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Don't Turn Out The Lights edited by Stephen Jones
01/06/2005 . Source: Pauline Morgan 
pub: PS Publishing. 279 page limited edition book. Deluxe slipcased hardback: Price: £90.00 (UK), $60.00 (US). ISBN: 1-904-619-27-4. Hardback: Price: £35.00 (UK), $50.00 (US). ISBN: 1-904-619-27-4. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.pspublishing.co.uk and www.herebedragons.co.uk/jones
Everyone, it seems, is willing to talk about a Golden Age. It is a time when everything was so much better than it was now. Not everyone, though, can agree when the Golden Age was, only that it was in the past and is definitely not now. Perhaps it is really a myth, like those long hot summers we had as children. It never rained then. Or the white Christmases we had every year when we were young.
The realm of horror fiction is no exception.
In the 1920s and 30s, Christine Campbell Thompson edited eleven volumes of horror stories. They contained the best from writers of the period and have been reprinted as omnibus volumes in more recent times, though the originals can still be found in dark corners of second-hand book shops. Named for the first of the sequence, the 'Not At Night' series of anthologies have become classics of their kind, symbols of horror's Golden Age. In his series of anthologies, Stephen Jones has revived the 'Not At Night' series in an attempt to recreate the atmosphere those older books created and to invoke a new Golden Age. He has succeeded and 'Don't Turn Out The Lights' is the third of this new incarnation.
There are seventeen stories, of which nine are published here for the first time. Surprisingly, only one, 'The Cult Of The White Ape' by Hugh B. Cave could have been printed in one of the original volumes. Dating from 1933, it was written at a time when there were still unexplored areas on maps and Britain was still a colonial nation. There remain some uncharted wildernesses, but the circumstances of the outsiders entering these places has changed. The narrator lives in relative harmony among the natives in a remote part of the Congo rainforests. When an adjacent tract of land is leased to a rubber company to develop a plantation, the overseer sent to manage the place is the kind of arrogant colonial that has given such people a bad name. He is a drunk who mistreats his wife, is contemptuous of the locals and their customs and does not listen to common-sense. Now we would regard him as a caricature but, within the now historical context of the story, it is an enjoyable and atmospheric piece from one of the great writers the past.
The contrast between Cave's story and 'Expanding Your Capabilities By Using Frame/Shift(tm) Mode' by David J. Schow could not be greater. This has a very contemporary setting, using cutting edge technology. Most of us have gadgets with buttons and functions that we do not use. We may not even know what they do. The protagonist in this story. Experimenting with his new TV remote, Dorian finds that pressing the FRAME/SHIFT key can be used to undress the people in the scenes he is watching. To start with this is a bit of fun, but he soon realises that the possibilities can be a lot more sinister.
Some of the stories original to this volume have the feel of the traditional 'Golden Age' story. 'Shirley's Ghost' by John Glasby has all the hallmarks. A stranger, visiting a fishing village has the story related to him of the man whose wife died aboard his boat during a storm. Now her ghost seems to be protecting him for every time he heads out into a storm, she sees him safely home. However, hers is not the friendly, caring ghost that it seems. 'The Other Family' by Roberta Lannes is also a traditional story of malevolent ghosts who at first appear to be friendly visitors also staying in the same coastal holiday resort.
'Fever Dream' by Ray Bradbury is still a good story and is one of the few early stories reprinted in this story, having been first published in 1948. In it, a boy is taken over by his fever and the horror in it is implied at the end. It is this kind of effect that still excites readers of horror. 'Are You Afraid Of The Dark?' by Charles L. Grant also provides this frisson. You think you know what is going to happen next, but you cannot be sure. The three boys in the story are already in trouble so they do not want their new babysitter complaining to their parents about them. When she suggests playing games for prizes, they readily agree. Each game, however, is designed to play on the fears of each of the boys.
Not all the stories subtlety play on fear to make the horror intensify from a gentle, beguiling start. 'Ding-Dong-Bell' by Jay Russell is nasty from the start. What makes it a good story is the way that it explores the reasons for the characters actions.
'Dance Of The Dead' by Richard Matheson is a Science Fiction horror story in which dead soldiers have become zombies as a result of germ warfare. They form the background, but the foreground story could easily be 1950s as a group of youngsters head for a good night out.
The volume contains a wide range of stories, many of which could not have been written at the time the original 'Not At Night' series was published. Jones has done an excellent job in choosing material that keep the same kind of ambience without any hint of being old fashioned.
Pauline Morgan
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