 First released in 1988, Ramsey Campbell’s ‘The Influence’ has welcome rerelease to coincide with Spanish Netflix film ‘La Infuencia’ As well as releasing many great novels from both new and established authors Flame Tree Press are also resurrecting out-of-print classics, including Ramsey Campbell’s The Influence which was original published back in 1988, winning the prestigious best novel British Fantasy Society award. This is the perfect time to bring this outstanding chiller back to life for a new generation of horror fans as some months ago the Spanish film La Influencia dropped on Netflix and it was terrific to see a rare adaptation of this author’s work making it onto the screen. Although the film has relatively low scores on both Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB it remains a fascinating translation of the book, moving the action from Campbell’s hometown of Liverpool to rural Spain. Although there are many similarities, such as the main characters having the same jobs, moving the location, however, changes the dynamic completely. This review focusses on the book but will pick up elements from the film along the way. The story revolves around several members and generations of the Faraday family who are preparing for the imminent death of family matriarch, Queenie. For years she had had a stranglehold over her relatives and her unpleasant nature has blighted the lives of those closest to her. Most have avoided her when they can, but her psychological impact upon their lives is so strong that few mourn her when she eventually passes away. Queenie was an outstanding character, who must surely rank amongst Campbell’s finest, she appears mostly in flashback and dominates what is both a disturbing and unsettling story. One could argue that many of us have a spinster like Queenie in their families, but as the plot thickens the reader realises she is much more than a bitter old lady. Think back to when you were a kid and that elderly relative who smelled and scared you slightly, only multiply that uncomfortable memory significantly and you have Queenie. The blurb reveals Queenie dies in the early stages of The Influence so stating that fact is not a spoiler, however, the film is predominately built around the slow death of the old woman whilst she is in a coma in a remote farmhouse and slowly begins to influence her grandniece. Both book and film head in the same general direction, but it’s the journey of how they get there that differs greatly. The film also concentrates on the dynamics of the immediate family, whilst the book fans out with many more characters and has a much stronger sense of time and place, as Campbell’s novels often do, and are frequently set around the Merseyside area and the surrounding coastlines. The story is told in the third person from several characters point of view, including the niece Alison, her husband Derek and their daughter Rowan. Due to money difficulties they move into Queenie’s house and slowly but surely the reader is drawn into proceedings and the sense of unease develops. Like with most Ramsey Campbell novels, the pace is relatively slow and much of what goes on is connected to the problems in the extended Faraday family, a theme often revisited in Campbell’s fiction. Of course, Queenie and her residual effect is the root of all the most pressing woes. The books main weakness was it was relatively easy to see what direction the plot was heading into and although there were plenty of nice developments and a few shocking moments I was not surprised the way things panned out. Watch out for two outstanding sequences surrounding train stations, involving two different characters, which will really have the hairs on the back of your neck standing up to attention. This is connected to a second scene where a child enters a dreamlike state where they are wandering around an empty Liverpool suburb trying to find their way home.  I loved the way we were drip-fed small snatches of recollections about Queenie. We were told that she demanded the first milk tooth lost by one of her nieces and whenever she was naughty Queenie claimed she could instigate toothache, something which happened regularly until her death. Some of the very strongest sequences involved Rowan and the development of the ‘influence’ as she begins to change, the appearance of her mysterious friend ‘Vicky’ and the anxiety this causes her parents who have their own problems. If you have only watched the film, I strongly recommend you pick up the book, as there are many fascinating comparisons to be made. Films are always skeletons of books and this is no different and having seen the film is not going to spoil the enjoyment of the book as you will have fun with the contrasts. For anyone who has not read Ramsey Campbell before I would not necessarily pick The Influence as the best starting point, but it does contain many of the hallmarks which have made him one of the best supernatural writers in the world and a strong entry in the golden age of 1980s British horror. I hope Flame Tree Press continue to tap into the back-catalogues of both top writers such as Campbell and other lesser-known classics which are ripe for rediscovery. 4.5/5   THE HEAERT AND SOUL OF HORROR BOOK REVIEWSComments are closed.
|
Archives
May 2023
|
RSS Feed
|
|