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Irony.or.Death posted:I'm gonna read the Books of Blood eventually but the Barker I've read so far (The Scarlet Gospels) was so embarrassingly bad that it's hard to psych myself up to get started. It's rumoured, and almost a poorly kept secret, that Scarlet Gospels was ghost written. Not sure who (not read any of Paul Kane's work, but I know he's close with Barker), but the style and... well, everything is so far from Clive's style* that yeah, "embarrassing" is the word I'd use. Even some of the most hardcore Hellraiser fans I know have trouble defending Pinhead going super saiyan(?) and shooting fireballs at Lucifer. *Early style, at least. Never read his later, fantasy stuff.
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May 16, 2018 11:53
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Skyscraper posted:Just treating it like regular hell, with demons and lakes of fire and whatnot. Unfortunately that's pretty much what Hellraiser devolved into with the later films. With an actual angel showing up in the latest film. Everything cool and weird and good about the idea of this parallel realm dedicated to extreme experience was just flushed down the bog. "Angels to some, demons to others..." nah, they're just demons now. The Labyrinth is ACTUAL Judeo-Christian hell where the dead go and the box is a shortcut. loving trash.
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May 18, 2018 08:44
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The worst part for me was when the aul girl (who Pinhead literally kicks to death) quips, "These aren't your usual sado-machoists from beyond the grave!" At first I thought, oh that's cute, harking back to the naming debacle with the first Hellraiser film. But it's so clunky and horrible and on the nose and it makes my drat skin crawl now.
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May 18, 2018 11:10
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I remember lending my mum House of Leaves, just remembering that I loved it because I have a HUGE soft spot for spatial horror. I mean, I just loving adore it. It was only after she got about halfway through I remembered the cringe inducing porno shagging scenes. Hahaha.
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Jun 25, 2018 12:17
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Only Revolutions was impossible for me to read. I have pretty severe dyscalculia (number dyslexia) and you have to, what? Read 12 paragraphs a page, then turn the book over and read another 12 paragraphs and then even 12 pages read a page backwards or something? Get tae gently caress! I do genuinely believe House of Leaves is a good read(mileage may vary, obviously), even without the gimmick layout. If only because I know before it got published for real it was a shared PDF which read straight with no page turning or flicking etc and people still loved it.
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Jun 27, 2018 14:13
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Robot Wendigo posted:I'm leaning that way. My OCD is making me push through, but I think I'm one more hook up with random girl for another Penthouse Letters one night stand away from ditching him. From what I recall it doesn't get any cringier than Zampano's reader who pulls out the oil and anal beads. So if you've survived that I think you can muscle through anything else the book throws at you.
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Jun 28, 2018 09:09
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Solitair posted:I'll check back and see how the book holds up. I really want to give HoL a re-read now too. Only trouble is the only chance I really get to read is on the bus and the book is loving huuuge.
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Jun 28, 2018 15:05
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Chuck Tingle getting back to his simpler roots, I see.
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Jul 10, 2018 11:15
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Relevant Tangent posted:Last Days is so good. Spooky cultists? No fucker, it's hell-spawn bird monsters time! I said this in the Cosmic Horror thread, but it's hilarious how the book builds up this sense of dread and then turns into Aliens at the end.
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Jul 23, 2018 13:10
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Horror fans were born to suffer weak endings.
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Aug 1, 2018 08:45
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I was going to ask, as a topic of general discussion, what everyone's favourite horror ending was. But the damnedest thing is my mind has gone completely blank. I can think of loads of great books that had amicable endings, but trying to think of one that really left me reeling, or just stuck with me and I can't do it. Most of the ones that pop up are from shorts, like King's "The Jaunt" which I think everyone loves. I also loved a lot of the endings in Barker's Books of Blood (which Seth "Family Guy, not Spawn" McFarlane is turning into a TV show?!). But I feel a lot of short story endings are "zingers" compared to satisfying conclusions to a proper story, if you know what I mean?
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Aug 1, 2018 15:48
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I had a quick glance at my bookshelf on the way out this morning and the only book that jumped out at me as having a real good ending was Blood Meridian. Whether its considered a horror though is another matter. As for happy endings, like Ornamented Death said, I think the best you can aim for is a sense of melancholy. Hey, it's better than being dead... or worse!
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Aug 2, 2018 09:02
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I really want to read House of Leaves again but, a) The book is the size of a small van b) I only want to read the Navidson Records part
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Aug 23, 2018 12:38
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The only free time I have to read is on the bus to and from my jobs. I'm not lugging giant tomes around with me. Hahah. I guess my point is I want an abridged version of House of Leaves and while we're at it, I also want to re-read IT and wouldn't mind if that came in two parts. Could always get the superglue and a box cutter out when I get home, I guess.
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Aug 24, 2018 10:32
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It does me eyes in. I've only read a couple of e-books that I couldn't get in paperback like The Cypher. Plus I'm a wanker and like filling me bookshelves.
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Aug 24, 2018 15:43
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About a quarter into CORPSEPAINT by David Peak and if you're a fan of metal I'd say pick it up. No idea what happens, went in blind, but the idea of a Black Metal band producing a new album in the middle of nowhere in Eastern Europe should be familiar with you. There's not been much supernatural dread or horror up to now, but the characters are strong and you just know things are going to go south hard. Speaking of things getting hosed up in the woods, I shelved "Kill Hill Carnage" to read this one. It's a splatter book about mutants ripping people to shreds at a camp ground, but I found the action to be a little lacking. But I'm a sick gently caress so maybe I was just expecting too much.
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Sep 4, 2018 12:48
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loving posers.
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Sep 5, 2018 07:55
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I'm still wary of reading that because I loved the film so much.
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Sep 6, 2018 09:10
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Also feel like he missed a trick with the ending there too. I recall it's set up during the story that the cult will live on if people remember them and look into their tenants or the paintings or the writings of Sister Whateverhernamewas. And the main dude frantically starts calling his editor(Fingermouse?) to tell him to not release the documentary... but not because it could potentially bring about the end of the world if everyone took an interest in the weird skeleton-friends who live in the walls... but because he realises he'll be tied to the assault and murder of the re-incarnated cult leader if the police see it. I mean, I'm all for doing something a little different. I just feel like the book could have ended with a lingering sense of dread and more of an *oomph* if it was about something bigger than the dude's own safety.
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Sep 10, 2018 10:38
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I think going into the second half of The Ritual expecting the Blood Frenzy twist made me enjoy it more than I would have done going in blind. Plus I'm a sucker for Black Metal shenanigans anyway. The film handled it all better though, in my opinion. The idea of Luke wandering across this old one God and the people who worship it gels better than a bunch of kids just trying to be as evil as possible. There's something more terrifying about the indifference in the film compared to the grotesque cruelty of the kids in the book. So that's The Ritual and Last Days done in. Should I just say "gently caress it" and grab the rest of Nevill's bibliography? I like his books, but I think the comparison to King is apt... y'know, with the flubbed endings and all. 
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Sep 20, 2018 13:51
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Good enough for me! Added to my shopping list. Picked The Troop back up by Nick Cutter. Absolutely delightful lunchtime reading.
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Sep 21, 2018 13:25
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The book is real big and unwieldy though. Not sure how much of a bearing that has on what version you go for, but it really is like a giant Ikea catalogue.
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Oct 5, 2018 08:43
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Just started watching the expanse and was thinking about picking up the books as well. I was told it delves into cosmic horror in the second season(second book?) and the first scene of the first episode had an Event Horizon warp drive consuming someone, which sold me. But here's my question... is it Cosmic Horror in the fact that the expanse drives people bonkers, or are there any aliens/higher beings knocking around in there?
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Oct 15, 2018 10:47
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Oxxidation posted:why is the kindle edition of all things so expensive It's expensive for me too here in England. 8 quid is paperback prices, not kindle. New, it's going for 93 quid!
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Oct 15, 2018 13:03
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Thanks for clearing that up, I had a feeling the lad who recommended them may have been a bit iffy with what he considers "cosmic" when it comes to cosmic horror. I'll skip the books then. The show has my interest though, so I'll stick with that.
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Oct 15, 2018 15:11
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The Cipher was the reason I ended up downloading Kindle on my phone. Which was handy because I managed to snap up some out of print Brian Hodge stuff too before they were pulled from the e-book market too. Speaking of Hodge I'm about half way through The Immaculate Void and even though it's a book about bizarre cosmic horror nonsense the weirdest thing up to now is there's a fight scene involving a biker dual wielding barbarian axes. lol
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Oct 26, 2018 10:22
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chernobyl kinsman posted:come on Hahah, is that a good "come on" in my favour or a bad one? MockingQuantum posted:At the very least it's acknowledged as being pretty ridiculous in context too. I knew the edgelord was going to do something perhaps pulling a gun, maybe? But yeah, that was something else alright. Chas McGill posted:The Immaculate Void was so bad it pretty much put me off reading more Hodge. I had the idea in my head that maybe he was a reincarnation of the actual Atilla the Hun or something. I haven't finished it yet, so maybe it'll all gel together at the end. But from the sounds of it, it doesn't. It all smacks of "World's of Hurt" to me, which I loved, up to a point. I was enraptured by the idea of "another" God ousting ours and Heaven becoming a horrific place. (King's Revival is on my to read list too) But then there's a terminator character working at the behest of the God to return those lost souls. I get that kind of vibe with Atilla and it feels like both books would have been stronger (and scarier imho) without them.
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Oct 29, 2018 12:58
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MockingQuantum posted:I enjoyed the book well enough, even in the face of a couple of very silly moments. For any other faults the book may have, it does the "cosmic" part of cosmic horror pretty well. I'm close to the end now and again, like World's of Hurt, the cosmic horror stuff outweighs the framing/characters. It'll stick with me, I think.
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Oct 30, 2018 09:29
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MockingQuantum posted:A Todd McFarlane figurine in every room of his house. Intentionally. That's what I associate with Barker as a result. chernobyl kinsman posted:I have also known only two people who were really into barker, and both of them are exactly like this. including the mcfarlane figures. do we know the same people MockingQuantum posted:If we do, I feel bad for you. People were not meant to discuss cenobite lore as much as these two do God! I loving love Hellraiser (and most of Barker's other work) to an absurd degree but every other fan I know is the CRAZIEST bastard. I realise this is some kind of "self own" and it's me... I'm the weird Clive Barker fan, but the living rooms I've seen... honest to god chains hanging from ceilings and everything. I've got a couple of McFarlane Cenobites in my office, but I don't have guests in there, y'know. Drunken Baker fucked around with this message at 12:24 on Nov 2, 2018 |
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Nov 2, 2018 12:09
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Not read House on the Borderland yet, but VURT is pretty trippy. It's a mashup of Cyberpunk and horror though so not sure how much that will effect your enjoyment of it all.
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Nov 5, 2018 09:08
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I've yet to read the "Wonderland Cycle" starting with "Shadow of a Dead Star" but that was recommended to me when I asked if anyone had done Cosmic Horror/Cyberpunk before. There's also the "Punktown" books. Not read too much of them, but what little I have read has been fun. They're more sci-fi/fantasy but have horror elements to them. Jeff Noon's "VURT" is another one I'd recommend and it is totally bonkers. The best way I could describe VURT would be the Matrix meets Hellraiser... on acid (because I'm a lazy, boring comedy slag).
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Dec 5, 2018 13:24
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SniperWoreConverse posted:also is it true that when king decided to write DT again he had to hire someone to read the books and create like a comprehensive research document of what the situation was and the relationships between various characters and settings, because he completely forgot what he was going for? I know GRRM uses the Fire and Ice wiki for his new book and has a couple of super fans on speed dial when he wants to double check things. Also The Cipher is finally going to be back in print! Not sure when but Koja confirmed it on Twitter. Just need Hodge's books to follow suit now.
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Feb 4, 2019 11:39
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Skyscraper posted:2) Because it was bad. Not going to bother with The Toll. Apparently Millar wrote Scarlet Gospels after the first chapter too and that was dreadful in ways I find hard to articulate. I said this in another thread but my love for Hellraiser is a paradox. I consider myself a massive, massive fan but I hate pretty much everything about the franchise from nearly all the films to the comics to the books. (And other fans... mostly.)
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Apr 16, 2019 12:46
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Skyscraper posted:I feel the same about a lot of Lovecraft. Maybe there are just some universally good ideas that are poorly conveyed by a lot of the actual content? Nail on the head there, i think mate.
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Apr 17, 2019 11:31
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Bilirubin posted:Dear god what have I gotten myself into? Two stories in and the theme seems to be "how a minor brush with unreality can completely drive people completely mad". Really entertaining so far! loving sold.
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Apr 25, 2019 12:10
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Not enjoyed reading something as much as Lake Monsters in a long time. I mean the actual act of reading. The dude paints with his words. Just a lovely experience.
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May 24, 2019 13:34
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anilEhilated posted:No. Hellbound Heart is absolutely not just body horror. It rings more of a gothic ghost story that just so happens to be about a skinless escapee of some world of BDSM pleasures than anything else. It's far, far tamer than you might think it is (or remember it being). edit: And it's worth buying for a few quid, for sure. Drunken Baker fucked around with this message at 12:46 on Oct 24, 2019 |
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Oct 24, 2019 12:44
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