We’re Waiting For YouSpecial Collectors’ Edition

OCTOBER 2012£2.90

“WELCOME BACK”As the doctor says to Kirsty Cotton in Hellraiser II, “welcome back”. It’s been more than twenty years since the last issue of FEAR magazine published. Some of you are old friends who will remember its unique style and its ability to push boundaries in a publishing world that still had many major taboos to be crushed. Some may even remember our sister magazine, Frightners, and its demise at the hands of the big newsagents all because a certain short story Eric The Pie by Graham Masterton ‘went too far’. That story is still freely available in several of those small press magazines that are the underground, and also the backbone, of the fantasy/horror genres. How times they do change. FEAR too was eventually laid to rest. Even to the grave it retained its high production values. I will admit some reponsibility for its demise - content quality had dropped and we ran fewer exclusives than we had in the early days. Yet, as some of you may know, it was the fickleness of the computer publishing industry that eventually rang the death knell as Newsfield, FEAR’s original publisher, went into administration and the magazine followed it down. Few people know the whole truth about what happened twenty years ago - if you are truly interested catch me at a convention, ply me with bitter and I might just tell you, but not today.

Readers of the original FEAR magazine can be assured that we will maintain the same high editorial standards, carry a similar mix of news, reviews, interviews and features, always looking for a unique editorial slant. We intend to carry fiction - more information on manuscript submission in the Hallowee’n issue. In 2013 we will also be opening a digital archive of the original magazine. For readers who prefer their content served up on a tablet or smart phone, there will be a variety of offerings include an e-mag version of each monthly issue and interactive features at www.fear-magazine.co.uk which will also be relaunching later this year. For now, just sit back and enjoy this Special Collectors’ mini-mag in which you will find a selection of features covering our usual mix of books, film, and television. Catch up with James Herbert who’s novel The Secret of Crickley Hall is dramatised on BBC One at Hallowe’en. Follow our exclusive insider’s look at the rebirth of Hammer by author Mark Morris and welcome Doctor Who’s new assistant.

I am now off to Fantasycon 2012 in Brighton to en-sure we have the best coverage for you when we return at my favourite time of year, on October 31st - Hallowe’en.

John Gilbert

Managing Editor

DARK SECRETSJames Herbert talks to FEAR’s Johnny Mains about

his new BBC mini series, international conspiracies, psychic investigations and OBEs...

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JM: Where did the inspiration for Ash come from?JH: The inspiration for Ash actually comes from The Queen herself. I’ll just give you the quote that I use from the beginning of the book. It was when the butler, Paul Burrell, was in court for allegedly stealing Princess Diana’s gifts that she had been given and some were very, very expensive. And he was in court and at the end of the first or second week, when he was due to give his testimony, the Queen got in touch and said that she remembered Burrell had told her that he had kept some of Diana’s goods. Now the whole thing was quashed. Now I don’t think that’s the reason. I think when Burrell was going to go into the dock he was going to reveal too much, much too much; he had inside information. And also at one of these press interviews, he said that the Queen had said to him: ‘that there are dark forces at work in this country about which we know little.’ Now I’ve got [the quote attributed to] Queen Elizabeth II and in brackets the word ‘allegedly’. And I’ve had put that to cover myself. But I believe she said that, and when I heard it I thought that is great. But I didn’t think of a supernatural power, I thought of a group or a consortium of individuals that ruled this country in another way. The Queen herself has a special consortium, Queen of the

Garter or some fancy title. But it’s people, people like Tom Stoppard – people from industry, but even people like Nelson Mandela. Her special advisory group. Again, not too many people know about it, but it’s there if you look hard enough, you’ll find it. And that’s what gave me the idea for the book. It tackles subjects that have not been mentioned before. “The inspiration for Ash actually comes from the Queen herself...”

Some I investigated, some I speculated, some I guessed and others were factual and my challenge to the reader was to decide for themselves what’s fact and what’s fiction. I had scenes like why did Rudolph Hess, Hitler’s deputy leader parachute into Scotland. How did Lord Lucan vanish. And other things; like why did Harold Wilson, Britain’s Prime Minister (second term 74-76) suddenly resign and why was the country making plans for a military coup at around the same time. Now that is fact and I give reasons for it.JM: Was it always going to be a David Ash book? JH: I had the idea and I had this haunted place, which I won’t say too much about. Of course David Ash was in Haunted and The Ghosts of Sleath and I thought that this guy was interesting, he was a parapsychologist and he has such psychological baggage.

He believed that when he and his older sister were kids, he thought he killed her. They both fell in the river, his father jumped in and only had time to pull David out, while the sister was swept away and drowned and she had been haunting him ever since. But he wasn’t sure if that was in his own mind or of there really were ghosts. But with every case he went into, and he became a well known parapsychologist by that time, he tried to prove the non-existence of ghosts. Usually he did – 8 out of 10 times he did. Until he went to the mansion called Edbrook. When I got the next idea about The Ghosts of Sleath which came years later and again it was about ghosts and investigators – I had this guy who everyone seemed to like, and who

I liked – I thought he’d be ideal for that book so I used him again. And for Ash, which is the final in the trilogy, I didn’t have to look any further.JM: I believe that the book was going to be split up into two parts at one point?JH: Yeah, because it was so long. It had taken me three years and it was after a year’s illness. The day I handed in the novel before that, which was Crickley Hall, I came home and was ill. Nothing sinister, but you know it knocked me out and took months to get over. I then got struck down again by a tummy complaint that I’ve had for years, because when I write I get so intense, and I put everything into it. And you know; where Steve (King) is so good, that it almost comes straight out of his mind.

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I’m a natural writer, but I have to work at it, every sentence, every paragraph, I want it to be as good as it can get. In other words I’m after perfection even though I know there’s no such thing as perfection.I was dreading it because the book was very thick and the book was the biggest thing I’ve ever done. And I always edit myself to begin with. But this is the promise I make to my readers, every book is straight from me, nobody has interfered with it, not in a big way. I’m very proud of what I do, no ego – just knowing I’m doing the correct thing. You realise you’re learning all the time, like any painter or any musician.JM: It’s a bit of a busy time for you then, what with The Secret of Crickley Hall coming to the small screen.JH: They’re playing it over three nights over Halloween, an hour each episode. I’ve not seen the finished product yet but I did go up to see some of the filming. I went up for half a day and met the director and it’s all fine. Now I didn’t think it was filmable, but he’s found a way to make it filmable and I came away, let them get on with it. I read his first script for episode one and thought it was brilliant. Then I read the script for the second and that was when things began to change and I decided I wasn’t going to read any more, it was up to the director, it now has to be his vision. Always disappointing for a writer, but it happens every time.

Steve King couldn’t give a toss, well he gets upset, but he said ‘Jim, they pay you the money, you take the money and if it’s great you get the credit and if it’s rotten, then it’s the filmmakers.’

JM: What is your legacy, or what would you like it to be? Would you ever set up a James Herbert scholarship to help new authors?JH: My legacy is secure, and no, every new author is on their own. I didn’t have any help, I didn’t know anyone in publishing, I did it all on my own.

“Every book is straight from me, nobody has interfered with it”

JM: What’s next for you?JH: I have a lovely idea for the next book, while I was on holiday I laid down the foundations, writing in the shade for an hour a day, making up all of the character names etc. An original idea, but I won’t tell you the title!

Ash is published by Pan Macmillan RRP £18.99

The Secret of Crickley Hall airs on BBC One at Halloween

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“Everyone loves a good ghost story and James Herbert is an iconic writer in the genre. He’s

come up with a really thrilling and moving story that delights you while it’s terrifying you. It’s a testament to his craft that we’ve attracted such a great cast to play the characters he created.” So says Jo Ahearne, writer and director of the new three-part adaptation of James Herbert’s classic novel that is due to air on BBC One at Halloween. Told in a dual timeframe, it is full of scares yet underpinned by the

heart-breaking story of a family needing to heal and ghosts who need to be laid to rest.The cast is

lead by Scott and Bailey star Suranne Jones who stars as Eve Caleigh who, with huband Gabe (played by Tom Ellis of Miranda and The Fades fame) moves to Crickley Hall to try and rebuild

their lives after the disappearance of their young son a year before. It seems like the perfect destination, until cellar doors open of their own accord, unseen children cry through the night and water seeps through impervious rock. At the centre of it all, a

Welcome to

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frenzied spectre wields a cane and is intent on bringing the evil of the past into the present. Just as the Caleighs are ready to move out, Eve hears her missing son. Time shifts between present day and 1943 as the couple desperately try to find out what connects Crickley Hall to their lost little boy and attempt to stop the evil that stalks the wild old house from claiming their other children as its own. Jones is enthusiastic about her new role and keen to heap praise on director Ahearne: “The

Secret of Crickley Hall is a classic haunted house spine chiller. With an emotional family story

at its heart, Joe Ahearne has adapted the novel perfectly, and I am really excited about working with him as a director”. Author James Herbert is happy with the adaptation,

though points out that for most writers screen adaptations a very different from books: “I read his first script for episode one and thought it was brilliant. Then I read the script for the second and that was when things began to change and I decided I wasn’t going to read any more, it was up to the director, it now has to be his vision”.

Crickley Hall

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Working for

HAMMERNovelist Mark Morris charts the rebirth of film studio Hammer, its diversification into the world of publishing and how he came to work for the company on the novelisation of the classic movie Vampire Circus...

I was around ten years old when I saw my first Hammer movie. It was The Brides of Dracula, and it was only the second horror film, after Michael Armstrong’s The Haunted House of Horror, that I’d ever seen. I recall watching the movie in a state of nervous apprehension, certain that at any moment I would see something truly horrific, something with which my tender and innocent mind would be woefully unable to cope. Even four decades later I recall coming away from the film with a sense of immense relief that I had survived the ordeal, and yet at the same time feeling uncomfortably certain that I had just encountered something which, beneath its elegant Gothic trappings, was truly decadent, deranged and eerily other-worldly.

Rather than repelling me, however, the film’s dark magic

hooked me and reeled me in. And from that moment on, I watched Appointment With Fear, which in our ITV region filled the autumn and winter nights every Friday at 10:30pm, whenever I was allowed to stay up.

It was a magical time – and also a genuinely terrifying one. I approached each film in the same state of nauseous apprehension and excitement as the one which had gripped me prior to my viewing of The Brides of Dracula. Not all the films I saw in that period were Hammer’s, but a good proportion of them were. The Reptile made a massive impression on me, and will always

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be my favourite Hammer film, as did The Devil Rides Out, which I found so insidiously terrifying that – years before Ringu – I actually thought its unspeakable occult tendrils might somehow find a way of transcending the screen and infecting my life. Other films which had a notable early effect on me were a trio of Frankensteins – The Evil of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Created Woman and Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed – plus Dracula Prince of Darkness, Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb and Fear in the Night.

Little did I know, however, that while I was watching these movies for the first time, Hammer as a film company was on its last legs. It was only much later that I discovered its widely-agreed ‘golden age’ stretched from 1954’s The Quatermass Experiment to 1975’s Exorcist-lite To the Devil a Daughter. It’s ironic that at a time when Hammer was at its most alive and vibrant for me personally, it was making its last horror movie. It limped along into the 80s with a couple of fondly-remembered TV series – Hammer House of Horror and Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense – and then it slipped quietly away.

Or did it?

Despite its lack of production, rumblings of Hammer’s resurrection were heard frequently over the course of the next twenty-odd years. None of these plans and promises ever came to fruition, and it was fervently believed by many in the film industry, and also by many of those who had been associated with Hammer during its golden age, that they never would. Then in 2007, Hammer’s owners, a group headed by advertising magnate Charles Saatchi, sold

their stake in the business to a Dutch/Italian consortium, whose backers appointed former TV projects manager at Liberty Global,

Simon Oakes, as Hammer’s new chairman. Hammer had changed hands so many times over the years that at first this new venture did little more than raise a few eyebrows – not even when a vampire serial called Beyond the Rave was produced and released in instalments on MySpace as a way of testing the water. But then Hammer began to gain momentum, at first producing a low-key but effective supernatural chiller called Wake Wood, which caused a few ripples of interest when it was released on DVD. This was followed with psycho-thriller The Resident (which was most notable for giving a minor role to Christopher Lee.)

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This role renewed Lee’s acquaintanceship with the company after a gap of thirty-five years) and, more significantly, an English-language remake of the Swedish vampire movie Let the Right One In, which Hammer retitled Let Me In.

However, it was with the big-screen adaptation of Susan Hill’s 1983 novel The Woman In Black that the new-look Hammer really hit pay-dirt. Starring Daniel (Harry Potter) Radcliffe and scripted by Jane Goldman, the film was not only a massive box office hit, but it also resurrected Hammer’s reputation as a purveyor of high-quality gothic chills, whilst at the same time being sassy, scary and sophisticated enough to appeal to a modern cinema audience.Perhaps just as importantly

Simon Oakes and co seem astute enough to realise that in order to survive in the modern world Hammer must not only continue to make successful movies, but must also maximise their marketing potential. Even before their recent successes, ‘Hammer horror’ was still a phrase and a concept that the average man in the street could relate to and understand; indeed, so entrenched in our culture has it become that it is now part of the national consciousness, as familiar as Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Who and fish and chips. It is heartening that the new regime at Hammer are not only moving forward into new and exciting areas, but are also respectful of the company’s rich and fondly-remembered past. More than that, they are dedicated to celebrating that

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past, to finding new ways of introducing it to today’s sharper and more demanding horror-hungry public.

Which is where I come in.

As a writer I was naturally delighted when I heard that Hammer were starting their own fiction imprint in conjunction with Arrow Books. It was friend and fellow author Tim Lebbon who first alerted me to Hammer’s press release stating that original novellas and novelizations of both classic and modern Hammer movies would be appearing under the Hammer imprint. As a long-time Hammer fan I immediately wanted to be involved, and so forwarded the press release to my agent, who it turns out had already contacted the Hammer/Arrow editors in an attempt to find out further details.

What we discovered was that the rights to many of Hammer’s classic movies were no longer owned by Hammer themselves, but by a variety of US movie companies and distributors, and that Hammer’s lawyers were currently in the process of delicately unpicking a tangled web of rights issues. The few titles that they had managed to procure for novelization – among them Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter

and Twins of Evil – had already been commissioned, but I was assured not only that more titles would be available imminently, but also that Hammer/Arrow were aware of my interest and were looking forward to working with me.

In fact, it was a further eight months before the editor at Arrow, who changed several times during negotiations, finally got

back in touch to say that they were now in a position to offer me one of three titles.

The titles I was offered were Hands of the Ripper, Countess Dracula and Vampire Circus.

I knew by this time that Hammer/Arrow were in favour of the novelizations being a modern-day ‘reimagining’ of their classic movies, and so

on that basis I chose Vampire Circus as I decided it would give me the most scope for expansion and invention.

The deal was done, and, with other commissions to fulfil, I gave myself a schedule of ten weeks to write the book, starting in mid-September 2011 and delivering it at the end of November.

Although I had seen Vampire Circus two or three times over the years, my first task was to watch it again and make notes.

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This I did, whereupon I discovered that the movie – although hugely enjoyable – is less a cohesive narrative and more a series of brash, often startling set-pieces, in which time is elastic and logical considerations are glossed over. I therefore set to, thrashing the storyline into a shape in which events proceeded logically and character motivations were solid and believable. That done, I then worked out how to update the story from a nineteenth-century Eastern European village to a modern UK setting.

Despite the fact that the characters in my novelization own cars and mobile phones, thus making communication and travel between locations less problematic, this turned out to be a surprisingly smooth process. My biggest headache was finding an acceptable modern-day alternative to the fact that in the original movie the village is isolated by plague, and has a cordon of armed men set up around it, with orders to allow no one in and to shoot anyone who tries to escape. But problems are there to be solved, and once they had been (and I won’t tell you how I solved this particular one – you’ll have to read the book to find out), my only concern then was to expand the story, to give it more scale and impact than was possible on the limited budget and resources afforded to the original movie.

I hope I’ve done Vampire Circus – and Hammer – proud. Personally I’m very pleased with how the book has turned out. Although I’ve updated the material I’ve tried to keep the spirit of the original movie alive. And more than anything, I hope that my love for the little film company which once bestrode the world, and which was massively influential in shaping me into the writer – and the person – I am today, shines through.”

Biography Mark Morris is the author of twenty novels. His recently published or forthcoming work includes the official tie-in novel for zombie apocalypse computer game Dead Island, a novelisation of the 1971 Hammer movie Vampire Circus, several Doctor Who audio dramas for Big Finish Productions, the Torchwood audiobook Mr Invincible for AudioGo/BBC Books, a story collection entitled Long Shadows, Nightmare Light and a follow-up volume to Cinema Macabre entitled Cinema Futura.

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A lost film, a treasure hunt, and a zombie plague carried by fleas. Will John Gilbert survive to edit another issue of FEAR? “It’s been more than twenty years since I saw my old friend Stephen Jones. In that time I moved on to investigate the emerging technologies of multimedia while he continued to explore the fields of horror and fantasy in books and film.

“We might have continued on our separate paths but he has intrigued me with a glimpse of his new mosaic novel, Zombie Apocalypse, about the spread of a zombie ‘Death’ plague - edited by Steve and including some of the world’s best horror/fantasy writers,

“This was followed by an enticing invite to a screening of a rare four minute movie, produced by Steve and the Uli Meyer Animation Studios. The film features one of the segments in the book which is narrated in a somwhat ‘Satanic’ tone by Neil Gaiman. This flesh chilling movie is not for general release, but if you look hard enough on the Internet you can

uncover its unsettling storyline. All I can tell you for now about the film is that, like the Zombie Apocalyse books from which it is born, it is soul sellingly addictive and well worth catching. It WILL go viral and you can track it down by first visiting:

http://www.facebook.com/ZombieApocalypseFightback

Zombie Apocalypse is published in paperback, £1.99 by Constable & Robinson

Z O M B I E SGO VIRAL

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Three Becomes TwoAs Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill leave Doctor Who,

Trevor Kennedy reviews the Doctor’s past AND we preview the new companion boarding the TARDIS

If you were a fan of the Classic Series of Doctor Who when you were a kid growing up in the 60s, 70s and 80s there’s a good chance you would have been waiting for this day for quite some time. About 16 years, in fact. Apart from a very average Americanised TV movie in 1996 and some fan-made videos, Whovians had been starved of their hero and his magic blue box on their television screens since the Classic Series was cancelled in 1989.

But that was about to change, as on 26th March 2005 the ‘madman with a box’ returned to BBC One in a most triumphant manner.

Starring the foreboding and very serious actor Christopher Eccleston in the title role and former pop princess Billie Piper as companion Rose Tyler, this was to be a highly successful continuation of the Classic Series. Helmed and mainly written by award-winning Welsh writer Russell T Davies, this new-look, updated Who became an instant favourite with a new generation of kids and adults in the 21st Century. Gone were the wobbly sets, ‘bubble-wrap’ aliens and pantomime villains. Instead what we got was real drama, season-long story arcs, realistic and relatable characters, and top-notch CGI and prosthetics. The Doctor and his friends were back

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in a style that appealed to a modern audience which averaged around 8 million viewers per episode in the UK. Old classic monsters like the Daleks, Cybermen and the Master were also updated and returned with aplomb.

Series star Chris Eccleston (who played the 9th Doctor as the bitter sole survivor of the bloody Time War between the Time Lords and the Daleks) was to leave after just one series, but due to the nature of the show (and of course the Who-specific concept of ‘regeneration’) he was replaced by Scottish actor David Tennant whose 10th Doctor helped the show reach ever new heights of popularity.

After over 4 years of fighting monsters and saving the universe with his friends Rose, Martha, Donna and Captain Jack, Tennant’s 10th Doctor would be

replaced in 2010 by Matt Smith and his very Troughton-esque and bonkers 11th Doctor.

This was also the same time when the show went in a new direction creatively under new show-runner

Steven Moffat, writer of brilliant and complex episodes like ‘Blink’, ‘The Girl In The Fireplace’ and ‘The Empty Child’. Along with a couple of new companions (Amy and Rory) we moved into a more ‘dark fairy-tale’ sort of territory and the show is all the better now for it.

Complex plots, well written relationships and characters, and some kick-ass new and

scary monsters are the order of the day with Moffat, meaning the programme is even more popular today than it has ever been before, especially in America, where several of its most memorable episodes have been located.

With the 7th series currently airing and next year’s 50th Anniversary celebrations to look forward to, it has never been as good a time to be a fan of this legendary programme. And, without doubt, we can rest assured that kids of all ages will still be hiding behind sofas for a long time to come.

Turn over to meet the new assistant and say goodbye to the Ponds...

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Jenna-Louise Coleman has beaten hundreds of hopefuls to become the new companion to Doctor Who.

The Doctor will meet his latest friend in a dramatic turn of events during the Christmas Special as the show builds towards its enormous, climactic, 50th anniversary year - full of the usual thrills, adventures and big surprises.

As FEAR goes to press we have reached episode 4 of Series 7 in which The Doctor stays with the Ponds to investigate a ‘slow invasion’. This series comprises 14 big, blockbuster-movie, episodes - each a brand new epic adventure featuring new monsters and some familiar foes as you’ve never seen them before.

During the series so far, it has been apparent that Amy and Rory have been yearning for some ‘normal time’. They are about to get their wish - but not as they intended.

New companion Jenna says: “I’m beyond excited, I can’t wait to get cracking; working alongside Matt I know is going to be enormous fun and a huge adventure.”

Karen Gillan, who plays Amy Pond, always knew that show runner Stephen Moffat had plans for Amy’s final scenes: “When I met with him a year or so ago it was kind of like, so what are the plans for the character and we both said that she should go at this point. It was such a fantastic mutual decision and completely the right time for Amy to leave. ”

The New Companion

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John GilbertManaging Editor

Matthew LowersonDeputy Editor

Art EditorTony Fane

with thanks to:John Child (for the logo redesign), Mark Morris, Stephen Jones, Trevor Kennedy, Robert Shearman, Johnny Mains, David Howe, Gary McMahon, Peter Coleborn, Stephen Volk, Dean M Drinkel, Jo Fletcher, Nicholas Royle, Matt Williams (for all the online support), David A Riley, Simon Marshall-Jones and Martin White - and to Matt Lowerson for keeping the editor sane during the past three years.

special thanks to:Oliver Frey, Roger Kean and David Western without whom the original FEAR would never have been published.

copyright information:Cover - innovari - Fotolia.com, BBC Pictures for ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘The Secret of Crickley Hall’, Hammer Productions for ‘Working for Hammer’

Published by Opium Press43a High Street,

Bexley,Kent,

DA5 1AB

ISSN: 0954-8017

2012 Maaxmedia GroupAll rights reserved

BRITISH FANTASY AWARD WINNER

Hallowe’enRELAUNCHES

“And I’ll be waiting for you ...”

to order your copy go to www.fear-magazine.co.uk