Haunted (1995)

The movie starts off in the early nineteen hundreds with a little boy and girl, twins, running and playing on a large English estate. They are having fun, but the little girl hits her head and falls into a pond. Her brother tries to save her but is unsuccessful. That little brother grows up to be a professor of psychology who investigates psychic phenomenon. He mostly does this to expose fakers. After seeing him bust a séance we follow as he goes to an isolated estate at the behest of Nanny Webb.

He is picked up by a beautiful woman named Christina who drives him to the rambling old house. There he meets Nanny Webb as well as Christina’s brothers Robert and Simon. There is an odd dynamic between the siblings as they are overly affectionate with each other. Like to creepy levels. Nanny claims that she is being haunted, though not without a lot of prompting from the professor. That night spooky stuff starts to happen and David, the professor, is convinced that one of the brothers is responsible for it. Things ramp up and Nanny Webb becomes very disturbed, which leads to the family calling in Doctor Doyle. She doesn’t like that much at all.

After arriving we also see that David begins seeing what appears to be the ghost of his sister in the distance. As if she was trying to lead him to something but can’t quite communicate with him. Is Nanny Webb crazy? Did David catch her crazy? Or is someone messing with both of them? In the end all is explained and we are given some closure… with a twist!  

I’m trying to keep this review as spoiler free as possible because I really liked Haunted and don’t want to ruin it for anyone. The movie is paced decently, though at times is a slow burn. But if you pay attention there are clues and all sorts of spooky shit happening. I could give examples but then I would be giving hints that might spoil things for you. Trust me though that you will want to pay close attention to enjoy the movie. Not only because of the clues but also the things that are happening. The movie is packed with lots of visual tricks mostly in camera. Again, you really need to pay attention to Haunted to get the most out of it. If you only half watch it, then you might as well skip it altogether.

The decision to introduce the house to both the audience as well as the professor in the daylight was a cool choice. In a way it makes the later scenes in the dark all that much spookier and more surreal since we have some idea of how things are. There aren’t any real jump scares as the story leans more heavily into creeping you out with odd noises, doors that seem to open by themselves, and shadows that seem to have things moving in them. Like I said you really need to keep your eyes on the screen with this one.

When I was doing my research on this movie I found a lot of folks talking about Kate Beckinsale and how naked she is in it. Before you go off Googling for images I have bad news, it was all a body double. One that isn’t even close to her appearance in other scenes. Same goes for Aidan Quinn. It seems as if either they had no nudity clauses, or the producers went back afterwards to spice things up. Funny thing is you keep seeing their faces so clearly not them. That said both Quinn (playing the professor) and Beckinsale are great in their roles. They have some actual chemistry, and their relationship drives the ending of the movie. Can’t say much more than that. Spoiler free, remember?

While I did guess at the big twist I still was interested in Haunted until the very end. To be honest it was a guess and they kept it vague enough that I wasn’t sure I was right. It wasn’t until after the movie was over that I realized it was based on a novel from James Herbert, who wrote some very cool horror stories. Not sure if it follows his book closely but having read may of his other books (I’ve reviewed The Fog and The Spear here at the site) it doesn’t surprise me that the plot was so engaging and fun. I recommend tracking down a copy of Haunted and giving it a watch.

 

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

The Fog by James Herbert

First up to avoid any confusion I need to point out that this has nothing to do with John Carpenter’s movie the Fog. This completely unrelated book has nothing to do with ghosts or leper colonies. Instead it falls solidly into the ecohorror subgenre that was popular in the seventies.  This is also the second book that I’ve read and reviewed for the website. I rather enjoyed that book, The Spear, and it made me seek out Herbert’s other work.

The book is set in England and follows John Holman, who works for the government investigating different environmental concerns and problems. This is sometimes done with other parts of the government, like the military, unaware of it. Returning from investigating a secretive military base Holman is caught in what appears to be a natural disaster as a huge crack opens up in the earth and basically swallows a small village with him along for the ride. He manages to escape but is exposed to a strange fog that drives him crazy. Literally he becomes a mental patient in minutes! He recovers, we later find out due to a blood transfusion because of other injuries and becomes immune to the effect of the fog. This is important since it is spreading across the countryside making people lose their minds in violent ways.

I could go on about the plot, but it isn’t necessary. The Fog is a solid bit of ecohorror that shows us again that the human race is sometimes too smart for his own good. The “monster” here is a manmade disease that lives in the fog and feeds on those that it infects. Basically, this thing is a cancer that destroys and consumes the brain, making the host progressively more insane and violent. This leads to all kinds of twisted stuff like mass suicides, murder, rape, and all sorts of other abhorrent behavior. All of which is luridly and effectively brought to the page by Herbert. I’m a huge fan of exploitation movies of the seventies and how sleazy they can get. The Fog has a similar vibe and I enjoyed the heck out of it.

Some other things that I wanted to mention include the characters. Our main character of Holman is your typical protagonist in this sort of story. He is a crusader, here doing all he can to make sure that the environment is protected. Between this and protecting his lady we have all the motivation for his actions that we need. There aren’t really any antagonists, but we do get an interesting twist with a character that was hostile to Holman early on before they realized there was an issue with the fog. When they are exposed the irrational part of their brain causes them to go after him again. That was a fun twist and leads to a nifty showdown. To finally destroy the threat, they have to blow up a big chunk of London. See Herbert knows how to end a story like this!

As much as I enjoyed the Spear this book is even better. This was Herbert’s second novel after The Rats, which is supposed to be an even better bit of ecohorror. I will be tracking that book as well as his other works down and adding them to my collection. You can expect to see some of them reviewed here at the Horror Dude Blog in the future. And if it isn’t’ already obvious I’m recommending The Fog.

 

© Copyright 2021 John Shatzer

The Spear by James Herbert

Are there better villains than the Nazis? They are so hated that the protagonist of your movie or book can pretty much do whatever they want to them and the audience nods in agreement that they deserved their horrible fate. That must be why so many creative storytellers used them as the go to bad guys. Though author James Herbert outdoes most of them with The Spear.

While not mentioned it is assumed that the story takes place in the late seventies due to the age of some of the characters. Harry Steadman is a former British soldier who fell in love with a Jewish woman and ended up spending some years in the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. After she is killed it is hinted that he goes on a killing spree getting his revenge before retiring with all the violence burned out of him. Now he spends his time as a private detective in London. But the Mossad comes around asking him to find a missing agent. He refuses but then the body of his partner is crucified on his front door! But that still doesn’t do it. It isn’t until MI5, the British intelligence agency, shows up and forces his hand that Harry finally gets involved.

The rest of the story involves Nazi secret cults, lots of cloak and dagger, unmanned killer tanks, and believe it or not the ghost of the Fuhrer. Though not the one you are thinking of. Steadman is joined by a couple sidekicks as he tries to unravel the secrets that have been kept for more than thirty years. Most importantly why the secret organization is so interested in him and how he plays into their twisted prophecy.

This was a real page turner, one of those books that hooked me and kept me up reading all night. The story hits the ground running and never lets up. There is mystery and murder right from the start. The identity of those doing the killing and their motives is slowly unraveled so that it isn’t until the last fifty or so pages that you actually begin to see the entire picture. And while The Spear starts off as more of an action/spy story there are supernatural elements that later become central to the plot and drive the narrative. This one is a good time from start to finish.

The main character of Steadman is very interesting. Even after his partner is nailed to the front door of his house he still refuses to be sucked in to the violent cycle of revenge. Way too many stories like this have the main character switch on “kick everyone’s ass” mode on far easier than what we get in The Spear. That was refreshing. Even after he is forced to defend himself, he tries to show some mercy. This is juxtaposed with the pure evil of the Nazis. One is a torturer who not only spews hatred and kills for sport, but actually does it with joy in his heart. The guy enjoys his work! The person who you think is pulling the strings is twisted in his own way but turns out only to be a puppet of the real evil. Can’t say much more without spoilers.

There is only one thing that gives me pause about the book. There is one character that is revealed to be a “freak” and an abomination used to try and corrupt Steadman for the Nazi’s twisted ritual. As nasty as some of the characters in the book are, they are bad guys, so their awful words don’t bother me. But Steadman thinks and says some terrible things and as I consider him the voice of the author that bothered me just a bit. Not enough to not recommend the book, but I’m afraid that it might trip up some readers. Please take that into consideration before grabbing yourself a copy. I can’t be more specific because it would spoil a pretty big reveal.

I am going to recommend The Spear. Herbert does a fantastic job engaging the reader and is worth the price of the paperback.

© Copyright 2018 John Shatzer