Ramsey Campbell is adept at making you feel a creeping sort of dread; of something pursuing you, lingering on the fringes... ANCIENT IMAGES is FILLED with these moments. This, plus a rumored Karloff/Lugosi film, blood sacrifices to the land, and a malevolent town, equals one hell of a scary book.

A fifty year old missing horror movie resurfaces after the persistent effort of a historian, but on the screening night he dies and the film goes missing again. Sandy Miller, his good friend takes on herself to solve the mystery by going after the film, on the same trail that he pursued. She finds out that the movie was suppressed by someone powerful to prevent anybody from viewing it. But it is too late when she realises that the horror movie is just the tip of iceberg and behind it there are sinister plans of terror and bloodbath by an ancient evil alive for centuries.

I am not a regular reader of horror. I like reading short stories of the genre- from Poe, Doyle, Lovecraft and had even read a great one from Maupassant titled Horla. But I had mostly disappointing experiences from novels. I like Dracula for it's artistic merit and great narration rather than the horror element. I have tried Stephen King, Joe Hill and a few others, but horror novels always failed to bowl me over.

I realized its reason while reading Necronomicon, a story collection by Lovecraft. I like the tension in the atmosphere, I like the built up, I like the human drama that unfolds when the paranormal strikes the characters, but the ultimate reveal always disappoints me. The appearance of the monster or whatever evil the novel puts forward, is never sufficient to terrorize me.

That was why, I went into Ancient Images, a novel by acclaimed British writer Ramsey Campbell without much enthusiasm. The only interest I had was the mystery of the missing movie which starred Karloff and Lugosi, two actors who featured in some movies that I watched before. There was a time when I dabbled in watching riffs of bad movies through MST3K and Rifftrax. Bela Lugosi was a regular in old British horror (he had famously portrayed Count Dracula in some), but I loved him in Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space.

In UK there were periods when horror movies were looked down upon. Horror movies, however well made they were, used to be considered low brow entertainment. They were censored and kids couldn't watch them. Movies with scary content were termed Video nasties and posession was illegal for some time. The novel alludes to several such historical tendencies in its plot.

But the real strength of this novel is the atmosphere. The paranoia that the protagonist feels, the constant feel of being spied, the constant presence of danger behind every curb and after every turn, most of this she suspect about, but we as readers are already let in on the danger by the author after feeding us on two small chapters that makes us aware of the horrors that lay ahead for her in her road. We are turned to blood hounds, always smelling danger and always on the lookout of potential evilness.

The most difficult task for an author in a long horror novel is the sustenance of tension without depending on gore. Only a master can sustain reader's interest and attention through pages and pages of investigating new characters while revealing tiny bits of plot every while and keep them guessing where the evil will strike next. Ramsey Campbell is definitely a master of horror and I would like to read more from him.

EBook received from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

I’ve become a fan of the author in recent years and really wanted to read Ancient Images when I read the blurb. I loved horror fiction so couldn’t wait to see what the book had to offer. The premise reminded me a lot of Ring. I liked this book a lot. It took me a few chapters to get into the language and characters but I really enjoyed myself reading this. This is a perfect horror novel, dark and strange and delightful.

I think at this point that I just need to accept that Ramsey Campbell is not for me. It's strange, because I've read a couple short story collections by him and one novel that I REALLY enjoyed. Everything else I've tried of his work, though, just hasn't clicked with me. I'm genuinely not sure why that is.

I usually like a good horror story, especially when there is a lot of suspense over gore, and Campbell does build the suspense. The first 3 rd of the ok had a subtle building suspense that made the reader uneasy throughout. The premise of a cursed family and a lost film was an interesting premise, and well researched. It was also fun to read a book written in the late 80s… some realities would be suspense elements now.

Unfortunately, the story didn’t quite deliver for me. As a wheat farming family, that element wasn’t well researched, the over use of Sandy’s period (and Sandy in general) didn’t feel authentic, and the suspense devices that started off strong were repeated often leading to a cry wolf situation.

Originally published in 1989, Ramsey Campbell's Ancient Images is a work of gradually overwhelming dread. Sandy sets out to find a controversial lost film in order to restore the her friend's reputation. The closer she gets to locating it, the closer she draws otherworldly forces who do not want it to be screened again.

I really enjoy Ramsey Campbell's writing. It's a gentle kind of horror that sneaks up on you. I'm never scared when I read his books, but when I have to get up in the middle of the night to pee, I'm suddenly second guessing every shadow in the bathroom. And don't even talk to me about mirrors. Eyes ahead at all times! I won't even glance that way.

I'm pleased to see this being published again and accessible to new readers. Although the setting might feel dated, the characters are diverse. They would be at home in a novel newly published today. I received this book for free on netgalley in exchange for a review.

This was a good read if you enjoyed old timey movies and creepy nostalgia. Originally written in the late 80s it hits all the mysterious marks but fell a bit flat for me. I had a hard time staying engaged but anyone more invested in old movies would enjoy it much more.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc

I had a basic concept of this book going into it. A film historian finds a long lost copy of a 50-year old movie starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. He then dies fleeing someone or something terrifying. The film, along with all of his notes, is destroyed.

His friend Sandy Allan is determined to prove to skeptics that he did indeed find the film. She embarks on a journey through England and into the past, learning more about the film, the curious fates of survivors, and the titled family at the center of the controversial film.

So far, so straightforward. However, this is Ramsey Campbell. If he has written a straightforward novel, I have not yet read it.

Campbell raises the tension slowly throughout the novel, drip by drip by drip. Sandy’s own notes on the film are destroyed when her cats are spooked out of her apartment. Shadows gain substance then become shadows again. Strange sounds and odors follow her around. People she seeks to interview die just before or just after she speaks with them, often in mysterious circumstances. What starts out with the feel of a mystery creeps closer and closer to the macabre until Bruce Willis discovers that he was dead all the way through the movie.

Wait. Different movie. I don’t want to give spoilers for the book, though, so just pretend that the Bruce Willis thing is covering over the actual stuff that I shouldn’t reveal.

Sandy Allan is a lot braver than I. There were a number of times throughout the novel when I wanted to shout at her, “Look behind you.” Oftentimes, she did look behind her, only to see…nothing. Yet that nothing becomes something that turns to nothing far too often. It does not take long before that nothing that is something masquerading as nothing begins to scare the socks off you, then you find yourself writing the review in your bare feet.

Ancient Images tells the story of Sandy Allan, a film editor who is searching for an unreleased film featuring classic horror icon actors Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Many people deny the existence of the film altogether; however, Sandy is determined to prove the existence of the film. This sounds easy, but this is Ramsey Campbell, a horror master who can make even the mundane search for a movie full of twists and turns. This book is a wonderful folk horror tale and I really enjoyed reading about the movie and the background information of how the film was made. The book also tells the very real story of a movement in England where horror movies were considered video nasties and horror in general were considered obscene. My only con was the endless driving that Sandy did throughout the book.. I really wanted more action and would have loved to have spent more time in the village. I also had to remind myself that this book was written in the 1980's, so research was often slow and painful compared to researching a topic in 2023.

Slow Burn Horror....................

Ancient Images by Ramsey Campbell gives you a taste of Lovecraft horror. For the first half of the book, the plot moves slowly. But after that it felt like watching a horror movie. Sandy Allen's character makes a drastic development from the beginning to the end. It is my first time I have read a book by the author. And, I must say that I am really impressed with his writing style. But the book is not for beginners, as the language is little bit difficult. But, a perfect one for horror lovers.

I would like to give 4 stars to the book. Thanks to Netgalley and Random Things Tours for providing me with an opportunity to read and review the book.

[Blurb Goes Here]

In the 1980s Graham has finally found the-until then thought lost-last film Lugosi and Karloff did together: "Tower of Fear." He invites his best friend Sandy to a showing of the film at his apartment. Sandy arrives a little too early, the door is ajar, and there's no one home. Instinctively, she walks to the window, the scene unfolding before her eyes makes no sense: Graham is about to jump from the roof of the adjacent building. She cries to him, but it is too late. Her friend is falling, and meets the pavement in seconds.

A police investigation ensues. The film was stolen, giving the officers a motive for Graham's dead. Might be that he was following the thief, and tried to jump across buildings to catch him.

Sandy is not convinced.

A newspaper article the next morning hints at Graham's failed attempt to find the lost film, Sandy vows right then and there to devote herself to finding it once again.

And so the search begin.

While this is a very interesting story, finish to end, I have a couple of quips with it. First, Graham lives with his boyfriend, a man we'll be introduced to in the first few pages, only to see him vanish after Graham's dead, never to return. Then there's the rest of the ensamble: not even Sandy is a three dimensional character, she just flows through the motions, never taking any real shape.

Campbell writes a great story that misses the mark. There are monsters in it, waisted monsters that keep themselves to the shadows, and are of no real threat to the characters. Sandy, all through out the book feels that something is watching her, but every single time she dismisses the bad smell and the figures lurking in the dark.

I was waiting, hoping, wishing that the creatures started to wreck havoc...sadly, they never do. Not until the last few pages when Sandy is threatened by them and one attacks a man. That's it. Oh, don't get me wrong, one of the things manages to distract a man into falling and breaking some bones.

While I enjoyed the ride, it never ceased to feel somewhat empty.

Thank you for the advanced copy!

Ramsey Campbell is the absolute king of folk horror. Ancient Images seamlessly merges a very modern infatuation with vintage horror movies with our forgotten pagan past. The book includes nothing graphic, no sex scenes or visceral horror, but still manages to creep under the readers skin in a way that few authors can.

It begins with the search for a forgotten horror masterpiece starring movie legends, and ends with a doorway into a netherworld that could previously not be seen, but now cannot be unseen.

Following his awesome The Fellowstones, I was extremely happy to read a preview of anything by this masterful author, but especially happy to read this particular book.

If you have even the vaguest interest in this book, treat yourself and get a copy.

The search for the last copy of a missing film starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, two horror film greats, is the basic plot of ANCIENT IMAGES. But when Ramsey Campbell is the author, there's nothing basic in sight!

Sandy Allan is a young film editor and researcher who is invited to come and watch the film, but it disappears and the friend she was going to watch it with is now dead. Tenacious Sandy travels far and wide in her search for the film, but what she discovers takes her miles away from her family and job, possibly forever. Will Sandy retrieve the film and find out what all the fuss is about? What happens when she finally watches it? You'll have to read this to find out.

I am a fan of Ramsey Campbell and this book has been sitting on my to be read list for years. With this new release from Flame Tree Press I finally decided to read it and I'm so glad I did! The pacing here is kind of odd....Sandy is rushing here and there in her search, while the mystery is slowly unraveling. It was a nice dichotomy. Sandy was so brave and spunky, even though she didn't think she was, I couldn't help but root for her.

I'm not sure what I was expecting from this book, but slow building folk horror was not it. Fortunately, this is Ramsey Campbell and he can pull of anything! What horror lover doesn't want to read about ancient evil in a small town? Or generations of family secrets? This horror lover adores that stuff and this book delivers it!

Highly recommended!

*Due out February, 2023 from Flame Tree Press. Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!*

I think that Ramsey Campbell is one of our genre authors who should be better known. Although you might not recognise the name, he’s a World Fantasy Award winner, an editor, anthologist, reviewer and critic. Quietly constructing his own Horror stories for over 40 years, Ramsey has honed his craft to become a master of producing stories that create unease – as well as the odd Grand Guignol tale as well! There’s M. R. James-ian ghost stories, Lovecraft homages, Clive Barker-like bloodbaths and pretty much everything in-between.

With well over 50 books published, rather like Stephen King, it can be difficult to know where to start. However, this one’s not a bad one in my opinion.

Sandy Allen is a film editor, whose friend Graham Nolan has, at last, unearthed a copy of the long-lost black and white movie named <em>Tower of Fear</em> starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Accepting an offer for a personal viewing, Sandy finds Graham apparently committing suicide and the film missing.

Sandy, with her friend and co-colleague Toby, are determined to find the film and the reason for Graham’s death, which they believe was not suicide.

As they follow a trail attempted to meet people involved in the production of the film for clues, mysterious events suggest that there is more to the film than they realised. There’s the suicide, of course, but also the odd circumstances and death of one of the film’s comedic double-acts, not to mention the people who suddenly refuse to answer their phones or respond to enquiries. Many believe that the film is cursed and refuse to even talk about it.

The search is not easy. Nevertheless, the rest of the book deals with Sandy’s findings which lead to an idyllic Lincolnshire village named Redfield whose landowner family is connected to the film and its suppression.

Following my brief description of Ramsey’s work above, anyone expecting a slash-horror story here will be sadly mistaken. Instead, I found <em>Ancient Images</em> to be a slow burner, one that began with a hook and then built up the tension until the end. There are icky moments, admittedly, but they are far outweighed by the descriptions of the seemingly ordinary British way of life, whilst in the shadows things lurk.  As good as Ramsey is at describing bucolic ‘Britishness’, it is always an undertone where someone’s watching you, that something is not quite right. This is emphasised in the village of Redfield where <em>Archers</em> type rurality turns into <em>Wicker-Man</em>-like events.

This is further emphasised by experiences happening that at times seem dreamlike and unreal, experienced by Sandy in particular. Are they nightmares created by tension and stress, or are these something else, even something real? Ramsey’s prose often creates this sense of vagueness and ambiguity, but then adds some contrasting, even startling, descriptions along the way to jolt you back to what is the everyday.

It’s not entirely perfect, although I enjoyed it a great deal. Most of the characters are fairly simple and relatively undeveloped. I must admit that talk of using typewriters, having change to use in a phone box and the need to go out and do physical research did throw me a little at first. (The book’s a reissue, first published 1989 – no Google, internet or mobile phones here!**)

The chapter where Sandy meets a group of film buffs who write a fanzine named <em>Gorehound</em> and spend their time with degraded bootleg VHS tape copies for their entertainment also aged this, but could equally apply today – I’m reminded of the ongoing search for <em>Dr. Who</em> episodes, for example. Despite the feeling that today Social Media and Google would make much of this book redundant, much of the book feels quaintly historical and yet still relevant over 30 years on.

Occasionally there’s a feeling that there’s an odd coincidence too many, or that things all interconnect too conveniently, but generally the flow of the plot and the tension created by the need to solve the mystery keep things moving along nicely.

Lastly, I must admit that a welcome addition to this edition is the afterword written by Ramsey in 2011, in which he gives us some context. Ramsey tells us that the book is partly inspired by classic cinema and reminds us that the book was written at a time when “video nasties” were reviled by the British media. It is (rather like Ramsey himself!) thoughtful, self-depreciating and gently critical.

In short then, <em>Ancient Images</em> is a novel that is ‘of a time’, an impressively quick and deceptively effortless read, that draws you in and kept me reading. It’s not a bad place to start the Campbell experience.



* <em>Ring</em> by Koji Suzuki was actually published two years after <em>Ancient Images.</em>

**And just to put that in perspective – also published in 1989: <em>Midnight</em> by Dean Koontz, <em>The Dark Half</em> by Stephen King, <em>Guards! Guards!</em> by Terry Pratchett and <em>Hyperion</em> by Dan Simmons.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

***

When I applied for this one, I was drawn to the idea of a missing Karloff/Lugosi film. I didn't realize this book was originally published in the late 80s and that this is likely a re-release of some kind.

That being said, I enjoyed it for what it was. If you're familiar with older Hollywood horror, this may appeal to you. Newer readers without that knowledge may be a little lost with the references being made here.

The start was wonderful. Mystery. Intrigue. But, the body of the story is far too verbose for me. It really drags on and the action slows to a lull. I found myself skimming at points. Things pick up in the tail end if the book.

urban-fantasy, horror, suspense, thriller, supernatural, 1980s, British, film-industry, twisted,****

This is a reissue of a much earlier book of traditional horror.
The story is creepy, chilling, ghostly and scary. There is the sense of horrors lurking everywhere in the strange yet outwardly idyllic village of Redfield. The whole is centered around a lost film starred by the giants in the field of 1938 horror films but goes way beyond that. Excellent book for fans of the genre!
I requested and received an EARC from Flame Tree Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

Im sorry to admit I had never heard of Ramsey Campbell, but, having read his biography and the praise for his novels, I was really looking forward to reading this book and hopefully discovering a new favourite author.
Sadly, it wasn't to be - I found the dialogue really difficult and unnatural and wasn't really interested enough in the characters or the plot to continue reading to the end.
Thank you to netgalley and flame tree press for an advance copy of this book.

Ramsey Campbell books are always a slow burn for me, but once they get there they really get there. Ancient images, like the few other Campbell books I've read, has an insidiousness that gets under your skin. He can take familiar things and make them into something so strange and unsettling. He did this with vaudeville in The Grin of the Dark, and he does it with Legosi and Karloff and classic horror movies in Ancient Images. I'm forever in awe of how he builds scenes with such an air of discomfort and mystery. The image of Graham Nolan jumping from the roof will stick with me. Throw in a cult and you've got me forever.

Thank you, Flame Tree Press and NetGalley, for the chance to read and review Ramsey Campbell's 'Ancient Images.'

This is a reissue of a late 80's Ramsey Campbell novel. It reads like that - in a good way.

The narrative is straightforward search for a mythical lost Lugosi/Karloff film trails death, horror, and mystery behind it.

It reminded me just how much of fun and complexity and possibilities that mobile phones and the internet have taken out of crime and horror novels. The main character here spends days and weeks zipping around London and the midlands of England search for clues and people that would've taken 10 minutes on Google. Whole segments of the story hang on the fact that she can't get people on the phone. Story arcs like that can only happen these days if a character is in a convenient no signal area or there's an apocalyptic power and communications outage!

The interactions between characters reek of the misogyny and classism that was rife into the 80s. Again, although they still exist nowadays, it would be impossible to take a novel seriously with those clear themes in 2023.

The only criticism I had is the number of times the main character disregarded the evidence of her eyes, ears, and smell. Too often something was seen out of the corner of her eye or looked like a dog.

What I love about 'Ancient Images' is Campbell's signature folk horror themes combined with 20th century technology - film, cars, phones, etc.

Great fun and very enjoyable - much credit to Flame Tree Press for the ongoing reissues. Ramsay Campbell deserves to be accessible to a new generation of readers.

When a film historian dies after supposedly locating a copy of a mythical film starring Karloff and Lugosi, his friend, Sandy, sets about finding the film and proving her friend wasn’t mad. But no one wants to talk about it because they think the film was cursed as numerous crew members, including the director, died. Investigating rumours and hints and wading through an ever-increasing body count, Sandy discovers the film could be in the hands of a wealthy, titled family who lives in a perfect paradise of farm fertility and financial security. Can Sandy uncover the film’s secret and that of the family, protecting it before anyone else is killed?
Ancient Images is a re-release of a book originally released in 1989, which is important contextual information for placing this book in time and attitude. I didn’t have this information when I started reading, so the homophobic and casual sexism towards women caught me off-guard. Once I was armed with the original release date knowledge, I enjoyed the story more. It is a story of it’s time, capturing the attitudes of a moment and showing how far we’ve come, or haven’t, in our understanding of people different to ourselves.
Ancient Images is a tour of the horror scene in the late 80s, the fans and detractors, the snobbery within the film critic community, and the underhand tactics used by the press to get a story. The story is based on a horror film that has mythical status starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. The film had such bad luck on set and upset so many people that it was never released, and all the copies were hidden. Sandy’s friend, Graham, is a film historian who has made it his life’s mission to find this film; only once he does, he falls from a rooftop and dies. Sandy feels there’s more to Graham’s death than suicide and sets out to find the film.
I found the pacing quite slow, and some elements didn’t make sense until the end; however, Ramsay Campbell is a master storyteller, so I entrusted myself to his narrative and wasn’t disappointed. The gradual build of tension and suspense gave way to Once I had finished Ancient Images, the more I thought about it, the more I realised how everything was connected. From the graphic opening scene to the travelling community known as Enoch’s Army, it all served a purpose within the narrative, and I appreciated the tightness of the storytelling. There was no unnecessary padding (well, perhaps we could have done without the sex scene, but it isn’t very long, so we’ll gloss over that), and every character served a purpose, even if they were a red herring.
This is not the first re-issue of Ancient Images, and it is easy to understand why. With tight storytelling and a wealth of interesting characters, it is bound to find fans with a new audience.