Hannibal Rising

Last night I finished reading the novel Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris. The fourth and most recent in the series of thrillers about serial killer Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter. This novel is a prequel to the others. Opening in Eastern Europe in the 1940s, young Hannibal is in line to become the next Count Lecter, living happily with his family in a large castle, until the Second World War forces the Lecter family from their castle. Years later Hannibal Lecter re-emerges traumatised by the fate of his beloved younger sister and the horrors he experienced. Adopted by an uncle and his beautiful Japanese wife, Hannibal blossoms and becomes a medical student in Paris, until his thirst for revenge awakens much darker obsessions. The book came around mainly because the Hannibal Lecter films had been so popular, and the studios wanted to make another movie exploring Lecter's origins. Lecter's creator, novelist Thomas Harris had no interest in doing another Lecter story, but was basically told that he had the choice of writing a book and having some say in how his character was treated, or in having a book written by someone else and thus having no say in how his character was treated. Harris chose the first option. It's not bad at all, being an interesting and involving thriller, but not as good as the others.

Later on I was watching a couple of episodes of the 1960s series of The Twilight Zone. The first story, "Black Leather Jackets" involves aliens who disguise themselves as a biker gang to take over the Earth. The episode doesn't start well, but does have a strikingly bleak conclosion. The second episode was called "Night Call", and was based on a short story by Richard Matheson, and told the genuinely scary story about a lonely old woman who is plagued by strange phone calls. Although the TV version changes the ending from the really scary story, it is still a really creepy slice of horror, that is still genuinely frightening. It was directed by horror movie director Jacques Tourneur, whose trademark sense of light and shadow made some really haunting sequences.

Today was pretty quiet. I went in to work early and left early. On my way home I picked up the latest copy of Empire magazine, and then I went out to have a walk and stopped off for a couple of drinks. I also got a couple of DVDs of Doctor Who in the sales.