The novel
I really like the novel this was based on, which is more complex, gruesome, and atmospheric... some might find it dated but i think it's "of it's time"... with that in mind, I recommend it.
shareWhat, pray tell, is the title of the novel, who wrote it and where did you buy it? Thanx so much and cheery bye.
Nothing is more beautiful than nothing.
"The Undying Monster: A Tale of the Fifth Dimension" (1922) by Jesse Douglas Kerruish.
I first read it when I was 11 or so. I bought the 1970 paperback edition off of the revolving wire rack in the local drugstore, but the cover was so horrifying (a closeup of the mutilated face of the Monster's victim) that my mom took it away and wouldn't let me have it back until I was older.
It's an excellent novel with lots of backstory and bits of archaic grue, although the Oliver Hammand character is rather annoying. There is only one detective, Miss Luna Bartendale, a supersensitive (psychic).
I can see why they revised the plot so drastically for a wartime production, two of the main characters were WWI veterans (an amputee and a shellshock case) and it turns out the Hammands were of Norse stock.
Good point about the wartime setting, I feel silly not to have taken that into account. Although I really like the character of Goddard in particular, and though his damage is more visible, he's resumed his life in a way Oliver, so damaged psychologically, hasn't been able to. I like Swanhild, who's brave enough to do what she has to do while clearly (and with good reason) terrified.
The description of poor mauled Kate is really more disturbing for not being graphic: the ghastly hints we get in passing just echo Ambrose Bierce )"a man though naked may be in rags").
I still have tht old Award pazperback! And the artwork for the movie "Book of Shadows:Blair Witch 2" has always reminded me of it. What do you think?
So glad someone else likes the book!
Here is that cover! Poor, poor Kate.
http://straitjacketsmagazine.com/images4/undying.cover.png
And here is a pdf of the book
http://www.conmotsach.com/books/the_undying_monster.pdf
but it really is a much scarier read if you don't know the nature of the Monster (which anyone reading this thread probably does)
I read it when I was a teenager, and I really liked it. Especially the mystery of the curse, and the viking history with the rune signs reminded me of the short story I had just read back then, 'Casting the runes' by M.R. James.
"When there is no more room in the Oven,
the Bread will walk the Earth."
I got More Tales to Tremble By (which contains that story, also some other very good ones) at about the same age (I seem to remember we bought it at Wanamaker's department store), but didn't really get into MR James until a few years later when I checked out his Collected Ghost Stories from the junior high school library.
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