[Review] Attack from the ‘80s
Attack from the ’80s
Eugene Johnson (editor)
Raw Dog Screaming Press
⅘ Stars
Horror anthologies are one of my favorite types of books and, although I haven’t read many of them in 2021, the ones I read have not disappointed me. Attack from the ‘80s contains twenty-two short stories, each one by a different author, that results in tales that vary in tone, pace, and style. The editor, Eugene Johnson, did a great job with the order in which the stories are presented, the strongest were put at the beginning and at the end, ensuring that the reader will be hooked from the first tale and that their last impression of the book will be positive. The stories are not only set in the eighties but also have cultural staples of the time as central elements such as kids receiving apples with razor blades in them during Halloween, video stores, hair perms, Polaroid cameras, Dungeons & Dragons, President Reagan, and many more. I was born in ‘98 and, therefore, my knowledge of the eighties is limited to pop culture and my parents’ accounts of their experiences. However, I felt confident saying that this anthology encapsulated well the essence of the ‘80s.
Although I’m giving this collection an overall four out of five stars, I didn’t enjoy most of the stories, only about half of them. The reason for the high rating is that those ten tales that I enjoyed were incredible. The ones I didn’t like weren’t badly written—they simply didn’t cater to my tastes. For example, there are a couple of poems in this anthology, a werewolf story and a zombie story, all themes/formats that I strongly dislike regardless of the plot or writing style. The stories that stood out to me and that I can’t recommend enough were: Top Guns of the Frontier by Weston Ochse, Snapshot by Joe R. Lansdale and Kelly Lansdale, Permanent Damage by Lee Murray, Slashbacks by Tim Waggoner, Demonic Denizens by Cullen Bunn, Perspective: Journal of a 1980s Mad Man by Mort Castle, Stranger Danger by Grady Hendrix, and The Garden of Dr. Moreau by Lisa Morton. In all honesty, even if I had hated all the other fourteen stories, this still would’ve been four stars because of these eight gems, and I’ll tell you a little more about them below.
Top Guns of the Frontier by Weston Ochse - This beautiful story opens the collection with two friends that dream of being Maverick (from the 1986’s movie Top Gun) when they grow up. Whilst “training” for their future position in the woods, they come across something that will alter their perception of reality and humanity.
Snapshot by Joe R. Lansdale and Kelly Lansdale - What happens when a couple of nomad burglars target a house that contains gruesome and deadly secrets? Only one way to find out.
Permanent Damage by Lee Murray - A fun and goofy story where wedding planning becomes a whole new level of hellish when a hair perm goes awfully wrong.
Slashbacks by Tim Waggoner - A man is drawn to a mysterious video store and discovers that they have every single horror movie imaginable, even ones he didn’t even know existed. This one is short and sweet, so I can’t give many details, but it will remind you of how much you miss browsing video stores.
Demonic Denizens by Cullen Bunn - One of the most entertaining stories I read this year, it mixes two of my favorite tropes: summer camp and games turned deadly. Sometimes D&D really can turn children to the occult, but not how you’d expect.
Perspective: Journal of a 1980s Mad Man by Mort Castle - Written as diary entries that span the entire eighties. Castle gives us the perfect mix between the atrocities committed by a fictitious serial killer and the real atrocities that took place during the decade, showing the reader that sometimes reality can be far scarier than any horror story.
Stranger Danger by Grady Hendrix - Our parent’s fear that strangers might give out apples with hidden razor blades to children on Halloween might not be as outlandish as we thought.
The Garden of Dr. Moreau by Lisa Morton - A nod to The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells, a researcher discovers transgenic crops might not be as great of an idea as she thought. A perfect ending for such an impressive collection.
