Online Programme
FEATURES
UK PREMIERE
DECIBEL
PLUS RECORDED Q&A WITH WRITER & PRODUCER MATT WISE
ZAC LOCKE USA 2024, 76 MINUTES
When a struggling singer-songwriter gets the opportunity of a lifetime to work with a tech-obsessed music producer, she finds not everything is as she imagined it to be.
Part-music film and part-techno horror, Decibel is a modern and topical look at not only the music industry today, but also the dangers posed by the encroaching dominance of technology over art.
Pan fydd cantores-gyfansoddwraig sy’n ei chael hi’n anodd yn cael cyfle oes i weithio gyda chynhyrchydd cerddoriaeth sydd ag obsesiwn â thechnoleg, mae’n canfod nad yw popeth fel y dychmygodd.
Yn rhannol ffilm-gerddoriaeth a rhannol arswydtechno, mae Decibel yn olwg fodern ac amserol ar nid yn unig y diwydiant cerddoriaeth heddiw, ond hefyd y peryglon a achosir gan oruchafiaeth ymledol technoleg dros gelf.
EXORCISMO
PLUS RECORDED Q&A WITH DIRECTOR & WRITER ALBERTO SEDANO
ALBERTO SEDANO SPAIN 2024, 120 MINUTES SOME ENGLISH SUBTITLES
Under the Franco dictatorship, Spain’s rigid censorship laws repressed any form of sexuality outside of Catholic marriage. But following Franco’s death and the consolidation of democracy, ‘Clasificada S’ films – restricted to those over 18 years old – embodied a period in Spanish history when sex went from being a sin to becoming a cinematic expression of political freedom. This brand new documentary explores the eye-opening history behind Clasificada S, and the distinctive shockers that subverted the values of the former dictatorship.
Abertoir regulars know how much we love European horror cinema, so this two hour deep dive into this particular strand of Spanish exploitation cinema was a gift from the Gods. Well, Severin actually – and there was no question that we’d want to share it with you. It’s surprising, eye-opening, and even shocking: a remarkably topical documentary that we’re proud to be screening as part of Abertoir.
O dan unbennaeth Franco, roedd deddfau sensoriaeth anhyblyg Sbaen wedi atal unrhyw fath o rywioldeb y tu allan i briodas Gatholig.
Ond yn dilyn marwolaeth Franco a chyfuno democratiaeth, roedd ffilmiau ‘Clasificada S’ –wedi’u cyfyngu i rai dros 18 oed – yn ymgorffori cyfnod yn hanes Sbaen pan aeth rhyw o fod yn bechod i ddod yn fynegiant sinematig o ryddid gwleidyddol. Mae’r ffilm ddogfen newydd hon yn agor llygaid drwy archwilio’r hanes y tu ôl i Clasificada S, a’r ffilmiau nodedig a wyrodd werthoedd yr unbennaeth flaenorol.
Mae’r rheini sy’n gyfarwydd ag Abertoir i gyd yn gwybod cymaint rydyn ni’n caru sinema arswyd Ewropeaidd, felly roedd y ddwy awr hyn o blymio i mewn i’r llinyn arbennig hwn o sinema exploitation Sbaenaidd yn anrheg gan y Duwiau. Wel, gan Severin a dweud y gwir - ac nid oedd unrhyw gwestiwn y byddem am ei rannu gyda chi. Mae’n syndod, yn agoriad llygad, a hyd yn oed yn syfrdanol: ffilm ddogfen hynod amserol yr ydym yn falch o’i dangos fel rhan o Abertoir.
SUZZANNA
PLUS RECORDED Q&A WITH DIRECTOR DAVID GREGORY
DAVID GREGORY
USA 2024, 90 MINUTES
She starred in forty-two classic movies, was hailed as ‘The Queen of Indonesian Horror’ and crowned ‘Asia’s Most Popular Actress’. But who was Suzzanna Martha Frederika van Osch, longbeloved by the Asian world as Suzzanna yet virtually unknown outside it? Through exclusive interviews with family, colleagues, filmmakers, and historians, as well as clips from her classic films, director David Gregory (Enter the Clones of Bruce) unearths the legacy of the Scream Queen who has begun to emerge as one of the most compelling icons in cinema history.
David Gregory’s brand new documentary doesn’t just tell Suzzanna’s story with a series of talking heads, it allows the subjects to become part of the narrative itself, eventually taking the film in a direction that those of us unfamiliar with her story will find shocking, compelling and unbelievable in equal measure.
Ymddangosodd hi mewn 42 o ffilmiau clasurol, yn cael ei galw’n ‘Brenhines Arswyd Indonesia’ a’i choroni’n ‘Actores Fwyaf Poblogaidd Asia’. Ond pwy oedd Suzzanna Martha Frederika van Osch, a oedd yn hir annwyl gan y byd Asiaidd fel Suzzanna ond eto bron yn anhysbys y tu allan iddo? Trwy gyfweliadau unigryw gyda theulu, cydweithwyr, gwneuthurwyr ffilm, a haneswyr, yn ogystal â chlipiau o’i ffilmiau, mae’r cyfarwyddwr
David Gregory (Enter the Clones of Bruce) yn datgelu etifeddiaeth y Scream Queen sydd wedi dechrau dod i’r amlwg fel un o’r eiconau mwyaf cymhellol yn hanes sinema.
Nid yw ffilm ddogfen newydd David Gregory yn adrodd stori Suzzanna gyda chyfres o bennau siarad yn unig, mae’n caniatáu i’r pynciau ddod yn rhan o’r naratif ei hun, gan fynd â’r ffilm yn y pen draw i gyfeiriad y bydd y rhai ohonom sy’n anghyfarwydd â’i stori yn ei chael yn ysgytwol, cymhellol ac anghredadwy mewn mesurau cyfartal.
HANDLING THE UNDEAD
Méliès d’or winner
The winners of the Méliès d’or 2024 are the feature film Handling the Undead by Thea Hvistendahl and the short film Weeds by Pola Kazak. The Méliès International Festivals Federation awarded them with the Méliès d’or in Sitges, October 2O24. Who will be next? Find out more at melies.org
Méliès d’or WINNER
SHORTS
ABERTOIR SHORT FILM COMPETITION
Abertoir annually invites filmmakers from across the globe to submit films for the Short Film Competition, with two prizes on offer: the Abertoir Short Film prize, and the Méliès d’argent, awarded to the best European film.
The Short Film Méliès d’argent is an internationally recognised prize specific to the Méliès International Festivals Federation, of which Abertoir is a proud member. The winner of our Short Film Méliès d’argent goes forward to the final lineup at one of the major European festivals for the prestigious Méliès d’or Award for the Best European Fantastic Short Film.
Collection Only (Alun Rhys Morgan, UK) won this year’s Méliès d’argent and Abertoir Short Film award. We’re pleased to present the entire programme of in-competition short films as part of this year’s Choice Cuts.
Pob blwyddyn mae Abertoir yn gwahodd i wneuthurwyr ffilm o bob cwr o’r byd i gynnig ffilmiau ar gyfer cystadleuaeth ffilmiau byrion, gyda dwy wobr ar gael: Gwobr Ffilm Fer Abertoir, a’r Méliès d’argent, sy’n cael ei wobrwyo i’r ffilm Ewropeaidd gorau.
Mae’r Méliès d’argent ar gyfer ffilm fer yn wobr a gydnabyddir yn rhyngwladol sy’n benodol i’r sefydliad mae Abertoir yn falch i fod yn rhan ohono, y Méliès International Festivals Federation. Mae enillydd ein Méliès d’argent ar gyfer ffilm fer yn mynd ymlaen i raglen derfynol yn un o brif wyliau Ewrop er mwyn cystadlu ar gyfer wobr fawreddog Méliès d’or- ar gyfer Ffilm Fer Ffantastig Ewropeaidd Orau.
Collection Only (Alun Rhys Morgan, DU) enillodd Méliès d’argent eleni a Gwobr Ffilm Fer Abertoir. Rydym yn falch iawn o gyflwyno’r rhaglen lawn o ffilmiau byrion oedd yn cystadlu fel rhan o Choice Cuts eleni.
AFFENTANZ - HUNTER
CYPRIAN HERCKA, GERMANY 2023, 9 MINUTES
The name of the song says it all: The hunter on the prowl. A deer in a scope. A finger on the trigger. But then – a crack. A smack from a faceless hooded figure. A knock out and darkness. From there everything will be different.
Mae enw’r gân yn dweud y cyfan: yr heliwr ar y prowl. Carw mewn cwmpas. Bys ar y sbardun. Ond wedyn - crac. Smac gan ffigwr di-wyneb â hwd. Syfrdan a thywyllwch. Oddi yno bydd popeth yn wahanol.
BATH BOMB
COLIN G COOPER, CANADA 2024, 10 MINUTES
A possessive doctor prepares an ostensibly romantic bath for his narcissistic boyfriend, but after an accusation of infidelity, things take a deeply disturbing turn.
Mae doctor meddiannol yn paratoi bath sy’n ymddangos yn rhamantus i’w gariad narsisaidd, ond ar ôl cyhuddiad o anffyddlondeb, mae pethau’n cymryd tro hynod annifyr.
BLACK HOLE BARRY
ALEJANDRO ALBEROLA, UK 2024, 10 MINUTES
Right before Scott’s boyfriend moves in with him, he decides to go on a series of hookups to get the most out of his last week living alone, a decision he’s going to regret forever.
Yn union cyn i gariad Scott symud i mewn gydag ef, mae’n penderfynu mynd ar gyfres o fachiadau i gael y gorau o’i wythnos olaf yn byw ar ei ben ei hun, penderfyniad y mae’n mynd i’w ddifaru am byth.
COLLECTION ONLY
ALUN RHYS MORGAN, UK 2023, 12 MINUTES
Nye has dragged his estranged best mate Daf to collect a free armchair from a fearsome old house. A chain of sinister events follow, as Daf and Nye grapple with their fractured friendship, while trying to make it out alive…with the chair.
Mae Nye wedi llusgo ei ffrind gorau, Daf, sydd wedi ymddieithrio, i gasglu cadair freichiau rydd o hen dŷ brawychus. Mae cadwyn o ddigwyddiadau sinistr yn dilyn, wrth i Daf a Nye fynd i’r afael â’u cyfeillgarwch toredig, wrth geisio dianc yn fyw…a gyda’r gadair.
THE COST OF FLESH
TOMAS PALOMBI, FRANCE 2023, 10 MINUTES
Alice is a totally paralyzed teenager who can only communicate through the movements of her eyes. Her brother and sister try an obscure method to free her from the evil that hinders her…
Mae Alice yn ferch yn ei harddegau sydd wedi’i pharlysu’n llwyr a dim ond trwy symudiadau ei llygaid y gall gyfathrebu. Mae ei brawd a’i chwaer yn rhoi cynnig ar ddull aneglur i’w rhyddhau rhag y drwg sy’n ei rhwystro…
CRIMSON HARBOR
VICTOR BONAFONTE, SPAIN 2024, 8 MINUTES
Hattie Duvall, a mysterious clairvoyant, is asked by Crimson Harbor Police Department to help them solve a serial murder case. Her interviewer, an experienced detective, is reluctant to Ms. Duvall’s unorthodox techniques, but both will be forced to cooperate and unravel the mystery.
Mae Adran Heddlu Crimson Harbour yn gofyn i Hattie Duvall, clirweledydd dirgel, eu helpu i ddatrys achos llofruddiaeth gyfresol. Mae ei chyfwelydd, ditectif profiadol, yn amharod i ddefnyddio technegau anuniongred Ms. Duvall, ond bydd y ddau yn cael eu gorfodi i gydweithredu a datrys y dirgelwch.
DAGON
PAOLO GAUDIO, ITALY 2024, 6 MINUTES
In 1919 San Francisco, a man is standing on the ledge of a building ready to jump. Desperate, he relives in his memories the absurd and shocking episode that led him to the brink of suicide: the encounter with the monstrous and mythological Great Old One, DAGON.
Ym 1919, mae dyn yn San Francisco yn sefyll ar silff adeilad yn barod i neidio. Yn anobeithiol, mae’n ail-fyw yn ei atgofion y bennod hurt ac ysgytwol a’i harweiniodd at fin lladd ei hun: y cyfarfyddiad â’r Hen Un Mawr gwrthun a mytholegol, DAGON.
DARK MOMMY
COURTNEY ECK, USA 2023, 13 MINUTES
Ben is the only night shift 911 operator in a small town. His bubble of selfisolation is only ever punctured by drunks or prank calling kids, but tonight Dark Mommy has her own intentions for Ben…and the rest of the town.
Ben yw’r unig weithredwr shifft nos 911 mewn tref fechan. Mae ei swigen o hunan-ynysu byth yn cael ei dyllu gan feddw neu blant yn prancio, ond heno mae gan Dark Mommy ei bwriadau ei hun ar gyfer Ben…a gweddill y dref.
DELIVERANCE
KALJEVEN SINGH LALLY, UK 2024, 10 MINUTES
A Sikh delivery driver is asked for help by a customer, a Priest.
Mae cwsmer, Offeiriad, yn gofyn i yrrwr dosbarthu Sikhaidd am help.
DUMMY!
FRANCESCA PAZNIOKAS, USA 2024, 14 MINUTES
An aspiring cabaret singer struggles to break free from her controlling mother — a ventriloquist dummy who was once a star herself. DUMMY! is a surreal technicolor melodrama about fearing you weren’t built for the world you’re meant to inhabit.
Mae cantores cabaret uchelgeisiol yn brwydro i dorri’n rhydd oddi wrth ei mam sy’n rheoli - dymi tafleisio a oedd unwaith yn seren ei hun. Mae DUMMY! yn felodrama amrywliw swrrealaidd am ofni na chawsoch eich adeiladu ar gyfer y byd yr ydych i fod i fyw ynddo.
ELDRITCH KARAOKE
JOE LOFTUS, IRELAND 2024, 5 MINUTES
A young woman on the road to escape her past is hit by a car and descends into a chaotic musical after-life.
Mae merch ifanc sydd ar y ffordd i ddianc rhag ei gorffennol yn cael ei tharo gan gar ac yn disgyn i ôl-fywyd cerddorol anhrefnus.
FISITOR
LLŶR TITUS, UK 2024, 15 MINUTES
Stalked by grief for his husband and a nightmarish creature from Welsh folklore, Ioan must do his best to survive Christmas Eve.
O dan gysgod galar am ei ŵr a chreadur hunllefus o lên gwerin Cymru mae
Ioan yn ceisio’i orau i oroesi Noswyl Nadolig.
THE GOURD, THE BRAD AND THE GHOSTLY
JILLIAN TERWEDO-MALSBURY, USA 2023, 10 MINUTES
After causing a tragic accident on Halloween night, Brad is haunted by his guilty conscience as he takes the elevator down to the scene of the crime. Is he heading to the lobby… or straight to hell?
Ar ôl achosi damwain drasig ar noson Calan Gaeaf, mae Brad yn cael ei aflonyddu gan ei gydwybod euog wrth iddo fynd â’r lifft lawr i leoliad y drosedd. Ydy e’n mynd i’r lobi ... neu’n syth i uffern?
HENRY’S HAND
LAURA GILDA MAIULLARI, LILITH EVA FÖHN & OLEKSANDRA GORSHEVIKOVA, SWITZERLAND 2024, 5 MINUTES
Henry, Fish and Cat run the most successful Lemon business in Syracuse. The Vulture, a jealous mafia boss, is after their recipe for success: the Superlemon. To blackmail Henry, Vulture kidnaps Cat, and things soon start to escalate.
Mae Henry, Fish a Cat yn rhedeg busnes Lemon mwyaf llwyddiannus Syracuse. Mae The Vulture, bos maffia genfigennus, ar ôl eu rysáit ar gyfer llwyddiant: y Superlemon. I flacmelio Henry, mae Vulture yn herwgipio Cat, a chyn bo hir mae pethau’n dechrau gwaethygu.
IT CAME FROM INSIDE
JACKSON REES & AURA SANDOVAL, USA 2024, 12 MINUTES
On Halloween night, an aloof young couple find a corpse, a cassette tape, and a mysterious transmission device. Panic ensues as they are terrorized by the mystery of their discovery. Who — or what — is the device designed to summon?
Ar noson Calan Gaeaf, mae cwpl ifanc di-ben-draw yn dod o hyd i gorff, tâp casét, a dyfais drosglwyddo dirgel. Daw panig wrth iddynt gael eu dychryn gan ddirgelwch eu darganfyddiad. Pwy - neu beth - y mae’r ddyfais wedi’i chynllunio i’w galw?
THE MANNEQUIN
EMELIE DAHLSKOG, SWEDEN 2023, 14 MINUTES
An aspiring seamstress thinks she can solve all her creative problems by creating a mannequin. But after some strange events she suspects that the mannequin has aspirations of its own.
Mae gwniadwraig uchelgeisiol yn meddwl y gall ddatrys ei holl broblemau creadigol trwy greu mannequin. Ond ar ôl rhai digwyddiadau rhyfedd mae hi’n amau bod gan y mannequin ddyheadau ei hun.
MOON ALONE
HEEJIN KANG, CANADA 2024, 3 MINUTES
Every night, an angel awaits her divine orders alone. When a list of departed souls appears in the sky, she journeys to meet them, guiding them toward their heavenly destination.
Bob nos, mae angel yn aros ar ben ei hun am ei gorchmynion dwyfol. Pan fydd rhestr o eneidiau ymadawedig yn ymddangos yn yr awyr, mae hi’n teithio i’w cyfarfod, gan eu harwain tuag at eu cyrchfan nefol.
OUTSIDE NOISE
ETHAN EVANS, UK 2024, 8 MINUTES
An overwhelmed woman listens to a sleep ambience app to unwind before bed, but when the sounds eerily begin to blend with reality, she suspects it has conjured something frightening into her room…
Mae menyw wedi’i gorlethu yn gwrando ar ap awyrgylch cwsg i ymlacio cyn gwely, ond pan fydd y synau’n dechrau cymysgu’n iasol â realiti, mae’n amau ei fod wedi hudo rhywbeth brawychus i’w hystafell…
PASPOCALYPSE
JASPER TEN HOOR & IVAN HIDAYAT, NETHERLANDS 2024, 6 MINUTES
During an evening shift in an empty office building, a young cleaning lady experiences the fright of her life.
Yn ystod shifft gyda’r nos mewn adeilad swyddfa gwag, mae gwraig glanhau ifanc yn profi braw ei bywyd.
POPPY’S SATURN
NICOLE TEGELAAR, BELGIUM 2023, 15 MINUTES
When nightclub singer Poppy is confronted by a black-eyed man she is overcome by fear. The event triggers a buried sexual trauma that she has to overcome in a kaleidoscopic world of glitter, music and blood.
Pan fydd canwr clwb nos, Poppy, yn wynebu dyn du ei lygaid, mae’n cael ei goresgyn gan ofn. Mae’r digwyddiad yn sbarduno trawma rhywiol claddedig y mae’n rhaid iddi ei oresgyn mewn byd caleidosgopig o ddisglair, cerddoriaeth a gwaed.
2024 RUNNER UP
RÉEL
RODRIGUE HUART, FRANCE 2024, 4 MINUTES
1857. Coutances. Two farmer girls find a smartphone in their field.
1857. Coutances. Dwy ferch fferm yn dod o hyd i ffôn clyfar yn eu cae.
SAINT MARIA’S WAY
CHRIS TURNER, UK 2024, 7 MINUTES
Carolyn never intended to walk home alone at night. When police emergency services receive her call reporting a man following her, they try to help. But between the glitching phone signal and her evasive answers, she proves difficult to track down.
Nid oedd Carolyn erioed wedi bwriadu cerdded adref ar ei phen ei hun yn y nos. Pan fydd gwasanaethau brys yr heddlu yn derbyn ei galwad yn adrodd bod dyn yn ei dilyn, maen nhw’n ceisio helpu. Ond rhwng y signal ffôn annibynnol a’i hatebion aneglur, mae’n anodd dod o hyd iddi.
STRANGE CREATURES
NICHOLAS PAYNE SANTOS, USA 2023, 7 MINUTES
Desperate to see her brother again, a young woman visits the site of his death.
Yn ysu i weld ei brawd eto, mae dynes ifanc yn ymweld â safle ei farwolaeth.
THIRSTY THURSDAY
JEFF OLIVER, USA 2024, 15 MINUTES
When a sacred ritual is interrupted by a clueless frat boy, a coven of Black witches are forced to teach a deadly lesson about consent.
Pan amharir ar ddefod gysegredig gan fachgen diamcan sy’n aelod o frawdoliaeth, gorfodir cwfen o wrachod Du i ddysgu gwers farwol am gydsyniad.
TRIPTYCH
SOPHIA RAY, UK 2024, 15 MINUTES
A high-end art dealer is haunted by a mysterious force from her past that threatens to destroy everything she’s built.
Mae deliwr celf bonheddig yn cael ei haflonyddu gan rym dirgel o’i gorffennol sy’n bygwth dinistrio popeth y mae hi wedi’i adeiladu.
VHX
ALISA STERN & SCOTT AMPLEFORD, USA 2024, 5 MINUTES
A collection of home movies languish on a shelf, longing to be watched again. Little do they know, there’s a fate far worse than being forgotten. Casgliad o ffilmiau cartref yn dihoeni ar silff, yn hiraethu am gael eu gwylio eto. Ychydig a wyddant, mae tynged yn waeth o lawer na chael ei anghofio.
THE VISITOR
TONY MORALES, SPAIN 2024, 10 MINUTES
Alone in her home overnight, a young influencer’s solitude is interrupted by an unexpected visitor.
Ar ei phen ei hun yn ei chartref dros nos, mae ymwelydd annisgwyl yn torri ar draws unigedd dylanwadwr ifanc.
WAKE
SEAN CARTER, USA 2023, 13 MINUTES
With a hurricane raging outside their hospital, two nurses have one last job before evacuating: stow the “dead-on-arrival” corpse of a young girl in the downstairs morgue before the building floods. But the corpse quickly reveals itself to be more than it seems.
Gyda chorwynt yn chwythu tu allan i’w hysbyty, mae gan ddwy nyrs un swydd olaf cyn dianc: cadw corff “marw ar gyrraedd” merch ifanc yn y marwdy lawr grisiau cyn i’r adeilad orlifo. Ond mae’r corff yn gyflym yn datgelu ei fod yn fwy nag y mae’n ymddangos.
Suzzanna
EVENTS
NICKO AND JOE’S BAD FILM CLUB
Comedians Nicko and Joe know terrible cinema better than anyone, and we like to enlist their skills in order to demonstrate some true cinematic shit for you, complete with their own, very special, very silly live commentary. Regulars know what to expect by now – verbal abuse and a truly terrible film!
Mae’r digrifwyr Nicko a Joe yn adnabod sinema ofnadwy yn well na neb, ac rydym yn hoffi ymrestru eu sgiliau er mwyn dangos rhywfaint o cachu sinematig go iawn i chi, ynghyd â’u sylwebaeth fyw wirion, arbennig iawn eu hunain. Mae’r gynulleidfa gyson yn gwybod beth i’w ddisgwyl erbyn hyn - cam-drin geiriol a ffilm wirioneddol ofnadwy!
WHEN ANIMALS RUN AMOCK AND NATURE GETS NASTY
From Atomic Ants to X-Certificate Jellyfish, writer and regular Abertoir contributor Tristan Thompson delivers a fun-filled, fact-stacked affectionate A-Z movie guide of the whackiest creature feature films ever!
O Forgrug Atomaidd i Slefrod Tystysgrif-X, mae’r awdur a’r cyfrannwr rheolaidd i Abertoir Tristan Thompson yn cyflwyno canllaw ffilm A-Z serchog llawn hwyl, llawn ffeithiau o’r ffilmiau creadur mwyaf waci erioed!
BEE BOY
A SHORT STORY BY CALLUM
MCKELVIE
“Shit, watch out! There it is!”
“Be careful!”
“No wait, don’t kill it! It’s a bee not a wasp-” James couldn’t understand. It was impossible, preposterous, ludicrous - it made no damn sense. One second he had been vigorously attempting to swat a bee, the next his hand was firmly planted on a perfectly peachy derrière.
A shudder ran through James’s body, he could practically feel Sandra from HR breathing down his neck. If the intense heat wave had caused him to lightly perspire before, then the sweat was dripping off him now.
The owner of the rump was no older than thirty. A large pair of bug-eye sunglasses covered much of the pale face, but James still found himself entranced by the stranger’s striking jaw line and full lips. A long-sleeve black-and-yellow striped pullover hugged a thin frame, whilst tight denimjean shorts struggled to contain the ample arse, still held in James’s grasp.
“Jesus, shit!” James spluttered, finally pulling his hand away “I’m so sorry!”
It was as if the newcomer had appeared out of thin air.
The stranger ran a hand through his auburn locks, before removing the glasses. A pair of piercing amber eyes carefully studied James. A rare genetic trait indeed, James thought.
Finally, the full lips parted and a mouth full of pearly white teeth broke into a broad smile, “apology accepted.”
Whoever the hell he was, he was stunning. James had always wondered if Zertuche Pharmaceuticals, despite claiming to hire only the brightest graduates in the country, secretly considered a pretty face an additional asset. After all, they were so much more appealing to the company’s more…lecherous investors.
The annual summer party, held at a chic rooftop bar where an income of at least £60,000 was a standard entry requirement, was awash with gorgeous faces, beautiful bodies and the smiles of people wondering whose back to stab in order to guarantee their next promotion. After all, they called it the rat race for a reason.
But even among the crowd of beautiful peoplethis boy was something else.
“Do you work for Zertuche? I haven’t seen you before?” James asked the newcomer.
“I used to…help…with some of the experimental projects…but that ended some time ago”.
At that moment Karl from marketing sauntered over, all fake tan and teeth. By the time he had finally given up trying to explain to James the benefits of the Paleo diet - the stranger had vanished.
Later that night James found himself unable to sleep, his thoughts plagued by visions of fiery locks and amber eyes. Eventually he admitted defeat, dragged himself out of bed and towards his home office; if he couldn’t sleep he may as well try and be productive. His work was hard, arduous and messy - but he liked it that way.
Over the following week, thoughts of the mysterious party-goer finally began to dissipate.
Zertuche had demanded results before the next quarter and James’s manager even had the cheek to question his project’s financial breakdowns. But James was determined, he would win ‘Employee of the Year’ and the coveted company mug.
His work was somewhat interrupted by the occasional presence of a bee which seemed to follow him, incessantly buzzing in his ear but never close enough to spot - let alone swat. Only once did he catch a good glimpse. It was an ugly thing, a small hairless patch across its back where someone with a better aim than James had evidently given it a good whack.
But even with the incessant pest, James threw himself into his work and after long days at Zertuche HQ plus long nights in his home office, he began to find that all work and no play made him a rather dull boy. So as the clock chimed 11pm that Friday, he downed tools and resolved to have some fun - of the carnal kind.
The Phoenix was James’s hunting ground. He found the world of online dating too crowded and too crude. You sent one dick pic to a faceless stranger and a minute later you were bent over behind a Weatherspoons. No, for him the thrill of the hunt was a physical one.
Besides…it gave him the opportunity to inspect the merchandise in person. Though he was careful not to make a habit of it, the last thing he needed was a reputation.
In this fashion, James was meticulously scanning the gyrating bodies when he spotted a familiar black and yellow striped pullover. He pinched himself.
The same tuft of orange hair, the same magnificent arse, the same glowing amber eyes. It was him.
There was just one problem. Currently the stranger was dancing with Davey Dickinson, the mesh-vest-clad ‘queen of the scene’ who insisted on being known as Dà-vey. The treacherous twink was supposed to be in a monogamous relationship with a 48 year-old accountant called Kevin, though there wasn’t a night when he couldn’t be found with his tongue - or something significantly larger - down someone’s throat.
If that two-timing trollop had got his talons into the stripe-wearing stranger then there was little hope for James. Davey might be a bitch but he
was an attractive bitch...heaven knew James himself had taken more than one bite of that particular forbidden fruit.
Suddenly the golden eyes locked onto his and the stranger began to walk towards him. Steam practically poured from Davey’s ears.
“Hey - we met the other night right, at the Zertuche thing?”
James couldn’t believe his luck. The Strangerwho it turned out was called Anthony - offered to buy him a drink. He laughed at James’s jokes, frequently enquired about his work and seemed unable to take those heavenly amber eyes off him.
But just once, James thought he saw a flash of something in those eyes. Something primal, raw and utterly deadly.
Fuck, he needed this boy.
“Wanna go back to mine?”
They ran through the rain soaked streets hand in hand. Lightning flashed and thunder roared but the air was still muggy and humid. The heatwave that for the past week had seared the city’s occupants was finally giving way to the mother of all storms.
Smokers, crowding round the entrances of latenight bars, ran for cover. Those who had been leisurely stumbling home, now rushed towards taxis. A young woman, missing one shoe and with a vomit-stained dress, desperately tried to protect her paper-wrapped kebab.
But James didn’t care, he fled through the night, letting the rain soak his skin. When they reached his apartment, Anthony planted sweet kisses along his neck and jawline as he struggled with the key. Fingers probed and felt under James’s shirt and across his thigh. Finally the door opened.
James dragged Anthony inside, his hands clawing hungrily at the slimmer man’s clothes.
His lover seemed reluctant to lose the heavy striped pullover but James didn’t give a damn - it was the shorts he wanted off.
James hurled Anthony onto the bed, grabbing his legs roughly and tugging at the thin black boxers. Pure animal arousal took over. He struggled out of his jeans and, naked, mounted his prey. Sweat dripped off him, he was hungry with lust.
James heard himself scream before he felt the agonising pain.
Something, shiny black and sharp, had embedded itself in his thigh. With horror he looked down and saw the thing was jutting out from a gaping wound over Anthony’s coccyx. As he watched, it slid slowly back inside the boy, the skin instantly healing over the crevice.
“Whoops! I forgot to mention,” Anthony beamed. “I have a sting in my tail.”
James wanted to scream again, needed to scream - but the noise caught in his throat. Pain radiated out from his groin. Already his flesh was swelling, huge pus filled boils forming before his eyes.
But there was something else. A paralysis that seemed to spread quickly. Not a numbness, just an inability to move. It began in his thigh but was moving quickly up towards his chest and down his legs. He stumbled for a moment before they finally gave way and he found himself spiralling towards the floor.
“I was concerned at first you’d recognised me,” Anthony began as he rolled off the bed, lazily replacing his boxers and jeans. “I followed you the entire week, always buzzing close by…”
All James could do was watch as Anthony lifted the hem of the striped pullover to reveal a huge criss-cross shaped scar.
“You tried to swat me, you prick…threw me in the trash…one less asset for the company…”
James began to choke, his eyes wide with horror.
It couldn’t be…
His captor moved towards a large bookcase, fingers dancing across the many volumes. Finally, they settled upon a leatherbound copy of The Island of Dr Moreau, pushing hard upon the spine. With a ‘whir’ and a ‘click’, the bookcase swung away to reveal a darkened corridor beyond.
James found himself being dragged through the darkness and into the light. The harsh blinding light of LED panels and surgical lamps. From his place in a heap upon the floor he could see little, but he didn’t need to, he knew the contents of the room well.
There were shelves lined with surgical instruments, their edges glinting in the bright light. On the worktops, discarded lumps of flesh - simply too good to throw away - floated sickeningly in specimen jars. Then there was the operating table, still bloody from the day’s work. Finally, there were the cages. Rows and rows of darkened cages, filled with the things.
Anthony had found his home office.
“No, not there, please not there!” James tried to beg as he was hauled towards the cages, but the words wouldn’t form.
The things howled and chattered with excitement. Anthony approached each enclosure in turn, warmly greeting the strange misshapen occupant within like an old friend. He put out his hand to shake claws, paws, trotters and even the odd tentacle.
“You’re back! You always sssaid you’d come back!” A voice hissed.
The snake boy was James’s proudest achievement. He’d handpicked the young man from the Zertuche apprenticeship programme and over several painful weeks - for the apprentice anyway - spliced him with a king cobra. The board of Zertuche had been most pleased with the results.
As they had been with the crab kid, a Tasmanian Giant crab and a 20-something twink he’d met in New York who just wouldn’t shut up. James had ensured he removed the vocal cords as part of the operation. Then there was the dog-man and the cat-creature, a pair of Zertuche middlemanagers who’d got too big for their boots. And how could James forget the bear? He’d been… well…a bear. James had picked him up from The Phoenix, not one of his most imaginative moments, admittedly.
All these and more greeted Anthony as their saviour.
Oh how, how had James not recognised him? No, he couldn’t blame himself for that oversight - he was meant to be dead and gone, one of a thousand failed experiments. From Hong Kong to Paris, Cairo to London - James had travelled the world on Zertuche’s payroll, leaving a myriad of missing persons in his wake. How could he be expected to remember one specimen?
“No…Don’t open the cages-” James desperately tried to cry out.
“Whoops!”
With a click the cage doors swung slowly open, their menagerie of grinning occupants moving out of the darkness and towards the paralysed form upon the floor. A small groan escaped James’s lips as tentacles and talons reached towards him, hoisting him upon the bloody operating table.
“Don’t worry dear,” Anthony whispered in his ear “the paralysis only affects movement, you’ll feel everything.”
Callum story
A spider creature, who’d once been on the board of directors, scuttled over to where the live animal specimens were kept. He grabbed one of the smaller cages and held it down so James could see the furry, squealing creatures within.
“Oh god no, not them! Anything but them!” James’s heart pounded in his chest.
“Of course I’m not as talented as you…” Anthony began; “but I think I’m familiar enough with the procedure…”
He smiled as he selected a particularly long and sharp instrument…
But he remembered him now.
Anthony had been a fresh faced graduate, eager and keen to break into the field. James had developed a skill of dealing with potential competition before they became a threat and Zertuche was always happy to provide him with new material…
After all, they called it the rat race for a reason.
“Now where is it…”
Anthony examined a small control panel. James felt his skin become clammy as he watched the lithe fingers brush over the various buttons and switches. Finally he seemed to find what he was looking for…
“Time to join the rat race for real James”.
And finally James found himself able to screamthe first of many that evening.
Bee Boy and all characters and concepts created within are the property of the author. Full copyright remains with the author and no section may be reproduced without their express permission. Want to get in touch? Contact the author at calcarcosa@gmail.com.
GIANT RABBITS, BIG ASS SPIDERS, MUTANT JELLYFISH, RADIOACTIVE ANTS, THE LOCH NESS MONSTER AND A LUSTFUL QUEEN WASP…YOU’RE GOING TO NEED NOT A BIGGER BOAT BUT…
THE ABERTOIR SURVIVAL GUIDE
TO… WHEN ANIMALS RUN AMOK & NATURE GETS NASTY!
COMPILED BY TRISTAN THOMPSON
AThe Atomic Age of the 50s – In a post-war world, the discovery of atomic power brought on an era of unease, underpinned by a growing anxiety of Cold War paranoia, communism and flying saucers. Everything was scary, scientific advances, space exploration, world politics. The discovery of the atom bomb was to bring Armageddon upon us and with this…Hollywood’s creature-feature had arrived.
The iconic horror figures of the 30s and 40s with all their gothic splendour made way for a new cinematic science-fiction sensation…radioactive fuelled mutants and atomic powered monsters where gigantic animals and insects attacked cinema screens.
Warner Brothers Studios unleashed giant radioactive ants in Them! in 1954, the same year that Toho set their Godzilla, King of the Monsters upon the world.
Elsewhere, the American Air Force are called in to napalm a giant spider in Tarantula (1955), a giant six-tentacled octopus (animated by the great Ray Harryhausen) rose from the depths to attack San Francisco in It Came from Beneath the Sea…There were monstrous crustaceans in Roger Corman’s Attack the Crab Monsters, flesh-eating grasshoppers in The Beginning of the End, The Deadly Mantis, Attack of the Giants Leeches…a prehistoric seasnail was The Monster that Challenged the World. An experimental pesticide is the reason people got smaller in The Incredible Shrinking Man, exposure to a plutonium bomb was why people got bigger in The Amazing Colossal Man
Science fiction was once about square-jawed heroic men bravely exploring and conquering while smoking a cigarette and shooting anything that looked different… in 1950s science-fiction horror cinema…everything turned against us…nature got big, nature mutated…nature got nasty!
BB movies featuring Killer Bees: Maybe with the exception of the pulpy Invasion of the Bee Girls in 1973 (which had radioactive
bee serum used to create an army of beautiful women who seduce men to death), it’s arguable as to whether the humble bumblebee ever made an effective transition as a nature-takes-revenge horror film monster.
One of the first was The Deadly Bees in 1966. Robert Bloch’s loose adaptation of a 1943 ‘Mr Mycroft’ mystery novel, A Taste of Honey by Henry F Heard, and directed by the ever-reliable Freddie Francis for Amicus. Suzanna Leigh plays pop singer Vicki Robbins, recuperating from exhaustion with a holiday on Seagull Island. She finds herself between two rival beekeepers while investigating a series of deadly bee attacks, and whether the swarms of horrible hornets are being deliberately coordinated via ‘the smell of fear’ pheromone.
Heard’s novel has previously been filmed by ABC Television in 1955 which starred Boris Karloff as a retired ‘mystery-detective’. Obviously, Bloch’s adaptation replaced a retired sleuth with a shapely female pop singer to appeal to the youth market but, as a horror film, The Deady Bees is a fairly lethargic sit-through and just doesn’t manage to rev up enough suspense to sustain the expected running time.
But even before eco-horror epics
Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957)
like The Swarm and The Bees hit cinema screens in 1978, the killer bee had already swarmed the airwaves of television horror. The Killer Bees, directed by Curtis Harrington in 1974 for the ABC network, has Gloria Swanson supernaturally commanding swarms of bees to do her devilish bidding while NBC’s The Savage Bees, premiered in November 1976.
Maybe 2023’s Zombeez is an indication that the buzz is back…!
CThe Corpse Grinders –domesticated cats with a newfound taste for human flesh are on the loose in this 1971 low budget trash-classic from Ted V Mikels, director of other grindhouse wackiness such as The Astro Zombies (1971) and Blood Orgy of the She Devils (1973).
An outrageously macabre concept has unscrupulous owners of the local Lotus Cat Food Company taken to using the local graverobber (every community has one!) to acquire corpses to mush-up through their industrial grinder to make their special brand of cat food (promoted as ‘the food that cats crave’). Subsequently, the local moggies have been driven wild for the taste of human flesh and are now attacking their
owners.
Based upon a 1969 script by Arch Hall Sr., which was at one time tentatively titled The Cat and the Canary, The Corpse Grinders cost around $50,000 and went onto spectacular box-office business, raking in $190,000 in one week in Los Angeles alone!
Ted V Mikels, forever the entrepreneurial showman, devised promotional gory gimmicks that promised patrons would ‘see human bodies ground up before their very eyes’. Mikels arranged mock-up ambulances to be parked outside theatres, nurses in attendance to check racing heartrates…some cinema foyers even had cardboard grinding machines on display. Legendary exploitation hucksterism!
After the BBFC had shorn off around 10 minutes of footage, The Corpse Grinders was released on the backend of a double-bill with Anthony Balch’s Horror Hospital (1973). In the US, The Corpse Grinders remained in constant circulation on the grindhouse and drive-in circuit in double and treble bills for the rest of the 70s.
“WANTED: People with GUTS who dare see HUMAN BODIES ground before your very eyes by THE CORPSE GRINDING machine!” Press-book shout-line for The Corpse Grinders, 1971
DDeadly Dachshunds – James Herbert’s seminal 1974 British horror novel The Rats was the subject of a Canadian film adaptation in 1982. Produced by Golden Harvest Pictures and directed by martial arts action director Robert Clouse (having directed Bruce Lee in the Game of Death and Jim Kelly in Black Belt Jones). An outbreak of huge rats, fed up on corn-grain contaminated with illegal steroids embark upon the city of Toronto to feast upon anything and anyone they come across. Released as Deadly Eyes in October 1982
and later retitled as The Rats for the UK video release (a title that would have been more familiar to British horror fans!). Teacher Paul Harris (Sam Groom) and local health inspector Kelly Leonard (Sarah Botsford) have a blossoming romance while trying to convince the local authorities of the impending outbreak and trying to track the rats’ lair. Why ‘deadly dachshunds’? Well…due to a heavy pre-publicity campaign Deady Eyes became known as the film that dressed dachshunds up in rat costumes to play the titular monsters (similar to how they garbed coonhounds up in furs and fake snouts in The Killer Shrews in 1959). Deadly Eyes utilises impressive puppetry work for close-ups of the snarling vermin and does have some pretty gory moments.
Alas, James Herbert’s grisly horror novel is distinctly British, a gloomy reflection of London in the grim 70s, chockful of social commentary and was nasty enough to cause critical outrage while being influential enough to irretrievably change contemporary British horror literature. Robert Clouse’s Deadly Eyes hits all those wonderful exploitation markers that made 80s horror so irresistibly enjoyable…but it really is a B movie adaptation of a very important piece of literature.
EEmpire of the Ants (1977)There was a surge of ecological horror films in the 70s that brought about the resurrection of the giant monster movies from the 50s. Following on from the previous year’s Food of the Gods, Bert I Gordon and American International Pictures pillaged the work of H G Wells further and brought us
The Killer Bees (1974)
The Corpse Grinders (1971)
The Rats / Deadly Eyes (1982)
The Empire of the Ants (based upon Wells’s 1905 short story). This time Joan Collins and Robert Lansing fight off giant radioactive ants on some remote marshland in the Florida Everglades. In a clever twist, the queen ant is able to control humans by pheromones. Again, like Food of the Gods, Empire of the Ants makes great use of large props and puppetry for the interactive close-ups and creatively combines split-screen techniques with stop-motion. AIP’s marketing department had great fun in releasing stills of a swankydressed Joan Collins fighting off a giant rubber ant’s head. Her performance was convincing enough to be nominated as ‘Best Lead Actress’ for the annual Saturn Awards.
The original UK theatrical release eventually came in 1979 and was cleverly edited to dilute the scarier scenes so that an ‘A’ (PG rating) certificate could be granted for kids.
FFlesh-Eating Fish - Produced by Roger Corman’s New World Pictures and released in the summer of 1978, Joe Dante’s wonderful Piranha is undoubtedly one of the most enjoyable lowbudget ‘nature attacks’ movies released on the back-tail (fin?) of Jaws. Like Dante’s later The Howling (1981), Piranha is a carefully crafted blend of clever satire, black humour and beloved horror movie goodness, a monster-movie-masterpiece! Bequeathed the sequel rights by Corman, original producers Jeff Schechtman and Chako van Leuwen hightailed it off to make the infamous Piranha 2: The Spawning (though I prefer the
Flying Killers title!) with Egyptian producer Ovidio G. Assonitis’s Saturn Films in 1982 (the film famously disowned by James Cameron…seriously, how can one disavow themselves from an 80s gore film with special effects by Giannetto De Rossi, the artist who brought to life Lucio Fulci’s queasiest moments in Zombie Flesh Eaters and The Beyond? Really…James Cameron’s Titanic, Terminator and Avatar blockbusters should be marketed with the shout-line “FROM THE DIRECTOR OF PIRANHA 2: THE FLYING KILLERS” splashed across their Leicester Square cinema marquees…!).
Alas, I digress, the fishy saga continued in the 90s when Roger Corman had Piranha remade in 1995 for the Showtime TV Network and then there was Alexandre Aja’s quasi-sequel, decadently drenched in threedimensional gore and gratuitous nudity, Piranha 3D in 2010 and of course, the 2012 David ‘The Hoff’ Hasselhoff starring sequel Piranha 3DD…oh, please, that’s enough now…!
“People eat fish, Grogan. Fish don’t eat people!” Mr Dumont (played by Paul Bartel), Piranha, 1978
GThe Giant Spider Invasion (1975) - B movie supremo Bill Rebane, director of Monster A Go-Go and Rana The Creature from Shadow Lake, here delivers a nature monster movie of epic proportions. The hillbilly community of Wisconsin’s Gleason County are under attack
from giant spiders from another dimension who emerge from a miniature black hole that suddenly appeared on some back-water farm (a cosmologic conundrum that would make Neil deGrasse Tyson’s head spin!). Luckily NASA scientist Dr Vance (Steve Brodie) and astronomer Dr Jenny Langer (Barbara Hale) are at hand and are ready to drop a neutron bomb on the giant spider (that makes Jaws “look like a goldfish!”).
Forever celebrated as the movie that managed to pull off creating its titular monster from mocking up a VW Beetle car as a giant spider with (barely) mechanical legs that didn’t even reach the ground (thus giving the effect that when scuttling across a field, it was actually gliding along on its belly!).
Better than the back projection techniques of Tarantula (1955)… nah! Want more, check out 2013’s Big Ass Spider…title sez it all…!
HThe Hephaestus Plague – 1973 debut novel of author Thomas Page (who went onto write the Canadian sasquatch horror novel The Spirit), filmed in 1975 as Bug. Produced by the legendary B movie schlockmeister William Castle and starring Bradford Dillman, Bug sees a species of an unknown insect unleashed from the cracked earth of a small rural Californian town during an earthquake. Although predominantly inactive due to air pressure, these subterranean cockroaches can create fire by rubbing their antennae together and creating local havoc. Believing that these bugs may be the oldest species on earth, university
Empire of the Ants (1977)
The Giant Spider Invasion (1975)
Big Ass Spider (2013)
professor James Parmiter (Dillman) decides to mate them with the local cockroaches…thus creating a particularly hostile and intelligent (even demonic looking) new breed of bug (they can spell by aligning themselves together to form words…“we live”!)…and they eat raw meat!
Classic B movie kookiness for sure, alas Bug does gain advantage by taking both concept and narrative seriously as the film explores Parmiter’s gradual deterioration following the tragic loss of his wife to the fire-sprouting ticks.
The screenplay was penned by both Castle and the author Page himself and, mindful that the name Hephaestus is for the Greek God of Fire, the film is ingrained with a ‘fire & brimstone’ religious subtext.
Director Jeannot Szwarc went on to direct Jaws 2 three years later. William Castle, sadly Bug being his last film, had hatched another ‘gimmick’ idea to match his infamous ‘Emergo’ skeleton from The House on Haunted Hill (1959) and the buzzer-jolt of The Tingler (1959) - for Bug Hill’s concept was to install brushes under theatre seats to brush against the back legs of patrons to create the sensation of scuttling insects…the idea was sadly rejected.
IIsland Claws – Filmed under the title of Giant Claws and apparently costing around $3.5 million dollars, of which $500,000 was used to construct a huge 9,000 pound (almost inanimate) crab monster, 1980’s Island Claws, having
missed that brief resurgence of nature-runs-amok eco-horror movies in the 70s (Kingdom of the Spiders, Frogs, Night of the Lepus), failed to find a theatrical release and eventually made an uneventful debut on network television in 1984 as Night of the Claw
The story was hatched by director / producers Colby and Hernan Cardenas and the screenplay was fleshed out by Hollywood’s premier underwater & diving specialist Ricou Browning (he played the Gill-Man for the underwater scenes in The Creature of the Black Lagoon) and his writing partner Jack Cowden. Island Claws has a Florida seaside resort (with a local beachside restaurant named ‘The Half-Shell’) menaced by a giant mutant crab. Lots of mindless episodic subplots with generic characters plodding along at a lethargic pace while we wait for the final scenes that eventually reveal the titular monster-with-giant-claws in all its unspectacular glory.
Despite no credit awarded, beloved British pulp horror novelist Guy N. Smith often claimed Island Claws was based upon his first ‘Crabs’ sequel Killer Crabs in 1979. There are similarities…such as a tropical setting and a giant crab… but…sadly… there’s certainly none of Smith’s trademark softcore sex and outrageous crustacean clawgouging mutilation.
For those of us (and there are plenty of us) who just find vintage monster movies irresistible, Island Claws will give us a smile of affection and still be embraced, others who may still be yearning some full-on crab-monster action… will have to make do with a Guy N. Smith novel or rewatch Roger Corman’s Attack of the Crab Monsters for the zillionth time.
JJaw Man - A bewildering ‘Jekyll, Hyde and shark’ concept from John Brosnan, film-commentary writer and pulp horror novelist who occasionally wrote under the pseudonyms Harry Adam Knight and Simon Ian Childer, author of Fungus, Slimer and Carnosaur (his 1984 novel about geneticallyengineered dinosaurs that predated Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park by six years and was filmed in 1993 by Roger Corman’s New Horizon Studios).
Jaw Man was conceived as a spoof in 1977, about a scientist who injects himself with shark DNA and morphs into ‘man-shark’ It nearly happened. Michael Deely at British Lion expressed an interest and commissioned Brosnan to flesh-out a screenplay upon a caveat that John Cleese would agree to play ‘shark man’ Predictably that wasn’t going to happen, so when that fell through, British exploitation producer Norman Priggin briefly flirted with Brosnan before the script made its way onto the executives at the Rank Organisation and EMI and eventually found the much sought after green-light at American International Pictures.
With studio space booked, location scouting underway and explorations on how to film a huge aquarium that would serve as the mad scientist’s laboratory…then word leaked that the upcoming James Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me, had a similar setting with Richard Kiel playing a supervillain named ‘Jaws’. The project sank and Jaw Man was never to be.
KThe Killer Shrews – This cracking little independent movie from 1959 was shot in 6 days on a shoestring budget of around $120,000 and sees a research team stranded on an island inhabited by enlarged mutant shrews. Director Ray Kellog, having established a
Bug (1975)
Island Claws (1980)
prestigious Hollywood career in visual and special effects, made his directing debut with The Killer Shrews and helped bring the beastly flesh-ripping critters alive with close-up puppetry and dressing coonhounds in grubby furs and snout-attachments.
As with many monster B movies of this era, The Killer Shrews carries that reputation, affectionate it may be, as a ‘bad movie’ (not helped by the copyright lapsing and The Killer Shrews becoming readily available on countless smudgy public-domain video releases and super-cheap DVD box-sets), but Kellog’s direction is sufficiently competent, suspense scenes are well constructed as the survivors blockade themselves into the island’s only refuge, a wooden panelled research hub (actually not too dissimilar to the setting the protagonists find themselves in in 1968’s Night of the Living Dead).
Yes, giant shrews may look like dogs wrapped in fur but then Vic Savage’s monster in The Creeping Terror from 1964, which was unbelievably cheaper, looked like a walking rolled-up carpet… And it was... These were the monster movies of their time.
Filmed back-to-back with The Giant Gila Monster, and released the same year on a double-bill that promised ‘super-sonic hell
creatures that no weapon could destroy!’
LLocusts - Television fright films were having great fun with the ‘nature-goes-berserk’ horror formula in the 70s, there was Curtis Harrington’s The Killer Bees in 1974, The Savage Bees in 1976, Ants (It Happened at Lakewood Manor), Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo (both from 1977) and in 1974 we had Locusts. Premiering on the ABC network on 9th October 1974, and starring a very young Ron Howard, Locusts has swarms of predatory grasshoppers threaten the residents and crops of some rural midwestern farming community.
Despite initial prime-time advertising of the film as a slice of TV horror, expectant viewers were left wanting as Locusts is essentially a mundane family drama exploring redemption within a father and son relationship with the swarming locusts as a metaphor to reflect overcoming adversity.
In the realms of celebrated TV horror films, Locusts is pretty much forgotten and often absent from specialist horror movie guides because, despite the network’s pre-premiere fanfare, it’s not a horror film. Some later international videotape and DVD releases similarly dressed the film up as an all-out horror. Now, if they adapted Guy N. Smith’s 1979 novel of the same name…that really would have been something!
MMr B.I.G – the Wisconsin-born Bert Ira Gordon, the legendary director, producer, screenwriter and occasional special effects technician, affectionally nicknamed Mr BIG by Famous Monsters of Filmland and SF editor Forrest J Ackerman in tribute of Gordon’s enduring Hollywood career in bringing giant-monsters to the
silver screen.
As a child, Gordon would make 16mm home-movies featuring monsters, with his directing debut coming in 1955 with King Dinosaur. In 1957 he directed The Beginning of the End (giant grasshoppers) and The Cyclops, featuring a gigantic mutated man with a singular eye, a concept he would revisit the same year with the iconic The Amazing Colossal Man and the 1958 sequel War of the Colossal Beast. It was a giant arachnid in Earth vs The Spider, a deranged doll designer who shrinks people in Attack of the Puppet People and Village of the Giants came in 1965. And in the 70s he gave us Joan Collins in Empire of the Ants and giant chickens, giant mosquitos, giant maggots and giant rodents in Food of the Gods (1976).
Gordon was in the throes of raising finances for Devil Fish in 1977 which was scuppered once Star Wars was released and changed the cinematic landscape. He was awarded the prestigious Grand Prix du Festival International Du Paris Fantastique in 1977 and in 2012, at the age of 90, he made himself available to introduce a special screening of The Amazing Colossal Man at Pittsburgh’s Monster Bash Festival.
Whether with either cynicism or with affection, much of Bert I Gordon’s work would come to be regularly lampooned in Mystery Science Theatre 3000 and their Rifftrax platform, but for generations of monster-movie kids who caught his back-projection wonders in cinemas or drive-ins, or even later on syndicated creaturefeature TV schedules, Mr BIG’s movies had colossal impact. He lived to reach 100 years old.
The Killer Shrews (1959)
The Giant Gila Monster (1959)
The Beginning of the End (1957)
NNessie, the Monster Movie That Never Was - The following year after the box-office juggernaut that was Jaws, an alluring alliance was formed between Hammer producer Michael Carreras and Japan’s Toho Studios (home of the mighty Godzilla) to launch Nessie, an epic monster movie featuring a radioactive-charged mutant Loch Ness Monster breaking free of the confines of the famous freshwater lake of the Scottish Highlands, and wreaking havoc on a global scale. Bringing a certain prestige to the project was political satirist David Frost, onboard with his Paradine Productions outfit, who were planning to develop their own Loch Ness Monster movie, tentatively titled Carnivore. And of course… with the industry savvy of Carreras hand-in-hand with the artistry of Toho’s Effects Director Teruyoshi Nakano, a script by Christopher Wicking, the promise of investment from Columbia Film Studios and even Roger Moore’s name potentially attached…what could go wrong?
There was a swanky press conference on the Thames aboard the historical Hispaniola (a schooner originally built in 1887 that famously featured in Walt Disney’s Treasure Island in 1950) where Carreras excitedly proclaimed a half-million-dollar quarter-scale animatronic model of the monster was under construction. Slated director Bryan Forbes famously stated that “our film will make Jaws look like a toothpaste commercial”. All an extravagant hyperbole of nothingness….money never arrived, money was lost, costs spiralled, Toho balked at the ever-changing storyboards which didn’t even closely resemble the ever-changing scripts…and the Hammer Horror epic with a Tohodesigned monster sadly never happened…
But we do have The Loch Ness Horror from the legendary sci-fi and exploitation filmmaker Larry Buchanan from 1982 and another Loch Ness Horror from 2023 from
Dark Abyss Productions, directed by CGI monster-movie specialist Tyler-James.
“Don’t come looking for Nessie… unless you want to die!”
Trailer from The Loch Ness Horror, directed by Larry Buchanan, 1982
OOctaman (1971) – Exploring the local legend of a ‘man-fish’ that supposedly roams the lakesides of a rural Mexican fishing community. A group of marine biologists, with the funding of an unscrupulous carnival owner looking for a far-out sideshow exhibit, find themselves stalked by a walking tentacled radioactive humanoid octopus with bulbous red eyes.
Funky fun to be had with this lowbudget regional monster horror that showcases an ambitiously outrageous full-sized ‘octaman’ suit designed by future multiple Academy Award Winner Effects & Makeup Artist Rick Baker.
Written and directed by Hollywood screenwriting veteran Harry Essex, with Octaman it appears Essex dusted off his writing contributions to Universal’s The Creature from
the Black Lagoon (1954) and reinterpreted the story here… obviously without the beautifully menacing underwater sequences (undoubtedly stuntman Read Morgan would have sunk faster than a granite rock wrapped up in this cumbersome octaman suit).
Similar to 1967’s Night Fright, Octaman was just too cheap to even break onto the drive-in circuit and went straight to regional television…and then resurrected onto video (hooray!). Octaman the ‘horror heap from the nuclear trash!’
PProphecy (1979) – Big budget eco-horror movie directed by John Frankenheimer for Paramount Studios and starring Robert Foxworth and Talia Shire. Prophecy did decent box-office upon release in Summer 1979 but rarely receives glowing reviews (though both Stephen King and Quentin Tarantino have expressed an enduring fondness).
Written by David Seltzer (author of the original The Omen), Prophecy, set in the forests of Maine, charts the devastating impact of a local industrial papermill dumping mercury-based chemicals into the rivers. The land is under dispute between Native Americans and the industrialists causing violent outbreaks between militant leaders and obnoxious lumberjacks. The Indigenous people (dubbed ‘Opies’ for ‘original people’) are dependent upon the riverways to survive and are being demonised by local communities. They stand accused of a spate of mysterious disappearances
The Loch Ness Horror (1982)
Octaman (1971)
Prophecy (1979)
and mutilated mill-workers, which they attribute to the legend of Katahdin, a vengeful Indian spirit of the forest. In the meantime, Environmental Investigator Robert Vane discovers giant tadpoles and giant salmon, while a giant mutant bear stalks the forests… Further, his wife Maggie (Shire) is pregnant and would have undoubtedly been drinking the mercury-tinged water.
Prophecy, beautifully filmed with very strong performances, while partly striving to explore deeprooted and expansive issues that explore the plight of Native American communities at the behest of industrial commerce, eventually just crumbles under the weight of such a clunky and uneven narrative. Prophecy almost seems to cast aside the social and environmental subtexts to climax as an expensive B horror movie (which, considering Paramount prominently promoted it as Prophecy: The Monster Movie, I guess it was). It is almost as if Frankenheimer’s film was in the throes of an identity crisis, partly with desires to be a provocatively socially-conscious eco-thriller but contractually obligated to deliver a standardised monster movie. Bizarrely, Prophecy is a movie I regularly yearn to revisit even knowing that when the monster-action kicks off I’ll be counting out the time.
QQueen of the Gorillas –
Sensationalistic 1958 exploitation quickie from poverty row studios
Allied Artists Pictures, produced and directed by Adrian Weiss from a script, titled Queen of the Gorillas, by the infamous Edward D Wood JR. Released as The Bride and the Beast in early
January 1958 on a double-bill with The Beast of Budapest
Big game hunter Dan Fuller (Lance Fuller) is mildly concerned when his newly wedded wife Laura (Charlotte Austin) appears to be attracted to Spanky, his caged gorilla. Revealed through hypnotism that Laura used to be Queen of the Gorillas in a previous life you’d think that Dan would cancel their African Safari honeymoon – but of course he doesn’t – and after a brief spell of the usual jungle frolics and adventures, Laura is willingly carried off into the bush by a huge male gorilla, never to be seen again.
The running time of just 77 minutes is excruciatingly padded out with stock footage and by 1958 this familiar threadbare gorilla outfit had begun looking worse for wear. Fun to be had if one can look past the long-outdated behaviours, attitudes and stereotyping that were once commonplace.
With gorillas being a longtime staple of exploitation cinema, one-time cowboy star Ray ‘Crash’ Corrigan had become Poverty Row’s ‘go-to’ guy to play apes and gorillas (I counted over 15 movies on IMDB), The Bride and the Beast would be the last time he’d wear that wretched outfit. Adrian Weiss never took up the directing reigns again and Ed Wood would drift on into the 60s penning cheap pornographic paperbacks for underground publishers.
The shout-line cried “A Human Mate for Jungle Brutes!”
RRevenge of Billy The Kid (1991) – Excruciatingly crass, crude and offbeat British horror comedy that, considering its hugely problematic three-year production history, emerges as equally ambitious as it is grotesque. Filmed in and around Mousehole Harbour in Penzance, Cornwall, veteran British character actor Michael Balfour takes the lead as bumpkin farmer Gyles
MacDonald who humps a goat, then raises the icky mutant offspring, named Billy, alongside his two sons (both named Ronald MacDonald…hmmmm!). Quickly Billy the Goat-Boy grows into a Billy the rampaging-rubber-goat monster and takes revenge on the MacDonald clan.
Written and directed by Jim Groom, and initially financed from the proceeds of a house sale, The Revenge of Billy The Kid began filming in around 1988 and subsequently ran out of money. Further investment was eventually secured, though many scenes had to be reshot for actors who had since became unavailable, and armed with a pre-release blurb from John Waters (quite appropriate) and touted as Britain’s answer to The Evil Dead, The Revenge of Billy The Kid made its eventual premiere at the Black Sunday Film Festival in December 1991.
Groom’s resourcefulness and perseverance in bringing his film to completion, especially during a pre-internet age and within a near-stagnant British horror film industry, is unquestionably admirable and no small feat. Alas, The Revenge of Billy the Kid just wasn’t the hyperactive gorefest that was Peter Jackson’s Bad Taste (1987), nor did it have that quirky cult vibe of other Brit horror oddities like I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle (1990) or even the spoof sensibilities of Unmasked Part 25: Jackson’s Back (1989). As a lowbrow comedy brimming with revolting sex gags, body functions and other juvenile yuckiness, The Revenge of Billy The Kid may (at one time) have had the potential to be a minor hit with schoolkids, but with a
Queen of the Gorillas (1958)
The Revenge of Billy The Kid (1991)
limited 1992 video release and no international distribution, The Revenge of Billy The Kid, even within cult film fandom, just sadly never found its mark.
SSquirm (1976) – debut film from genre auteur Jeff Leiberman, a sludgy horror movie about flesh-eating worms had no problems attracting investment from Broadway producers Edgar Lansbury and Joseph Beruh and distribution from Samual Z Arkoff’s American International Pictures. Apparently 250,000 rubber worms were used to bring this Southern sweat-soaked squishy classic alive.
The backwater town of Fly Creek in the suburbs of Georgia suffers an electrical storm that knocks power and telephone lines out. With a downed pylon plummeting millions of volts into the earth, the screeching worms go wild and descend upon Fly Creek to feast upon the local yokels.
Squirm is quirky, inventive and has all the devilry and dark humour of an EC horror comic book. Some show-stopping grossout effects from Rick Baker have worms burying themselves into faces, worms dangling over naked women from showerheads and if you ever wanted to visualise what an ocean of worms covering an entire room looks like…look no further! Simply put, Leiberman and Baker innovatively deliver the squishy goods in Squirm
TTintorera (1977) – Based upon an original 1975 novel by oceanographer Ramon Bravo, Tintorera was structured into a Jaws dupe and released in 1977. A Mexican-British co-production, filmed on and around the beautiful Isla Mujeres and directed by Rene Cardona Jr.
The over long running time (the full cut being over 2 hours) pads out some sleazy convoluted playboy-lifestyle narrative about a rich businessman (Hugo Stiglitz), a randy holidaymaker (Susan George) and a womanising swimming instructor (Andrea Garcia) who all seem to enjoy shark-hunting and sex (I think!). Anyway, the hedonistic trio float around the islands sightseeing and engaging in noncommittal sex (a conditional agreement between them that no one falls in love!), which gifts the viewer with this bizarre travelogue montage of their sightseeing to a rendition of the Christmas hymn Oh Come, All Ye Faithful to the twangs of a Mexican guitar. Occasionally someone gets eaten by a Tiger Shark and Hugo Stiglitz takes to the sea to take revenge.
Tintorera had a huge international release (often with the tag-on title of Bloody Waters or Killer Shark) and was released in two versions to appease the sensibilities of the Mexican censorship system, a standard 85-minute cut with clothed scenes and an excruciating 126-minute cut with someone shredding their beachwear every other scene. There’s sun, sea, sex, smut, Susan George…not much shark!
UUp From The Depths (1979)You know you’re onto a winning monster movie when someone screams “oh my god…it’s a monster fish!” Yes, 1979’s Up from the Depths is a very fishy frightener from veteran exploitation horror screenwriter
and director Charles B Griffith. A luxurious paradise resort on the island of Maui being threatened by a huge prehistoric fish recently awakened by a nearby underwater earthquake and the usual characters play out the usual scenarios (the hero, a sun-scorched romance, foolhardy fishermen, vacationers being chomped up into a paella of mush and guts). Starring Sam Bottoms (undoubtedly at the bottom of his career), shot in the Philippines, produced by Roger Corman’s New World Pictures and showcasing a huge inanimate bugeyed rubber fish with fearsome teeth that somehow makes a distorted elephant roar (even when underwater).
Up from the Depths has an incredibly offbeat vibe. Griffith actually shot the film as an all-out comedy, and the characters were that usual assortment of generic broad comedic caricatures, however Roger Corman’s editors snipped the film up in an attempt to structure the finished edit as a standardised horror film…with much of the visual gags gone and dialogue trimmed of punchlines the characters are even more generically flat…the results… something of a quirky, albeit enjoyable, mess!
However, the 80s was around the corner, Up from the Depths would find an appreciative shelf in video rental shops across the world.
“Beneath these waves lies a horror beyond imagining…hungry for human flesh and its coming…Up from the Depths!”
VVenom (1981) – Suspense thriller based upon the 1977
Squirm (1976)
Up from the Depths (1979)
novel by South African writer Alan Scholefield. Starring Klaus Kinski and Susan George as career criminals who plan to kidnap the grandson of a wealthy game hunter with the help of the family’s sleazy chauffeur Olivier Reed. All principal characters find themselves under police siege in a dark house while being stalked by a deadly Black Mamba snake lurking within the labyrinthic ventilation system.
Shot on the hoof by Piers Haggard (Blood on Satan’s Claw) who took over the troublesome production after Tobe Hooper departed. Managing to maintain an increasingly tight shooting schedule while juggling the eruptive ego of Klaus Kinski and the mischievousness of Oliver Reed led Haggard to slyly comment the production was “a nest of vipers, not just one Black Mamba.”
Such on-set tensions have undoubtedly made a contribution to the finished film’s tight narrative and character interaction while Haggard ramps up the intensity by making good use of the close and claustrophobic setting.
Venom closes with a credit of recognition to reptile zoologist David Ball (portrayed in the film by Michael Gough), thanking him for his ‘skill and courage in the handling of the deadly Black Mamba’
WThe Wasp Woman (1959) –Directed by Roger Corman for his newly-founded Film-Group production and distribution outfit and released as the back-end movie of a double-bill (‘the double
horror sensation of the year!’) with Beast from Haunted Cave, The Wasp Woman has beauty cosmetics company owner Janice Starlin (Susan Cabot) team up with an eccentric bee-keeper/ experimenter Dr Eric Zinthrop (Michael Mark) to acquire experimental royal jelly from honeybees that acts as an antiaging serum to boost ailing sales.
Predictably, after a short period of success, Starlin suddenly morphs into the titular wasp woman, though certainly not in the form of the gigantic horrific femalefaced hornet illustrated on the iconic poster-artwork (undoubtedly inspired by the previous year’s shock-ending of The Fly). Actually, topped with a funky mask of fuzzy black hair, dangling antennae and big bulbous eyes, Wasp Woman doesn’t even resemble a wasp… and despite the absence of wings, Starlin’s Wasp Woman emits that mean-sounding continuous buzz of an angry wasp just to remind us she’s supposed to be a wasp. Of course, just why this honeybee royal jelly causes Starlin to mutate into a wasp is all very vague and woolly but one of the original working titles was The Bee Girl and I guess The Wasp Woman has that more exploitable ‘monster movie’ sounding title.
While Leo Gordon’s screenplay does centre Susan Cabot as a strong female business owner who oversees a lethargic management board, her mutation into monster is spurred by that cosmetic obsessiveness to reverse the appearance of aging and, interestingly, there were reports circulating in the late 50s that the secretions of honeybees and their royal jelly contained exfoliation qualities.
For television syndication, Jack Hill directed an additional 11 minutes with a new prologue to pad out the running time. The Wasp Woman, an unspectacular, yet always enjoyable, kooky monster melodrama that Corman would later revisit under his Concorde Productions company for a television remake in 1995.
But…if you REALLY want to see a giant wasp in all-out monsteraction, check out 1957’s Monster from Green Hell
The advertising fanfare for The Wasp Woman screamed “a beautiful woman by day…a lusting queen wasp by night!”
XX Certificate Jellyfish - Awarded the dreaded Certificate X by the BBFC upon release in June 1968, William Grefe’s Sting of Death (1966) probably holds the distinction of being the only movie in horror film history to feature a morphing jellyfish-manmonster (were-jellyfish?)! Shot in the Everglades at the Rainbow Springs State Park (the same shooting location for 1954’s The Creature from the Black Lagoon), Sting of Death has pool-party teenagers gyrating to rock ‘n’ roll surf sounds while menaced by a walking jellyfish monster with protruding tendrils that leave a deathly sting!
Low budget kitsch classic from Florida-based exploitation entrepreneur William Grefe (who went onto to direct The Death Curse of Tartu and Mako: The Jaws of Death). Good honest creature-feature fun with a monster outfit that reportedly cost around £300 and looks like a guy in a slime-green painted wetsuit, smothered in drooping tendrils and an inflated carrier-bag over his head…which is exactly what it was…and all part of the charming creativeness.
Producer Richard S Flink met crooner Neil Sedaka at a nightclub gig in Miami and talked him into
Venom (1981)
The Wasp Woman (1959)
providing the signature rock ‘n’ roll theme song ‘Do the Jellyfish’ with the prominent poster credit of ‘Special Singing Guest Star’…I guess talking Sedaka into actually appearing in the movie may have been a sting too far (boom, boom!)!
“Well-a, I’m saying fella – forget your Cinderella – and do the jella –the jilla-jella – it’s really swella – do the jellyfish”
Profound lyrics from ‘Do the Jellyfish’, written & performed by Neil Sedaka
YYear of the Angry Rabbit –Renowned Australian writer Russell Braddon made his publication debut with The Naked Island in 1952, a disturbing memoir of his experience as a prisoner-of-war in Singapore during WWII. InYear of the Rabbit, published in 1964, Braddon used a deliberately comedic pulp science-fiction premise of giant rabbits overrunning Australia to create stinging subtexts about nationalism, capitalism and platform his anti-war stance. Of course, these central connotations of Braddon’s novel were quickly discarded when MGM adapted the film as Night of the Lepus in 1972 (Lepus being Latin for hare)…they certainly kept the giant rabbits and shifted the narrative to Arizona. Released the same year as Ben and Frogs, Night of the Lepus was directed by William F Claxton (who was predominantly more well known for western movies and episodic television work) and starred Stuart Witman and Janet Leigh and has a rabbit, injected with an experimental hormonal serum, escape into the wilds to thump and hump with other rabbits…and soon there’s an
outbreak of giant monster rabbits hopping all over the local town.
Night of the Lepus is a fine example of an early 70s preJaws ‘animals attack’ movie (which more often than not can be a simplistic dust-down of 50s atomic monster cinema). However, the famous flaw, just how scary can a fluffy docile-looking bunny rabbit be…even when shot in ‘thump, thump, thump’ slow-motion through miniature sets of towns and farmlands…you still kind of just want to reach out and cuddle them! Not without charm, Night of the Lepus did decent box-office and probably scared a few children who later caught it on afternoon matinees or the occasional television screening.
MGM’s marketing department were
having a good day when promoting the original cinema release in July 1972, they painted rabbit footprints over the sidewalk leading people to the cinema marquee…
“Attention, attention, ladies and gentlemen attention, there’s a herd of killer rabbits heading this way and we desperately need your help!”
A panicked police-officer desperately addresses the audience at a rural drive-in cinema, Night of the Lepus, 1972.
Z
ZOMBEAVERS (2014) - In a world of contemporary low-rent ‘nature gone nasty’ titles such as Shark Exorcist (‘Satan has jaws!’) and Beaster Bunny (‘you haven’t a hop in hell!’)…why not zombie beavers?
So, radioactive undead beavers
pretty much spoil a weekend away to a picturesque lakeside cottage for a group of self-obsessed teenage dudes and dudettes… who are more traumatised that they can’t access their social media outlets due to no mobile phone signal (of course) than they are of flesh-gnawing semiaquatic rodents turning up in the shower and chomping off a foot or two. Zombeavers is a schlocky fastpaced 75-minute gag-reel of cartoon gore effects filled with adolescent ‘yuck-yuck’ humour. Lurid and lewd, and bound to evoke a guilty chuckle here and there, but not made without skill, especially the animatronic models and clever puppetry that bring the buck-toothed beasties alive.
Oh, I suppose there’ll be a smutty ‘beaver’ joke or two…but there’s fun to had…just tut-tut in the right places and just don’t let anyone know how much you enjoyed it…!
UK
cult & exploitation film writer, researcher & scholar and has written for many websites, periodicals and magazines including Infinity, The Darkside and We Belong Dead. His long-running A-Z movie guides have featured in the Abertoir Program since 2009.
Research acknowledgements & thanks: Charlie Thompson, Lee Gamblin, Christopher Wayne Curry, John Lemay.
Tristan Thompson is a
horror,
Sting of Death (1966)
Zombeavers (2014)
Night of the Lepus (1972)
JAMES HERBERT: 50 YEARS OF THE RATS ESSAY BY TRISTAN THOMPSON
“And I could see there were thousands of rats… with their eyes blazing red, like his only smaller. And he held up his hand… and they all stopped. And I thought he seemed to be saying ‘rats, rats, rats… thousands, millions of them, all these, red blood, all these will I give you…if you will obey me!’”
Dwight Frye as Renfield in Dracula (directed by Todd Browning, 1931)
It was Dwight Frye’s exquisite performance as the gibbering Renfield, enslaved to Bela Lugosi’s Dracula, and his chilling description of overwhelming hordes of rats that resurrected a dark and distant childhood memory for James Herbert.
It was a late Friday night in 1972. Settling into a television screening of Todd Browning’s 1931 Dracula, 29-yearold advertising executive James Herbert began recalling memories of his London Eastend post-war childhood in a creaky terraced family house on a cobbled street behind Whitechapel’s Petticoat Lane. He shared it with his markettrader parents and two older brothers, within a suburb of demolished houses and rubble-strewn bomb sites that served as playgrounds for the local children.
And rats…
There was an alleyway adjacent to the back of the Herbert’s household on Tyne Street. The adjoining stables were infested with rats and by night, under the dull glare of the gas-fuelled street lamps, the 7-year-old James Herbert would quietly watch from his bedroom window the rodents gathering below in the backyard and silently scuttering along alleyways.
“I was scared of giant rats. There were gutted houses all around us, full of them.”
James Herbert in James Herbert, Devil in the Dark, Craig Cabell, 2004
From bombed-out factories to abandoned houses, from crowded street markets to desolate docks and churchyards, rats were an everyday sighting in immediate post-war London.
For a young boy, with a fervent imagination, watching the nocturnal scavengers emerge from their small dark dwellings to converge and scurry around the backyard and the coal-shed so close to the kitchen door aroused a macabre fascination mixed with skin-crawling revulsion.
Now, fast approaching his 30th year, married with a young family, financially secure with a fast-paced prolific career as an Associate Director for the prestigious Charles Barker Advertising Agency, James Herbert was enjoying a comfortable life. The war-ravaged London of his childhood, a London that was hard-lived, depressed and desolate, were distant memories. But that night in 1972, James Herbert watching Dracula, the images of rats ingrained into his childhood consciousness were evoked by the lunatic ramblings of Dwight Frye’s portrayal of Renfield…
James Herbert decided to write a story…a story about rats…
For the next 10 months Herbert spent his evening and weekend hours writing a gruesome 169-page story of enlarged mutant rats sieging contemporary London. It was written in longhand and typed up by his wife, Eileen.
His manuscript was sent out to six different publishers. Five rejected. But New English Library accepted with an offer of a contract that stipulated a continuing 5% royalty rate and a £150 advance.
The Rats was published the following year in January 1974 and following a very limited hardback edition (selling for £1.95), predominantly provided for libraries, the initial
100,000 paperback run went to retail in the November and sold out within 3 weeks (at 40p a copy).
The contemporary horror literature market was predominantly entrenched in gothic fiction, supernatural twists and macabre ghost stories. The long-running Pan Book of Horror Stories anthology series (which began in 1959) showcased authors who were quietly pressing boundaries while endlessly regurgitating the classic works of Edgar Allan Poe, H P Lovecraft, M R James and Algernon Blackwood.
With The Rats, James Herbert delivered an unrestrained novel of visceral shock and a vivid ‘contemporary’ horror. On the surface, The Rats was enjoyed as a short, schlocky and outrageous horror novel but Herbert’s grim story is deeply ingrained in a pessimistic social commentary of a depressed, post-war, suburban 1970s London.
Gone was the bourgeoisie prose of Dennis Wheatley’s conservatism, the crafted storystructures of Richard Matheson or the ghostly writings of Susan Hill, The Rats was raw, a story about working class people being eaten alive by mutant rodents in a decaying city of grime and dirt.
“Rats! His mind screamed the words. Rats eating me alive! God, God help me. Flesh was ripped away from the back of his neck. He couldn’t rise now for the sheer weight of writhing, furry vermin feeding from his body, drinking his blood!”
The critical establishment were repulsed and recoiled at the undiluted graphic rawness of The Rats. Herbert’s writing was condemned and dismissed as offensive, cheap, illiterate trash. The Observer’s literary critic Martin Amis (writing under his pseudonym Henry Tilney) famously wrote ‘enough to make a rodent retch, undeniably and enough to make any human pitch the book aside.’
James Herbert’s The Rats went on to sell millions of copies and helped spearhead that unique 70s pulp paperback phenomenon that subversively skewered British publishing. Along with The Rats, tattered paperbacks of Sven Hassel’s controversial war novels and Richard Allen’s Skinhead books eagerly exchanged hands in playgrounds across the country and were kept hidden from sight from teachers and parents.
“My readers range from 10-year-olds to 82-year-old grannies…perverted grannies!”
James Herbert from The Life and Happy Times Healey the Writer, Adam Trimingham, Brighton Evening Argus, 1989
The Rats would also irretrievably change the landscape of British horror fiction. Bookshops and paperback-stands in newsagents and station kiosks would become crammed with slimline novels of animal-attacks nastiness. Guy N. Smith brought crabs to our Welsh coastline (Night of the Crabs, 1976), Richard Lewis had spiders on the march across the Kentish countryside en route to London (Spiders, 1978), the army were called in to fight off killer felines in The Cats (Nick Shaman, 1979). The critical establishment, looking for a more contemporary term than ‘penny dreadfuls’, coined the term ‘nasties’ to describe them.
“If the Sex Pistols created punk rock at a stroke with Never Mind the Bollocks, then I think it could be argued that James Herbert created the entire splatter-punk genre at a stroke with The Rats.”
Stephen King, By Horror Haunted, edited by Stephen Jones, 1992
For James Herbert, reluctant as he was to give up his prestigious career in advertising, he finally relented and began to write full-time and would become the UK’s highest-selling horror novelist. He was appointed OBE in 2010, and after 23 best-selling novels, died in March 2013.
November 2024 marks 50 years since the paperback release of The Rats and Abertoir pays tribute to James Herbert and celebrates the cascade of glorious gory paperback ‘nasties’ he reluctantly inspired.
“I was very lucky. I came along just at the right time…like The Beatles. It isn’t anything you can study or plan for. It just happens!”
James Herbert from Animal Calm, Today (1st June 1986), Nick Gaiman.
With thanks to Stephen Jones, Simon Brown & Russ Hunter
