Book Review: Horror Anthology, "Final Masquerade."

Review: Final Masquerade (Anthology)

Collected by Stacey Turner

Published by Lycan Valley Press © 2016

   The book as a whole is a great horror read.  Some of the stories do contain some explicit adult content, which is not my thing. However, the writing throughout the collection was well done, and all of these stories delivered on the promise in the editor’s note: they were all unsettling. Some merely unnerving but a few were downright chilling. There are some great examples of masterful suspense and plot twist writing here. The ones I liked the best had powerful ending lines that made me shiver.

   There are twenty stories in all:

We Care by Daniel I. Russell was an interesting story, a disturbing narrative with violence and a slowly unfolding mystery.

F**ck Knot by Ken MacGregor was a bizarre story, the main culprit of the explicit adult content which I personally found distasteful, but nevertheless, very creepy.

Monica’s Dream Date by J.C. Delisle had a nice twist ending.

Mummer’s Parade by Joshua Chaplinsky is a wonderfully atmospheric tale. Strange, unnerving, violent, and evocative, this is one of the best stories in this anthology.

Lifetime Guarantee by Lori Safranek is a suspenseful tale with a surprise ending.

Delivery by D.S. Ullery is creepy, with well imagined details and a good ending.

The Artist by Samantha Leinhard is a bizarre story with plenty of action and some gore, with a creepy ending.

First Impressions by Thomas Kleaton was creepy, mainly due to theme, but still well written.

Funeral Candy by Josh Strnad is not so much a horror story as a bizarre little supernatural mystery. Lush in detail.

Hero by Natching T. Kassa is an interesting story with a very fresh approach to a very tired subject. Good action and characterization and a very chilling last line.

Bitter Meat by Roy C. Booth and Axel Kohagen is not really scary, but it’s another fresh approach to a tired subject.

The God of Flesh by Sheldon Woodbury is a disturbing tale with perverse horror and a bit of gore.

Hotline Bling by Craig Steven starts out mildly uncomfortable but quickly spirals into horror and ends on a chilling note. One of the best stories in this anthology.

End of Nights by Gregory L. Norris is suspenseful, the ending let me down a little, but polished off with a good final line.

Made Me Do It by Jay Eales is a cleverly constructed piece, using vibrant detail as it builds up to its violent climax.

Another Night in Paradise by Dale W. Glaser contains some mature material. Great dialogue and characterization. Not very creepy but a good read.

The Other House by R.K. Kombrinck is a creepy tale with a good ending and lots of suspense along the way.

70 Steps of Paranoia by Jonathan Cromack has great setting and detail with a good ending.

Make Believe by Brian C. Bauer is a great story with very little suspense but lots of wonderful detail and a delicious ending. One of the best stories in this anthology and one of the best endings ever.

Urban Renewal by Adrian Chamberlin is a great story, with an intriguing setting, lots of wonderful details and description. Again, not a lot of traditional suspense, but the perfect amount of tension. Another fantastic ending. One of the best stories in this anthology.

Buy the book on amazon

'Taste the Blood of Dracula' review

Taste the Blood of Dracula

Hammer, UK, 1970, Rated R

Starring Christopher Lee, Geoffrey Keen, Gwen Watford

Directed by Peter Sasdy

   This movie is awful and good. The biggest complaint is, of course, the lack of Dracula. He has very little screen time, and I adore Christopher Lee. On the other hand, his lines were terrible, so maybe it all balanced out: hoping for more Dracula and then hoping for less when it came.
   The worst part of the film is the stupid brothel scene near the beginning. There was absolutely no reason to show bare breasts (it is very brief) and the snake dance---egad! Having a python on your shoulders does not make you a good dancer.
   Also, I found the character motivation lacking at times. Why did Dracula care that those guys killed his servant when it obviously brought him back to life? Why did Alice's father hate Paul (why was there inevitably a character named Paul in all of the Hammer movies?).
   All of that said, this movie looks delicious. Even the blood, it was like oozing pie filling or strawberry jam. Made me want to taste the blood of Dracula.
   The sets were gorgeous and the lighting was good. I loved the garden at Alice's house, where she climbed down the tree to meet Paul beside the fountain in the moonlight. The abandoned church was lovely (the Satanic altar cloth, not so much) and the one house had an abundance of Indian swords and daggers on the wall. The costumes looked good, too...always a bit questionable about whether or not they stayed strictly true to the time period.
   I can never judge acting in these old movies because it's clearly a different standard. I thought Alice was good, mainly because she was so sweet and then turned into a creepy psycho under Dracula's power. She was really cute, too. I liked her story line with Paul and would have liked to see more of them and less of...whatever else was going on.
   What was going on? It was actually pretty good (though lacking much logic), the deaths were good (meaning delightfully awful), but I couldn't understand why Lucy turned straight into a vampire and Alice didn't. I also didn't get Alice's death. Or Dracula's, for that matter. Although I liked the part where he threw organ pipes at them while they yelled around and didn't run.
   All in all, I really enjoyed this film for some reason, even though Christopher Lee's performance was a bit lacking. It was a romp, delightfully weird, creepy, awful, fairly stupid, but fun and good looking!

   My favorite Hammer Dracula will continue to be 'Dracula Has Risen From The Grave,' which I think is actually pretty good, all reduced-old-movie-standards aside.

Metropolis!

   A while ago I bought a cheap three feature DVD of silent horror films. Nosferatu, The Phantom of the Opera, and Metropolis. I was enthralled by the art deco futuristic imagery and crazy things that happened. The film was made in 1927 and Joh Fredersen makes a video call! And of course there is the robot.

   I got the book, read it and loved it. There were a lot of scenes and plotlines in the book that were missing in the movie. Then I found out there was a “complete” Metropolis. So I bought that. Most of the missing stuff is included in this amazing restored version that includes lost footage that was recovered from a vault in Argentina. Joh Fredersen’s mother is still missing, but that’s okay, I guess. Can’t have everything.

   This version really helps clear things up, especially Maria’s dance scene. The first time I watched it, I was confused. Then it made sense when I read the book. The book is full of really beautiful language and the movie is full of beautiful imagery. And sound.

   The best part about the “Complete” version is the original score by Gottfried Hubbertz. The other version had some nice classical music tacked on that didn’t always fit the mood. Now the flood scene is much more dramatic and the music for Yoshiwara and the dance is far more atmospheric (gives us a little jazz age vibe). The score was instrumental in piecing the “Complete” version together since there are no screenplays of the original Metropolis as it opened in Berlin before being chopped up by Paramount. The score was used as a guide to put the footage back in the order it was first arranged in, with the help of some notes written on the score by Herr Hubbertz.

   The end result is amazing. There are two short spots where footage was lost for good and titles explain what’s going on, but they are very brief.

   Anyway, I’m in love with this movie. It is awesome.

   

   Check out the Gottfried Hubbertz score:

   Now for some Metropolis inspired art!

   This is a watercolor and pen mixed media type piece. I was going for a kind of 20s style poster look with maybe a little propaganda poster vibe. And I added a Zeppelin because I love Zeppelins. Something went terribly wrong with my biplane...both wings ended up on top somehow.

And here's a sketch I did prior to the painting above as a practice. It's face is more true to the movie, the painting is after the original poster where it had that weird forehead piece.

 The maschinemensch is obviously an ancestor to C-3PO. My brother and I did a drawing contest where we pulled subjects out of a hat. The subject we got this time (we both put subjects in the hat, this one was mine) was a female version of C-3PO (I think the wording was more like: C-3PO post sex change operation). Here are our drawings:

Bh'Tane's pen (?) drawing

My color pencil drawing

   We never decided on a winner.

   Until next time...adieu!

Blog Tour Shake-up

SOMETHING MISSING

 BOOK ONE OF THE TRUE LOVE SERIES     by Hazel Robinson

When Susan is left orphaned, she begins a harrowing journey through the care system. Left with both mental and physical scars, Susan approaches adulthood with a self-destructive impulse. However, there is hope in the figure of her childhood friend, Max; the first boy she ever kissed.

Now a grown woman, Susan returns to her childhood home of Winchelsea, where she hopes she will find the answer to the gap in her heart that she’s carried with her since she left. With Max by her side, she attempts to find the path her life should have taken, to build a home, to heal old wounds, and to finally create a family that will stop the terrible feeling of something missing.

But Max has a secret, one that risks destroying all hope of a happy ever after, unless they can find a way to heal one another.

Watch the trailer for ‘Something Missing’ below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1M0bOrUJ9s

Buy links

Kobo- http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/something-missing-7
Nook - http://m.barnesandnoble.com/w/something-missing-hazel-robinson/1121103954..
ITunes - https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id960750198

Amazon.co.uk - http://www.amazon.co.uk//dp/B00K08ROEC/

Amazon.com - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K08ROEC/

Susan breathed in deeply; even now the emotions were raw. “A long time ago he was my best friend; we were inseparable. From the age of like, two, we never went anywhere without each other. When my grandmother died he protected me from the pain. But after the funeral they came to take me away. Max wanted me to run away with him but I said no. We were just children. There was no way that we could have made it on our own.”

Hazel lives in the small town of Rishton in Lancashire. England, with her husband, three children, two cats, dog, rabbit and lizard. She fills her days dashing between school runs, pets and housework and at night she comes to life either writing or watching her favorite program ‘Supernatural’ (yes she is Supernatural obsessed)

Her road to writing started with a love for paranormal romance novels, and after finding a passion for tragic romance she set out on the mission to share her own story. After long nights writing and a lot of ‘Supernatural’ episodes she is finally ready to share ‘Something Missing’. Hazel loves nothing better than sitting with a cup of tea, a chocolate biscuit and a good book.

Keep an eye out on her social media sites for more work coming 2015 including her Anthology

Hazel Robinson at h.f.robinsonbooks@gmail.com

FACEBOOK PAGE https://www.facebook.com/HazelfRobinson

WEBPAGE www.hazelrobinsonbooks.weebly.com

And my review from Goodreads!
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1077140702
3 0f 5 stars
It was pretty good...for a romance. I really shouldn't say anything about this book because it's definitely not my genre. I will say that I really liked the characters. Sometimes the plot seemed a LITTLE predictable, but it also had some good twists that I did NOT expect. So even though it didn't convert me into a romance fan, I think it was a pretty good sample of the genre for a non-romance reader. I'd recommend it to fans of the genre ( If I may? ), it is really sweet.