Modern Masters of Horror

by Ed. Frank Coffey (Editor)

• The Monkey - (1980) - Stephen King
• The New Tenant - William H. Hallahan [as by William Hallahan]
• In the Cards - (1970) - Robert Bloch
• Clay - George A. Romero
• A Cabin in the Woods - (1976) - John Coyne
• Makeup - Robert R. McCammon
• The Small World of Lewis Stillman - (1957) - William F. Nolan (variant of Small World)
• The Siege of 318 - (1976) - Davis Grubb
• The Champion - (1978) - Richard Laymon
• The Power of the Mandarin - (1967) - Gahan Wilson
• Horror House of Blood - (1976) - Ramsey Campbell
• Absolute Ebony - (1981) - Felice Picano
• The Root of All Evil - Graham Masterton
• Julian's Hand - (1974) - Gary Brandner
• The Face - Jere Cunningham

Genres: Horror, Anthologies, Short Stories, Fiction

286 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1981

Reviews

[Evans Light]

I'll leave individual story reviews as I work my way through this, quite possible I'll never read them all as I tend to pull out old anthologies at random and read only a story or two at the time.

***** "Clay", by George A. Romero

The beginning is a bit of a slog but stick with it, because this story will definitely stick with you. In fact, it's one of the "stickiest" story I've read in a while. Disturbing imagery abounds, worth seeking out. As a side note, I typically hate ethnic accents depicted phonetically in fiction, but the New York brogue on occasional display here sounded right inside my head.

** "The Cabin in the Woods", by John Coyne

This uninspired, cliché-ridden story about a writer who built himself the titular dwelling with money garnered writing an uninspired, cliché-ridden novel might have been better if an intentional sense of irony was baked in. Unfortunately, it's not, and the reader is left with a serviceable enough but completely forgettable tale, of a type that's been told in various fashions countless times before, and better.

[Mark Dubovec · Rating 3 out of 5]

An anthology containing stories from writers you'd expect (Stephen King, Robert Bloch, Ramsey Campbell) and at least one you wouldn't ("Night of the Living Dead" director George Romero), "Modern Masters of Horror" is a fun but hit-or-miss collection. Some of the stories are great while others are predictable and mediocre. Some go for scares, and others go for dark laughs. Standout stories include King's The Monkey, William F. Nolan's The Small World of Lewis Stillman, and Gahan Wilson's The Power of the Mandarin.

[Christy Aldridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Modern Masters of Horror is a short story collection featuring some of the most well known men in the genre. Stephen King, George Romero, and Richard Laymon all grace the pages of this collection in tales of killing monkeys, modelling clay sex antics, and rapid growing fungus. Most of the stories in this collection are really good. There are more good stories than bad, but the bad ones are really just boring. The entire beginning of the book is amazing, then the middle begins to drag and then soar, before dragging again. One of the common themes I seemed to find with the stories were that most began really slow and then ended with such a bang that you forgot they began at a snail's pace. The only one that avoided that was Laymon's 'The Champion's, in which he punches you in the gut right away. However, that is Laymon's style, I've come to realize, and I really loved it. Overall, it's a really easy to read collection with more hits than misses.

[Snobbery and Decay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve always had a soft spot for the short story form. Its brief and indeed ephemeral quality traditionally allows authors a great deal of freedom both of subject and form. Upon discovering the work of an author for instance, I usually seek out the collections first. Even a themed anthology holds the potential of tremendous invention, surprises and is a fertile ground for experimentation.

If Modern Masters of Horror, the 1982 anthology shrewdly edited by Frank Coffey admittedly contains very little experimentation, it certainly makes it up with a wide range of style, thrills and even a coup, namely a rare story by George A. Romero “Clay”, a gut-wrenching tale of parental abuse and religious disaffection. The opening salvo of any anthology of ‘masters of horror’ could only be delivered by Stephen King and his story “The Monkey”, by now a well-known classic of his, is pure King territory with its family caught in the vicissitudes of life and an evil mechanical toy that may or may not be the source of it all. With “In the Cards”, Robert Bloch does what he does best: a black humoured chiller set in Hollywood with a clever punchline à la The Twilight Zone. The same theme and type of ending is served by Robert R. McCammon’s “Make Up”, with however an extra helping of violence. The morality tales contingent is represented here by the anti-war “Siege of 318” by Davis Grubb and the fairly effective if occasionally heavy handed “The Root of all Evil” where Graham Masterton gives essentially a condensed version of his novel The Manitou.

If Gary Brandner’s quirky “Julian’s Hand” had a rather tacked-on ending, the runts of the litter here were probably William Hallahan’s “The New Tennant”, Jere Cunningham’s “The Face” and John Coyne’s “A Cabin in the Woods” exploring themes of re-incarnation, multiple personalities and huh…fungi respectively. Although their takes on their subjects were arresting, unfortunately they couldn’t avoid utterly predictable endings. Ironically, a predictable ending was exactly what Richard Laymon’s “The Champion” was counting on in order to drop its last sentence for a good laugh. And it works!
My only slight disappointment - but slight mind you - was with Ramsey Campbell’s “Horror House of Blood”. Not because it’s a bad story, far from it. Ramsey Campbell is probably one of my favourite writer of short (and long) fictions and is one of the few who knows how to spook me out proper. Here, as usual, he delivers plenty of atmosphere and the clear sense that something is badly out-of-whack. Unfortunately, I found the story so subtly handled that eventually I found myself utterly bewildered. Another read did not dispel the story’s obliqueness however. In fact, it reinforced in me a feeling of dull disconnect with it - something that I’ve never experienced before with Campbell - and as of now, I’m still unclear as to what his story was actually about.

Where Modern Masters of Horror truly shone for me was with “The Small World of Lewis Stillman” by William F. Nolan, Graham Wilson’s “The Power of the Mandarin” and the lyrical “Absolute Ebony” by Felice Picano. All three stories presented really unique and imaginative concepts all delivered with aplomb and, in Picano’s case, a great deal of poetry.
Frank Coffey assembled here a relatively solid and versatile anthology making Modern Masters of Horror a must-have for any serious horror fiction collector and a must-read for enthusiasts of fine story-telling.

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Any anthology you pick up is going to be hit and miss, but I think this one did better than most. IT starts off with a nice little Stephen King story about one of those wind-up monkeys that claps cymbals together - of course, it's evil, but of course how King gets to telling you that makes it credible. I also enjoyed most of the stories in the first half of this book, but it's in the second half where the quality seems to wane. A couple of the stories make little to no sense, one is a bit preachy and very linear, and a couple are just plain bad.

The best thing about anthologies like this are the ideas they spark. Often when I read a story with an uninspired ending I think.... You know what would've been better.... and voila, I've got my own idea for a story. So it was worth it for that alone.

[Sheldon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I tracked this book down as it's the only proper real prose written by George A Romero (both Martin & Dawn Novelizations and "The Living Dead" may have George's name on them but they are very much based on George's outline, or scripts, rather than first-hand writing) with his other book "The Little World of Humongo Bongo" being a children's tale.

George's short story “Clay" is a genuinely disturbing tale that I don’t even wish to spoil with a synopsis, the other stories are good but can be pretty formulaic, Stephen King's story "The Monkey" is a good one but is available elsewhere as part of his Skeleton Crew short story collection.

The rest vary from really good ("The Power of the Manderin" by Gahan Wilson) to comically poor ("Horror House of Blood" by Ramsey Campbell).

Overall however worth a read.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book starts very strong with one of the best toy pet horror stories ever, Stephen King's The Monkey. Besides there is John Coyne's A Cabin in the Woods and McCammon's Makeup I enjoyed extremely. The rest of the stories was just so and so. Didn't really get me hooked. Nevertheless an intriguing anthology of 15 stories with some real highlights. Recommended!

[Kirk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Favorites: The Monkey, In the Cards, The Small World of Lewis Stillman, The Champion, Horror House of Blood

[Dom Perry · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars***

I only liked 3 stories in this entire collection, and even then I wasn’t too impressed by them.

[[on hiatus, probably forever] The rockabilly werewolf from Mars · Rating 3 out of 5]

Average anthology of late 70s/early 80s horror. If nothing else, it provides a snapshot of which writers were popular in the early 80s. Some of them are still fairly well known (King, Campbell, Bloch, etc.), while others have fallen into total obscurity (has anyone heard of John Coyne?). Also, it has a story by George Romero, who I didn't realize wrote short stories. Unfortunately, two of my favourite writers (King and Campbell) are represented by subpar stories. The Monkey is a fairly standard cursed object story, while Horror House Of Blood has a promising setup (the residents of a house where a B-movie was filmed are somehow influenced by the film), but has an ending that is obscure to the point of being incomprehensible. The Romero, Bloch, Grubb, Masterton, and Wilson stories are all pretty good, but there are also some very interesting stories by some almost forgotten writers: The New Tenant, an atmospheric story of possession; and Absolute Ebony, about a haunted painting. The weakest stories are The Champion, about a bar that holds public fights for entertainment, which proved totally unmemorable (I know the author has a big cult following, but what little I've read of his has left me unimpressed); and A Cabin In The Woods, which - in addition to being a blatant knockoff of Hodgson's The Voice In The Night - contains some of the most awkward writing I have ever encountered. The story describes a landscape as being like "some strange gothic phenomenon", which is one of the worst descriptions I have read. Not necessarily something to actively look for, but worth reading if you find it for cheap.

[A book away from an episode of hoarders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of these were, at the very least, creepy. It seems I've read all of these before but it was still worth the reread.

[crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book some of the short stories were really fucked up especially the monkey by Stephen king.