Vile Things: Extreme Deviations in Horror

by Cheryl Mullenax (Contributor), Ramsey Campbell, Graham Masterton

Vile Things: Extreme Deviations of Horror is the ultimate collection of extreme horror from award winning masters and up-and-coming authors of macabre fiction.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Fisherman by Brian Rosenberger
Fungoid by Randy Chandler
Tenants Rights by Sean Logan
Again by Ramsey Campbell
Maggots by Tim Curran
Going Green by Stefan Pearson
Coquettrice by Angel Leigh McCoy
The Fear in the Waiting by C.J. Henderson
The Worm by John Bruni
Sepsis by Graham Masterton
What You Wish For by Garry Bushell
The Devil Lives in Jersey by Z.F. Kilgore
Rat King by Jeffrey Thomas
The Caterpillar by C. Dennis Moore
Poor Brother Ed or The Man Who Visited by Ralph Greco, Jr.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Ebooks

214 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2009

Reviews

[Anita Dalton · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t know. Extreme horror just isn’t that extreme for me anymore except in what seems like the pervasive poverty of concept. I’m unsure if I’ve just read so much real extreme horror, meaning nastiness with a real plot and real characterization, and splatter, which makes no pretense about being simply an attempt to gross-out, that it takes a lot to move me. Perhaps I just lucked out in the beginning of my literary life and read good horror, good extreme horror and now little measures up. I mean, you have writers out there like Jack Ketchum and Edward Lee, who write hard content in the course of telling one mean story. The horrific content happens because the tale itself is horrific but you get a plot, you get characters you give a damn about, you get a tight story that draws you in even as it appalls you. Then you have collections like Excitable Boys that are meant to be grotesque and nothing else and present no pretense otherwise. And then you have collections like this, wherein the stories which were meant to be actual stories were poorly written vehicles in which to deliver a gross-out, and not very gross gross-outs at that.

I know, I know, some are going to be tempted to say, “Look, Sugarpants, you just don’t get extreme horror. It’s not meant to be good fiction.” To which I say, “Feh.” Too many writers manage to get it right, marrying excellent story-telling and fabulous gore, for this argument to hold water. Accepting the mediocre because it is gross demeans the whole genre. This collection was neither good stories with extreme content nor a straightforward nausea-fest and as neither fish nor foul, it occupies an uneasy nether land, all the more uneasy because the stories were so… nothing. Nothing to them. It never bodes well when after reading a collection of short stories, I find myself rereading the whole thing because I can’t remember it. Sometimes you need a refresher when you want to discuss a story. You can jog your memory by reading a few lines. Not here. I had to reread entire chunks of many of these stories to recall what they were about, so unimpressive were they as a lot. A few were decent, three were quite good, but the rest were terrible and one so bad I could not get past the first few paragraphs. Read my entire review here.

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The editor of this collection should have her blue pencil forcibly ripped from her hand and jammed up her nostril -- just one of them, either will do. Certain of these authors were outrageously self-indulgent, and that is just the sort of thing that a good editor will rein in. Certain of the stories were poor quality ripoffs of stories written by mainstream authors, and while imitation is sometimes called a form of flattery, even the most flattering of flatteries becomes dull stuff if it lacks in originality. The editor should have recognized these works as the cheap knockoffs that they are.

There were a few stories, though, that were both originally conceived and well written. Unfortunately, they are bogged down under so much sewage-quality writing that I simply cannot recommend slogging through such muck to get at so little good material.

[Evan S · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my favorite horror anthology. I don't think I fully appreciated the insinuations of "Vile" and "Extreme Deviations" until I was neck deep in the stories... almost all of which are essentially gruesome body horror dialed up to 11.

Not all the stories are bad... but they are all intense, and so the bad ones are intensely bad and I felt dragged down the collection as a whole. Rather than review every story, I'll pick three highlights: "Again" by Ramsay Campbell is excellent. It's Weird, atmospheric, has very disturbing overtones, and sticks with you a long time after reading. "The Caterpillar" by C Dennis Moore consistently moved in unexpected directions, had a real heart to it, a good main character, and an ending that was both chilling yet hopeful. Finally, "The Fear in the Waiting" by C J Henderson was a very interesting extension of the famous Lovecraft story "Herbert West: Re-Animator."

I'm hardly faint of heart, but I found this collection overall to be more sordid and grimy than was my taste. Interesting! But not for everyone.

[Broodingferret · Rating 2 out of 5]

I used to like horror, but lately it's been falling flat for me (in print, anyway; I still have a soft spot for the visceral thrum provided by horror movies). In general, I'm not sure why my interest is flagging, but with this particular anthology I know precisely what the problem is: most of the authors can't write particularly well. Most of the bad stories fall into two camps, the first simply being Bad Writing. In these cases, the author either filled the story with two-dimensional characters and poor dialogue (e.g. The Fisherman by Brian Rosenberger) or introduced completely unnecessary complications and plot twists (e.g. Maggots by Tim Curran). The second camp is Mistaking "Barf Factor" For "Scare Factor", wherein the author thinks that they can make up for a lack of horror-esque creativity by simply trying to gross-out the reader (e.g. Sepsis by Graham Masterton). A couple of these stories were entertaining, which is why the collection got the second star, but overall I was un impressed.

[Mike Kazmierczak · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book left me very mixed. Initially after reading the first few stories, I was disgusted and dreading the rest of the book as juvenile and/or pure gross-out attempts. Then I got to "Maggots" and I found something that spoke to me, something that was enjoyable. It actually had characters that were interesting. It relied on more than cannibalism and deformed rotting bodies, which was ironic because "Maggots" made heavy use of cannibalism and deformed rotting bodies. But the story wasn't about the gross-out; it was about survival and doing what is necessary. Then the next two stories were equally good and I thought maybe it was only a bad start to the collection. Unfortunately I then ran into another stretch of poor to acceptable stories. By the end, the whole book followed that pattern of some good followed by some really bad. I suppose that it is no different than any other collection where you expect to find some good stories, some bad stories and what you hope will be some great stories. Maybe the difference here is that the bad stories include both poorly written stories and gross-out stories. Below are the stories that stood out as better than the rest. Oh, needless to say, the stories in this collection are really extreme stories and not for a casual horror fan.

"Maggots" by Tim Curran - A French soldier in Napoleon's army during the French invasion of Russia must decide how far he'll go to survive. And some thing helps him to decide.

"Coquettrice" by Angel Leigh McCoy - A man falls in love and then finds out that his girlfriend is using him as cover. The story read to me as a modern and deviant spin of ROSEMARY'S BABY.

"Sepsis" by Graham Masterton - A young couple who are in love have problems separating themselves. While many stories in this collection were gross, this one really had me tasting every last drop and bite. And cringing the whole time.

"The Devil Lives in Jersey" by Z.F. Kilgore - A detective labeled as the "occult detective" in his department moves to a small town to help straighten out his teenaged son. Unfortunately the detective finds a new set of supernatural problems. I think I like this story more for the potential than for the reality. There are a lot of elements which were barely touched. The characters have depth potential but are a tad underdeveloped. And the action whips past too fast. This 25 page story should really be expanded into a 200+ page novella or novel and it could be really good!

"The Caterpillar" by C. Dennis Moore - After moving back to his hometown, a man starts to care for his cousin's quadriplegic daughter who he then discovers is changing even more. The ending is potentially beautiful or scary, depending upon your interpretation.

[Henk Wester · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic collection of horror stories with body horror or nightmarish creatures being a central part of each tale. Not a single dud in here. My favourites was "Maggots", "Catterpillar" "Going Green", "The Rat King", and "Fungoid".

[Sparrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exactly what the title says. But not particularly good. Just easy to read.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some standouts here from new and known authors; Tenant’s Rights, Maggots, Sepsis, but mostly mediocre entries. Still worth a read.

[James Pratt · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Vile Things: Extreme Deviations of Horror' is a collection of dark and sometimes disgusting tales. Quality of the stories vary. Some read like the work of writers still in the process of mastering their craft, rough around the edges but still entertaining. Others are much more polished, and well-established writers such as Ramsey Campbell are represented here too. There's nothing subtle about these stories. Masturbation, violence, and bodily fluids galore. If you like your horror with an edge, this is for you. If you like the emphasis on atmosphere, you might want to look elsewhere. Me, I dug it.

James Pratt, author of 'When Dead Gods Dream: A Collection of LOvecraftian Short Stories'

[Adolf Hitler · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Opposite of Vile

There was nothing memorable here. Nothing vile, nothing scary, nothing creepy. Reader beware, if you want stories of ghastly possessions, demons that rape the living, mutilated murder, serial killer specials, nothing. There is a couple, that throughout the course of WAY too many pages and WAY too many words, that licks each other and the female wears the man's dead carcass like a mechwarrior. There was another that had some cockademon that anally rapes a guy. Like I said though, nothing really worthwhile or worth the time it took to read. Two stars only because some of the stories were readable, just not interesting.

[Rowan MacBean · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the first few stories, I thought this was going to turn out to be another collection of mediocre horror stories whose only purpose was to shock and disgust the reader. I nearly gave up on it after getting almost a third of the way through without being especially drawn in to anything. But then a story caught my attention and imagination, so I continued and was pleased to find there were several more really good reads included in the collection. C. Dennis Moore's THE CATERPILLAR was my favorite.

[Bill Borre]

"“Poor Brother Ed” or the Man Who Visited" by Ralph Greco, Jr. - An old man procures girls for a zombie to have sex with until he has a heart attack.

"What You Wish For" by Garry Bushell - Jayne is a writer who publishes books about serial killers and she gets murdered by one.

"Tenant's Rights" by Sean Logan - wc
"The Caterpillar" by C. Dennis Moore - wc

[Jeff Narucki · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one was hit and miss.

If references to bodily functions that don't further the story along appeal to you, this is your book.

There are a few good stories in here, so it may very well be worth your time if you're tired of the same old horror stories.

[Kyla Swanson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although every story in this anthology was not award-winning, there were a few that stood out.

Compared to other extreme horror that I've read, this anthology isn't so extreme; however, it definitely lives up to the title: vile.

[Robert Essig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some stories were OK, others were boring, and too many were focused on genital mutilation of one type or another, which gets boring very quickly. The best story by far was Tim Curran's "Maggots", followed by "Again" by Ramsey Campbell, both of which were outstanding.

[Ronald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most good but some not so much. Like most anthologies. This was better than most those. Some of the stories were pretty weird and disgusting so that equals entertaining lol. Probably what you'd expect from a book like this.

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bad editing, generally bad writing and disappointing stories.