tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-499247432649483938.post8968772849283871738..comments2024-03-11T01:39:11.362-04:00Comments on At the Scene of the Crime: "Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!"Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01844617192737950378noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-499247432649483938.post-53175758688236158712011-09-30T11:58:22.905-04:002011-09-30T11:58:22.905-04:00John, I entirely agree with you. It's possible...John, I entirely agree with you. It's possible to have a scary serial-killer movie--"Halloween" terrified me when I first saw it--but for me, true horror is that suggestion of the supernatural, evil slowly and inevitably closing in...<br /><br />I noticed those two books you mention, John, and they sounded interesting. I thank you for pointing them out and clearing up the genre.Patrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01844617192737950378noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-499247432649483938.post-81279216696602719892011-09-30T10:18:54.966-04:002011-09-30T10:18:54.966-04:00Thanks for another great team effort, felolw blogg...Thanks for another great team effort, felolw bloggers. This is an excellent read! I think Doherty's idea of horror is retro - the kind of supernatural horror that Algernon Blackwood, M.R. James and that crowd wrote. It's certainly not modern splatterpunk or torture porn which I don't think deserves the label of horror at all. I prefer horror to have supernatural content and not merely be an excuse for rampant displays of grotesque murders and psychosexual deviancy which is what most readers of horror seem to crave these days. I think true horror is suggested rahter than graphically depicted but must always include the supernatural. [End of micro lecture.] I'll be writing up three of Doherty's purely supernatural books (they do have detective story elements but to a much lesser degree than AN ANCIENT EVIL) throughout next month over at the Pretty Sinister Books blog. I'm glad at least one of you (a nightmare for Patrick!) had a reading experience near to mine. There are few books that have affected me as deeply as this one did. It had a lot to do with what happens to the children in the book.<br /><br />It should be noted that Doherty was fascinated with ancient Romania and the cult of the Strigoi. He also wrote two books, both fairly hard to find, <i>The Prince Drakulya</i> and its sequel <i>The Lord Count Drakulya</i> about the historical Romanian prince whose life in part became the stuff of the legendary vampire of Stoker's novel. However, the books are historical adventure novels and not mystery or detective novels.J F Norrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06473487417479127354noreply@blogger.com