No one understood their brutal deaths, not even the man who killed them. But John Coffey is about to gain a new insight, about his life in prison, and about the one man who will walk him down that green mile . . . toward destiny.Prepare yourself for Stephen King's boldest exercise in nerve-twisting suspense. A multi-part serial novel that begins on death row and goes on from there to realms of revelation that make death seem sweet. This is Stephen King's most irresistible journey ever. To be continued . . . --back cover

    Convicted killers all, each awaits his turn to walk the Green Mile, keeping a date with "Old Sparky," Cold Mountain's electric chair. Prison guard Paul Edgecombe has seen his share of oddities in his years working the Mile. But he's never seen anyone like John Coffey, a man with the body of a giant and the mind of a child, condemned for a crime terrifying in its violence and shocking in its depravity. In this place of ultimate retribution, Edgecombe is about to discover the terrible, wondrous truth about Coffey, a truth that will challenge his most cherished beliefes... and yours.

    Doré's dreamlike, otherworldly style, tinged with melancholy, seems ideally matched to the bleak despair of Poe's celebrated work, among the most popular American poems ever written.This volume reprints all 26 of Doré's detailed, masterly engravings from a rare 19th-century edition of the poem. Relevant lines from the poem are printed on facing pages and the complete text is also included. Admirers of Doré will find ample evidence here of his characteristic ability to capture the mood and meaning of a work of literature in striking imagery; lovers of The Raven will delight in seeing its mournful musing on love and loss given dramatic pictorial form.

    Lovecraft inspired the work of Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Clive Barker. As he perfected his mastery of the macabre, his works developed from seminal fragments into acknowledged masterpieces of terror. This volume traces his chilling career and includes:IMPRISONED WITH THE PHARAOHS--Houdini seeks to reveal the demons that inhabit the Egyptian night.AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS--An unsuspecting expedition uncovers a city of untold terror, buried beneath an Antarctic wasteland.Plus, for the first time in any Del Rey edition:HERBERT WEST: REANIMATOR--Mad experiments yield hideous results in this, the inspiration for the cult film Re-Animator.COOL AIR--An icy apartment hides secrets no man dares unlock.THE TERRIBLE OLD MAN--The intruders seek a fortune but find only death!AND TWENTY-FOUR MORE BLOOD-CHILLING TALES

    I love telling monster stories. Especially to my little brother, Randy. He's a total scaredy-cat. But now I have a little problem. "See, it all started when I went to the library. That's where I met Mr. Mortman. He's a really creepy librarian. And one night, after the library closed, I saw Mr. Mortman eat a whole bowl of tarantulas for dinner! That's right, he's a real live monster. And now he's after me... for dessert!"—Lucy Dark

    Soon after her untimely death in 1965, Jackson’s children discovered a treasure trove of previously unpublished and uncollected stories, many of which are brought together in this remarkable collection. Here are tales of torment, psychological aberration, and the macabre, as well as those that display her lighter touch with humorous scenes of domestic life. Reflecting the range and complexity of Jackson’s talent, Just an Ordinary Day reaffirms her enduring influence and celebrates her singular voice, rich with magic and resonance.  Praise for Just an Ordinary Day   “Jackson at her best: plumbing the extraordinary from the depths of mid-twentieth-century common. [Just an Ordinary Day] is a gift to a new generation.”—San Francisco Chronicle  Praise for Shirley Jackson   “[Jackson’s] work exerts an enduring spell.”—Joyce Carol Oates   “Shirley Jackson’s stories are among the most terrifying ever written.”—Donna Tartt   “An amazing writer . . . If you haven’t read [Jackson] you have missed out on something marvelous.”—Neil Gaiman   “Shirley Jackson is unparalleled as a leader in the field of beautifully written, quiet, cumulative shudders.”—Dorothy Parker   “An author who not only writes beautifully but who knows what there is, in this world, to be scared of.”—Francine Prose   “The world of Shirley Jackson is eerie and unforgettable.”—A. M. Homes   “Jackson enjoyed notoriety and commercial success within her lifetime, and yet it still hardly seems like enough for a writer so singular. When I meet readers and other writers of my generation, I find that mentioning her is like uttering a holy name.”—Victor LaValle

    Include informative notes on the authors and original texts.

    She is able to see the unbroken link of the macabre that ties Edgar Allan Poe to Anne Rice and to recognize the dark psychological bonds between Henry James and Stephen King. This remarkable anthology of gothic fiction, spanning two centuries of American writing, gives us an intriguing and entertaining look at how the gothic imagination makes for great literature in the works of forty-six exceptional writers. In showing us the gothic vision—a world askew where mankind’s forbidden impulses are set free from the repressions of the psyche, and nature turns malevolent and lawless—Joyce Carol Oates includes Henry James’s “The Romance of Certain Old Clothes,” Herman Melville’s horrific tale of factory women, “The Tartarus of Maids,” and Edith Wharton’s “Afterward,” which are rarely collected and appear together here for the first time.Added to these stories of the past are new ones that explore the wounded worlds of Stephen King, Anne Rice, Peter Straub, Raymond Carver, and more than twenty other wonderful contemporary writers. This impressive collection reveals the astonishing scope of the gothic writer’s subject matter, style, and incomparable genius for manipulating our emotions and penetrating our dreams. With Joyce Carol Oates’s superb introduction, American Gothic Tales is destined to become the standard one-volume edition of the genre that American writers, if they didn’t create it outright, have brought to its chilling zenith.rom Wieland, or The transformation / Charles Brockden Brown --The legend of Sleepy Hollow / Washington Irving --The man of adamant / Nathaniel Hawthorne --Young Goodman Brown / Nathaniel Hawthorne --The Tartarus of maids / Herman Melville --The black cat / Edgar Allan Poe --The yellow wallpaper / Charlotte Perkins Gilman --The romance of certain old clothes / Henry James --The damned thing / Ambrose Bierce --Afterward / Edith Wharton --The striding place / Gertrude Atherton --Death in the woods / Sherwood Anderson --The outsider / H.P. Lovecraft --A rose for Emily / William Faulkner --The lonesome place / August Derleth --The door / E.B. White --The lovely house / Shirley Jackson --Allal / Paul Bowles --The reencounter / Isaac Bashevis Singer --In the icebound hothouse / William Goyen --The enormous radio / John Cheever --The veldt / Ray Bradbury --The Dachau shoe / W.S. Merwin --The approved / W.S. Merwin --Spiders I have known / W.S. Merwin --Postcards from the Maginot Line / W.S. Merwin --Johnny Panic and the Bible of dreams / Sylvia Plath --In bed one night / Robert Coover --Schrödinger's cat / Ursula K. Le Guin --The waterworks / E.L. Doctorow --Shattered like a glass goblin / Harlan Ellison --Human moments in World War III / Don DeLillo --The anatomy of desire / John L'Heureux --Little things / Raymond Carver --The temple / Joyce Carol Oates --Freniere (from Interview with the Vampires) / Anne Rice --A short guide to the city / Peter Straub --In the penny arcade / Steven Millhauser --The reach / Stephen King --Exchange value / Charles Johnson --Snow / John Crowley --The last feast of Harlequin / Thomas Ligotti --Time and again / Breece D'J Pancake--Replacements / Lisa Tuttle --Spirit seizures / Melissa Pritchard --Cat in glass / Nancy Etchemendy --The girl who loved animals / Bruce McAllister --Ursus Triad, later / Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg --(from Geek Love) The nuclear family: his talk, her teeth / Katherine Dunn --Subsoil / Nicholson Baker

    But the building's fate hangs in the balance as financing problems halt the project. Contractor Bill McGuire, all set to proceed, can't hide his dismay: with a family and another baby on the way, he can't afford delays. Then a package arrives at the McGuires'--a beautiful antique doll with long blonde hair. His daughter, Megan, wraps her arms around it; his wife, Elizabeth, remains suspicious. Who sent the doll? Who is it for? What neither Elizabeth nor Bill can know is that this innocent-looking gift brings with it a murderous menace...

    Summer is a simple story of a nine-year-old girl who dies while on summer vacation. While her youthful killers try to hide her body, she tells us the story--from the point of view of her dead body--of the childrens' attempt to get away with murder. Black Fairy Tale is classic J-horror: a young girl loses an eye in an accident, but receives a transplant. Now she can see again, astonishingly what she sees out of her new left eye is the experiences and memories of its previous owner. Its previous deceased owner.

    One summer, Beth visits her grandmother and meets the irresistable Morgan, and her descent into darkness begins. The beloved child they conceive foretells a future of evil.

    Indeed, in this pioneering exploration of the cinema of fear, Barry Keith Grant and twenty other film critics posit that horror is always rooted in gender, particularly in anxieties about sexual difference and gender politics.The book opens with the influential theoretical works of Linda Williams, Carol J. Clover, and Barbara Creed. Subsequent essays explore the history of the genre, from classic horror such as King Kong and Bride of Frankenstein to the more recent Fatal Attraction and Bram Stoker's Dracula. Other topics covered include the work of horror auteurs David Cronenberg, Dario Argento, and George Romero; the Aliens trilogy; and the importance of gender in relation to horror marketing and reception.Other contributors include Vera Dika, Thomas Doherty, Lucy Fischer, Christopher Sharrett, Vivian Sobchack, Tony Williams, and Robin Wood. Writing across a full range of critical methods from classic psychoanalysis to feminism and postmodernism, they balance theoretical generalizations with close readings of films and discussions of figures associated with the genre.The Dread of Difference demonstrates that horror is hardly a uniformly masculine discourse. As these essays persuasively show, not only are horror movies about patriarchy and its fear of the feminine, but they also offer feminist critique and pleasure.

    Take a trip to Hell and back with Russell Lee. This collection of stories is the most powerful yet of the True Singapore Ghost Stories series!

    This is a collection of three works by Shirley Jackson: the novels The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle and the short story, "The Lottery".

    He smells gun oil too, too much oil on a brand-new shotgun. These aren't hunters, they're rich kids who don't care about the river and the fish and the old man.Or his dog. Red is the name of the old man's dog, his best friend in the world. And when the boys shoot the dog -- for nothing, for simple spite -- he sees red, like a mist before his eyes. And before the whole thing is done there'll be more red. Red for blood...

    Also useful for its exploration of the crossover genre known as "dark fantasy." Noteworthy authors include Peter S. Beagle, Ursula Le Guin, Stephen King, Lucy Taylor, Steve Rasnic Tem, Tanith Lee, A. S. Byatt, David J. Schow, and Joyce Carol Oates.Contents: * Summation 1995: Fantasy by Terri Windling * Summation 1995: Horror by Ellen Datlow * Horror and Fantasy in the Media: 1995 by Edward Bryant * Obituaries by James Frenkel * Home for Christmas by Nina Kiriki Hoffman * Heartfires by Charles de Lint * Screens by Terry Lamsley * King of Crows by Midori Snyder * Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros by Peter S. Beagle * The Hunt of the Unicorn by Ellen Kushner * More Tomorrow by Michael Marshall Smith * Penguins for Lunch by Scott Bradfield * Either, OR by Ursula K. Le Guin * Paper Lantern by Stuart Dybek * Lunch at the Gotham Café by Stephen King * Queen of Knives (poem) by Neil Gaiman * Dragon-Rain by Eileen Kernaghan * Llantos de La Llorona: Warnings from the Wailer (poem) by Pat Mora * Too Short a Death by Peter Crowther * The James Dean Garage Band by Rick Moody * Because of Dust by Christopher Kenworthy * Loop by Douglas E. Winter * La Loma, La Luna by Sue Kepros Hartman * Women's Stories (poem) by Jane Yolen * Swan/Princess (poem) by Jane Yolen * Switch by Lucy Taylor * Scaring the Train by Terry Dowling * Blood Knot by Steve Resnic Tem * The Girl Who Married the Reindeer (poem) by Eilean Ni Chuilleanain * The Otter Woman (poem) by Mary O'Malley * Resolve and Resistance by S.N. Dyer * La Dame by Tanith Lee * Circe's Power (poem) by Louise Glück * Dragon's Fin Soup by S.P. Somtow * The Granddaughter by Vivian vande Velde * Daphne and Laura and So Forth (poem) by Margaret Atwood * A Lamia in the Cevennes by A.S. Byatt * The Guilty Party by Susan Moody * She's Not There by Pat Cadigan * The White Road (poem) by Neil Gaiman * Refrigerator Heaven by David J. Schow * After the Elephant Ballet by Gary A. Braunbeck * Henry V, Part 2 by Marcia Guthridge * Mrs. Greasy by Robert Reed * ############## by Joyce Carol Oates * The Printer's Daughter by Delia Sherman * Prayer (poem) by Nancy Willard * Jacob and the Angel (poem) by Jane Yolen * The Lion and the Lark by Patricia A. McKillip * Honorable Mentions: 1995Edited by Terry Windling and Ellen Datlow.

    Morlan, Robert Silverberg, Michael Swanwick, Jane Yolen, and many others. Supplementing the stories are the editors' invaluable overviews of the year in fantastic fiction, Edward Bryant's witty roundup of the year's fantasy films, and a long list of Honorable Mentions-all of which adds up to an invaluable reference source, and a font of fabulous reading.

    Gertrude’s Home for girls. As autumn fills the air, the townspeople prepare for the festive Halloween Haunt, Moonfall’s most popular tourist attraction. Even a series of unsolved deaths over the years hasn’t dimmed Moonfall’s renown. Maybe because anyone who knew anything about them has disappeared.Now, Sara Hawthorne returns to her hometown…and enters the hallowed halls of St. Gertrude’s where, twelve years before, another woman died a horrible death. In Sara’s old room, distant voices echo in the dark and the tormented cries of children shatter the moon—kissed night.But that’s just the beginning. For Sara Hawthorne is about to uncover St. Gertrude’s hellish secret…a secret she’ll carry with her to the grave…

    With this series, readers get to know favorite authors and entertainers. R.L. Stine, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Dr. Seuss, and others are profiled in these informative biographies.-- Excellent resource for reports, research, and reference-- Supports language, reading, and social studies curriculum-- Large, easy-to-read text

    Burn, Witch, Burn--the man in the hospital bed died with a look of terror in his eyes from an unidentified illness. And Creep, Shadow, Creep--Dr. Alan Caranac returned from the jungles of Africa only to meet a menace more appalling than the savage magic of witch doctors. Original.

    

    Her writing has captivated thousands of fans, but she has always been safe from the terrifying scenes she creates. Until now. Somewhere in the shadows of New York City, someone is watching her. He knows her every move, her every fear, almost before she knows it herself. He is as devoted as a lover, courting her in his own mysterious way - leaving notes in her mailbox, gifts on her doorstep, messages on her answering machine. His motives are as cryptic as the name he goes by: Valentine. But his intentions are deadly clear. For Jill Talbot, the terror has just begun. Wherever she runs, he will find her. And soon she will meet him on his terrible day of judgment. His triumphant day. Her darkest day. Valentine's Day.

    Nicole thinks the nighttime noises she hears are nothing more than the scurrying of mice. Then she starts to hear eerie music coming through her ceiling. She realizes with a cold, clammy shiver that something far more terrifying than mice must be in the house. . . . And it is up to her to find out what it is, BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!

    P. Lovecraft was the eerily prescient genius who first electrified readers in Weird Tales magazine. His tales changed the face of horror forever and inspired the bloodcurdling offerings of a new generation. These brilliant dark visionaries forge grisly trails through previously uncharted realms of mortal terror.  THE PLAIN OF SOUND by Ramsey Campbell: In the beginning they could find no source for the throbbing vibrations; in the end they could find no escape. THE HORROR ON THE BEACH by Alan Dean Foster: Along the coast of Santa Barbara, the mighty Pacific Ocean can no longer contain—or conceal—an ancient, insatiable evil stirring in its depths.THE KISS OF BUGG-SHASH by Brian Lumley: It mattered not how innocent the students’ motives seemed; the demon had been summoned, and the price had to be paid—every last red drop of it.THE FISHERS FROM OUTSIDE by Lin Carter: A man obsessed with unlocking the secrets of a race older than time would not be disappointed—doomed perhaps, devoured possibly, but definitely not disappointed.  AND TWENTY-ONE MORE TALES OF FEAR . . .  THE STONE ON THE ISLAND by Ramsey Campbell THE STATEMENT OF ONE JOHN GIBSON by Brian Lumley DEMONIACAL by David Sutton THE SLITHERER FROM THE SLIME by H. P. Lowcraft THE DOOM OF YAKTHOOB by Lin Carter THE KEEPER OF THE FLAME by Gary Myers DEAD GIVEAWAY by J. Vernon Shea THOSE WHO WAIT by James Wade THE KEEPER OF DARK POINT by John Glasby THE BLACK MIRROR by John Glasby I’VE COME TO TALK WITH YOU AGAIN by Karl Edward Wagner THE HOWLER IN THE DARK by Richard L. Tierney THE WHISPERERS by Richard A. Lupoff LIGHTS! CAMERA! SHUB-NIGGURATH! by Richard A. Lupoff SAUCERS FROM YADDITH by Robert M. Price VASTARIEN by Thomas Ligotti THE MADNESS OUT OF SPACE by Peter H. Cannon ALIAH WARDEN by Roger Johnson THE LAST SUPPER by Donald R. Burleson THE CHURCH AT GARLOCK’S BEND by David Kaufman THE SPHERES BEYOND SOUND (THRENODY) by Mark Rainey

    This collection brings together ten stories; all of them set in and around the author’s hometown of Derbyshire. In Terry’s fiction, the world we know and the world of something else exist side by side with only the thinnest of lines between them. The characters that inhabit Terry’s work often inadvertently discover that this line is all too easily crossed. Originally published in a 500 copy edition by Ash-Tree Press, Terry Lamsley's Conference with the Dead has long remained almost unobtainable until now.A nominee for the World Fantasy Award, and winner of the International Horror Guild Award, this chilling collection of ghost stories set in England has remained out of print for far too long.

    Gothic Tales makes available for the first time a collection of stories by this highly influential writer, whose decadent romanticism led him to envision an idiosyncratic world--a fictive purgatory --precious and bizarre though always genuine despite its melodramatic formality.The four stories presented here are among Kyoka's best-known works. They are drawn from four stages of the author's development, from the conceptual novels of 1895 to the fragmented romanticism of his mature work. In the way of introduction, Inouye presents a clear analysis of Kyoka's problematic stature as a great gothic writer and emphasizes the importance of Kyoka's work to the present reevaluation of literary history in general and modern Japanese literature in particular. The extensive notes that follow the translation serve as an intelligent guide for the reader, supplying details about each of the stories and how they fit into the pattern of mythic development that allowed Kyoka to deal with his fears in a way that sustained his life and, as Mishima Yukio put it, pushed the Japanese language to its highest potential.

    

    Included are 8 full-color reproductions of "uncanny photographs" taken in the Islands. Based upon archives, newspaper articles and extensive firsthand accounts collected over twenty-five years, Obake Files is the definitive reference book for anyone interested in the supernatural traditions of Hawai'i's multicultural people. ". . .I thought about the presence that I had felt at my right shoulder during the ceremony and held back my tears, as we drove through the mystic Kohala night under the lunar bow. From that time forward, I realized that I could never look upon the supernatural tales that I was gathering in a wholly objective light. . ." - Glen Grant

    A ghost plane rises from the depths of Ladybower Reservoir on the Derbyshire Moors. The mummified hand of an English martyr is used to raise a Benedictine monk from a coma on the edge of death.Odd stories. Perhaps unbelievable stories. Yet all of them were reported in British newspapers in the first half of 1995. They are just a tiny drop in the tidal wave of weirdness that sweeps over us every day of the year, all over the globe. Somehow, though, we persist in maintaining the illusion that in this age of high technology there can be no such thing as the supernatural. At least that is the view presented by much of the media.

    He also examines the many roles the mask has played throughout time, and the physical rigours that actors who play monsters must endure. (Texas Chain Saw Massacre), Freddy Krueger (Nightmare on Elm Street), and Jason (Friday the 13th). Plus, of course, Bradley recounts the making of the Hellraiser movies in detail, revealing just what it's like to actually be the man behind the mask.

    Lansdale is something of an icon, or a writer's writer, if you will. I began reading him in 1981, with novels like "Act of Love" and in publications like Mike Shayne and Twilight Zone. Here was a bold new purveyor of the macabre—cutting-edge and razor-sharp, with a creepy neo-Gothic style unlike anything I'd read previously—a writer daring to be different. Lansdale was just starting out back then, and his work was outstanding. I shuddered to think how good he'd be in, say, 15 years, and I'm still shuddering. Since those early days, he has written more than a dozen novels and hundreds of short stories, commentaries, and articles, and he has even done comic and television work. Let's call him...a "speculative" author, because speculative fiction, at least to me, has always been the stuff of real literature and true art—fiction that breathes more than whatever genre it might be placed in, work that resonates with something beyond the priority to entertain, work that tells us something about ourselves, our times, and our systems of belief. Lansdale isn't a horror writer, nor a suspense writer, nor a sci-fi/fantasy writer, and on the same hand, he's all of those things amalgamated, a writer whose creativity defies category. There's a certain voice to Lansdale that can't be duplicated or even effectively defined, and it's that voice that gives anything he does a thrilling and uncanny power that gets its claws right into your soul. Any given Lansdale book provides a grab bag full of surprises. You never quite know what you're going to get, but you do know youwon't be disappointed. This is a versatility most writers couldn't manage in three careers, and I suppose it's this same element that can help explain the fury his name now generates to collectors and specialty publishers, for Lansdale (in spite of a considerable profile in the mass market) has enjoyed about as positive a cult following as any author could ask. Hard-core fans simply can't get enough of this man's work (we're talking a lot of hard-core fans), and that incontestable fact clarifies this pair of classy, first-rate hardback collections. It's the rabid interest in the Lansdale muse and the man behind it. "In The Good, the Bad, and the Indifferent," Lansdale nearly apologizes for some of the stories, citing that "some are, well, mediocre, and a few are just plain bad," and amusingly, he refers to "A Fist Full of Stories" as a "garage-sale collection." Not much of an endorsement from the author himself, but who cares? Lansdale needs no endorsement from anyone. It's true, a few of the stories aren't very good, but even these early clunkers reveal some delectable slivers of the Lansdale magic. Conversely, many of the pieces in both collections are not only great stories ("The Junkyard," "Master of Misery," "Night Drive," and "Drive-In Date" to name a few) but they serve to shed light on Lansdale as the young, evolving author or, more abstractly, the entity behind the superior fund of work that now trails behind him in 1997. What's particularly fascinating are the author's keenly biographical introductions (which you then catch glimpses of in the work) and the personal miniforewords to each piece. Of 'Fist Full', Lansdale writes: "This collection contains some odds and ends of my career that I don't mind seeing reprinted for followers of my work to examine." However modest that may sound, this is exactly the point of both collections—they're vehicles that enable the Lansdale reader to track the maturation and progress of the author's creative being. Not only do you get Lansdale's fiction, you get his attitude, his perceptions and opinions, his creative influences, and the things he loves and the things he hates (not to mention some utterly intriguing tales about his growing up). And there's more than just fiction in 'Fist Full:' "Drive-In Date" is written as a play, and his "Trash Theater" movie reviews (cowritten with David Webb) will have you laughing so hard, you'll be banging your head against the wall. Both volumes share impressive production standards (a must for collectors and Lansdale connoisseurs)—these are quality first editions, to be sure. For Lansdale zealots specifically, these aren't just great, they're essential books. But even to an incidental reader who's never heard of Joe R. Lansdale: Read these books and you'll be buying everything else you can put your hands on by the guy. All in all, both of these volumes present an assemblage of fine work from an author who keeps making waves and just keeps getting better.—Edward Lee

    Internet Archive wayback versions are available.

    Ex-Deputy Sheriff "Cole" Younger is determined to stop the evil before the old-time rock-and-roll music becomes the dance of death. Along with a priest, an ex-Marine and a beautiful woman, he's on the run across a land that's quickly turning into a hell on earth.

    Now in the Underworld, he embraces deceit and unbridled ambition -- he's no one's idea of a hero. That's too bad because something truly evil is stirring, and Montrose is the only being with a prayer of stopping it.

    Ginny Marsden, a young woman leading a quiet, uneventful life, inextricably disapears. Two apparently ordinary cases for police officers David Harper and Helen Lamont to investigate.

    Right now, he's desperately searching for his wife and son, who disappeared in the midst of Harry's war against the undead monsters that plague mankind. Others will to carry on that fight until the Necroscope has been reunited with his beloved family.But it's not that easy to leave the vampire war behind. The bloodsuckers know that the Necroscope is their deadliest enemy and will do anything to destroy him.Harry struggles to locate his missing family, not realizing that he has become a pawn in the battle between two powerful vampires. When one has slain the other, the Necroscope will be the next to die.

    Instead they took over the trappings, landscapes, and cultural assumptions of thetwentieth century for their ancient purposes. Thus Michael Cox introduces The Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century Ghost Stories, a unique collection of 33 of the best and most chilling ghost stories of our era. The first anthology to trace the evolution of the ghost story over the last one hundred years, this book demonstrates the variety and versatility of the genre and the different ways in which stories of the supernatural have adapted to twentieth-century venues and concerns. In these tales weencounter not only the returning dead, but also distinctly modern phantoms: a haunted typewriter, a ghost that travels by train, and an urban specter made of smoke and soot. There are child ghosts and haunted houses, playful spooks and deadly apparitions. The authors of these uncanny tales are asdiverse as the kinds of stories they tell; there are ghost stories by such specialists as M.R. James and Algernon Blackwood and many by authors not commonly associated with the genre: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edith Wharton, Graham Greene, A.S. Byatt, and Angela Carter are only a few of the literarycelebrities included in this collection. At a time when our era seems to grow increasingly rational and predictable, The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century Ghost Stories reminds us of the joys of uncertainty and wonder. Distinctive and gripping, these stories will linger longin the memory

    The vampire started life as a sexual fantasy, and Bram Stoker's tale became a metaphor for dominance and dependence in sexual relationships. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, perhaps the most psychological of all horror stories, examines the beast in man and the dark side of human nature. And The Hound of the Baskervilles is a tale of conflict between rationalism and folklore, and the skills of Sherlock Holmes.

    Annie checked her watch once again. Only half an hour to go and she would see her father waiting at the back of the crowd in the station concourse, the thick, fraying scarf that her mother hated twirled twice around his neck. Then it would be a short drive through the countryside to Riddington and Blackstone Cottage, a log fire, masses of shiny decorations and a Christmas tree draped with so many beads and baubles it was in danger of toppling over. Her mother didn't understand the meaning of the word overkill.Safety. Security. Escape.Annie closed her eyes and drifted...In the darkness behind her eyelids, everything suddenly skewed. The night exploded with sound. She was torn from the warm cocoon by the terrifying rush of unfocussed kinetic energy. In her mind, what happened next was frozen in a thousand individual images and sensations. Rending metal, so loud it hurt her ears.SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!Shock snapped her eyes open. The air caught in her lungs.The carriage magically lifting into the air and a feeling of weightlessness like stepping off the high board at the pool. A window exploding inwards, the glass glittering and spinning through the air in daggers, deadly and beautiful. The face of a man sitting next to it disintegrating into red. A shower of blood, mixing and contrasting with the sparkling glass, up, up, higher, then down. His hands rising. His head pitching forward.A scream, high-pitched and reedy that wouldn't stop. Another, low and hoarse. Another. And another. And another. The whole carriage screaming as one, and Annie suddenly and bizarrely realising she was screaming too. The weigthlessness disappearing and instead being pressed back into her seat by invisible, monstrous hands.Metal, ripping and tearing. Noise, louder and louder and louder; the terrible, hoarse scream of disaster. Thrown to one side, then the other, then whiplashed forward.The carriage turning slowly over on its side, and then faster, hurtling towards the ground. The screaming was all. An old woman freed from gravity, hurtling down the train, her face contorted by fear, her hands out in futile defence against the inevitable.The jolt exploded through her body. The walls seemed to turn to paper as they smashed and crunched and the noise filled everywhere until she thought her ear-drums were going to burst. She was flung across the seat and up, a rag doll thrown from a car.And the explosion of pain in her head, her hip, her arm.And then the darkness.And the thought: "This is it. I'm going to..."

    Gilbert's "Doc Stearn... Mr. Monster" in a new book featuring seven stories of Forbidden Knowledge culled from his self-titled Eclipse Comics series. Contents include Mr. Monster classics, such as "The Case of the Reluctant Werewolf," "The Hemo Horror," "No Escape from Dimension-X" and more. Comics legend Alan Moore contributes not only the Foreword, in which he elevates Mr. Monster (alongside Captain Marvel, The Spirit, The Fighting American and Plastic-Man) into his approved pantheon of essential superheroes, but also a story of garbage-gone-bad, "The Riddle of the Recalcitrant Refuse." Supporting Gilbert's efforts to document the frightening facts forming Mr. Monster's Forbidden Knowledge are artists Williams Messner-Loebs, Roger Stewart, Jeff Bonivert, Dave Stevens and Steve Bissette; colorists Steve Oliff and Eric Vincent; and lettering wizard Ken Bruzenak. Witness the terror for yourself in Mr. Monster: His Books of Forbidden Knowledge, Volume One. Read it at your own risk!

    Badley places horror fiction in its cultural context, drawing important connections to theories of gender and sexuality. As our culture places increasing importance on body image, horror fiction has provided a language for imagining the self in new ways--often as ungendered, transformed, or re-generated. Focusing on the works of Stephen King, Clive Barker, and Anne Rice, Badley approaches horror as a discourse that articulates the anxieties of our culture.

    Supplement for the Kult Horror Roleplaying Game, in a trade paperback / folder format.

    Never before have ghostly encounters been so alluring, thanks to a cast of otherworldly characters well acquainted with the pleasures of the flesh. Amarantha Knight, the woman behind the popular Darker Passions series, has gathered a stellar roster of chilling talent, including Brian Lumley , Thomas S. Roche, Edo van Belkom, Kyle Stone, Michael A. Arnzen, Ron Dee & Lois H. Gresh, Brian McNaughton, Benoit Bisson, Nancy Kilpatrick, Karen E. Taylor, Gemma Files, John Mason Skipp

    

    Each entry includes cast and credits, a plot synopsis, in-depth critical analysis, contemporary reviews, time of release, brief biographies of the principal cast and crew, and a production history. Apart from the 46 main entries, 71 additional "borderline horrors" are examined and critiqued in an appendix.

    Reprints issues 15-18 of Shock Suspenstories, originally published by EC Comics in 1954.

    In the well, a Voice. . . . The Voice speaks of lust, and blood, and murder to any who listen. Under the spell of Cindy Brasher, almost any young man will listen. In its first general release, here is Ed Gorman's underground classic of dark suspense--"An amazing noir like no other," declares Duane Swierczynski. Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine describes Gorman as "one of suspense fiction's best storytellers." Bestselliing author Dean Koontz adds: "Gorman's writing is strong, fast and sleek as a bullet.

    But tonight, his ancestors have awakened their Great-Grandpa Craven. They're planning a party in the backwoods of Tennessee. And the folks of Green Hollow are in for the night of their lives. The last night of their lives...A teenage girl is found with her throat torn open and her body completely drained of blood... A young bride sprouts fangs and turns on her husband ...A little girl's pet rat develops a murderous mind of its own ...A preacher goes insane and slaughters his entire congregation before feasting on their blood...

    Through close analysis of a wide range of films such as I Was a Teenage Werewolf and Creature of the Black Lagoon Mark Jancovich argues that horror films of the 1950s developed a critique of conservatism, conformity, mass society and masculinity. In addition, he claims that while many critics have seen contemporary horror as the product of a break with that of the 1950s, most of the key elements within recent horror films and novels were actually established during this time.