Amazon Original Stories: Creature Feature Collection
In preparation for Halloween – although c’mon, it is always the right time for spooky stories – Amazon Publishing has crafted six stories in celebration of the season. This collection of original stories fall under the “Creature Feature” banner. Six stories by six authors and all around the theme of a dark, creepy entity squishing its way from the otherworldly into one’s backyard.
Each of the stories focus on more intimate encounters: a woodland beast; something in the swamp; the ghost under the bed. Other than the occasional werewolf, these are not the monstrous tales of Godzilla nor the likes of city-crushing kaiju. Rather, more human themes are explored. The eternal loss of a child, sibling, or parent. And the ever-present unknown that resides in the corner shadows.
As with any collection of short-stories, the words within are hit-and-miss. Fortunately, a solid two-thirds of the entries are delicitable haunts crafted with near Twilight Zone precision. Even with two weaker presentations, these are all fun-sized treats that could be gobbled in one sitting or savored throughout the night. After all, if you are going to be up all night anyway, might as well have a ghoul or two to keep you company.
| Title: Creature Feature (2023) Publisher: Amazon Publishing Book jacket: Gather round as today’s most diabolically clever authors twist simple moments into otherworldly horrors. An empty baby stroller. A scratching underneath the bed. A farmhouse in the moonlight. With an unnerving sense of the macabre, these stories transform our greatest fears into bone-chilling realities. Joe says: These are all fun-sized treats that could be gobbled in one sitting or savored throughout the night. |
The Pram // Joe Hill
Horrific … and oh so fun.
The loss of a child, even through an early miscarriage, is a steep climb many couples are unable to crest. A resetting in a new location is often an ample solution for letting those bad memories stew in an old place. Author Joe Hill takes that premise and throws in an even darker underlying base. What if the new house is even more haunted?
In The Pram, Hill’s protagonists, Willy and Marianne, move to a tiny village in (where else) Maine. While Marianne attempts to settle back into a routine, Willy takes walks. He imagines what such strolls would be like with a son. What he doesn’t – and can’t -imagine is that his new town is full of crazy cultists who can make his dream a nightmarish reality.
Hill builds the tension in parallel lines. Willy and Marianne clearly do not know what to do with each other; their marriage is a boring commute – and they WFH. Willy, however, knows that he wants nothing more than to raise a child – even if that means a horrific undead thing.
Yes, horrific, undead, and oh so fun.
Hill takes his readers through an eventual ride where the memories of old might not stay buried. Just watch the pram, please.
Ankle Snatcher // Grady Hendrix
Hendrix takes a simple scare from childhood and twists it with adult logic. And he doesn’t let go, either.
Another tale about the Boogeyman? Or is this a serial killer? Want to double your fun? How about both?
Horror stories, as a genre, usually have set rules. Wes Craven lays them out in both Nightmare on Elm Street and in Scream. There are the mirror counting dares in Candyman. How to avoid a fatal curse is planned in It Follows and The Ring. Grady Hendrix lays out his one simple rule in the short story Ankle Snatcher: Don’t get out of bed at night.
Guess what happens?
Marcus brings home a date. The two have a good time out and proceed to make themselves comfortable back at Marcus’ pad. And after a night of fun under the sheets what does the date do? Well, let’s just say that all rule breakers get to find out what is hiding under the bed. Personally.
Hendrix takes a simple scare from childhood and twists it with adult logic. And he doesn’t let go, either.
It Waits in the Woods // Josh Malerman
Malerman’s novella needed an additional season
What was it Robert Frost said? The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
And who said, “I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree?” Joyce Kilmer? Or was that Superman’s mom? Right.
We all know that the woods are a lovely, magical place. We also know that when darkness arrives, a different magic can arrive. Josh Malerman shows both sides of a fallen leaf in It Waits in the Woods.
Brenda Jennings’ older sister disappeared …In The Woods one fateful night. A night of partying? A time of mischief? Brenda wants to find out. But the dense Michigan forest is full of haunting sounds, twisting paths, and bridge that goes nowhere.
Or does it?
Malerman takes Brenda on a trip of self-discovery under the premise of salvation. Leaves fall. The shadows overtake the sunlight. The secret within the woods successfully becomes its own character.
And that secret? Unfortunately, Malerman’s novella needed an additional season as It Waits in the Woods wraps up in too hurried a harvest. The going gets good and creepy, but in a similar fashion to Coppola’s Dracula, as soon as that sun rises it’s time for that final curtain to drop no matter the act. Sophisticated horror can certainly be bitter but a juicy tale is all the more memorable – and desirable.
Right, Vlad?
In Bloom // Paul Tremblay
This one creeps deathly slow and becomes lost in the bog.
Psychedelia blossoms in Paul Tremblay’s In Bloom short story. Other than going fanboy meta with the Swamp Thing references, the narrative on this one creeps deathly slow until it too becomes lost in the bog.
Jimmy Lang was a child in 1983. Other than witnessing the beginning of the end to his parents’ marriage, Jimmy is dragged by his father to minor league ball games. During one particular game, beyond the outfield in the late afternoon, Jimmy observes a creature rising from the muck. Like the amorphous alien mass from The Blob, this large conglomeration of amoebic goop threatens to absorb his father, the ball game, and, saints preserve us, all of Cape Cod.
Tremblay lays in thick environmental descriptions but the overall narrative, like the blob itself, is too shapeless. While Swamp Thing, of course, has no problem in haunting House of Secrets, Tremblay’s In Bloom is more of a semi-interesting House of Mystery issue. Albeit one that is more weird than woeful.
Best of Luck // Jason Mott
Best of Luck is creepy, cool, and damn clever.
Rod Stewart warned us. Some guys have all the luck. And that’s true. Some make it. Some take it. But for Will, it looks like his has just run out.
Best of Luck by Jason Mott opens like a fast-paced crime thriller. Will has long-time friend Barry tied down at gunpoint. Barry, according to Will, has taken something. And Will wants it back. But Barry and Will are friends. Old friends. How could their long relationship have ended so wrong?
Well, it seems that Barry has outright stolen Will’s luck. But how would Barry have done such a thing? How can that even be possible? That is when Mott changes his writing style from Don Winslow to HP Lovecraft. And at that point, Will realizes that he should be very, very afraid.
Mott successfully jumps between viewpoints. He lays out the premise, dives into history, and makes a case for each side. Mott also knows when to turn up the heat. And when that bead of sweat slowly trickles down your spine, his words become ice cold.
Best of Luck is creepy, cool, and damn clever.
Big Bad // Chandler Baker
Big Bad was missing a big bite.
What is big and bad and might come blowing at your door?
Probably not the wind. So go check your Grimm tales instead of your Dylan lyrics.
Chandler Baker’s Big Bad tells the story of Sam Strauss, a stay-at-home dad who really wants more out of life. But he has to care for his girls. And watch over his wife, who deals with monthly … episodes. When a stranger comes to Strauss’s house, all under the guise of an AirBnB ressie gone astray – Millennial horror, ladies and gentlemen! – Sam needs to defend his home and family.
Baker presents a good set-up dripping with bloody metaphor. But the conflict is confusing, and messy. And honestly? Dull.
C’mon, werewolf stories usually craft a howling good time. Again, Baker has a fun-enough premise. Yet, comic writer Alan Moore has already made the menstrual-cycle comparison with lycanthropy in Swamp Thing (issue 40, 1985). Baker’s revision seems tired.
Big Bad was missing a big bite.
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