THE CENTURY'S BEST HORROR FICTION #59: A review of "The Howling Man" by Charles Beaumont

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Take a poll of everyone who has a healthy interest in THE TWILIGHT ZONE, and ask them what their favorite episode was. It’ll probably come down to two: Matheson’s story about the gremlin on the wing of the plane, or Beaumont’s “The Howling Man.” Though it originally appeared under the name of C.B. Lovehill, and the actual name of the writer is Charles Nutt, this is ALL Beaumont.



Fresh out of college, Ellington has decided to do what all young men of the age did before having to deal with the real world: he decides to travel Europe. Paris, in particular. Because, you know, he wants to get laid. A lot. With French chicks.


The constant party wears him out, and soon he finds himself exhausted. He decides it’s time to see the rest of Europe. Unfortunately, he isn’t at the top of his game, and he comes down with a case of pneumonia and passes out. When he comes to, he’s in a monastery, and Brother Christophorus is watching over him. The monk is kind of disappointed, because he was expecting Ellington to die (and the head monk, Jerome, says that all monks should experience the death of a man before they are ready to serve God), but he helps nurse Ellington back to health. There’s just one problem: throughout every night, Ellington hears someone screaming within the monastery walls.


Brother Christophorus denies this, saying it’s just a part of Ellington’s hallucinations due to his fever. Yet, Ellington can’t accept that, and he sneaks out of his room until he finds the source of the screams: a naked, hairy man in a hidden cell. The prisoner tells him that Jerome is a madman who kidnapped him and is holding him for no reason against his will.


At this point, Jerome discovers Ellington and takes him aside, explaining how things used to be in the nearby town. To hear him tell it, it was Sodom and Gomorrah rolled up in one, until one night he encounters a man who begs him to give Extreme Unction to his dying wife. This man leads him to a gorgeous, naked woman who has a different kind of Extreme Unction in mind. At this moment, Jerome decides that the man is the devil, and he traps him with the aid of a cross.


In other words, the man in the cell is none other than Satan himself, and his imprisonment means that there is an end to strife on the planet. All mankind has to deal with is the shit they already have, not the devil’s mischief.


That’s not the twist. SPOILER ALERT: Well, it is. Kind of. The reality is, Ellington completely disbelieves this story, as would any rational man. This is clearly a case of religious cruelty, and he decides to free the howling man. He manages to unlock the cell, and as they escape, Ellington makes a sudden and horrible realization: Jerome was telling the truth. This man really is the devil. The world starts going to shit shortly afterward, and when Ellington tries to tell the authorities about what has happened, the monks discredit him, saying he’s still suffering from his sickness. He can’t help but go about the rest of his life, feeling guilty about having set loose the devil on the world. That’s a pretty soul-wrenching ending as it is, but then, Beaumont has to fuck it up. At the very end, the monks manage to catch the devil again and lock him away. Meaning, this story has all been for nothing. END OF SPOILERS.


If you have the willpower to skip the last two paragraphs of this story, you will be rewarded with one of the greatest horror stories to ever be written. Hell, even with the last two paragraphs, it’s pretty good, but it’s kind of a cop out. You’ll see.


[This story first appeared in ROGUE and can be downloaded for free here.]