Short Film: Lovecraft's Pillow

This is an interesting short film directed by Mark Steensland and written by Rick Hautala. It is credited to an idea from Stephen King. The pair--Steensland and Hautala--have collaborated on several short films including Peekers, and The Ugly File. Peekers is a terrific short, and I am anxiously awaiting the Internet release of The Ugly File. It is currently making the film festival rounds.

The Ugly File is based on a masterful short story by Ed Gorman and it would make a terrific film. It's too bad Masters of Horror didn't produce it.

Anyway...here is Lovecraft's Pillow.

Book Trailer: Moonwalker by Rick Hautala

I found something pretty cool this evening—a book trailer for Rick Hautala’s novel Moonwalker. I haven’t seen many book trailers, but of those I have seen, this is the best. It has terrific music, great artwork, and really made me want to read the novel. Enjoy.



And if you want to read about it, the synopsis on Amazon.com follows:

In the potato fields of Dyer, Maine, lumbering, expressionless figures toil in the hot sun. They are relentless in the pursuit of their task, working without pause. As though mindless, they never slow, never stop...and never breathe. The potatoes must be picked. The small-town people of Dyer, happy with the way things are, never question the existence of the tireless workforce. They never discuss the horrid screams that rip through the night or the odd disappearances around town. Nor have they considered why the lights in the funeral parlor blaze like a beacon throughout each night. They simply look the other way. But for Dale Harmon, looking the other way is not an option. As a visitor to Dyer, the freakish events that plague the town are impossible to ignore...and he begins asking questions. Harmon and four others soon come face to face with a gruesome, unstoppable evil sent to consume them all. For the dead are living...and the harvest has begun.

"Tunnels" by Rick Hautala

Rick Hautala was one of the better selling horror writers in the 1980s—a decade of horror that I mostly missed. I was still a wee lad, and most of my reading reflected my age—The Hardy Boys, Encyclopedia Brown, Wilson Rawls, and others that I can’t seem to recall just now.

The point? I haven’t read much of Rick Hautala’s work, and when I stumbled across Bedbugs, a collection of his short stories, I was curious. The first story I flipped to—I almost always read anthologies and collections out of order—was “Tunnels.” It is the story of a young graffiti artist named Ace. The story opens with Ace making a run down into a subway station trying to elude the police. He doesn’t stop until he’s actually in the subway tunnels—he dodges trains, stumbles around in the dark, and as he’s scouting for a good location to tag Ace meets a stranger who seems to know more than he should, and Ace’s world quickly changes forever.

“Tunnels” isn’t a story that slams you with a surprise ending. It doesn’t give you chills long into the night. “Tunnels” is, however, the kind of story that keeps the reader thinking about it long after it’s been read. It is also the kind of story that is written well, involving, and difficult to put down—it doesn’t hurt that it’s only fifteen pages. The plotting is snappy, the characters are developed well within the confines of the story, and the ending, while not surprising, fits the story perfectly. I liked this one a lot, and I bet I find a few more just as good in this collection.