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French Concession

Chenxin Jiang and Xiao Bai

5.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

Book

An acclaimed Chinese writer makes his English-language debut with this heart-stopping literary noir,...

Within the Walls: Five Stories from Ferrara

Giorgio Bassani and Jamie McKendrick

(0 Ratings) Rate It

Book

A new translation of Giorgio Bassani's award winning collection of novellas, which inspired his...

Awix (3310 KP) rated Frankenstein (1931) in Movies

Jan 20, 2021

Iconic version of the novel by (it says here) 'Mrs Percy Shelley'; might even be definitive if the story was anything like the one in the book. The nature of the piece and its brief running time mean that characterisation and motivation take second place to atmosphere and incident: Henry Frankenstein wants to learn the secrets of life and death, and builds his own creature in the hope of bringing it to life. All does not go well.

Some parts of this film stand up remarkably well 90 years on: the sets, the direction, some of the performances (Karloff is obviously excellent, Colin Clive perhaps doesn't get the props he deserves); it's quite atmospheric. On the other hand, making the Creature mute removes any possibility of discourse between him and Frankenstein (which is really the heart of the novel) - this is a cautionary gothic melodrama without much interest in exploring the ideas that underpin Mary Shelley's work. Still, obviously, a massively influential movie, and well-done for what it is.

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Awix (3310 KP) rated The Great God Pan in Books

Aug 21, 2019

The Great God Pan

Arthur Machen | 1894 | Fiction & Poetry, Horror, Science Fiction/Fantasy

5.0

(3 Ratings)

Book Rating

Classic of late Victorian horror-fantasy. A misguided scientist performs a surgical procedure on a young woman's brain which leads to her madness and death; but over the years that follow it becomes clear that he is also responsible for unleashing something much, much more disturbing.

It's slightly amusing to consider that this novella was criticised on first release for its decadence and sexual content - by modern standards it is, on the surface at least, very tame. But that's the nature of the beast in this case - this is a horror story where all the disturbing scenes happen off-stage, which is where the monster stays as well. Everything happens through implication, and is left somewhat to the reader's imagination, a trick which Machen pulls off rather more deftly than some writers who hailed him as an influence. I must be honest and say that the lack of a big reveal and a genuine climax wrong-footed me a bit, but the story is on the whole ingeniously structured and well-written, atmospheric and unsettling.