"The Whistler in the Dark"
Robert E. Howard wrote "Pigeons from Hell" in the early 1930s; Weird Tales published it posthumously in 1938. He divided it into three short chapters: "The Whistler in the Dark," "The Snake's Brother," and "The Call of Zuvembie." Stephen King has called it "one of the finest horror stories of our century" (Danse Macabre). Jet-Poop calls it "one of the scariest stories" he's "ever read" (Everything2), and you should read his review, above, if you want to know more about the short story. I'm mainly examining its television adaptation. However, a brief overview of the source follows:
A pair of traveling New England buddies find themselves off the beaten track and decide to spend the night in a deserted, crumbling Louisiana mansion. Naturally, one of them, Branner dies horribly and the other, Griswell, becomes the chief suspect.
As the local sheriff, Buckner, probes further, he decides that Griswell may be innocent, and the supernatural may be at work. The pair calls on Jacob, an ancient former slave with knowledge of voodoo and the occult.
From Buckner and Jacob, we learn the history of the now-defunct Blassenville Family, who came from the West Indies. They established the plantation and a reputation for cruelty. After the Civil War, the line deteriorated. The last surviving Blassenvilles, a group of eccentric sisters, disappeared or died under mysterious circumstances. Joan, a servant of mixed race, also fled the property.
Griswell and Buckner piece together an explanation. Buckner insists they confront the problem alone—he doesn't want the locals to know the terrifying truth. But, as Jet-Poop asks, "will they too join the flocks of pigeons from hell?"
"The Snake's Brother"
The TV anthology series
Thriller (1960-1962), hosted by
Boris Karloff, adapted the story at the
end of its first season. Fans usually rank "Pigeons from Hell" among its finest episodes.
John Kneubuhl's teleplay tightens the connections among various characters. Branner and Griswell become brothers, Timothy and Johnny Branner. Old Jacob becomes the Blassenvilles' former servant. The script also alters certain relationships among the past inhabitants of the mansion. Consequently the twist ending, though still chilling, changes.1
Although the screenplay softens the more overt racism of the source, it also removes some of the most interesting racial subtext. The Blassenvilles' mulatto maid Joan becomes a white woman, Eula Lee, with slightly different motives for her part in the story. The script also softens the perverse sadism of the Blassenville Sisters, but we're on television, and in a different era. Slavery remained something of a living memory in Howard's America. The foundational events of his story occurred in a nineteenth century still feeling the effects of the Civil War. The torrid drama of the television Blassenvilles unfolded in the twentieth century, and references and details have been adjusted accordingly.
In the tradition of scary movies, the travelers experience car trouble, and must spend the night in the old dark house. From there, events resemble those of the source. The supernatural elements have been muted. Whereas Howard's sheriff quickly accepted the presence of the forces of Hell, his TV incarnation offers rational explanations for events. The script and staging suggest the presence of mysterious forces, but with enough ambiguity that the sheriff's explanations could hold.
"Pigeons from Hell" features strong, if somewhat overdone, performances, typical of the era's drama. The director, John Newland, makes excellent use of light and shadow, especially in the outsized rooms of the mansion. The creators and actors make much of a limited budget, and the mise en scene clearly reflects the influence of live theater. The episode does not eliminate grotesque and disturbing imagery-- some of it quite strong for period television-- but most of the terror lies in suggestion.
"The Call of Zuvembie"
Old Jacob's tale, and the more supernatural explanation for the story's events, center on the "zuvembie," a voodoo-based creature invented by Howard. He clearly wanted something akin to a zombie—as they were understood to be, in those pre-Romero, pre-Zombie Apocalypse days-- but with certain elements not found in traditional zombie lore. His "zuvembie" have a broader range of supernatural powers, including hypnotic spells that affect humans and a Draculaesque control over certain creatures of the night. While people fear becoming zombies, a person might choose to become zuvembie. One would just need suitably dark and foul motives, and access to a special voodoo brew. Zuvembie live forever, unless someone kills them. Lead bullets do fine.
The old Comics Code Authority put several restrictions on horror in the four-color realm. For years, Marvel Comics simply used the term "zuvembie" to mean "zombie," a once-forbidden word.
With the old code no longer in effect, most comic-book zombies reclaimed their name. Zuvembie had established itself, however, and the name now designates its own class of undead in certain dark corners of pop culture. Zuvembies have turned up in Marvel and DC Comics, and in certain horror and comic-themed games (Zuvembie Heroclix exist, for example).
The story itself has been adapted into comic book form, by Eclipse in 1988 and Dark Horse in 2008. Despite some dated and racist references, "Pigeons from Hell" succeeds in all its forms, a terrifying tale that straddles both the pulp-horror and Southern Gothic traditions in literature.
Note
With Spoilers
For both the short story and the TV adaptation.
So if you read, you'll encounter information "Pigeons from Hell" withholds 'til the end.
1. In the original short story, we suspect Joan of becoming a zuvembie and offing the sisters, save for one who fled, and then holing up in the old house, drawing down pigeons and killing the occasionally trespasser. We learn, in fact, that clever Joan zuvembified one of the sisters, and.... You get the general idea.
In the film, Eula Lee, assumed by outsiders to be a white servant, is actually a mistreated half-sister. She zuvembifies herself and kills the sisters. Local people assume they fled, but we see their decayed bodies in the final scene. I suspect the writer intended Eula Lee to be a biracial half-sister, but that never would have flown with network executives in the early 1960s. Pity, since it makes a terrific ending.