Review: White with Terror
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 29, 2014
Urban legends are always good sources for horror stories and films, as evidenced by the popularity of the "Candyman" series. In fact, the only thing better than an urban legend is an urban legend the author himself creates, thereby giving himself ready made, carefully tailored "source material" for his tale. My admittedly brief research failed to uncover an actual urban legend about a killer with a bizarre white face, but Micah Ackerman's short story "The Man with the White Face" is a better horror story... and a better urban legend than most stories patterned after "real" legends.According to Ackerman, the man with the white face was an insane asylum escapee who had been incarcerated for murdering two children. During his escape, he cut his face on the barbed wire fence and was badly disfigured, which resulted in his bizarre white face. Since then, every year, two more children go missing... vicitims of the man with the white face.That's not the short story; it's just the introduction to "The Man with the White Face." The story itself concerns a 12-year-old boy named Jason who quickly learns the legend is true when he is abducted by the titular man and brought to a seemingly abandoned building deep in the woods. Once there, he learns that the white faced man doesn't want to kill him right away; instead, the man has a far more gruesome fate in mind for Jason.Revealing more of the plot would spoil it for readers, but I will say that the story has a fairly heavy gore quotient, and squeamish readers should probably avoid it. I will also say that the story is highly original and quite unpredictable. What Jason experiences seems to him, at first, to make no sense whatsoever, and readers will probably also be puzzled, although those who enjoy this type of story will probably have a rough idea of what's going on.I am not a fan of torture porn per se, stories that describe sadistic violent savagery in clinical, often disgusting detail. However, Ackerman is not out merely to disgust readers. There is a purpose behind his descriptions, as the story makes clear. In addition, he creates some quite haunting imagery in describing what Jason encounters that will remain with readers far longer than would a mere detailed depiction of carnage.Unfortunately, the story ends on a weak note. To his credit, Ackerman tries to explain the bizarre goings on, but the explanation borders on being completely silly, destroying a good bit of the mood he has created. The villainous white faced man is transformed in a couple of paragraphs from a completely scary, dangerous menace into a mere crank. It's possible a longer story might have allowed Ackerman and the white faced man to elaborate on their explanation and make it a bit more plausible, but, as written, the story may well have readers shaking their heads in disbelief.For the most part, "The Man with the White Face" is a genuinely creepy story with some horrifyingly evocative imagery and a couple of scenarios that will likely stay with readers for quite a while, evoking most disconcerting memories. This imagery is likely to remain long after readers forget the bizarre attempted explanation for the story's goings on. I know readers wouldn't want to meet the man with the white face late at night, and I have a strong feeling they wouldn't want to read "The Man with the White Face" late at night either.