Review: Embrace the darkest corners of horror
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 30, 2013
As a fan of the two Splatterpunks short-story horror books, edited by Paul Sammon, from the 1990s, I was intrigued to learn on Twitter about the Splatterlands book. This new book is a collection of 13 short-stories that seek to resurrect the "splatterpunk" theme, to offer numerous disturbing, graphic, gory, and extreme horror tales. However, it is meant to be more than torture porn, intended to tell intriguing stories as well. Overall, it succeeds in its purpose, though these are not stories for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. They reach into your soul with a icy, steel claw and twist.Of the collection, some of my favorites include:Housesitting by Ray Garton: When you snoop, sometimes you see things you wish you could forget.The Viscera of Worship by Allen Griffin: An eerie, graphic tale that reminds me of the fiendish works of Clive Barker.The Defiled by Christine Morgan: A tale of ravaging Vikings who pay an ultimate price for trespassing into the wrong area.A Letter To My Ex by J.Michael Major: Maybe the most disturbing story in the collection, the revenge of a scorned husband.Horror should push boundaries and these tales take several giant steps past that threshold.