"Tales to Tremble by" - A classic collection of horror - It came from the attic! part 1

As a young child and fervent ”monster kid” when i needed a big ol’ dose of horror i had a “go to book” that had a place in my heart that could be held by no other and that revered tome was “tales to tremble by”. I still remember discovering the book on the shelves of Whsmith and being equally terrified and yet fascinated by the wonderfully creepy front cover. From the outside, the book promised a trove of terrible treasures and it certainly did not disappoint!

"Tales to tremble by" hardback front cover (1984)

Not to be confused with the better known “tales to tremble by” published in the sixties by the whitmans classic imprint which was a collection of short stories and prose from the likes of Bram Stoker and Charles Dickens. My “tales to tremble by” was published originally in 1974 and then as a second edition in 1984 both times by World International Publishing Ltd.

"Tales to tremble by" hardback back cover (1984)

The hardback second edition features much of the original content from the 1974 edition but also includes reprints of stories from the Dracula spine chillers annual released in 1982 also from World international publishing limited. Interestingly these comic book adaptions originally appeared in the pages of house of hammer magazine, so they are certainly well travelled.

Dracula annual

Various "The house of hammer" magazine covers.

The book is a bumper collection of short stories and comic strips and includes the comic-book adaptions of sherlock Holmes and the hound of the Baskervilles, as well as hammer horror’s Dracula and twins of evil. The book runs to 189 pages in total.

The full contents are:

Plants of Doom

Jettison Pod

Macabre Miscellany

The hound of the Baskervilles ( comic strip)

Tunnels of Terror

Warworld

Superior Science

Terrors of the Kalahari

The lions Mane

The Night Creatures

The frightening tale of Jamie McGregor

Life or death for Jerry

Dracula ( comic strip)

Sole survivor

Carnival at war

Death in dunstable creek

The fiery point incidents

Two in the bush

Twins of evil ( comic strip )

The body stealers

Village of fear

Computerad

And the children are quite fond of him really

The volunteer

Charles A Milverton

What has made me comeback to this book again and again over the years is that it is all chiller and no filler! The highlights for me are the comic strip adaptions which are all beautifully illustrated, highly cinematic in style and perfectly paced but this is not to take anything away from the collection of short stories. These stories cover a wide range of supernatural & sci fi staples including the ghost of a teacher in “the children are quite fond of him really”, the devil worshippers of “the night creatures” and the alien civilizations of “tunnels of terror”. Also included are three stories from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes fame, these are the aforementioned “hound of the Baskervilles”, “Charles .A. milverton” and finally “The lions mane”.

Interestingly not all the stories in the book are credited and the hammer horror comic adaptions feature no credits at all, however with some in depth and obsessive research i think i have been able to pin down the artist of Dracula as Paul Neary and the collaborative artists for “twins of evil” as Chris Lowder and an artist who became better known for his fantasy paintings, Blas Gallego.

Frame from "Twins of Evil" comic book adaption

In conclusion, any horror addict that owns this book will have secured a piece of horror gold! They just dont do collections like this anymore. The collection feels like it was put together by someone will a real love for the genre, and the choices in stories really thought through. Now over 35 years old the book has become an excellent nostalgia trip including as it does the hammer horror film adaptions, but also in the fact the other stories concentrate on building suspense and sinister atmosphere through proper story telling that includes a beginning, middle and end rather than just hitting readers with an endless torrent of gore for gores sake.

As a little present to my ghoulfiends and gentlecreeps, i have uploaded the "twins of evil" comic adaption in PDF format, available to download and read here: http://www.ghost-train.co.uk/twinsofevil.pdf

Book review: Gris Grimly's wicked nursery rhymes

Gris Grimly is an artist and story teller whose style is dipped deeply in some hot horror sauce! Well known for his macabre slant on traditional children’s fairy tales, Mr Grimly has also tried his hand at short movies including “cannibal flesh riot” (2006) and music video’s. It was recently announced that no less than Guillermo del Toro will be co-directing a stop motion adaption of one of Gris Grimly’s first books “Pinocchio” with Gris serving as an executive director.

The book i am covering here today is called “Gris Grimly’s wicked nursery rhymes” which was published in 2003 by baby tattoo books (ISBN 0-9729388-7-7). My copy is a hardback that features a wonderfully illustrated sleeve by the man Gris Grimly himself. Behind the sleeve on the actual book cover is an engraving style motif of a witch atop her broomstick! The back cover features a wonderful recommendation from no less than Clive Barker himself, the words of which you can see in the first image below.

Hardcover front for "Wicked nursery rhymes"

Wicked nursery rhymes is a fairly short book but it does manage to pack in 8 different nursery rhymes that have been brought back to life by the mad artistic scientist that is Mr Grimly and just as is always the case with such diabolical experiments, these tales have returned far darker and twisted than their original twee selves! 

Grim Grimly's Wicked nursery rhyme outer inlay

The eight stories included are:

Father Grim

Miss Muffet

Fuzzy Wuzzy

Jack and Jill

Mistress Mary

Jumping Joan

Little Bo Peep

Nimble Jack

Every page features one or more illustrations from Gris, and they are simply spooktacular!
They just scream with character, and whilst cute retain a proper edginess and folksy feel that is lacking in much of the chibi kawaii type horror art that is fashionable at the moment. Many of the plates within the book would make excellent prints in themselves. I have included some of my favorite examples below:

"Fuzzy wuzzy" by Gris Grimly

"Jumping Joan" by Gris Grimly

"Miss Muffet" by Gris Grimly

All but the youngest of readers will finish the book within 10 minutes without pausing to admire the artwork considering that the book is only 32 pages long from start to finish. None the less packed within those 32 pages is an incredibly rich dark humor that will often produce an evil chuckle in the reader. The book manages easily to walk that very thin tightrope of being dark and dirty enough to appeal to adults whilst being silly and fantastical enough to appeal to young children. This is definitely a book you will regularly come back to and read with your sprogs again and again. My favourite story in the book is called "fuzzy wuzzy" which i include here to give you an idea of the twisted and humorous writing style:

"A poor wretched bear was named Fuzzy.

Still the question remains, but was he?

Born with no hair.

He was oddly bare,

and a little bit stinky and scuzzy"

Fuzzy Wuzzy - By Gris Grimly from "Wicked Nursery Rhymes"

Gris Grimly is a helluva artist and once you know his style you will recognize it anywhere! If one were to be hyper critical you could say his writing whilst good is not on the same par as his artwork, but none the less as a whole package gris grimly’s wicked nursery rhymes is a book well worth owning and i highly recommend it to horror fans and monster mates both young and old!

Night of the Demons (1988)! Horror movie review

The eighties are quite rightly revered as a golden decade of horror. What stands out in so many of the horror films made during this period is a genuine love for the genre carried through in movies with budgets both large and small.

Right from the off with its introductory animated sequence you can see that “night of the demons” is a horror film that has been lovingly crafted. The storyline itself is nothing ground breaking involving as it does a group of partying teenagers beseiged by evil spirits in a spooky house with a history but its just done with such aplomb and character that you cant help but enjoy the hell ride!!! The story takes place on the night of the halloween as a group of young un’s travel to an old house in the middle of nowhere to attend a party being thrown by party girl suzanne and her friend Angela, who just so happens to have a strong interest in the occult. The group decide to hold a seance as part of a party game which needless to say unleashes a savage group of demons that are hungry for fresh meat, murder and mayhem!

Special effects and make-up duties were carried out by Steve Johnson and they are simply monstermendous! This is one area of the film that on recent viewing has not aged at all. The blood looks real! The demons are suitably rotten! and i would not expect anything less from a man with this guys pedigree seeing as he has provided special effects and makeup duties for a ton of terror tales including the howling, ghostbusters, the fog, nightmare on elm street and bad moon to name but a few. An interesting piece of trivia for fright fans is that Steve Johnson ended up marrying Linnea Quigley who plays the part of Suzanne in the film.

A couple of standout scenes from the film include Angela performing an erotic dance to the bauhaus song “stigmata martyr” as she slowly becomes possessed by a demon and the character suzanne proving her nipples are as practical as they are pert! by using them as storage for her make-up!!! You really need to see the latter to understand this properly!

Angela as the demon begins to take hold!

Suzanne about to get real freaky with her nipples!!!

Audio is superb for the film throughout and makes excellent use of traditional haunted attraction type sound effects that really add to the halloween atmosphere of the film.

Night of the demons does suffer a little from the variance of acting ability on display! Without naming names, whilst there are some standout performances this invariably draws even more attention to those not quite on the same par as their fellow thespians!!!

In conclusion, Night of the demons is not a master piece and it never sets out to be! But it most certainly is a frightfully fun filled rotten romp of a horror movie, that was clearly put together with love and an intention to detail. Final score: 7.5 skulls out ten!