Customer Reviews

Halloween Horrors: New Tales of Dark Fantasy and Terror

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I don't remember what age I was when my Dad first borrowed HALLOWEEN HORRORS from the library - maybe 7? The cover image of a jack o'lantern weeping blood was pretty scary, so I picked it up to read. Some of the stories went over my head (the Nixon one, for instance), but on the whole they were very creepy. It seems easier to suspend disbelief on Halloween, and about Halloween, because we want to believe that the veil is thin at least once a year, and that there is something to see behind the veil. Anyway, my Dad borrowed it every Halloween for many years before the library dropped its copy. I just this year got mine from a library sale, but it's sad to think that someone out there might now be missing his Halloween ritual.

Well, on to the reviews:

This book has (lucky!) 13 stories by such big names as Robert Bloch, Ramsey Campbell, and Frank Belknap Long. A surprising number of these stories make Stefan Dziemianowicz's list of all-time Halloween tales in the OCTOBER DREAMS anthology. One, "Eyes" by Charles grant, is even reprinted therein. I think that given the big names in HALLOWEEN HORRORS and the influence that it has made on other writers and anthologies, it has been a pretty seminal work.

These 13 stories run the gamut from Satan to faeries to witchcraft, ghosts, and even politics. The story by FBL isn't even scary, more poignant even. On the other hand, the editor's contribution has a group of teens stuck in a house turning into a pumpkin. The anthology has many different perspectives for different ages on what is scary about Halloween. I believe that is what made HALLOWEEN HORRORS intriguing to me at 7 and at twenty-something. I certainly wouldn't pass up a chance to read it if you can.