Book Review: Mr Stoker And The Vampires Of Lyceum by Mathew Gibson

A woman is attacked at the renowned Lyceum Theatre while legendary actor Henry Irving and his leading lady Ellen Terry rehearse for their masterpiece play. When more suspected vampire activities follow, the theatre's acting manager and upcoming author Bram Stoker have to step in. Stoker strives to connect the dots in a gothic London, while in the background, the Whitechapel murderer preys on unsuspecting women and secret societies thrive by attracting youngsters using dark and disturbing rituals. He senses that Irving, his boss and the owner of Lyceum, is somehow connected to these incidents when an undead Prussian baron makes his entry to exact revenge.

There are many books and movies (factual and fictional) that deal with the subject of how a famous author or an artist created a masterpiece. My own favourite is the movie Final Portrait, directed by Stanley Tucci, about how Alberto Giacometti made the painting The Portrait of James Lord (I have written about it). Mr. Stoker and the Vampires of Lyceum is a fictional account of some incidents in Bram Stoker's life that ended up with him writing his tour de force, Dracula. Matthew Gibson is a scholar of Bram Stoker, Gothic, and vampirism. He has written many books on Dracula, and this is his first work of fiction.

Most of the characters in this book are real and renowned personalities who have excelled in their domains. The author has created a fictional version of them and has tried to compose a chilling gothic horror novel. All those characters are successful in creating an impact on the reader because the author, with his extensive knowledge of the historical personalities and their living situations, portrays deeply nuanced sketches of them in the novel. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the characters who are not part of history. The character arcs of such characters made me deeply dissatisfied, all the more because they are the major antagonists, and this deficiency seriously impairs the emotional quotient of the plot.

The best character portrayal in the novel is undoubtedly that of Bram Stoker. The author has poured out all his admiration for Stoker and has produced a very likeable and complex person who is forced to keep up his appearances for the sake of the theatre in spite of his poor economic situation. His wife would like him to ditch theatre and pursue the career of a barrister, causing deep rifts in their relationship. His relationships with his boss, Irving, and his subordinates make the novel more interesting and colourful.

Along with his splendid portrayal of historical personalities, the author sketches great scenes of historic places too. He renders a moody and dark London suffering from political unrest, religious excesses, and scenes of disturbing violence. Also, we can see the detailed illustration of the barren and seemingly evil landscape of Danzig. The atmosphere of constant threats and tension adds to the enjoyment of reading this book.

As these are supposed to be the experiences that inspired Stoker to eventually pen Dracula, it is to be expected that the story mirrors the classic to some extent. There are instances where this association burdens the plot to a small extent. Though some interesting plot twists eventually save the book, sometimes I feel like closing it down and taking up Dracula to read further. But for the most part, Mr. Stoker and the Vampires of Lyceum is an interesting book, thanks to brilliant characterization, great atmosphere building, and some inventive plot twists.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for sincere feedback.

Don't Breathe: Terrible Choice for Breaking-In

Don't Breathe,  the 2016 sleeper hit movie by director Fede Alvarez  reminded me of two superb but harrowing films that I watched recently. The first is Room, an award winning movie about a mother and her kid imprisoned in a tiny room.  The second is 10 Cloverfield Lane in which a lady is forced to stay in an underground bunker along with two characters of seemingly dubious intentions. While the first movie was more sober and not at all about thrills, the second fizzled out in its extended third act, precisely the moment that the aliens entered.

Like these two movies, Don't Breathe also is about somebody who are forced into captivity and as harrowing and claustrophobic, if not more. Though billed as a horror flick, it is actually a home invasion movie. The factor that separates it from other movies of the genre is that it reverses the regular plot somewhat.

Here, we have three thieves, who are pretty likeable and who usually never steal cash and doesn't resort to violence, deciding to make an old blind veteran the victim of their next crime. But once inside the house, they realise that they bit much more than they can chew. The old man or the house is not what it seemed from outside. Now it becomes a fight to get out alive.

The narrative structure of the movie is very simple and basic. Though, as I mentioned earlier it features a reversal of generic plot, the movie thankfully never tries to play it on our face. It's very restrained in its style. The atmosphere of suspense and intrigue that is set the moment our three friendly thieves enter the house, never gets lifted till the climax plays out. The audience never get a moment of respite even though every plot twist is easily decipherable to genre fans. That is the strength of the movie.

That, and Stephen Lang who played the blind old man. He was able to convey limitless menace into the minds of viewers. Most of the latter part of the movie is shouldered effectively by him. One can find fault with the characterisation and accuse that most of the characters have the personality of mere cardboard cut-outs. But I believe any more deliberation on characters would have severely affected the core strength of the film- suspense.

Painful and clichéd attempt to setup a sequel in the last moments is one huge turn-off. But if the sequel has any chance to be as good as Don't Breathe, I think I can overlook it.

The Zombie Train to Busan

Zombies are fictional demons, undead creatures surviving on human brains. Derived from Haitian mythology, zombies were around in Hollywood from some time. But it was George Romero's Living Dead series that established the present zombie characters. Hollywood zombies are generally ugly, walks in a slow pace and those who are bit by them also become zombies. Breaking out of zombie apocalypse is a general theme in zombie movies.

Unlike other popular movie demons like vampires, werewolves and various Nicolas Cage characters, zombies doesn't have a personality. They are ugly, dull and uninteresting. So it becomes a challenge to make a zombie movie. To succeed, either you have to go in full exploitation gear with graphic violence and nudity or you need something extra, a quirky plot twist or a different concept that doesn't depend on zombies alone. Some movies like Night of the Living Dead used sublime social commentary to achieve greatness, while some others like Shaun of the Dead used satire and comedy.

Recently I watched such a movie titled Warm Bodies which is basically a zombie rom-com. As in many zombie movies, a zombie apocalypse is ongoing and a tiny group of humans are resisting them. A zombie named R kills and eats the brain of the boyfriend of Julie, a human. He starts developing feelings for her. As bizarre the plot may sound, Warm Bodies is an interesting movie. Violence is not on-the-face kind and the movie itself is pretty cute for one involving romancing a zombie.

And that brings us to the topic, the South Korean zombie movie that I happened to watch last day, Train To Busan. Now one thing that I noticed about Korean movies is that they never go for a middle path. Its always extremities for them. Here also, the two hour running time is fully packed with extreme action and emotion. Everybody runs around and fight each other with zombies multiplying rapidly around them. We never get time off to think about what's happening on screen. Some of the zombie effects, especially in climax, reminded me of World War Z, but this one is infinitely better than the Brad Pitt vehicle in all aspects.

With all the action and melodrama crammed up, there were a few miss steps in the movie too. Some decisions made by characters seemed too improbable in the situations. Many of them were made up just to ensure that zombies reach the main characters when the director wanted them to. The movie tried to send some messages across about being unselfish and spending more time with kids, but all those were either totally muddled in the action or rendered pointless by the end.

That Evening When I Had The Scare of My Life...

I am a person who doesn't get scared much. I have no problem in staying alone in a building, or walking in a dark night. I can watch the most extreme horror movies and still get a good night's sleep. The ghost stories never bothered me in moments when I was alone, which used to be quite often before. But there was this one night, from long back, when I really got scared as never before. I literally shivered for some moments that night.

I was staying in Coimbatore then, in a rented room along with a good friend. In our floor, there were two other rooms. In the room adjacent to mine, a kid, probably a student, used to live. The third room used to be a mystery for us. Most of the times it used to be kept locked. On some occasions we had observed people there, but never the same ones. The mystery was cleared when the house owner told us that it belonged to a private firm and their executives who come on duty to Coimbatore stayed there.

That particular evening, my friend had went to his native. I had my dinner outside and was comfortably watching television. It was turning late and a horror movie was running in HBO. All of a sudden, there was a terrible scream. It was so unexpected and loud that I remained sat on my couch for a full minute. I could not determine from where the sound came. I could not conclude if it came from the throat of a man or a woman. Hell, I was not even sure if it was human.

I waited a while for a follow up. Nothing came. Suddenly I remembered our mystery room. That noon I had noticed someone entering it. It was a lady. Was she still inside the room? Was that her sound? May be something nasty is going on. May be someone is in need of help.

I slowly opened the door and looked out. No one there. I took one step outside. 

"Psst", the guy who lived upstairs.

"What was that?" He whispered. I shrugged. He went back. I waited for a minute and came back to the room. My sleep was dead and I had no desire left to watch the movie. I sat and thought for sometime about many possible situations. Every thought had a dirty, tragic end.

"Hell", I thought, again came outside and knocked the door of the kid. The guy took two whole minutes to open the door.

"Hey, didn't you hear that horrible scream sometime back?". I enquired in a hushed, urgent tone.

Came the tired reply "Yeah. I got an electric shock."