Alan Ryan - Halloween Horrors

[dem bones]

Alan Ryan (ed.) - Halloween Horrors (Sphere, 1988)

Alan Ryan - Introduction: Halloween Night

Robert R. McCammon - He'll Come Knocking At Your Door
Charles L. Grant - Eyes
Whitley Streiber - The Nixon Mask
Peter Tremayne - The Samhain Feis
Steve Rasnic Tem - Trickster
Michael McDowell - Miss Mack
Guy N. Smith - Hollow Eyes
Alan Ryan - The Halloween House
Craig Shaw Gardner - Three Faces Of The Night
Bill pronzini - Pumpkin
Frank Belknap Long - Love In The Wildwood
Ramsey Campbell - Apples
Robert Bloch - Pranks

Blurb:

Hallowe'en– a time for pumpkin lanterns and trick or treat, for hot spiced drinks and party laughter. For some. But not for all. For those lonely souls Hallowe'en is a night of necromancy and bone-chilling fear, when the wild October wind cannot quite mask the high, keening scream of terror, when the ancient evils arise once more from the underworld to lure the unwary to their dark and terrible deaths...

I'm on a seasonal kick at the moment, with this, Peter Haining's Halloween Hauntings and Waugh/ Greenberg & Asimov's 13 Horrors For Halloween on the go at the same time, wild card Mystery For Halloween likely to join in later. They each have much to recommend them, though, as ever, i get a little puzzled at some of the selections. With 13 Horrors For Halloween, it's Isaac Asimov's opening story - don't rate it in the slightest and can only wonder why anyone would choose it to usher in such an otherwise tidy little collection. Well, no such complaints where Halloween Horrors is concerned, because the first feast of fear is:

Robert R. McCammon - He'll Come Knocking At Your Door: Dan Burgess's luck was shot before he moved to the Deep South and the tiny Essex community. How things can turn around in a few months! He's received an unexpected promotion at his new job, won competitions he didn't even know he'd entered, and he's never been more in love with wife, Karen, mother to cute little daughter Jaime. Oh yeah, what a wonderful life!

Tonight is Halloween and Dan is called unexpectedly to Roy Hathaway's house on an urgent matter. Hathaway's the Real Estate Agent who bent over backwards to help Dan land his dream home cheap, so of course he has to go. He's astonished to find Roy's driveway lined with cars. All the men-folk in the community are there, and, when he enters the room it's clear they ain't in bobbing-for-apples mood. Bit by bit, Dan learns the terrible truth: he's not the old Essex resident who enjoys outrageous good fortune - they all do, thanks to a pact with the Devil! But every Halloween, they're required to give him something back. A pair of the wife's shoes, say. A lock of hair. Or one of your first-born's limbs. And should you refuse, he'll come knocking at your door. And you really wouldn't want that.

From his outstanding collection, Blue World.

Guy N. Smith - Hollow Eyes: "I've got your daughter, rich man, and I'm screwing her. Don't waste your time trying to stop me, because that way you'll just lose your little girl." Lester Miles has never understood what his sixteen year daughter could possibly see in Mitch, an overweight drop-out who lives in the street, hanging out with weirdoes and bums. And tonight Lester is armed and prowling the Halloween fair, intent on killing the fat bastard for what he's done to his daughter, 'cause, see that pumpkin hanging suspended from a branch over there? Well it ain't a pumpkin, take another look!

He finds that most of the weird kids have congregated around a bonfire, prior to torching the effigy tied to a stake. It sure looks familiar, that effigy. Just suppose Mitch isn't the one who decapitated his daughter after all?

A bit of a strange one. Reads like a nasty update on Robert Bloch's Spawn Of The Dark Ones (Sweet Sixteen) bereft of the motorbikes and cod-beatnik dialogue.

[dem bones]

Peter Tremayne - The Samhain Feis: To escape Marco, her appalling womanizing husband, Katy Fantoni leaves New York with son, Mike, and takes a holiday cottage in County Clare - just in time for Samhain! Old Mr. Flaherty, a font of local legend and lore, is concerned when he catches the name of Mike's 'imaginary' playmate, Sean Rua. "Of all the goblins and imps who appear at the Samhain Feis, there is a small, red haired imp called the Taibhse derg ... the red bogeyman ... it is said he eats the souls of children." Flaherty notes with approval the ornate crucifix hung over the cottage door and urges Katy to make a paste of oatmeal and salt to place on the boy's head before he goes to bed. Yeah, right!

That night, Sean Rua appears grinning at the window. Katy, transfixed, can only watch in horror as the red headed demon-child lures Mike out into the darkness and up onto the mountain. "Even as she watched, the earth seemed to spring apart as if opening a jagged tear in the side of the mountain ... She saw Mike's little figure run through the doorway ....."

When Katy awakens, she rushes into her son's bedroom, and, to her immense relief, finds him sleeping safe and sound. It had all been a dream!

Two days later, they say their goodbyes to Flaherty and set off for Dublin then home to New York. A drunken Marco accosts them, furious at her for 'kidnapping' their son and her announcement that she wants a divorce does not go down well at all. He even lunges at Mike for looking at him funny.

The next morning, Marco is found dead in his room, the victim of a most heinous murder. His throat torn out, eyes wide in fear, the walls awash with blood. Who could have done such a thing? Certainly not little Mike! Katy is watching him at play from the window. He turns his face toward her, and ....

Charles L. Grant - Eyes: In his introductory note, Alan Ryan writes: "Grant is a proponent of what he calls 'quiet' horror, subtle, dark, with a lingering, bitter aftertaste. For this book, I urged him to write something nasty. Something really nasty. The result is Eyes."

Ron Ritter is fiercely protective of his little boy, Paulie, to the point of trashing one of a bunch of teenager punks who snicker as they pass, Paulie in his ill-fitting Batman costume, carrying his pathetic little bag of candy. After he's done, Ron turns to confront the bleeding kid's friends. "Go ahead. And when you're done with me you can beat up on the retard. That's what you're thinking, right? The kid's a retard. He looks funny, walks funny, maybe dribbles a little when he tries to talk. A clown, right? No problem, he can't hurt you."

The kids didn't mean to cause such upset, but Ron is up for a fight now ... until he catches sight of his poor son, stood all alone and sad. Then Ron cries his eyes out. "Wrong, Daddy. Wrong", the little boy admonishes him. Ron knows it was wrong. Next year they'll just stay home and carve a pumpkin.

So, to the following Halloween. Ron's gutted the pumpkin and now he's cutting out the triangles that will serve for the eyes. An excited Paulie wants to join in, and makes a grab for the knife in his enthusiasm, cutting dad's finger, but that's alright, no harm done. But then Paulie picks up the discarded pieces of pumpkin and places them over his own eyes. Dad makes a grab for him, Paulie takes a tumble and catches his face on the table. The slice of pumpkin is driven straight into his brain via his eye.

Two weeks after Paulie's death, Ron's wife leaves him saying she wants nothing to do with a man who kills his own son. And now he's standing beside Paulie's grave, telling him what fun they're going to have this Halloween, hoping beyond hope that the little boy's ghost won't demand they play the game he's devised again this year .....

Robert Bloch - Pranks: He is dressed as Benjamin Franklin, his wife, Mrs. See the cookie lady, and together the sweet old couple prepare to welcome the first trick-or-treaters on this most special of nights. And in the local community, thirteen sets of parents will never see their children again.

Creepy haunted house story, quite a departure for Bloch. Nobody is beheaded, no-one feels the need to recite a potted history of Jack the Ripper's crimes - there aren't even any excruciating puns. Are you sure he wrote this?

"Then he's been gone over an hour ... while you sat there blabbing to your boyfriend and listening to that goddam rock crap!"

Oh yeah. It's Robert Bloch alright.

[goathunter]

Here are various other covers for this book:

British hardcover from Severn House, 1988:


French:


U.S. hardcover from Doubleday, 1986:


Japanese paperback:


U.S. paperback from Charter, 1987:


Hunter

[franklinmarsh]

Hallowe'en Horrors. Sphere 1988. Edited by Alan Ryan.

A night of unremitting evil....

Hallowe'en - a time for pumpkin lanterns and trick or treat, for hot spiced drinks and party laughter.

For some. But not for all.

For those lonely souls Hallowe'en is a night of necromancy and and bone-chilling fear, when the wild October wind cannot quite mask the high, keening scream of terror, when the ancient evils arise once more from the underworld to lure the unwary to their dark and terrible deaths...

Introduction: 'Hallowe'en Night' by Alan Ryan

He'll Come Knocking At Your Door - Robert R McCammon
Eyes - Charles L Grant
The Nixon Mask - Whitley Strieber
The Samhain Feis - Peter Tremayne
Trickster - Steve Rasnic Tem
Miss Mack - Michael McDowell
Hollow Eyes - Guy N Smith
The Halloween House - Alan Ryan
Three Faces Of The Night - Craig Shaw Gardner
Pumpkin - Bill Pronzini
Lover In The Wildwood - Frank Bellknap Long
Apples - Ramsey Campbell
Pranks - Robert Bloch

Apologies if this has been covered, but I had to pick up the battered-to-shit copy because - what a line-up!
I've read the first four and Hollow Eyes. All good but McCammon and GNS, whilst treading familiar ground, deliver the goods.

[josecruz]

“THE NIXON MASK” by WHITLEY STRIEBER
It’s Halloween in the White House, and President Richard Nixon couldn’t be in more of a panic. He is tense about the arrival of the staff’s children who are coming to his room to receive their candy. His wife Pat tells her fidgety husband to relax and simply stick to the script she has prepared for them. Nixon and his wife answer the door to greet the smiling, costumed children. However, the President is thrown a curve ball when a child dressed in a suit and donned with a mask of his own noticeable visage steps forward. Nixon is completely astounded and horrified by the mask, completely forgetting his written motions and lines. Taking the boy’s mask, Nixon is brought back to his childhood memories of jack o’ lanterns and the glowing moon. He seeks the comfort and solace of wearing the mask, being able to look at the world through eyes not his own. Enchanted by the mask, Nixon slowly feels himself slipping off the brink of somewhat-sanity and into the Darkside…

“TRICKSTER” by STEVE RASNIC TEM
Greg’s brother Alex maybe dead, beaten to death in the gay district of California while still in his clown costume. But Greg realizes that his brother lives on. Spotting a man in a lizard costume with Alex’s same grey eyes, Greg storms through the sea of masqueraders in the streets to track down the brother he knows so little of. The Alex everybody knows is Trickster Alex, the master of morbid and disgusting pranks. Ever since he was young, Alex had been fascinated by darkness and death, constantly creating deranged gimmicks for his own sick amusement. If strapping Greg in a handmade electric chair wasn’t bad enough, Alex even convinced his family that he had slaughtered the newborn babe of his mother’s cousin. Constantly seeing his brother’s grinning face in the crowd, Greg frantically searches through the dark alleyways, never realizing that his brother’s spirit has plans for him most dark on this Night of the Dead…

“MISS MACK” by MICHAEL MCDOWELL
Everybody likes Miss Mack. The obese, fun-loving teacher who guzzles endless bottles of Coke seems to work a special magic with both students and faculty at the grammar school in Babylon. She enjoys driving her car every weekend to DeFuniak Springs for a few days of trout fishing and relaxation. She soon befriends the other third-grade teacher at the school, Janice Faulk, and it isn’t long before the two women are heading out to the springs together every weekend for some bonding time. This does not sit entirely well with Principal Hill who is intent on wheedling Janice into marrying him. With his love going away every weekend to Gavin Pond and Janice’s affection growing for Miss Mack with every trip, Hill sees that he will need some intervention. Consulting with his mother (who the locals try to keep away from), Hill is given a bag of ingredients and a strict list of instructions by the old witch. With Janice delayed from this week’s excursion into the wild, Hill heads out to Miss Mack’s camp on Halloween night and performs his ritual. What poor Miss Mack doesn’t realize is that there is now no escape from her prison and that the night will never end…

[josecruz]

“THE HALLOWEEN HOUSE” by ALAN RYAN
Junior Dale Martin likes fellow student Colleen and is enjoying their walk through town despite the freezing autumn air. When Colleen asks to journey to the decaying and foreboding Grainger house atop the hill, it’s the perfect opportunity for Dale to exercise his manliness and bravery for his crush. Walking up the long, wooded drive and entering the bone-dry house, the two have fun investigating the dark corridors and staircases before the encroaching darkness signals their departure. Meeting his best friend Jimmy later that night at the town bonfire, the two revel in the success of their dates and Jimmy comes up with a brilliant plan. Purchasing a four foot orange candle from a hardware store, the boys bring it all the way up to the Grainger place and then head towards the house with the ladies. With the wick burning through the darkness, the couples suddenly become aware of the soft, mushy consistency of the house’s walls and a sickeningly sweet smell like that of a rotting vegetable…

“THREE FACES OF THE NIGHT” by CRAIG SHAW GARDNER
Halloween is Colin’s favorite night of the year, even though local bullies Tom and Jimmy may give him a hard time for not participating in pranks with them and the strange old man named “Creep” Crawford may give him the willies even when he stands against the hoodlums in Colin’s defense. Claiming the night as his own in his Dracula costume, Colin’s ghoulish delight is cut short when he runs into Tom in front of the Creep’s house. When screams are heard from inside, they are terrified to see Jimmy step out covered in blood. Hearing the Creep call his name, Colin ventures into the bathroom to see the old man in the tub, both wrists slashed. Moving forward with the little energy he has left, the Creep presses his wrists to Colin’s mouth, transferring a power to the boy and giving Colin a vision of a beautiful, starlit field. Years later living in the city, Colin goes to a party where he becomes enchanted by the charms of the seductive Lenore and the music and marijuana that alleviates his mind. It seems that the pagan group at the party is intent on using Colin’s unique power to transcend the realms of reality and enter the Forest of Colin’s mind. Too bad for them that Colin’s mastery of magic will bring about the destruction of those who try to manipulate him…

“PUMPKIN” by BILL PRONZINI
As Amanda Sutter drives back to the pumpkin patch her husband Harley and she live on, she reminisces on the annual Pumpkin Contest of ’76 when the couple won with a vegetable weighing an impressive 230 pounds. But prospects seem dimmer this year when Amanda heads into the fields to see Harley arguing with a Mexican laborer named Manuel. Manuel swears that there is a pumpkin growing on the fields that is evil incarnate, a grotesque being whose corrupted aura can be felt in the air around it. Seeing the thing for herself, Amanda is chilled by the slightly-off appearance of the pumpkin and is relieved when it is covered with plastic sheeting to stunt its growth and kill it. Harley thinks the whole matter is hogwash but Amanda still fears the vegetable being cut from its roots. As the fog moves in on All Hallow’s Eve, Amanda finds herself thinking of the spirits of evil summoned forth by the Lord of the Dead. It is on this night that Amanda and Harley will consume and behold a force so powerful that they will bend under its pulpy wake…

“LOVER IN THE WILDWOOD” by FRANK BELKNAP LONG
Nurse Helen finds her heart going out to mental ward patient Katherine Oakley, a skeletal woman who wishes to see her love on Halloween night. Wheeling the old woman out into the autumn night, the generous Helen asks Kathy of the ritual she has diligently kept every year, meeting the spirit of a mystical lover in the heart of the forest. As enraptured by the twisted trees and beams of ghostly moonlight as she is, Helen keeps a logical mind about Kathy’s “delusion” and patiently watches from a few yards away as the old woman awaits her beloved. Helen is stunned when the forest is suddenly illuminated and the figure of a beautiful man steps forward to take Kathy in his arms, temporarily restoring her youth and allowing her to experience the purest of love’s ecstasies. When Kathy is claimed by the reaper, Helen finds herself waiting with heart-felt desire for the next Halloween to arrive…

“APPLES” by RAMSEY CAMPBELL
Harry is an eleven year old boy who preoccupies himself by hanging out with other children from his tenement; Colin and his sister Jill and the sensitive Andrew who is constantly teased for being timid. They gaze across the street at Mr. Gray’s house, a mean old man who guards his treasured apple tree from any troublemaking child, despite the fruit tasting old and bitter. The four children all dare each other to go onto the old man’s property and snatch apples from his tree. Since the crafty miser has placed broken glass under his hedges, Jill uses her coat to step over it. As she’s half way up the tree though, Mr. Gray bursts out of his door with garden shears in his fist and begins to chase the poor girl out into the street. But suddenly he collapses into the hedges, gripping his chest. Harry runs back to get Jill’s coat and sees Mr. Gray’s unmoving body. In the ensuing weeks, Harry sees strange things at the house, including a patch of dusty window seemingly wiped away from the inside and a shadowy figure with a white face and black mouth stalking about the tree at night. Andrew invites his friends to a Halloween party, promising to prove his bravery. Once there, the children play bobbing for apples and apple-on-a-rope. Harry soon realizes that Andrew has stolen them from Mr. Gray’s house. Soon the doorbell is rung and Andrew’s father answers it believing it to be his wife. The children are ghoulishly delighted to see Andrew’s mother enter in a ghost sheet and skeletal mask and assists them in their games. Hearing rocks thrown against the window, the children look out to see Andrew’s father yelling that he’s been locked out. And the figure under the sheet is…

[dem bones]

great stuff, Jose. that certainly brought back some memories. i like Alan Ryan's Haunting Women and Vampires/ Penguin Book Of Vampire Stories collections but can't quite put my finger on why i didn't really enjoy Halloween Horrors as much as a less adventurous Martin Greenberg & Co collection from around the same time, 13 Horrors For Halloween

[Nightmare]

I vaguely remember reading this book at a library years ago. I forgot all about this book until now.

I have vague memories of Hollow Eyes and Eyes. I remember Hollow Eyes having a gruesome ending!

[erebus]

This is instantly on the must have list. Looks superb.

[jamesdoig]

Oct 23, 2008 16:35:13 GMT dem bones said:

Alan Ryan (ed.) - Halloween Horrors (Sphere, 1988)

Noticed this in Paperback Parade #8 from June 1988. Does anyone know if it's accurate? I don't think the Sphere edition is particularly rare.

[dem bones]

Feb 7, 2016 20:30:24 GMT jamesdoig said:

Noticed this in Paperback Parade #8 from June 1988. Does anyone know if it's accurate? I don't think the Sphere edition is particularly rare.

Shame whoever put out the alert didn't mention whether this "rare" edition is dated 1987 or 1988. Then again, the copy I got was from a stack of same in a London remainder outlet. If what he or she writes is accurate - that any Sphere edition of Halloween Horrors is a rarity - the publisher did not make a very good job of "destroying the entire print run."

[Dr Strange]

Feb 8, 2016 8:30:41 GMT dem bones said:

Feb 7, 2016 20:30:24 GMT jamesdoig said:

Noticed this in Paperback Parade #8 from June 1988. Does anyone know if it's accurate? I don't think the Sphere edition is particularly rare.

Shame whoever put out the alert didn't mention whether this "rare" edition is dated 1987 or 1988. Then again, the copy I got was from a stack of same in a London remainder outlet. If what he or she writes is accurate - that any Sphere edition of Halloween Horrors is a rarity - the publisher did not make a very good job of "destroying the entire print run."

Check the ISBN number - the one that was meant to be destroyed is ISBN 0-7221-7561-2, and the later "official release" is ISBN 0-7474-0301-5

www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?270796


martyhalpern.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/halloween-horrors.html

[dem bones]

Thanks, Dr. S. The Marty Halpern post is excellent.
Expect the official release will also become increasingly rare once extreme collector types check the isbn, realise they have exactly the same copy as common people, bin it in disgust as "worthless."

[jamesdoig]

Feb 8, 2016 11:04:08 GMT Dr Strange said:

Check the ISBN number - the one that was meant to be destroyed is ISBN 0-7221-7561-2, and the later "official release" is ISBN 0-7474-0301-5

Fascinating stuff - thanks! Sad to say I've got the official release.

[dem bones]

I love the idea of this freelance editor overstepping the mark ("Well, that's a shit ending. Let me improve it"), though would not be the least surprised if some of our authors tell me it's no big deal, happens all the time.