Issue 11 (November 1989)
74 Pages in total
Fear Fiction:
Jumbo Portions – Christopher Fowler – 5 Pages
Sharon and Tracy loved their takeaway food. Well, maybe ‘loved’ was an overstatement. They tolerated it. A box of fried chicken from Mr Patel’s tandoori was Sharon’s preferred choice. Although she had to be honest, more often than not she found something wrong with the chicken. Something that tasted funny or a little bit off. Interestingly, not even Mr Patel would touch the stuff. Maybe that should’ve been an indicator that their fried chicken wasn’t really the best choice. After all, who knows what really goes in that stuff…
British author, Christopher Fowler, offers up a relatively simplistic black comedy short, designed to make you grin and chuckle as much as make you ever-so-queasy. In essence it’s a story that plays around with the nasty junk and gunk that goes into processed fast food. Beaks and bird shit, eyeballs and arseholes, all that nasty crap. Of course, Fowler ups the game with an accidental Sweeny Todd style plot. Although it only really comes into place in the last stages of the story. For the most part, the short simply has some fun with the dialogue between Sharon and Tracy, as well as Mr Patel and his hapless kitchenhand, Duncan. It’s an odd and relatively uninspired but not nevertheless fairly entertaining short.
The Mud – D W Sheridan – 3 Pages
Danny Littlewood was one of four good old boys from Baker’s Heights who’d signed up to do their duty for their country. However, the Vietnam War wasn’t what Danny thought it would be. There was often no rhyme or reason for why things happened. No conscience for one’s actions. No compassion. Just war. War, and rain, and mud. Thick black, cloying, clogging, mud, which sucked at your boots and swallowed you down.
Danny had gradually lost his friends, his companions, one by one, in Vietnam’s jungle. Lost them in the rain and the mud. More than anything, more than death itself, he now feared remaining here, in this sea of mud, sinking. There was something about that fate that was even worse than dying. At all costs, he knew, he had to get out of the mud. He had to get out…
This is a strange one. Set in the thick of the Vietnam War, we have our protagonist, Danny Littlewood, desperately trying to cope with what he’s seeing and experiencing in this dog-eat-dog environment. Written in the first-person perspective of Danny, the story is told entirely through his thoughts and emotional response to the events unfolding before him. An internal monologue providing a strangely nightmarish vision of it all.
In fact, there’s very little that’s tangible in the story, but instead it’s a written account of the utter dread this young solider is experiencing. Of course, we have a supposed twist waiting for us at the end. Although somewhat easy to predict from afar, this twist-ending does nevertheless wrap the short up in an effective way. All in all, this is a strangely odd read, which reminded me a lot of M.J. Bassett’s ‘Deathwatch’ (2002) only slung into the chaos of Vietnam.
Harry’s Black And Decker – Steve Harris – 7 Pages
John and Judy had been living next door to Harry Ferguson for three years. Over that time, John had become good friends with the sixty-five-year-old retired barrister who was his neighbour. Harry was quirky in a good way. A mildly eccentric man, who clearly missed his sadly deceased wife. However, when Harry calls up John to see if he’d pop over to see his new Black and Decker D154RM electric drill, John thinks perhaps Harry’s mind has finally lost a losing battle. Why would he want to see his neighbour’s drill? When you’ve seen one drill, you’ve seen them all. Or at least John had thought at the time.
Little did he know what Harry Ferguson had stumbled across when selecting a new drill from Wicks, was a small handheld miracle. A tool which could not only shrink whatever it bored into, but it could also open a hole within the fabric of our very world. What Harry had in his possession, was something which defied all logic. Something which would change the course of Harry’s life forever…
Holy-moly-mother-of-god is this a frigging weird one. Honestly the imaginative strangeness behind the story is mind-boggling in itself. An electric drill that can open up a gateway into an alternative dimension. And of course, there’s no explanation given as to how or why. In fact, there’s barely an explanation given to anything that happens in this madman’s daydream of a story.
However, for the sheer imagination on show and the wackiness that comes from this bonkers idea, the story is utterly compelling reading at least. It’s akin to an early slice of Bizarro fiction, where it’s more about the unplugging of reality, and extending the possibilities of limitless fiction, than it is about a story which makes an iota of sense. Although for me it did feel just that little too detached from any hint of plausible reality, or allowing any snippet of suspending disbelief to feel even slightly accomplished. But for a short, weird, imaginative read, it's still well worth the short time it takes to read.
Winter On Aubarch 6 – David Riley – 6 Pages
[DLS Review to come]
So The Dead Walk Slowly – Jeff Vandermeer – 4 Pages
[DLS Review to come]
The Top Floor – Sara J Townsend – 5 Pages
[DLS Review to come]
Pro-Files:
Steve Miner – Miner Miracles – 3 Pages
“Steve Miner, director of low budget classics such as Friday the 13th, House, Soul Man and now Warlock, ascribes a measure of his success to his willingness to mix and match genres. He also makes a point of giving a humorous edge to even the darkest of storys, but he is not afraid of the sequel tag. He talked to John Gilbert in Los Angeles.”
Steve De Jarnatt – Apocalypse Now! – 3 Pages
“Writer and director Steve De JArnatt fought for nine years to make his new movie, Miracle Mile. Now, as this apocalyptic romance-thriller hits the big screen, he takes time out to talk with FEAR’s Pat Jankiewicz about his nightmares, John Huston and Alfred Hitchcock, among others…”
Gale Ann Hurd – The Deep End – 2 Pages
“With Aliens, The Terminator and now The Abyss, producer Gale Ann Hurd has made her name with a string of box office hits. John Gilbert talks to the woman who delights in taking on the toughest of projects, asks her about extra challenge and discovers what it’s life to jump in at…”
Patrick McGarth – An Elegant Weirdness – 3 Pages
“He is a hunter of the wild, the perverse, the unusual. His short stories and novels contain innovative style and a ravaged imagination. Yet, as the critically acclaimed author Patrick McGrath tells Pete Crowther he started to write out of necessity and several of his unique characters are a synthesis of crusty old stereotypes.”
Len Wein – Bayou Blues – 2 Pages
“A collection of clichés, or one of today’s most powerful comic heroes? Swamp Thing co-creator Len Wein tells FEAR’s Pat Jankiewicz about the chequered history of his most memorable, melancholic character and gives his views on the movie which is again about to launch ol’ moss-head into the public eye.”
Stephen Lawhead – Knight Errant – 1 Page
“How do you turn a traditional myth into an original modern day fantasy? John Gilbert puts the question to Stephen Lawhead, the author of Dream Thief, Empyrion and The Dragon King Saga, whose latest novel ends The Pendragon Cycle, a trilogy about the lives of Merlin and King Arthur.”
Movie Mainline:
The Phantom Of The Opera - Operatic Nightmares – 3 Pages
“Misunderstood musician or malformed maniac? The Phantom of the Opera has been depicted as tormented genius and pitiable killer on the big screen, on television and on the stage. But, as Dwight Little, the director of the latest screen version, tells John McCarty, star Robert ‘Freddy’ Englund will leave the other pretenders to the mask standing.”
The Exorcist III – Unfinished Business – 2 Pages
“The Exorcist: 1990, true sequel to the 1973 classic which started the contemporary horror boom, is likely to be next year’s most provocative horror film. But, as novelist Matthew J Costello learned from writer/director William Peter Blatty and star George C Scott, wit will not be a gore spectacle.”
Book Reviews:
A Child Across The Sky – Jonathan Carroll
Alternites – Michael Kube-McDowell
Scared Stiff – Ramsey Campbell
Cradle – Arthur C Clarke & Gentry Lee
Nemesis – Shaun Hutson
Exit Funtopia – Mick Farren
Galaxy’s End – Richard A Lupoff
Bureau Of Lost Souls – Christopher Fowler
The Fangs Of The Hooded Demon – Geoffrey Marsh
Songs Of A Dead Dreamer – Thomas Ligotti
The Science Fiction Yearbook: Two – David S Garnett
The Dark Half – Stephen King
The Fulfilments Of Fate And Desire – Storm Constantine
Film Reviews:
Pet Semetary - Directed by Mary Lambert
The Return Of The Swamp Thing - Directed by Jim Wynorski
Earth Girls Are Easy - Directed by Julien Temple
Phantasm - Directed by Don Coscarelli
Prom Night II - Directed by Bruce Pittman
Ghost Chase - Directed by Roland Emmerich
Monsters One: Feverman / Sleeping Dragon - Directed by Michael Gornick and Mark Rezyka
Monsters Two: Parents From Space / Pillow Talk - Directed by Gerald Cotts and David Odell
Mama Dracula - Directed by Boris Szulzinger
