 CREEPSHOW BY SIMON BROWN A good book about films should run loud and fast with passion, jamming crazy through the pages, weaving through the paragraphs at a hundred words a minute, everything should be ripping past you in a glorious haze. Kim Newman tears through with passion from the first page and often don’t let up until the last page. But this… …this book ground me to a halt. The Author’s position as an Associate Professor really shows in his writing. I felt like I was in class. I’m not questioning the passion of the author, but the passion just wasn’t there in the words; too stuffy and academic. Maybe that’s just me. It could well be. I love Romero’s work as much as I love King’s, I love them like a fat kid loves cake, but it’s all in the telling. I found myself painfully dragging through the pages of a bloated dissertation. The subject itself wasn’t all that bad. It appeared informed but at times padded with digressions. It makes too many comparisons and then takes further digressions from there that begin to verge on rambling. It strikes me as a book for the hardcore fan, the film student, and with that in mind, those readers would have a great time with this particular book. Sadly, while I did enjoy CREEPSHOW, I am not a BIG fan which perhaps why this book really wasn’t for me. Yes, it was informative, and yes, it did cover many a subject in such a short space, but again, too academic. But it might be for you. Who knows? Let’s see if the next title gives me more of a ‘buzz’ (I’m sorry, I just can’t resist a pun) THE FLY by Emma Westwood This is what I hoped and expected of The Devil’s Advocate series. The passion is there in the prose, giving insights into part of the film you may have otherwise have missed. The author pulls you in with their infectious and obvious love for this film and in doing so makes you appreciate it so much more as well. The author gives a detailed history of The Fly from its literary roots to the original film and to the remake. The book touches upon the subtexts of the film, many of which may surprise you, for instance who would have thought that it was in part a rumination on old age (?). It examines the subtexts of Seth Brundle’s disease as a more fundamental matter, beyond the assumption that it was a metaphor for AIDS. The book also argues stories of magical transformations (from Aesop to Shelley) have always been part of humanity’s narrative canon, articulating that universal sense of empathy for all life forms that we feel; expressing a desire for transcendence that every religion also expresses; prompting us to wonder if transformation into another living creature would be a proof of the possibility of reincarnation and some sort of afterlife and is thus, however hideous or disastrous the narrative, a religious and hopeful concept. Also the book argues that this is more than a body horror film, more than a remake, more than a film based on a Sci-Fi story from the 50’s that ultimately The Fly is above all a love story. I saw the film in a new light after this book and I have no doubt that you will as well after reading it. Rob Teun writes Sci-fi, Horror, and Fantasy. He lives in Lincolnshire with his family. He can be found on Twitter: @rob_teun   Comments are closed.
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