A Shock to the System is a 1984 black comedy novel by Simon Brett. The novel was adapted into the 1990 film of the same name starring Michael Caine.
A Shock to the System is a 1984 black comedy novel by Simon Brett. The novel was adapted into the 1990 film of the same name starring Michael Caine.
Graham Marshall, the protagonist, is a rising executive at a London based oil conglomerate, and has always played by the rules. But Graham is passed over for promotion, losing out to a younger colleague called Robert Benham. On his way home that night, he lashes out at an aged tramp who harasses him, killing him, and dumps the body in the Thames. When it becomes clear that he has got away with this murder, Graham begins to feel a new power and murders his wife by booby-trapping an electric switch. Next, he sets a boating booby-trap for Robert, and fakes a suicide to dispose of a possible witness. Eventually he gets arrested for a murder he did not actually commit, as a consequence of a revenge-plot of his mother-in-law.
One review considered this ending to be "awfully contrived" [1] but the novel was described as "extra-dry in its humor" and "ever so restrained in its melodrama".
Simon Anthony Lee Brett OBE FRSL is a British author of detective fiction, a playwright, and a producer-writer for television and radio. As an author, he is best known for his mystery series featuring Charles Paris, Mrs Pargeter, Fethering, and Blotto & Twinks. His radio credits have included The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue and Just a Minute.
Busman's Honeymoon is a 1937 novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, her eleventh and last featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, and her fourth and last to feature Harriet Vane.
A Shock to the System is a 1990 American black comedy film directed by Jan Egleson and starring Michael Caine, Swoosie Kurtz, Elizabeth McGovern, and Peter Riegert. It is based on the 1984 novel A Shock to the System by British author Simon Brett.
The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams, was the first full-length novel by the English author Henry Fielding to be published and among the early novels in the English language. Appearing in 1742 and defined by Fielding as a "comic epic poem in prose", it tells of a good-natured footman's adventures on the road home from London with his friend and mentor, the absent-minded parson Abraham Adams.
Virtuosity is a 1995 American science fiction action film directed by Brett Leonard and starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. Howard W. Koch Jr. served as an executive producer for the film. The film was released in the United States on August 4, 1995. Virtuosity had an estimated budget of $30 million and grossed $37 million worldwide.
Cujo is a 1981 horror novel by American writer Stephen King about a rabid Saint Bernard. The novel won the British Fantasy Award in 1982 and was made into a film in 1983.
Red Dragon is a 2002 psychological thriller film based on the 1981 novel by Thomas Harris. It was directed by Brett Ratner and written by Ted Tally. It is the third film of the Dino De Laurentiis Company production, last produced by Universal Pictures, and last starred by actor Anthony Hopkins. It follows The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Hannibal (2001) as a prequel, being followed by Hannibal Rising (2007). The film sees FBI agent Will Graham enlisting the help of serial killer Hannibal Lecter to catch another killer, Francis Dolarhyde. Harvey Keitel, Emily Watson, Mary-Louise Parker, and Philip Seymour Hoffman also star.
Brighton Rock is a novel by Graham Greene, published in 1938 and later adapted for film and theatre. The novel is a murder thriller set in 1930s Brighton. The first of Greene's works to explore Catholic themes and moral issues, its treatment of class privilege and the problem of evil is paradoxical and ambivalent.
Jack Crawford is a fictional character who appears in the Hannibal Lecter series of novels by Thomas Harris, in which Crawford is the Agent-in-Charge of the Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI in Quantico, Virginia. He is modeled after John E. Douglas, who held the same position.
Ministry of Fear is a 1944 American spy thriller film directed by Fritz Lang, and starring Ray Milland and Marjorie Reynolds. Based on the 1943 novel by Graham Greene, the film tells the story of a man just released from a mental asylum who finds himself caught up in an international spy ring and pursued by Nazi agents after inadvertently receiving something they want. The original music for the film was composed by Victor Young.
The Confidential Agent (1939) is a thriller novel by British author Graham Greene. Fuelled by Benzedrine, Greene wrote it in six weeks. To avoid distraction, he rented a room in Bloomsbury from a landlady who lived in a flat below him. He used that apartment in the novel and had an affair with the landlady's daughter. He wrote the book for money and was so displeased with his work that he wanted it published under a pseudonym. But critics took a far different view; The New York Times, for example, called the novel "a magnificent tour-de-force".
The Believers is a 1987 Canadian-American neo-noir thriller horror-noir film directed by John Schlesinger, starring Martin Sheen, Robert Loggia and Helen Shaver. It is based on the 1982 novel The Religion by Nicholas Conde.
Salem's Lot is a 2004 American-Australian two-part television miniseries which first aired on TNT on June 20 and ended its run on June 21, 2004. It is the second television adaptation of Stephen King's 1975 vampire novel 'Salem's Lot following the 1979 miniseries adaptation.
Red Dragon is a psychological horror novel by American author Thomas Harris, first published in 1981. The story follows former FBI profiler Will Graham, who comes out of retirement to find and apprehend an enigmatic serial killer nicknamed "the Tooth Fairy". The novel introduces the character Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer whom Graham reluctantly turns to for advice and with whom he has a dark past. The title refers to the figure from William Blake's painting The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun.
The Ministry of Fear is a 1943 novel written by Graham Greene. It was first published in Britain by William Heinemann. It was made into the 1944 film Ministry of Fear, directed by Fritz Lang and starring Ray Milland.
Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Odyssey is a science fiction novel written in 1987 by Michael P. Kube-McDowell. It is part of the series Isaac Asimov's Robot City, inspired by Isaac Asimov's Robot series. The 1995 computer game Robot City is based on the plot of Odyssey.
Frederick "Freddy" Lounds is a fictional character in the Hannibal Lecter series, created by author Thomas Harris. Lounds first appears in the 1981 novel Red Dragon as a foil to protagonist Will Graham. Lounds is ultimately murdered by the novel's primary antagonist, serial killer Francis Dolarhyde.
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is an 1886 Gothic novella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It follows Gabriel John Utterson, a London-based legal practitioner who investigates a series of strange occurrences between his old friend Dr Henry Jekyll and a murderous criminal named Edward Hyde.
"Hassun" is the third episode of the second season of the psychological thriller–horror series Hannibal. It is the 16th overall episode of the series and was written by Jason Grote and executive producer Steve Lightfoot, and directed by Peter Medak. It was first broadcast on March 14, 2014, on NBC.