The Halloween Countdown continues as Randy M. looks at Stephen Volk’s Whitstable.
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”WHITSTABLE” by Stephen Volk (from Best New Horror 25 edited by Stephen Jones: 2014, Skyhorse Publishing)
A little boy recognizes Dr. Van Helsing and approaches him for help: In movies he has seen Dr. Van Helsing kill vampires and Van Helsing must kill the vampire preying on him and his mother. Except the vampire is his mother’s boyfriend and the doctor is an actor, the “gentle man of horror,” Peter Cushing, distraught, ill-at-ease in his life and in retreat from life since the recent passing of Helen, his wife.
In this novella, Stephen Volk accomplishes the difficult task of assigning believable thoughts and actions to someone many of us have spent hours watching. While Cushing played his share of villains – Dr. Frankenstein, for one, as well as the Commander of the Dark Star in the original Star Wars – he was more often the elegant, sophisticated man of wit and action, fighting evil whether wielding a gun or sword, or candlesticks forming an impromptu cross.
And therein lies part of Cushing’s problem: How does one not fall into the trap of persuading himself he is like the characters he has portrayed? Further, how far does one go to help a stranger, especially a child who may be dramatizing? And what of his own concerns? How can you help someone else when your own life has disintegrated, the reason for continuing it has gone, and you lack the energy or motivation to move through each new day?
Volk’s depiction of Cushing as bereft and ill-equipped without his wife is touching and as convincing as Cushing’s caution when placed in a morally challenging position. What if the child exaggerates? What if the child’s mother does not accept his interference? What would the authorities think if the mother or boyfriend went to them? How would it look to the authorities for a man his age to befriend a small boy? His career and security could be shattered. Any yet, what of the boy?
In spite of the venue, this is not exactly a horror story. And yet, what else could you call it? Besides what the child may be suffering, the story depicts one of the icons of the horror movie at a cross-roads, his past and his memories of his dead wife guiding his behavior. Call it a crime story, or just dark fiction, it is touching and well-rendered, and I’d recommend it to anyone interested in a good story or in how real life people can be deployed believably in fiction.
Of similar interest:
Targets, 1968, dir. Peter Bogdanovich, starring Boris Karloff
Of tangential (non-horror) interest:
Father of Frankenstein by Christopher Bram, filmed as,
Gods and Monsters, 1998, dir. Bill Condon, starring Ian McKellen, Brendan Fraser
Starring Peter Cushing:
The Hound of the Baskervilles, 1959; dir. Terence Fisher; also starring Christopher Lee, Andre Morell
The Mummy, 1959; dir. Terence Fisher; also starring Christopher Lee, Yvonne Furneaux
The Skull, 1965; dir. Freddie Francis; also starring Patrick Wymark, Jill Bennett, Nigel Green
The House that Dripped Blood, 1971; dir. Peter Duffell; also starring Christopher Lee, Denholm Elliott, Nyree Dawn Porter, Jon Pertwee, Joss Ackland
Horror Express, 1972; dir. Eugenio Martin; also starring Christopher Lee, Telly Savalas
The Beast Must Die, 1974; dir. Paul Annett; also starring Calvin Lockhart, Marlene Clark, Charles Gray (loosely based on James Blish’s “There Shall Be No Darkness”)
