Reviews7

It’s often said that you can’t judge a book by its cover and certainly that seems to be the case with Strange Tales, the tasteful image of an attractive young lady, the author’s wife, hinting the stories it contains will be svelte, elegant and sophisticated, but in reality the collection is much more in your face than the photograph would suggest. Of the eleven stories on offer many are short and bloody, possibly the prompt for a cover blurb comparison with Clive Barker that, sadly, the contents don’t justify.

“Infantophobia” gets the collection off to a promising start, the tale of a serial killer who performs abortions on pregnant women. The dark psychology behind his actions, grounded in a childhood misunderstanding, is credible enough and the actual scenes in which he operates on his victims are appropriately gut churning, culminating in a truly savage and memorable final twist. Gut churning also describes most of the action in the longer and lesser “Having a Bad Day”, in which a woman comes home after a hard day at the office to find her husband has committed suicide and, for the most specious of reasons, instead of calling the police takes it upon herself to dispose of the body. Cue garishly described scenes in which the corpse is signed, sealed and delivered (euphemism). As black comedies on the theme of how to get rid of a dead body go, this isn’t especially funny, and the corny punch line only accentuates the daftness of it all. The irony is that, when dealing with the mental states of the protagonists before the gore kicks in, West hints at a more rewarding story to be told, one grounded in the insecurities and emotional crises of his characters, but sacrifices this opportunity for the far less interesting schlocker option.

“Empty Souls, Drowning” is the best of what’s on offer, a sign of what West is capable of when he stops wanting to show that Richard Laymon a thing or two and instead deals with the material on its own terms, with two lost souls interacting in a rundown seaside town at the fag end of the season, a story full of subtle emotional nuances and a genuine feel for the suffering of the characters, all made that more effective by a strong evocation of place. The bleak landscape, so chillingly described, seems to mirror the inner turmoil of the people who loiter in the seafront arcades and cheap B&Bs trying to make sense of the traumatic events in their past. And then we’re back in the land of a thousand knives with “Dead Skin” and Rebecca, whose one aim in life is to get it on with a dead guy and she won’t rest until her dreams come true, only the stiff won’t get stiff if you know what I mean. There’s an attempt here to get under the skin of the character and explore what makes necrophiliacs tick, and that’s a commendable aim, but it’s overshadowed by the macabre elements of the story so that ultimately all we have is just another shock set piece. “Speckles” is one of the better stories, a tale of obsession slightly reminiscent of Poe on a bad day, no mean feat as Poe’s bad days were better than most writers’ good ones. The protagonist’s zeal to stay clean drives him to ridiculous and ultimately horrific lengths. The foundations of his condition are laid out with authority and some insight into such aberrant mental states, while the chilling final line of dialogue is perhaps the most effective pay off in the book, or would have been if the author had let it go at that instead of making what happens concrete with an unnecessary last paragraph. “Up for Anything” also has a truly nasty twist in the tail, as our heroine, an S&M devotee who thinks safe words are for wimps, takes her preference for ‘head’ to a logical conclusion. Not so much a story as a grotesque show and tell.

So far true invention has been at a premium and now it seems to excuse itself completely. “Together Forever” has one of the oldest clichés in the book, any book, the dead lover who won’t let go, and does nothing interesting with it. Most Horror fans will know exactly what to expect after the first page or so, and those who don’t are probably too young to be reading this stuff anyway. Ditto for “The Darkest Hour”, in which a man and woman link up at a nightclub and the only real question in the reader’s mind is which one of them is going to turn out to be the homicidal maniac. Full of heavy handed hints, this story is nothing more than a tiresome going through the motions.

After this sudden rash of banality it’s a treat to stumble upon “The City in the Rain”, which has the most original premise in the collection, as the metropolis itself falls victim to some fatal malaise and tries to heal itself by preying on the unruly bipeds who stalk its streets. It’s an intriguing concept and one that might usefully have been developed at greater length, perhaps even provide the seed for a novel, and in its current form provides a striking and dramatic image to fester in the mind. For the last two stories we’re back to business as usual, with “Dreaming of a Black Christmas” a simple cuckolded husband takes bloody revenge piece, recommended only to those who find divorce an unacceptable alternative, and “Beaches” which falls back on the familiar concept of the man who haunts himself. To damn with faint praise, these are competently written but that’s all that can usefully be said of them.

Rounding out the collection are some notes in which West explains how these stories came into being, which are interesting not only in their own right but for the picture they give us, which I personally found thoroughly endearing, of a young writer devoted to his craft and in love with the Horror genre. And that perhaps is the key fact about this collection; West has had a fair number of stories published in the Small Press but he is still relatively young and feeling his way. He shows real potential in the four better stories, but the remainder are at best unremarkable. If his talent is to truly grow then he needs to develop his plots more instead of always taking the easy option and rein in the tendency to end every other story with the most graphic and bloody scene his imagination can conjure up. There are times when the gore works (e.g. “Infantophobia”) and enhances the impact of the story, and there are other times when it seems to be an end in itself, a way of papering over the fact that the author has nothing interesting to tell us.

Welcome back, Terror Tales! The glorious horror magazine returns in paperback format, courtesy of Rainfall Books and thanks to the joint efforts of John B. Ford and Paul Kane. The first volume of this anthology series contains, in addition to horror fiction, non-fictional stuff such as book and film reviews, interviews etc.First, I must warn the potential buyer that the author list reported on the back cover is potentially a little misleading. It mentions Stephen Gallagher, Tim Lebbon and Paul Finch, but although they do all contribute to the 'Dark Debate' section of the book, there’s no actual fiction from those writers. [We're reliably informed that both Gallagher and Finch do have fiction contributions in the next volume. - ed.]The bulk of the fiction included in the present volume is constituted by the horror tales which won the first positions in the Supreme Terror Scribe contest launched in 2002 by the Terror Tales Online website. It’s not for me to dispute the popular vote, although I would have ranked the various stories differently, but I will mention them without specifying the actual position attained in the competition. With one exception, the top winner, deservedly, was 'Images of Angels' by Sue Phillips; a former winner of another Supreme Terror Scribe competition with her superb 'The Dark Mirror'. Phillips, whose fictional work is, unfortunately, still too scarce, depicts the final days of a man who has to suddenly face the terrible diagnosis of incurable cancer. A dreadful angel, ugly and beautiful at the same time, constantly staying at the man’s back , will represent the loving legacy he will leave to his affectionate wife. The emotional drama is described by Phillips with uncommon restraint and deep human sympathy, with never a moment of surrender to the temptations of sentimentalism. Just perfect.In Michael Pendragon‘s 'Forests of the Night', a boy’s life, shaken by the mother’s death, turns into a nightmare leading to a tragic, horrific ending. The tale, extremely well written, fills the reader’s mind with anguish and pity. As for 'The Insect Assembly' by John Paul Catton, it is enough to say that if you already hate bugs you’d better skip this terrifying piece of fiction. But, on the other hand, even if you don’t mind insects you’ll end up with a feeling of revulsion the next time you’ll set your eyes upon one of them.'Sound Bites?' by Derek M. Fox is an unusual example of 'technological' horror, where sound becomes a terrible tool of torture and destruction. In Stanley C. Sargent’s 'Dark Family Values', an abused little boy finally discovers the truth about his deceased parents, only to succumb to their unwholesome appetites. Very creepy!.Sarah Crabtree, with her nice 'In the Flesh', relates family stories from a past long gone, when vaccinations were still a matter for scientific debate and for groundless fears by the layman. EM Angerhuber’s 'The Skull' will delight the readers fond of the 'dark menace' genre whereas 'The House of Solemn Children' by Michael Cisco is a bizarre, hazy tale where dreams and reality mix up in a ghostly patchwork. On the other hand Scott Thomas, with 'Under Mock Orange', adds new blood (no pun intended) to the traditional serial killer theme .If you are still so naive to believe that children are innocent creatures you will change your mind after reading 'Seen But Not Heard' by Joe Rattigan, and if you insist that books are precious objects to handle with care you’ll be horrified by Mark Samuels’ 'Quayle the Bibliophile'.So much for Supreme Terror Scribe winners. To complete the book the editors have added particularly gruesome story by Neal Asher about the hidden horrors of a peculiar factory ('Plastipak Ltd'), an excellent tale by Christopher Fowler ('Where They Went Wrong') about a couple of outcasts whose greatest fear is LIFE, and a semi-humorous piece by Simon Clark ('Me, my Bike and the Inevitable'). I’ll refrain from mentioning the remaining title to avoid embarrassing its author, but the meaning of sentences like "Because this house of filth sits on the street of pain and sleeping beasts will never rise and rage in hungers again." is anybody’s guess.All in all Terror Tales # 1 is an enjoyable book, featuring many good stories by a bunch of fine writers. Having used up all the tales from the Terror contest, Ford and Kane now have the problem of find equally good material for the next issue. I’m sure they will prove once again to be not only two fine writers but also two highly capable editors.

If you read enough horror you begin to notice some very clear differences between American and British writers. Whereas American writers such as Dean Koontz, Stephen King, and Joe Lansdale jump right into the plot, British writers tend to take their time establishing atmosphere. Tanith Lee will paint a scene rather than describe it. Ramsey Campbell books feel like acid trips. Brian Herbert surrounds the reader with sensory overload. Forgive the generalization but British writers like to draw the reader into a paradise of imagery, atmosphere and style before lowering the boom. Joe Rattigan is no exception.

The six stories in this collection aren’t terribly original but they all lay on the atmosphere. There’s the killer tree story. There’s the story about being lost in the woods. There are at least two about being stalked by ghosts. Placing “In The Deep Dark Woods” and “The Dark Side of the Woods” next to each other was rather unfortunate given the titles create a false expectation for the second story. Most of the time you don’t care because what makes these stories work is the style. While there aren’t any quintessential moments of great description, the overall picture he presents is much richer than your average horror writer. Dragging the reader into the tale, Rattigan liberally uses adjectives to maximum effect. I have not been more impressed with stylistic brilliance since Poppy Z. Brite’s Swamp Foetus -- renamed Wormwood When the character is lost in the woods you feel like you’re in the woods with him. When the character is outside a haunted asylum it doesn’t feel like a cop out to have that character run away. There’s enough atmosphere involved in these stories to keep things going.

Unfortunately the substance is still lagging behind the style of these stories. Quite a few lack that essential spark. “When She Calls” and “Wrong Side of the Tracks” are “stalked by a ghost” tales where there’s not nearly enough invested in the protagonists to care. “In the Deep Dark Woods” is the second in three evil tree stories. British writers take their evil trees much more seriously. You aren’t going to have a tree-on-girl rape scene ala Evil Dead in a British movie. One does begin to miss the humor that other horror writers use – sometimes badly – to lighten the mood.

Overall this is an excellent gift book. Joe Rattigan is a young talent and one only hopes to see better material in the future. When he’s off there are too many tree descriptions, yet his capacity to play it a little too close to the bone offers up great material when he’s on and he’s on enough times.

Take a host of short stories and tie them loosely around a place and time. Add a little divine intervention, a dark, mysterious mirror, a leeching spirit locked away in a mobile phone, a bus driver who has his own idea of time (don’t they all?). Throw in a giant spider and the demonic representation of terminal illness, a tiddlywinks championship and a twist-in-the-tale spiritualists’ meeting, and you probably still won’t come up with something similar to The Waldorf Street Paradox.

You won’t, because Waldorf Street is more than the sum of its parts. Sue Phillips, with her easy, unimposing writing style, has created a collection of stories that are a delight to read.

The scene is set with a short prologue that tells of divine shenanigans during ‘the time before time’, and is itself a direct lead-in to the first story – the award winning tale The Dark Mirror. Set amongst a curiosity shop in an altogether gentler age, the lustful Mr Breme gets more than he bargained for in his pursuit of spinster Mrs Hunmanby. Without wishing to add too many spoilers, the breaking of the mirror at the end of the tale is responsible for much of the fractured reality in the tales that follow.

And the reality most definitely is fractured. There’s the bus driver, for one, who finds an almost timeless paradise in the old bus depot in Waldorf Street. But, of course, he and his elderly passenger soon learn there’s a dark side to all such places, and the tale twists and turns in its three parts often in the strangest of fashion. And there’s the odd tale Website, of giant spiders and pasts that come back to haunt, or to linger. Superb, imaginative stuff.

The only criticism I have of this work is in its length, and then only for positive reasons in that having enjoyed the stories so much I wanted more. At 125 pages it wasn’t difficult to finish at one sitting, something I personally don’t like to do as I always feel part of the experiencing of a good book is the wait to return to it, if you see what I mean.

Because by its very nature the work is fragmented, Phillips provides a short epilogue to tie up loose ends, particularly in the cases where the Waldorf link is tenuous. And together with the prologue, this epilogue works well, bringing the work together into a (almost!) coherent whole.

All in all, a most enjoyable read.

Purple Rage Productions and Rainfall Books have joined forces to release a DVD doc-umentary about the UK Horror genre, accompanied by an anthology with stories from the stars of the documentary. We caught up with Martin Roberts - Director, Cameraman, Editor and Producer for Assembly of Rogues - to quiz him about the new project. "Assembly of Rogues focuses on the UK Horror genre through the eyes of practising authors," said Roberts. "It also allows the viewer to meet the person behind the words and to hear what they have to say about the current state of the Horror genre in the UK and America. "With the help of John B Ford at Rainfall Books, I have co-edited the anthology that accompanies Rogues, which features an example of work from many of the writers involved with the film. As a collector of limited editions, I own several books that have been packed with CD soundtracks inspired by the authors work. I've always wanted to purchase/produce something of a similar nature and I can now say that I have achieved this and more. " Why did he decide to put it together? "It was produced to prove that there are more of talented UK writers out there than just Clive Barker and James Herbert, connected to the horror genre. Whenever I walked into a local branch of any of the major bookstores I always came across the same authors on the horror shelves, but I knew from my own reading experiences that what the stock represented on the shelves was only the tip of the iceberg. "Horror was undergoing a resurrection of sorts in America, particularly due to the speciality press - from established publishers like Cemetery Dance, Subterranean and Gauntlet to more recent outfits like Delirium and Bloodletting Press. The US mainstream was represented by Leisure Books, who were publishing UK authors in easily affordable paperbacks, on a monthly basis, alongside American writers. I wanted to explore why this was happening in the US and not here in the author's country of origin. "The second major reason behind the project was that I needed to make a second film as I had just received a BBC Award nomination for my graduate short 'Paint' and I wanted to continue making films due to this success. "I still found that I couldn't obtain the funds required to finance a short film, so I thought about the skills I had gained, whilst working in the local community (documenting events and concerts etc) and decided to apply these skills to something I have a personal interest in. I originally thought the production would be easier to produce than a drama; this was not to be case, of course, as I was soon to find out." The project has its fair share of ups and downs then?. "Indeed, but there are numerous highlights," said Roberts. "The first would have to be that I have made some really good friends along the way and would particularly like to thank Paul Kane for trusting me with a short film script that we will see produced one day, even if it kills me. "Watching a rough cut of the documentary at a Terror Scribes convention in Birmingham was also a high point, although I was a nervous wreck and tripped over a cable as I was about to introduce the film. I was amazed at the positive response from the audience, especially since it was shown in its most primal form." "On the downside, there were numerous moments throughout the production that were difficult, for example: trying to find the venue for a pre-BFS awards gathering in London with a camera and tripod strapped to my back or trying to cast the right combination of people to take on the roles for the dramatic moments; and a whole host of technical difficulties, once again down to not having a budget, the main reason why the project has taken over two years of my life. "I would have to say that the worst experience I had during the production was three weeks prior to the Birmingham screening, I lost the entire project, moments before I was going to take a digital master. At this stage, the rough cut lasted an amazing two and a half hours and the hard drive it was stored on crashed and burned for no apparent reason, not quite the tragedies that plagued The Exorcist, but bad enough for me. Put it this way, I was not a happy bunny and I hardly spoke for at least three days. It was the Birmingham event mentioned above that kicked me up the arse and I re-cut a new, more streamlined version, which was shown to great success. "The craziest experience, though, has got to be the drive to Caerleon, in South Wales, for inserts of the pub that Tim Lebbon shares a common interest in, with one of his literary heroes. A 15-hour plus round trip, for less than 20 seconds worth of footage for the documentary. These things have to be done or someone will point it out whilst reviewing the film - they could have done this or that. The bottom line is: we tried, as simple as that." The pub inserts are just one of the many post production features added to the finished DVD. "Talking heads alone do not make great viewing material," said Roberts. "So my next goal was to find visual references that would relate to the subject matter being discussed and to recreate any story being told on screen. I was lucky in a few cases and was able to film locations that fit the story before hand e.g. Derek Fox had written a story based on a local legend and fortunately the graveyard was still accessible. "In other cases I had to recreate the scenes, which led to the need for actors. This was a problem, due to the fact that I had no budget. I solved this by eventually persuading friends and their friends to perform in front of the camera and was lucky that I required no dialogue to be spoken. Of course there are numerous pictures throughout the film due to books, films and authors being mentioned who are sadly, no longer around. "I have also added a music/atmospheric soundtrack to the dramatic moments in the film, having met Steve Lines (Rainfall Records and Books) whilst filming the interviews. He sent a CD compilation of atmospherics taken from the Strange Aeons project to use. "I was also exceptionally lucky to have met James Newman via the Internet. James, it seemed, not only writes novels but he was creating music for the audio books he had done for Lone Wolf Publications and Endeavour Press in the US. He was gracious enough to send me four or five tracks of his music that are now featured in the documentary. This is why he's the only American author to have a story featured in the accompanying anthology." So you'll not only be getting the DVD for your money but an anthology and an CD.