The cutting room, p.1
The Cutting Room, page 1
Praise for Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror
“This diverse 25-story anthology is a superb sampling of some of the most significant short horror works published between 1985 and 2005. Editor extraordinaire Datlow (Poe) includes classic stories from horror icons Clive Barker, Peter Straub, and Stephen King as well as SF and fantasy luminaries Gene Wolfe, Dan Simmons, Neil Gaiman, and Lucius Shepard. The full diversity of horror is on display: George R. R. Martin’s ‘The Pear-Shaped Man’ about a creepy downstairs neighbor, and Straub’s ‘The Juniper Tree,’ which chronicles a drifter’s sexual molestation of a young boy, exemplify horror’s sublime psychological power, while Barker’s ‘Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testament’ and Poppy Z. Brite’s ‘Calcutta, Lord of Nerves’ are audaciously gory masterworks. This is an anthology to be cherished and an invaluable reference for horror aficionados.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Make sure you are in a safe place before you open it up.”
—New York Journal of Books
“Darkness promises to please both longtime fans and readers who have no clue what ‘splatterpunk’ was supposed to mean.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Eclectic . . . a complete overview of some of the best horror stories published in the last twenty years.”
—SF Site
“I can’t recommend this book highly enough and no, that’s not just the rabid fanboy inside me talking. This is my serious critic’s voice. I know it doesn’t translate well in the written word, but trust me. I give my highest recommendation for this book.”
—Hellnotes
Praise for Hauntings
“This anthology of 24 previously published dark fantasy and horror stories, edited by the ever-adept Datlow (Blood and Other Cravings), explores a variety of situations in which people encounter literal or figurative specters from beyond. . . . Solid entries by Neil Gaiman, Caitlín R. Kiernan, and Joyce Carol Oates capture the mood perfectly and will thrill fans of the eerie.
—Publishers Weekly
“Apt to entertain and disquiet the horror fans.”
—SF Site, featured review
“Datlow once again proves herself as a master editor. Her mission to broaden readers’ concepts of what a haunting can be is nothing short of a success, and the twenty-four stories on display run the gamut from explicitly terrifying to eerily familiar. Readers who wish to be haunted themselves should not miss this one. Highly recommended.”
—Arkham Digest
“Award-winning horror editor Ellen Datlow offers readers a skillfully crafted, captivating collection with Hauntings, an anthology of twenty-four reprinted ghostly tales from the last 25 years of horror literature.”
—Rue Morgue
“Ms. Datlow has assembled a formidable community of eminent genre artists working at the very heights of their literary powers to create this outstanding dark fantasy anthology. This is the best of the best—don’t miss it!”
—The Tomb of Dark Delights
“I have a short list of editors that I will buy an anthology of, regardless of whether or not I have even heard of the writers it contains, and Ellen Datlow is at the top of that list. She has this crazy knack of consistently putting together stellar anthologies and Hauntings is no different.”
—Horror Talk
“This collection is formidable. . . .”
—True Review
Praise for Lovecraft’s Monsters
“Ellen Datlow’s second editorial outing into the realm of Lovecraft proves even more fruitful than the first. Focusing on Lovecraftian monsters, Datlow offers readers sixteen stories and two poems of a variety that should please any fans of the genre.”
—Arkham Digest
“[A]n amazing and diverse treasure trove of stories. As an avid fan of Lovecraft’s monstrous creations, THIS is the anthology I’ve been waiting for.”
—Shattered Ravings
“Editor Ellen Datlow has put together an anthology that will rock your liquid fantasies. Tachyon Publications has produced an excellent themed anthology. Lovecraft enthusiasts will plunge into the volume and be happily immersed in the content.”
—Diabolique Magazine
“[A]n entirely enjoyable read. . . . [F]or Mythos devotees I would highly recommend picking it up.”
—Seattle Geekly
“Lovecraft’s Monsters will appeal to fans of Lovecraft’s work, particularly his Mythos stories, and to readers of dark fiction everywhere.”
—Lit Reactor
“Datlow brings together some of the top SF/F and horror writers working today and has them play in Lovecraft’s bizarre world. And that’s a delight.”
—January Magazine
The Cutting Room
Copyright © 2014 by Ellen Datlow
This is a work of collected fiction. All events portrayed in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form without the express permission of the editor and the publisher.
Introduction copyright © 2014 by Genevieve Valentine
Preface copyright © 2014 by Ellen Datlow
Pages 364–366 constitute an extension of this copyright page.
Cover design © 2014 by Josh Beatman
Interior design by Elizabeth Story
Tachyon Publications
1459 18th Street #139
San Francisco, CA 94107
(415) 285-5615
www.tachyonpublications.com
tachyon@tachyonpublications.com
Series Editor: Jacob Weisman
Project Editor: Jill Roberts
ISBN 13: 978-1-61696-167-1
Book Printed in the United States of America by Worzalla
First Edition: 2014
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Also Edited by Ellen Datlow
A Whisper of Blood
A Wolf at the Door (with Terri Windling)
After (with Terri Windling)
Alien Sex Black Heart, Ivory Bones (with Terri Windling)
Black Swan, White Raven (with Terri Windling)
Black Thorn, White Rose (with Terri Windling)
Blood Is Not Enough: 17 Stories of Vampirism
Blood and Other Cravings
Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror
Digital Domains: A Decade of Science Fiction and Fantasy
Fearful Symmetries
Haunted Legends (with Nick Mamatas)
Hauntings
Inferno: New Tales of Terror and the Supernatural
Lethal Kisses
Little Deaths
Lovecraft Unbound
Lovecraft’s Monsters
Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy
Nebula Awards Showcase 2009
Nightmare Carnival
Off Limits: Tales of Alien Sex
Omni Best Science Fiction: Volumes One through Three
Omni Books of Science Fiction: Volumes One through Seven
OmniVisions One and Two
Poe: 19 New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe
Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells (with Terri Windling)
Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears (with Terri Windling)
Salon Fantastique: Fifteen Original Tales of Fantasy (with Terri Windling)
Silver Birch, Blood Moon (with Terri Windling)
Sirens and Other Daemon Lovers (with Terri Windling)
Snow White, Blood Red (with Terri Windling)
Supernatural Noir
Swan Sister (with Terri Windling)
Tails of Wonder and Imagination: Cat Stories
Teeth: Vampire Tales (with Terri Windling)
Telling Tales: The Clarion West 30th Anniversary Anthology
The Beastly Bride: And Other Tales of the Animal People (with Terri Windling)
The Best Horror of the Year: Volumes One through Six
The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales (with Terri Windling)
The Dark: New Ghost Stories
The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy
The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm
The Green Man: Tales of the Mythic Forest (with Terri Windling)
The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror (with Terri Windling, Gavin J. Grant, and Kelly Link)
Troll’s Eye View: A Book of Villainous Tales (with Terri Windling)
Twists of the Tale
Vanishing Acts
Introduction
Genevieve Valentine
Preface
Ellen Datlow
The Cutter
Edward Bryant
The Hanged Man of Oz
Steve Nagy
Deadspace
Dennis Etchison
Cuts
F. Paul Wilson
Final Girl Theory
A. C. Wise
Lapland, or Film Noir
Peter Straub
The Thousand Cuts
Ian Watson
Occam’s Ducks
Howard Waldrop
Dead Image
David Morrell
The Constantinople Archives
Robert Shearman
each thing I show you is a piece of my death
Gemma Files & Stephen J. Barringer
Cinder Images
Gary McMahon
The Pied Piper of Hammersmith
Nicholas Royle
Filming the Making of the Film of the Making of Fitzcarraldo
Garry Kilwor th
Onlookers
Gary A. Braunbeck
Recreation
Lucy A. Snyder
Bright Lights, Big Zombie
Douglas E. Winter
She Drives the Men to Crimes of Passion!
Genevieve Valentine
Even the Pawn
Joel Lane
Tenderizer
Stephen Graham Jones
Ardor
Laird Barron
Final Girl II: the Frame
Daphne Gottlieb
Illimitable Dominion
Kim Newman
About the Editor
Contributors
Acknowledgments
I’d like to thank Micaela Morrissette, Anna Tambour, Adam Nevill, and Stefan Dziemianowicz for their generous recommendations.
Also, thanks to Russell Farr, Jeremy Byrne, and Deborah Layne for ferreting out an electronic file of Howard Waldrop’s story.
And thanks to Genevieve Valentine for her introduction and for her input regarding my preface.
Finally, thanks to Jacob Weisman and Jill Roberts at Tachyon.
HORROR ALWAYS BENEFITS FROM a certain kind of light. When Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, it was oil lamps. These days, it’s the flickering dark of a movie theater. What is it that an audience of horror lovers craves?
Look no further than the camera.
Since the first nickelodeons, the development of motion pictures created a unique and influential visual language, a shorthand that has since played on film so often and for so long it’s a dictionary of its own. Through the camera’s eye, visual tropes became as eloquent as the inter-titles of dialogue. To iris in on a kissing couple meant their happiness was assured, but to linger on an open doorway was to invite trouble.
By now, the default state of the frame is suspense: show us a shot of an empty room, and we’re already waiting for something to happen.
It’s a long-established trick that horror directors figured out remarkably early. The first horror movie, the extremely short and incredibly goofy Haunted Castle, was made by director Georges Méliès before the turn of the twentieth century. (Setting a trend for horror flicks in the decades to come, it was almost immediately remade.)
Horror literature, designed to build dread on the page, developed its lexicon hand in hand with the emerging narrative technology of the movies. On both sides, the vocabulary of suspense changed and expanded in structure, imagery, and purpose.
And cinema’s ability to translate fear on screen has created a stylistic feedback loop within horror, across all media. Any significant canon within a genre creates its own tropes, which increasingly enter the public discourse until they eventually become parodies of themselves. For a genre peopled with characters remarkably unaware of the dangers of splitting up in an abandoned castle, horror cinema is notoriously self-referential, from recreating individual camera shots to mocking tropes at work: one of the highest-grossing slasher flicks of all time is the semi-satirical Scream.
And in turn, the movies have become a fixture of horror literature itself. With a medium so inherently suspenseful, made through a fabulous alchemy into a series of atmospheric angles and special effects, horror writing could make good use of cinema’s visual vocabulary and the beautiful artifice that modern readers can parse nearly as easily on the page as on the screen. (Scary stories about film itself were going to be inevitable.)
Horror literature skirts definition: varied in tone and subject, the horror aspect is often as much a mood as it is a chronicle of suspicious thumps. Still, it’s interesting to trace signposts of the genre after movies swept the collective imagination. The visual lexicon of the movies helped contribute to a sea change in the consideration of brevity as literary merit; while Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King are clearly from the same twisted branch of a single family tree, the effect of cinematic pacing and dialogue on their shared style of horror is evident in King’s work.
And of course it has worked in the reverse, as works of horror are adapted to film by the dozen. Sometimes a film can even make the case for viewing a story as genre. Daphne Du Maurier isn’t a writer traditionally thought of for writing horror, but when Alfred Hitchcock embraced the true scare potential of her story “The Birds,” his film cemented the story as an iconic work of horror and reframed Du Maurier to later readers as a master of suspense.
Interestingly, for all their simpatico, the adaptation of horror to film is at times a tenuous proposition. Taking horror page to film is neither a foolproof formula nor an easy translation; horror literature is as open to interpretation as any other kind, and the same shorthand that makes film such an efficient conductor of narrative can trample some of the nuance that lives best in the written word. (In an ironic and ready example, the thematic and psychological complexity of the first horror novel—Frankenstein—has yet to be fully transported to the screen . . . unless one were to combine individual elements from several different films.)
Sometimes, it turns out, only the written word will do. But with suspense as an essential shared component of both dark cinema and dark literature, and with the process of filmmaking being only a hairbreadth from the supernatural, dark fiction can be a genre particularly suited for the silver screen.
When it comes to horror, whether film is the medium or the subject, there’s always something sinister waiting just outside the frame.
EVERYBODY LOVES THE MOVIES. From the first moving picture publicly shown—a train running into the audience—the medium has maintained its hold on society’s imagination. Writers have a complicated relationship with movies and moviemaking. Some write directly for the screen, others have had their work adapted for it, with mixed results. There have been many memoirs by screenwriters and other movie creators about their experiences in the industry, some positive, many negative. This might be primarily because while writing prose is generally a solo enterprise, writing for and working on movies is always a collaborative process, one during which compromises are made over and over again, often to the extent that the original piece of text that inspired the movie is unrecognizable to its author.
Surprisingly, there have been only a few major anthologies featuring movie horror and dark fantasy: the most prominent are David J. Schow’s Silver Scream; Midnight Premiere, edited by Tom Piccirilli; It Came from the Drive-In!, edited by Norman Partridge and Martin H. Greenberg; and The Hollywood Nightmare, edited by Peter Haining.
Not only do I enjoy classic horror movies, but I’ve come to love stories about movies of all kinds, especially dark stories about the medium. The stories herein aren’t about horror movies per se, although some of the classic horror movies and some imaginary horror movies do show up. The Cutting Room is more an exploration of the dark side of movies and moviemaking, with views from both sides of the lens. As I was reading for this anthology, I became aware of several subgenres of movie stories:
The real life celebrity: What really happened to Marilyn Monroe or James Dean—were they murdered? Did they survive their supposed deaths?
Tales about actual, existing horror movies: The making of King Kong—with a sub-sub-genre about the fictional character Ann Darrow.
Protagonists or other characters who become part of a movie (by their own agency or not).
The effect of movies or a specific movie on the protagonist.
About the making of a movie (only sometimes of horror movies).
Protagonists obsessed with movies that may or may not exist.
In addition to the twenty-one reprinted stories and two poems that I finally chose, I read more than 115 stories that were quite good, but just didn't make it into the mix. One story, “Tenderizer,” by Stephen Graham Jones, appears for the first time.
Now, on with the show.
