SCARED STIFF: Tales of Sex and Death

by Ramsey Campbell ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 15, 1987

Fortunately, the title's childish innuendo in no way reflects the mature, visceral content here: six sexually explicit and scary horror stories from talented and experimental Campbell, whose novels include The Hungry Moon, Obsession, and Incarnate. An adulatory introduction by horror's Wunderkind, fellow-Britisher Clive Barker, ushers in the tales: four date back to obscure printings of 10 years ago; two were written for this book. Appropriately, the two new stories reflect Barker's influence--as does the collection as a whole in its X-rated blend of sex and the occult. In ""Merry May,"" Campbell writes a spooky variation on one of Barker's favorite themes, that of a rural village harboring strange practices: here a music instructor ends up as the main sacrifice in a fertility rite. And in ""Stages,"" a drugged-out student takes ever greater doses of a hallucinogen (drugs are another common Barker theme) that allows him to participate psychically in sex acts he witnesses as a Peeping Tom. Both stories feature Campbell's customarily strong atmospherics--""The sky was fat with clouds; a sharp-edged full moon cut swiftly through them""--and both rely on graphic sex (not violence) for their shock value. The earlier stories, while not as polished as the later, are equally startling and compelling in their dark blending of sex and death. All four involve grotesque fetishism, love gone terribly awry: in the chilling ""Loveman's Comeback,"" for example, a woman dreams of visiting a graveyard to have sex with a corpse, only to discover that she's one herself; while in ""Lilith's,"" a man falls under the erotic spell of an inflatable sex doll. And in all six tales, Campbell's sympathetic treatment of those victimized by unholy lust serves to heighten the terror of their inevitably tragic fates. Adult horror, bold and provocative.

Pub Date: April 15, 1987

ISBN: 0765306050

Page Count: -

Publisher: Scream Press (P.O. Box 481146, Los Angeles, CA 90048)

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1987

Categories: FICTION