First published back in July of 2022, issue thirteen of ‘Splatterpunk Zine’ celebrated 10 years of the zine, and was compiled and edited by Jack Bantry, offering up another bloodbucket full of A5 black & white pages, packed with more stories, articles, reviews and interviews of uncompromisingly violent horror and gore.  The zine was made available for purchase via Bantry’s ‘Splatterpunk Zine’ website.

Editorial – 1 Page
Splatterpunk Zine’s Jack Bantry starts the zine off by informing us the zine has now been going for a decade! An impressive feat for any publication. Bantry then muses about author Brain Keene’s idea about three generations of Splatterpunk. Short and snappy but a passionate and wholly engaging opener for the zine.

Of The Worm – Ryan Harding – 7 Pages
Natasha had gone through the three-month initiation process to become one of them. To become a follower. One of the Worm Cult – a child of the Descent. So far, her plan seemed to have worked out. They’d brought her to their sacred place where she’d participate in the Sacrament of Consecration. The ritual of the worm. There were ten new followers in total. Five women and five men, each flown in from different states. Natasha hoped they’d not realised her real reason for being there. To save her brother, Joel, from this madness. She just had to play along for a short while, then when the time was right, she’d get him away from here. That was the plan at least…

You’ve gotta love a batshit crazy cult! And for his offering, US author Ryan Harding delivers the absolute epitome of weird cultist insanity. These crazy-ass nutters are worm obsessed. Their rituals all involve doing vile things with worms. We start off with having a follower chow down huge mouthfuls of the squirming, slithering things. Then Harding moves onto a fucked-up colonic irrigation using masses of the writhing worms. Yep, this short is one messed up opening tale. However, after the gag-inducing vileness of the opening pages, what gradually unfolds is a story which veers away from such nauseating antics, and instead evolves into a strangely hallucinogenic nightmare, almost Lovercraftian with the underlying cosmic horror. It’s a decent and downright gruesome story, with moments of black comedy coupled with scenes of mind-boggling chaos. Altogether a strong opening story for the zine.

The story includes a full-page illustration by Jim Agpalza.



Gutted – Bracken MacLeod – 6 Pages
The alleyway was known to be a dangerous spot. An area of town to avoid. But in daylight, it didn’t seem too bad. Which was why Del, Chris, and Iggy used it as a shortcut to school. Although that particular morning, they each wished they hadn’t. Curled up on the sidewalk, in front of a line of dumpsters spilling over with trash, was the cold dead body of a man. As the boy’s rolled the body over, a pile of spilled intestines could be seen glistening in the morning sun. This was where Tomas had died. His last, agonising moments, played out in this troublesome alleyway only a few hours ago…

US author Bracken MacLeod offers up a decidedly harrowing, second-by-second depiction of an unlucky man’s brutal demise within a cold and unforgiving alleyway. To tell his story, MacLeod utilises a cunning literary device in which he works backwards through this tragic timeline of events, starting with the discovery of Tomas’ butchered corpse, and then gradually unravelling piece-by-piece the graphic assault which led to how he came to be in the alleyway that night. This reverse delivery of the story is incredibly effective. We go through the horrific moments in almost clinical detail, desperately wanting to understand, to unpick, to somehow make sense of the now inevitable tragedy. It’s a sad as well as hellishly visceral short, packed with nasty gore that’s delivered with a near-clinical recital, making it that much harder to swallow. Frigging brutal is what it is!

MacLeod ends his piece with a passage titled ‘Notes On Gutted’ in which the author talks about his inspiration for the story: a vividly remembered TV programme which warned kids not to interfere with gangs as the consequences could see you disembowelled. You can see how such an image could leave a lasting impression on an impressionable young mind. Jeez!

The story includes a full-page illustration by Denis Privezentsev.



Last Day Of Work – Ryan C. Thomas – 4 Pages
Mr Sochowski was dying. A ravaging disease had been eating away at his life. Arrangements had already been made for his vast estate after he passed. Now, with only a few weeks left, it was sadly time for his staff to go. Although Mr Sochowski had one final job for his in-house maintenance manager. He’d always trusted the man. Some might even say they’d built up a friendship over the years. Most importantly, Sochowski knew he could rely on the man to see this final job through. Help him to fight against death, and allow life to live within his flesh, once again…

Oh boy, is this one a stomach-churning piece of body horror. It’s only short at just three-pages of text, but US author Ryan C. Thomas absolutely crams in the gross-out nastiness likes there’s no frigging tomorrow (which is very much the case for poor old Mr Sochowski). Essentially, what we have is a dying old man who asks his trusted employee to pass him an assortment of different creatures and creepy crawlies, which he then inserts into a variety of freshly cut wounds. Yep, it’s like some sort of self-enacted medieval torture. Truly horrifying, indeed. Thomas delivers the story with the slightest of suggestions of black comedy, alongside an air of ‘meditative peace’ achieved through the whole hellish ordeal. It works, it chills the blood, but it works! It also makes for one bastard of a compelling read.

The story includes a full-page illustration by Robert Elrod.



Things Remembered – Brian Keene – 8 Pages
The four of them had been the closest of friends as well as fellow horror authors. When Fernando died of cancer, it hit them hard. Now with the cancer having taken Dean as well, the once tight group of friends was down to just the two of them. Wayne and himself. However, before either of them could try to move on, Dean’s vast collection of books and comics had to be sold off so his widowed wife, Donna, could have enough to live off. A task which meant going down into Dean’s musty old basement where he used to write. It’d been his private space. Somewhere Donna never ventured into. A year ago, there’d been a flood in the basement. However, with Dean’s health deteriorating, no one had been down there since. No one had viewed the damage caused to Dean’s books by the flooding. There were other pieces from Dean’s past down there too. A past which he’d kept secret. A side to the author which painted a very different picture to the much-loved and trusted friend they thought they knew…

This is one of those plots which has been done a few times over the years, although it’s always interesting to see where the author goes with it. For Keene’s tale, he spends a good chunk of the story setting-the-scene and establishing-the-characters – both those alive and recently deceased. This is purposefully done to lull us into a false sense of security about the characters. How they’re perceived versus their hidden side. When the shit starts to get fucked up, Keene handles the dark revelations well, keeping the story character-driven after shovelling a page full of horrific torture down are throats. Honestly, the whole tale is incredibly well written. I could understand that some might think it’s perhaps too padded with bibliophile geekery (although as an avid horror book collector, I loved this aspect), the story is nevertheless an absolute triumph at depicting emotional carnage. The sort of tale that has you pondering what you’ll be leaving behind when you die (although just to be clear, I’m not implying I have a box full of VHS tapes containing homemade snuff). A bloody brilliant read.

The story includes a full-page illustration by Dan Henk.



Blood, Guts, And Gore: As American As Apple Pie – Sean Leonard – 3 Pages
Punk rock drummer, author, and horror reviewer, Sean Leonard, provides a wonderfully knowledgeable rundown of splattery, sleazy, and gory movies from the good ol’ US of A. We start off this indie-horror tour with a handful of titles hailing from Michigan, then move down to Indiana, all the while giving us an overview of all the weirdest and most creative of low-budget horror flicks that these states have churned out. We then move onto New England and then Maryland. The films of Stephen Biro (of Unearthed Films) get a good mention, before we cover a handful of recent low-budget Slashers. Then we’re briefly onto Troma movies before heading over to Florida for more micro-budget madness.

Canadian indie flicks receive some coverage before we move onto Mexico where we have more examples of nasty, weird low-budget films. At this point Leonard has my brow rising when I hear that Shane McKenzie’s novella ‘Muerte Con Carne’ (2013) was made into a short film by Gigi Saul Guerrero titled ‘El Gigante’ – the stuff you learn from this zine! Leonard ends his insanely informative piece with a bunch of honourable mentions, leaving you breathless and googling a tonne of fucked-up films.

Interview – David J. Schow – 5 Pages
For this ten-year anniversary issue, Splatterpunk Zine has gone for a big name in the subgenre, offering up an interview with splatterpunk legend, David J. Schow.

For the interview Jack Bantry starts out by asking Schow, as a kid, what he wanted to do when he grew up, and what then attracted him to write horror. Bantry moves on to ask what Schow thinks made the 80s such a golden age for American cinema, as well as his thoughts on the longevity of ‘Splatterpunk’ (the term which Schow coined in 1986), and then what his favourite films are. Bantry asks about Schow’s view on Brian Keene’s notion of three generations of Splatterpunk, his thoughts on short fiction versus full-length novels, and finally about his move away from horror and into crime fiction.

Book Reviews – 2 Pages
Faces Of Beth – Carver Pike
Grandpappy – Patrick C Harrison III
Visceral 2 – Patrick C Harrison III & Daniel J. Volpe
Fucker – Jed Shepherd

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