Shock
In the year that saw Clive Barker marched nakedly out of the closet, this book exposes a much darker revelation about his old mentor, Ramsey Campbell. In the only part of the book to live up to the titular billing, 'Pulsating Posteriors and Masochistic Misses' reveals him as nothing short of a dirty old man. His is an alarmingly comprehensive digest of the English spanking movie in all its navy blue knickers and over-aged schoolgirl glory. Over nine thwack-packed pages, the elder statesman of the British ghost story - the horror writers' horror writer - indulges a passion for caning, smacking, whacking and, even he would admit, piss-poor acting in Condemned To The Cane, Lisa Must Be Caned and Schoolgirl Spanking. You will never read him quite the same again.
That's one of the highlights of the third compendium of "essential...exploitation" that grew out of, in its time, the essential Shock Xpress magazine. Unfortunately works of equal standing are few and far between in these Shock-Lite 128 pages. With each volume the formula has felt more and more tired; here you have to wonder if it's not time to pull its life-support.
Pieces on Massimo ("Italian schlockmeister") Pupillo, HVC cable inadequacies and nondescript cinematographer/director Gary Graver are repetitious and stale, especially in the wake of Tim Lucas' Video Watchdog bimonthly, doing much the same but with more clarity and obvious love. Colin Davis' exceptionally long (14 page) assessment of cinematic necrophilia is as detailed as it tedious in its scandal-mongering. (Isn't it high time someone tagged Jorg Buttgereit's Nekromantiks for the amateurish crud they surely are? Davis even has the chutzpah to criticise the first for "uncertain pacing (and) artiness".) Damon Wise's interview with (yawn) Traci Lords is just an excuse for some unusually prudish stills of the former jailbait. And for a lamentable essay on the art film, Anne Billson should be ashamed.
So many swine before which to cast the odd pearl then, even if the suspicion remains that the lack-lustre is being buffed-up by its juxtaposition with such toss. Jack Stevenson offers a sympathetic - if slightly dry - look at the making, death and resurrection of Tod Browning's Freaks, but really comes into his own with a paean to faded glories of the "pornies" - America's hardcore grindhouses. It's a terrific piece of social history, less concerned with pumping pink-bits than the freakoids they attract and the nefarious, almost surreal goings-on off screen. A fascinating - if terrifying - contribution.
David Taylor on the making of Blood On Satan's Claw is informative, well-researched, and, in the best test of such, makes you want to see the film again. More of the same is called for, just as you want much more of Jack Stevenson's - yep, him again - ill-served examination of war time propaganda.
Hardly surprising it might be, but in the end its Kim Newman who steals home the champ. 'Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been...?' is an extended examination of Hollywood's relations with the American Communist Party, through the obvious SF metaphors of I Married A Monster From Outer Space, to the less-than-subtle hectoring of Robert (Mary Poppins) Stevenson's breathtaking I Married A Communist and beyond. Along the way Newman discusses High Noon, The Manchurian Candidate and Dr. Strangelove, and on through The Front, Roeg's Insignificance, and even Paul Scharder's little-seen cabler Witch Hunt. Outstanding stuff.
That aside, there is a heavy zombic whiff about Shock now, like some gamy left-over of the late, unlamented 80s. Attempts to live up to the title are pallid and pedestrian, some of the writing so-so, and the (numerous) stills remarkably coy; as in previous issues, the 'humorous' captions are insultingly feeble-minded. The blame we lay squarely at the door of ineffably pompous editor Stefan Jaworzyn. Don't let him get away with it - photocopy the good bits and use the money saved to toast the fact that at least the super-smug Alan Jones was too busy to contribute. Phew.