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Fine Frights: Stories That Scared Me
Contents include: Child's Play by Villy Sorensen; More Sinned Against by Karl Edward Wagner; Lost Memory by Peter Phillips; The Greater Festival of Masks by Thomas Ligotti; Upon the Dull Earth by Philip K. Dick; The War is Over by David Case; Cutting Down by Bob Shaw; The Clerks of Domesday by John Brunner; The Fifth Mask by Shamus Frazer; The Horror at Chilton Castle by Joseph Payne Brennan; Thurnley Abbey by Perceval Landon; The Necromancer by Arthur Gray
309 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1988
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237 people want to read
About the author
Ramsey Campbell
857 books1,594 followersRamsey Campbell is a British writer considered by a number of critics to be one of the great masters of horror fiction. T. E. D. Klein has written that "Campbell reigns supreme in the field today," while S. T. Joshi has said that "future generations will regard him as the leading horror writer of our generation, every bit the equal of Lovecraft or Blackwood."
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 20, 2024
(updated 5/9/16)
Fine Frights: Stories that Scared Me was one of the very first horror anthologies I ever bought, back in the winter of 89/90 when I found it on the cherished spinner rack in the local supermarket, among all the other horror paperbacks (how I miss those days). 11 year-old me was just getting into the genre thanks to Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, and old issues of Twilight Zone Magazine, and I was looking to expand my horizons. Actually I probably just thought the cover was cool.
But it's not nostalgia that's responsible for the high rating here -- in fact, I really didn't care for this at all back then. Ramsey Campbell's tastes were a little too strange and esoteric for my younger, more immature self. It took several years before I was able to fully appreciate the brilliance of most of these stories.
The opener, 1953's "Child's Play" by Villy Sørensen, is one of the most disturbing and stomach churning stories I've ever read, about two boys who take their game of playing surgeon just a bit too far. WAY too far, actually. Absolutely mortifying.
"More Sinned Against" (1984) is one of my top 4-5 tales by the late, great Karl Wagner, about a young woman whose twisted and hellish life in Hollywood is all due to her wannabe movie star boyfriend's selfishness, but she will have her revenge. A visceral and bleak, brutally realistic story (at least for most of it).
Walter Payne Brennan's "The Horror at Chilton Castle" (1963) is a traditional-style ghost story with a 30s pulp edge, and was one I did really enjoy back in the day. It concerns a man, based on Brennan himself, who wants to discover more about his roots, and so he takes a tour of his ancient ancestral home -- a huge castle in a remote Irish village, where something cursed and evil awaits in the darkness. This spine-chilling story has stuck with me all these years, and still hold up today. It was also responsible for getting me to check out all those 60s and 70s ghost story anthos I'd always come across in used bookstores as a kid.
"The Greater Festival of Masks" (1985) by Thomas Ligotti made no sense at all to my younger self, but now it's one of my favorite stories of his. It's a dream-like (or nightmare-like) tale of a man who's new to a typical nameless Ligottian town, and who decides to join in some sort of strange nighttime festival that's occurring everywhere around him, only hidden, but first he must visit the mask shop and find a mask that's just right. He doesn't know just what that means in this town until it's too late (this is an earlier version, from 1985, and it's slightly different from the 1989 and later revised versions, but it's just as unnerving).
David Case's "The War is Over" (1988) is one that will creep up on you, about a soldier who visits the widowed wife of his army buddy so she may know how he died, and they seem to really connect, but he may not be what he seems. This was an unexpected gut-punch of a story.
Normally I'm not a fan of religiously-themed stories, but I'll always make an exception for Philip K. Dick, and "Upon the Dull Earth" (1954) is just another example that PKD was operating on an entirely different wavelength than everyone else, even in the early-mid 50s. It's a tale about angels, but not the typical holy angel. These are vampiric bloodsuckers from a higher realm, and one woman is eager to die and join their order. Totally bizarre, this is unlike any story I've ever read. It's almost a little too over-the-top to be truly frightening, but it certainly is uniquely engaging and tripped-out.
My favorite of the bunch, along with Ligotti's mask-related tale, is Shamus Frazer's "The Fifth Mask" (1957). Not many stories can match the pure dread-inducing chills of this one, concerning two boys out celebrating Guy Fawkes Night in early 20th century rural England. They don their masks to go out begging for pennies at dusk, as was custom at the time, when they come across a rather spooky old woman sitting on a bench along a foggy path. She proceeds to show them a "trick," where she slowly removes her masks, one by one. The fear of anticipation in this one is nearly unbearable, and all horror fans need to track it down, either here or in the Charles Birkin-edited The Witch Baiter (aka The Tandem Book of Horror Stories).
Overall, this is a remarkably consistent anthology of terror, and one of the very best of the 80s, imo.
5 Stars.
Fine Frights: Stories that Scared Me was one of the very first horror anthologies I ever bought, back in the winter of 89/90 when I found it on the cherished spinner rack in the local supermarket, among all the other horror paperbacks (how I miss those days). 11 year-old me was just getting into the genre thanks to Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, and old issues of Twilight Zone Magazine, and I was looking to expand my horizons. Actually I probably just thought the cover was cool.
But it's not nostalgia that's responsible for the high rating here -- in fact, I really didn't care for this at all back then. Ramsey Campbell's tastes were a little too strange and esoteric for my younger, more immature self. It took several years before I was able to fully appreciate the brilliance of most of these stories.
The opener, 1953's "Child's Play" by Villy Sørensen, is one of the most disturbing and stomach churning stories I've ever read, about two boys who take their game of playing surgeon just a bit too far. WAY too far, actually. Absolutely mortifying.
"More Sinned Against" (1984) is one of my top 4-5 tales by the late, great Karl Wagner, about a young woman whose twisted and hellish life in Hollywood is all due to her wannabe movie star boyfriend's selfishness, but she will have her revenge. A visceral and bleak, brutally realistic story (at least for most of it).
Walter Payne Brennan's "The Horror at Chilton Castle" (1963) is a traditional-style ghost story with a 30s pulp edge, and was one I did really enjoy back in the day. It concerns a man, based on Brennan himself, who wants to discover more about his roots, and so he takes a tour of his ancient ancestral home -- a huge castle in a remote Irish village, where something cursed and evil awaits in the darkness. This spine-chilling story has stuck with me all these years, and still hold up today. It was also responsible for getting me to check out all those 60s and 70s ghost story anthos I'd always come across in used bookstores as a kid.
"The Greater Festival of Masks" (1985) by Thomas Ligotti made no sense at all to my younger self, but now it's one of my favorite stories of his. It's a dream-like (or nightmare-like) tale of a man who's new to a typical nameless Ligottian town, and who decides to join in some sort of strange nighttime festival that's occurring everywhere around him, only hidden, but first he must visit the mask shop and find a mask that's just right. He doesn't know just what that means in this town until it's too late (this is an earlier version, from 1985, and it's slightly different from the 1989 and later revised versions, but it's just as unnerving).
David Case's "The War is Over" (1988) is one that will creep up on you, about a soldier who visits the widowed wife of his army buddy so she may know how he died, and they seem to really connect, but he may not be what he seems. This was an unexpected gut-punch of a story.
Normally I'm not a fan of religiously-themed stories, but I'll always make an exception for Philip K. Dick, and "Upon the Dull Earth" (1954) is just another example that PKD was operating on an entirely different wavelength than everyone else, even in the early-mid 50s. It's a tale about angels, but not the typical holy angel. These are vampiric bloodsuckers from a higher realm, and one woman is eager to die and join their order. Totally bizarre, this is unlike any story I've ever read. It's almost a little too over-the-top to be truly frightening, but it certainly is uniquely engaging and tripped-out.
My favorite of the bunch, along with Ligotti's mask-related tale, is Shamus Frazer's "The Fifth Mask" (1957). Not many stories can match the pure dread-inducing chills of this one, concerning two boys out celebrating Guy Fawkes Night in early 20th century rural England. They don their masks to go out begging for pennies at dusk, as was custom at the time, when they come across a rather spooky old woman sitting on a bench along a foggy path. She proceeds to show them a "trick," where she slowly removes her masks, one by one. The fear of anticipation in this one is nearly unbearable, and all horror fans need to track it down, either here or in the Charles Birkin-edited The Witch Baiter (aka The Tandem Book of Horror Stories).
Overall, this is a remarkably consistent anthology of terror, and one of the very best of the 80s, imo.
5 Stars.
June 22, 2011
This collection of stories handpicked by Ramsey Campbell exemplifies his wide-ranging taste in fine horror fiction.
Most notable are the following stories:
The disturbing (and I mean, disturbing) "Child's Play" by Villy Sørensen is a slice-of-life piece that has taken a drastic turn towards extreme horror.
Karl Edward Wagner's "More Sinned Against" is set against a backdrop of the S&M milieu. Wagner has written much more classic horror stories like "Sticks" and "The Fourth Seal," and I hoped one of them made the cut instead.
Peter Phillips's "Lost Memory" is one of the best robot stories I've ever read.
John Brunner's "The Clerks Of Domesday," where the titular clerks collect data about a world that has been destroyed, is the ultimate paranoid fantasy.
Thomas Ligotti wrote the best dark fantasy short story I've ever read in my life. "The Greater Festival Of Masks" is evocative, irreverent, and reminiscent of Clive Barker's "In the Hills, the Cities."
David Case's "The War Is Over" is a revenge story which will make the top three list of the most horrifying stories I've read.
Philip K. Dick's "Upon The Dull Earth" explores an unusual and most disquieting resurrection scenario.
Most notable are the following stories:
The disturbing (and I mean, disturbing) "Child's Play" by Villy Sørensen is a slice-of-life piece that has taken a drastic turn towards extreme horror.
Karl Edward Wagner's "More Sinned Against" is set against a backdrop of the S&M milieu. Wagner has written much more classic horror stories like "Sticks" and "The Fourth Seal," and I hoped one of them made the cut instead.
Peter Phillips's "Lost Memory" is one of the best robot stories I've ever read.
John Brunner's "The Clerks Of Domesday," where the titular clerks collect data about a world that has been destroyed, is the ultimate paranoid fantasy.
Thomas Ligotti wrote the best dark fantasy short story I've ever read in my life. "The Greater Festival Of Masks" is evocative, irreverent, and reminiscent of Clive Barker's "In the Hills, the Cities."
David Case's "The War Is Over" is a revenge story which will make the top three list of the most horrifying stories I've read.
Philip K. Dick's "Upon The Dull Earth" explores an unusual and most disquieting resurrection scenario.
January 22, 2013
Great anthology; worth it for the story, "Child's Play" by Villy Sorenson.
July 4, 2009
The subtitle of this Ramsay Campbell edited collection is "stories that scared me." Unfortunately, Mr. Campbell and I have different fears. Except for Karl Wagner's "More Sinned Against," I didn't find a lot here that really lit me on fire. I'd say 2 and a half stars, although I'm sure others might like these tales much better.
July 9, 2020
FINE FRIGHTS, included fine frights indeed. Ramsey Campbell knows his horror. I've (sadly) not yet read a book by Ramsey Campbell, but now that I know he has such great taste in it I'm eager to give his books a shot. The famous author selected some of the best horror stories here that I've ever read. There are 12 stories included in this antho, and of them, only 2 weren't THAT good. Which is to say the other 10 are THAT damn good. My absolute standout favorites though were CHILD'S PLAY by Villy Sorenson. This is the shortest in the book but easily the most impactful. This story tore me to shreds, and the closest thing that's made me feel such a way is Ketchum's novel THE GIRL NEXT DOOR. Karl Edward Wagner is a legend and his story here MORE SINNED AGAINST is one of his very best. LOST MEMORY by Peter Phillips was my favorite of the batch and I can't help but think what a great episode THE TWILIGHT ZONE it would have made (Jordan Peele, you need to get your hands on this one!), THE FIFTH MASK by Shamus Frazer was scary as hell, a coming-of-age tale that would have a made a great episode of TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE. And THE WAR IS OVER, absolutely unforgettable and should be a classic. I can't recommend this collection highly enough!
June 11, 2024
I came across this book at my grandparents when I was young and the first story in it (“Child’s Play”) left me too stunned to continue at the time. That story stuck with me, though, and I tracked down my own copy of this book over 30 years later so I could finish reading it.
It did not disappoint.
Easily one of the most unsettling collections I’ve ever read, with not one weak tale in the bunch. Strongly recommended to horror fans.
It did not disappoint.
Easily one of the most unsettling collections I’ve ever read, with not one weak tale in the bunch. Strongly recommended to horror fans.
July 16, 2021
Three and a half, actually.
December 22, 2014
Antologia di racconti horror tutto sommato mediocre, impreziosita da quattro ottimi racconti di cui due (Gioco di bambini di Sorensen e Sopra questo cupo mondo di Dick) veramente eccezionali. Furbescamente le parti valide sono state posizionate dal buon Campbell all'inizio e alla fine della raccolta, sarà per quello Paure eccellenti mi ha lasciato un'impressione più che dignitosa. Magari saltatevi la parte muffosa e goticheggiante al centro...
May 10, 2020
This is possibly the best horror anthology I have ever read. Each story is well-written and conjures up some very disturbing and memorable images. For me, Lost Memory by Peter Phillips was the best of the bunch. It is an honor to pick up a collection of stories cherry-picked by a frightened Ramsey Campbell. 5/5
December 19, 2020
Campbell as horror editor, puts together collection of stories frightening him. They must be scary!
April 14, 2008
Horror,Anthology
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews