The Dark Man

by P.A. Douglas

The human mind holds within its infinite reaches many of the greatest
mysteries in the universe. Some are vast and wondrous, while others
are chilling and nightmarish. Some mysteries are better left hidden in
the dark corners of our minds, never breaking free of our
subconscious.

Six high school students set out to explore these depths by sharing a
mind altering substance on a night meant to be filled with both wild
hallucinations and crazy antics. But the fun and games come to a
shuddering halt when a strange man appears. This isn’t just any
stranger. He is the Dark Man. Haunter of dreams and purveyor of
nightmares. Dressed in a black suit and top hat, his pale skin and
twisted grin promise a very deranged night of entertainment.

Genres: Horror, Bizarro Fiction

234 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 18, 2012

About the author

P. A. Douglas is the author of several survival horror novels, novellas, and short stories including Watchers, Rancid, and Horror Stories and Terrifying Tales. His work has been praised by several well-known authors and has appeared in Fangoria Magazine. He is also a nationally touring singer-songwriter, under the name: The Cries Of. With more than a dozen music related releases and countless national tours, he has recently decided to give away all of his music for free as digital downloads. Douglas lives in South East Texas. You can communicate with him online at: www.indie-inside.com or follow him at: www.twitter.com/indie_inside

Reviews

[Janie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Blood and mental mayhem from start to finish. The bonus story adds to the fun.

3.5 stars

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reminded me a lot of A Nightmare On Elm Street. Except instead of teens being slaughtered in their sleep the characters were hunted down by a maniac who appears inside their LSD hallucinations. The Dark Man read like a pure slasher movie from start to finish and kept me entertained.

[Pamellia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this for a book of the month with some friends. I didn't really care for this. For me, there was way to much slashing, blood and guts. There was not a reason for all this blood and guts. However it is interesting to think that a Dark Man is living in the universe of drugs legal or illegal. But over all this was not for me.

[Bandit · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is something random found while browsing Severed Press books, trying to take advantage of the surprisingly limited Kindle Unlimited. It seems that Severed mainly does creature features, but this one was pretty much a straight up slasher. The classic slasher formula, teens misbehaving and an evil eponymous character slicing and dicing them up. Which is to say not much to it, works the formula, nothing new or original added. Decent for what it is, the kids are…well, the standard fare of jocks, nerds, sluts and cheerleaders you’d expect, the Dark Man is actually genuinely creepy at times. The blood, guts and gore are heavily featured, positively saturating in fact. The author’s favorite word seems to be crimson, which he uses overwhelmingly both as an adjective and as a metonym. All in all, nothing special, though. A B movie or one of those straight to cable fares. There’s a bonus short story included about the dangers of hiking, or in this case hiking while geocaching. Which is also a straight up working of a genre formula, specifically the cannibals in the wilderness one. If you’re in the mood for some scary splattery mindless fun, this’ll do the trick. But there’s no originality here (nothing, not even the oh so generic title), nothing that stands out enough to make it memorable or recommendable among so very many similar books (and movies). Both of the premises here have been done with much more aplomb and panache by other genre writers. But this was kinda entertaining and the author had the decency to utilize brevity, so for the page count, it was ok or at least enough so. Go in with expectations set on low, some fun just works best in the mindless mode. Nice cover, though.

[John Grauerholz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Under the influence of psychedelic substances, a group of high-school students have a vision of a man in a black suit and a top hat: rather stylishly dressed for a messenger from the ethereal realm. If an entity is going to instill fear, then he had better look the part.

The man in the dark hat claims to be a “traveler” – spirit that moves between the ordinary and the hallucinatory. Does the use of mind-altering substances allow one to see creatures just beyond the veil of reality, or does entheogenic usage actually create the malevolent creatures?

Naturally, the well-dressed gent then begins to dispatch the kids in ways that every reader secretly desires. Teenagers get mutilated in imaginative & intricate fashions; the hat man is classy & chic in his manslaughter. However, the creature with the chapeau is not indestructible. Ultimately, one adolescent manages to slaughter this otherworldly slayer, and he then becomes another … well, you guessed it. Sometimes the choice is to be killed or to become a serial killer.

The Dark Man is part unreliable narrative, part coming-of-age story, and part splatterpunk burlesque show. But like all successful horror stories, the evil is not stopped at the end of the book. No happy ending on this side of existence. Just like the hat man admits: blood “tastes better when you’re afraid.” Life tastes better when you are terrified, too.

[Patrick D'Orazio · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dark Man is a good old fashion bogey man tale, with flavors of teen horror flicks that many of us grew up on sprinkled in for good measure. A group of teens decide that they’re going to party hearty one night with some illicit drugs while some want to see if a myth about a stranger coming to visit when other groups of teens have done the same thing in the past is real, or will be something that can be used to scare the pants off of the girls in their little group. And when they all start tripping and the Dark Man does pay them a visit, they’re forced to figure out what is real and what is hallucination as their unending nightmare begins.
This is a simple and effective horror novella that doesn’t try to create new worlds or new beasts for us to try and wrap our minds around. Instead of crafting outside worlds of doom and unspeakable horror, it reaches inside the mind, where our primitive fears of the dark and unknown lay tucked away but always within easy reach. The Dark Man is a fun tale in the sense that it doesn’t require the reader to suspend disbelief or accept the implausible. Instead, it uses what is inside us already to freak us out and send us to bed with nightmares about what is hiding underneath the bed or inside the darkened closet.

[Sandro Filipe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow I loved this book, it's an awesome addition to the horror genre. It's been some time since I last read a horror book that could leave me hanging in expectation to reach the end as this one did! And we even get a bonus short story in the end!
trad.: Wow adorei este livro, fantástica adição ao género de terror. Faz algum tempo desde que li um livro de terror que me fez ficar tão em expectativa de chegar ao final como este fez! E até temos uma história bónus no final!

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

P. A. Douglas' "The Dark Man" is a fast paced, swift kick to the nuts for the attention deficit riddled world. The narrative plows along like a freight train piecing together influences from `80s and `90s horror flicks with grindhouse violence and drug induced paranoia. Simply put, this reads like a great B-movie.

Highly recommended!

[Nicholas Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, what did I think about this dark novella written by P.A. Douglas. I give it five stars! I enjoyed the slasher horror movie feel it had to it. It was a lot like Nightmare on Elm Street, but instead of the kids falling asleep and seeing Freddy, they saw The Dark Man when they do drugs. In this case, six kids decide to do LSD, and when they fall into their trips the run into The Dark Man. The kills in this were descriptive and fun, and you never knew who the author was going to kill next. This is my second P.A. Douglas book I’ve read, The Great Old One being my first, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The Dark Man is a fun thrill ride that any fan of slasher flicks should enjoy!

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many thanks to the Author, Publisher, and Goodreads for this free 'first-reads' book to read and review.

Having previously read a few Bizarro-fiction publications prior to this particular book, I was already familiar with this style of fiction.

Quirky story.

Written as if Stephen King wrote Pulp-style Horror without going into pages and pages and pages of heavy, intensive detail filler.

Did notice an error in the storyline, but it's to be expected due to the writing style of Bizarro-fiction and reminded me of a short story I wrote in High School English Class about packs of exploding small dogs taking over a village (for which I got a B+). ;-)

If anyone that enjoys bizarre horror, this may be one to read.

This volume also contains a bonus 2nd short story that the Author included at the end of The Dark Man story.

Totally Bizarre & Entertainingly Warped.

[Mina Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

constantly rereading this and loaning my copy to friends