Nightmare Matinee

by G.G. Garth

The arrival of a new horror film in Westlake spells terror for some of the town's teenagers, when Aaron, Katrina, and Coriander begin to mutate into some of the film's grotesque characters, while others notice only the teens' strange behavior. Original.

Genres: Horror, Paranormal

144 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1994

Reviews

[G.G. Garth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a love note to all my dear fans who have stood by me since 1994-1995 when we first saw the release of Bantam Doubleday Dell's publication of my 4 pre-internet thrillers, NIGHTMARE MATINEE, DRIVEN TO KILL!, BAD DOG: A VAMPIRE'S CANINE, and PARTY TILL YOU SCREAM! My heavens, how things have changed now in 2021! But, I have excellent news for you! My 4 bone-chilling yarns have been re-edited for a 21st Century attention span and re-released as "vintage pre-cell phone when you couldn't text, 'MOM, COME GET ME!' ". Now my 4 original teen thrillers are published under the title THE G.G. GARTH TETRALOGY -- meaning a collection of 4 (JumpMaster Press, December 2020). For those of you, like my wedding photographer's lovely bride, who still have collector copies of the original publication of 25,000 of each title, now's an opportunity for you to salvage or re-sell them at prices staggeringly higher than back in the 20th Century, since they're few and far between and out of print. However, if you would like a full set of newly-minted 4-in-1 binding, I do hope you'll visit JumpMaster Press' website directly. And enjoy, too, my 5th millennial work of fiction, DRAGON SLAYER OF THE PINK SAND DEAD SEA DESERT (JumpMaster Press, January 2021) -- click for the full set of 5 G.G. Garth books https://www.jumpmasterpress.com/produ...
...and THANK YOU!
Be well,
G.G. Garth

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

i don't know if maybe i was just feeling generous, but i thoroughly enjoyed this book.

it's short, it's not particularly good, and it clobbers you over the head with its "love yourself no matter how much of a teenage monster you feel," but it IS short (took me all of about 2 total hours to read), and is very reminiscent of the goosebumps (and other spooky young adult) books and are you afraid of the dark? episodes that played a huge part in my childhood, so it's got a kind of nostalgic thing going on as well, even if i've never read it before.

i don't know that i'd take my rating too seriously: 4 out of 5 for this book might not be terribly indicative of its quality, but it is very indicative of how much i enjoyed it. think of it as the crappy horror movie you rented at blockbuster, but still had to have on your dvd shelf at home because of what a kick you got out of it.

[Courtney Gruenholz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bought this omnibus collection of all four of G.G. Garth's YA books from the 1990s off of Amazon so that I could read them.

All four books center around a town in New England called Westlake and the same group of characters in varying situations of horror, terror and suspense.

Nightmare Matinee is the shaky start and the first one I tackled.

Aaron Sedgewood takes Katrina Phillips out on a date to see a new horror film, a 3D flick called Still Life: The Best of The Worst. He has been pining for her since the sixth grade.

A bunch of other teens from Westlake High are also at the film and one, named Mark Stiger, gets sick and pukes behind the theater. Katrina's eyes start bothering her and a green worm seems to be coming out of her face, but Aaron is too gone on Katrina to notice.

His parents are divorced, and her parents fight all the time. Both Mr. Phillips and the former Mrs. Sedgewood are alcoholics with the first being a physical bully when he's drunk. Aaron's mom use to be nice but the divorce now has her as a mean drunk.

Later that night, Dan Pritcher watches the news and finds out that his cousin, the aforementioned Mark, committed suicide jumping from the top of the courthouse. Dan is the only teen not to see the movie because he is not into horror and he happens to be Aaron's BFF.

Dan has the hots for a cheerleader named, I kid you not, named Coriander Preston. She goes by Correy, and she dated Aaron briefly before dumping him for jock Billy Carlyle. They were making out at the movie and now neither one can stand each other. Each one sees the other as a misshapen monster.

Someone has put a spell on the movie, and it is changing everyone who watches it. Some are driven to madness, others to anger and some to fatal ends. The only one who can help Aaron and Katrina find a way to stop this monster madness is Dan, but can he see with clear eyes before the clock runs out, and the nightmare becomes permanent?

A sort of bittersweet ending but trying to follow the plot at first was somewhat confusing. It seemed that we were rushing into all of the gore and not really getting a chance to know our characters. The dialogue seemed stilted but pretty soon, everything flowed into something coherent and imaginative.

Nightmare Matinee resembles a story someone from Are You Afraid of The Dark's Midnight Society would be telling around the fire. Dark yet comical with some pretty gross-out descriptions.

[Grace Chan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of worms coming out your face. Quick, brush them aside and pretend all is fine, maybe your hot date didn't notice!

[Matthew MacIntyre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now that I have all 4 of G.G. Garth’s books I’ve decided to do a quick read through. This first books is pretty good I definitely liked the gross body horror with the worms in the girls face. While the story of a movie causing the transformations in the teenagers was cool I wish it was a bit more graphic. Although I’m glad a few of the teenagers actually did die that at least makes you feel some sort of urgency for everyone. I will not lie I did easily tell who the bad guy was gonna be pretty early on but it didn’t take away from the book in the least. Looking forward to the next book as from what I can tell all four books share the same protagonist.

[Egghead · Rating 3 out of 5]

Horror movie warps
teens into puking mutants.
Stay home, watch cable.