Dead Inside By Chandler Morrison

 

Dead Inside
By Chandler Morrison
2020 Death’s Head Press
Made-to-order Paperback, 162 pages

 

    This book got a lot of comments on the Books of Horror Facebook page and it piqued my interest. Disgusting, vile, sickening, “I had to put it down”… it almost seemed like a challenge. When I saw it had a necrophiliac character, I happily put it into my Amazon basket.

 

    The main character, a hospital security guard, is indeed a necrophile. His morgue visits were more than just doing his rounds. He eventually meets a maternity doctor, a woman who enjoys eating abortions. He finds out her secret and an oddball romance ensues. That’s right; Dead Inside is a romantic story, and a pretty goddamn funny one, too.

 

    Yes, it’s gross for grossness’s sake, but there is a wicked sense of humor throughout. Told in first person in the security guard’s voice, his bleak outlook of the world and his casual acceptance of what he is drives the narrative and makes for quite a few chuckles. Sure, there is explicit corpse fucking, fetus eating, combinations of the two, skull fucking, slime, ooze, ejaculate and nihilism, but somehow, I could understand the guard’s motives and I’ll be damned if I didn’t agree with some of his thoughts.

 

    Dead Inside is extremely well written and engaging, once you accept the fact that it is an extreme horror book that aims to shock. But shock isn’t the main objective, I don’t think. I’ll be looking for more of Morrison’s books. This one was good. Unlike any other romance novel you have ever read.

This review originally appeared in Midnight Magazine #9, March, 2022.

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The Hospital Horror By Otto O. Binder

 

The Hospital Horror
By Otto O. Binder
1973 Popular Library
Paperback, 192 pages

 

    The Hospital Horror is a part of the 9-book “Frankenstein Horror Series” published by Popular Library in 1972/73. Not a continuing story like Robert Lory’s “Dracula Horror Series” from Pinnacle, which was being published more or less at the same time, each Frankenstein book was its own story, and only once was it even about the famous doctor and his monster. As the back covers said, “The Frankenstein Horror Series is a group of entirely new stories that follows the fates of the primal monsters and their heirs, as they re-emerge from the Pit of the Unknown, the Unspeakable, and the Undead.”

 

    The Hospital Horror has the distinction of being written by geek-favorite Otto Binder, of the Marvel Family fame. Binder was a long-time pulp and comic book writer, having worked over the decades for Fawcett, DC and even a little for EC. He brings his pulp sensibility to this book, for sure. A daring, brilliant doctor, his love-interest nurse, a hooded, hunchbacked bad guy and many a dark and stormy night. The villain of the piece even proudly refers to himself as “The Hunchbacked Horror”!

 

    Yes, the book is pure kitchy melodrama, and its purple prose may make some roll their eyes, but I ate it up. It’s also set up kind of like a serial, whereas every 3 chapters or so covers another plan and attack by the Hunchbacked Horror. Paying attention isn’t too difficult. The story is painted in broad strokes, the hunchback (who is the one I was rooting for, of course) is pure pulp and the romance is as stilted as anything written in the 30s. So, yes- it’s pretty damn fun. Add to that a cover by comic great Gray Morrow and you’ve got my recommendation.

This review originally appeared in Midnight Magazine #8, July 2021.

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The Folly By David Anne

 

The Folly
By David Anne
1978 Corgi Books
Paperback, 156 pages!!!

 

This is an example of the way horror novels should be written: fast, dumb, zero characterization and lots of action and gore. I had previously read David Anne’s Rabid (reprinted as Day of the Mad Dogs), so I was eager to read this one, the only other book of his that I know of. It did not disappoint.

Part of England is once again laid to waste by nature, this time by mutant rat-rabbits. If mutant rat-rabbits don’t get you excited, then I don’t know what to tell you. A little bit of legit science is mixed in; it is likely that Anne read an article on the bunny virus myxomatosis and took it from there. In addition to rat-rabbits, you get a mad scientist, descriptive gore scenes, human pus-balls, semi-graphic sex, and hateful, paper-thin characters doing idiotic things… all in just 156 pages!

I read the Corgi reprint from 1980 which has a shitty cover. If you can find it, I suggest the original W.H. Allen print from 1978. It not only has an artist’s rendition of the rat-rabbits on the cover, but it runs 168 pages, a full 12 pages more than the reprint. Extra gore or larger print; either way, it’s a win-win with that cover.

The far superior W.H. Allen cover.

This review originally appeared in Midnight Magazine #8, July 2021.

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The Dogs By Robert Calder

 

The Dogs
By Robert Calder
Dell 1986
Paperback, 226 pages

This is not an easy book to read for the animal lover. It speaks of man’s inhumanity towards animals with an unblinking, cold, and clinical voice. Dog lovers will cringe. That said, it does have some satisfying passages and it is quite good, overall, if you can get past the impassive tone.

Dog experiments… creating superior pups. One gets out. Becomes stray, then a pet. Bites brat. Gets admonished.  Goes rogue. Leads dog pack. Kills. That’s the basic storyline and it goes along at a good clip right up to the end. It is at times predictable but delivers the gory goods where you’d want it. Some kids get maimed and killed too, as a welcome bonus.

There is an overlong side-plot about a dog-fighting ring that is the worst offender in the “humans suck” sweepstakes. Yes, I know these assholes exist and they sicken me, and this is where the unemotional prose irked me the most. It’s a very cold and gratuitous section of the book and the pay-off, when it finally comes, isn’t nearly as satisfying as I’d hoped for.

Yeah, every human character in this book is a piece of shit. Calder makes it clear that Orph, the main dog, is the hero. Calder knows a lot about canines (he even edited a tome of dog stories and essays, The Dog Book, under his real name Jerrold Mundis) and their place in the world of humans. Unfortunately, his bleak portrayal of Homo sapien really makes any sort of emotional tie between the two-legged and the four-legged main characters tenuous at best. Let’s face it, people do not deserve dogs.

I recommend the book with reservations. It is well-written and fast moving but it also serves as a reminder of how much the human race really sucks ass.

This review originally appeared in Midnight Magazine #8, July 2021.

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