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A review by mikekaz
Dark Screams: Volume Four by Brian James Freeman, Ray Garton, Heather Graham, Ed Gorman, Richard Chizmar, Clive Barker, Lisa Morton
4.0
Wow! What a difference a volume makes. This volume of Dark Screams is the best so far. Significantly better than last volume. The stories were all solid and engaging. None of them left me feeling disappointed or wanting for more. Maybe my expectations had been lowered enough to make the stories better. I doubt it but even if that was the case, all the stories were still good. In all the previous volumes there has been at least one story that disappointed. But not here. In order of least favorite to my most, here they are.
"The New War" by Lisa Morton - Mike Carson is in a hospital, recovering from a surgery. While he thinks that is has only been a little time, his daughter is telling him it has been months. Plus he keeps seeing men he served but whom also died during the war. He knows though that his nurse has brought a black thing that is killing him and others. Or has she? This was a good story that touched on several topics: growing old, memories, and dementia. The choices made by the characters were well done and left me feeling good. The story wasn't ground-breaking but it was solidly entertaining.
"Creature Feature" by Heather Graham - Rather than centered around the creature features horror movies that were on Friday and Saturday nights during the 60s, 70s and 80s, (my first thought upon reading the title) this story actually focuses on a convention. Sort of a special effects and make up convention for movie and TV studios. The story is around a killer who dons a costume and hides in plain sight in one of the booth displays. As it turns out, that is a fear that my wife has: a real killer hiding in plain sight in a haunted house. Anyway, the story is fun and enjoyable. My only clueless moment came with the big reveal of the killer and I went "Who?" But that was my own fault and not Graham's.
"Sammy Comes Home" by Ray Garton - Very quickly into this story, you know that things are going to go bad. A family's dog is missing in addition to a bunch of other neighbors who are also missing their pets. Sad but are they dead from a serial killer? Someone running them over? A demented teenager experimenting on them? But then the pets return with bloated and extended tumors. Probably because it is a horror story but my first thought was kill it. Shoot it in the head. Of course they don't and of course things turn quickly into a disaster. I was anxious and worried the whole way through.
"The Departed" by Clive Barker - I thought that this was a very sweet and adoring ghost story. A dead mother desperately wants to connect with her son one last time. I won't say anything to ruin the impact of the story but it left me wistful yet happy.
"The Brasher Girl" by Ed Gorman - Not as poignant as Barker's story, Gorman still tops him with this tale about a young man who gets into trouble when his girlfriend introduces him to a voice in a well. I just thought that it was very nicely told and had characters with depth to them. Gorman took his time with the story and built things up nicely. His characters went through a growth process even though it was a process that didn't help them at all. It was another story where you knew the ending wasn't going to be good but how and who were the questions.
"The New War" by Lisa Morton - Mike Carson is in a hospital, recovering from a surgery. While he thinks that is has only been a little time, his daughter is telling him it has been months. Plus he keeps seeing men he served but whom also died during the war. He knows though that his nurse has brought a black thing that is killing him and others. Or has she? This was a good story that touched on several topics: growing old, memories, and dementia. The choices made by the characters were well done and left me feeling good. The story wasn't ground-breaking but it was solidly entertaining.
"Creature Feature" by Heather Graham - Rather than centered around the creature features horror movies that were on Friday and Saturday nights during the 60s, 70s and 80s, (my first thought upon reading the title) this story actually focuses on a convention. Sort of a special effects and make up convention for movie and TV studios. The story is around a killer who dons a costume and hides in plain sight in one of the booth displays. As it turns out, that is a fear that my wife has: a real killer hiding in plain sight in a haunted house. Anyway, the story is fun and enjoyable. My only clueless moment came with the big reveal of the killer and I went "Who?" But that was my own fault and not Graham's.
"Sammy Comes Home" by Ray Garton - Very quickly into this story, you know that things are going to go bad. A family's dog is missing in addition to a bunch of other neighbors who are also missing their pets. Sad but are they dead from a serial killer? Someone running them over? A demented teenager experimenting on them? But then the pets return with bloated and extended tumors. Probably because it is a horror story but my first thought was kill it. Shoot it in the head. Of course they don't and of course things turn quickly into a disaster. I was anxious and worried the whole way through.
"The Departed" by Clive Barker - I thought that this was a very sweet and adoring ghost story. A dead mother desperately wants to connect with her son one last time. I won't say anything to ruin the impact of the story but it left me wistful yet happy.
"The Brasher Girl" by Ed Gorman - Not as poignant as Barker's story, Gorman still tops him with this tale about a young man who gets into trouble when his girlfriend introduces him to a voice in a well. I just thought that it was very nicely told and had characters with depth to them. Gorman took his time with the story and built things up nicely. His characters went through a growth process even though it was a process that didn't help them at all. It was another story where you knew the ending wasn't going to be good but how and who were the questions.