Midnight Premiere

The premise of Midnight Premiere is pretty simple...What if situations in horror films happened in real life? These 18 original tales are brought to you by some of the top horror writers working today including: Jack Ketchum, Ed Gorman, Tom Piccirilli, Thomas F. Monteleone, and John Shirley. However in a bit of a twist, other stories are provided by those who've come to know working in horror films either in front of, or behind the camera. These include scream queen Linnea Quigley, character actor William Smith, screenwriter/director Mick Garris, and Kyra Schon, best known to horror fans as Karen Cooper, the young zombie from Night of the Living Dead who killed her parents. Ketchum's "Elusive" is a take on recent films like "The Ring" as a man's quest to see a new horror film continues to be interrupted by strange coincidences. When a friend tells him there's a man who could be his double in the film who dies a horrible death, he's more determined than ever to see the film...might not be the best decision! "Everything Must Go" by Ray Garton, is one of the best stories in the book. A couple travel down a backwoods country road to an out of the way garage sale. While his wife looks over the merchandise, the husband cannot help but notice all of the abandoned cars on the property...and all the personal possessions being sold...and the smell of barbeque in the air. In Piccirilli's "Shadder" a disgraced film director named Parks travels back to his country home, planning on selling his half of the family estate, even if it means displacing his brother's family. But it seems the crows talk to Parks' nephews, just as they did to him when he was a boy, and the crows have other ideas. "Arlene Schabowski of the Dead" is the story by Kyra Schon along with writer McLaughlin. This is a clever story about a zombie film that was made many years ago by a bunch of friends. There was a little girl in that movie who played a zombie that killed and ate her parents. But after the film stopped rolling, that little girl wandered off the set, still a black & white zombie living in a world of colors. "Humps in the Field" by William Smith written with Del Howison is beautiful ode the almost extinct drive-in movie theater. You'll never look at a drive-in the same way after reading this story. Midnight Premiere is filled with intelligent, yet quirky tales of traditional horror themes. It is real life imitating art at its terrifying best. REVIEWED BY TIM JANSON