Book Review: CUTTER AND BONE By Newton Thornburg **** out of *****

Published in 1976, when the radical movements and optimisms of the 1960s and 1970s were in their death throes, Cutter and Bone by Newton Thornburg is a powerful if grim novel about losing one's way.

The main characters are Bone, a jobless hunk in his thirties who just doesn't know where to turn after deciding to quit his job and leave his wife and kids behind, and Cutter, a one-armed, one-legged Vietnam vet who seems to have left his soul and the better part of his sanity back in Saigon. Together, along with Cutter's common law wife, Mo, an attractive ex-hippie who spends her days walking around stoned to the gills, Cutter and Bone go through life aimlessly, not always remembering where they've been, and not really caring where they're going, with Bone living off wealthy older women, and Cutter getting by on his welfare checks. That is, until Bone happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, becoming a witness to the dumping of a young hooker who's just been murdered by a middle-aged man. From there, things slowly spiral out of control, as Bone becomes embroiled in a cat and mouse game with Cutter, who seems to be slowly losing himself to an obsession only he can understand.

But it is almost fruitless to write a plot synopsis for Cutter and Bone, as the plot really isn't the thing. It's the characters, their psychology, and Thornburg's mastery of mood and pacing. Thornburg writes with a clarity and a passion that is hard to resist, pulling you into a story that gets darker and darker as it goes along, and one that is peopled with characters who aren't exactly likable but are fascinating nonetheless.

Much has been said about the book's seemingly fiery politics, with Cutter's rants about the corruption of America bordering on hyperbole. Some critics and readers claim that Cutter and Bone is a leftist, anti-capitalist novel, others argue that it has a conservative bent, with its obvious disdain for hippies and radicals. But Thornburg, who was a fiscal republican, doesn't seem interested in partisan politics as much as in life choices and their price. His characters are all lost, broken outcasts who just can't seem to belong or find their way. Bone, in particular, is written as a man who has lost almost everything in exchange for his independence. And the one time he makes any kind of attachment, with Cutter and Mo, it leads to disaster. And Cutter is a man so angry at his country, the world, and himself, that ultimately he loses himself in a complex mystery that just might be of his own invention. Or is it?

Cutter and Bone is considered to be Thornburg's masterpiece, and it is easy to see why. It is far from a perfect novel – the dialogue is often clunky, and the politics too overheated – but it is original, unforgettable, and passionately written. It has the one quality that most writers strive to achieve even once in their career: After the last page is turned, the book lingers in the mind, its words echoing, its images refusing to fade.

* The novel was adapted into a feature film, Cutter's Way, released in 1981.

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Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2021.

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

Flashback Review: CUTTER'S WAY (1981) *** and a 1\2 out of *****

A hidden gem from the 1980's, Cutter's Way (1981), based on Newton Thornburg's novel Cutter and Bone, is too good to be forgotten.

Starring Jeff Bridges and John Heard, and directed by Ivan Passer, the film is part psychological thriller, part character study, and part buddy movie, and is an atmospheric and intelligent thriller with a twisty plot and a moody, enigmatic quality all its own.

The plot: Richard Bone (Bridges), an unemployed, womanizing scoundrel, is wrongfully suspected of murdering a teenage girl. Not knowing what to do, he seeks help from his best friend, Alex Cutter (Heard), a disabled Vietnam veteran with a terrible temper and occasional paranoid delusions. Together they try to uncover the identity of the real murderer before it's too late for both of them.

The plot, though original enough, is not the main thing here. What sets this movie apart and makes it a unique thriller, are the performances (especially Heard's as Cutter) and the stylish, nuanced direction by Ivan Passer. The enigmatic and shocking ending is also great.

Although it downplays the novel's complex themes and politics in favor of a more streamlined approach, many of the book's characters are wonderfully brought to life by a great cast and stylish direction. A dazzling paranoid thriller that deserves to be rediscovered.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2021. (An earlier draft was published on Bitlanders.com)

Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of several short films and a feature, which 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

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Book Review: THE PRELUDE TO ADVENTURE by Hugh Walpole *** and a 1\2 out of *****

Hugh Walpole (1844-1941) was a prolific writer with a readable, compelling style, but whose sensibilities were somewhat limited. Almost all his books feature tortured, alienated characters, Gothic atmospherics, and a cynical, often downbeat undertone.

Inspired by Francis Thompson's haunting poem "The Hound of Heaven", The Prelude to Adventure (1912) features all of Walpole's signature ingredients, but what sets it apart is that, here, Walpole's main character is not lost, but found. Here, his lead character, a college student by the name of Olva Dune, a man who commits a murder in a moment of rage and then hears the voice of God calling him, is a man who has always felt out of step with the world until the moment of his crime, when he finds God, or rather, when God finds him. From there, the story focuses on Dune's struggle with that revelation, as well as his guilt and his fear of being unmasked as the killer. It's an unputdownable book written with surprising urgency by Walpole, who usually takes his time setting things up. It's also a successful cross-genre novel if ever there was one. It's a detective story, a Gothic tale, a spiritual meditation, and a love story all in one. 

What makes the novel's effectiveness all the more surprising, is that its flaws are so apparent. Other than Dune and another character (Bunning, a lost soul who idolizes Dune), the rest of the cast are little more than sketches, and the plot progression and psychology are often clumsy. But work the novel does. It's a spellbinding book which aches with spiritual longing and the struggle to understand one's own darkness. No wonder Carl Jung praised it. It's a unique, fast-paced, moving story that ends on just the right note. Highly recommended.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2021.

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Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of the feature film Wingrave, 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

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Book Review: MR. PERRIN AND MR. TRAILL By Hugh Walpole *** and a 1\2 out of *****

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Hugh Walpole's third novel, Mr. Perrin and Mr. Traill (1911), considered by many, and by the author himself, to be his best work, is a strange, somber, meandering, and unforgettable piece of literature.

Revolving around a feud between two school masters in a public school in Edwardian England, the book starts out as a slow-burn social drama about the tedium and oppressive nature of everyday life in the public school system, depicting an affecting if not exactly compelling series of incidents that almost outstay their welcome. But then the book's tone shifts to something much darker and much more fascinating, as it focuses on one of the character's headlong dive into regret, rage, and, inevitably, madness. Here, the book, which flirts with Gothic undertones from the beginning, transforms into a disturbing psychological drama, with the screws tightening faster and faster, till the poignant ending.

Walpole's prose ranges from sublime to serviceable. It has been noted by several scholars and students of his work that Walpole was an unfussy writer, to a fault, writing quickly and seldom revising the first draft. The outcome of such a method does the novel a disservice to some extent, with the pacing of the book, especially in the first half, being too unsteady, and the tonal lurches are also a distraction. But by the second half the narrative threads coalesce into a satisfyingly unnerving whole, with scenes of psychological torment so vivid they push the book right to the edge of a Gothic horror story.

The book has two endings, the original one published in Britain, and a revised one for the later American editions. Both endings are interesting, yet each is problematic in its own way. The original ending, though melodramatic, is more effective, more poignant, and much darker. The revised ending is clumsy, heavy-handed, and borderline didactic, but its more hopeful tone might appeal to some readers.

Mr. Perrin and Mr. Traill is a flawed piece of psychological fiction, with a cynical bent that can be hard to take at times. But, in the end, it is a novel that has stood the test of time, as there's emotional truth buried within its pages, and its depiction of a middle-aged man undergoing a calamitous transformation is harrowing and memorable. Recommended.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2021.

Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of the feature film Wingrave, 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: THE SHADOW: FOXHOUND. By Theodore Tinsley *** out of *****

Written by Theodore Tinsley (in place of the character's creator Walter B. Gibson), Foxhound is an entertaining and fast-paced thriller. Unlike Gibson, who always shows restraint when it comes to violence, Tinsley's writing is edgier and more lurid, and his portrayal of The Shadow as more fallible and vulnerable is interesting, since Gibson rarely allows The Shadow to falter.

While Tinsley's prose is lean and his pacing is gripping, his writing lacks style, and Gibson's penchant for puzzle-like plots and noirish/Gothic atmospherics is missed.

All in all, a solid entry in The Shadow cannon, and Tinsley's contributions bring a freshness to The Shadow's story. Recommended.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2021.

Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of the independent feature film Wingrave, 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: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF F.B.I. SPECIAL AGENT DALE COOPER: MY LIFE, MY TAPES. By Scott Frost *** out of *****

Out of the three Twin Peaks books published at the height of the iconic series' fame (The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer and The Access Guide to Twin Peaks being the other two), The Autobiography of Special Agent Dale Cooper is the least rewarding and most problematic of the lot.

Written by Scott Frost (Mark Frost's brother) - who also wrote the superior short audiobook Diane: The Twin Peaks Tapes of Agent Cooper - the book attempts to be a revealing look into Cooper's psyche, from childhood onto adolescence, and up to his receiving the case of Laura Palmer as an FBI agent. From the get-go it is obvious that something is off with the book's tone. Veering from broad comedy, to forays into mysticism, to graphic sexual encounters, this is Cooper like we've never seen before. It is also a less interesting, less appealing version of Cooper. Portraying Cooper as some sort of oversexed young adult who hobnobs with hippies, and is sympathetic to anti-establishment sentiments, is jarring to say the least. As more than half of the book is spent on Cooper wrangling with the politics of the 1960s and 1970s and dealing with a father who is growing more radical by the year, this takes the story into overtly political and less interesting areas for Twin Peaks fans, as Scott Frost - like Mark Frost in his The Secret History of Twin Peaks - seems to get a kick from using the Twin Peaks mythos as a vehicle for delving into socio-political/historical tangents that just don't gel with the ethereal, timeless tone of the show.

In the book Conversations with Mark Frost by David Bushman, Frost admits that The Autobiography of Dale Cooper book was "jokey", and that David Lynch had almost zero input into the writing of it. Well, it shows. This version of Cooper feels like someone from an alternate universe. Only in the last third of the book, when Cooper starts to realize the true nature of his mentor Windom Earle, and gets assigned to the case of Teresa Banks, does the book feel like the Twin Peaks we know and love. But even the Windom Earle subplot is not that well-handled, with Earle coming off as some sort of super-villain, with no reason or rhyme behind his evil actions. And considering how the second season of Twin Peaks botched the Cooper/Earle storyline (mainly due to unsteady writing and an uneven, often over the top performance by Kenneth Welsh), it seems that that plot thread was doomed from the start, since the book was written before the scripts for the episodes were finalized.

That's not to say that The Autobiography has no merit. It has its moments, for sure. But, overall, it's a disappointing, jarring read, that doesn't really add anything substantial to our understanding of Cooper, or to the show's story. But fans, like myself, won't be able to resist hunting down a copy and giving it a read. Now, though, having read it, I understand why the book has never been back in print since its original publication.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2021.

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Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of the feature film Wingrave, 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

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Book Review: THE SHADOW: THE STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE OF JOE CARDONA. By Walter B. Gibson ** out of *****

Dull The Shadow tale about an evil scientist who kills his victims with a poison that clots the blood and turns the victims' corpses purple. The Shadow doesn't have much to do, the villain's identity is obvious, and the ending is lame. Avoid.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2021.

Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of the feature film Wingrave, 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: DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW (1981) *** and a 1\2 out of *****

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Dark Night of The Scarecrow (1981) is one of those "quiet horror" films that sneak up on you. At first glance, the film looks like a hundred other dated, unpolished, made-for-TV movie from the late 1970s and early 80s. And the opening sequence, with its maudlin performances and rushed pace, doesn't help change that first impression. But then a brutal execution of a mentally challenged character by an angry mob takes place, and the film takes a turn into a whole different class of moviemaking.

On the one hand, it has the trappings of a typical revenge from beyond the grave thriller. But as it moves along, it becomes more psychological, darker, and nastier. With a minimalist script by J.D. Feigelson (who originally wrote it as an independent feature film before CBS bought it), and unfussy but effective direction by Frank DeFelitta, it works quite well, with an assured pace, an eerie mood, and an ending that is the stuff of nightmares.

There is a reason why Dark Night of the Scarecrow remains a cult favorite to this day, and that is, decades on, it still has the ability to haunt and frighten without resorting to jump scares, dramatic histrionics, and fancy cinematography. This is American Gothic stripped to the core, and a movie that manages to work despite its shortcomings. Highly recommended.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2021.

Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of the feature film Wingrave, 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: THE SHADOW : CITY OF CRIME By Walter B. Gibson ** out of *****

Underwhelming and incoherent The Shadow tale, with repetitive action sequences and a weak plot revolving around corruption and political intrigue in a small city. One of the dullest The Shadow stories. Avoid.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2021.

Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of the feature film Wingrave, 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

Review: GALVESTON (2018) *** and a 1\2 out of *****

Based on the novel of the same name by Nic Pizzolatto, the creator of the groundbreaking TV series True Detective, Galveston (2018) is a somewhat uneasy mixture of noir, American Gothic, and tragedy. But even if the elements don't always gel as effectively as they should, especially in the second act where there's a noticeable dramatic lull, the film, as a whole, works on many levels.

The story is simple: The time is 1988. The place New Orleans. A dying middle-aged fixer/hitman working for a local mobster, walks into a set-up, is nearly killed, and in the process of escaping rescues a teenage prostitute. They embark on a road trip to Texas, where they both have scores to settle. From there, the film takes some dramatic turns; some expected (the burgeoning, emotionally complex relationship between the hitman and the girl; the need for redemption), some not, especially in the quietly masterful and heartbreaking third act.

A film of this kind - subdued, easy on plot - mostly hinges on the direction and the performances, and both are quite good. Director Melanie Laurent handles the material with assurance, opting for a steady, visually effective, if not flashy, style that doesn't get in the way of the story. And while Elle Fanning's performance is flawed yet touching, Ben Foster delivers one of his best performances as a violent man struggling with his nature, as he embarks on the road to a salvation that might just be impossible to reach.

Powerful, poignant, compelling, and ultimately moving, Galveston is a minor noir classic that deserves to be seen.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2021.

Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of the feature film Wingrave, 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: THE GRIFTERS By Jim Thompson *** out *****

Known for his noirs, Jim Thompson offers something a bit different with The Grifters, a pitch-black psychological drama first published in 1963. Centering on the disturbing mother-son relationship between 25 year old Roy and his mother Lori, both players in the world of the "grift" (meaning flim-flamming and short con-games), this virtually plotless novel is basically a journey through their troubled, often exciting, and ultimately tragic lives.

What Thompson skimps on in plot, he somewhat makes up for in alluring cynicism, delivered in hypnotic, if not always subtle, prose, and fascinating details about the life of the career grifter. Considered by many to be among Thompson's best works, this novel isn't really that special, but it is short, highly readable, and has an ending so nihilistic and twisted, it has to be read to be believed.

Note: The audiobook version, released by Hachette, and read by Barbra Rosenblatt, is highly recommended.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2021.

Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of the feature film Wingrave, 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: A HOLOGRAM FOR THE KING By Dave Eggers ** out of *****

Literary fiction is a genre that is hard to pin down, as it is almost always swaying with the force of current intellectual and political winds. One way to look at it is that literary fiction is the opposite of punk-rock, which, by its very nature, goes against the tide, with the artist following his own vision, heart, and worldview, no matter what anybody thinks. Or, at least, that's what punk-rock used to be. It's hard to tell now, with literature, music, and almost all of art passing through numerous filters, gatekeepers, and intellectual bleach before it is made widely available to the public.

Dave Eggers's novel, A Hologram For The King, is, by golly, a piece of literary fiction so literary, it is almost bursting with existential ache. The story, which is gossamer-thin, follows Alan Clay, a failing salesman who believes in capitalism and the American dream, and whose only chance to get out from under approaching bankruptcy is to convince the King of Saudi Arabia to buy a new hologram technology that Clay is selling on behalf of a big tech company back in America. What follows is a series of "incidents" that reveal Saudi Arabia to be a den of contradictions, with veiled woman hooking-up in secret, where expatriates smuggle contraband moonshine named "صديقى" or "friend" in English, and where chauffeurs make references to American popular culture. Interspersed with all this "whimsy" and "insight", are flashbacks to Alan's past, which reveal how sad and hollow his life is, culminating in him remembering the time he took his daughter to NASA to watch a shuttle launch, and saying to himself: "I sold capitalism to communists!" in sheer, orgasmic pride.

It's all well-written, in clear, smooth prose. But it's also all pretentious, self-important nonsense. None of the characters come off as very real, especially Eggers's depiction of Saudis, who all talk like sardonic Americans. And the main character, Alan Clay, is basically set-up from the get-go as a tragic figure: hollow, sexually impotent, and lost in his zealous dedication to a corrupt system - capitalism, of course - that has betrayed him and left him with nothing. While taking shots at unbridled capitalism could be an admirable goal if dealt with with nuance, insight, and clarity, Eggers's approach is nothing but a string of cliches and misery-mongering passages, making his point over, and over again without any subtlety or real insight, delivering a book that begins well enough, but slowly devolves into a boring, dour, and ultimately unredeeming tale as hollow as its main character.

But, of course, I could be wrong, as The Boston Globe calls the novel "genius", while The New York Times says that Eggers "spins [a] story that approaches Beckett in its absurdist despair.” Genius? Really? To each his own, I guess.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2021.

Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of the feature film Wingrave, 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: THE SHADOW: THE GOLDEN MASKS by Walter B. Gibson *** OUT OF *****

The Shadow battles a secret society with roots in Africa, in this exciting, fast-paced, if forgettable adventure. It has a couple of clever twists, and Gibson's attention to detail in the escape sequences is always fascinating. But the plot is thin, and the finale unmemorable. Recommended for fans, though.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2021.

Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of the feature film Wingrave, 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: HAMMER (2020) **** out of *****

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Clocking in at just over 80 minutes and slipping under the release radar, Hammer (2020) is an effective, quietly moving, and compelling psychological/crime thriller.

The plot: a ne'er-do-well son returns to his family home after a botched drug deal that resulted in the death of the dealer's girlfriend. Hunted by the dealer, the son, now accompanied by his father, embark on a race against time as they try to outrun the dealer and find a way to make things right.

But that whole plot is basically a "McGuffin", a device to get things going while co-writer/director Christian Sparkes gets to what's really on his mind: the complex dynamics of a family torn apart by guilt, flawed parents, seemingly unredeemable sons, and the vicious cycle of psychological scars being passed from one generation to the next like a bad gene. This is a thriller, no doubt about it, but it is a thriller with heart. Will Patton, as the conflicted father of a troubled son, gives an affecting, restrained performance, and one of the best of his career. Helped tremendously by Sparkes' dialogue, Patton portrays a character that is relatable, tragic, and somewhat off-putting at the same time. A father haunted by his own shortcomings, and the fear that he's unwittingly passed them on to his sensitive son, thus ruining his life.

But it is Mark O'Brien, as Chris, the troubled son trying hard to do better, who is the true heart of the film, delivering a performance that is naturalistic, truthful, and devastating. It is one of the year's best.

Hammer works as a psychological drama, as a thriller with realistic twists, and as a piece of minimalist cinema. It is a well-crafted, poignant, suspenseful film with a lot to offer, and it deserves much more notice and acclaim than it's got. Highly recommended.

N.B. The film is named after the director's father, to whom the film is dedicated.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2021.

Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of the feature film Wingrave, 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: THE ASSISTANT (2019) **** out of *****

Saying too much about the plot of The Assistant (2019) does the film a disservice. Although it's not really plot-driven and more of a character study, part of the beauty of watching it is experiencing how it unfolds, scene by scene, layer by layer, drawing you in into a story that is masterfully and boldly told.

Centering on a newly hired assistant (Julia Garner) working for a major film producer, the film takes us through a day of her on the job, showing us her tasks, her experiences, and her attempts to do the work to the satisfaction of her demanding, unpleasant boss.

On one level, The Assistant is about what it is to be a young woman starting out in a job dominated by men; what it is to stick out, to be taken for granted and be treated as an object. These are important issues, but also ones that are perennially trendy and which are usually treated with bland political correctness. And had the film been just about that, it would have been an effective story about sexual harassment and the oppression of women in the work force. But what makes The Assistant a near-masterpiece is that it diverges from the pack in two major ways: The scope of the story, and the way it is told.

What writer/director Kitty Green achieves is nothing less than masterly. Green takes a seemingly simple story about a struggling young female assistant in a vicious corporate world, and turns it into a nuanced, subdued, almost Jamesian story made up of fascinating details. As we watch Julia Garner's character go about her daily tasks, we learn more and more about her, her environment, and the dilemma she's sinking into. Green, with admirable restraint, never crosses the line into preachiness or sentimentality, never loses control of the film's subtle but gripping tone, as she pulls us deeper and deeper into a story that is about much more than first meets the eye. As The Assistant is not just about the marginalization and exploitation of women in the workforce; it's also a haunting story of corruption, abuse of power, and conspiracies of silence.

And, of course, the whole film hinges on Julia Garner's performance, and it is a marvel. Garner, with very little dialogue, says much, projects much, and breaks our hearts.

Time will tell if The Assistant becomes a classic, although it should, as this is one of the boldest, most elegant psychological dramas to come out of Hollywood in years. And one which tells a tale worth telling, and tells it well. Highly recommended.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2021.

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Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of the feature film Wingrave, 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: THE RENTAL (2020) *** and a 1\2 out of *****

Actor Dave Franco's writing/directing debut, The Rental (2020), is a modest little thriller that takes its time to get going. A bunch of millennial characters are introduced, all of them believable if not exactly likable, and then they are all thrust into a seemingly generic plot (a weekend retreat in a posh rented house way out in the woods turns into a nightmare). It all sounds like nothing special.

But as the film moves along, admittedly a tad too slowly for its own good, the relationships between the characters become more complicated, and, before you know it, the movie turns into a competent, compact thriller, which arguably has something to say about the self-involvement, paranoia, and moral ambiguity of the millennial generation.

Though Franco isn't yet an assured enough craftsman to make the suspense and shocks work as well as they should, he is skilled enough to make the climax effective and the ending quite creepy.

The Rental isn't a classic. But it is a good debut thriller that offers plenty of entertainment, a memorable performance by Alison Brie, and even a little food for thought. 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 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 Dark Fantastic Interview with author Robert J. Randisi (Author of The Rat Pack Mysteries and Curtains of Blood)

Robert J. Randisi is one of the most prolific writers in history, having authored hundreds of  published books and edited more than 30 anthologies of short stories. He co-founded and edited Mystery Scene magazine (with Ed Gorman) and co-founded the American Crime Writers League. He founded The Private Eye Writers of America in 1981 and created the Shamus Award.

In a 2011 Barnes & Noble interview he revealed that he writes under sixteen pseudonyms, and that he produces fifteen books a year, with 1984 being his most prolific year, with an output of twenty seven books!

He is most renowned for his mystery fiction (Dean Koontz and Michael Connelly are fans of his work), which includes The Rat Pack Mysteries, the Nick Delvecchio series, and the Joe Keough series.

Randisi has also written hundreds of western novels - including The Gunsmith series, The Tracker series, The Angel Eyes series, among others - and dozens of stand-alone novels in numerous genres.

Author Robert J. Randisi

I had a chance to interview him recently and ask him about his prodigious output, his style, and one of my all-time favorite novels, Curtains of Blood.

How early in your life did you discover that you wanted to be a writer?

I was 13 when I first put pen to paper—or fingers to a typewriter—but I was 15 when I decided I would do it full time for a living by the time I was 30—and I did. 

Early in your career, your worked for the NYPD. What was that experience like, and how did it influence your writing?

It was an eye opening experience, a peek into real life that I hadn’t seen before. At 23 I’d have to say it was life altering.  It did enable me to write more realistically about people, but except for a short story or two it didn’t actually influence my writing until I wrote ALONE WITH THE DEAD in 1995.

P.I. fiction has definitely stood the test of time and continues to be popular to this day. In your opinion, what makes P.I. fiction such a sturdy and timeless genre?

I think the loner standing against the masses is timeless.  We all like to think we could do it if we had to. It’s something that connect the Western and the Private Eye story, the lone gun who’s not on either side of the law, but sort of straddling the line in the middle. He’s heroic, and almost everybody would like to be a hero.

I think it's safe to say that you're one of the most prolific writers of all time, with hundreds of novels in countless genres under your belt. To what do you attribute your prodigious output, and what is your writing process like?

I can only attribute my output to my absolute love of writing. Most of my waking hours are spent writing. And I discovered at an early age that I had an unusual ability to write swiftly. I was advised by other writers early on NOT to write quickly, to slow down. But when I tried to follow that advice it affected everything—my output and the quality of my work. So I had to settle down into my natural pace, which is the advice I give to writers when they ask. Find your natural rhythm, and stick with it. And remember, I wanted to write for a living by the time I turned 30. That meant writing a lot of books, or becoming Stephen King—and I ain’t Stephen King.  

Do you have a favorite genre to write in?

For me it is and always has been the Private Eye genre—even  before it was accepted as a genre of its own, rather than the sub-genre of the mystery. It became part of my life’s work to make that happen.  

As the creator of the Shamus Award, and an expert in P.I. lore and methodology, did you ever think of becoming a P.I. yourself?

Early in my life, yes. Dealing with police detectives and meeting some private eyes along the way, I thought about it, but that would have interfered with the writing. I was a musician in my teens, and decided I’d have to either pursue music or writing to succeed at one of them. You know what I chose. But yeah, I think I could’ve been a good P.I.

Who are your favorite writers, the ones that inspire you the most?

I go cross genre with influences, from Chandler and Ross Macdonald to Roger Zelazney and Keith Laumer. I enjoyed them, and learned from them. And I was mentored by Warren Murphy, who gave me my first writing job.  These days I enjoy the work of Michael Connelly very much. He’s one of the few writers I think actually deserves his success status. 

Your style can arguably be called minimalist: You achieve so much with so few words, and your sentences are always lean and drive the story forward, which makes most of your books on the shorter side, yet wholly satisfying as novels. What attracts you to this spare style?

It’s not conscious, it simply comes naturally. I don’t rewrite, the story comes out of my head and flows through my fingers at a certain speed, and the “minimalist” style you refer to just fits.  I’m much more concerned with the action of the story, than I am with the kind of shoes characters are wearing, or what the weather’s like. I’m as much criticized for that as I am praised, but once again, you have to go with what comes naturally. 

Your mastery of almost all genres is mind-boggling. Is that the result of your interest in a wide-range of subjects? Or are you just a voracious reader?

Oh, I was a voracious reader from an early age, and kept looking for more and more to read, which meant bringing new genres into the fold. I have to say the only genre I’ve never read or written is the romance. The private eye is still my favorite genre to read, but some of my favorite books have come from Roiger Zelazney and Frank Herbert.

One of my favorite novels of yours is CURTAINS OF BLOOD, a terrific historical thriller in which Bram Stoker crosses paths with Jack The Ripper, a concept which has been used many times, with varying degrees of success. In my opinion, your take is the most effective, and for me, the most enjoyable. What attracted you to the subject matter, and how much research did you have to do for the novel?

I probably did more research for that novel than any other I’ve written. I just happened to come across the fact one day that Stoker was the manager of the Lyceum Theatre at the time of Jack the Ripper, and that the theater’s run of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was closed down due to the fact that the police thought it might be “inciting” Jack. I just went from there . . . to me, it was a natural.

Do you ever consider going back to that Victorian world and writing something in the same vein as CURTAINS OF BLOOD?

There’s nothing on the planning board, but who knows. I always have time to write another book, right?

What advice would you give to aspiring writers who want to write in the mystery/crime genre, especially now that the paperback market has all but disappeared?

If you want to write this stuff, you just have to write it. You can’t worry about where or when or how it’s going to be published. If you’re a writer, then the writing is the important part. You’d write it even if you were the only one who was going to read it. So get it written, and don’t worry about anything else until it’s done.

What are you working on at the moment?

Several things—a traditional western for Berkley Books, who has started publishing westerns once again; the next Gunsmith book, continuing the output of one a month since January of 1982; and my next Rat Pack mystery, which will be the thirteenth book in the series.

Thank you for your time.

It’s been my pleasure.

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 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: DEVOTED by Dean Koontz *** and a 1\2 out of *****

While no one could argue that Dean Koontz has been more prolific than ever these past ten years, his output has been polarizing, to say the least. There have been some very good books (Odd Apocalypse [2012]), some middling ones (What The Night Knows [2010]), and some terrible ones (The Silent Corner [2017]). Some fans, especially lifelong ones, had even started to think that the Koontz of old (of terrific books like Midnight, Hideaway, and Odd Thomas) was gone, never to return. Then came Devoted (2020), restoring the faith.

Devoted is Koontz energized, impassioned, and focused. Yes, there are still instances of heavy-handed social commentary and sentimentality, and the main characters aren't that memorable, but Koontz hasn't written a book this enjoyable, this readable, this moving, in years. The plot - about an autistic boy and his mother getting entangled with a cabal of assassins, a hyper-intelligent dog, and a seemingly omnipotent killer - isn't that original, and, at times, feels like a greatest hits compilation of Koontz's best novels. But what sets this novel apart, what makes it special, is Koontz's energy. His writing hasn't felt this ebullient in more than a decade. Devoted also features one of his scariest villains in Lee Shacket, and some of the darkest, most violent scenes Koontz has ever written.

Consisting of over a hundred short chapters, this is an addictive read, and a most welcome return of a master. 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 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

Classic Review: THE JEWEL OF SEVEN STARS by Bram Stoker (1903 edition) *** out of *****

Written by Bram Stoker, and considered one of the most influential supernatural thrillers of all time... No, it's not Dracula. It's The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903), a dated and mostly stilted novel, but one which created the template for almost all subsequent stories that dealt with Egyptology and mummies.

The plot, about a band of men and one young woman in Victorian England who embark on an experiment to resurrect Queen Tera, a powerful Egyptian queen with otherworldly powers, is incoherent and at times painfully slow. But Stoker is a master of atmosphere, and his writings always have a fascinating obsession with the supernatural and the tensions between technology and superstition, religion and paganism, or as he describes it in the novel, "Powers, old and new". Despite its stagy nature, its two-dimensional characters, and its stiff dialogue, the story is compelling and has a doom-laden, eerie atmosphere, which culminates in an unforgettable and harrowing finale that was so upsetting to readers and critics upon its initial publication in 1903, that Stoker revised the novel for the 1912 edition, replacing the original finale with a nonsensical and impotent "happy ending".

The novel is now mostly remembered for its meticulous attention to detail in the sections dealing with Egyptology, its original central premise, and its harrowing ending. But it's not an easy read, as it features some of Stoker's most cluttered prose, and many chapters are repetitive and overlong. But for patient readers who like Victorian Gothic fiction and are interested in its development, it is worth the effort.

P.S. Most available editions are of the 1912 version, which should be avoided at all costs.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2020.

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Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of the feature film Wingrave, 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: NO EXIT by Taylor Adams *** and a 1\2 out of *****

 

An effective, fast-paced thriller, No Exit by Taylor Adams is a highly readable suspense novel with a likeable heroine and twists aplenty.

The plot: A young woman taking refuge from a snow storm in a rest stop, discovers that one of the four strangers with her is a psychopath who has a seven year old girl trapped in a cage in his car. Author Taylor Adams takes this high concept and runs with it, creating one intense situation after another, building the tension to a fever pitch.

But the novel does have its flaws. Aside from the heroine and the little girl, all the characters are barely memorable, especially the villains, who get less and less believable as the story progresses. But the novel's biggest misstep is the climax, which reads like the finale of a blockbuster Hollywood thriller: contrived and over-the-top, and with a clichéd epilogue.

Faults aside, No Exit is an immensely enjoyable, tense, and energetic thriller, with just enough style to make it memorable.

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 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