Nine Inch Nails: Pretty Hate Machine (1989)

NIN: Pretty Hate Machine (1989)

My introduction to NIN was a track that was featured on a UK magazine cover-mounted sampler CD. I can't recall from which magazine it came, I think it may have been a short-lived one, but I'm pretty sure the track was Last from the Broken E.P. (1992).

The same disc had a track by Therapy? from their Nurse (1992) album, and one from Pigface's Fook (1992). Seeing as how all three releases are from the same year, I think it might be safe to assume that it was '92 when I first heard NIN.

The sampler did its job. I wanted more. After buying Broken and its remix album, Fixed (both 1992), I eagerly sought out the début album, Pretty Hate Machine (1989). I acquired it on vinyl and was surprised to find that it was different from what I expected - it was more like Depeche Mode than the Industrial anger of Broken.

Let the Old Dreams Die (2005)

Let the Old Dreams Die (2005)

Author: John Ajvide Lindqvist | Translator: Marlaine Delargy | Page Count: 518

'[E]verything is kind of temporary, somehow. As if things never really get started. Or that it's already over, and I haven't noticed.'

A collection of eleven short stories from author John Ajvide Lindqvist, most of which were originally published in his homeland as Paper Walls (2005). The translated English language edition added the titular Let the Old Dreams Die, which takes place after his most celebrated full-length novel, Let the Right One In (2004).

Similarly, the closing story in the book, The Final Processing, is a sequel to his full-length Handling the Undead (2005) novel. The remainder of the shorts are standalone works, but some could be called spiritual successors in other ways. (See NOTE at end of post.)

Some of the works will appeal to horror fans with a twisted and grisly imagination, but some will probably only really make sense to individuals who've felt isolated, distanced or uncomfortable in their own skin, or even in familiar surroundings.

The Prisoner: The Uncertainty Machine (2018)

The Prisoner: The Uncertainty Machine (2018)

Author: Peter Milligan | Illustrator: Colin Lorimer | Pages: 112

'I like to put at least two personas between me and my pursuers.'

Despite what the cover art of the individual issues might perfidiously imply, particularly the many variants, Patrick McGoohan isn't the protagonist of Titan Comics' continuation of The Prisoner (1967–68) TV series. He gets referenced more than once, in a way that feels wholly forced, but the story is about an entirely new character in a contemporary setting, albeit one that's also given the number 6 moniker - although, I don't recall him ever actually wearing the badge.

His true name is Breen, an operative for a division named 'Unit' within the British Intelligence (MI5). The majority of the first issue takes place outside of the stylised Village and provides a significant amount of backstory for Breen, compared to the earlier Number 6, who remained something of an enigma the whole time.

Killdozer (1974)

Killdozer (1974)

Dir. Jerry London

On a remote beach near the coast of Africa six men clear a site in preparation for an airstrip build, but then cheapo FX = "funny looking rock" = Killdozer!

It's so damned stupid. The machine's top speed is, I don't know, about 12 kmph? A lame duck could outrun it, but still it manages to catch up to, and mow over, some manly men. It bides its time until the men are off guard. It then thunders trundles into the camp, belching black smoke as it goes, kills and retreats to hide in the grass. It's over twenty feet long, bright yellow and it hides in tall grass! Jebus!

Nevertheless, amazingly, it's not as bad as the name implies and I was genuinely entertained by it all. The characters are stock types, like a poor man's disaster movie, but the acting is better than a lot of the crap horror films that I've turned off in my time.

Ring Collection: Arrow Video Edition (2019)

Ring Collection: Arrow Video Edition (2019)

Dirs. Hideo Nakata / Jōji Iida / Norio Tsuruta

My first viewing of Hideo Nakata's Ring was recorded from Television onto VHS, which, given that the story revolves around a cursed video tape, was perhaps the best way to experience it for the first time. I'd probably not choose that option now that HD is the norm, but I'm glad it happened that way.

I've re-watched the film many, many times since that first encounter, on both VHS and later the UK Tartan DVD editions, but never had opportunity to see it in HD until now.

The pictured edition includes four films, namely Ring (1998); Rasen (1998); Ring 2 (1999), and Ring 0: Birthday (2000). For anyone interested, thoughts on each of the four works can be found below the cut.

Beyond Rue Morgue (2013)

Beyond Rue Morgue Anthology:
Further Tales of Edgar Allan Poe's 1st Detective (2013)

Editors: Paul Kane / Charles Prepolec | Authors (in the order presented): Edgar Allan Poe / Mike Carey / Simon Clark / Weston Ochse + Yvonne Navarro / Jonathan Maberry / Joe R. Lansdale / Elizabeth Massie / Lisa Tuttle / Stephen Volk / Clive Barker | Page Count: 332 

"Between ingenuity and the analytic ability there exists a difference far greater, indeed, than that between the fancy and the imagination, but of a character very strictly analogous. It will be found, in fact, that the ingenious are always fanciful, and the truly imaginative never otherwise than analytic."

The detective in Edgar Allan Poe's short story Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841), Le Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin, was used by the author in two more of his works, The Mystery of Marie Rogêt (1842) and later The Purloined Letter (1844). Considered the world of literature's first mystery detective, Dupin was solving horrific crimes long before either Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot.

Famously, the word 'detective' hadn't even been coined when Poe penned his first Dupin mystery. His crime-solver used what the author called 'ratiocination'. But you can read about all of that in the book's introduction, so I won't spend any more time on it. Commenting on the stories in the pictured book is why I'm here. As the full title says, it's 'further tales' of Dupin, written by a number of different authors and in a number of different styles.

The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Complete First Season (2008)

The Sarah Jane Adventures:

The Complete First Season (2008)

Dirs: Various | Episodes: a one-hour pilot + 10 episodes, approx 25 mins each.

A Doctor Who spin-off aimed primarily at teenagers might not sound overly exciting, but The Sarah Jane Adventures is something very special. It addresses questions that many longtime Doctor Who fans have probably asked themselves at least once: what happens to the travelling companions after they leave? When they go back to a 'normal' life, how do they readjust after the wonders they've seen?

Created by Russell T Davies, the man credited with making the parent show such a renewed success, it offers the same kind of action packed flights of fantasy, grounded regularly by relatable emotions and characters guided by concern for each other.

It exists within, and expands upon, the same fictional universe, populated by the same kind of threats, and through it all remains faithful to the existing continuity, while creating some of its own. You can think of it as Doctor Who diluted, if you want to, but it's arguably just as exciting as the real thing, no matter what age you are.