Paul M. Sammon - Splatterpunks

Paul M. Sammon (ed.) - Splatterpunks: Extreme Horror (Xanadu, 1990)



Introduction - Paul M. Sammon

Joe R. Lansdale - Night They Missed the Horror Show
Clive Barker - The Midnight Meat Train
John M. Skipp - Film at Eleven
Richard Christian Matheson - Red
Mick Garris - A Life in the Cinema
Douglas E. Winter - Less Than Zombie
Wayne Allen Sallee - Rapid Transit
Edward Bryant - While She Was Out
George R. R. Martin - Meathouse Man
Rex Miller - Reunion Moon
Chas. Balun - I Spit in Your Face: Films That Bite
Nancy A. Collins - Freaktent
Ray Garton - Crucifax Autumn: Chapter 18—The Censored Chapter
Richard Christian Matheson - Goosebumps
Roberta Lannes - Goodbye, Dark Love
Philip Nutman - Full Throttle
J. S. Russell - City of Angels
Paul M. Sammon - Outlaws

Never bothered with this at the time as I already had the bulk of the stories spread over other contemporary collections (Book Of The Dead, Silver Scream, Jeff Gelb's Hot Blood series and the younger Matheson's Scars, etc.)

On the evidence of those I've seen, these stories can be very effective. Lansdale's dedication - "For Lew Shiner: a story that doesn't flinch" - sums it up: there's no holding back. Night They Missed The Horror show begins with a pair of youth's driving off with a dog tied to the back of their car. They go for miles before encountering a helpful psychopath who isn't too taken with animal cruelty. And neither are his buddies. Then the story gets nasty.

If there's a theme the Splatterpunks return to again and again, it's the evils of the Religious far right. Ray Garton (whose Crucifax was quite enough for me even without the censored chapter) has a marvellous go at the Evangelists in his contribution to Silver Scream and John Shirley uses a rock festival as the setting for the apocalypse in Flaming Telepaths ("Shock Rock") a story for which the word 'unflinching' is barely adequate.

There's a gleeful attempt at shock and moral outrage in stories such as these which make them very much the literary equivalent of punk. More Splatterpunk on the Richard Laymon Fiends thread which is why I copied that stuff over.