“The
Blumhouse Book of Nightmares”
Presented
by Jason Blum
A
Collection of Short Stories
Review
written by Diana Iozzia
Where on Earth to begin? In shopping
in the book section of the ever-brilliant Dollar Tree, I found “The Blumhouse
Book of Nightmares”. I have been a fan of films created and produced by the
Blumhouse production company in the past. My favorites include: “Sinister”, “Paranormal
Activity”, and my favorite horror film to date, “Get Out”. I opened up this
book and found that the book is a collection of short stories written by Jason
Blum’s friends and colleagues, including a contest winner to have a place in
the book. Jason Blum had stipulated to each writer that the story they contributed
did not need to be of a certain plot, horror, character choice, or fear level.
The main stipulation was that each story should take place in a city. Whether
that be a fictional or a non-fictional city. By the way, this is not a spoiler
free review. But I’m not going to give toooooo much detail in case you do read the
book after you read my review.
To begin, I cannot give a flat
answer, “yes, this book was amazing” or “this book was terrible”. Short story
collections are often difficult to gauge, because they are often written by various
authors. I would say for this, I counted how many stories I loved, how many I
liked, and how many I wanted to burn. I am a fan of horror fiction, but not
every horror plot intrigues me. I am not afraid of much, aside from falling
from literally any height, drowning, dark laundromats, and food that might be
saucy or squirt out at you when you try to bite it. So, when I begin reading horror,
I look for scary stories that would be great at a campfire, or when you’re
trying to creep out your significant other before bed time. I did not expect to
hide under the covers or place white sheets over my mirrors.
“Hellhole” followed a man who is
flipping a rotten and destroyed money pit of a home in Brooklyn. I didn’t enjoy
the plot or the ending, but the writing style was intriguing.
“Valdivia” was one of my favorite
stories, and after reading this book about a month ago, this story is certainly
the most memorable. I was intrigued after I read that the author was Eli Roth,
a horror favorite and common colleague of Jason Blum. Our main character visits
a strange city in Chile, in which he investigates to find about the rumored
Nazi community that once existed there. **
“Golden Hour” follows two men
hunting down predatory monsters in Hollywood. I disliked this story greatly.
“A Clean White Room” follows a
strange landlord who kills tenants for the superintendent. This was absolutely the
worst, most boring, and stupidest story in the collection. I know my opinion is
subjective, but I hate it and that’s that.
“The Leap” follows a really strange
psychic who has the ability to possess others. This was a story I didn’t expect
to like, but I thoroughly enjoyed it in the end. **
“Novel Fifteen” follows a pompous
mystery writer. He’s sweaty and an alcoholic. He’s bored. He’s possibly going
to have a mental breakdown. I think this story is more, “you’re driving
yourself insane” scary than “ooh, there’s a boogeyman” scary.
“The Darkish Man” follows a creepy
stalker who kills people mysteriously in bars. Umm, nah. Skip this one.
“1987” was a strange story about homophobia
and gay bashing.
“Geist” creeped me out pretty badly
before bed. This follows an urban legend in Munich, in which a man who finds
out his lover is a ghost. **
“Gentholme” was fascinating and a
really creative way to tell a story in which a couple accidentally move into a
ghost town, with its previous occupants still around... ***
“Donations” was the short story
winner that was entered into this collection. I thought this was completely
passable. A city in which people, their body parts, and their possessions are
taken by some magical omnipotent, over-being for donations to the city. This
sounds like an episode of “The Twilight Zone”, but we’re missing the twist
ending, like “Oh, they’re all in a doll house. Oh, they’re experiments made by
Sid from ‘Toy Story’”.
“The Old Jail” follows a man’s descent
into insanity. It was really confusing, but I didn’t mind it too much. The narrative
is strange, because it’s from the perspective of the man, so the narrative
becomes more frenzied as the story progresses.
“The Words” is about a child psychologist
who is struggling to have her young five-year-old trauma patient recover from
his tragedy and his mutism.
“Dreamland” follows a sleep study
gone wrong. I can imagine this on screen, whether it be a film or a Black
Mirror episode. Pretty good, but also bizarre on many different levels.
“Meat Maker” was a strange, weird cop
chase.
“Eyes” was completely unmemorable.
Even skimming it for a second time just to write up a little bit about it for
the review, I remember absolutely nothing from this. It seems like our main narrator
is a man who is paranoid a homeless man is following him.
“Procedure” follows a police
investigator who is trying to solve the crime of a rape and attack of a woman. She
shows him a secret group of strange surgeons who have found an erogenous zone
inside the body, only accessible by an invasive, dark room procedure.
Overall, my favorite stories were “Geist”,
“Gentholme”, and “The Leap”. I think these stories were brilliant, while some
of the other stories were lackluster. I would suggest this if you have a wide
taste in horror, I think this just proved I’m more of a “ghost story” horror
fan.
