Readers in Peril Challenge - Peril the Screen - Apparitions

[byslantedlight]

My last post for the Readers in Peril 2015 reading challenge - with added screen challenge... *g* I had planned to watch 30 Days of Night tonight, which a friend gave me years ago, cos it's vampires in Alaska, but there was Doctor Who, and it got late, and there were noises outside (late girls with horses, it turned out, not a halloween special *g*), so... I didn't. But over the last few weeks I have rewatched Apparitions with our Martin Shaw.

Eeeeh - it's a bit spooky, innit! *g* I think what makes it so atmospheric and have such an impact is that even though it's clearly just tv drama, it doesn't begin to address the audience, or do that fourth wall thing even in a polite indirect way. It doesn't in any way say well, if you believe then... or we know you're out there, it's okay you can tell this isn't real cos.... It unapologetically, unremittingly believes in demons, and shows us that they're out there, and what they can do... and that's what actually makes it more scary, I think, than other shows of the genre. Things like X-Files and Sea of Souls give you a get-out clause for when things get too creepy - Apparitions just does not - you're there for the ride the whole way...
The thing is, there is something rather Doyle about Father Jacob, and there's a hugely intriguing moment - blink and you'll miss it - in the penultimate episode when someone asks him about his blameless, innocent past, and he looks sharply away, and we just know there's something... If nothing else, how in the world does a Catholic priest know how to use a gun so comfortably...? *g*

So here's a few of my favourite Pros/Apparitions crossovers. I could have sworn there was one by Angelfish too, but for the life of me I can't find it, so maybe I'm misremembering and it involves no more than a church...
Decrescendo by erushi
Allies by castalia
Christmas Wish from Father Jacob (a bit lighter!) by minori_k

Peril the First: Read four books, any length, that you feel fit (the very broad definitions) of R.I.P. literature. It could be King or Conan Doyle, Penny or Poe, Chandler or Collins, Lovecraft or Leroux… or anyone in between.
1. Night of the Living Deed by E.J. Copperman
2. Bedlam by Ally Kennan
3. The Ghosts of Motley Hall by Richard Carpenter
4. The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal by KJ Charles
5. Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater
6. The Taxidermist's Daughter by Kate Mosse
7. Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner

Peril of the Short Story: We are big fans of short stories and the desire for them is perhaps no greater than in Autumn. You can read short stories any time during the challenge.
1. The Phantom Schooner (In Shudders and Shakes: Ghostly Tales from Australia, compiled by Anne Bower Ingram)
2. The Phantom Schooner (In Shudders and Shakes: Ghostly Tales from Australia, compiled by Anne Bower Ingram)
3. The Cooee Hut (In Shudders and Shakes: Ghostly Tales from Australia, compiled by Anne Bower Ingram)
4-31. All the spooky short Pros stories I've been reading for October...


Peril On the Screen: This is for those of us that like to watch suitably scary, eerie, mysterious gothic fare during this time of year. It may be something on the small screen or large. It might be a television show, like Dark Shadows or Midsomer Murders, or your favorite film.
1. The Ghosts of Motley Hall (Granada Television, 1976-78)
2. Apparitions (BBC Television, 2008)

So overall I don't think I've done too badly with the challenge - not nearly as much as I meant to read, thanks to being distracted by Antonia Forest, and even my short stories I hadn't meant to be Pros short stories... *g* But it was fun - it was definitely fun. *g*