| Title | : | Horrorama |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1941918719 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781941918715 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 214 |
| Publication | : | First published October 1, 2020 |
Stor-All Self-Storage by A.S. Coomer
Richard Dennison has just landed a new job at the Stor-All Self-Storage as a night security officer. The owners are a bit strange but not as bizarre as the renters who visit their units at night. And the only instructions he’s been given are to call the police.
Primitive by Lucas Mangum
A group of old friends decide to spend the weekend camping on Moon Mountain only to have their vacation interrupted when a disheveled woman appears out of the woods. She tells them she’s looking for her son but the group find her story hard to believe. Will she find her son and will they all make it off the mountain alive?
The Vessel by Matt Harvey
A cult, Heralds of Celestial Ascendancy, is hellbent on reviving their dark god. All they need is a body for their Master to inhabit. When Elise Abbington wakes in the middle of the night to find herself feeling strange, little does she know, she’s on a crash course with the cult and a deprogrammer willing to do anything to stop the cult’s cause.
Horrorama Reviews
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"How do you argue with a sadistic serial murderer? Answer: you dont."
This is campy horror loving fun at it finest! Plus this cover, I mean come on!! -
In the preface to this book of three novelettes, editor C.V. Hunt states that movie marathons are a huge peart of a horror fans life. Those nights when we watch movie after movie, staying up all night are some of the best memories a horror fan has. And these movies are not always good. They are low budget movies that do not always scream the highest quality of film, but even high budget studio movies are usually flawed in serious ways. None of these horror movies are going to win any awards, but those nights are still. C.V. Hunt has translated this feeling of watching low budget 80s movies on VHS or at a drive-in movie theater into a book called Horrorama.
This book consists of three stories. The first, “Stor-All Self-Storage” by A.S Coomer is about a guy who gets a job working night security at a self-storage center. What he does not expect is people coming and going throughout the night. When he gets too curious about some of the things that are happening, he gets caught into situations that would not have happened if he would have minded his own business. This is a well used ‘80s trope, where the single guy in the middle of the night is spying on things that he should not be spying on and gets caught. I liked this one the best of the three novelettes.
The second story is “Primitive” by Lucas Mangum. The story starts with a bunch of friends going out to the woods for a guys weekend. They eventually run into a naked woman who is obviously living in the woods. They try to help her, but of course nothing goes well. Mangum is the only one of these three authors I had read before, and I enjoyed this story but not as much as the first one.
The final story is “The Vessel” by Matt Harvey. Like most cult stories, this one is fun to read, even though it is more about the reason for the cult than the members of the cult. There are more sinister characters and nobody seems to be trying to do anything good. Maybe the right thing but not a good thing. There are parts of this story that really stick out as paths that could have been explored further, and so it is a shame that it is this a novelette. The writing in this story is much more vivid and descriptive but it also feels more gritty and pulpy than the other two entries.
In the end, I think that this collection of novelettes is exactly what C.V. Hunt is trying to accomplish. It does feel like a marathon of cheesy, low budget movies. None of the stories are perfect, but they are all good. Horror does not have many perfect movies or books, but horror has thousands of great movies and books that have flaws, sometimes deep flaws, but they are still worth recommending to any horror fan. -
I really enjoyed all 3 of the novelettes in this anthology. All of them pulled me in and kept me turning pages. I definitely recommend giving this one a read.
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I started with Mangum’s story. It was right on par with his other work. It reads quick and is enjoyable. He’s a reliable author. When you pick his work up, you’re not going to be disappointed.
Coomer’s story was next.
I got a thing with storage units. I love them, and I love reading about them and writing about them, so this story already had me.
It was fun, violent, read fast, and I actually thought it represented a nice shift from the last work of his I read (The Fetishists). This was lighter in many ways, but still had a lot of fun gore and lore.
Matt Harvey was last. This is my first work by Harvey, I believe.
This dude’s a wordsmith, no doubt I felt like I was reading some Chris Barnes lyrics in those nightmare passages. The gore is aesthetic, stylistically beautiful and intelligent.
The story itself was compelling. I wanted to respect the deprogrammer more, but he really just seemed like an asshole, so it was hard to connect with him.
I liked the vessel though. She was a nice lady and had a tough break. I was rooting for her.
All in all it is a perfect book for this Halloween season.
The interior design is awesome (there are some pages set up like old television guides) and the cover art is great. Grindhouse has always been dependable when it comes to pumping out good work, but this year in particular they have raised the bar. I’m looking forward to checking out more from this year’s list of offerings soon. -
A Horror Movie Marathon on paper! Three novelettes from Grindhouse Press.
I knew I was going to like this book from the moment I read the introduction. So don't skip the intro!
The first story is Stor-All Self-Storage by A.S. Coomer. I think this was my favorite of all three. It had the true feel of a B movie and I really enjoyed it.
Next up is Primitive by Lucas Mangum. This one was good and reminded me of the more classic horror movies. I read it in black and white.
And finally, The Vessel by Matt Harvey. Scary, gross, and mysterious. All good. -
Interesting
Years ago I wouldn’t have thought much about how a writer would look at reviews on Amazon/GoodReads/etc., but a I’ve listened to enough interviews where writers talk about reading their reviews, that I want to be respectful in how I approach this.
This is a 3 story collection. It sounded interesting enough and was $0.99, so I figured why not give it a shot? I will say that in my opinion, the stories are presented in the order of their quality.
At 30ish pages each, it’s important to note that there is only so many words/space to use for the tale.
First is Store-All Self Storage by A.S. Croomer. Croomer has an interesting style in this tale, but I have to say that the narrator was in no way relatable to me and throughout the story made the complete opposite type of decisions that, in my opinion, most anyone would. Our main character gets a job watching over a storage unit business where all the tenants are up to some shady work. There were morsels of something interesting here (green glow) but I found it meandering (like my review here) and not great. It wasn’t horrible but it did not grab me.
Second is Primitive by Lucas Mangum. I found a similar type of issue, something about the characters didn’t seem quite right to me. They just weren’t all that relatable. This could just be personal taste, I do believe there are people like that out there. Without too many details it is a werewolf story. Something this tale and the first story share are massive info dumps that didn’t always hit with me. However, this one has a lot more of your typical “horror” action. The story picks up and leads up to a solid conclusion.
The third story is where it was for me in this collection. The Vessel by Matt Harvey gets into some cosmic horror, which is always a fun time. I found either the characters more relatable and/or the writing style presented them in a more efficient manner. There are one or two “that decision makes no sense” moments but this is a fun-paced horror ride about a cult that is looking to rebirth a creature to take them to another plane of existence.
For the price of $0.99 you definitely can’t go wrong. I enjoyed The Vessel quite a bit. -
First of all, how freaking cool is that cover??
This was an absolute blast to read! The book is going for a B-horror-movie triple feature, like something you'd rent on VHS for the weekend. And it absolutely hits the mark!
There are three stories featured here, all with the gritty horror movie aura, but with very different plots and themes.
Stor-All Self-Storage - slightly meta, about a struggling writer who takes a weird nighttime job at a self-storage location. Bizarre and very entertaining.
Primitive- parts of this gave me actual dread that I've only gotten from some horror movies. Also,
Vessel - a very cool cult story, I loved all of these characters. -
I wasn't quite sure what to expect from these 3 novelettes (and do we still use this term? I thought everything is called a novella these days....) and if they would be for me since it felt like my Horror taste has gotten a bit tamer over the last few years. Nonetheless I was intrigued by the marketing and intent which shows itself heavily in the lovely cover and book design.
"Horrorama" is meant to be the book equivalent to a movie marathon full of 70's grindhouse inspired stories, and maybe it succeeded? I guess in the end, dear reader, you have to make that judgement call yourself but I think this collection achieved what it set out to do. Maybe it wasn't quite as bloody as some readers would wish but it was plenty gory for me. More importantly, all these stories are in good degrees bizarre, disturbing and a bit grimy which I found more important and resonated stronger with me than more blood buckets would have. Also, all of these have an unnecessary naked woman at some point and does it get any more grindhouse than that?
To top it of, all 3 writers here just did a phenomenal job at the technical aspect: the writing was better than I expected for these kind of tales, I'm dead serious, while all a bit different they are all solid writers. I might have liked the plots of these to varying degrees but I cannot fault each of these author's way with words and will likely look into their other publications. Honestly, I could see all of them making fun movies, or segments of one anthology movie. And maybe if/when we get a second installment in book form we don't just get white male dudes writing?
"Store-All Self Storage" by A.S. Coomer 4.5*
This was my favorite story in here, having the very original setting of a self storage facility. Loved the setting and how the absolutely bizarre and disturbing going-ons unfold. It's hard to tell where this one will head, yet I was easily pulled along feeling intrigued by the mystery and enjoyed where it ended. Odd, repulsive, unexpected, maybe even a bit eccentric. This was such a great little tale.
"Primitive" by Lucas Mangum 2.5*
My personal least favorite but not a bad story. The best element was the campfire tale aspect. The characters in this go camping in the woods and at some point share spooky stories around the fire, later another character joins and with telling what happened continues this campfire tale vibe. But overall the theme of exploring masculinity wasn't necessarily my jam, I also thought the plot jumped around a bit too much, here not knowing where it would go and seeing where it ended did not make a smooth journey for me. I like to think, too, that I will quickly forget having read this one but I did really enjoy some of the imagery.
"The Vessel" by Matt Harvey 4*
I was truly surprised by how much I liked this one in the end because it contains many plot elements I often don't enjoy in Horror. A cult story where the cult needs to find a mother (aka vessel) for their gross entity that they worship, a grumpy investigator type who is on their tracks, and then the mother and how she deals with this "pregnancy". A lot of tropes I dislike, including Cosmic Horror vibes, yet here we are, I thought it was maybe not very original but so well executed and convincingly written. And I can see this one making a strong movie the most of all 3. -
Short story anthologies are cool and all, but collected novelettes/novellas? They are less frequent, but it’s a format that works for various reasons. Last year’s Lullabies for Suffering, edited by Mark Matthews allowed its authors to explore character deeper than the standard 10-20 pages of a short story allows. A very necessary component in a book that focuses on addiction and grief. Horrorama, edited by CV Hunt utilizes the longer form for a different reason.
Each story is meant to mimic a ninety minute schlocky horror movie. Maybe it reminds of you parking yourself in front of the TV on an October evening, letting the scrolling TV guide channel be your, well, guide. Maybe it reminds you of a drive-in double (triple, in this case) feature. From the stories themselves, to the cover resembling a VHS tape, to mock-ups of an old issue of TV guides within, everything about Horrorama screams nostalgia, and despite my best efforts, that draws me in.
The strongest in the bunch is the first, Store-All Self Storage, from A.S. Coomer. The first person narration and vivid descriptions of the narrator’s new job make you not want to touch anything because it’s definitely going to be sticky. From a dull and kind of strange new job to nightly happenings that get weirder and weirder with every day that passes, Commer winds up taking us to some very messed up places. Like the kind of movie, it sets out to represent, the story doesn’t overstay its welcome.
Primitive, from Lucas Mangum, gives us the group of friends on a getaway trope. We simply assume from page one they’re not all making it off the mountain alive. What follows is a gore-riddled creature feature with enough lore and character development to keep the reader turning the pages.
I had a bit more trouble getting into The Vessel, from Matt Harvey. A cult’s attempt to revive their dark god seems the perfect cap to a triple feature of this nature. Despite the subject matter, this last offering doesn’t offer up the same cinematic, picture-this-in-your-head quality as the other two. An enjoyable enough story, it just strayed from a well put together theme. -
i really wanted to like this one. the idea to write a book of short stories similar to old horror movies is great, the little film posters advertising the stories in between were great, but... it just wasn't my jam.
2 stars to stor-all self-storage by a. s. coomer. it's a solid story, but it felt a little forced and the constant name-dropping of tolstoi and co, to show how widely read the protagonist was, just annoyed me. i really liked the beginning of the story even though it's more a sci-fi take on horror movies.
0 stars to primitive by lucas mangum. this story was filled to the brim with sexism, toxic masculinity, manly men, homophobia, clichés and obviously bestiality. it was super on the nose and i felt like the author was aware of those things, but ... why write them?? i hated the twist why the homophobia was "necessary" because it was just so freaking obvious from the get go, and unneccessary and still homophobic in the end. like dude... if you want to read "horrorama" just skip this story all together. the story is boring, too, and the protagonist is just the guy i'd use as an example to explain what i hate about men/male socialization.
4 stars to the vessel by matt harvey. it's a good cult story. i liked that it wasn't first person narrated (even though i usually prefer first person over third). it's well written (besides the typical r/menwritingwomen problems) and it's fun and a little gory. for me, it was the only "horror movie" story that i expected. if you only want to read one of the stories, definitely read this one. -
3.5
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C.V. Hunt's Horrorama was straight up funtastic.
Billed as the book version of a horror movie marathon, Horrorama was everything I'd hoped it'd be and more. Each of the three novellas were super unique, grabbed me and didn't let go. I keep trying to choose a favorite of the three, but I loved them all equally. The anthology was quick, hard hitting, gritty and INTENSE.
With each passing book I read from Grindhouse, I simply need more. Horrorama was EXCELLENT and gets five stars from me. STRONG recommend! -
Three fantastic stories that will definitely make you want to sleep with the light on!
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Three awesome stories. Some books you can tell you're going to love just by looking at the cover.
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Full disclosure: I bought this book twice before I had even read it. I'm a sucker for good packaging and the cover and premise sold me, so I got a copy from the publisher on Black Friday. Little did I know that two months later, it would be included in the January Night Worms package. So before diving into my feelings about this collection, it already gets a half-star for presentation. There are also three pages from a "TV Guide" in the middle of every story that included some pretty hilarious puns referring to classic TV shows and such from the 80s. They're great, but oddly placed as they're in the middle of the story, not the beginning or end.
The book itself is a collection of three novelettes, as obviously described on the cover, set to be a sort of grind-house triple feature in short fiction form.
The first novelette is A.S. Coomer's Stor-All Self-Storage which describes some odd occurrences happening in the third-shift hours at a self-storage facility. The main character is an author striving to find inspiration for another novel, which seems to drive his curiosity of the odd things that continue happening. I did not find his motivation very believable, however. Given the events he's witnessed, any sane human being wouldn't continue to poke their nose into the self-storage tenants' business. The writing was also incredibly tenuous, with nearly every sentence barely consisting of more than a dozen words, if that. These short, clipped sentences were then divvied into paragraph-long "chapters" which made the whole experience a real chore to read. A lot of what happened also didn't seem to serve any purpose to the grand overarching story, either, so the whole thing fell flat for me and gets a 1 out of 5.
Next up is Primitive from Lucas Mangum. This is only my second exposure to Mangum's works, after reading his short story in the collection
Survive With Me. To be honest, I wasn't particularly thrilled with either story, but Primitive at least showed more promise. A story about a group of friends who take a weekend to unwind in the forest turns into a wolf hunt. There's some questionable conversations around race, gender, and sexual orientation in the opening of the novelette, which makes none of the characters really look good. The writing is laden in profanity (probably to try and get that grind-house feel, but I still didn't find it appealing) and also oddly focused on people's sex organs, at once describing a character's huge member swinging between his legs, which did nothing for the plot, but make it laughable. The whole narrative is prefaced by the story being read directly from a found manuscript or journal of the main character. I'm a sucker for found-footage (or in this case found-writing), but it seemed to wrap up a bit too well to have truly been found and I kept thinking to myself "when is he writing all this down?" It's told too descriptively to be a journal, especially one being told in the middle of some crazy events. Again, not a great story for me and I was close to giving up on the book altogether, but I had gotten this far, so I continued on, giving this a 2 out of 5.
Last up is Matt Harvey's The Vessel, from an author I had never heard of before. Flipping to the back, I recognized a band he is the main member of, though I wasn't familiar with their music, just their image. And I sure am glad I hung on for this. The novelette tells the tale of a cult de-programmer (something I have always thought was interesting, and unfortunately a sadly needed profession) tracing down a cult that's attempting to resurrect their cosmic leader, while also detailing the strange events of a woman living in every-day American suburbia. I admittedly don't read a ton of cosmic horror, but this is more of a detective story with cosmic horror sprinkled on top and boy did it work for me. The writing is smooth, descriptive and captivating, and as I kept reading, I was looking down at the page count, thinking "how is this going to end in X pages" and wishing it didn't. There are a few logical choices of characters that didn't make total sense to me and some parts that I wish could have been elaborated on, but the second criticism is also a partial compliment. I wanted to read more of this, given the ending felt a bit rushed. Had this story been fleshed out into a full novel, it would have deserved full marks in my eyes, but is still a strong 4 out of 5.
With all that's said and done, I wasn't thrilled I bought the book twice, but given it's from an independent publisher, I'm glad my money has at least gone to supporting small business(es). There were a few typos and repeated words, but that is also expected given the indie nature of the publication. I would be hard pressed to recommend Horrorama to anyone, save for the final story. I sure hope that Matt Harvey finds some time in between shredding guitar and singing to write some more prose because The Vessel is the shining beacon in this whole collection and kept me hooked to the final page. -
Horrorama is the book version of a horror movie marathon! Horrorama brings you three novelettes reminiscent of those popcorn fueled all-nighters; Grindhouse press describe their releases as horror films from the 60/70’s, where the storylines are completely bonkers, in line with low budget B-grade movies. This is exactly what Horrorama delivers!
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This books is made up of three novelettes; all of which are completely strange and totally satisfying! The books is a really quick read and once I got started, I was sucked in and couldn’t put the book down.
“Stor-all self-storage by A.S Coomer”
Richard Dennison, is a night security officer, who lands a new job - with a strange boss and encounters even stranger people who only seem to visit their storage lockers at night. Richard is given one bit of advice - if any thing strange happens - call the police! This was COMPLETELY bonkers but completely fit the brief that Grindhouse Press wanted to achieve, this does read like a low budget movie and I bloody loved it.
“Primitive by Lucas Mangum”
The classic story of old school friends who’ve not seen each other for a while, meet-up and head up the mountain on a camping/hunting trip. I mean - nothing could possibly go wrong....ha! The friends encounter a strange, disheveled woman who is looking for her son.... and of course, there are wolves.... do they all make it back down the mountain? who is this women and what happened to her son? I LOVED THIS STORY! Again, so completely bonkers, fun and I couldn’t stop reading - I really want to watch this as a movie - I’m all here for B-grade horror!
“The Vessel by Matt Harvey”
A cult who are hellbent on reviving their dark god/master thingy.... all they need for this is a body for their master to inhabit... poor Elise Abbington awakes in the night, feeling a little unusual and on a crash course to hell! On her journey, she encounters a “deprogrammer” who is trying to stop this cult from achieving their goal.....but does he succeed or is it too late for Elise? Again, this was fun to read and I loved the strange cult vibes!
Overall, this was like entering a house of horrors from the 80’s! I lapped up the really weird vintage vibes from this book and it completely for me out of my reading slump! -
Este libro es la compilación de tres novelas cortas:
“Stor-All-Self-Storage” Un joven en su nuevo empleo en un lugar de almacenes merodea en la noche por los contenedores. Pronto se da cuenta qué hay cosas que la gente guarda que es mejor no saber…
“Primitive” Y si en medio de la noche en mientras acampas con tus amigos en el bosque, encuentras a una mujer desnuda con una descabellada historia?
“The vessel” Toda secta extraña necesita una deidad, y toda deidad necesita una madre…
Este libro cual se siente tal cual como estar viendo un maratón de películas de terror ochenteras de bajo presupuesto jajaja pero un total guilty pleasure!! De hecho esta era la intención del libro. Las tres novelas cortas son entretenidas y me encantó que al final de cada una, hay una imagen como una página del TV Guide donde se anuncia como si fuera una película. Además la cubierta de este libro es una chulada 🖤 -
When I first read the description of this collection, I was so excited. I thought it was extremely clever to have novelettes that are reminiscent of horror movies. I’m a big horror movie fan and I love reading horror fiction that feels like I’m reading a movie.
I’m disappointed because I do feel like these stories were just average to me. There wasn’t a standout among the three. If I had to pick my favorite, it would probably be Primitive. I felt that it was the most interesting by far and had the best plot between the three. However, I still wasn’t in love with it.
I think it’s because these three did verge more into the sci-fi realm and that’s not really my thing.
In saying that, I think if you like short stories and are a sci-fi fan, you’d probably enjoy this collection. -
3.75 stars
This is a fun little retro feeling collection of novelettes.
Store All Self Storage has a Repo Man vibe the entire through line and is very entertaining. The writing is vivid and engaging and it really feels like watching an 87 minute VHS grind house movie from the bottom shelf in the video store’s horror section.
Primitive left me cold - all the characters were gross and not engaging at all. Far and away the weakest novelette in this collection.
Things get back on track and close out perfectly with the Vessel which is a great noir grind house combo with a pitch perfect ending.
I also want to give a shout out for the three full page ‘TV Guide’ listings, one per story. They really helped keep that thematic feel. -
I think I liked the packaging and the premise for all of these more than the actual execution. The book jacket and the “TV guide” pages throughout are pure 80’s nostalgia. The novelettes all felt very reminiscent of the Creepshow era. But alas I think I kept wishing I was actually tuning into these as movies during the 80’s Halloween movie marathon. They just weren’t “that” good for me in written form.
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These are just ... freaking fantastic. And exactly as promised.
Three horror novellas, original, campy, and extremely entertaining. I think horror is one of those genres that can really shine in shorter formats, and I love the “triple-feature” camp aesthetic. The featured authors are quite talented, and their stories are great examples of the squeamish fun to be had in horror.
Heres hoping that CV Hunt decides to bring us more of the same. -
i am in LOVE with aggressively nostalgic VHS-style covers
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Wow just wow just loved it! Couldn’t put it down!
My favorite story was the first one Stor-All Self-Storage by A.S Coomer
Primitive by Lucas Mangum was so entertaining....
My least favorite was the vessel by Matt Harvey ....
Such underrated little gem!
Thanks Night Worms 👍🏻 -
I admit that I bought this one purely because of the awesome VHS-style cover on the front and back. Due to the cover and synopsis details, I was expecting these stories to be set in the 80s or 90s but they all seem to be set in fairly modern days with the constant mentions of cell phones (which was a little disappointing to be honest). This book included three novelettes:
Stor-All Self-Storage by A.S. Coomer
This one had good atmosphere and tension but ended up being pretty weird, as well as hilarious with the introduction of the "asshole" characters. At one point I was just shaking my head in disbelief. Straight up B-Horror story.
3 stars
Primitive by Lucas Mangum
This story was well written, though I didn’t much like the main character, Walton. Maybe that was the point, though, given that he does experience some significant character growth by the end with his decision. Hank was also questionable, though I liked the other two friends well enough. The story itself was solid and the way the friend group interacted with one another felt realistic.
The story is peppered with a lot of weirdness, though I found Ms. Luca Barath’s story intriguing, as well as disturbing. I wasn’t expecting this story to feature the supernatural feature it did and found the climax to be exciting. I ended up liking this more than I was expecting, though it still had some very strange moments. I’m also not sure the reveal about Walton and Bryan happening after the attack made much sense—that felt very disjointed and took away from the events currently happening around them.
This is a found footage story, though the idea of someone writing down these events for someone to find feels extremely unrealistic, even if Walton is a writer. It also leaves a lot of plot holes, such as what happened to all of the bodies? I would have given this one another half star if not for the weird parts that were sexist, homophobic, and low-key obsessed with sexual organs.
3.5 stars
The Vessel by Matt Harvey
Well written, one hell of a trip. It felt a little disjointed at times, but ended up being a weird and fun ride. Elise was also a fairly likable character and the twist with Annika was interesting. Definitely wasn’t expecting the climax or the ending itself. Hicks isn’t particularly likable, though his determination to stop the cult activities gave him a Dr. Loomis from Halloween vibe. The twist of the climax was kind of satisfying to see considering. The ending itself is left open-ended and somewhat dissatisfying.
4 stars
Overall, this was a decent cheesy horror collection. The TV guide inserts also made for a neat touch. I would have liked this much better had these stories been set in the 80s, though.
3.5 stars! -
Before I started reading, I perused the reviews here. I saw mostly two categories. One or two stars, saying: "Gross! Extreme! Perverse! Disgusting!" Or four or five stars, saying: "Gross! Extreme! Perverse! Disgusting!"
I fall into the latter group. Horrorama is not for the shy of heart, for the squeamish. There's nothing wrong with being either. I'm a huge baby when it comes to horror movies. Horror on the page is a different story. This set of three novellas was a heck of a lot of fun, even as it often made me squeeze my eyes closed and try to think of something nice and pretty.
Each story, at least once, elicited a strong, visceral reaction. For me, this usually means I hold my place with a finger, close the book, shake my head, and whisper "No" out loud. That is high praise, the whispered "no." I also giggled "what the fuck" nervously when Mr. Dennison came upon a certain storage unit in the first story (no spoilers, but if you've read it, it's the one where the guy was dressed in the thing and filming himself doing this other thing).
I enjoyed all three stories, but the third was the best, in my opinion. A very satisfying conclusion, too. -
3.5 stars
This binge worthy little triplet of bizarre novellas was a really fun way to spend my weekend. Presented as an old VHS, the cover and stories scream vintage horror. So much fun.
STOR-ALL-SELF-STORAGE was a strange tale that left my head whirling. It follows Richard Dennison who scores a night time security officer role at a storage facility and soon after beginning starts to see some really weird things. This felt like something out of the twilight zone and lovers of bizarre and strange fiction will be sure to love it.
In PRIMITIVE, some friends go on a camping trip and a strange woman steps out of the woods looking for her son who they soon find out isn’t exactly human. This was my personal favourite, with lots of camp horror outdoorsy vibes and a creature feature.
Finally, Horrorama finishes off with THE VESSEL where a cult is intent on reviving their dark god and needs an innocent person to help them do so. This was personally my least favourite of the bunch. It just didn’t draw my attention in as much and didn’t feel as strong as the other two offerings.
As a whole a really fun little collection! Bring popcorn! -
Horrorama is a collection of 3 novellas. It is meant to be dark and campy like a b movie marathon. The cover of the book fits the theme perfectly. Even though I wasn’t especially fond of the book itself, I will keep my copy of the book because of how much I love the cover.
Let’s start with the positives: the third story The Vessel by Matt Harvey was great. It was dark, somewhat funny, and had really interesting characters. If this was a stand alone I’d give it 4 out of 5 stars.
Now the negatives: The first story, Store-all-self-storage had an interesting enough premise and started well but it failed to really hold my attention. The characters weren’t compelling so it was impossible to get invested in the story. 2/5 stars
The second story, Primitive, was my least favorite of the three. Instead of feeling fun and campy, it was draining to read. I didn’t care for the characters and their actions often didn’t make a ton of sense. I also feel like the story could have been a fair bit shorter and still gotten the point across. 1/5 stars -
This was fun dive into the horror of my childhood or at least it felt that way to me. I remember staying up late and watching Toxic Avenger and Chopping Mall! 😂 and that cover! Pure nostalgia.
Store-All Self-Storage by A.S. Coomer was weird horror at its best. I could actually see this playing out as a campy horror movie in the 80’s. I saw some reviews that said the main character wasn’t believable. That he wouldn’t continue to investigate. But I disagree. I would continue investigating and checking out green blobs, suspended bodies and strange and alien pods. With a chance like that how could you resist? And who wants believable in a horror story anyway? Not me!
Primitive by Lucas Mangum was a take on the buddies go camping tale with a twist on the werewolf lore. I really enjoyed the action scenes where the wolves attacked. Arterial blood spray and hatchets galore. The morning after when the “final guy” wakes up and sees the gore soaked scene was like a scene from a movie.
The Vessel by Matt Harvey was soccer mom meets cosmic death cult. The character of Annika enraged me as a mother and fellow “soccer mom”. On the flip side it was empowering to see Elise become a mega cosmic horror God in charge of everything. I loved the idea of a guy saving people’s families from cults. This was a fantasy that’s far to real in today’s world. And one could only hope there would be someone to bring them out unharmed.
Loved this nostalgic trip of cool horror stories. -
Design-wise, this book gets a 5. It looks like an old VHS tape, and my favorite touch is that interspersed in the stories are old TV Guide listing pages that feature the story as a "feature film". It's worth the price of admission right there. The idea behind the book (a horror movie marathon) is genius. I hope this will be a series, but I hope it features a more diverse pool of authors.
I love C.V. Hunt. I read
Halloween Fiend last year and it ended up being one of my favorite books. It's too bad C.V. doesn't have a story in this collection.
Sadly, it falls prey to my usual experience with story collections. Some of them are great, some of them are meh. I'm not going to get into which ones I liked and which ones I didn't. I'm still glad I read it.
