The Ghouls

Terrific collection of stories on which various classic horror films were based. Well-known fare such as Bram Stoker's "Dracula's Guest" and Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Body Snatcher" is nicely balanced with more obscure items like Francis Mann's "The Devil in a Convent" (an early twentieth century retelling of a medieval legend) and Nikolai Gogol's "The Viy" (from which Mario Bava freely adapted his film Black Sunday). There's also a skillful abridgement of Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera, which packs considerably greater punch as a sixty-odd-page novella than in its original novel-length form. My only quibble is with editor Peter Haining's decision to identify the stories by the titles of the films on which they were based: show more e.g., Stoker's story is listed in the table of contents as "Dracula's Daughter," not "Dracula's Guest." In some cases the story and movie titles were the same, but H.P. Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space" appears here as "Monster of Terror"...which is doubly confusing for American readers, since the film based on the Lovecraft tale was entitled Die, Monster, Die! in the United States. (Monster of Terror was the film's British title.)

The introduction by Vincent Price and afterword by Christopher Lee add to the fun, as do photographs from all but three of the films. There's one particularly rare still from the lost 1909 film Lunatics in Power, which was based on Edgar Allan Poe's story "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether." (Usually credited to Thomas Edison, the film was a production of the Edison Manufacturing Company, but actually was directed by J. Searle Dawley.) show less

A collection of stories with a slightly ... scary bent. My copy, unfortunately, came from the "Science Fiction Book Club" many, many years ago. Still, if you can find it, and like scary stories, this one would be a good choice to pick up. However, I would recommend that you leave the lights on after you go to bed.