Tag Archives: horror

Review for Horror Movie By Paul Tremblay

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I write my reviews a bit differently than other writers. I try to find a comp book. I beat myself up while reading this one over it. Then, toward the end of the book, it hit me.

I read Grin Of The Dark By Ramsay Campbell a few years ago. I came to my horror journey late, and it was the first book of his I had read. It’s a weird book about a man searching for a film he remembered. It is a story about a clown who once existed. As most of Mr. Campbell’s books do, it takes some dark and surreal turns.

It’s still one of my favorite books. This trope of found footage is done all of the time in books. Kiersten White’s Mister Magic does it very well. That’s also one of my favorite reviews.

The Horror Movie feels like a bit of The Blair Witch, maybe some of Hell House LLC and other found-footage books and movies. But Mr. Campbell’s book was my first introduction to this in a novel, at least where it’s done well.

I often looked back at my memories of Grin Of The Dark when it clicked. It’s done so well and has a different take on the sub-genre that it blew me away.

I said on Threads, “You all are not ready for this book.” I stand by that. Having read all but two of Paul’s books, this felt different. Maybe he was experimenting a little, testing a few new things. It’s nothing like Cabin or Head Full Of Ghosts.

I feel this is Paul Tremblay trying out a few new things. I can’t get into them without spoiling so much of a great horror novel. The found-footage aspect of this story isn’t so much in your face as it is in Mister Magic or movies like Blair Witch or Hell House LLC. It’s a more subtle take on the genre itself.

I was uncomfortable a few times while reading it. That goes to the author’s ability to craft such a fantastic piece of art.

It’s an uncomfortable story about a kid who experienced something terrible while filming a movie when he was younger. The story then revolves around that kid working on a remake/reboot of the film that was never finished. Some aspects of the story are out there. It’s a great story, and I’ll purchase one on day one.

Paul is one of my favorite authors, and while not all of his books have hit it out of the park for me, this one did.

The days grow

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There are moments in my writing where the days grow wider. The wind blows outside. There are times when I see things more clearly than others, and then, there are times like now.

It’s been a couple of months since I’ve written anything decent. Reading Tim Waggoner’s book lit some sort of fire, though it may have been a combination of several things.

I did a ghost hunt at Mercur Cemetery with the Utah Chapter of the HWA this past Friday. I got some great pictures of a sunset. That night has been with me since. I think about how old it is. The Town of Mercur went away in the early 1900s. After two fires and the closure of a mine, it fell apart. This happened to many towns around the same time.

The cemetery sits on a hill overlooking the valley below, but there was something about that night. Something about the sounds. The feelings, and then there was how I felt and my youngest felt. I’ve always been sensitive to places like that. It was their first time at a place like that. They did not enjoy it. It was overwhelming to them.

I’ve talked to them about it since. They’re getting better. But the atmosphere of that place is different. The air shifts when you walk up the hill to it. It’s subtle, but they and I noticed it.

I’ll be using that trip to work. It’s the least I can do. I may post pictures from it. I got some great ones. It was the uncomfortableness of it. It wasn’t the dark, but the sounds. The chittering in the dark. It has stuck with me.

Down to the last thing

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Last week I wrote a couple of reviews here. I’m going to be only on here.

I tried the Substack thing. It’s just like being on here, but there are fewer readers. I had almost zero engagement on there. Twitter is the same way. I’ll probably leave there soon.

I’m considering leaving every social media I have except for this one. Substack is a blog. You can dress it up and add fancy things, but it’s still a blog. It’s why I deleted my account yesterday.

I can devote time to writing or social media, not both. I know SM is supposed to help me gain readers. I understand that, but I’m at the point where I’d rather write and publish what I want. It could be the next Jax Reed novel, a horror collection/novella/novel, or something else.

Jax’s book came out almost a year ago, and I haven’t written his next book. I know what it’s about. I have an outline. I’ve been worrying so much about finding connections on SM that I didn’t write it. I’ve written a lot of horror stories. Those will be coming out later this year and early 2024. I’ve created the covers for them. This is for the novella coming in October/November.

It’s been through a bunch of rewrites and revisions. I’ll be inputting those this week. I should have it up for preorder in early August. I’ll post here when that happens. I’ll have the other covers up soon, but the edits aren’t done for those yet.

You’ll be seeing more of me in the future. This is the only place I’ll write.

Brian

Book Review for Cold, Black, & Infinite By Todd Keisling

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I’ve attempted this review three times. I get distracted by what I read in this collection. I’ve thought about it for the last week.

First, I’ve read Todd’s book, Devil’s Creek and Scanlines, and loved them. I was happy to see one story tied into Devil’s and another with the same theme. As someone who dealt with suicidal ideation, Scanlines was difficult, but I was better for reading it.

So, let’s get into it.

Midnight in the Southland is one of my favorite stories in this collection. I listened to Art Bell driving home from work when I lived in Las Vegas. It was late at night, and I worked graveyards and swings. I loved Art Bell. The people who came on that show were off the wall sometimes, but they believed their stories, and Art believed them.

This story reminded me of those nights. I would have known who it was for if Todd hadn’t put that dedication to Art Bell at the beginning. All those late nights driving home from work made me and my girlfriend(now wife) go out to Rachel, NV. We have our own stories about those trips.

2:45 to Mexico had Outer Limits, Twilight Zone, and Tales from the Darkside feels, and it was a fantastic story. I’ve traveled by bus a couple of times. There are those people in stops that you’re not sure about. You keep your distance from them. There’s something off, even if you can’t grasp it.

HappyTown, man, this story was a lot of fun to read. It was a change from the other stories but fit into the collection.

Y2K: I remember the stress of working the night of Y2K. I was bartending on the Las Vegas strip. We were told to prepare for our computers to go down. For hysteria to eclipse the festivities of New Year’s Eve, but none of that happened. I’ve come up with a story idea after reading this one. I’ll have to spend some time with it, but this could have happened anywhere.

Black Friday: What’s better than zombies? A black Friday with zombies. I’ve worked retail a lot in my life. I worked at Blockbuster in the late 90s. We had some crazy nights, but our store had haunting issues, not zombies. I think about that store a lot. It’s where I met my future wife.

Tommy: This was one of those stories that felt out of place from the others. It feels that way with some collections. I’m sure it was added for levity. Who hasn’t wanted to get rid of their bullies? I had a couple in junior high that I would have done anything to eliminate.

Afterbirth: This was a story that struck a nerve with me. Having fertility issues early on, my wife and I considered many things, but this was not one of them. I liked this story and the tragedy of the MC, who only wants to have a child, but goes about it in a way that no one should ever do.

Annie’s Heart Is A Haunted House: Feels of Poe, Beast House By Richard Laymon, Sleeping Beauty, and Urban Gothic by Brian Keene. I liked this story a lot. The way the house takes its victims and moves them into the house was genius, and I loved watching them fall. Brian Keene’s Urban Gothic was my introduction to Extreme Horror and holds a special place. I saw instances of that book in this story.

The Gods Of Ours Fathers: Todd says this story was challenging to write. I understand the reasons. The brutality of the father and Mary’s brother overtakes my stomach. The writing brings it together in a way that could have faltered had it not been for Todd’s writing. The imagery within the story of Mary at the stones, of her asking for help from the Gods of her grandfather, of the blood on the rocks, and Mary’s blood from what her brother did, gave the story a resolution I hadn’t expected.

Solve For X: The black-eyed children have come for your kids. The imagery of this story and the ending with the eyeless child was great. While this is the shortest in the collection, it hangs in the air, and I would have liked it to be longer.

We’ve All Gone to Crooked Town: If you’ve ever been to a town on life support or lived in one of them, this story will hit home. I’ve done both. The little town of Granger, WY, where I lived during my Junior and Senior year of high school, is only a dot on the map, but I always wondered if the Green River that flowed through it would take the town one day, or the winter storms would. Neither happened, and the town is still there.

Granger was smaller than that town. Full of oil riggers and people working during the summer months, then returning to their families. I know what it feels like to wake up and hope the town you were in would vanish. I liked this story for those reasons.

Smile Factory: The Eldritch have you. They’re making you smile for what they want. This was an exciting story that left me guessing what was happening. It felt like a descent into madness at times. Having dealt with depression and those conditions myself, having to put on a smile to make my way through life is constant. This is what that felt like. Wearing a smile so no one thinks something is wrong is what you do when you’re depressed. It keeps the questions away.

Holes in the Fabric: Devil’s Creek is a favorite novel of mine. Seeing into the past of one of that novel’s characters was a great escape. I wondered about how she got where she was in Devil’s Creek. It was a fleshing-out of the character’s story that I enjoyed.

Happy Pills: We’ve all wanted that pill to make us feel normal. If you’ve dealt with depression, you have. I wouldn’t want to go as far as this story, though it does have its rewards.

Gethsemane: I read the title for this story and wondered how that could be turned into a horror story. It’s done well. I won’t give anything away with this one. You have to read it with an open mind. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

We’ve All Gone To The Magic House: It felt like a Twilight Zone episode or an episode of Doctor Who. I wasn’t sure where it would end, but it tied everything together. I remember a place like the Magic House in my hometown. People remembered it being open, but no one could say what lay inside. Even now, I forget what the place was called.

I hope you enjoyed this review. I enjoyed reading the collection. It comes out on September 1, 2023. I will buy a copy of it and put it next to Scanlines.

On a side note, the choice of title and how each section was broken up was great. I am a huge Nine Inch Nails fan and have seen them 10 times. I knew I’d like this collection from the title.

Horror has always been my safe space.

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When I think of horror it’s about the times I spent alone as a kid. My father wouldn’t come home for a couple of days. I’d spend that time watching horror movies on HBO or Cinemax or I’d read. But the books weren’t horror, they were military/political thrillers. Later they were dubbed techno-thrillers, but I digress.

Horror was my safe space. I felt safer watching those movies than at any other time. It was in those long nights of being home that I watched Basketcase, Creepshow, Tales From the Crypt, and a myriad of other movies. I watched movies a 13-year-old maybe shouldn’t watch, but it was the ’80’s and us latchkey kids didn’t have many rules. The rules we had were about school, but everything else was open and free to explore. I took advantage of that.

I’m sure the reason I fight with myself over writing horror or thrillers is because of those days and nights alone. When my father was home I read thrillers. When he wasn’t, I watched horror. Horror made me feel safe. It scared me of course, but I knew it was safe. T

he thrillers were about the world ending in a war or some random shooter. But horror wasn’t like that.

When I write horror I consider it a dive into my deepest, darkest memories and how those memories scarred me.

It’s within the construct of a horror story that I feel safe. I’m allowed to explore those bad memories. Those bad events. I’m able to parse those things into a story and allow my mind to explore them in a safe space. It’s this same safe space that I felt growing up watching those movies.

It’s the darkness staring through our eyes. Our memories of tragedy, of abuse, and of learning to deal with it in our own way. My way of dealing with abuse was to shut down. It still is.

When I consider where I came from and what I’ve learned about myself and the fear of things in the night, regardless of what they are, I think of long nights alone in the dark. The flicker of a horror movie on the screen is my solace and when I’m depressed or upset it’s these movies that bring me joy.

A new story comes from these dark places and they bring me joy in the same way those movies do. A new story comes when I’m ready to deal with the past in any shape. It breaks through the barrier I keep around myself. Those stories endear themselves to me. They show me the dark isn’t that bad and that I can work through anything.

My own development as a writer is to put this process through it’s paces. I must feel the story. I must understand that it’s going to get rough for these characters and that through them I can work through whatever trauma I have. I did that with the story, ‘Carnival of Darkness’ in my collection. I dealt with a situation from my childhood I’m still working through.

I must hear the story and the characters in my head and it’s only with horror that this happens.

While writing thrillers it’s the story, but with horror it’s the characters and their feelings.

I come to a story with an idea, but getting to know my characters and their feelings about life, love, and what trauma they’ve dealt with is where I play my cards.

I will let you get back to your regularly scheduled program.

I will be at the same Bat Channel tomorrow.