I am currently reading Algernon Blackwood’s The Damned (1914), which Wikipedia describes as “A highly original haunted house tale in which the haunting results from the intolerant religious beliefs of a series of previous residents”, and which I can say is gripping, unnerving, and just what a classic spooky story should be.

But it’s a bit of a mouthful… OK, so what can one expect written in 1914?

Reading the 90-page story, I have the urge to modernise it, to bring the situation and characters right up to date while retaining the underlying original story. I cannot say I have ever reacted to a story in this way. The beauty of The Damned is it’s now out of copyright and freely available (pop over to Project Gunteberg for a copy).

It got me thinking as to why this notion modernising and reworking of classic movies has not (as far as I am aware, please re-educate me if I am mistaken) appeared in the publishing world. It seems more acceptable to revision an idea in the movies than in print. Sometimes these reworks fail, sometimes they improve on the original. Some stories at their core are timeless.

This may be an interesting project to accomplish after the completion of Persistent Spirit and before getting fully imersed in A Shot in Time (the second TableRappers novel).