Issue 7 (July 1989)
50 Pages in total
Fear Fiction:
Look, See… – Nicholas Vince – 3 Pages
At the age of just twenty-eight, he was already getting bored with his money and the antics that this wealth afforded. Antics that over time had crept further and further into the unnecessarily cruel and sadistically nasty. But as one of the most successful comedy stars in Beverly Hills, with over thirty movies already to his name, life had gotten just too damn easy. And it’s just a short walk from easy to tiresome. So the next step was the box. The puzzle box he’d kept hearing about. Philip LeMarchand’s Lament Configuration no less. A gateway to hell. A gateway to his future. A future within the Order of the Gash as The Chatterer.
Penned by the very man who played ‘The Chatterer’ in the Hellraiser films, the short is a cunning little tale that lays down the backstory for the Cenobite within the elaborate Hellraiser mythos. With his unique position, Vince plays with the vague lines between fiction and reality, merging them even further to make the short grip the reader by the proverbial balls and keep on tugging. Much of the short is taken up with a homage to various aspects of the film, detailing the other Cenobites, the concept and construction of hell, and Barker’s whole mythos behind the nature of hell (and speaking of Mr Barker…I believe they’re waiting for you). All in all, the short is an instantly captivating read, which just deepens the interest into the whole mythos, executing a tight and playful short with an obvious skill for reeling in the reader.
Driving Force [Part 2] – Stephen Gallagher – 5 Pages
Having arrived at a petrol station to have the stolen prototype car filled-up, Reuben is confronted with the slightly embarrassing problem of not knowing where the hell to put the petrol. Not wanting to cause a scene, Reuben makes his excuses and leaves without his petrol, planning to examine the underside of the vehicle in private. And when he does just that, he finds the car’s workings are like nothing he’s ever seen before. And he’s seen his fair share of cars alright. But things go from bad to worse, when after leaving a roadside diner after a brief break, the car seemingly on its own accord accelerates and swerves just as Reuben is about to drive past a local cop. The car hits the officer, no doubt killing him, before Reuben can do anything to stop it happening. And as he shoots off down the dusty road, he can hear the muffled sounds of the other officer’s gunshots, echoing across the open fields around him. Reuben’s day wasn’t getting any better. He hadn’t purposefully tried to run the police officer over. It was the car that did it. It was the car that had swerved and accelerated. But on the plus side, the fuel light had quietened down with its incessant flashing...
Following on from the first part to this two-part short story that appeared in the previous issue, ‘Fear Magazine - Issue 6’ (May/June 1989), Gallagher gets stuck in straight away with the mounting feeling of unease surrounding this strange prototype car. Indeed, as the story continues, and the car forces itself to hit the prone police officer (after already hitting and killing a stray dog) the underlying horror outcome becomes instantly obvious. Indeed, with very distinctive influences taken from Stephen King’s earlier novel ‘Christine’ (1983), Gallagher ramps-up the horror steaks for the run-up to the conclusion, with a slightly predictable but nevertheless completely compelling story that ends in a delightfully bleak manner. Not the most original of shorts. But all in all an atmospheric and well-written read that certainly keeps the tension mounting.
Pro-Files:
John Farris – The Axeman Cometh – 3 Pages
“John Farris was writing successful horror when Stephen King and Clive Barker were still at school. Despite three decades in the horror genre as a novel and screen writer, he has never lost an opportunity to be provocative, unsettling or controversial. Child rape, demonic possession and the misuse of psychic powers by governmental agencies were all areas covered first by Farris. Here Stanley Wiater talks to the man who Stephen King unashamedly describes as ‘America’s premier novelist of terror’.”
Richard Marden – The Final Cut: Editing Hellbound – 2 Pages
“Editors are the unsung heroes of fantasy cinema. They have to edit a film in a way that maintains the suspense and ensures that the shocks are shocking. Entrusted with this responsibility on Hellbound – and on Hellraiser before it – is film industry veteran Richard Marden. Here he talks to Brigid Cherry and Brian J Robb about cutting and splicing.”
Warlock – Witchfinder General – 2 Pages
“Actor Richard E Grant fought off the likes of Sean Connery and Michael Douglas to play the sixteenth-century witchfinder against Julian Sands’ brutally handsome, eponymous villain in Medusa Pictures’ latest movie, Warlock. The result is a move away from gross-out gore toward the humour and good old-fashioned evil of the Hammer horror days. John Gilbert investigates.”
Anthony Hickox – A School For Sadists – 2 Pages
“The horror and fantasy genres have been good to director Anthony Hickox. Films like Death Star, Arcadia and Playback – which starred Master of the Universe, Dolph Lundgren – have slowly built him a reputation as a good writer. Now his latest movie – Waxwork – is about to display his talents as a director and lover of schlock. John Gilbert meets the new Marquis de Sade.”
Stan Winston – Demon Seed – 1 Page
“Monsters have helped Stan Winston climb up the corporate ladder of film production. Here he talks to Andrew Morentis about creating the ultimate demon.”
Daniel Rhodes – The Damnation Game – 2 Pages
“Devil worshippers or defenders of the faith? The Knights Templar of Middle Ages have been cast as sorcerers and fornicators, but no one really knows whether the white brotherhood practised black magic or not. Horror author Daniel Rhodes believes he has a feel for those times and, in his first two novels on this theme, has resurrected an ancient Templar to prove the point. But are genre readers ready for a return to the Dennis Wheatley mould of horror? John Gilbert meets the man who is putting the cult back into occult-based fiction.”
The Blob – Blobbermouth Speaks! – 1 Page
“It seeks. It slimes. It sucks. The Blob is on the rampage again and finally, after twenty years of silence, produce Jack H Harris gives the low down on both versions of the movie. FEAR’s Alison McDonald put on a wetsuit and took her tape-recorder along.”
Set-Up:
Nightbreed - Phantasmagoria – 2 Pages
“Mark Salisbury reports from the set of Clive Barker’s new movie, Nightbreed.”
Phenomena:
Female Horror Writers – Daughters Of Darkness [Part 2] – 2 Pages
“Shame on the publishing industry! Bestsellerdom and weighty publicity budgets are balanced in favour of the male horror writer. Yet women are just as agile and inventive as the men in the genre – maybe more so. In the conclusion to her survey of assaults on the male dominated field, Di Wathen whets our appetites for great female fiction and draws attention to a striking imbalance in the book trade.”
Book Reviews:
Chain Letter – Christopher Pike
Spellbound – Christopher Pike
Sourcery – Terry Pratchett
The Lodestone – Allen Harbinson
Women Of Darkness – Kathryn Ptacek
Psychlone – Greg Bear
Lori – Robert Bloch
Samraj – Elaine Aron
The Sky Lords – John Brosnan
Gods Of A Thousand Faces – Michael Falconer Anderson
Apocalypse – Nancy Springer
Earthbound – Richard Matheson
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress – Robert A Heinlein
Film Reviews:
Hellbound: Hellraiser II - Directed by Tony Randel
Indiana Jones III: The Final Crusade - Directed by Steven Spielberg
Waxwork - Directed by Anthony Hickox
Watchers - Directed by Jon Hess
Deep Star Six - Directed by Sean Cunningham
They Live - Directed by John Carpenter
Cocoon II: The Return - Directed by Daniel Petrie
Warlock - Directed by Steve Miner
Cutting Class - Directed by Rospo Pallenberg
Ghosthouse II - Directed by Fabrizio Laurenti
The Attic - Directed by Doug Adams
