As I see it, there are two kinds of horror fiction… old school atmospheric horror like M. R. James and modern TV style horror like Stephen King. This is definitely the latter. The descriptive words used are good, but there are no layers of meaning and absolutely no ambiguity. Every ghost is defined with a history and motive. The characters are primarily teens and young adults, and they are all archetypes of “regular people”… the kind of people who are the target audience I suppose. There aren’t any specific personalities or unique characters. The horror tends to be overt and gory. “Turn of the Screw” this ain’t. It all plays like a Tales From The Crypt episode. Some of them even seem to have places where the story starts and stops again like commercial breaks. This is fine if that’s what you’re looking for. There are some clever ideas in here. But there isn’t a lot of creepiness or unease, just bloody corpses and ghosts wreaking revenge on the living for wrongs done to them. I have to admit… I tend to like old school horror a lot better. But this was fun for what it was.
Review from Midnight in the Graveyard →