Thrills and Chills with the Grandmaster of Horror and Science Fiction
Television viewers during the latter half of 2005 may have seen a TV program called The Night Stalker. It starred actor Stuart Townsend and was little more than a copy of The X-Files, for all that it took its name from a classic series from the 1970s which starred Darren McGavin.
The series did not fare well, which made fans of the original quite happy, as they were outraged at what had been done to their favorite paranormal investigator. (Ironically, the original Night Stalker is now more popular than ever, with frequent showings on the Sci-Fi channel, and graphic novels and a recent anthology of prose stories brought out by Moonstone Books.
What has all this got to do with a review of Richard Matheson: Collected Stories, Volume 3? Well, it was Matheson who took an unpublished story of an author named Jeff Rice and brought it to the screen as The Night Stalker in 1972. He also scripted its sequel The Night Strangler, produced in 1973.
In fact, most people who grew up watching televison science fiction and horror over the past several decades have quite probably seen episodes either written by Richard Matheson himself or inspired by one of his stories….as for example many of the classic stories contained within this volume.
The classic “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” of course – starred William Shatner in the television Twilight Zone version and John Lithgow in the movie version (and who can forget their scene together in Third Rock From The Sun in which their characters comment on having a similar experience).
“Big Surprise” was adapted for an episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery and starred John Carradine as an old man who keeps trying to persuade boys to dig ten feet under an old apple tree for a big surprise. (I suppose Matheson made it ten feet instead of six feet so as not to give the surprise ending away too quickly)
“No Such Thing as a Vampire” became a segment of Dead of Night, and starred Patrick Macnee. “First Anniversary” was made as a segment of the 1990s The Outer Limits, and starred Matt Frewer. Karen Black starred in the “Julie” segment of A Trilogy of Terror as well as the “Therese” segment (which interestingly enough is remarkable similar to a much earlier Agatha Christie short story. In her short fiction, Christie frequently touched on supernatural and mild horror themes.)
“Mute” was one of the hour-long episodes of The Twilight Zone, and “Girl of My Dreams” was adapted by the anthology series Journey to the Unknown.
Matheson’s “Prey” found television life in two forms. The Twilight Zone rejected it originally so he rewrote it to turn it into “The Invaders”, in which Agnes Moorehead plays a woman under attack by two tiny creatures…who turn out to be Earthlings. When the audience’s sensabilities were judged to be ready, this tale of a Zuni fetish doll attacking a woman was made into a segment of Trilogy of Terror II (1996).
“Button, Button,” similar to “The Monkey’s Paw” but with a rather more chilling ending, was adapted for the 1980s revival of The Twilight Zone.
And “Duel” of course was made into a movie by Steven Spielberg and starred Dennis Weaver.
Gauntlet Press has collected together all 86 of Richard Matheson’s short stories into three volumes. (He abandoned the form in 1971). This is the third volume in the set, but really, if you’re a Matheson fan you’ll want to acquire all three of them. (And if you’re not a Matheson fan, you should be.
What makes this collection so special is that Matheson himself writes postscripts for each story, in which he gives information on his inspiration for the story, or how he wrote it, or something else of interest. So in addition to these great stories, you’re also getting insight into the mind of the creator.
The last 29 of Matheson’s short stories are contained within this volume. There are also 4 ‘appreciations’ – one written by Harlan Ellison, one by Steven King, one by Dennis Etchidon, and one by his son, Richard Christian Matheson.
Highly recommended.
