Scaredy Cats Beware…

Ramsey Campbell’s subtle horror suggests a timeless, hidden world whose sheer enormity could erase the entirety of society with the indifferent blink of a cyclopean eyelid. Established social conventions trespass against the ancient patterns that actually govern the landscape we thought we knew, and the Lovecraftian behemoths that serve the dark order will defy human rationale to enforce the dictums of this secret math. Something larger than we can comprehend is at play.

In Ancient Images, Campbell cultivates an intensifying sense of paranoia as inhospitable circumstances preposterously seek to suppress the release of a lost horror film, the production of which was so plagued by disaster that it was considered cursed in its time. As a stalwart film researcher attempts to reveal the truth behind its censorship, she uncovers an eldritch level of complexity whose revelation threatens to shatter her sanity.

As a rebellion against Margaret Thatcher’s moral stranglehold and the “video nasties” era of British cinema, Ancient Images is very much a product of its time, and, by rendering an undeniably literary article of horror fiction, Ramsey Campbell incontrovertibly proves that there is no shortage of artistic merit to the genre.

Ancient Images is the second Ramsey Campbell novel to be discussed by The Nightmare Factory. The first, The Darkest Part of the Woods, was perhaps the most universally praised book reviewed by this marauding band of cackling lunatics. Join us in the cafe at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday July 17th to praise, condemn, or shrug at its potential successor as we gather around an imagined campfire to toast the things that go “bump” in the night. BookPeople will neither confirm nor deny that the paintings in the cafe seem to always be looking at you, no matter where you are in the store.

The Nightmare Factory book club meets every third Tuesday of the month, for more info click here.