The zombie – a soulless corpse raised from the grave to do its master’s bidding – may have had its factual basis in the voodoo ceremonies of the West Indies, but it is in fiction, movies, video games and comics that the walking dead have flourished. What makes a zombie? This Twentieth Anniversary Edition of one of the first and most influential zombie anthologies answers that question with 26 tales of rot and resurrection from classic authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, M. R. James and J. Sheridan Le Fanu, along with modern masters of the macabre Clive Barker, Robert Bloch, Ramsey Campbell, Hugh B. Cave, Joe R. Lansdale, Brian Lumley, Graham Masterton, Kim Newman, Michael Marshall Smith, Lisa Tuttle, Karl Edward Wagner and many more.From Caribbean rituals to ancient magic, mesmerism to modern science, these terrifying tales depict a wide range of nefarious methods and questionable reasons for bringing the dead back to life again.
Dark bleatings, my undead tribe! I was treated to zombie anthology by the zombie messiah that is Stephen Jones, so of course I’m reviewing it story by story. Without further ado!
Stephen kicks things off with a cool introduction, and also precedes each story with a short biography about the author, which is a really nice touch.
Sex, Death, and Starshine – by Clive Barker
What a great opener! I’ve read this story before and loved it again the second time around here. A theatre director is unknowingly working on what will be his last show at the venue he’s been loyal to. His lead sucks but he can’t recast her. It’s too late in the process to switch in someone new, and also he’s having an affair with her, which complicates things. How do zombies come into this, I hear you ask? Well, read it and see! It’s a lot of fun, this twisted little tale…
Rising Generation – by Ramsey Campbell
How does Ramsey always create such a suffocating, scary atmosphere?! A lady takes a class of children to a cave to show them the site and give them a bit of history and culture. Only…there’s something in there! Guess what it is?! This story only predictably contains zombies because it’s in this anthology, but I think that element would surprise me if I’d read it elsewhere first. Regardless, as usual, Ramsey scares me in this creepy, rotten story.
The Song of Slaves – by Manly Wade Wellman
I feel like this story had to have inspired certain elements of Pirates of the Caribbean. A slave owner gets what he deserves after tossing his slaves overboard to avoid legal repercussions for taking them off his plantation. I love to see a character like this get what’s coming to them!
The Ghouls – by R. Chetwynd-Hayes
Mr. Goldsmith is disturbed one night by a man ringing his doorbell, who claims he used to live in his house. Things only get stranger from there when Mr. Goldsmith unwisely allows himself to get drawn into something much bigger than it first seemed. This was one of my favourites.
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar – by Edgar Allan Poe
Oh, classic Poe! A man experiments with reanimating a man who seems quite horrified by his new existence. I love it when more science fiction elements are brought into stories like this, especially when they come with a touch of existential dread.
Sticks – by Karl Edward Wagner
A man returns from war after being horrified…but not only by what you typically see in war. He returns to work as an illustrator, but even for horror, people are now finding his work a bit too dark. This story opens up into a whole conspiracy, which was a very surprising but fascinating direction for it to go in. Another favourite.
Quietly Now – by Charles L. Grant
This one is super creepy and another favourite. Keith is a very average man that likes the ladies, helps out his neighbours, and kids seem to love him….which becomes a hideous problem for him a bit later on…
The Grey House – by Basil Cooper
A man buys a huge house, but his wife isn’t too thrilled about it. With the discovery of a horrible painting, plus the yellow eyes that always seem to be watching her, she feels uneasy. And maybe for good reason…
I’m sorry to say this one dragged a bit for me, though the atmosphere was palpable!
A Warning to the Curious – by M.R. James
This one dragged a bit for me, too (I know, who do I think I am criticising the likes of Basil Cooper and M.R. James?!). Is it zombies…or is it ghosts?!
The Crucian Pit – by Nicholas Royle
A man returns to the place that he not only had his first sexual encounter, but sadly also lost his first true love. He’s never been able to get over her because of the way they were separated, but perhaps returning to the site might provide a very odd type of closure…
The Disapproval of Jeremy Cleave – by Brian Lumley
My favourite in the anthology! Horrifying but humorously executed – a woman and the boyfriend she cheated on her departed husband with are harassed by said former husband’s disembodied parts. It’s one of the more unique takes on the genre that I’ve read, and highly amusing.
Herbert West – Reanimator – by H.P. Lovecraft
Are there any horror/zombie fans that aren’t familiar with at least the screen version of this story? Science fiction, reanimation, things going awry, what’s not to love?!
Treading the Maze – by Lisa Tuttle
More a very creepy story with a whispered hint of zombie at the end, rather than an all out zombie story, but that’s cool, it adds to the variety of the anthology.
Out of Corruption – by David A. Riley
Two men go to stay in a house with a morbid history, and regrettable things happen after one of them ventures into the cellar. Not a favourite, I’m so sorry to say (I found it a little slow).
The Taking of Mr Bill – by Graham Masterton
I should warn you – R word trigger warning for this one. It was one of my favourites – the most unique take on Peter Pan I’ve ever read, for sure. And I’ve read a bizarre amount of Peter Pan type stories. Very original, and sick!
Schalken the Painter – by Sheridan Le Fanu
Rose is married to a REALLY rich man…a man with something else that’s quite different about him. Something’s off…possibly it’s the smell of decomposition….
Clinically Dead – by David A. Sutton
A favourite because of the emotional resonance! A guy grapples with his feelings while his mother is hospitalised and, in all likelihood, dying. Things are thrown off later in the hospital when a major emergency comes in…
They’re Coming for You – by Les Edwards
One of the shorter, grislier, and in my opinion more humorous stories. A man fears that his wife and her lover have come back from beyond the grave to get him, but it turns out that they’re there for much more carnal reasons. It’s hideous but kind of funny.
Mission to Margal – by Hugh B. Cave
Oh man, this one hit me right in the feelings. It’s a tale of justice and a little revenge, and it hinges on the very sad and disturbing discovery of two bereaved parents. Really good, a favourite.
Later – by Michael Marshall Smith
Ooohhhhhh thiiiis made my skin crawl with sympathy but also absolute revulsion. A man’s wife dies and he can’t quite accept it, so he takes drastic measures.
Marbh Bheo – by Peter Tremayne
A man in Ireland is scared witless when he witnesses an act of incredible violence, and the worst part is the lack of reaction from the person it’s inflicted upon. This one was fun!
The Blood Kiss – by Dennis Etchison
We have our main story, and then the parallel story through a script (which is always fun to me!). A script editor panics when she finds a note that she’s sure she’s not meant to read, and starts planning how to react.
Night After Night of the Living Dead – by Christopher Fowler
This opens with an essay for a school project, written by a teenager that discusses the unjust conditions endured by zombies, ever since the real Night of the Living Dead, as it’s come to be known as. When we switch to his mother’s perspective, however, we realise that things aren’t quite how the teen has presented them. This was fun!
The Dead Don’t Die! – by Robert Bloch
Another favourite! A prison guard befriends a death row inmate called Cono, who he believes to be innocent. Cono, appreciating this friendship, leaves money to the guard, along with instructions on how to retrieve it. The thing is, when the man does try to track the money down, he finds something else.
Patricia’s Profession – by Kim Newman
Very short, definitely not sweet, and funny in a dark way. Really can’t say more without spoilers!
On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks – by Joe R. Lansdale
Eeeeee I didn’t like this one much, I’m sorry to say. One of the main characters is absolutely detestable and I was not pleased with his ending! I’d describe this as a nasty zombie(ish) western.
Homo Coprophagus Somnambulus – by Jo Fletcher
I really liked this poem, which rounds off the book in a nice, kind-of-light-but-also-kind-of-not way.
Okay, so one criticism I have to mention overall (because I talk about this often on the website and also in videos), is that there is a lack of diversity in the authors, which I tend to feel quite strongly about when I’m reading anthologies. Usually. However, in this case, I have no desire to lampoon the editor over it because of the context. If this were a new anthology compiled of new zombie stories, I’d be yelling from the rafters like an angry bat about almost all of these authors being straight white dudes. Buuuuut this anthology was originally released in 1993, and it’s mostly compiled of stories that were originally published decades before then, or in some cases, literally over 100 years ago. This is an anthology made up of stories that were influential in this genre, and as per the publishing norm of old, that does inevitably mean that most of them were written by men. This is more of an “ah, it’s a shame there aren’t more women-written stories in here”, than a “how dare they do this” criticism.
This anthology is much more focused on themes and the art of story-telling, instead of just being full of tales of outright zombie carnage. It has a lot of zombie carnage fun, don’t get me wrong, but it also feels like a much-needed return to what the essence of zombie stories actually are: tales of death literally coming for you, and the questions and difficulties this poses.
Another thing that I really loved about it is that there are several stories featuring zombies in their original form – that is living or dead people under some sort of hypnosis or mystical bewitchery. I love undead flesh eaters and infected sprinters, but I also love these ole guys, and I hardly ever get to see them, so this was a very welcome change and pleasant surprise for me.
I would (obviously) recommend this to zombie fans. If you’d like to check out the book or the editor, I’ve popped some links below for you:
Bleeeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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