With Real Terror, Sebastian Wolfe does an interesting job of collecting a rather diverse set of stories, which served as the source or at least starting point for a similarly diverse set of films...Wolfe stretches the boundaries of horror fiction past the breaking point, but does so in a fairly interesting way, including stories which are all suspense or barely horrific dark fantasy or suspenseful in their science-fictional or heavily metaphoric contemporary/mimetic ways, but are not by the usual definition of the term horror fiction. They are gathered together in large part because they are good fiction, which is less thoroughly true of the films cited for reason of inclusion...Total Recall is fairly atrocious in Paul Verhoeven's usual rancidly satirical way and a very poor adaptation of the Philip Dick story, and Twilight Zone: The Movie uses Jerome Bixby's "It's a Good Life-" as a framing device in a most inept fashion, as opposed to the relatively effective way the story was adapted for the original tv series. I'll even go as far as to say Freaks is a bit of a pudding of a film, despite some good bits and muddled good intentions; Tod Robbins's short story is far less sentimental about the denizens of the sideshow, and while unfantasticated is at least as ridiculous a conte cruel; it's probably the weakest work of fiction included here. Duel, the telefilm, the first project Steven Spielberg was to direct that wasn't part of a television pilot nor a series episode, doesn't hold up to adult scrutiny, though I did enjoy it as a child when it was first broadcast, and it helped set Spielberg on his way to his profitable career in almost exclusively clumsily manipulative films (those that vary, such as 1941, are usually simply inept). Asylum, which incorporates four Robert Bloch short stories, and Die, Monster, Die, which is loosely based on the Lovecraft story, are simply disappointing, if watchable. I've yet to see Revenge of the Zombies, based on the Thorp McClusky story, a 1943 Monogram film no less (and therefore of nearly no budget) that Wolfe cites as the first to have relatively traditional zombies on the loose on in the U.S., rather than restricted to Haiti or perhaps another Caribbean setting. The remaining films, all more or less hewing to the titles of their source stories (or in "The Golem"'s case, an anecdote, a folktale citation), are rather good adaptations, the golem tale seeing at least three notable silent-film productions and "The Fly" getting at least two rather good (if in both cases, in differing ways, over the top) major productions in film.
It's the quality of the fiction that makes the book better than average; Wolfe certainly doesn't offer much more than a functional introduction, and citations of the films and their directors (but not the screenwriters) (with poorly if somewhat eerily reproduced stills from the films as illustrations) before each story. Here's the Contento/Locus index entry for the book:
Reel Terror ed. Sebastian Wolfe (Xanadu 0-947761-53-5, Apr ’92 [Jun ’92], £9.99, 249pp, tp) Anthology of 12 sf/horror [and fantasy and suspense... TM] stories that were made into films.
- 1 · Introduction · Sebastian Wolfe · in
- 8 · Duel · Richard Matheson · nv Playboy Apr ’71
- 34 · Spurs · Tod Robbins · nv Munsey’s Feb ’23
- 52 · While Zombies Walked · Thorp McClusky · nv Weird Tales Sep ’39
- 82 · We Can Remember It for You Wholesale · Philip K. Dick · nv The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (F&SF) Apr ’66
- 104 · The Fly · George Langelaan · nv Playboy Jun ’57
- 138 · The Swimmer · John Cheever · ss The New Yorker Jul 18 ’64
- 152 · The Beast with Five Fingers · William F. Harvey · nv The Beast With Five Fingers, J.M. Dent, 1928
- 180 · The Company of Wolves · Angela Carter · ss The Bloody Chamber and Other Tales, London: Gollancz, 1979; revised from Bananas, #7, Spring ’77.
- 192 · The Golem · I. L. Peretz · vi A Treasury of Yiddish Stories, ed. Hone & Greenberg, Deutsch, 1955
- 194 · Lucy Comes to Stay · Robert Bloch · ss Weird Tales Jan ’52
- 202 · The Color Out of Space · H. P. Lovecraft · nv Amazing Stories Sep ’27
- 232 · It’s a Good Life- · Jerome Bixby · ss Star Science Fiction Stories #2, ed. Frederik Pohl, Ballantine, 1953
Even the Robbins story, the weakest and most hokey of the inclusions, is worth the look if you haven't read it elsewhere; one of the more ridiculous juxtapositions of Wolfe's is to use the still demonstrating the fate of Cleopatra in the film Freaks, which is far more immediately grotesque if only slightly more improbable than that of the story's corresponding character Jean Marie. The Lovecraft story is one of his least distractingly purple, one of a few to appear in science fiction magazines rather than his most common market, the horror, fantasy and occasional borderline suspense and sf magazine Weird Tales (the ISFDB index, below, seems to indicate a 1945 revision, but I believe this is driven solely by the title as reprinted here and first used in a 1945 collection featuring the standard US spelling of "color" rather than the standard Commonwealth spelling, which Lovecraft would've and had favored). Robert Bloch's "Lucy Comes to Stay" was, along with "The Real Bad Friend," one of Bloch's suspense stories that were direct prototypes of what he would work out far more fully in his novel Psycho, which is also better than its famous film adaptation (and vastly better than the self-indulgent remake), as good as the 1960 film was (and some of the much-later sequels and prequels are of merit, as is Bloch's novel Psycho II, unrelated to the film--sadly, Bloch's second novel sequel, Psycho House, is the worst of his novels I've read so far, well below his standard).
Not having read these stories elsewhere is half the trick, though the inclusion of John Cheever's "The Swimmer" (also a chestnut, but not often classed with horror fiction despite the bleak absurdism of the protagonist's plight; Cheever would track more obviously into the supernatural with such stories as "The Enormous Radio")(also better than Burt Lancaster's nonetheless fine pet project film) is not so likely to be encountered in horror anthologies so much. Any more than the surreal sf, even given that surreal nature (far less ham-handed surrealism than in the film) of "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" (the title referencing a whole genre of old jokes)--more thoroughgoing Dick horror such as "Upon the Dull Earth" or "The Father Thing" alas has not yet made it to the cinema (both could be brilliant thus), at least as far as I'm aware. The Angela Carter (Wolfe sadly notes her death, just as the book was going to press, in his introduction) is also better as she wrote it, but the film is solid; William Fryer Harvey's story isn't quite the neat masterpiece of his "August Heat" (also effectively dramatized for television, and perhaps in at least one short film aside from tv production), but it is his Other most famous story. The Matheson, also more a suspense story, even given the huge success of the telefilm (and eventually inspiring such variations as the film Joy Ride), had appeared in surprisingly few anthologies and only one of Matheson's collections by 1992, as Wolfe notes. The McClusky story has gotten more of a workout since inclusion here, as well, because...zombies.
And the Bixby story, much as with the Langelaan among English-language readers, remains the key story in his career, despite coming close with other notable work (his vignette "Trace" is a resonant favorite of mine)...much more horror than sf, despite first appearing in Frederik Pohl's notable pioneering series of anthologies of original fiction Star Science Fiction, and also included in the first volume of the SF Writers of America's canonical anthology The Science Fiction Hall of Fame (edited by Robert Silverberg, working from a poll of the membership). Richard Matheson's first published story, "Born of Man and Woman", also more horror (or even borderline suspense) than sf, shares space in that same volume.
One of the many places one might've read nearly any of these stories previously was in the many anthologies edited by Peter Haining, one of if not the most prolific of British anthologists over the last half-century and a bit more. Haining was particularly fond of theme anthologies, and repeatedly would return to anthologies with the common thread, as with Wolfe's book, of stories that had been adapted for film, or television, or radio, or some combination (I'm not sure if he ever came up with one devoted to those stories solely dramatized in live theater, but I wouldn't be surprised). I certainly read "Spurs" first in one of Haining's books, but not one of the similar anthologies to the Wolfe that are detailed below:
[TM: this volume below notably lists the source stories somewhat annoyingly by the title of the films adapted from them, a habit he would continue to indulge in at times in later volumes:]
The Ghouls ed. Peter Haining (W.H. Allen, London Feb ’71, £2.50, 384pp, hc) The stories behind the classic horror films. US edition published by Stein & Day, May 1971. Later British paperback split into two volumes.
- 11 · Editor’s Foreword · Peter Haining · fw
- 13 · Introduction · Vincent Price · in
- 17 · The Devil in a Convent · Francis Oscar Mann · ss The Devil in a Nunnery, London: Constable 1914, as “The Devil in a Nunnery”
- 26 · The Lunatics · Edgar Allan Poe · ss Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine Nov 1845, as “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether”
- 43 · Puritan Passions · Nathaniel Hawthorne · ss Mosses from an Old Manse, Wiley & Putnam 1846, as “Feathertop: A Moralized Legend”
- 62 · The Phantom of the Opera · Gaston Leroux · excerpt Mills 1911
- 124 · The Magician · W. Somerset Maugham · ex Heinemann 1908
- 137 · Freaks · Tod Robbins · nv Munsey’s Magazine Feb 1923, as “Spurs”
- 154 · The Most Dangerous Game · Richard Connell · nv Collier’s Jan 19 1924
- 170 · Dracula’s Daughter [Dracula] · Bram Stoker · ss Dracula’s Guest, London: Routledge 1914, as “Dracula’s Guest”; written in 1897 as part of Dracula, this chapter was omitted from the published book for reasons of length.
- 182 · All That Money Can Buy · Stephen Vincent Benét · ss The Saturday Evening Post Oct 24 1936, as “The Devil and Daniel Webster”
- 196 · The Body Snatcher · Robert Louis Stevenson · ss Pall Mall Christmas Extra 1884
- 213 · The Beast with Five Fingers [revised version] · William F. Harvey · nv The Beast With Five Fingers, J.M. Dent 1928
- 238 · The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms · Ray Bradbury · ss The Saturday Evening Post Jun 23 1951
- 246 · The Fly · George Langelaan · nv Playboy Jun 1957
- 277 · Black Sunday · Nikolai Gogol · nv Mirgorod: Stories, Knopf 1929, as “The Viy”, 1835
- 312 · Incident at Owl Creek · Ambrose Bierce · ss San Francisco Examiner Jul 13 1890, as “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
- 321 · Monster of Terror · H. P. Lovecraft · nv Amazing Sep 1927, as “The Colour Out of Space”
- 348 · The Skull · Robert Bloch · ss Weird Tales Sep 1945, as “The Skull of the Marquis de Sade”
- 366 · The Oblong Box · Edgar Allan Poe · ss Godey’s Lady’s Book Sep 1844
- 377 · Afterword · Christopher Lee · aw
- 379 · Cast and Credits · [Misc.] · biographies of the contributors
Movie Monsters ed. Peter Haining (Severn House 0-7278-1546-6, May ’88 [Jun ’88], £10.95, 282pp, hc) Horror anthology.
- 1 · Introduction · Peter Haining · in
- 3 · Inviting Frankenstein into the Parlour [actually “Bela, Boris and Me”] · Ray Bradbury · ar Argosy Dec ’74
- 8 · Balaoo - The Demon Baboon [from Balaoo] · Gaston Leroux · ex The Cavalier Nov 23 ’12 (+3)
- 32 · The Golem [“Der Golem”] · Chayim Bloch · ss Oesterreichischen Wochenschrift, 1914
- 52 · The Beetle · Richard Marsh · ex London: Skeffington, 1897
- 65 · The Mummy [“The Ring of Thoth”] · Arthur Conan Doyle · ss The Cornhill Magazine Jan, 1890
- 84 · King Kong · Edgar Wallace & Draycot M. Dell · ss Cinema Weekly Oct 28 ’33
- 101 · The Bride of Frankenstein [Frankenstein] · Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley & Guy Preston · nv Pearson’s Magazine Oct ’35
- 132 · Dracula’s Daughter [“Dracula’s Guest”; Dracula] · Bram Stoker · ss Dracula’s Guest, London: Routledge, 1914
- 146 · The War of the Worlds · H. G. Wells · ss The Strand Feb ’20; abridgement of the novel by Wells himself.
- 159 · The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms · Ray Bradbury · ss The Saturday Evening Post Jun 23 ’51
- 169 · The Night of the Demon [“Casting the Runes”] · M. R. James · nv More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, Arnold, 1911
- 192 · The Fly · George Langelaan · nv Playboy Jun ’57
- 223 · The Thing [actually “‘Who Goes There?’” as by Don A. Stuart] · John W. Campbell, Jr. · na Astounding Science-Fiction Aug ’38
The Television Late Night Horror Omnibus ed. Peter Haining (Orion 1-85797-092-6, Sep ’93, £8.99, 578pp, tp) Anthology of 32 stories used as a basis for late-night horror shows on television. A hardcover edition (-091-8, £14.99) was announced but not seen. Also offered as The Armchair Horror Collection.
- 1 · Introduction · Peter Haining · in
- 5 · Vampire Tower [“Terror’s Dark Tower”] · John Dickson Carr · nv Detective Tales Oct ’36
- 27 · The Corpse and the Kid · Cornell Woolrich · nv Dime Detective Magazine Sep ’35
- 50 · The Hollow Man · Thomas Burke · ss Colliers Oct 14 ’33
- 63 · What Price Murder? · Steve Fisher · ss Detective Tales Sep ’36
- 74 · The Crystal Egg · H. G. Wells · ss The New Review May, 1897
- 90 · Back for Christmas · John Collier · ss New Yorker Oct 7 ’39
- 97 · The Hand · Larry Marcus · ss
- 115 · Where Is Everybody? · Rod Serling · sa Stories from the Twilight Zone, Bantam, 1960
- 138 · The Incredible Dr Markesan [actually “Colonel Markesan”, as written with Mark Schorer] · August Derleth · ss Weird Tales Jun ’34
- 153 · The Machine Stops · E. M. Forster · nv Oxford and Cambridge Review Nov ’09
- 182 · Farewell Performance · H. Russell Wakefield · ss The Clock Strikes Twelve, London: Herbert Jenkins, 1940
- 189 · The Terror of the Twins · Algernon Blackwood · ss The Westminster Gazette Nov 6 ’09
- 196 · William and Mary · Roald Dahl · nv Kiss Kiss, Knopf, 1959
- 221 · William Wilson · Edgar Allan Poe · nv The Gift: a Christmas and New Year’s Present for 1840, annual, 1839
- 239 · The Duplicate Man [actually “Good Night, Mr. James”] · Clifford D. Simak · ss Galaxy Mar ’51
- 257 · Random Quest · John Wyndham · nv Consider Her Ways and Others, Joseph, 1961
- 292 · The Open Door · Margaret Oliphant · nv Blackwood’s Jan, 1882
- 329 · The Kiss of Blood [actually “The Case of Lady Sannox”] · Sir Arthur Conan Doyle · ss The Idler Nov, 1893
- 339 · The Killing-Bottle · L. P. Hartley · nv The Black Cap, ed. Cynthia Asquith, London: Hutchinson, 1927
- 374 · Pickman’s Model · H. P. Lovecraft · ss Weird Tales Oct ’27
- 387 · The Treasure of Abbot Thomas · M. R. James · ss Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, Edward Arnold, 1904
- 404 · The Summer House · A. M. Burrage · ss The London Magazine Sep ’22
- 417 · The Monkey’s Paw · W. W. Jacobs · ss Harper’s Monthly Sep ’02
- 428 · The Ferryman · Kingsley Amis · ss, 1973
- 439 · The Tarroo-Ushtey · Nigel Kneale · ss Tomato Cain, London: Collins, 1949
- 448 · Countess Ilona · Robert Muller · nv Supernatural, ed. Robert Muller, London: Fontana Books, 1977
- 477 · Death Can Add · Philip Ketchum · ss Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine May ’63
- 491 · The Partnership · William F. Nolan · ss Shadows #3, ed. Charles L. Grant, Doubleday, 1980
- 502 · Gramma · Stephen King · nv Weirdbook #19 ’84
- 531 · The Doll · Richard Matheson · pl Twilight Zone Magazine Jun ’82
- 539 · Distant Signals · Andrew Weiner · ss Twilight Zone May/Jun ’84
- 554 · The Coffin [actually “Wake for the Living”] · Ray Bradbury · ss Dime Mystery Magazine Sep ’47
- 563 · The Legacy · Robert Bloch · ss
Ghost Movies: Famous Supernatural Films ed. Peter Haining (Severn House 0-7278-4853-4, Nov ’95, £15.99, 264pp, hc, cover by Derek Colligan) Anthology of 12 stories and an excerpt. Several are the basis of films.
- 1 · Prologue: Things That Go Bump On Screen · Peter Haining · pr
- 4 · Haunted [actually “Hallowe’en’s Child”] · James Herbert · ss Male & Femail (The Daily Mail) Oct 29 ’88
- 18 · The Old Dark House [actually “Night Sequence”] · J. B. Priestley · nv The Other Place, 1953; The Old Dark House (1932 film) was actually based on Priestley’s Benighted, Heinemann, 1927.
- 60 · The Ghost Goes West [“Sir Tristram Goes West”] · Eric Keown · ss Punch May ’35
- 72 · Topper [chapter XII, abridged] · Thorne Smith · ex New York: McBride, 1926
- 90 · The Uninvited [actually “Samhain”] · Dorothy Macardle · ss The Dublin Magazine Oct ’24
- 102 · Dead of Night [actually “The Extraordinarily Horrible Dummy”] · Gerald Kersh · ss Penguin Parade #6, ed. Denys Kilham Roberts, Penguin, 1939
- 109 · Night of the Demon [“Casting the Runes”] · M. R. James · nv, 1904
- 138 · The Haunting [actually “The Bus”...and not the source of the film] · Shirley Jackson · ss The Saturday Evening Post Mar 27 ’65
- 156 · The Stone Tape [actually “Minuke”] · Nigel Kneale · ss Tomato Cain, London: Collins, 1949; Suspense (UK) Sep ’58
- 171 · Asylum [part of the anthology film based on this story, “Lucy Comes to Stay”] · Robert Bloch · ss Weird Tales Jan ’52
- 180 · Don’t Look Now · Daphne Du Maurier · na, 1966
- 238 · Halloween [actually “Harlequin”] · John Carpenter · ss The Continent, 1969
- 243 · Beetlejuice [actually “Halley’s Passing”] · Michael McDowell · ss Twilight Zone Magazine Jun ’87
Ghost Movies II: Famous Supernatural Television Programmes ed. Peter Haining (Severn House 0-7278-4966-2, May ’96, £16.99, 242pp, hc, cover by Derek Colligan) Anthology of stories which were the basis or inspiration of many well-known fantasy and horror TV series and films. The cover gives the title as Ghost Movies II: More Classics of the Supernatural.
- 1 · Prologue: ‘A Night of Terror-Vision’ · Peter Haining · in
- 5 · The Woman in Black [actually “Farthing Hall”] · Susan Hill · ss Good Housekeeping Dec ’92
- 25 · from Great Ghost Stories [retold as “Room for One More”] · Bennett Cerf · ss; originally broadcast as a TV play on The Twilight Zone 10 July 1961.
- 40 · Mystery and Imagination [actually “The Listener”] · Algernon Blackwood · nv The Listener and Other Stories, London: Eveleigh Nash, 1907
- 78 · Ghost Story for Christmas [actually “The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral”] · M. R. James · ss Contemporary Review v97 #35 ’10
- 100 · Haunted [actually “Poor Girl”] · Elizabeth Taylor [not the actress] · ss The Third Ghost Book, ed. Cynthia Asquith, James Barrie, 1955
- 126 · The Ghost Downstairs [actually “The Constable’s Tale”] · Leon Garfield · ss Daily Mail Dec ’93
- 138 · Tales from the Darkside [actually “Clay”] · George A. Romero · nv Modern Masters of Horror, ed. Frank Coffey, Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1981
- 164 · Terror at London Bridge · William F. Nolan · ar World Tales, ed. G. Randal Rau, World Fantasy Convention, 1985
- 192 · Ghosts [actually “Three Miles Up”] · Elizabeth Jane Howard · ss We Are for the Dark, London: Cape, 1951
- 218 · Phantoms [actually “The Black Pumpkin”] · Dean Koontz · ss Twilight Zone Magazine Dec ’86
And while theoretically these two anthologies are science-fictional, there is some overlap (and a few odd inclusions, as the indexers note)--TM:
Space Movies: Classic Science Fiction Films ed. Peter Haining (Severn House 0-7278-4790-2, Jun ’95 [Jul ’95], £15.99, 266pp, hc, cover by Derek Colligan) Anthology of ten stories and novel excerpts which lie behind many well-known movies: Heinlein, Bradbury, Von Braun, Moore, Clarke, Dick, King, Barker (not sf), Nolan (a piece taken from the sequel to the filmed book) and a Blish adaptation which has no connection to any of the films. Each piece has a background introduction by Haining.
- 1 · Prologue: The Cinema of Possibilities · Peter Haining · in *
- 5 · Destination Moon [from Rocket Ship Galileo] · Robert A. Heinlein · ex New York: Scribner’s, 1947
- 15 · It Came from Outer Space · Ray Bradbury · sa Super Cinema Annual 1955, (UK), 1954; an adaptation of Bradbury’s screen treatment, ‘The Meteor’.
- 50 · The Conquest of Space [actually “Life on Mars”] · Werner Von Braun · nv This Week Apr 24 ’60 (+2)
- 87 · Panic in Year Zero [actually “Lot”] · Ward Moore · nv F&SF May ’53
- 120 · 2001: A Space Odyssey [actually “Sentinel of Eternity”] · Arthur C. Clarke · ss Ten Story Fantasy Spr ’51
- 133 · Logan’s Run [from Logan’s World] · William F. Nolan · ex New York: Bantam, 1977
- 158 · Star Trek: The Motion Picture [actually “The Unreal McCoy”] · James Blish · sa Star Trek #1, Bantam, 1967; from the teleplay, “The Man Trap” by George Clayton Johnson.
- 174 · Total Recall [actually “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale”] · Philip K. Dick · nv F&SF Apr ’66
- 201 · The Lawnmower Man · Stephen King · ss Cavalier May ’75
- 214 · Candyman [actually “The Forbidden”] · Clive Barker · nv Clive Barker’s Books of Blood v5, Sphere, 1985
Space Movies II: Famous Science Fiction Television Series ed. Peter Haining (Severn House 0-7278-4897-6, Mar ’96 [Feb ’96], £15.99, 245pp, hc, cover by Derek Collinson) Anthology of ten stories which were used in famous TV SF series, or were written by the authors who inspired the series. [The stories apparently retitled below for the tv series they were adapted for or were a part of or, in the case of the Kneale, were expanded into. TM]
- 1 · Prologue: ‘Worlds of Space in the Living Room’ · Peter Haining · pr *
- 4 · Superman · George Lowther · nv *; Adapted from the first TV script, by Whitney Ellsworth & Robert Maxwell.
- 32 · Tales of Tomorrow [actually “What Price Venus?” by Evan Hunter] · S. A. Lombino · nv Fantastic Universe Aug/Sep ’53; Screened as ‘Appointment on Mars’.
- 68 · The Quatermass Experiment [actually “The R.A.F. and the Sleeping Beauty”] · Nigel Kneale · ss Argosy (UK) Feb ’45
- 78 · The Twilight Zone [prose adaptation of the episode “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”] · Rod Serling · sa Stories from the Twilight Zone, Bantam, 1960
- 101 · Out Of This World [actually “Dumb Martian”--though that certainly sounds more like one of editor H. L. Gold 's titles than one of Wyndham's--TM] · John Wyndham · nv Galaxy Jul ’52
- 134 · Doctor Who [actually “The Lost Ones”, by Anon.] · Bill Strutton · nv The Dr. Who Annual, ed. Anon., World Distributors (Manchester) Ltd., 1965; incorrectly given as “The Lair of the Zarbi” from The Web Planet, London: Frederick Muller, 1965.
- 159 · The Outer Limits [actually “The Invisible Enemy”] · Jerry Sohl · nv Imaginative Tales Sep ’55
- 190 · Out Of The Unknown [actually “Liar!”] · Isaac Asimov · ss Astounding Science Fiction May ’41
- 213 · The Martian Chronicles [actually “I’ll Not Look for Wine”] · Ray Bradbury · ss Maclean’s Jan 1 ’50
- 230 · Discworld [actually “Final Reward”] · Terry Pratchett · ss GM Magazine Oct ’88
