Attack From the '80s Edited by Eugene Johnson

 

Modern technology has brought some new twists and turns to horror. Found footage, cell phone-based viruses, literal ghosts in the machines but maybe it's time for a throwback. It's time for some new tales of slumber party horrors, VCR monsters, and problems that can't be solved with a smart phone. We want tales of unstoppable monsters, sewer-dwelling creatures, looming threats of cold-war chaos. Give us fear under the neon lights of an arcade, people fighting for their lives against the backdrop of a hot city night and a cheesy sax solo. Take us back to a time when latchkey kids had to fend for themselves and the only thing left to stop an unspeakable horror was a plucky band of high school kids. Make it bloody. Make it gnarly. Make it 80s!

Featuring over 20 Bram Stoker Award-winning and best selling authors such as Joe R. Lansdale, Kasey Lansdale, Weston Ochse, Lisa Morton, Grady Hendrix, Tim Waggoner, Christina Sng, Stephanie M. Wytovich, Jess Landry, Vince Liaguno, F. Paul Wilson, John Skipp, Linda D. Addison, and many more.

In the 80s, horror reigned supreme, and this anthology takes us back to those glorious days of spiral perms, leg warmers, and needing to stop at a pay phone if you had to call for help because who ever heard of a phone that fits in your pocket? Some of these stories have tickled my funny bone, others made me squirm with repulsion while others did a great job of raising some goosebumps.

This book recreates the fear of razor blades in your Halloween goodies, curses, Satanists and all the other spooktacular fun from back in the day. Whether you long to return to the 80s or whether you were too young and missed out on that decade there is lots of creepy fun to be had.

Some of my many favorites were Snapshot in which a couple of burglars try to do the right thing for a change but no good deed goes unpunished. Your Picture Here, about an unusual date night at the movies. Permanent Damage about friends (or frenemies) preparing for a wedding. Slashbacks about a very unique video store. and Ghetto Blaster, about a cursed boom box and Stranger Danger, which concerns the aforementioned razor blades on Halloween.

4 out of 5 stars

My thanks to Cemetery Dance Publications for the review copy.

Table of Contents:
Introduction by Mick Garris.
Top Guns of the Frontier by Weston Ochse.
Snapshot by Joe R. Lansdale and Kasey Lansdale.
The Devil in the Details by Ben Monroe.
Return of the Reanimated Nightmare by Linda Addison.
Taking the Night Train by Thomas F. Monteleone.
Catastrophe Queens by Jess Landry.
Your Picture Here by John Skipp.
Permanent Damage by Lee Murray.
Slashbacks by Tim Waggoner.
Munchies by Lucy A. Snyder.
Ten Miles of Bad Road by Stephen Graham Jones.
Epoch, Rewound by Vince A. Liaguno.
Demonic Denizens by Cullen Bunn.
The White Room by Rena Mason.
Ghetto Blaster by Jeff Strand.
Haddonfield, New Jersey 1980 by Cindy O'Quinn.
When He Was Fab by F. Paul Wilson.
Welcome to Hell by Christina Sng.
Perspective: Journal of a 1980s Mad Man by Mort Castle.
Mother Knows Best by Stephanie M. Wytovich.
Stranger Danger by Grady Hendrix.
The Garden of Dr. Moreau by Lisa Morton.