Diana Henstell

So, I just found out that one of my favorite boutique Blu-ray companies Shout! Factory (and their sub label Scream Factory) are putting out a rare Wes Craven movie, Deadly Friend.

Now, I have a long history with this movie (going back to 1995, when I first saw it on T.V. in the middle of the day on a cold fall Saturday to seeing parts of it again in fall 1996 when Joe Bob showed it on MonsterVision). I own a bootleg DVD of it (from 2008) but am seriously considering this Blu-ray.

Now, how does this tie into my writing (which is the sole purpose and topic of this blog)?

Simple.

In 2010 I started reading the source novels for some of my favorite movies.

This is how I discovered the stellar novel Vampire$, by John Steakley (another author who has sadly passed), which was adapted by John Carpenter in 1998. 

Anyhow, Deadly Friend, to me, in just so-so Wes Craven. See, I love the man's work so much (he was my favorite director from 1993-1995... then Stephen Norrington took over that title for a while) that I've categorized his work into three categories:

Stellar works: Nightmare on Elm Street, New Nightmare, People Under the Stairs, Serpent and the Rainbow, Hills Have Eyes (I go back-and-forth between this being stellar, and being so-so).

So-so works: Deadly Friend, Deadly Blessing, Chiller, Scream, Red Eye.

Terrible works: Scream 2-4, Shocker, Last House on the Lefty (original), Hills Have Eyes 2, My Soul To Take, Invitation to Hell, Summer of Fear, Vampire in Brooklyn. 

I may have missed some movies, but these are the ones I've seen and can immediately remember. 

At any rate, despite my not completely 100% loving the movie, I read the book (it was one of the first books I got from the all-encompassing Mobius system that I was introduced to when I started teaching college in 2010) and I am so glad I did.

The book (as is usually the case) was 100 times better than the movie!

I loved the book so much that, I repaired their old, used copy: before I returned it I noticed that the back cover was cover apart from the spine. I took a piece of packing tape and corrected it for them (incidentally, this copy of the book was a paperback copy, published before the film came out).

I then immediately bought a hard cover copy of Friend (though I kinda screwed up the dust jacket when I was laminating it), a hard cover copy of The Other Side (which I read; good characters, but the plot (another haunted mirror/evil doppelganger story) and the execution of the supernatural elements didn't quite do it for me) and multiple paperback copies of New Morning Dragon (I bought copies in bad condition for reading and pristine copies to store for collecting).

I even bought a movie tie-in edition of the Deadly Friend novel I found at V-Stock.

I also recommended Friend on Amazon Kindle, when I found it was available (with a kinda cheesy, and misleading, cover) for $2, to all of my friends who like a good horror movie read.

 I seem to remember (in 2011 or so), when I was really into my Diana Henstell kick, looking her up on social media. I think she either had a Twitter or Facebook account and only got on there to promote the Kindle release of Friend. I seem to remember her making a (respectful) comment about how the movie didn't really follow her book and that her book was better (I agree on both points; the movie really only borrowed the book's plot, character names and vaguely the characters' themselves). 

But, at any rate, I am a huge Diana Henstell fan, her writing has seriously inspired my own work both creatively and academically (I loved the last line of Friend so much that I use it in my Creative Writing classes to teach my student what a "strong ending" looks like).

So, when I found out that a Blu-ray of the film was being released, I was about to write an email to Shout! Factory to ask them to include some supplemental features that include Diana Henstell. Perhaps archival interviews with her, a modern retrospective with her about the writing of the book, the process of selling it to Hollywood and her thoughts on the film. 

However, then I decided to look Henstell up to see if she is still alive (as so many of my favorite authors, from Gary Brandener to James Herbert have passed in the last decade). Sadly, she passed in 2017 (which is surprising to me: 2017 was one of the best years of my life on record thus far and I can't believe the world lost one of its best (and one of my) favorite authors in that, personally, spectacular year). 

And while I am sad that the world is without Diana Henstell, I did find her obituary and it is stellar. I have enclosed it below. At least Ms. Henstell left us with 3 horror novels that will ensure that her legacy lives forever. For that, I will be grateful always.

Diana Henstell celebration of life