“Blessed are the skeptics. For they shall be oblivious of the numinous layers, largely unaffected by the dreary density of places, unbowed by the deadweight of ancient horror. Lucky bastards.” That rumination appears in Phil Rickman’s novel Curfew published in 1993 (titled Crybbe in the United Kingdom.) Rickman died this year on October 29 at the age of 74. To honor his memory, I delved into the book. It is set in a fictional rural town that straddles the border of England and Wales, a geographical area that the author knew well. The locals in the sequestered town of Crybbe are taciturn and don’t take kindly to folks from elsewhere…

In my ongoing quest for enrichment activities, I thought about the British tradition of A Ghost Story at Christmas. What could be more of an enrichment activity than starting a new tradition? The notion of reading a classic horror story on Halloween came to me like a revenant. There’s a wealth of material to choose from, and it’s always good to take a fresh look at those tales that have haunted us for years. For the first installment of this annual ritual, I’ve chosen a yarn set in H.P. Lovecraft’s cosmology. Written by Clark Ashton Smith (January 13, 1893-August 14, 1961), “The Return of the Sorcerer” was first published in…

Greg Kihn (July 10, 1949 – August 13, 2024) was known primarily as a rock musician and radio DJ. He also wrote horror fiction. His debut novel in the genre was Horror Show (1996), which received a Bram Stoker award nomination in the Best First Novel category. Kihn’s recent death prompted me to re-read the book. Its narrative is temporally bookended in the year of the novel’s Tor Books publication. However, the midsection bulk of the plot is a lengthy set piece flashback to 1957. In its modern-day sections, a newshound for a horror movies publication scores an interview with a notoriously reclusive director. The apex of the director’s career was a…

On April 21, 2024, the horror community lost another revered member. Ray Garton was a respected and beloved writer whose upbringing played an important role in his choice of genre. An adopted child, he was sent to religious schools and brought up in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Sermons about the apocalypse instilled in him a fear that segued into exploring horror fiction and films as an outlet: a facing of fears in a comfortable and removed setting. He indicated that it wasn’t his intent to write horror but accepted it was highly compatible with his history and sensibilities. In essence, Garton related aspects of his life under a genre umbrella.…

Author Michael Reaves died at age 72 on March 20, 2023. His novel Night Hunter was published by Tor in 1995. Set in 1990s Los Angeles, the book takes the reader on a tour of the city’s seedier side. There are echoes of film noir but instead of perpetual rain, Santa Ana winds and smog punctuate the mood. Decay and decadence permeate a narrative hellbent on painting the town a garish red. A color which bleeds through any attempt at veneer. Police detective Jake Hull’s personal woes mirror the city’s decline. An ulcer is eating away at his gut, what he sees on the streets makes him teeter on the brink of…

Train to Busan is a movie that has been haunting me for years. And I still haven’t seen it. The film, released in 2016, was touted to me by a range of people including: an in-law, a guy who worked in a car lot finance department, numerous zombie movie fans, and foreign film devotees. I don’t generally like zombie flicks, though there are some like the groundbreaking Night of the Living Dead (1968) and the action-adventure World War Z (2013) that I found worthwhile. The rom-com Warm Bodies (2013) which was a riff on Romeo and Juliet, the comedy Zombieland (2009) and its sequel Zombieland: Double Tap (2019) also had appeal. Getting back to Train to Busan, I had accumulated over the course…

Whenever there’s a feeling of disappointment in the horror genre, either from a book that’s a letdown or a movie that doesn’t live up to expectations, it’s therapeutic to time trip and go back to a film or novel that rekindles one’s enthusiasm. I recently re-watched the film Stir of Echoes and recalled in wonderment what an extraordinary year 1999 was for horror movies. Consider: The Sixth Sense (which is generally regarded as the film that eclipsed Stir of Echoes in terms of esteem and box office), the groundbreaking The Blair Witch Project, and a Tim Burton take on Sleepy Hollow. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to celebrate Halloween by partying like it’s 1999. Stir of Echoes is based…