More Screams for Halloween

Dark Screams Volume Eight (Hydra, October 31, 2017), edited by Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar comes out just in time for Halloween. Cemetery Dance’s editors include five original tales and one reprint from CD in 2015. “Walpuski’s Typewriter” by Frank Darabont is the reprint.

“The Boy” by Bentley Little stinks. Not the story. The boy stinks. Christine, new to the suburb where the boy lives, smells him walk past each day on his way to school. How can anyone smell so bad?

“Tumor” by Benjamin Percy is filled with rich imagery.

“Twisted and Gnarled” by Billie Sue Mosiman is superbly written, a tale of psychological suspense with supernatural elements.

“The Palaver” by Kealan Patrick Burke is a bit too hairy for my tastes. “India Blue” by Glen Hirschberg is about the start and end of Professional Cricket in America.

My favorite story is “The Boy”. It really got me thinking.

Dark Screams 5

Mick Garris knows horror. And he knows the film industry. So it should come as no surprise that “Everything You’ve Always Wanted” combines Mick’s love of horror with his love of film. Jack Tarrington (shades of Jack Torrance) is the middle-aged writer-director of Taxed, a twenty-five-year-old low-budget horror flick that is now considered a cult classic. When Jack accepts an invitation to be guest of honor at MonsterThon, a film-fan convention in Indianapolis, he discovers he’s not only idolized by midwestern horror fanatics but he has literally bit off more than he can chew. This is a cautionary tale along the lines of “Be careful what you wish for because you might actually get it.” It’s extreme horror that’s bloody, sexy, and scary.

“The Land of Sunshine” by Kealan Patrick Burke is like viewing a gloomy black-and-white silent film after Mick Garris’ noisy 35mm full-color print. “Mechanical Gratitude” by Del James is about a ‘68 Camero that goes, like intervening years passing Arn and Betty by, much too fast. “The One and Only” by J. Kenner takes us to a New Orleans where lost loves and voodoo forever reside. “The Playhouse” by Bentley Little is a nasty little tale about a haunted real-estate agent who loses more than track of time. The Bentley Little and Mick Garris stories are the best of the bunch this time around. Dark Screams Volume 5, despite the Garris and Little contributions, lacks the superior quality of earlier volumes.