My top 22 horror stories

My Top 22 Horror Short Stories

I've been reading horror stories since 1970, when I was 9 years old and I saw a copy of Alfred Hitchcock's Monster Museum (Random House, 1965) on the shelf of my grammar school library. 

While most of the stories in the book were rather tame - it was aimed at an audience of juvenile Baby Boomers, after all - Joseph Payne Brennan's story 'Slime' immediately gripped my attention, and from then on, my interest in the genre began, and has lasted since.

After some contemplation, I've decided to stand forth with a list of 22 short stories that in my humble opinion are the better ones I've encountered in 50 years of reading all manner of horror fiction. Since it's the interval covered by this blog, I've concentrated on stories that first saw print from the 1960s into the mid-1990s. 

I've posted a brief, one-sentence synopsis for each story, to jog memories or to give the reader a sense of what to expect.

One problem with focusing on such stories is that in many instances the books where they first appeared long are out of print, and copies in good condition have steep asking prices. Accordingly, where available, I've tried to provide alternate sources for obtaining these stories.

My Top 22, in chronological order:

The First Days of May, by Claude Veillot, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, December 1961; Tales of Terror from Outer Space, 1975

‘Alien invasion’ theme, well done.

***

One of the Dead, by William Wood, The Saturday Evening Post, October 31, 1964; Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Scream Along with Me; A Walk with the Beast, 1969; Great American Ghost Stories, 1991

Although a bit over-written, this is a well-crafted melding of the haunted house theme with the anomie of mid-1960s life in suburban Los Angeles.  

***

The Road to Mictlantecutli, by Adobe James, Adam Bedside Reader, 1965; The Sixth Pan Book of Horror Stories,1965; The Arbor House Treasury of Horror and the Supernatural, 1981

Morgan, a ruthless criminal, is travelling on a mysterious road in Mexico. The strange sights and passions he encounters will lead him to change his life........for good, or for ill.

'Adobe James' was the pseudonym of American writer James Moss Cardwell (1926 – 1990), who had his short stories published in a variety of magazines and anthologies during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. 

***

Longtooth, by Edgar Pangborn, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 1970; The Best of Modern Horror, 1989

A resident of rural Maine discovers something disturbing in the deep, dark woods.

***

Goat, by David Campton, New Writings in Horror and the Supernatural #1, 1971; Whispers: An Anthology of Fantasy and Horror, 1977

Creepy goings-on in an English village.

***

Satanesque, by Alan Weiss, The Literary Magazine of Fantasy and Terror, #6, 1974; The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series III, 1975

Starts off on a thoroughly conventional note, then unexpectedly transitions into something entirely imaginative and offbeat.

***

The Shortest Way, by David Drake, Whispers #3, March 1974; From the Heart of Darkness, 1983; Vettius and His Friends, 1989;  Night & Demons, 2012

A 'Vettius' story set in the days of the Roman empire. Our hero elects to travel on a road that the locals take care to avoid. An atmospheric, memorable tale.

***

The Taste of Your Love, by Eddy C. Bertin, The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series III, 1975; The Whispering Horror, 2013

One of the better Serial Killer tales I’ve read.

***

The Changer of Names, by Ramsey Campbell, Swords Against Darkness II, 1977; The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories: 4, 1978; Far Away and Never, 2021.

I've never been a fan of Campbell’s horror stories and novels, but his sword-and-sorcery stories featuring the ‘Ryre’ character are entertaining exercises in creepiness. There are metaphors and similes abounding in the Ryre tales, to be sure, but as compared to Campbell's horror stories the purple prose is reduced in scope, and plotting receives due consideration. 

While the Swords Against Darkness paperbacks have exorbitant asking prices, a new (October 2021) reprint of Far Away and Never from DMR Press collects all four of the Ryre stories, along with other fantasy tales from Campbell's early career.  

***

Long Hollow Swamp, by Joseph Payne Brennan, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, January 1976; The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series V, 1977

Another great 'monsters-on-the-loose' tale from Brennan.

***

Sing A last Song of Valdese, by Karl Edward Wagner, Chacal #1, Winter 1976; The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series V, 1977; Night Winds, 1978, 1983

One of two entries by Wagner, who wrote a lot of duds, but when he was On, he was On. In a remote forest, a lone traveler comes upon an inn filled with sinister characters.

***

Window, by Bob Leman, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 1980; The 1981 Annual World’s Best SF, 1981; The Best of Modern Horror, 1989

A neat mix of sci-fi and horror, revolving around a portal to another dimension.

***

Where the Summer Ends, by Karl Edward Wagner, Dark Forces, August 1980; In A Lonely Place, 1983; The American Fantasy Tradition, 2002

 

A second entry from Wagner. It’s hot, humid, and dangerous in 1970s Knoxville. Stay away from the kudzu !

***

The New Rays, by M. John Harrison, Interzone #1, Spring 1982, The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series XI, 1983; The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories, 2012

A disturbing tale with proto-steampunk leanings. 

***

After-Images, by Malcolm John Edwards, Interzone #4, Spring 1983, The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series XII, 1984; Interzone: The First Anthology, 1986

Another fine melding of sci-fi and horror, this time set in an English suburb. It’s too bad that Edwards, a playwright and editor, didn’t write more short stories.

***

The Man with Legs, by Al Sarrantonio, Shadows No. 6, October 1983, The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series XII, 1984

Two kids learn some disturbing secrets about their family history.

***

High Tide, by Leanne Frahm, Fears, 1983

Frahm, an Australian writer, sets this novelette in the vicinity of the Newry Islands in coastal Queensland. A family camping trip to Mud Island discovers something strange is going on amidst the mangrove swamps: Eco-horror at its creepiest !  

***

Mengele, by Lucius Shepard, Universe 15, 1985, The Jaguar Hunter, 1988

Troubling things are going on at an estate located in a remote region of Paraguay.

***

Red Christmas, by David Garnett, The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series XIV, 1986

What seems like a conventional Mad Slasher story has a neat little twist at the end.

***

The Picknickers, by Brian Lumley, Final Shadows, 1991, The Year's Best Horror Stories: XX, 1992.

Unsettling events are happening in the graveyard of a Welsh coal-mining village.

***

The Bacchae, by Elizabeth Hand, The Year's Best Horror Stories: XX, 1992.

In a decaying near-future America, women have gained mysterious, and deadly, powers. This story has the amorphous quality of Weird Fiction, but laces it with splatterpunk imagery.

***

Shining On, by Billie Sue Mosiman, Future Net, 1996

A mutant suffering from severe handicaps finds a friend online. But you know what they say about online friends: just who are they in person ?

Book Review: Under the Fang

Book Review: 'Under the Fang' edited by Robert R. McCammon

 4 / 5 Stars

'Under the Fang' (336 pp.) was published by Pocket Books in August of 1991. The cover illustration is by Mitzura.

There were quite a lot of horror anthologies issued during the 'Paperbacks from Hell' boom years of the 1980s and early 1990s. I remember picking this book up soon after its publication, and deciding it was pretty good. When re-read after the passage of nearly 31 years, it still holds up well.

The contributors, all of whom wrote stories specifically for this volume, include a Who's Who of horror writers of the early 1990s. All contributions adhere to the anthology's premise that the Vampires Have Won, and the globe is under their thrall. 

Some humans resist, and some collaborate.........

My capsule summaries of the contents:

Editor McCammon leads off with 'The Miracle Mile'. In the aftermath of the Vampire Apocalypse, Kyle leads his family to a rundown oceanside resort and - hopefully - safety.

Nancy Collins provides 'Dancing Nightly', about a dive bar that caters to vampires. There is some memorable splatterpunk content. One of the better entries in 'Under the Fang'.

'Stoker's Mistress', by Clint Collins, features a near-future USA under the reign of the vampires. There is a historical connection to the author of Dracula.

Sidney Williams and Robert Petit team up for 'Does the Blood Line Run on Time ?'. This is an action-centered tale of guerilla resistance against the vampire overlords.

'Red Eve', by Al Sarrantonio, is intended as a homage to Ray Bradbury and as such, features ornate prose overlaid on a thin plot garnished with sci-fi elements.

'We Are Dead Together', by Charles de Lint: gypsies, and vampires. de Lint could at times overindulge in prose, but perhaps because it's only six pages long, this tale is concise and effective. 

Chet Williamson contributes 'Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage'. In the aftermath of the vampire takeover, Richard and Jill take up residence in a cabin in the woods of northern Pennsylvania. They discover that vampires aren't the only thing they have to worry about. Some splatterpunk sequences give this entry an edge that makes it one of the better stories in the anthology.

'Advocates', by Suzy McKee Charnas and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, is an interesting mashup featuring two 'franchise' characters, Charnas's Dr. Edward Lewis Weyland (who debuted in the novel The Vampire Tapestry, 1980) and Yarbro's Comte de Saint-Germain (Hotel Transylvania, 1978). Placed in a near-future world where the Vampires Rule, Weyland finds himself in considerably difficulties, and must rely on the legal maneuverings of Saint-Germain in order to win freedom. It's an interesting premise, but unfortunately the collaboration never went beyond this one short story.

Splatterpunker Richard Laymon provides 'Special'. Hot chicks are captured by a squadron of vampire Bros, who then take the chicks to a fortified compound and subject them to all manner of sick abuse - ! Real-deal, unapologetic splat, 'Special' gives the anthology a nice note of excess.

'Herrenrasse', by J. N. Williamson, features an Anne Rice-style dialogue between an urbane vampire and his human captive. It's lengthy, and it's underwhelming. 

Ed Gorman's 'Duty' is an interesting look at how things would have to be handled by the normal folk in the event the vampires take over. Another of the better entries in the anthology. 

In 'Midnight Sun', by Brian Hodge, an outpost in the Arctic mounts a dogged resistance to the rule of the vampires. 

David N. Meyer III contributes 'A Bloodsucker'. The first-person narrator, a vampire, offers humans immortality. But everything has its price.

'Prodigal Son', by Thomas F. Monteleone, sees a vampire pondering whether he can regain his humanity. He does this by walking the beach at night, and thinking Deep Thoughts about the hapless sea creatures stranded on the shore. Not exactly a stirring theme for a horror story. 

[ Evidently Monteleone realized he couldn't make the deadline for an original submission for 'Under the Fang', and decided to recycle, because 'Prodigal' is a light reworking of his story 'The Star-Filled Sea Is Smooth Tonight', which was published in 1977 in a German sci-fi magazine, and then in 1980 in the Zebra Books anthology 'Chrysalis 6'. The only real difference in 'Prodigal' is that a vampire substitutes for the traumatized spaceship pilot of 'Star-Filled Sea'. ]

'There Are No Nightclubs in East Palo Alto', by Clifford V. Brooks, features the human subjects of the vampire kingdom finding solace in folk music. This allows the author to provide the story with passages of italicized song lyrics. This is never a good sign. I don't want to read someone's homemade song lyrics in a vampire story. 

'Juice', by Lisa W. Cantrell, places vampires and their human allies in a backwoods setting. There is a creepy denouement. Another standout selection.

'Behind Enemy Lines', Dan Perez, features crisp, well-written combat sequences as humans and vampires fight it out in jungle terrain. Another of the better entries in the anthology.

Summing up, with 'Under the Fang', the majority of the contributors understood the design of the anthology and responded with worthwhile material. It contains enough good stories to be a solid four-star anthology, and one of the better such releases of the era of Paperbacks from Hell. Well worth searching out for.

Monster Movie Matinee

Monster Movie Matinee

Opening Sequence, 1960s

I grew up in upstate New York, and as a child in the 1960s, on Saturday afternoons I would sit in front of our little black-and-white TV and take in 'Monster Movie Matinee'. The show, which aired from 1964 to 1980 on Syracuse channel WSYR, took advantage of the 'monster' craze of the 1960s by airing old movies that had entered the public domain. Of course, more than a few of those old movies scared the crap out of me........... and gave me nightmares.

The title sequence for 'Monster Movie Matinee' was a memorable combination of model work and eerie music, and stayed with me from childhood into adulthood. I was gratified to see the opening sequence posted to YouTube. If you are a Baby Boomer who remembers 'Monster Movie Matinee', then you'll want to view the sequence.

The Dracula Scrapbook

The Dracula Scrapbook

By Peter Haining

Bramhall House, 1976

On an afternoon in late June of 1978 I graduated from High School, and later that evening, my best friend picked me up in his Oldsmobile Cutlass, and we went to an apartment house on Glenwood Avenue to see his pot dealer, a Warren Zevon-lookalike named 'Dave'.

As we sat in Dave's small apartment getting stoned, I noticed a book titled 'The Dracula Scrapbook' sitting on a nearby table. The brilliant cover illustration, by the UK artist Tony Masero, instantly was imprinted into my THC-addled brain tissue.

Within the next year or so, I procured my own copy of 'The Dracula Scrapbook' (if I remember correctly, I think I ordered it from either Edward R. Hamilton, or the Publisher's Central Bureau ..........their catalogs regularly came in the mail).

'The Dracula Scrapbook' (176 pp., Bramhall House, NY, 1976) was one of over 170 books authored or edited by the industrious Peter Haining (1940 - 2007), a UK resident who played a central role in publishing books on the genres of science fiction, horror, and fantasy during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, a period of time when so-called geek or nerd culture was slowly but surely coming to the fore as a pop culture phenomenon.

A photoessay on Haining's career is available at the 'Vault of Evil: Brit Horror Pulp Plus' website.

The term 'ephemera' is rarely encountered nowadays, but back in the 1970s it was used to refer to collections of pop culture artifacts, and that is what is compiled in the pages of 'The Dracula Scrapbook'. 

The book covers, in roughly chronological order, fact and fiction concerning vampires and Dracula from pop culture sources from the 18th century, on up to the mid-1970s. 

Those sources include archived excerpts from: newspaper articles and book reviews;  travelogues to Romania and Transylvania; sociological and cultural studies; short stories and novels; personal anecdotes, film reviews and synopses; and essays from fans, collectors, and didacts knowledgeable of the field.

The book is crammed with copious black-and-white pictures and photographs, and the amount of work that Haining and his editorial team must have put into assembling them is all the more impressive when you consider that back in the 70s there was no internet, and no Google. 

Original prints, or photocopies, were all you had to work with back in those days......you asked libraries what they had in their files, or maybe you paid money to access the catalog of the Bettmann Archives.

You can elect to read 'The Dracula Scrapbook' from start to finish, but it is also engaging when dipped into at random. I, for one, find something new and interesting whenever I page through it, and the contents often have led me to fiction pieces from the postwar era that I otherwise would not have been aware of.

It goes without saying that its 1976 publication date means it can't offer any coverage of the explosion in vampire and Dracula media since that year, but those who are interested in a comprehensive overview of the topic as it stood in the mid-1970s will want to have a copy of 'The Dracula Scrapbook'.

One caveat: I don't own the 1992 edition of 'The Dracula Scrapbook' published in 1992 by Borders Press (pictured below). It's listed as having 160 pages, suggesting it might be abridged in some manner. 

While copies of this 1992 Borders Press edition are more affordable than the Bramhall House edition, dedicated fans of Haining's works might want to consider investing in the 1976 version.

Playboy October 1972

 Playboy magazine, October 1972

Time once again to go back in time, 50 years, to October 1972. At the top of the Billboard Top 40 charts: Mac Davis with 'Baby, Don't Get Hooked on Me', and Michael Jackson, with 'Ben'. The top-rated TV shows are the 'ABC Sunday Night Movie', 'All in the Family', and 'Marcus Welby, M.D.'. Priced at one dollar, the latest issue of Playboy magazine is on the newsstands. 

This is another thick issue, 236 pages, with copious advertising for liquor, clothing, cigs, and shampoo......

The Interview section features the 'militant' rabbi Meir Kahane, the founder and most prominent member of the Jewish Defense League (JDL). A controversial figure, Kahane was murdered on November 5, 1990, by an Egyptian Muslim named El Sayyid Nosair, who later was convicted for his part in the attempted February, 1993 'landmark' bombing plot.

We are given a series of grainy photos of actor Jim Brown, embracing black and white women, as part of a promotion of his upcoming Blaxploitation film Slaughter.

This month's playmate is a healthy young woman named Sharon Johansen......

The 'Bunnies of 1972' overview provides us plenty of imagery of lissome early 70s chicks......remember, back in those days, there were no filters a la Kardashian. What you saw, was all real.

There are the usual cartoons......

The 'On the Scene' section highlights two up-and-coming New York City pornographers, Al Goldstein and Jim Buckley, who are publishing a sleazy tabloid called Screw.

This issue features a nonfiction piece on the marathoner Ron Daws. Although he was not particular gifted with running talent, Daws was a fanatical trainer and competed in the 1968 Summer Olympics. During the 1970s and 1980s he was a prominent speaker and consultant on running and personal health. He died in 1992 at age 55, of a heart attack.

Well, there you have it. Playboy, October 1972, with its insights into American popular culture and social mores !

Book Review: Candlenight

   

Book Review: 'Candlenight' by Phil Rickman

1 / 5 Stars

'Candlenight' (463 pp.) first was published in hardcover in 1991; this mass market paperback edition was released by Jove in September 1995. The cover artist is uncredited.

Phil Rickman is a UK author who regularly has been publishing mystery novels featuring the lead character 'Merrily Watkins'. As of 2022, there are 15 novels in the Merrily Watkins franchise. Along with 'Candlenight', Rickman also has authored five other horror novels, all set in rural areas of the UK.

'Candlenight' takes place in the UK of the early 1990s. The lead characters, Giles and Claire Freeman, are young professionals increasingly unhappy with the fast pace of life in London. When Claire gets word that her estranged grandfather, Judge Thomas Rhys, has died and bequeathed to her his cottage in rural Wales in the village of Y Groes (pronounced 'Uh Groyce'), Giles is rapt at the thought of taking up a rustic lifestyle. 

However, Claire's mother Elinor, who had little love for her father the Judge, is alarmed at the thought of her daughter moving into the cottage. And Giles's journalist friends warn him that the Welsh do not like the English, especially ones who appropriate housing better left in the hands of the long-suffering Welsh. But Giles is determined to embrace Wales and its culture, and anxious to contradict the image of the English as rude and insensitive interlopers. 

When Giles's friend, American journalist Berry Morelli, accompanies Giles on an inaugural visit to Y Groes, they both find the village to be the epitome of country life, and in some ways, almost too good to be true. But for Berry, Judge Rhys's cottage and its gloomy, austere furnishings evoke a sense of deep unease, even dread. However, his admonitions to Giles go unheeded, and in due course the Freemans move into the cottage.

Having not read Thomas Tryon's 1973 novel Harvest Home, the Freemans are of course oblivious to the sinister reality that underlies the bucolic charm of Y Groes and its friendly, but eccentric, inhabitants. A reality based on adherence to the Olde Ways, and the Olde Gods. Gods who must be propitiated............and if there are some witless Englishmen within easy reach come propitiating time, so much the better......... 

'Candlenight' essentially is a melodrama, set in Wales, with negligible horror content. While author Rickman writes with a clean, unadorned prose style, the novel has the lumbering, dilatory quality of too many 'Paperbacks from Hell' wherein the machinations of the plot take up so much of the text, that the scares inevitably are watery and unconvincing. 

Perhaps because I'm an American, 'Candlenight''s underlying theme of the antipathy between the Welsh and the English failed to resonate. I also quickly tired of trying to figure out how to pronounce words like 'Aberystwyth', and simply began treating them as if they were Mandarin. 

The worst part of 'Candlenight' is the denouement, which takes so long to unfold, and involves so many contrivances, that I nearly abandoned the book in dissatisfaction.

The verdict ? Even the most avid fans of Paperbacks from Hell are going to want to pass on 'Candlenight'. Had the book been 150 pages shorter and the horror content greatly reinforced it might have been memorable, but as it is, it deserves a one-star score.

October 2022 is Spooky Stories Month

October 2022 is Spooky Stories Month at the PorPor Books Blog !

Here at the PorPor Books Blog, we devote the month of October to reviewing books on the topic of horror. Novels, anthologies, even 'scrapbooks', all are on the table. I went and purchased a collection of Paperbacks from Hell (photo above) to supply myself with appropriate content through the near future. Stand by for reviews and overviews all through the next 30+ days !

The Marsten House

The Marsten House
from 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King (1975)

The house itself looked toward town. It was huge and rambling and sagging, its windows haphazardly boarded shut, giving it that sinister look of all old houses that have been empty for a long time. The paint had been weathered away, giving the house a uniform gray look. Windstorms had ripped many of the shingles off, and a heavy snowstorm had punched in the west corner of the main roof, giving it a slumped, hunched look. A tattered no-trespassing sign was nailed to right-hand newel post. 

He felt a strong urge to walk up that overgrown path…..Perhaps try the front door. If it was unlocked, go in.

Part One: The Marsten House

Chapter One

Ben (I), 2

Book Review: Caught in the Crossfire

Book Review: 'Caught in the Crossfire' by David Drake

3 / 5 Stars

'Caught in the Crossfire' (394 pp.) was published by Baen Books in July, 1998, and features cover art by Larry Elmore.

This book is a compilation of previously published 'Hammer's Slammers' novels and short stories, along with a novelette, 'The Immovable Object', especially written for this collection. 

The Slammers franchise, for which Drake is best known, began all the way back in November 1974, when Drake published 'The Butcher's Bill' in Galaxy magazine. The following year Gordon R. Dickson featured the story in the anthology Combat SF. 

While in general editors were not particularly receptive to military-themed sci-fi during the 70s, with the founding of Baen Books in 1983 the sub-genre began to thrive, and while it has had its ups and downs, to this day it remains popular, with Drake one of its most successful practitioners.  

My capsule summaries of the contents of 'Caught in the Crossfire':

The Warrior (1991): sergeant Samuel ‘Slick’ Des Grieux is a thoroughly unlikeable man, prone both to disobeying his superiors, and placing himself in lethal danger due to an innate death wish. But he’s the best tank commander in the Slammers........ and when things turn dicey, it’s Des Grieux who winds up saving the day.

Caught in the Crossfire (1978): civilians hoping to avoid being involved in conflict react poorly to being drafted by the Slammer's adversaries.

The Immovable Object (1998): Denis Lamartiere, who secretly is a supporter of the Mosite Rebellion, has gotten a job servicing the Slammer's tank Hoodoo at the support base. When Lamartiere decides to take possession of property that isn't his, all manner of mayhem ensues....... 

Counting the Cost (1987): on the planet of Bamberia, in the city of Bamberg, Slammer’s captain Tyl Koopman, and United Defense Battery lieutenant Charles Desoix, must maintain a position of neutrality when a rivalry between local political factions erupts into mob violence.

This novel is rather dull, and its inclusion weakens the anthology. It suffers from a narrative that consists almost entirely of strained conversations between mercenaries and politicians.

The Interrogation Team (1985): when a civilian affiliated with the enemy comes into the hands of the Slammers, he is subjected to a benign form of interrogation. But the consequences of yielding information can be severe. This is the best story in the anthology, with a 'shock' ending that drives home the message: the Slammer's don't mess around.

Summing up, this book primarily will appeal to Drake / Hammer's Slammer's fans, but those with a fondness for action-oriented and military sci-fi also will find it engaging.