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Author: Ross Lawhead

Powers of Darkness: The Lost Version of Dracula – Episode 18

Powers of Darkness: The Lost Version of Dracula – Episode 18

Published July 5, 2024 by Ross Lawhead

Powers of Darkness is the recently rediscovered early draft of Dracula. Somehow, this early manuscript found its way into the hands of an Icelandic translator and was translated into Icelandic in 1900. For over a hundred years the Icelanders have been reading this book as Dracula, despite there being major, significant differences between the English version and the translated version. With a translation back into English, and a scholarly edition of Powers of Darkness now on the shelves, it is open to speculation as to the origin of these changes. Is this really an early draft, or just an embellishment of the original?

Ross’ Notes

  • Buy Powers of Darkness by clicking on the cover below. It’s brilliant! The publisher has done an awesome job with added material, footnotes, and design. 10/10. Can’t recommend it enough:
  • Dracula is actually a little over 161,000 words. Writers and editors always talk in word count when discussing book lengths. You develop a sense for it after a while.
  • Read Dracula for free on your eReader by downloading it at Project Gutenberg.
  • I just said “piousness”. Should have said “piety”.
  • An excellent sourcebook for early vampires in literature is A Clutch of Vampires, by academic Raymond McNally. It gathers very early sources of Vampire myths, reprints Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla in its entirety, and compiles newspaper clippings of real life vampires.
  • Sometimes I think Colin doesn’t pay attention to me fully. Was it unclear up to the point that he interrupted me that this book has gone from English into Icelandic, and then back into English? It’s unusual, certainly, but was it unclear? I don’t know. We cut out a section where I sound rather annoyed with him, but really I was annoyed with myself in not being able to express this all accurately.
  • Writers going “too deep” into the dark half of their own work is practically a syndrome. John Milton is considered to have developed the character of Satan WAY more than any other character in Paradise Lost, to the point where he obviously just gave up on Paradise Regained when he killed Satan off. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in three days. He horrified his wife when he read it to her, immediately burned the manuscript in front of her in the living room fireplace. Then he spent the next three days rewriting the entire thing.
  • Here’s Nosferatu in the 1922 movie Nosferatu:
  • Colin’s sign off is taken from Anthony Hopkin’s portrayal of Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs (1991). 

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The First Shared Universe – Halloween Special II: Episode 17first shared universe

The First Shared Universe – Halloween Special II: Episode 17

Published June 28, 2024 by Ross Lawhead

What was the first shared universe? The answer may be surprising (unless you listened to our last episode). Join us as we discuss the little-seen 1943 classic Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, as well as the following Universal Monster movies, and Ross compares Halloween as a kid in the US and the UK.

Ross’ Notes

  • Check out Part One of our Halloween special here!
  • I’m trying to reference Arsene Lupin Contra Sherlock Holmes, a lost silent film serial. Characters from different stories — or what we would call franchises or IPs (Intellectual Properties) had met each other before this movie, but these characters had not been previously established in their own movies, and thus would not qualify as the first shared universe as Wolf Man and Frankenstein did.
  • The chronology of the Univseral Monster movies is from Wikipedia.
  • Here’s the “Monkey Tennis” scene from I’m Alan Partridge, season 1, episode 1:
  • The Mexican project that Lon Chaney, Jr. was a part of was Face of The Screaming Werewolf (1964).
  • Below is a picture of me (left) and my brother, Halloween either 1988 or 1989. I’m in a homemade Ghostbusters uniform, and my brother is sporting a very Bela Lugosi-inspired Dracula outfit.
  • It is fun finally being back in the States for Halloween, and I still enjoy making my costumes from scratch. And not just mine, either. This is what I did to my son last year:
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Universal Horror Movies – Halloween Special I: Fiction Hack Episode 16Universal Monster Movies

Universal Horror Movies – Halloween Special I: Fiction Hack Episode 16

Published June 22, 2024 by Ross Lawhead

Why are the Universal Horror Movies important and why should we still talk about them today? Because believe it or not, the Hollywood movie industry is still making billions upon billions using the storytelling models that this specific series of movies developed that were kicked off over 85 years ago. Come inside and listen… if you dare!

Ross’ Notes

  • So… there’s going to be disagreement on exactly who is in the core cannon of the Universal Monster Movies. And that’s fine.
  • Doing a little more digging, it looks like the books I remember are the Crestwood monster books (orange series). Our library had maybe five of them. Here’s a short, informative video about them:
  • Much of my information comes from various special feature documentaries on DVDs that I own and that I borrowed from the library.
  • Information on dates and chronology (the same thing) for Universal horror movies I lifted from Wikipedia here.
  • Lon Chaney (Sr.) as The Hunchback in 1923:
  • Yes, German expressionism. Probably worth an episode. Sometimes misapplied, but everyone agrees that The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) by Robert Weine did it to the best effect. The pictures below are not from a dream sequence, but what the movie actually looks like, all the way through. The film stock was also hand-tinted in green, red, blue, and whatever in order to enhance/subvert the mood. Check out this insanity:
  • Now compare to the Universal horror movies made in Hollywood a decade later. A little more sense of realism, but still a definite skewing of reality:
Frankenstein (1931)
Frankenstein (1931)
Dracula (1931)
  • M (1931) by Fritz Lang. Using a sound motif as a replacement for a character that is present, but unseen:
  • Blackmail (1929) by Alfred Hitchcock. Watch this short scene, I think it’s one of the best in the history of cinema:
  • Vampyre (1932) by Carl Th. Dreyer is a remarkably unsettling film using a lot of very basic techniques in very masterful ways:
  • Boris Karloff’s real name was William Henry Pratt.
  • Gods and Monsters (1998), dir. Bill Condon.
  • The play Presumption; or, The Fate of Frankenstein was performed in 1832, 13 years after the book was published.
  • The Invisible Man (1933), dir. James Whale. The “eaten away” scene:
  • The definition of sequel is my own. But that’s what it is, right?
  • The Hays Code was by no means comprehensive when it came into effect in 1930, but a crackdown, led by “popular opinion” was really ramped up in the mid-1930s.

The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

Attributed to Socrates (469–399 B.C.), by Plato quote from https://www.bartleby.com/73/195.html
  • Christmas is around the corner! If you wanted to treat a loved one (or yourself, I’m not going to let on), then I recommend the boxed set below. It contains the Spanish version of Dracula as a bonus feature.
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Who is Doctor Who? Part 2 – Fiction Hack: Episode 14

Who is Doctor Who? Part 2 – Fiction Hack: Episode 14

Published June 14, 2024 by Ross Lawhead

Who is Doctor Who? We continue to answer this question, covering the Third and Fourth Doctors played by Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, as well as Berry Letts. 

Ross’ Notes

  • Jon Pertwee’s son, Sean Pertwee, is indeed Alfred Pennyworth on the TV show Gotham. If you haven’t seen Dog Soldiers (2002), I think it’s worth a watch. It’s a werewolf movie.
  • Hard Light Holograms. I think it’s a ridiculous concept.
  • Here’s a link to that Barry Letts book on Amazon:
  • We talk all about Spider-Man in film in our next episode.
  • Yes, I deliberately said “can of fish”, conflating “can of worms” and “kettle of fish”. There’s probably a word for this.
  • Doctor Who Magazine was launched in 1979 and is still going strong today. I pick up an issue every once in a while myself.
  • Terrence Dicks was also along-time serving story editor for the original series, as well as a later writer. He is probably the best person to answer the question “Who is Doctor Who?” In fact, it completely slipped my mind until just now that Dicks co-wrote one of the first in-canon book material for the Doctor in the 1972 book The Making of Doctor Who, which was part in-canon biography, part behind-the-scenes material. For many young British fans this was the first comprehensive look at how a TV show is made and many of those children were set on course for a career in television. I’ve read it, it’s pretty interesting:
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The Problem with Die Hard: Episode 009the problem with die hard

The Problem with Die Hard: Episode 009

Published May 25, 2024 by Ross Lawhead

What is the problem with Die Hard? It’s just a fun movie right? I mean, Bruce Willis is really good in it, Alan Rickman gives a career-making performance, and there are a couple cool explosions. What’s not to like? What’s the problem with Die Hard? Well…

Ross’ Show Notes

  • John McTiernan on IMDB.com. For more information about his hard times, check out this article.
  • Think about how phenomenal McTiernan’s early career was. Three solid movies that all launched franchises, after a fashion. Die Hard (1988) has had four sequels to date and that isn’t even the front runner. Predator (1987) has had four and is getting a fifth this year, and Hunt For Red October (1990) was the first of the five Jack Ryan movies, a character which also now has its own series on Amazon Prime. The actors that have played Jack Ryan are Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford (twice), Ben Affleck, Chris Pine, and John Krasinski. 
  • The Thai movie staring Tony Jaa that Colin is describing looks to be The Protector (2005).
  • Do listen to the Die Hard commentary. Other factual information has been taken from Wikipedia: Die Hard, Die Hard 2 (1990), Die Hard With A Vengeance (1995), Live Free or Die Hard (2007), A Good Day to Die Hard (2013).
  • First Blood was released in 1982, and Commando was 1985. Defining a genre is pretty hard to do. But many credit First Blood as the first of the 80s wave of action movies. That same year saw Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy in the first “buddy cop movie”, 48 Hrs.
  • Other high points of the 80s Action genre are Terminator in 1984 and Lethal Weapon  in 1987.
  • The Detective (1968) on IMDB.com.
  • Gordon Douglas directed The Detective, and he was quite the workhorse. Starting out as a child (teenage, really) actor in Hal Roach comedies, he went on to direct the horror classic Them! (1954), They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970), and a host of Frank Sinatra vehicles, including my favourite: Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964).
  • The Martin Lawrence movie I was talking about was Blue Streak (1999), which was considered pretty solid at the time, but now shows how tired the genre had become just before The Matrix (1999) reset the bar and invented a new visual language for (American) action movies. Then Bourne happened. And now John Wick.
  • Yeah, listen to the Predator director’s commentary as well, it’s real good.
  • Do you have a problem with Die Hard? Tweet #fictionhack.

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