Final Women

I'm going to start this review of Eden Royce's Spook Lights II with a quote from my review of the first Spook Lights collection, as it applies to this Volume at least as much as the first: "Eden Royce does southern gothic to perfection... In every one of her stories, you could feel the heat of the south; she brought the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes to life." Spook Lights II  might be even better than its predecessor, if that's possible. There's not a single weak story in the whole collection. In "Carolina Blue," a family has a few tricks up their sleeve when they're targeted by an unscrupulous buyer who wants them to sell him their rice farm. "Voodooesque" is a period piece where a serial killer gets his just desserts at the hands of two mysterious women. "Basque of the Red Death" is also a tale set in the past; a brothel madam has a plan to deal with violent clients. This story is one of the most strange and beautiful...

Jeremy Ray has done it again! Proving his first book, The Gathering , was no one hit wonder, Petrified Women is an outstanding and moving look at trauma and PTSD, while also being a nail-biting horror story that begs readers to ask the question, “How well do we really know the people closest to us?” Harley’s been dating her boyfriend Aiden for a year now, and she really thinks he could be the one. The only problem in their relationship is Aiden’s taste for practical jokes. Elaborate, frightening, and (although Harley won’t admit it) occasionally cruel practical jokes. Thinking she’ll beat him at his own game, Harley prepares an epic practical joke for his birthday. It doesn’t go as planned though. Is Aiden playing a joke on her in return or is her boyfriend not really as charming and harmless as she thought? I suffer from PTSD, so I appreciate Ray’s thoughtful look at the lasting effects of trauma and how it can affect different survivors in different ways. In Harley’s case, she tends...

Best Modern Werewolf Movies Dog Soldiers First up, my favorite werewolf movie of all time (and one of my favorite movies of all time, period), Neil Marshall's Dog Soldiers . A group of soldiers on what they think is a routine training mission in the Scottish woods run afoul of some truly frightening looking werewolves and must put all their training to use if they want to make it to morning. Featuring the uniquely talented Sean Pertwee and solid hero Kevin McKidd as two of our protagonists and Game of Thrones ' Liam Cunningham as a sinister Special Ops Captain, Dog Soldiers is an unmissable treat. The Howling Directed by Joe Dante, one of horror cinema's most underrated directors, The Howling  features a stellar cast, including Dee Wallace, Dick Miller, John Carradine, and Kevin McCarthy. This is a good, solid werewolf film, which hits all the right notes as we slowly uncover the secrets of the Colony and its relation to primary antagonist, Eddie, a serial killer/rapist pl...