This collection of short stories is themed around Halloween and the darker month of October, but it's sure to give thrill and chills all year long. Includes the story "Companion," which received honorable Mention in the Year's Best Fantasy & Horror.
Professional Reviews
Frightful October
Last week I reviewed the Flesh and Blood Press anthology Octoberland, which collected tales of Halloween horror by various authors. Frightful October does the same thing, only this time the stories are all by one author, Paul Melniczek. This is the second collection by Melniczek to be published by Double Dragon Press this year, following close on the heels of his first, Restless Shades.
The short-short Ghostly Whispers opens the book. It's a Halloween dare story, like several found in Octoberland. The difference is Melniczek provides more honest chills in three pages than some of Octoberland's longer stories on the same theme.
Melancholy Winds also employs a common horror story theme. A backhoe operator finds human bones on a construction site, suggesting they are building on an Indian burial ground. He reports to his boss, who convinces him not to report his finding to the authorities, lest the construction project which will provide the economically depressed town some much needed jobs be terminated. When the boss goes searching for a bathroom in the basement while attending a Halloween Party, the displeased spirits of the displaced Indians come for a visit to convince him of the error of his ways.
In The Calling, a magazine reporter who desperately needs a restful vacation visits a bed and breakfast in an out-of-the-way town, only to discover the curse that annually haunts the town on Halloween.
A husband agrees to stay at home while his wife takes their daughter out trick-or-treating. He has a group of unexpected visitors who explain his true Legacy.
Toxic chemicals are illegally dumped in a pumpkin patch. As you might expect, a certain critter grows huge and carnivorous, then emerges from The Patch to wreak havoc and death.
What would a collection of Halloween stories be without a spooky ghost story? That's what happens when a nephew visits his lonely uncle and is introduced to his imaginary Companion.
In The Raid (also found in Restless Shades), a trio of boys out to make some Halloween mischief enter a mean old man's house, only to discover he's meaner than they ever expected. Though the boys barely escape with their souls, they find themselves stalked by the same evil next Halloween in the sequel story Cinders.
Marty's Uncle Jon always win a blue ribbon for growing the biggest pumpkin in the county. But the woods behind his farm also produce an especially large (and voracious) beast that emerges Enraged.
In The Forgotten, a fishing boat hauls in a hideous statue of some ancient and evil god. One sailor recognizes it as an abomination and tries to talk the captain into getting rid of it. The greedy captain won't listen, of course; he thinks he can make a pretty penny from a museum. Of course, pretty pennies don't help you any if you're not alive to enjoy them?
Another town under a Halloween curse is featured in The Invited. A wealthy couple from the city visits their old friend, a sheriff's deputy, who promises to convince the skeptical husband of the veracity of the supernatural by telling the town legend?and making them the latest grisly chapter.
Melniczek's stories are old-fashioned in the better sense of the term. They are written in a straightforward, no-nonsense manner with solid beginnings, middle and ends. They drip atmosphere, but the atmosphere is there to support the plots, which are the main focus. No gimmicks, no garbage language, no obscurity?Hugh Cave would approve. Indeed, these stories are all unabashedly pulp fiction in the classical sense, though thoroughly modern in their presentation. If there's any fault to be found, it's that Melniczek isn't a terribly original writer. You won't find any plots or ideas you haven't seen a million times before. But in a way, that's part of the fun. These are the kind of stories meant to be told around the campfire; the type of stories that made me a horror fan when I was quite young. They reminded me of the stories found in anthologies I would bring home from my elementary school library and have my parents read to me at bedtime before I learned how to read for myself. As such, they gave me a warm fuzzy feeling between the chills. Melniczek is very much a modern traditionalist. He may not be moving the genre forward, but he's making damn sure the genre doesn't loose touch with its roots. He may be the one young writer working today that could excite horror aficionados who prefer old school terrors. Midnight House fans take note.
Review from Hellnotes Newsletter
Frightful October
Paul Melniczek is *the* writer to watch. In a very short time, he has proven himself a master craftsman--a powerhouse of a storyteller that can deftly walk between the classic and modern eras of horror, with a voice that is uniquely his own. You're going to enjoy this!
Brian Keene, author of No Rest For The Wicked and More Than Infinity.
Happy Halloween. A volume of Horrible Haunts & Twisted Tales taken from the horror books La Belle Rouge has written every October for a decade and a half. If you have read her works in the horror genre, you know the invitation is for you to enjoy thr
In the end they'll all be dancin'--all them ones that didn't die.... Dance with me in the shadows amidst the lightning and the thunder, and all that nu-cu-lar debris. See the big bang from the other side, and then open that cellar door. Go down into
