After the heavy load of reading Dostoyevsky's great The Brothers Karamazov, I decided to go for "lighter" fare. I had seen This Thing of Darkness by K. V. Turley and Fiorella De Maria promoted in some Catholic publications, and was intrigued by the fact that it involved Bela Lugosi, so I decided to give it a try.
First, let me say that after Karamazov, any non-classic would suffer in comparison!
With some reservations, I enjoyed the book, and in particular all Lugosi aspects. I was somewhat familiar with his life and career, the horror genre, and German horror films, so the historical references worked for me. Murnau. Nosferatu. Chaney. Karloff. White Zombie. Whale. Browning. All familiar territory.
The writers clearly did some research. I wonder if as part of their research they viewed Shadow of the Vampire? They touch on a few of the ideas in that movie, but that may have been unintentional.
The basic premise of the novel was interesting, and the underlying examination of evil, film, and culture, and the importance of faith, all rang true.
The reservations arise over some of the details about the main non-Lugosi characters. Something about them just did not click, and some of the incidents involving them seemed questionable. I found one of the plot details at the end totally predictable. At times the writing seemed hard to follow and a little choppy - as if the two authors wrote sections each and the sections did not fully come together (I don't know if this last observations is true, but that's the impression I got). I also had the advantage of being familiar with some of the biographical and historical elements, but wonder if other readers would find them confusing - the business of the horror classic Nosferatu, for example: How many modern readers have seen it? Finally, some of the details at the end seemed a little rushed - an exorcist conveniently appears and seems to understand everything, for example. It was as if the authors needed just to get it done. Consequently, I think some things were left unresolved.
Bottom line, the book fit my need for lighter fare (even if dealing with some heavy elements of evil). The writing is better than a lot of what's offered in contemporary fiction. It certainly was worth reading.
Pax et bonum
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