Scream at Midnight

by Joseph Payne Brennan

Scream At Midnight is a rare collection of ten horror short stories by Joseph Payne Brennan. It was self-published in 1963 by Brennan, under his Macabre House imprint, in a signed, limited edition of 250 copies. It was issued without dust jacket in a black cloth binding, with a paper spine label.

The Horror at Chilton Castle
The Midnight Bus
The Vampire Bat
The Seventh Incantation
Killer Cat
The Dump
The Tenants
The Man Who Feared Masks
The Visitor in the Vault
In the Very Stones

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Short Stories, Mystery, Fantasy

85 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1963

About the author

Joseph Payne Brennan was an American writer of fantasy and horror fiction, and also a poet. Brennan's first professional sale came in December 1940 with the publication of the poem, "When Snow Is Hung", which appeared in the Christian Science Monitor Home Forum, and he continued writing poetry up until the time of his death.

He is the father of Noel-Anne Brennan who has published several fantasy novels.

Reviews

[Riju Ganguly]

Except the first story, which is almost guaranteed to give you nightmares, the other tales fell flat. They began in usual cozy manner, but ended without a strong revelation that might haunt the reader.
A good read; but nothing more, I'm afraid.

[C. Kiefer]

I am going, to be honest, I found this book on LibriVox, looking for something short to listen to while taking a walk. Ben Tucker was an excellent narrator, granting those stories life and giving each character a distinctive voice, which made it fun to listen to, and if I had read it in my own voice, I think my rating would have been one star less.

The stories themselves, when ignoring the voice of the narrator, can go from great to okay, to downright silly.
I would also like to add, that I can see a certain Lovecraft influence in his work and a fondness for cats, as well as a preference for 'madness' and the colour red. And now that I'm writing those words out, I'm not sure if this has any meaning, but it is just something that stuck with me.


The Horror At Chilton Castle is about a vampire in a dungeon, and while it seemed interesting, I was annoyed by the use of exposition in the form of the Factor. 4/5
With The Midnight Bus, I got the standard ghost-bus story, sadly without any big twists, which made it a little boring and predictable. 3/5
I thought the whole plot in The Vampire Bat was silly, I mean, it was readable, but the reveal was a letdown. 2/5
The Seventh Incantation seemed interesting, and I was into it until the monster reveal. There was a distinct Lovecraft inspiration here, but the execution fell flat. 3/5
I quite liked Killer Cat, not too much exposition, starts with a crime and ends with a karmic death. 5/5
The Dump is set in a dystopian future world, and besides some existential dread (and rats), has little in terms of actual horror, but as I like such stories, even though I wasn't expecting it in this collection, it is one of my favourite stories in this book. 5/5
The story, The Tenants, left me feeling unsatisfied. I could think about it and twist it, yet this story didn't sit right with me and could have needed a little more story or suspense, anything really. 2/5
The Man Who Feared Masks, is less down-right horror and more psychological exploration, with some tragedy and black comedy. If only he had told his wife, she wouldn't have got that dumb idea. I actually liked this one for what it was. 5/5
To be honest, The Visitor In The Vault gave me 'Who was Phone'-vibes. 2/5
The last story, In The Very Stones, was okay but didn't really rattle me. 3/5

[James Hold]

Honestly I don't see the point of this book. The only thing to scream about is how the stories never really resolve themselves. Each tale reads like the first chapter of what should have been a longer work. For instance, "The Horror at Chilton Castle" a young heir is locked in a dark spooky room overnight as part of an initiation ritual. When they let him out the next morning he's gone crazy. That's it, and you say, "So?" The remaining tales are equally fragmentary. It'd be like saying: "Fred went out in the rain and when he returned home he found his hair was wet. The End." That is about as much impact as any of these stories have. Verdict: Find a better way to waste your time.

[Canavan]

✭✭½

“The Horror at Chilton Castle” ✭✭✭✭
“The Midnight Bus” ✭✭✭½
“The Vampire Bat” ✭✭
“The Seventh Incantation” ✭✭✭
“Killer Cat” ✭✭
“The Dump” ✭½
“The Tenants” ✭✭✭
“The Man Who Feared Masks” ✭✭
“The Visitor in the Vault” ✭✭✭½
“In the Very Stones” ✭✭

All stories published 1963.

[Mark Rabideau]

Not much to say, this was interesting enough early on. The short stories were well read on the Librivox version I listened to. Nothing exceptional but it was good Halloween time bed time stories.