The horror of suspicion and personal choice (4/5)
My relationship with the genre
of horror is sporadic and often short-lived. Most of the horror out there deals
with supernatural elements, a theme which doesn’t elicit any measure of fear or
foreboding from my readership. I much prefer the human element of horror; where
the manifestation of human evil is corporeal, where deadly deeds are dealt by
the hand of a stranger. Regardless of my preference, I still managed to enjoy
the supernatural elements found in Night Shift. Some stories just don’t
have the right twist or right angle for maximum enjoyment, while others are
creepy and direct to the point of utter success. I suppose I enjoyed the
variety more than anything: supernatural, science fiction, dramatic,
apocalyptic, etc.
I’ve read King’s The Running
Man (1982) and The Shining (1977), but these two novels pale in
comparison to this collection. Now that I’ve enjoyed this collection so much, I
eye my copy of Skeleton Crew (1985) with eagerness. His other two novels
on my shelves are The Stand (1978) and The Tommyknockers (1987),
both of which I hope are as creepy as they are voluminous.
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Jerusalem’s Lot (1978,
novelette) – 4/5 – The ancestral home of Charles Boon in the year 1850 appears
to be vacant, haunted, and shunned by the nearby villagers, who also shun the
ghost town the house is situation in—Jerusalem’s Lot. A series of
correspondence is presented from Charles and his life-long friend Calvin McCann
which outlines their struggles and haunting with the little village, the cellar
of his house, and the abandoned church, host to The Mysteries of the Worm.
31 pages
Graveyard Shift (1970,
shortstory) – 5/5 – The third floor of the century-old nylon factory is
infested with rats, which transient worker Hall picks off with aluminum soda
cans. His meddling foreman offers him a dirty, week-long job over the holiday
to clean the basement out—a job for a crew of men with hoses and a penchant for
getting dirty. Here, the rat infestation reaches epic proportions and men are
bit and sent home… then Hall discovers a wooden sub-cellar door. 15 pages
Night Surf (1974, shortstory) –
3/5 – College kids on the beach listen to the radio as the waves crash and the
tide ebbs, except his day is one of the last for all humanity. Ghastly symptoms
of the most recent flu outbreak, A6, have steeled the youth against such acts
as immolating a diseased man, but when the silent killer rears its head among
the motley crew, will they favor death’s prospect with fortitude or fatalism? 8
pages
I Am the Doorway (1971,
shortstory) – 3/5 – Resting on a wooden deck next to the beach with bandages
around his itchy hands, an ex-astronaut recounts his story of the Venus
expedition he manned and the later paralyzing re-entry attempt on Earth.
Passing his physical exams, Arthur begins to develop beastly eyes on his hands,
whose visions haunt his life with their alien perception of his familiar world.
His actions, too, soon seem alien to himself. 11 pages
The Mangler (1972, novelette) –
4/5 – Officer Hunton is called to investigate the grisly death of a worker who
was caught inside a drying and ironing machine. An inspector deems the machine
fit for use and up to standard, but the recurring injuries is too much of a
coincidence when it’s discovered that the blood of a virgin had been spilled on
the steaming, gnawing hulk of machinery. Their suspicion of possession points
in many directions, both tame and deadly. 17 pages
The Boogeyman (1973,
shortstory) – 2/5 – Visiting a psychotherapist after the death of his third and
final child, a man recounts the sequential deaths of his three children by the
closet-domained, sleek, black boogeyman. His initial belligerent attitude
toward its existence distances him from his wife, but the creeping suspicion and
closet doors left ajar soon make him realize its corporeal existence. 11 pages
Grey Matter (1973, shortstory) –
3/5 – Workman’s compensation has turned one man into a sybaritic beer
guzzler/couch potato. His drowned miseries silently punish his son who he tasks
with the beer purchasing. The local men at the shop are coolly called to arms
when the boy arrives at the shop teary-eyed but with a weird tale involving a suspiciously
skunky beer and the resulting metamorphosis of the man, his gelatinous father,
in front of the TV. 11 pages
Battleground (1972, shortstory)
– 4/5 – A professional hitman returns to his penthouse suit with a package
under his arm from the front desk. Upon his opening of the package and seeing
an innocuous set of war figurines, the miniature army suddenly comes to life,
complete with jeeps, helicopters, and medics. Retreating to the bathroom, a
barrage of rockets assaults the door, a dubious inclusion which the labeling
failed to mention. 9 pages
Trucks (1973, shortstory) – 5/5
– Long-haul rigs circle a truck stop under their own volition. Trapped inside
are the lucky humans who haven’t been run down or ran off the highway while the
machines began to take over. Without power, the humans need water for their
life while the trucks and machines state their demand for fuel by way of Morse code.
The autonomous machines prowl the roads and stalk the sky, making escape
impossible and slavery a realization. 15 pages
Sometimes They Come Back (1974,
novelette) – 4/5 – Jim’s brother was killed by some hoodlums back in 1956, when
Jim himself barely got away after wetting himself. How years later and teaching
literature at a new high school, Jim is haunted by the memory of his brother’s
death during his dreams, which soon begin to manifest in his very own
classroom. Slowly coming to believe the thugs are the same from his childhood,
Jim prepares to meet them on their own terms. 25 pages
Strawberry Spring (1975,
shortstory) – 3/5 – The spring thaw welcomes more than flowers and birds to the
campus of New Sharon—within the banks of fog rolling through the town stalks a
killer. The early onset of spring lulls some into false comfort as the killer
strikes again, dismembers again and yet still eludes police. A devastating winter
squall eclipses the false spring and with it go the suspicions of the killer
and his crimes. 9 pages
The Ledge (1976, shortstory) –
4/5 – Forty floors above the city streets, a tennis professional is remaining
calm and collected even though confronting the rich husband of his extramarital
love interest. Parrying with words, wages, and lies, the men come to a
decision: the adulterer can tiptoe around the building’s ledge and, if
successful, win the bag of money, the wife, and his freedom; the alternative is
a forty-floor plummet or forty years in prison. 15 pages
The Lawnmower Man (1975,
shortstory) – 2/5 – A man proud of his lawn but succumbing to the idle
pleasures of summer weather watches his yard’s growth reach unparalleled
heights. He phones a yard service company and a large man appears on their behalf.
The unconventional mowing style—crawling behind the automatic mower while
butt-naked and eating the trimmings—brings on a fainting spell to the yard
owner, who soon decides that this type of behavior is miscreant. 9 pages
Quitters, Inc. (1978,
shortstory) – 5/5 – Coming across an old college buddy at an airport bar,
Morrison is impressed with his successful friend’s demeanor, physique, and
determination to never have another cigarette in his life… so comes the
business card for Quitters, Inc. into the hands to Morrison. Playfully
considering the secret success of the company’s secretive methods, Morrison
drops by, signs the agreement, and learns, the hard way, why their method has
proven itself effective. 18 pages
I Know What You Need (1976,
novelette) – 4/5 – He says all the right things, buys all the right gifts, knows
your every mood, and known your every enjoyment—he also happens to innately
know a little bit too much about your personal life, but everything else sounds
so perfect. Liz meets such a boy at university and falls in love with him after
her boyfriend’s unexpected death. Her roommate is more streetwise and
investigates his strangeness more thoroughly. 20 pages
Children of the Corn (1977,
novelette) – 5/5 – Crossing America on the way to California, Burt and Vicky
exit the turnpikes and enter the countryside for a better view. Met by the
endless Nebraskan fields of corn, the couple bicker and argue before running
over the body of a boy. Taking the corpse to the nearest town of Galtin, they
discover it abandoned for twelve years—all but the church with its ominous
Christ and cryptic epistle. 25 pages
The Last Rung on the Ladder
(1978, shortstory) – 4/5 – Katrina and Larry are carefree siblings on a Midwest
farm, sharing chores and sharing the thrills of falling seventy feet onto an
earthy pile of hay. The rickety ladder fails them one day and Katrina falls
into a hastily prepared bed of hay by her brother. Content with the reassurance
of an elder sibling, the life challenges which follow through adulthood fail to
reflect the safety of the fateful day’s fall. 11 pages
The Man Who Loved Flowers
(1977, shortstory) – 3/5 – Even the numerous souls which populate a city can
easily see the look of love on a young man’s face; the eagerness to please with
flowers, the daydreaming gleam on the film of his eye, and the casual approach
to conversation with strangers. His destiny with Norma lay within the city of
tittering teenagers, well-wishing grandmothers, avuncular florists, playful pedestrians,
and a murder wielding a hammer. 6 pages
One for the Road (1977,
shortstory) – 4/5 – The warmest place during a fierce Maine blizzard is at the
bottom of a capful of brandy. This capful of fortification revives the
frostbitten man whose family is stuck in Jerusalem’s Lot six miles south. The
look between the two barmen upon hearing this news infers a deep sense of fear
and foreboding. Reluctantly, the trio fight through the snow to the burnt
remains of a town rumored to be home to vampires. 14 pages
The Woman in the Room (1978,
shortstory) – 4/5 – Stricken with abdominal cancer and bed-ridden in a
hospital, a man’s mother loses her motor control along with her sense of pain.
Her pathetic state drives the man to contemplate euthanasia, but also presses
him to escape in his own personal way—by imbibing in the drink prior to his
visitations. Loving his mother for better or worse, the man makes his ultimate
choice personal. 12 pages
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