An American Werewolf and Other Influences
Chapter one. Into the Woods.
"The little girl threw down the comb and it grew bigger and bigger, and its teeth sprouted up into a thick forest, thicker than this forest where we live - so thick that not even Baba Yaga could force her way through. And Baba Yaga gnashing her teeth and screaming with rage and disappointment, turned round and drove away home to her little hut on hens' legs."
('Baba Yaga' from Old Peter's Russian Tales by Arthur Ransome)
Chapter two. Don't Stray from the Path.
A camping holiday in Dorset was not a good choice for a city girl like me. I like to be surrounded by houses and people. Each long night I lay awake in my tent imagining there was a yeti skulking around outside. he was a big hairy beast with claws. As sleep deprivation got worse so my imagination became more vivid. Yes, I could definitely see his shadow and hear the sound of huge hairy feet close by.
Chapter three. Is this a yeti leg... or just a paw hoax.
"Complete with furry padded paw, the well-preserved leg was found more than two miles up a remote mountain range... They could not identify which animal it came from but did not rule out the possibility it belonged to the yeti - a half-man, half-ape beast best known as the abominable snowman or bigfoot."
('Metro. Friday Oct. 10 2003. Georgina Littlejohn')
Chapter four. Wake up they're growing!
Back home, I'm watching a dog running around with a man's head on it - Invasion of the BodySnatchers is on TV. (It's the Donald Sutherland remake... although the original is great too.) I start to list every horror film I've ever seen (which isn't many. I am a true scaredycat... most of them I know from friends' descriptions.)
Late one night I actually manage to watch Halloween for the first time all the way through - a murder has a sheet over his head and is pretending to be a ghost.
Chapter seven. Carry on Screaming.
I start to draw. The hairy beast/monster that has lived in my imagination since my Doctor Who watching days appears. Just claws and feet. I wonder if it has a tail. Then huts where witches live deep in the woods. I decide to burn them down. The drawings become animations.
Chapter eight. Oddbod or An incident involving drawing on the walls of your living room with the idea that you will have an exhibition.
I have a family of birds living in the wall of my flat by the boiler flue. Two gentlemen from the council turn up to have a look. It is early morning, the room is empty except for the pencil drawings. I start to try to explain myself a bit wildly - they haven't asked me to. They seem to like the drawings. "That's It from the Adams Family isn't it?"
Chapter nine. Darkness descends.
Now drawings cover the walls of my living room and furry claws come through the door. Twigs lie on the floor ready to make a camp fire, only they're made of parcel tape. Where the fireplace should be, an animated wooden house burns to blackness reappearing only to incinerate again. The hallway is covered with yeti foot wallpaper. the things that live out in the wild have begun to encroach on my life in the city.
Rachel Cattle lives and works in London. She collaborates on animations with Steve Richards. 'The Darkness' took place in her London flat. Recent group exhibitions include the 'Keith Talent Annual', Keith Talent Gallery, 'The Housewarming' at The Residence Gallery and '4th Hull International Film festival'.
a-n magazine 0ct. 2005