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Raisin' Hell
by Alesha Brunell
We all know the main purpose of horror movies, don't we? To make us jump. Cringe. Keep the lights on all night long. Sleep with one eye open with our feet under the covers and away from the edge. Maybe even exercise our gag reflexes if at all possible. The most important, and often overlooked, affect of horror movies is the power to inspire future horror artists. Sure it's easier to scare someone with visual gore on the screens. Authors require the special talent to kick your imagination into seeing their tales without the aid of a big film crew. Not only does Paul Kane make that almost too easy for us, his eclectic, fantastic fiction keeps you thinking even after the story has ended.
And he can even turn a happy fairy tale into a nightmare you won't forget.
May I introduce you to Paul Kane?:
GASP: I know there's four books of your short stories and the Hellraiser non-fiction book published, is that correct? Could you tell us about them and any other of your works our avid horror fans can easily find?
PAUL: Yes, that’s right – four collections of my short fiction: Alone (In the Dark) from 2001 which is quite rare now and contains early stories from late 90s; Touching the Flame (2002) which contains most of my published fiction not in Alone up to that year; FunnyBones, which is a humorous horror collection (2003) and sees the first three of the Dalton Quayle stories in one place, as well as popular pieces like ‘The Bones Brothers’ and ‘Dracula in Love’ which were published originally in Dead Things magazine; and, more recently, Peripheral Visions from Creative Guy Publishing (2008) which gathers together most of my other output from the last seven or eight years, plus some new material – like the novelette ‘Reunion’. The Hellraiser Films And Their Legacy is a critical examination of all eight movies in the franchise – so far – as well as the comic series that ran in the late 80s, early 90s. That came out in hardback in 2006 from McFarland publishers with an intro from Pinhead himself, Doug Bradley. Other books horror fans might be interested in include my novellas: Signs of Life – which reached the nominations stage of the British Fantasy Awards in 2006 – and The Lazarus Condition. That one was introduced by Mick ‘Masters of Horror’ Garris and contained the story ‘Dead Time’ – which was turned into an episode of the Lionsgate/NBC TV series Fear Itself last year (adapted by Steve ‘30 Days of Night’ Niles and directed by Darren Lynn Bousman of SAW fame). Most recently, my novella RED came out through Skullvines at the end of last year – that’s a horror reworking of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, with an intro by New York Times bestselling author Tim Lebbon and artwork from Dave ‘Sandman/Graveyard Book’ McKean. Although it’s not strictly horror, my first mass market novel Arrowhead (from Abaddon/Rebellion, who publish 2000 AD) is a full on post-apocalyptic take on the Robin Hood mythology which has enough blood and guts to keep any genre fan entertained.
GASP: My favorite books are ones that make me think and ones that make me laugh. I'm intrigued by Vampire stories and I'm also scared of, but addicted to, plague horrors. Which of your stories do you think I would favor more?
PAUL: If you like vampire stories I’ve done a couple you might like, such as ‘The Hypnotist’s Gaze’ from Touching the Flame and the aforementioned Dracula story. In terms of plagues, then the set up to Arrowhead takes you through the final stages of the A-B virus and the effects of this on my main character Robert – my Robin Hood – as he watches his wife and child die, while he survives because he has O-Negative blood. I was delighted when one reviewer actually compared this to Wyndham’s work, so I must have done something right. The other one of mine which is quite well known is ‘The Disease’, which was originally published in a magazine called Sci-Fright and reprinted in Touching the Flame. It’s also up on my site at the following link http://www.shadow-writer.co.uk/disease1.htm Bestselling author Simon ‘Night of the Triffids’ Clark said about that one, ‘What transforms it into something special is the way Paul Kane has the talent to take the horrifying story of a human being suffering from a terrible disease to another level. One that introduces a sense of wonder…even awe’. As you can imagine, I was over the moon with that.
GASP: Other than the Dalton Quayle stories, are any of your other short stories connected?
 PAUL: Yes, a few. There’s a trilogy of my stories which involve something called the ‘Order of the Shadows’, creatures which exist only in the half-light and use humans for their own ends – for example in ‘Shadow Writer’ they’re forcing a horror author to set things down on the page and fuel their insatiable appetites, as well as providing income for the cause. You can read all three of these in ‘flipping’ book format through Screaming Dreams here. In a similar vein, there are a couple of stories which revolve around my creations, ‘The Controllers’: cyclopean aliens from another dimension who manipulate our lives in order to worship their god, a huge all-seeing eye. You can read more about them in the stories ‘Astral’ and ‘Eye of the Beholder’, and I’ve just finished a brand new novella which features them – albeit firmly in the background, where they belong – called The Pain Cages. Finally, they’re not shorts, but I’ve just finished writing the sequel to Arrowhead, so that story’s continuing as well. The novel’s called Broken Arrow and will take a look at the characters from the original a year and a half later, and all the problems they’re facing: like a mysterious cult and a mad Russian dictator called The Tsar.
GASP: I heard that you are a big fan of horror films. What films inspired you the most in the past and what do you also admire from recent times?
PAUL: You heard right. Well, the most obvious one is Hellraiser… I saw that when I was about 15 and it completely blew me away. Everything about it excited me, from the idea to the characters, to the effects and mythological aspects. Over 20 years later and it’s still my all time favourite movie. Other films that inspired me include the Romero ‘Dead’ movies – I absolutely love zombies, as you might have realised by now – the early films of Davids Cronenberg and Lynch. The Halloween, Friday 13ths and Nightmare on Elm Streets, obviously. The Alien and Predator franchises. The Omen films. The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre still holds its power today. But I also grew up on Hammer movies and the old Universals, so I think I’ve got a pretty good grounding in the history of horror movies too. Recent horror films? I loved the Ring films – the American ones in particular, although I know that’s not a popular viewpoint – The Orphanage, Silent Hill (apart from the ending), the first and third Resident Evil movies (what can I say, I’m a sucker for a kick-ass female protagonist killing zombies) and The Messengers was pretty creepy. I just saw The Midnight Meat Train and thought it was great: an unrelenting terror ride from start to finish.
GASP: What authors inspired you to become a writer? What books do you treasure from past and present?
PAUL: The simple answer is: loads of them… The first horror novel I read was The Rats by James Herbert, who’s continued to be a favourite author throughout my life, then Stephen King’s early works, and tons of others in my formative years: Ramsey Campbell, Peter Straub, Ray Bradbury, Steve Laws, Frank Herbert, Lovecraft, Poe, Stoker, Alan Moore, Frank Miller and the 2000 AD crowd in the comics… I used to sneak away at school and just devour anything SF, Fantasy or Horror related basically. It was the best education I can imagine. But the biggest influence around that time has to be Clive Barker with his Books of Blood. I just think it’s some of the best work ever in the horror genre – and I still have my originals, which are falling apart now. Later on it was authors like Neil Gaiman, Christopher Fowler, Simon Clark, Michael Marshall Smith, Thomas Harris… This list goes on and on…and on. Treasured books? I treasure them all, which is why I’m running out of space for them! But personally signed stuff like my Barkers, Fowlers, Clarks, Gaimans – and especially those signed to both me and my lovely wife: the horror writer Marie O’Regan.
GASP: When did you first know you were supposed to be a writer?
PAUL: I’d always enjoyed telling stories from an early age – whether it was verbally, with my toys, or even doing cartoon strips. Itinkered with some bits and bobs of fiction in my teens but quickly realised it was all utter crap, and turned my attentions to art instead as I enjoyed painting and drawing. When I got better grades for my theory stuff, though, I ended up doing a degree in Art, Design and Film – and later an MA in Film Studies – and as part of the course I chose a module called ‘Professional Writing’ where I had to do reviews and articles. To get my marks I had to send these off to newsstand magazines and newspapers and get feedback, and when some of them replied saying it was actually usable I began to wonder whether I could make a living as a freelancer – something I’ve been doing off and on ever since. I started to think about fiction again not long after that, and when I hooked up with my good friend John B. Ford – who was running a magazine called Terror Tales at the time – everything just seemed to slot into place. Now we edit the trade paperback series of Terror Tales together and have featured fiction from the likes of Straub, Stephen Gallagher, Richard Christian Matheson, Chaz Brenchley, Conrad Williams and many more.
GASP: If you had the opportunity to have dinner with any number of dead hero(es), who would they be and what would you ask or tell them?
PAUL: I would love to have sat down to dinner with the likes of Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney (and LC Jr), Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price, Peter Cushing and co. as I just think they would have had the most amazing stories from the previous eras of horror films. I would have liked to have met Forry Ackerman too, and just missed out my chance to talk to effects supremo Stan Winston – who to me was a complete genius. I was lined up to interview him but he had to pull out at the last minute, then we heard the sad news that he’d passed away. He would definitely be at the dinner table. In terms of literature, then the greats like Poe, Lovecraft, Machen, but also more recent heroes like the late Richard Laymon. I often hear stories about what a nice guy he was and would love to have had a chat with him.
GASP: Do you ever listen to music when you write? If so, what is it usually?
PAUL: Nope, never when I’m writing fiction. I have to be in a quiet room to write really, so I can get into the fiction ‘world’. I’ll often listen to music when I’m doing something like a review or whatever, or even editing. My favourite band has always been U2, and their stuff ranges from down and dirty to really quiet so there’s plenty to choose from depending on what the material is I’m focusing on at the time. At the moment I’m getting into their new album, No Line On The Horizon.
GASP: What do you think your life would have turned out like if you didn't have a love for horror?
PAUL: I have absolutely no idea. I can’t even begin to imagine it. Probably very boring indeed…
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