Summer Girl Make Me Feel Fine: Glenn Rolfe’s Until Summer Comes Around

The Summer of 1986 looks to be lonesome for Rocky Zukas. His cousin and best bud Axel is heading overseas with his family, leaving Rocky to knock around Old Orchard Beach, Maine all by his lonesome. Well, all by his lonesome with the hordes of summer people who come around. But then, he encounters a […]

She’s Lost Control Again: Rick Hautala’s Winter Wake

When John Carlson was faced with the uncomfortable truth that his father was unable to lead the life he had been comfortably living before his stroke, he was poised with a difficult decision. His wife Julia took the initiative and declared they would not put the old guy into a retirement home. Instead, the family […]

What You Always Wanted: Cloak & Dagger

Davey Osborne (Henry Thomas) is a typical 11-year-old kid with a love for video and roleplaying games and a perhaps unhealthy fantasy life. His imaginary friend and hero is superspy extraordinaire, Jack Flack (Dabney Coleman). As the prologue shows: nothing stops Jack. Jack Flack always gets away, a factoid that causes Davey’s best friend and […]

“Total Carnage. What’s Not To Like?” Mutant Hunt (1987)

When mad corporate bastard Z (Bill Peterson) infects a handful of super strong, state of the art cyborgs with the illegal pleasure drug Euphemoral, he turns those cybogs into psychosexual serial killers. Three of the androids are unleashed into the wilds of futuristic New York, and this could pose a problem … after all, they […]

Gory, Good Fun: Harry Adam Knight’s Carnosaur

Something strange is happening in the village of Warchester. One night, a deadly creature ventures into one of the farms there, gobbles its weight in chickens, and then chokes down the farmer and his wife, before heading into the woods for more unsuspecting victims. It’s bloodthirsty and powerful. However, it is not unstoppable. Local landed […]

Even Death Wears a Smile: I Like Bats

Izabela (Katarzyna Walter) lives in a small, rural Polish town. She works for her aunt Izy (Malgorzata Lorentowicz) in an antique shop, making pottery to sell there. Her aunt is not terribly understanding of her life choices, wondering why Izabela chooses to live alone instead of looking for men and settling down. Izabela does not […]

What Werewolves Can Do: Charles L. Grant’s The Pet

Of course, there is no way to categorize a typical Charles Grant novel aside from broad speculation that it would be an exercise in suggestive, quiet horror. Mayhem might be a part of the antagonist’s modus operandi, but it will most often be left to the reader to envision the carnage on their own, with […]

Justice … or Revenge? Righting Wrongs

When a trip to visit a New Zealand justice exposes Hong Kong prosecutor Hsia Ling-Cheng (Biao Yuen) to the violent assassination of a local judge, he loses his shit, chases the bad guys down, and ends their reign of terror with a fireball explosion. Has he righted the wrong he set out to right? Well, […]

Not You, Man, Not You: Red Surf

Mark Remar (George Clooney) and Atilla (Doug Savant) are best buds, surfing pals, and drug suppliers for a local cartel guy named Calavera (Rick Najera). They’ve been getting high together and doing business with one another for years along with their found family, the goofball True Blue (Philip McKeon) and the wise but world weary […]

Back to the Wall: Siege

In 1981, the first strike among the Halifax police department basically left the city without reliable law enforcement services. While the city did not immediately launch itself into anarchy, there were little displays of antiauthoritarian behavior. One of these involved five guys heading to a local gay club to terrorize the bartender (Dug Rotstein) and […]

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