The Cell: Three Tales of Horror

by David Case

"My spine seemed fixed and my flesh fluid and creeping around it." The narrator is reading his uncle's diary and as the story unfolds, this feeling will enclose the reader. Was the uncle eccentric? Did he really have to be locked in the cellar? What was there now? And why this strange affinity between the uncle and his heir.

The Cell explores this terrifying world and is the first of three stories which show that David Case is in the front rank of writers in this genre.

Genres: Horror

269 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

David Case (1937-2018) was born in upstate New York. Since the early 1960s he lived in London, as well as spending time in Greece and Spain. His acclaimed collection The Cell: Three Tales of Horror appeared in 1969, and it was followed by the novels Fengriffen: A Chilling Tale, Wolf Tracks, and The Third Grave. His other collections include Brotherly Love and Other Tales of Trust and Knowledge, Pelican Cay & Other Disquieting Tales, and an omnibus volume in the 'Masters of the Weird Tale' series from Centipede Press. In recent years, his selected short horror fiction has been reprinted by Valancourt Books as The Cell & Other Transmorphic Tales and Fengriffen & Other Gothic Tales.

A regular contributor to the legendary Pan Book of Horror Stories series during the early 1970s, as well as a handful of westerns and pseudonymous porn novels, his powerful zombie novella “Pelican Cay” in Dark Terrors 5 was nominated for a World Fantasy Award in 2001.

(Bio adapted from Valancourt Books)

Reviews

[Jail Flanagain · Rating 3 out of 5]

My glib description of David Case's writing is that it reads like the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche being made into a Hammer horror movie. Lot's of campy chauvinism, swilling brandy, firing guns, big game hunters, contempt for common morality,fairly obvious twists and predator worship. All of which I enjoy but grows wearying after a while. The writing is intelligent and readable if only the subject matter was less repetitive. Still I enjoyed this as horror fiction.
I respect any writer who loves werewolves as much as he does though. If only the horror genre had more genre werewolf fiction and less vampire fiction.

[Redrighthand · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Cell ***
The Hunter ****
The Dead End *****

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good but was probably more surprising and shocking when it was originally published.