Dreadful Thoughts Story Club: Casting the Runes

2) "Casting The Ruins (pdf), (html)

The path by which I came to know and (greatly) enjoy M. R. James was a rather long and meandering one. Many years ago (and late one night) while my brother and I idly flipped through the channels we happened to stumble across Jacques Tourneur's wonderful Night of the Demon (1957).¹

Within minutes it had its hooks in us and we watched (with growing delight) till the credits rolled. In the years that followed we'd occasionally reminisce fondly about what the brother had taken to calling, "the devil on the bicycle" film – this being a reference to the "squeaky bike" noise that presaged the demon's appearance. After one such conversation I girded my loins, muttered "Right!", and set about doing a bit of digging (no easy feat in those dark pre-internet, or "printernet", days).

The search led me back to the 1940s and the marvellously restrained (but perverse) films Tourneur had made for Val Lewton (one of cinema horror's most idiosyncratic voices). Discovering Lewton, and watching (for the first time) the likes of Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie, The Seventh Victim and The Body Snatcher, are dark pleasures I won't forget in a hurry.

But I digress. Let us cut to the chase and skip forward a few more years to the glorious age of DVD. Night/Curse of the Demon has just been released on that format and there I sit watching the Spinal Tap-tastic opening sequence in all its Stone Henge-y glory.

A booming voice intones:

"It has been written since the beginning of time, even unto these ancient stones, that evil, supernatural creatures exist – in a world of darkness"

And we're off and away, but not before giving credit where credit's due:

I'd had a second-hand copy of James' collected ghost stories gathering dust (or ectoplasm) on my shelves for quite a while but had never done much more than a bit of dipping in and out. The above reminder spurred me on to have a determined crack at it/them and very grateful I am for the needed kick in the arse.

While "Casting The Runes", the second tale for our Dreadful Thoughts Story Club, is not one of James' most chilling ("Oh Whistle, and I'll Come to you my Lad" probably freaks me out more than any other), it does showcase some classic 'Jamesian' themes, features, and flourishes.

1) The sense of being "pursued" by an inexplicable, indescribable "thing". The feeling that, through the protagonist's greed, negligence, folly, or simple bad luck, a "thing" has noticed and taken an interest in him/her (it's nearly always "him").

2) The postponed appearance/revelation of the "horror". The excruciating sense of expectation and terrible anxiety about what is to come. Critics of James might see his "punchlines" as anticlimactic, but the pleasure is all in the (tension-filled) anticipation.

3) The ambiguity and shapelessness of the "horror". Impressions of what was seen, dreamt or felt are always fleeting, hazy and hard to keep in focus. Think Dunning's encounter with the man handing out leaflets…

He looked in passing at the giver but the impression he got was so unclear that, however much he tried to reckon it up subsequently, nothing would come.

…or his growing sense of anxiety…

It seemed to him that something ill-defined and impalpable had stepped in between him and his fellow-men – had taken him in charge, as it were.

I'll leave you (for now) with these well-known lines from Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" – which Harrington received (scribbled on a woodcut) shortly before his demise. A more perfect compliment to "Jamesian" horror it'd be very hard to find.

Like one, that on a lonesome road
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And having once turned round walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows, a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.

Let the discussion begin and flow. Talk about the story. Talk about the film. Talk about whatever in hell's nine circles you feel like.

1. Released, minus 13 minutes, as Curse of the Demon in the US. [back]