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Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles edited by Ellen Datlow

Final Cuts anthology cover art edited by Ellen Datlow ( Bookshop.org)

 Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles edited by Ellen Datlow

Blumhouse Books, 2020

ISBN: 9780525565758

Available: paperback, audiobook, Kindle

 

Final Cuts is a themed collection of horror short stories. In this case, the common thread is the relationship to cinema, and occasionally reality TV.  The stories have original ideas, professionally written, but with ambiguous endings that might not be appealing to readers who prefer closure in a story. The writing quality is strong enough to make it work with these types of stories, though.

These are horror stories, but they are the more cerebral type.  There’s very little hack and slash, the stories usually involve extremely weird things happening to the characters and how they perceive  reality.  Of course, there are exceptions to this, “Snuff in Six Scenes” being a good and very entertaining example.  One can tell that most of these stories were written by skilled veterans of the craft, as the prose flows perfectly, and there is rarely a wasted word.  It strikes a good balance between action and inner thoughts, tending towards the latter.

One potential pitfall to themed anthologies is they can limit the creativity, since a common theme must be followed.  That doesn’t happen here, due to the excellent story ideas.  Some examples of what the reader will encounter:

  1. A bunch of little tiny mouths that run around eating people.
  2. The filming of an occult ceremony where acting becomes reality for nefarious purposes.
  3. A hearing aid used to listen to a theatre movie broadcasts verbiage very different from the film, and it relates to a murder.
  4. A select screening of a rare film causes some people to want to get killed.

The stories that are somewhat standard ghostly tales have some new settings that add to the flavor.  For example, one features an online reality show, where an unexplained apparition sometimes appears.  The real fun is the reality show itself, which stars two drunk college girls talking about science, hence the story title, “Drunk Physics.”  Some of the writing formats are unusual as well.  “Cut Frame” is written in interview transcript format, complete with its own invented Wikipedia entries.   “Altered Beast, Altered Me” is written mainly in email form.

Final Cuts features excellent writing and is creatively very strong. While most readers will enjoy this, it might not work for readers who like all story threads to be resolved by the end.  Many stories are open ended, and a few have endings that don’t seem to relate that much to the main story thread. Overall, though, it scores high in the most important areas, originality and quality of writing.

Contains:  violence, profanity

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

Posted on December 16, 2020 by , Reply

Book Review: The Devil and the Deep edited by Ellen Datlow

The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea edited by Ellen Datlow

Nightshade Books, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-59780-946-7

Availability: Hardcover, paperback, audiobook, Kindle edition

 

On the surface, it seems like a good idea.  A collection of short horror stories with the ocean as a common theme, written by authors with solid track records.  Unfortunately, it fails to live up to its premise.  In terms of story quality, there are roughly four treasures and a few nice baubles, but you have to dig through a lot of sand to find them.

These stories all come in at around 20 pages, so there isn’t a lot of space for character development or backstory, and things often happen for no reason.  That’s part of what makes writing short stories challenging.   But, you still need to create an interesting plot and make sure that each event ties into another, using limited space.  The stories here that qualify as treasure do that very well.  Christopher Golden’s ‘The Curious Allure of the Sea” is a perfect example.  A young woman finds a necklace bearing a unique symbol on her dead father’s boat.  She has it tattooed on her arm, and soon many different living (and sometimes dead) creatures are flocking from everywhere to be with her, and sometimes attack her.  The weirdness escalates, and she is soon forced to make difficult choices to try to save her own life.  This story is a perfect example of how to write an excellent short story.  You never get an explanation for why her dad had the necklace, or what the symbol means, but who cares?  Details like that can be skipped as long as the story makes sense and moves along, and it does.  Golden keeps in just enough to keep the plot rolling, and anything else is cheerfully tossed over the side.  Seanan McGuire’s “Sister, Dearest Sister, Let Me Show You to the Sea,” and Brian Hodge’s “He Sings of Salt and Wormwood” also do an excellent job of getting in fast, blowing the reader away, and getting out without any unnecessary filler.  Michael Marshall Smith’s “Shit Happens” also deserves praise. It’s an excellent story, and written in an off-kilter, hilarious way that reminds me of how Stephen King used to write for some of his oddball characters.  People don’t have sex, they are interested in “activities that would have a bedstead banging against a cabin wall into the small hours.”  Advice on hot sauce consists of  “some of those local brand bad boys will put you in a world of sphincter pain.”   It’s a great horror story, and the author’s hilarious way of narrating it will have you laughing out loud at times.

As for the other stories, a few are decent, but the rest suffer from the same problem: a lack of coherence in the plot.  They aren’t sleek, fast jetboats: they are more like a collection of parts thrown together to get from one harbor to another.  The authors do have some very original ideas and the tales start well, but then they get too metaphysical and abstract, which drags the story down.  Quite often, you will get to the end of a story and find yourself asking “what just happened?” The stories go in a sensible fashion for a while, then wander off the deep end into nonsensical events.  It’s a shame, because many of the stories had promise, but wound up as unrealized ideas, leaving this reader annoyed.

If you have the money to spare, it may be worth picking this one up for the few gems. Otherwise, the reader would probably be best to pass on this one.

Contains:  violence

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Editor’s note: The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea is on the final ballot for the 2018 Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in an Anthlogy.

 

Posted on April 15, 2019 by , Reply

Book Review: Haunted Nights edited by Ellen Datlow and Lisa Morton

Haunted Nights edited by Ellen Datlow and Lisa Morton

Blumhouse Books, 2017

ISBN-13: 978-1101973837

Available:  Paperback, Kindle ebook, Audible, and audio CD

Haunted Nights collects sixteen previously unpublished tales of Halloween. It is co-edited by Ellen Datlow, a highly respected genre editor, and Lisa Morton, an authority on Halloween. Haunted Nights presents stories of related holidays as well (e.g. All Souls’ Day and Día de los Muertos).

While I enjoyed all of the stories in Haunted Nights, a few stood out from the others. In “With Graveyard Weeds and Wolfsbane Seeds,” Seanan McGuire weaves a great haunted house story that switches perspective between the dead and the living. Mary can’t abide the teenagers who disturb her house, especially on her birthday, but she knows how to take care of her house, and the intruders. Stephen Graham Jones presents a tale of familial loss and a disturbing return in “Dirtmouth.” Jonathan Maberry’s “A Small Taste of the Old Country,” set in 1948, proves revenge can be served warm and comforting. Garth Nix always delivers an excellent story, and his entry in this collection does not disappoint. In his tale, “The Seventeen Year Itch,” the new hospital administrator disregards all of the warnings from staff about patient Broward and the incessant itch he feels compelled to scratch every Halloween. “A Kingdom of Sugar Skulls and Marigolds” by Eric J. Guignard is set during Día de Muertos rather than Halloween. A misspelling on a sugar skull leads to an eventful night for a man in mourning. Paul Kane’s “The Turn” takes the perspective of multiple characters, and is surprisingly well done in such a short story. Tom Nolan has never gone out on Halloween, but the urgent call from the hospital about his dying grandmother drives him outdoors on the most haunted night of the year.

This collection belongs on the bookshelves of readers who love Halloween and other ghost-related holidays. Other authors in this anthology include Joanna Parypinski, Kate Jonez, Jeffrey Ford, Kelley Armstrong, S.P Miskowski, Brian Evenson, Elise Forier Edie, Pat Cadigan, John Lanagan, and John R. Little.

Contains: blood, bullying, homophobia, rape, sexual content

Recommended

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on August 15, 2018 by , Reply
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