stave off madness with all her will. Working with a low budget and a good script, director Ben Ketai manages to do what David Slade couldn't in the first film, which is tell a good story, as the film is visually compelling, tightly edited, and dramatically effective at the same time.

Fans of the original film (not the original graphic novel) may scoff at the smaller scale and shift of focus and tone. But fans of the original graphic novel and good horror films will probably enjoy this ambitious low-budget effort for what it is: one of the best vampire films of recent years.

Book review: A Sherlock Holmes Double-Bill: THE TANGLED SKEIN vs. THE ITALIAN SECRETARY

© Wordsworth

Arthur Conan Doyle's creation of sleuth extraordinaire Sherlock Holmes revolutionized detective fiction and continues to do so to this day. I doubt there is a single writer of crime or detective fiction who hasn't read some or all of the work of Doyle and has been influenced by it, by the clinical attention to detail, the strong sense of atmosphere, the sharp dialogue, and above all, the sense of fun.

Although Doyle had retired Holmes a long while before the author's own death, writers continue to churn out pastiches; some are good, some are bad and some are brilliant. The Tangled Skein and The Italian Secretary fall somewhere between good and brilliant.

The Tangled Skein by David Stuart Davies focuses on Sherlock Holmes facing the lord of the undead himself, Dracula. And although the premise sounds ludicrous and could even be considered an insult to Doyle's work, the resulting book is neither. Author and Holmes expert David Stuart Davies captures Doyle's tone and style almost perfectly and weaves a tale full of action and mood. It is a well-told tale that stays true to the mythos and features dialogue that could have been written by the master himself. Where the book falters a bit is in the mystery aspect. In trying to combine the mythologies of both Doyle and Bram Stoker's work, Davies veers more towards the plotting style of Stoker, with more action than intrigue. Although that makes it a rousing thriller , full of atmosphere and foreboding, it also makes it a not very good mystery. But there is an added bonus here. Davies ingeniously adds the very neat twist of making this story a direct sequel to The Hound of the Baskervilles. Something that avid Holmes readers will find delightful. I did.

Book Review: FORTITUDE By Hugh Walpole. **** out of *****

Reading Hugh Walpole is a strange and wonderful thing. Sometimes he's brilliant (The Prelude to Adventure), sometimes he's good (Mr. Perrin and Mr. Traill), and sometimes he's barely passable (Jeremy). Fortitude (1913), Walpole's homage to the works and styles of Dickens and Henry James, is nearer to brilliant on that spectrum.

It follows the life of one Peter Westcott, from his boyhood to the onset of middle-age, tracking his attempt at transcending a hard life, including a disturbed, abusive father, poverty, and, ultimately, succeeding as an author. The plot is layered, sprawling, even meandering at times, but Walpole is at his most ebullient here, driving vigorously onwards through a breakneck narrative, pulling the reader with him.

I guess it would be considered sacrilege to call Fortitude as good, or even better than, a lot of Dickens' coming of age tales, but Walpole comes close. He also attempts to mimic James' psychological mastery, but here, he doesn't really succeed, although his characters are interesting enough, some even fascinating. The protagonist, Peter Westcott is a flawed character if ever there was one, and in the hands of a lesser, and less humane, writer, he would have been thoroughly unlikable, but Walpole makes him not only compelling, but sympathetic as well.

Aside from the sheer storytelling joy of Fortitude, with its twists, turns, and occasional forays into hackneyed melodrama, Walpole is aiming for something more, something higher. Like in this exchange between Westcott, after the successful publication of his first novel, and Henry Galleon, arguably a thinly disguised surrogate for Walpole's idol, Henry James. Galleon says to  the young author: "Against all these temptations, against these voices of the World and the Flesh, against the glory of power and the swinging hammer of success, you, sitting quietly in your room, must remember that a great charge has been given you, that you are here for one thing and one thing only ... to listen..." The whole of Galleon's speech, is sublime, in fact; and sublime is what Walpole, in his own flawed way, achieves with this novel.

Fortitude is unputdownable, moving, sensational, unabashedly melodramatic, somber, and, in the most surprising of ways, uplifting. A great book that deserves to be rescued from the shadows of obscurity.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2021.

Video Version:

 

Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of several short films and a feature, which was released on Netflix, and the author of a number of novels and short stories, including the YA horror novel, Beware The Stranger, available on Amazon. Find him on Twitter @AFKhalifa and on Facebook @Dark.Fantastic.AK·Writer

Movie Review: FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL (1974) *** and a 1\2 out of *****

The final entry in the Hammer Studio "Frankenstein Series" starring Peter Cushing as Baron Frankenstein, is, perhaps, the most underrated film in the entire franchise.

The first entry in the series, The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) is lauded for its groundbreaking visuals and make-up effects; Frankenstein Created Woman (1967), a favorite of director Martin Scorsese's, is usually singled out for its metaphysical meditations and dream-like quality; and Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) is notorious for its goriness and nastiness of tone. But Frankenstein and The Monster From Hell (1974), in its own modest way, is arguably better than all of the aforementioned films, mainly because of its script, which is thematically coherent and flows wonderfully, allowing Cushing, one of the most underrated British actors in cinematic history, to deliver an elegant and subdued performance, adding even more layers to the nefarious title character.

Director Terence Fisher, in his last feature film, helms the picture with a steady hand, giving the film a muscular visual style and a terrific pace, delivering a disturbing and elegiac climax to the entire series.

Who could have thought that after six films and seventeen years, Fisher, Cushing, and co. could deliver such a full-blooded and thoughtful Gothic-horror film? Highly recommended.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2020.

Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of the feature film Wingrave, released on Netflix, and the short film Seance. He is also the author of a number of novels and short stories, including the YA horror novel, Beware The Stranger, available on Amazon.

Book Review: THE MOTH DIARIES by Rachel Klein

Disturbing, astute, psychological/Gothic thriller about a teenage girl's descent into madness while attending boarding school. Features memorable characters and some haunting imagery, but suffers from being monotonous and predictable.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2016.

Quick Book Review: THE BEETLE (1897) by Richard Marsh

Published in the same year as Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Beetle (1897) by Richard Marsh is a Victorian Gothic horror novel that, at one point, outsold Stoker's masterpiece! After reading it, I have to wonder why. Though it has some creepy passages, they are few and far between, with the majority of the book consisting of repetitive prose, a cartoonish villain, and an ending that is immensely anti-climactic. Might be interesting to horror buffs and historians, but for the rest of humanity, this is a dated, superficial piece of horror fiction, which doesn't represent the best of its genre or its era.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2016.

Quick Review: THE GORGON (1964)

Original Theatrical Poster

Lesser Terence Fisher/Hammer film, with a predictable, one-note story, and uninspired performances by the usually dependable Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. The production design is sumptuous, though, and the climax thrilling.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2016.

Quick Review: KILL, BABY, KILL (1966)

Considered by many (including Martin Scorsese) to be Mario Bava's best film, Kill, Baby, Kill (1966) is a visually gorgeous, hypnotic, Gothic/psychological ghost story, with tons of atmosphere and style. As with most of Bava's work, the story doesn't make a hell lot of sense. But you don't watch Bava for his plots, you watch him for his mastery of atmosphere and his ability to create true terror on screen. Highly recommended.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2016.

Quick Review: THE BEGUILED (1971)

Original Theatrical Poster

Released just before Clint Eastwood hit it big and became a household name with Dirty Harry (1971), The Beguiled (1971) is an American Gothic masterpiece set during the Civil War. It features one of Eastwood's finest and most complex performances, as the charismatic interloper who awakens the sexuality of a number of women in an all-girls boarding school, with dire consequences. Under Don Siegel's tight direction, this deceptively simple tale becomes a layered, tense psycho-sexual Gothic nightmare, with strange voice-overs, sudden bursts of violence, and disturbing incestuous overtones. Although Eastwood teamed up with Siegel on three other projects (Coogan's Bluff, Dirty Harry, and Escape From Alcatraz), this is their most idiosyncratic, atmospheric collaboration, and one to savor again and again. A highly recommended classic.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2016.

Quick Review: MATTERS OF MIND, BODY, AND SOUL: Clan of Xymox

Xymox's latest album is a bit of a departure for them. It still has the sublime production, the ethereal melodies, and the unique electro/synth sound. But this is their gentlest, most subdued record since 1986's Medusa, with Moorings almost whispering most of the lyrics, making the album more romantic than Gothic. It's an enjoyable, haunting and memorable record, full of ideas and good to great songwriting; it's just that it takes repeated listens for its beauty to sink in. Highly recommended.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2015