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    Black Static #46 Horror Magazine (May - Jun 2015)
    Black Static #46 Horror Magazine (May - Jun 2015)
    Black Static #46 Horror Magazine (May - Jun 2015)
    Ebook223 pages2 hours

    Black Static #46 Horror Magazine (May - Jun 2015)

    By TTA Press

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    About this ebook

    Black Static 46 (May-Jun 2015 issue) has Peter Tennant‘s extensive interview with Ralph Robert Moore and this is accompanied by a multitude of book reviews including re-releases of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos novellas in special editions and a graphic novel adaptation of one.

    Its new horror fiction by Steven J. Dines, Ralph Robert Moore, Damien Angelica Walters, Sarah Read, Neil Williamson, and Gary McMahon, comes with illustrations by Vincent Sammy, Richard Wagner and Ben Baldwin. Ben also provides the cover art. Lynda E. Rucker and Stephen Volk supply their usual comment columns and Tony Lee reviews many new DVD/BD releases.

    Fiction this issue
    So Many Heartbeats, So Many Words by Steven J. Dines
    The Secret Language of Stamps by Neil Williamson
    Falling Under, Through the Dark by Damien Angelica Walters
    My Boy Builds Coffins by Gary McMahon
    Magnifying Glass by Sarah Read
    Men Wearing Makeup by Ralph Robert Moore

    The issue's artists are
    Ben Baldwin
    Vincent Sammy
    Richard Wagner

    Non Fiction this issue;
    Notes From the Borderland - Lynda E. Rucker - columnist
    Coffinmaker's Blues - Stephen Volk - columnist
    Blood Spectrum - Tony Lee - DVDs/Blu-Ray reviews
    Case Notes - book reviews by Peter Tennant.
    Interviewee - Ralph Robert Moore

    Peter Tennant's Case Notes book and novella reviews this issue include
    EVERYTHING SWARMING AROUND US: RALPH ROBERT MOORE
    A review of Ghosters, the latest book from Ralph Robert Moore, plus a substantial interview with the author.
    H.P. LOVECRAFT: THE MAN AND HIS MONSTERS
    A review of Paul Roland's biography The Curious Case of H.P. Lovecraft, and of six HPL novellas recently released in special editions by PS Publishing, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, The Dreams in the Witch House, The Dunwich Horror, The Shadow Out of Time, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and At the Mountains of Madness, all of which come with introductions by S.T. Joshi and illustrations from Pete Von Sholly, plus other bonus material.
    DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES
    Reviews of I.N.J. Culbard's graphic novel adaptation of The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, The Starry Wisdom Library edited by Nate Pedersen, Whispers From the Abyss edited by Kat Rocha, Amanda Downum's novel Dreams of Shreds & Tatters, and Donald Tyson's The Lovecraft Coven.
    CRAWLING DOWN THE YEARS
    Reviews of That Is Not Dead edited by Darrell Schweitzer, and Whispers in the Dark edited by Scott Harrison.

    Tony Lee's DVD reviews this issue:
    Starry Eyes, The ABCs of Death 2, The Remaining, Hemlock Grove Season 2, Late Phases, Rigor Mortis, Discopath, Killer Mermaids, American Ghost Story, What We Do in the Shadows, Beneath, Hooked Up, The Asylum, World War Dead: Rise of the Fallen, Darkest Day, The Duke of Burgundy, Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTTA Press
    Release dateMay 20, 2015
    ISBN9781310618291
    Black Static #46 Horror Magazine (May - Jun 2015)
    Author

    TTA Press

    TTA Press is the publisher of the magazines Interzone (science fiction/fantasy) and Black Static (horror/dark fantasy), the Crimewave anthology series, TTA Novellas, plus the occasional story collection and novel.

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      Black Static #46 Horror Magazine (May - Jun 2015) - TTA Press

      BLACK STATIC ISSUE 46

      MAY–JUN 2015

      © 2015 Black Static and its contributors

      PUBLISHER

      TTA Press

      5 Martins Lane

      Witcham

      Ely

      Cambs CB6 2LB

      UK

      ttapress.com

      EDITOR

      Andy Cox

      andy@ttapress.com

      BOOKS

      Peter Tennant

      whitenoise@ttapress.com

      FILMS

      Tony Lee

      tony@ttapress.com

      EVENTS

      Roy Gray

      e: roy@ttapress.com

      SUBMISSIONS

      Unsolicited submissions of short stories are always very welcome, but please follow the contributors’ guidelines

      tta_logo

      SMASHWORDS REQUESTS THAT WE ADD THE FOLLOWING:

      LICENSE NOTE: THIS EMAGAZINE IS LICENSED FOR YOUR PERSONAL USE/ENJOYMENT ONLY. IT MAY NOT BE RE-SOLD OR GIVEN AWAY TO OTHER PEOPLE. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE THIS MAGAZINE WITH OTHERS PLEASE PURCHASE AN ADDITIONAL COPY FOR EACH RECIPIENT. IF YOU POSSESS THIS MAGAZINE AND DID NOT PURCHASE IT, OR IT WAS NOT PURCHASED FOR YOUR USE ONLY, THEN PLEASE GO TO SMASHWORDS.COM AND OBTAIN YOUR OWN COPY. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE HARD WORK OF THE CONTRIBUTORS AND EDITORS.

      BLACK STATIC 46 MAY–JUN 2015 

      TTA PRESS

      COPYRIGHT TTA PRESS AND CONTRIBUTORS 2015

      PUBLISHED BY TTA PRESS AT SMASHWORDS. ISBN: 9781310618291

      CONTENTS

      COVER ART

      undead-bw.tif

      UNDEAD by BEN BALDWIN

      COMMENT

      stephen-volk.tif

      COFFINMAKER’S BLUES

      STEPHEN VOLK

      lyndarucker3supercropped.tif

      NOTES FROM THE BORDERLAND

      LYNDA E. RUCKER

      FICTION

      heartbeats-bw-2.tif

      SO MANY HEARTBEATS, SO MANY WORDS

      STEVEN J. DINES

      illustrated by Vincent Sammy

      language of stamps.tif

      THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF STAMPS

      NEIL WILLIAMSON

      illustrated by Richard Wagner

      falling-under.tif

      FALLING UNDER, THROUGH THE DARK

      DAMIEN ANGELICA WALTERS

      my biy builds.tif

      MY BOY BUILDS COFFINS

      GARY McMAHON

      illustrated by Richard Wagner

      magnifying-glass.tif

      MAGNIFYING GLASS

      SARAH READ

      Men Wearing Makeup.tif

      MEN WEARING MAKEUP

      RALPH ROBERT MOORE

      illustrated by Ben Baldwin

      REVIEWS

      RalphRobertMoore-contents.tif

      CASE NOTES

      PETER TENNANT

      Book Reviews & Ralph Robert Moore Interview

      Late-Phases-contents.tif

      BLOOD SPECTRUM

      TONY LEE

      DVD/Blu-Ray Reviews

      COFFINMKER’S BLUES

      STEPHEN VOLK

      stephen-volk.tif

      HORROR (NOT HORROR)

      In the context of a discussion of Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook and Mike Flanagan’s Oculus, film critic Anton Bitel recently noted: I think at the moment there is a healthy rejection of ossified conventions (and cheap studio jump scares) within the genre. From the outside, horror has always been viewed with suspicion and a good deal of contempt – but now (always?) the genre’s boundaries are being interrogated from within as well, and the result is much adventurism, originality and idiosyncrasy.

      The Babadook’s first two acts are a riveting and superbly constructed examination of loss and mental instability, while Oculus is Flanagan’s clever and elegantly realised follow-up to his uncanny masterpiece Absentia, and for most of its running time matches it for unease and palpable terror. But both films lapse into conventional horror movie mayhem in the final furlong. Which I found deeply disturbing…and not in a good way. Why is it even the most lauded recent horror films ultimately lack the courage of their convictions? As if in some misguided attempt to deliver to a genre audience, they seem to end up falling back on predictable tropes – same old possessed make-up, same old pop-up effects – making me all too aware it’s a horror movie and lose interest in a previously absorbing, well-told story.

      It made me think of a conversation with Adam Nevill in which we agreed that there was often more true horror in non-horror films such as 10 Rillington Place or Wake in Fright. And of the fact that in the latest batch of BAFTA awards-season screeners there were films that evoked horror and terror that weren’t genre films at all. I started to think about the ways they tackled horrifying and terrifying subjects without recourse to the devices we are prone to rely on – and perhaps, if we don’t constantly question them, make our product just a little bit safe.

      A brilliant example, set in the world of electronic news gathering, is Nightcrawler – or should I call it skincrawler? Jake Gyllenhaal’s ambulance-chasing narcissist being so close a relative of Scorsese’s deranged Taxi Driver he’s impossible to root for, even as we are swept along by his amoral drive, perfectly embodying the psychopathic nature of today’s hunger for success and the heartless media that surrounds us.

      Deeply disturbing in a different way is Whiplash, which depicts the bullying relationship between a sadistic music teacher and pupil involving intense, almost unbearable to watch, mental and physical abuse. The triumphant ending leaves us in a hideous dichotomy; was it necessary for the boy to bleed for his art, as the ballerina did in Black Swan, or was it all about power?

      These are subjects that horror as a genre dispenses with more lavish and outré monsters, but rarely, I’d argue, as powerfully.

      Emotionally shattering, Still Alice, in which Julianne Moore succumbs to early-onset Alzheimer’s, represents the ultimate terror of loss of identity, screaming out of a pallid reality Poe’s maxim: I became insane, but with periods of horrible sanity. Alice becomes like a pitiful Karloff monster, outside society and normality, feared and lost.

      Described by Sight & Sound has having more in common with a horror film than the traditional Hollywood war story, Kajaki starts with a mumblesquaddy set-up before plunging us into a suspense piece built around men trapped in a minefield, literally erupting in sudden, extreme mutilation. But what separates this film from mere grit and gore is that its world becomes an existentialist, abstract, even absurd, Hell. Their invisible enemy, when combined with its Biblical-looking landscape, locates it in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, as if some spirit of evil is striking them down like the arrow bolts of some pissed-off deity.

      If Kajaki has the conceptual simplicity of Hitchcock’s Lifeboat, then Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper is Rear Window. It’s all about seeing, and, like a voyeur, being separate from the action. Untainted by the deed – but is that possible? As Kyle racks up his reported 160 kills you feel each squeeze of the trigger makes him less of a human being, each bullet erodes his soul just as surely as it makes him a hero. He is dead, symbolically – self-made a zombie in order simply survive what is required of him. To murder without feelings, for his country. That irony put it, for me, under the auspices of horror.

      But my film of the year was undoubtedly The Riot Club, Laura Wade’s merciless skewering of the entitled establishment based on her play Posh. Looking like Deliverance written by Julian Fellowes, it’s a no-hold-barred attack on those who know the cost of everything, and the value of nothing, taking as its format the antics of a modern-day Hellfire Club, the sense of dread inevitability building to a scene of gut-twisting violence. Then, even more chillingly, the wallets come out to buy someone’s silence.

      Finally there’s Maps to the Stars – Old Cronenberg meets New Cronenberg in a delirious return to form. The master entwines bodily scarring, psychic wounds, and psychological ghosts courtesy of a deft script by Bruce Wagner, nailing the emptiness, alien-ness and moral danger of Hollywood.

      But perhaps Hollywood has given that emptiness to most horror films of late? Whatever caused it, I’d put this down not to a lack of subject matter, but a failure of perception and guts. The truth is, horror is everywhere. In the supermarket when you see a parent whack a child, or a homeless guy talking to his invisible persecutors, when a friend loses a fight with cancer, when my next phone call to my mother might be the one where she doesn’t recognise me any more.

      This is the new mythology of horror, in our own lives and around us, not in the gothic-lite candlelight or jump scares of Dollar Dreadfuls, but on the shifting tectonic plates of horror coming at us on the TV news. As I write this, three teenage girls disappear from England to join ISIS in Syria, brainwashed and internet-groomed by a rockstar, blockbuster barbarism many times more threatening than a regular cult because it sells the idea that becoming a jihadi devil-woman is a legitimate Hollywoodized adventure sanctioned by God. What makes these academically bright Brits with families and a future go on such a path? Nosheen Iqbal suggests they’re self-aware enough to think that they’re independent, acting entirely of their own free will and rebelling against their parents in the most perverse way they can. But I can’t help but be reminded of the quote from a book about a similarly disenfranchised creature with murderous intent: The cold stars shone in mockery… All, save I, were at rest or in enjoyment; I, like the arch-fiend, bore a hell within me, and finding myself unsympathised with, wished to tear up the trees, spread havoc and destruction around me, and then to have sat down and enjoyed the ruin. (But then, as Kim Newman pointed out, Frankenstein was written by a girl of seventeen who ran off to Europe with an older married man.)

      Yet it’s hard to say the genre’s dropped the ball when, according to Scott Mendelson on Forbes.com, The Purge: Anarchy made $110m profit on a $9m budget, and Dracula Untold made £212m from $70m. "Meaning that Universal can either make Dracula In Need of Further Clarification and/or incorporate Luke Evans’s bloodsucker into their Legendary monster-mash universe which officially starts with The Mummy in 2016."

      It can’t be argued that these films, though entertaining, are intended to disturb, or even be memorable. Their purpose is not really to get under our skin or to chill us to the marrow of our bones and stay there. For that, it increasingly seems, your best bet is to not make a horror film at all. As Anton Bitel also said, maybe Not Really Horror is the new horror.

      NOTES FROM THE BORDERLAND

      LYNDA E. RUCKER

      lyndarucker3supercropped.tif

      REVIEWS, WHAT ARE THEY GOOD FOR?

      I’m not sure whether the word reviews or awards in a room of horror writers is more likely to send half of them running for the exit and the other half baying for blood, but the topic of reviews and criticism in the horror genre is almost certain to ignite passions among writers and readers alike. The problem is that it’s a crazy hydra head of a beast that comprises many elements including writer egos, fans, online culture, loyalty, friendship, commerce and more.

      I think it’s necessary to distinguish what is meant by these terms, because I see people playing fast and loose with them. Reviews and criticism are not the same thing. They have different forms and different aims.

      Reviews are essentially marketing tools designed to give readers a sense of whether or not they might enjoy a particular book. Spoilers in reviews are no-nos; in fact, for me, the best reviews convey a sense of the book’s (or story’s) essence while giving away as little as possible.

      Also, by reviews, I’m not talking about what people write at sites like Goodreads. Sometimes those comments are remarkably insightful. Other times they are left by someone who can’t distinguish between reviewing the quality of storytelling in a book and the shipping time from the vendor. And still other times they seem to have been written by Joe Bob Briggs’s more sex-and-violence obsessed cousin. THESE STORIES WERE BORING IT SAYS HORROR ON THE COVER BUT THESE AREN’T HORROR. 0 BREASTS 0 AX MURDERS 0 STARS.

      So, for the sake of our sanity, let’s say at minimum that reviews are things that turn up on blogs or websites – we’re still looking at some places that have some pretty marginal standards at this point, but we have to start somewhere – and of course there are still print magazines, including the one that you are holding now, and newspapers that run what we more traditionally think of as reviews.

      Criticism, on the other hand, seeks less to assess than to illuminate. While both critics and reviews should be well-versed in the field, critics must have an especially broad understanding because one large part of what a critic does is examine fiction in context with other fiction.

      Ideally, criticism is not the last word on a work but instead part of a conversation. Good criticism is a bit like picking up an object and looking at it with an intensity that few have before, or turning it in unexpected directions to see what happens when the light falls on it in a particular way. Critics get a bad rap, but good criticism can be enlightening even when we disagree with it, because a good critic helps us engage more fully with the text.

      Unlike reviews, criticism may be spoiler-laden. A piece of criticism assumes that its reader has either read or is at least familiar to some degree with the work in question.

      For me, the very best reviews do a little of both: contextualise the story and perhaps the author’s work for the reader and provide a little insight as well as letting the reader know whether the reviewer enjoyed the book or not and why. I prefer reviewers who are not coy with their judgements; I don’t like putting down a review with no real sense of what the reviewer thought of the book.

      Now. What the reviewer thought of the book. Therein lies a problem we have in the horror genre.

      There’s a thing I consistently see people say when someone is bemoaning a bad review: It’s just one person’s opinion. I don’t think that sentiment is very useful. At least, a review shouldn’t be just one person’s opinion. If the review is nothing more than one person’s opinion, it is not of any more use to its readers than asking some random guy on the bus what they thought of a book.

      As both a writer and a reader, I want a reviewer to be more than just a casual reader. I don’t think a reviewer needs to have the deep knowledge that a critic does, but I do think a reviewer needs to have a certain set of knowledge and skills that includes a general sense of the genre’s history and where it is today (unless they are focusing only on a very specific sub-genre) as well as – even more important – the ability to analyse a piece of fiction to understand why it does and doesn’t work and write coherently about those points. And lest my words be misunderstood, let me again emphasise that word general up there – I’ve never read exclusively or even predominantly in the horror genre, and only get around to a handful of novels and some stories annually. I’m not asking that reviewers be walking encyclopedias of the genre, only that they know things like, say, who Shirley Jackson was and that horror existed prior to 1980.

      If I sound like I’m being hard on reviewers and critics – although I don’t think I am – I’m about to be even harder on writers and readers.

      This is a small field, and a lot of people count one another as friends or at least as friendly and/or virtual acquaintances (and as enemies!). And it’s a tough business, both emotionally and in terms of breaking in, establishing and maintaining a career, and making any money at it, and here’s where we run into problems. What’s a reviewer to do when a good friend writes a bad book? Or when someone who is friends of friends, or someone with a fan base, or someone whose feelings they simply don’t want to hurt does? Or maybe the reviewer is normally a fan of the author themselves, but feels that the author has written something that falls short – as most writers do from time to time.

      Reviewers, critics, readers and writers all have a responsibility to one another here. Reviewers and critics have a responsibility to be honest without being cruel (or to simply decline to write the piece if they feel they cannot), and readers and writers have a responsibility to understand that people can dislike their work or work by others that they love and that doesn’t make them a bad person or an appropriate target of abuse. Readers and writers also need to understand that a bad review does not equal anything less than a glowing review; I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen people complain about a bad review only to read the piece in question to find it was mixed-to-mostly-positive.

      I know it isn’t easy. I’ve been on the receiving end of a bad review or two, and furthermore, I have had the experience of people I consider friends or friendly acquaintances tell me straight-up to my face or over PM that they really disliked something I had written. I have had

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