Star Trek: The Next Generation, Mirror Broken- Review By Case Wright

Posted on October 8, 2018 by casewright

Happy Horrorthon!!! This review is going to be a deep dive into eeeeeeevil nerdism. I understand that not everyone reads this site is a techie nerd, BUUUUUUT I think we have a healthy plurality. Nothing is better than to merge an evil universe with my love of Star Trek.

I’m going to give brief recap of the Star Trek Mirror Universe. There’s a parallel universe in Star Trek that basically capitalist/imperialist. In that timeline, humans are aggressive and conquered the Vulcans. You can tell they are evil because they are avaricious and have beards- Think if Seattle/Portland went less drum circle and went more Roman. It’s common to kill your superior to advance in the chain of command, it’s totally capitalist, and more fun in some ways because it’s a lot less model UN and much more Model Viking.

The evil universe never appeared in the Next Generation, but it did appear in Star Trek: The Original Series and then the second tier properties of Enterprise, Deep Space Nine and Voyager. In those second tier properties, they set up a timeline that when the “Good Kirk” encouraged Spock to be reformist, it worked. Too bad for Earth because the Empire got attacked by the other Alien Races we conquered and now Humans are pushed back to their solar system and will likely to be conquered.

Where there’s life, there’s hope. In this comic, the writers Steven and David Tipton imagine if Jean Luc Picard was an uncompromising badass who is determined to bring the Terran Empire back to its former glory. How does he do this besides being really JACKED? Picard sets out to steal the Galaxy Class Enterprise. This creates a great heist story, but it’s also super fun because it explores all of the old characters from the Next Generation and I mean ALL! There are character that were all but extras in Next Generation that are featured in the background of the book. There are so many interesting takes on our old heroes. Barclay is cunning, Data is experimenting with Borg-technology, and Geordie has his paramour from Next Gen, but she’s an alcoholic. It’s so fun to go down this rabbit hole.

Back to the story, Picard assembles our familiar crew and seizes the Galaxy Class Enterprise for his own. He could just take off and be rich, but he doesn’t. Through some cool maneuvers, Picard decimates the Klingons and Cardassians …..nooooooo not the ones with large posteriors …. the ones with the krinkly heads. Anyway, they go on war rampage and look like they might actually get to restore the Terran Empire!

TERRANS UNITE!

Book Review: Frankenstein: The First Two Hundred Years by Christopher Frayling

Posted on October 7, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

If you’re a fan of horror and more specifically the several different versions — both literary and cinematic — of Frankenstein’s Monster, Frankenstein: The First Two Hundred Years is a book that you simply must own.

It’s really two books in one. The first half of the book deals with the original creation of Frankenstein. It goes into a detail about not only the famous night and game that led to Mary Shelley writing Frankenstein but it also details everything that not only influenced Shelley’s imagination but which led to the world becoming fascinated by her creation. How you react to this section of the book will largely depend on how interested you are in history. Me, I’m an unapologetic history nerd so I loved it.

The second part of the book is a visual history of the Monster through the years, featuring everything from his many film appearances to his use in advertisements and political cartoons to his appearances in various comic books. It’s not just a collection of pictures, though. It’s also a testament to the power of Mary Shelley’s creation and how the Monster has come to be a universal figure, one who has been adopted by every culture and ideology.

Christopher Frayling is a witty and engaging writer, which helps to get through some of the denser sections of the first half of the book. His love for the Monster comes through every page, which makes Frankenstein: The First Two Hundred Years a perfect celebration of the world’s most famous reanimated body.

Book Review: Rapture by Thomas Tessier

Posted on October 6, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Like 666, Rapture is a novel that I read after coming across the cover in Grady Hendrix’s Paperbacks From Hell….

“Ah!” you’re saying, “so this is all Grady Hendrix’s fault!”

Well, kind of but not really. Unlike 666, Rapture was actually a well-written and legitimately frightening book. I mean, I probably wouldn’t have ever heard of this book if it wasn’t in Paperbacks from Hell but it’s not like anyone owes me an apology for inspiring me to read it or anything.

Anyway, Rapture deals with a guy named Jeff. Jeff grew up in Connecticut but then he left for California, where he made a fortune in computers and suffered through one bad marriage. Now, he’s nearly 40 and he can’t escape the feeling that maybe something is missing from his life.

When Jeff’s father dies, Jeff returns to Connecticut and accidentally on purpose runs into Georgianne. Jeff grew up with Georgianne. They were best friends in high school but they were never more than friends. Now, years later, Jeff thinks that was a missed opportunity. In fact, he soon convinces himself that he and Georgianne were meant to be together. The only problem is that Georgianne is happily married and has a teenage daughter, Bonnie. In fact, as Jeff observers, Bonnie looks almost exactly the same way that her mother did at that age….

It looks like Jeff is going to have to murder a few people if he wants to find true love. Jeff turns out to be surprisingly skilled when it comes to killing people. Either that or the police are just totally incompetent. (Rapture was written in 1987, which might explain some of Jeff’s success. If it was written today, DNA, texting, and social media would have rendered the entire story implausible.) But is Jeff really as clever as he thinks he is?

While I was reading Rapture, I kept thinking that it would make a good Lifetime miniseries. (I then checked the imdb and I discovered that Rapture apparently was turned into a made-for-TV movie in 1991.) It’s a shamelessly sordid little tale, one that is all the more disturbing because Thomas Tessier tells almost the entire story from Jeff’s twisted point of view. Though Tessier wisely resists the temptation to use a first person narrator, he still puts you in the head of a madman. It’s more than a little icky. At the same time, it’s undeniably effective and creepy.

In fact, I would say that it’s time for Lifetime to remake Rapture. Pair it up with the latest episode of YOU. It’ll be great, I promise!

American Vampire – Review by Case Wright

Posted on October 6, 2018 by casewright

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I got my computer back!!!! Happy October Horrorthon!!!

In every sport or endeavor, we can think of our stars: the paragons. Stephen King is an unquestioned master of horror. In comics, Scott Snyder looks down from that pyramid as well. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Scott Snyder a few times and you would never guess that he was the greatest comic book author in a generation.

I went up to Scott at the Emerald City Comic Con to have him sign my trade paperback. He was surprised because my trade was not rare at all, but I wanted him to know that I loved his art so much that I wanted it signed, regardless of worth. Because of that, he took out time to talk to me even though there was a line of autograph hounds. Stephen King, on the other hand, I have no idea what’s he’s like in real life. I have a hunch that he’s like most people I have known from Maine: DIY, tough, and fair.

American Vampire was a Supergroup: both King and Snyder wrote this book with the beautiful art of Rafael Albuquerque. They took the genre of the Vampire and, much like the theme in the story, they made it evolve. The result was a trio of interconnected revenge stories with wonderfully flawed heroes and anti-heroes. The artists forced you to root even for Skinner Sweet – a man who thinks he’s not only above the law, but beyond it. Skinner Sweet typifies the American Id: dangerous, violent, and oddly fair within his code.

The book opens with two struggling starlets in the 1920s Hollywood: Pearl and Hattie. Pearl is all-in with the art; whereas, Hattie is more of the hack opportunist. They are staying in a cheap apartment complex where a mysterious stranger hangs around. Pearl is invited to Hollywood party where it turns out she is the main course for a host of hungry vampires. Near death, the mysterious stranger finds her dying and he makes her like him: An American Vampire. A vampire, unlike the relics of europe, he can walk in daylight and has few if any weaknesses. When Pearl rises to her new undead life, she goes on a rampage of revenge to destroy those who stole her humanity. Yes, I just got chills too!

The story flashes back to the old west where a lawman, Book, has captured Skinner Sweet, but not for long. He busted out in an awesome train attack by his gang. This is where we learn about the haughty European vampires and how they are arrogant, weak, and in our way. Sweet tells Book that he sent poison to his wife, engendering Book’s revenge story against Sweet. During the train attack, Sweet is turned into a Vampire and when he eventually rises Sweet and Book are sent on a collision course of revenge against the other.

There’s more revenge in this book than a Sicilian novel. It must be burned into my Italian DNA to love these revenge stories, but there’s more to it that my accident of birth. Revenge stories tap into the universal of what makes us human. We’ve all been wronged and we have all wondered what it would be like to mete out own justice and live by our own law. Skinner Sweet is not as much evil as he is part of civilization; he’s the American ID of our rugged individualism. Pearl’s character is part of society, but must seek out her own revenge because as a vampire, she is unable to use society to bring her justice. As the story unfolds, it’s clear that Pearl and Skinner Sweet are the most honest in their quest for revenge because at times Block uses his badge to hide behind his vendetta. In all three stories, the vendettas are so satisfying and pure. This book is rage distilled to its purest form.

Book Review: Night of the Ripper by Robert Bloch

Posted on October 5, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

As you might guess from the title, Night of the Ripper is set in London in 1888. A shadowy figure is haunting the foggy alleyways of Whitechapel, savagely murdering prostitutes, terrifying the public, and leaving the police baffled. In the taunting letters that he writes to the authorities, he says that his name is Jack.

Jack the Ripper, to be exact.

With both high and low society demanding an end to the murders, can the respected and determined Inspector Abberline discover the true identity of Jack the Ripper and bring his reign of terror to an end? Helping him out will be an American doctor named Mark Robinson. Robinson is an expert in a developing science called psychology but will that be enough?

*sigh*

This 1984 novel from Robert Bloch is an unfortunate misfire. I say that as someone who has spent a countless amount of time reading about the murders and all of the identified suspects. (Back in March, when Jeff and I were in London, we went on one of those Jack the Ripper walking tours. It was wonderfully creepy!) A century after his crimes, Jack the Ripper continues to fascinate us because, not only was he the first widely identified serial killer, but it also appears that he got away with it. The police may have speculated that Jack was a disgraced lawyer who committed suicide after the murder of Mary Kelly but they never actually presented any evidence to back that up. Over the last 130 years, countless people have been accused of being Jack the Ripper, everyone from an anonymous Russian doctor to Lewis Carroll to the son of Queen Victoria. Solely based on the fact that she didn’t care much for his paintings, Patricia Cornwell wrote an entire book arguing that the artist Walter Sickert was the murderer. In all probability, Jack the Ripper was an anonymous nobody but he’s become such a huge figure in the popular imagination that it’s difficult for many to accept that he was probably just a sexually dysfunctional loser who hated women. Instead, elaborate conspiracy theories are pursued and films like Murder by Decree and From Hell are produced.

Bloch’s novel features plenty of prominent Victorians, though none of them are identified as suspects. Oscar Wilde, Joseph Merrick, Conan Doyle, and Robert Lees all show up and then quickly disappear from the story. When Bloch does eventually reveal the identity of Jack the Ripper, he turns out to be a minor character who was first introduced just a few chapters previously. It’s a bit of a letdown.

Actually, the whole book is a letdown. It comes across as if it was written in haste and Bloch’s attempt to give the story some gravitas by opening the final few chapters be describing ancient torture methods doesn’t really have the effect that I presume he was going for. It’s a disappointment because, after all, this is Robert Bloch that we’re talking about. Bloch not only wrote Psycho but he also wrote Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper, one of the best short stories ever written about Jack.

Read the short story but avoid the novel. And if you ever get a chance to take a Jack the Ripper walking tour, do it!

Book Review: The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson

Posted on October 4, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Lou Ford is 29 years-old, the deputy sheriff of a town in Texas that’s so small that Fort Worth is viewed as being the “big city.” Lou is friendly. Lou appears to be popular among the citizenry. Lou has a sweet and wholesome girlfriend named Amy. Lou speaks in a cheerful clichés and seems to be content with his reputation for being a dependable but slightly slow-witted good ol’ boy.

Of course, we know the truth about Lou. We know the truth because Lou tells us. In Jim Thompson’s 1952 novel, The Killer Inside Me, Lou narrates his story to us. Underneath his friendly exterior, Lou is an ice-cold sociopath who is proud of the fact that he could literally beat someone to death if he wanted to. He speaks in clichés only because he’s mocking his listeners and even Amy is ultimately expendable to his plans. Most disturbing of all, Lou knows that he’s a sociopath. He even reads a book on the subject. He knows but he doesn’t care.

Lou has plans, most of which involve blackmailing a local construction magnate. His partner in his blackmail scheme is the local prostitute, Joyce Lakeland. Lou’s been having an affair with Joyce and, as far as Lou knows, she’s the only person who is aware of his true nature. Lou’s solution to that problem is to not only frame Joyce for murder but to also beat her into a coma. While Lou waits for Joyce to die, he’s busy covering his own tracks and committing additional murders. Through it all, Lou struggles to keep everyone else in the world from catching a glance of the killer inside of him.

The Killer Inside Me may be over 60 years old but it’s still one of the most intense and disturbing portraits of a sociopath ever written. Secure that he will be forever protected by his status as a member of law enforcement, Lou Ford feels free to pursue every sadistic whim that pops into his head. Jim Thompson traps us in Ford’s mind but interestingly, the best parts of the book are the parts that suggest that Ford may not be correctly interpreting what’s happening around him. Towards the end of the book, it starts to become evident that Ford may not have been as clever as he insists that he is and we’re force to consider that we just spent several chapters taking the word of a sociopath.

You may be tempted to watch the 2010 film version instead of reading the book. Don’t do it! The book is a hundred times better and the movie totally screwed up the ending.

Gerald’s Game- Book Review by Case Wright

Posted on October 4, 2018 by casewright

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Hello Horrorthon Readers! It’s a great day to get scared and Retweet and Reblog my work! “Gerald’s Game” is a throwback for Stephen King. It was published in 1992 and his readers were used to near or over 1000 page tomes. This book clocks in at a meager 332 and is very pithy and often gross. At this point in King’s life, he was in the middle of or just finished a relapse into drugs and alcohol. Gerald’s Game mirrored his life in many ways; he was tormented by his past and incarcerated by his unresolved demons in his present.

The story depicts Jessie, a woman, who has become subservient to her husband. Over the years of their unequal marriage, she has given up her career and identity at his request to be his quiet lawyer’s wife. This manifests into Gerald’s last desire of pure possession. He begins play a sex game with his spouse where she role plays a handcuffed woman and he plays a pirate rapist. To get the full effect, Gerald uses an off season beach house to use for his game because there will be no one who could come to her aid.

When Gerald begins to perform is rape-game, Jessie decides that she has had enough. She stands up to Gerald, but he decides to rape his handcuffed wife. This causes Jessie to snap and kick Gerald right in the balls, giving him a fatal heart attack. Jessie’s road to hell turns into the autobahn. A dog comes by and eats her husband’s dead body, causing her psyche to kick into high gear hallucinations. In order to save herself, she must deal with her past and how all of her decision led her to her current situation.

This book also deals with two horrific acts that recur often in King’s work – Incest and Rape. The rape/incest scene in this book is purely vomit inducing. We are forced to live through Jessie’s horrible present and past. Her psyche appears often as a college friend and her younger self as a puritan who is being pilloried for sexual enticement. The sexual enticement charge being her self-blame for her father raping her. The book makes you live through each and every moment of her losing her sense of self and volition.

As in his other books, King likes the idea of a primitive sacrifice to conquer a monster or a demon. We see that in It, The Stand, Misery, and his many other stories. In this story, her psyche let’s her know how free herself after she deals with the ghosts of her past. The solution: she must …… I’m not spoiling it that much. You know me better than that by now.

I would recommend this book, but the creepy factor is extremely high. I would recommend this book in audio or paper format. It is perfect for a plane ride or if your weekend plans fall through.

Harrow County – Countless Haints, Review by Case Wright

Posted on October 3, 2018 by casewright

Happy Horrorthon!!! We are in the thick of it folks. October is happening! We’re all eating things with pumpkin flavor, baseball’s in full swing (pun intended), and we all get into trying something scary.

There are few things that truly scare me as much as clowns do, but I’d rather sit on Bozo’s lap than live one solitary moment in Harrow County. Harrow County is a comic series by Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook published by Dark Horse. Saying this comic is scary is like writing that Charles Lindbergh dabbled in flying planes. After the first few pages, I was thoroughly creeped out and turned on all the lights in my home.

The story revolves around Emmy, a nearly adult woman, who is discovering that she is not an ordinary farmer’s daughter, but terrifyingly powerful witch. Years earlier, Emma’s “mother” Hester was an evil witch with the powers of Satan. The townsfolk weren’t too fond of all of her child sacrifices and dark arts so they decide to shoot, stab, hang, and burn Emma’s “mother”.

*Slight Spoiler*—- Emma learns that she is the born again version of Hester and not an actual daughter. Emma was born from murder and vengeance and Harrow County is about to reap the whirlwind.

The art of this story is so off-putting and chill-inducing. Their eyes pull you in as if you are one of the townsfolk being judged and co-opted by good or evil. The story has a wide streak of ambiguity; it never allows you to fully see the true good or evil of any the characters after the first five pages. In essence, the characters are real. They are you neighbor, your brother, your sister: imperfect and conflicted. This duality is exemplified by Emma’s only a friend a ghost or “Haint” who is actually bifurcated. One half of the friend acts as Emma’s bodyguard: pure rage that is only muscle akin to the Human Body figures from biology class and the other half of her friend is a kind and scared bag of skin who acts as a guide for Emma. The bifurcated friend is a great visual example of our rage that hides just under the surface of all people.

This story is scary as Hell. Go Buy It!

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Book Review: The Zero Factor by William Oscar Johnson

Posted on October 3, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Consider this.

William Henry Harrison was elected President in 1840. A few months later, he became the first President to die in office, the result of giving a rambling inauguration speech in the rain.

Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860. He was assassinated by an actor in 1865.

James A. Garfield was elected in 1880. He was shot and subsequently died of medical malpractice in 1881.

William McKinley was reelected in 1900. He was assassinated by a leftist in 1901.

Warren Harding was elected in 1920 and was murdered by his wife in 1923.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was reelected in 1940. He died of natural causes in 1945.

John F. Kennedy was elected in 1960. He was assassinated by a lone gunman in 1963.

The second President to die in office, Zachary Taylor, was elected in 1848 but died in 1850! (In his case, he was either poisoned or died of natural causes. It depends on which book you read.)

That is the Zero Curse. For a period of 120 years, any president was elected in a zero year died before the end of his term. Some people thought it was a coincidence. Some people thought it was a supernatural occurrence. Whatever it was, it was a strange piece of American history.

In fact, it even inspired a novel! The Zero Factor was published in 1980, presumably to capitalize on that year’s presidential election. The Zero Factor tells the story of Augustus “Gus” York, a Republican governor who is nominated for President after the convention deadlocks. Gus is honest, homespun, and naive. To everyone’s shock, Gus narrowly wins the election.

Gus is an ethical President whose moderate political stances manage to alienate every powerful person in the world. Not surprisingly, a group of evil rich people hire an assassin to take out President York. Will Gus be able to survive the zero factor!?

So, this may seem like a strange book to review for October and I’ll be the first to admit that I nearly scheduled this review for November. However, the book does feature three rather odd scenes where Gus is haunted by the ghosts of the zero year presidents. Those scenes are actually a lot of fun. I especially liked the description of Franklin Roosevelt’s ghost rolling around the Presidential bedroom while his eyes glow a ghostly yellow. Best of all, Gus gets advice from the ghost of my favorite scandalous president, Warren G. Harding! Thanks to President Harding and the gang, The Zero Factor can be classified as a book for October.

As for the rest of the book, it’s a well-written political thriller. At times, the book’s politics can be rather heavy-handed (why write about a Republican President if you’re just going to make him act like a Democrat?) and the portrayal of the gay assassin is dated and a bit cringe-inducing. But Gus is a likable character and I appreciate any book that takes the time to rehabilitate Warren Harding.

As for the Zero Curse, it was broken by the President who actually was elected in 1980, Ronald Reagan. George W. Bush continued to break it in 2000. (That said, both Bush and Reagan were targeted by potential assassins during their presidencies.) The next zero year election will be 2020, an election that looks like it’s going to involve a record number of elderly candidates.

Book Review: 666 by Jay Anson

Posted on October 2, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Published in 1981, 666 is a book that will make you wonder, “How do people not know what 666 means?”

It’s the story of Keith and Jennifer, an attractive young couple who move into a new home and immediately become fascinated by the empty house across the way. The empty house’s address is 666 Sunset Brooke Lane and no one finds that strange.

Keith decides to explore the house and discovers not only a coin that was minted by the Roman Empire but also a stained glass window that appears to feature someone who looks exactly like him. Keith does find that strange but it still doesn’t occur to him that there might be a clue to be found in the address.

Jennifer friend, David, decided to rent out 666 Sunset Brooke Lane and immediately starts to have visions of not only Christians being tortured during the reign of Nero but also of a naked Jennifer standing on the house’s front porch. And yet, David never associates this with the house’s address.

Keith’s brother is a priest (!) who is investigating a local Satanic cult and yet somehow, it never occurs to him to be concerned about 666 Sunset Brooke Lane.

Anyway, it all ends in (tame) sex, violence, and tragedy, as these things often do. The main lesson that I took away from this book was that you should be concerned if a notorious murder house suddenly appears in your backyard. It’s a lesson that I won’t forget.

666 was written by Jay Anson, who had previously written a “non-fiction” book called The Amityville Horror. 666 is a story about four incredibly dumb people, all of whom inspired me to shout, “Why don’t you just leave the damn house!?” more than a few times. That said, it’s also enjoyably pulpy and the main characters are all so thinly drawn and unlikable that you really don’t mind when they start dying. Though you’ll be shaking your head at many of the book’s implausibilities, the final chapters are crudely effective and, when it’s time to describe the torture techniques of ancient Rome, Anson goes all out.

Plus, the book has a really cool inside cover!