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The Ghouls
from the dust-jacket:
"The Ghouls: edited by Peter Haining, with an introduction by Vincent Price and an afterword by Christopher Lee"
"Will any of us ever forget the first time we saw Phantom of the Opera with Lon Chaney? Or The Beast with Five Fingers with Peter Lorre? Or Die, Monster, Die with Boris Karloff? Whether we saw them as first-run films at the local theater or are only now becoming addicted to 'Chiller Theater' on television, the ghoul-watchers among us are in for a rare treat.
The Ghouls is a horror film buff's dream. Peter Haining has collected the stories on which eighteen of the very best horror films were based..."
"...In his introductions to each story, Mr. Haining provides a brief look at the story itself and the films made from it, including some fascinating bits of information about the making of the motion picture."
Stories included:
The Devil in a Convent
The Lunatics
Puritan Passions
Phantom of the Opera
The Magician
Freaks
Most Dangerous Game
Dracula's Daughter
All that Money Can Buy
The Body Snatcher
The Beast with Five Fingers
Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
The Fly
Black Sunday
Incident at Owl Creek
Die, Monster, Die!
The Skull
The Oblong Box
"The Ghouls: edited by Peter Haining, with an introduction by Vincent Price and an afterword by Christopher Lee"
"Will any of us ever forget the first time we saw Phantom of the Opera with Lon Chaney? Or The Beast with Five Fingers with Peter Lorre? Or Die, Monster, Die with Boris Karloff? Whether we saw them as first-run films at the local theater or are only now becoming addicted to 'Chiller Theater' on television, the ghoul-watchers among us are in for a rare treat.
The Ghouls is a horror film buff's dream. Peter Haining has collected the stories on which eighteen of the very best horror films were based..."
"...In his introductions to each story, Mr. Haining provides a brief look at the story itself and the films made from it, including some fascinating bits of information about the making of the motion picture."
Stories included:
The Devil in a Convent
The Lunatics
Puritan Passions
Phantom of the Opera
The Magician
Freaks
Most Dangerous Game
Dracula's Daughter
All that Money Can Buy
The Body Snatcher
The Beast with Five Fingers
Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
The Fly
Black Sunday
Incident at Owl Creek
Die, Monster, Die!
The Skull
The Oblong Box
383 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1971
5 people are currently reading
213 people want to read
About the author
Peter Haining
331 books99 followersPeter Alexander Haining was an English journalist, author and anthologist who lived and worked in Suffolk. Born in Enfield, Middlesex, he began his career as a reporter in Essex and then moved to London where he worked on a trade magazine before joining the publishing house of New English Library.
Haining achieved the position of Editorial Director before becoming a full time writer in the early Seventies. He edited a large number of anthologies, predominantly of horror and fantasy short stories, wrote non-fiction books on a variety of topics from the Channel Tunnel to Sweeney Todd and also used the pen names "Ric Alexander" and "Richard Peyton" on a number of crime story anthologies. In the Seventies he wrote three novels, including The Hero (1973), which was optioned for filming.
In two controversial books, Haining argued that Sweeney Todd was a real historical figure who committed his crimes around 1800, was tried in December 1801, and was hanged in January 1802. However, other researchers who have tried to verify his citations find nothing in these sources to back Haining's claims. A check of the website Old Bailey at for "Associated Records 1674-1834" for an alleged trial in December 1801 and hanging of Sweeney Todd for January 1802 show no reference; in fact the only murder trial for this period is that of a Governor/Lt Col. Joseph Wall who was hanged 28 January 1802 for killing a Benjamin Armstrong 10 July 1782 in "Goree" Africa and the discharge of a Humphrey White in January 1802. Strong reservations have also been expressed regarding the reliability of another of Haining's influential non-fiction works, The Legend and Bizarre Crimes of Spring Heeled Jack.
He wrote several reference books on Doctor Who, including the 20th anniversary special Doctor Who: A Celebration Two Decades Through Time and Space (1983), and also wrote the definitive study of Sherlock Holmes on the screen, The Television Sherlock Holmes (1991) and several other television tie-ins featuring famous literary characters, including Maigret, Poirot and James Bond. Peter Haining's most recent project was a series of World War Two stories based on extensive research and personal interviews: The Jail That Went To Sea (2003), The Mystery of Rommel's Gold (2004), Where The Eagle Landed (2004), The Chianti Raiders (2005) and The Banzai Hunters (2007).
He won the British Fantasy Awards Karl Edward Wagner Award in 2001.
Haining achieved the position of Editorial Director before becoming a full time writer in the early Seventies. He edited a large number of anthologies, predominantly of horror and fantasy short stories, wrote non-fiction books on a variety of topics from the Channel Tunnel to Sweeney Todd and also used the pen names "Ric Alexander" and "Richard Peyton" on a number of crime story anthologies. In the Seventies he wrote three novels, including The Hero (1973), which was optioned for filming.
In two controversial books, Haining argued that Sweeney Todd was a real historical figure who committed his crimes around 1800, was tried in December 1801, and was hanged in January 1802. However, other researchers who have tried to verify his citations find nothing in these sources to back Haining's claims. A check of the website Old Bailey at for "Associated Records 1674-1834" for an alleged trial in December 1801 and hanging of Sweeney Todd for January 1802 show no reference; in fact the only murder trial for this period is that of a Governor/Lt Col. Joseph Wall who was hanged 28 January 1802 for killing a Benjamin Armstrong 10 July 1782 in "Goree" Africa and the discharge of a Humphrey White in January 1802. Strong reservations have also been expressed regarding the reliability of another of Haining's influential non-fiction works, The Legend and Bizarre Crimes of Spring Heeled Jack.
He wrote several reference books on Doctor Who, including the 20th anniversary special Doctor Who: A Celebration Two Decades Through Time and Space (1983), and also wrote the definitive study of Sherlock Holmes on the screen, The Television Sherlock Holmes (1991) and several other television tie-ins featuring famous literary characters, including Maigret, Poirot and James Bond. Peter Haining's most recent project was a series of World War Two stories based on extensive research and personal interviews: The Jail That Went To Sea (2003), The Mystery of Rommel's Gold (2004), Where The Eagle Landed (2004), The Chianti Raiders (2005) and The Banzai Hunters (2007).
He won the British Fantasy Awards Karl Edward Wagner Award in 2001.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 16, 2021
WARNING: DON’T READ THIS BOOK LATE AT NIGHT OR IN AN EMPTY HOUSE.
That is the message written on the backcover of this 1985 mass paperback which focuses upon the tales of terror that became some of the most famous horror movies of the cinema. FREAKS is here. THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA is here. THE BODY SNATCHER is here. Drawn by the pictures of Lon Chaney and Peter Lorre, I stayed for the classic reads, along with some nice stills from each of the films.
Short stories have been responsible for many of the films that have scared us, although I certainly didn’t know this fact until I started reading. The finished celluloid products didn’t necessarily follow the stories word-for-word, but the intent certainly came through. Peter Haining used the movies as his starting point and then compiled the stories, some of which had been out-of-print up until his publication. Each tale is connected to the actual movie and the movie’s release date along with a short reference to cinematic production. It all begins with THE DEVIL IN A CONVENT, filmed by Georges Méliès in 1899 and therefore one of the very first celluloid horror films.
Some of the stories are far scarier than the films and vice versa. For example, Lon Chaney’s PHANTOM OF THE OPERA is scary if only for his realistic makeup, something that no other subsequent remake has managed to achieve. On the other hand, Lovecraft’s THE COLOUR OUT OF SPACE had me re-reading under the covers (as though that would stop evil from entering the house) while Ray Bradbury’s THE FOGHORN became the movie called, THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS, and both are strong in print and on the screen.
Vincent Price wrote the introduction for the book and Christopher Lee wrote the afterword. There is also a dedication to Boris Karloff, the greatest ghoul of all. Overall, a really nice combination of the power of print and its influence on the power of cinema.
Book Season = Autumn (terror of the mind)
Want to read
April 18, 2015I love the cover edition I defaulted to BUT I also love this cover with the creature from Curse of the Demon aka Night of the Demon directed by Jacques Tourneur.
February 6, 2019
This is a pretty solid collection of horror/suspense stories which inspired movies. Editor Haining takes the approach of using the movie titles instead of the original story titles (so Bradbury's "The Foghorn" becomes "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms") which was a little confusing.
The slightly larger problem is that while, as a rule of the "the book was better", there are notable cases where that's not true. For instance, without ever having read John W. Campbell's "Who Goes There", I can guarantee that both the Nyby and Carpenter movie versions are better, and both certainly loom larger in the cinema canon than the otherwise forgotten short-story does in the literary canon.
This is really evident with the condensed "Phantom of the Opera", which hadn't been in print much since its original publication. Haining allows that the writing is pedestrian but otherwise expresses a kind of bafflement. Well, yeah, the writing is really pedestrian. It has some wonderful imagery and moments in it, but it's kind of slog to get through.
In some of the other cases, the writing is much better and the stories are a good read, but the movie was still better. Tod Browning's Freaks as is Kurt Neumann's The Fly. The former is made better by a team of writers' decision to make the lead character more sympathetic—though his imperious cruelty is wonderfully ironic in the story—while the latter hews closely to the original story but gives us the unforgettable close-up of the fly and the lines "Help me. Please, help me.", in the written version just a "long shot" (if you will) of a fly with a white head and arm.
Most of what remains are classic stories, most of which I had read before (like HP Lovecraft's "The Colour out of Space"), some quite recently (besides "The Fly", "The Foghorn" and "Incident at Owl Creek"). But then, the fun of reading short-story collections is part meeting new friends and part revisiting old ones.
So I was happy with this.
The slightly larger problem is that while, as a rule of the "the book was better", there are notable cases where that's not true. For instance, without ever having read John W. Campbell's "Who Goes There", I can guarantee that both the Nyby and Carpenter movie versions are better, and both certainly loom larger in the cinema canon than the otherwise forgotten short-story does in the literary canon.
This is really evident with the condensed "Phantom of the Opera", which hadn't been in print much since its original publication. Haining allows that the writing is pedestrian but otherwise expresses a kind of bafflement. Well, yeah, the writing is really pedestrian. It has some wonderful imagery and moments in it, but it's kind of slog to get through.
In some of the other cases, the writing is much better and the stories are a good read, but the movie was still better. Tod Browning's Freaks as is Kurt Neumann's The Fly. The former is made better by a team of writers' decision to make the lead character more sympathetic—though his imperious cruelty is wonderfully ironic in the story—while the latter hews closely to the original story but gives us the unforgettable close-up of the fly and the lines "Help me. Please, help me.", in the written version just a "long shot" (if you will) of a fly with a white head and arm.
Most of what remains are classic stories, most of which I had read before (like HP Lovecraft's "The Colour out of Space"), some quite recently (besides "The Fly", "The Foghorn" and "Incident at Owl Creek"). But then, the fun of reading short-story collections is part meeting new friends and part revisiting old ones.
So I was happy with this.
November 4, 2019
Some great stories here.....read for Halloween!
Want to read
May 13, 2025PLACEHOLDER REVIEW
Read "The Skull" (aka "The Skull Of The Marquis De Sade") by Robert Bloch as I needed to compare it to something. A collector of historical oddities (seemingly of a macabre bent) is contacted about purchasing the skull of history's notorious author/sadist, but is the item real and... even more... is it cursed? Well, this is pretty much prime Bloch - pulpy, direct, setup-event-payoff storytelling. Which is fine, it's a good set-up for a yarn. Bloch doesn't really care to explore the idea of sadism at all (even his dream sequence of same, as the collector begins to find himself overwhelmed, is fairly restrained) and needs to make up things (so Sade is presumably a "Satanist" and also seemingly, secretly, a serial murderer of women), but all this is par for the course with horror writers who want to use the historical figure but elide any sexual matters. Not a gem (the ending is a but "been there, done that") and could have been better, but perfectly okay.
Read "The Skull" (aka "The Skull Of The Marquis De Sade") by Robert Bloch as I needed to compare it to something. A collector of historical oddities (seemingly of a macabre bent) is contacted about purchasing the skull of history's notorious author/sadist, but is the item real and... even more... is it cursed? Well, this is pretty much prime Bloch - pulpy, direct, setup-event-payoff storytelling. Which is fine, it's a good set-up for a yarn. Bloch doesn't really care to explore the idea of sadism at all (even his dream sequence of same, as the collector begins to find himself overwhelmed, is fairly restrained) and needs to make up things (so Sade is presumably a "Satanist" and also seemingly, secretly, a serial murderer of women), but all this is par for the course with horror writers who want to use the historical figure but elide any sexual matters. Not a gem (the ending is a but "been there, done that") and could have been better, but perfectly okay.
September 30, 2022
This collection of short stories that inspired films was published in 1970. I had read some of these before, but I just think it was a great collection of creepy tales. It also introduced me to some new writings by authors like Ray Bradbury, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and W. Somerset Maugham. I knew these authors, but I had never read the stories that were in this collection. Other than that, you get some classics. It's just a cool collection from 1970.
May 16, 2023
An odd collection of short stories that were turned into movies. This was published in 1970 or 1971, and horror movies have changed a lot in the last 50 years. The quality of the stories ranged widely. I loved many of them. I couldn't in good conscience give this more than 3 stars, though, because editor Peter Haining made the strange (and disrespectful) decision to rename the stories with the names of the films. Also, some of the stories were downright bad. Still, much fun to had here.
July 3, 2025
A nice little grab bag of short stories. The (unsurprisingly) well written and thoughtful afterword by Christopher Lee is a unique attribute that makes this worth picking up in my opinion.
December 12, 2015
I picked this off my shelf, it having been there four decades, in a "may as well..." mood, expecting some clichéd tales about vampires and werewolves (look at the cover). Boy, was I pleasantly surprised! These are actually the short stories that became the scripts for some of the horror genre's better movies. Among the tales are "The Fog" by Ray Bradbury, which became "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms'; "The Fly" which became, well, you know; "The Phantom of the Opera"; "Spurs," which became "Freaks"; and "The Hounds of Zaroff," a.k.a., "The Most Dangerous Game." There's more. My favorite was "The Devil in a Convent." Although one could mistake it for the 1899 movie of the same name, it is actually the 1914 "The Devil in a Nunnery," a short story. The nature of the Devil's evil is what makes the story fascinating. This book is quite the treat.
November 29, 2012
This review is for "The Fly" only. I was familiar with the old movie version and was excited to read the story to see how it differs. It is a great little story. This was assigned reading for my college English class otherwise I'm not sure if I would have known this existed.
February 12, 2009
Ein Teil der hier versammelten "Kurzgeschichten" sind tatsächlich krude Zusammenfassungen von Romanen. Dann doch lieber das Original...
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews