The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 17 Read online

  BBC Scotland’s miserable Sea of Souls returned for a further three two-part shows in which rumpled university investigator Douglas Monaghan (Bill Paterson) and his team encountered poltergeist activity, precognition, sin-eating and apparent time-travel. As usual, they failed to come up with any proof of the supernatural.

  Natasha McElhone’s maverick nun teamed up with Bill Pullman’s cynical Harvard astrophysicist to investigate the possible birth of the Antichrist and prevent the predicted Apocalypse in David Seltzer’s glum limited-run series Revelations, which aired on NBC over six weekly episodes. Rock star Fred Durst was featured as a creepy Satanist.

  In its two-part opener, simpering Devil-child Christina Nickson (newcomer Elisabeth Harnois) was plucked from the sea off the coast of the eponymous small New Jersey town and cast a Satanic influence over the vacuous inhabitants of Point Pleasant, Fox’s new teen soap opera created by Buffy’s Marti Nixon that played like Dark Shadows meets The O.C.

  Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles played Sam and Dean Winchester, two ghost-busting brothers in The WB’s Supernatural, from The O.C.’s ludicrously named executive producer McG. The pair travelled the countryside in a 1967 Chevy Impala investigating local urban legends, such as Bloody Mary, the Hook Man and the Woman in White, while trying to uncover clues to their demon-fighting father’s mysterious disappearance.

  Irish actor Stuart Townsend gave a pathetic performance in the role of crusading reporter Carl Kolchak, who teamed up with sceptical journalist Perri Reed (Gabrielle Union) to investigate the supernatural and discover what happened to his murdered wife in ABC-TV’s ill-conceived revival of the 1970s Night Stalker, from The X Files executive producer Frank Spotnitz. In America the show was cancelled in the middle of a two-part episode.

  It’s also hard to imagine why anybody thought it was worth doing a second thirteen-part series of Hex, especially when most of the original stars disappeared after the first few episodes. But, having unsuccessfully attempted to terminate fallen angel Azazeal’s child that she was carrying, English schoolgirl Cassie (Christina Cole) teamed up again with her lesbian ghost friend Thelma (Jemima Rooper) and Buffy-like demon-hunter Ella (Laura Piper) to destroy the devil-child before its birth lead to the downfall of mankind.

  Season two of The 4400 returned to the USA Network in June with two back-to-back episodes featuring its own devil-child and cameos by genre greats Charles Napier and Jeffrey Combs. In the season finale, Dennis Ryland (Peter Coyote) ordered a widespread quarantine to halt the deadly 4400 plague as government agents Tom (Joel Gretsch) and Diana (Jacqueline McKenzie) uncovered a conspiracy to inhibit the powers of the abductees from the future.

  Government contingency analyst Molly Anne Caffrey (Carla Gugino) led a team of experts (including Brent Spiner, Rob Benedict and Peter Dinklage) to come up with a plan to confine a spreading alien infection in the CBS series Threshold.

  Marine biologist Laura Daughtery (the aptly named Lake Bell), along with an obsessed Louisiana scuba diver (Jay R. Ferguson) and an inquisitive teenager (Carter Jenkins), discovered a new species of sea creature and the usual government cover-up conspiracy in NBC’s predictable Surface.

  Created by former actor Shaun Cassidy, ABC’s Invasion was about a Florida community invaded by body-snatching aquatic aliens. William Fichtner played enigmatic local sheriff Tom Underlay, who knew more about what was happening than he told his doctor wife Mariel (Kari Matchett) or wildlife ranger Russell Varon (Eddie Cibrian). In the US, viewing figures dropped from a respectable 16.4 million viewers to just 10.1 million, despite a lead-in from the still-popular Lost.

  Despite its Emmy wins, Lost was a major disappointment as the flashback-heavy show kept viewers guessing week after week without any sign of plot resolutions. Two major (and related) characters died, while the survivors of crashed Flight 815 finally attempted to build a raft and escape. The first season finale ran over two nights and ended on a predictable cliff-hanger. At the beginning of season two, Jack discovered Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick), a mysterious figure from his past, living in the hatch; young Walt was kidnapped at sea by the “Others” and some of the “tailies” were revealed to have survived the plane crash, including the trigger-happy Ana Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez).

  The second season of HBO’s Depression-era limited series Carnvàle was more overtly fantastic as the countdown to the Apocalypse grew ever closer. Despite building over twelve episodes to the much-anticipated confrontation between Good’s Ben Hawkins (Nick Stahl) and Evil’s Justin Crowe (Clancy Brown), the network cancelled the show, even though the cliff-hanger finale had an audience of 2.4 million. Guest stars included John Aylward, Patrick Bauchau, John Savage and Don Swayze.

  Doctor Who made a triumphant return to BBC-TV with a new thirteen-part series starring Christopher Eccleston as the eccentric time-traveller and former pop singer Billie Piper as his eighteen-year-old companion Rose Tyler. The best episodes were those not scripted by the show’s overrated producer Russell T. Davies. These included Mark Gatiss’ creepy Victorian ghosts episode (with Simon Callow as Charles Dickens), the discovery of a captured Dalek, an attack by bat-winged “Reapers”, and a World War II London over-run by gas-masked zombies. The two-part season finale saw an army of Daleks about to invade the Earth.

  DVD compilations of the series were quickly released by the BBC, while Brighton Pier on England’s south coast mounted an exhibition of props and costumes from the series under the title Who’s on Brighton Pier.

  The second season of the Sci Fi Channel’s revived Battlestar Galactica turned out to be just as powerful as the first, with a stand-out two-parter inspired by the original “Living Legend” episode, in which the crew discovered a second surviving battlestar, Pegasus, commanded by the obsessed Admiral Cain (Michelle Forbes). With civil war threatening to break out at any moment, Lucy Lawless also joined the cast as an investigative journalist who was more than she appeared.

  Ben Bowder joined Stargate SG-1 as the team’s new leader, Lt Colonel Cameron Mitchell. He was joined by his Farscape co-star Claudia Black as sexy thief Vala Mal Dorn, Beau Bridges as the new head of Stargate Command and Lou Gossett, Jr as power-hungry Jaffa leader Gerak. The ninth season’s two-part opener involved a holographic Merlin and the legendary sword Excalibur. Meanwhile, Mitch Pileggi’s spaceship commander Colonel Steven Caldwell arrived in time to prevent a mass attack by the Wraith in Stargate Atlantis, and Jason Momoa joined the cast as dreadlocked warrior Ronon Dex.

  After a shortened fourth season, UPN’s Star Trek: Enterprise was finally put out of its (and our) misery in May. Next Generation cast members Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis looked back 200 years to Captain Archer’s final voyage, when Commander Trip Tucker (Connor Trinneer) was killed in an explosion while saving the Enterprise. Viewing figures had reportedly dropped from thirteen million viewers when the show debuted to just under three million.

  Meanwhile, the Sci Fi Channel’s Andromeda lasted a year longer than Enterprise, and the series finale had Kevin Sorbo’s Captain Dylan Hunt and his companions preparing for a climactic confrontation with the Abyss.

  Despite having to compete against ratings winner Lost, The WB’s Smallville continued its welcome return to its Twilight Zone-like roots. The fourth season included Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk) being possessed by witchy ancestor Isobel Theroux who was burned at the stake, and Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) being split into two personalities. Jane Seymour, Margot Kidder, and Erica Durance as Lois Lane guest-starred, while Terence Stamp once again supplied the voice of Jor-El in the ninety-minute season finale in which Clark Kent (Tom Welling) finally graduated from high school.

  Season five featured former model and American Idol contestant Alan Ritchson as visiting student Arthur Curry/the future Aquaman, Buffy’s James Masters as artificial super-villain Professor Fine/Braniac, a guest appearance by John Schneider’s Dukes of Hazzard costar Tom Wopat, Carrie Fisher playing Daily Planet editor Pauline Kahn, Lex having an It’s a Wonderful Life moment, Clark finally
sleeping with Lana, and Lana encountering a vampire sorority girl named Buffy. After losing his super-powers and being shot and killed by a meteor freak, Clark was resurrected by Jor-El, who warned his son that he would lose someone close to him in return for his second chance at life.

  Meanwhile, an animated Krypto the Superdog series for younger viewers on Cartoon Network teamed Superman’s super-powered canine with a boy named Kevin and Batman’s Bat-Hound. At least it was closer to the original comic-book character than the golden retriever who was cast as the powerful pooch in Smallville.

  A new teenage Batgirl made her debut on The WB’s The Batman animated series, battling classmate Poison Ivy, and Huntress and Black Canary were featured on an episode of the Cartoon Network’s Justice League Unlimited, scripted by DC Comics’ Birds of Prey writer Gail Simone.

  Over at Fox, The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror XVI included a cyborg Bart, a witch’s transformation spell, and Homer and friends literally being head-hunted by a crazed Mr Burns.

  Pumpkin Moon was a Halloween cartoon for children about a black cat and witches, from the team that produced The Snowman.

  Warner Bros’ Looney Tunes characters were given a shameful makeover in the Kids’ WB series Loonatics Unleashed, which featured the descendants of the original characters in the 28th century. That didn’t stop it from becoming the #1 Saturday show for its target audience of boys between six and eleven.

  There were also plenty of genre references to be found in more mainstream TV series as well. Secret agent Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) and her extended family/team of spies headed off to Russia to destroy a giant red globe that turned people into homicidal zombies in the delirious season four finale of ABC’s Alias. Despite a cliff-hanger ending, in which Michael Vartan’s character Vaughn was apparently killed in a car crash, not all was what it seemed in the fifth and final season of the show.

  In an atypical episode of NBC’s Las Vegas, set behind-the-scenes in a Nevada casino, a big-spending guest apparently shared all the traits of a traditional vampire, and the third season finale of FX Channel’s sexy plastic surgery drama Nip/Tuck finally revealed the identity of masked serial killer the Carver.

  In its first season, high school sleuth Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) apparently solved the murder of her best friend, Lilly Kane, with a little help from the victim’s ghost. With both Alyson Hannigan and Charisma Carpenter in season two, and Joss Whedon making a guest appearance as a testy car-rental manager, UPN’s entertaining teen mystery was clearly trying to appeal to the Buffy crowd.

  George Lucas guest-starred as himself in an episode of The O.C., while actor Vince Chase (Adrian Grenier) was up for the role of Aquaman on the HBO comedy series Entourage thanks to his incompetent agent Ari (Jeremy Piven).

  The seventh and final season of the BBC’s Scottish drama series Monarch of the Glen featured the ghost of returning character Hector (Richard Briers), while the ever-more offbeat soap opera Passions turned into a cartoon fairy tale for three episodes in mid-November.

  In a case of wishful thinking, the ever more ludicrous Paris Hilton portrayed Barbara Eden on the set of I Dream of Jeannie in an April episode of NBC’s American Dreams.

  Having moved over from HBO to Bravo, the third season of the hilarious Project Greenlight had producers Ben Affleck and Matt Damon (with a little help from Wes Craven) convincing Miramax’s Dimension arm to come up with the budget to produce a horror film called Feast, directed by shy and insecure first-timer John Gulager (the son of actor Clu).

  John Carpenter, Wes Craven, John Landis, Tobe Hooper, Linda Blair, James Herbert, Robert Englund and Simon Pegg were among the numerous talking heads who contributed to Channel 4’s two-hour Halloween special, The Perfect Scary Movie, and The Curse of the Omen was an hour-long Channel 4 documentary that looked at the jinxes that reputedly plagued the hit 1976 movie.

  Also from Channel 4, Jekyll and Hyde: The True Story was an hour-long documentary that explored the secret life of 18th century Edinburgh gentleman William Deacon Brodie, who was reputedly the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novel.

  Dennis Wheatley: A Letter to Posterity and John Wyndham: The Invisible Man of Science Fiction were hour-long biographies of the largely forgotten British authors shown on BBC4.

  Shown to coincide with the opening of the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in Buckinghamshire, Alan Yentob hosted the BBC’s Imagine . . . Fantastic Mr. Dahl. It was an intimate hour-long profile of the author’s life and work that included an interview with his first wife, actress Patricia Neal.

  Alec Baldwin narrated the TCM documentary I’m King Kong: The Exploits of Merian C. Cooper, a profile of the co-director of the 1933 movie, while Watch the Skies! was a superb look at science fiction films that included contributions from George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and James Cameron.

  While Jim Broadbent was no replacement for Vincent Price in the National Theatre’s summer production of Theatre of Blood, the Grand Guignol-style production had a pantomime exuberance, and the casting of Rachael Stirling was inspired in the role originally played by her mother Diana Rigg in the original 1973 movie.

  A musical version of Lestat, based on the books by Anne Rice with music by Elton John and lyrics by Bernie Taupin, opened to generally negative reviews in San Francisco. Rice described the show as “The fulfilment of my deepest dreams”.

  Sam Archer portrayed the sharp-fingered creation in Matthew Bourne’s stage version of Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands, which opened at London’s Sadler’s Wells in November.

  Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House was adapted by F. Andrew Leslie and performed by the New Stagers Theatre Club at the New Wimbledon Theatre, while The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Are Behind You! was a dark pantomime based on “Jack and the Beanstalk”, featuring the stars of the BBC-TV series.

  American-born comedienne Ruby Wax starred in a revival of Roald Dahl’s The Witches at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre, while song and dance veteran Tommy Steele returned to the London Palladium in the title role of Scrooge.

  Susannah York played an ageing actress in a stage adaptation of Wilkie Collins’ The Haunted Hotel, which toured a number of UK cities, and Anthony Andrews took over the role of Count Fosco in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s West End musical of Collins’ The Woman in White.

  A new version of Agatha Christie’s classic whodunit And Then There Were None at the Gielgud Theatre featured Graham Crowden, Tara Fitzgerald, Richard Johnson and Gemma Jones amongst the cast.

  The Royal Opera presented the world premiere of conductor Lorin Mazel’s 1984, with libretto by J. D. McClatchy and Thomas Meehan after George Orwell’s classic novel. Simon Keenlyside was the singing Winston Smith.

  Jeff Noon’s Dead Code: Ghosts of the Digital Age was an hour-long drama broadcast as part of the BBC Radio 3 series The Wire. Starring Emma Atkins and Paul Simpson, it was set on a dreary futuristic housing estate, where the “ghosts” of past songs haunted the streets.

  Trevor Hoyle’s ghost story Haunted Hospital, set in a hospital in Rochdale, was adapted as an hour-long drama for Radio 3’s The Saturday Play.

  So Long and Thanks for All the Fish and Mostly Harmless, the final two books in the late Douglas Adams’ “trilogy in five parts”, were finally broadcast by BBC Radio 4. Most of the surviving cast members from the original radio productions of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy were reunited for the series.

  In the UK, Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys was issued complete and unabridged by Headline Audiobooks on eight CDs (approximately ten hours’ running time) read by comedian Lenny Henry.

  Doctor Who: Project WHO? was a two-disc CD set of the BBC Radio 2 documentary featuring Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper talking about the new TV series.

  With the end of the Lord of the Rings boom, Games Workshop suffered its first-ever fall in sales, as pre-tax profits to the end of May dropped by almost one-third to £13.5 million on a 10 per cent lower turnover.

  In the UK, Microsoft
was forced to include parental controls in its new Xbox360 console because of the violence in such electronic games as Condemned: Criminal Origins, where players attacked victims with a plank of wood with a nail in it.

  The disappointing Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith game for PlayStation 2 and Xbox featured clips from the film as Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan battled each other with lightsabres. Meanwhile, Star Wars: Battlefront II dropped the player into events from all six movies, and Lego Star Wars featured fights between the little square figures.

  F.E.A.R. combined an action scenario with Asian horrors as soldiers battled each other and ghostly children with supernatural powers.

  For GameCube, Resident Evil 4 returned to its survival horror roots as a government agent searched for a president’s missing daughter, while the online game Resident Evil Outbreak: File #2 featured more zombies (including an elephant!) and was set in four different milieus.

  Bruce Campbell reprised his role as the chainsaw-armed Ash, aided by a Deadite dwarf (voiced by Ted Raimi) in his battle against more zombies in Evil Dead: Regeneration.

  Constantine was a tie-in to the movie for PlayStation 2 and Xbox that featured the likeness of star Keanu Reeves, and you could stalk your enemies as the Dark Knight in Batman Begins, featuring a host of star voices.

  Created in association with Nick Park’s Aardman Animation, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit was a faithful recreation of the movie, while The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie’s Revenge was set shortly after the original film.

  To tie-in with the remake of King Kong, the estate of Merian C. Cooper released a hand-numbered fourteen-inch cold cast statue of the 1933 Kong on top of the Empire State Building, sculpted by Joe DeVito.

  Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Weta Collectibles and Dark Horse Comics created a series of limited edition collectibles, including statues, busts, graphic art and other official merchandise based on King Kong and The Chronicles ofNarnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.