Nick Cato's Blog, page 53

Spidas in da Hood!

FEEDING GROUND by Sarah Pinborough (2009 Leisure Books / 310 pp. / mmp)
It's been 3 years since Pinborough's BREEDING GROUND, a creepy-crawly thrill ride loaded with some of the more vicious over-sized arachnids ever to grace a horror tale.
In this sequel that's as good as its predecessor, much of the action centers around a dread-locked gangsta named Blane who, with his childhood buddy Charlie Nash, are using the spider-apocalypse as a means to build their own empire in the London...

ROSEMARY'S HORROR RAIN!

College sophomore Samantha needs money for her new apartment. She finds an ad for a babysitting job posted near her old dorm. Her friend gives her a ride out to a large, isolated house, where they're greeted by Mr. Ulman (played by Tom Noonan, looking semi-Phantasm-ish) and eventually his wife (the legendary Mary Woronov). Despite being lied to (they really need someone to watch over their aging mother), Sam takes the job anyway ("$400 for 4 hours work!") and all hell breaks loose during her ...

One of the Best of 2009

BLUE CANOE by T.M. Wright (2009 PS Publishing / 191 pp. / hc)
Sub-titled "A Memoir of the Newly Non-Corporeal," Wright's latest offering of mind-bending, surreal horror follows the musings of a man named Happy Farmer as he attempts to recall his past from the confines of a nursing home (or is it a psychiatric ward . . . or even his grave?). In-between glimpses of his history, Happy shares his experiences of traveling across the lake (located right outside his window) in a blue canoe, and what ...

Chaos Rules!

At its core, director Lars von Trier's controversial ANTICHRIST is a horror film, but not the type of horror film a Friday night multiplex crowd would appreciate.
A toddler manages to get out of his crib and finds his way to an open window. As he falls to his death, his parents (Willem DaFoe and French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg, listed in the credits as "He" and "She") have sex in the laundry room. Flash to the child's funeral: She passes out during the procession and is taken to a...

SUPER FETUS by Adam Pepper (2009 Eraserhead Press / 87 pp...

SUPER FETUS by Adam Pepper (2009 Eraserhead Press / 87 pp. / tp)

White trash mother Sue Ellen reminisces about the three times she got knocked-up. Inbetween, she's abused by her live-in boyfriend, tormented by her bratty kids, and wonders what on earth all that rumbling is inside her womb.

The other viewpoint of this quick & sick novella comes from the Super Fetus, an aggravated pre-born who spends his days working out and building his young body into a mini-mountain of pure muscle. When his...

Been There, Haunted That . . .

AUDREY'S DOOR by Sarah Langan (2009 Harper / 412 pp. / mmp)
Langan (author of the excellent, Stoker-winning novel, THE MISSING), pens a haunted house story in the vein of such classics as THE SHINING and THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE. Unfortunately, this one is so similar to Jeffrey Konvitz' classic THE SENTINEL I had a hard time appreciating the fine writing and well-done suspense.
A trouble-infested woman named Audrey leaves her boyfriend and moves into The Breviary, an Upper West Side...

Hefty Hefty Hefty...

EXPERIMENTS AT 3 BILLION A.M. by Alexander Zelenyj (2009 Ebionvale Press / 658 pp. / hc)
2 questions immediately popped into my mind when I lifted this hefty volume out of its box: Who in the world is Alexander Zelenyj? -and- A 658-page hardcover short story collection? Not that lengthy shorts collections are non-existent (i.e. Tom Piccirilli's DEEP INTO THAT DARKNESS PEERING), but one from a relatively unknown author is a kind-of ballsy move on the part of the publisher.
So I started with...