(pb;
2020: story anthology)
From
the back cover
“. . .
These titillating tales of erotic, existential terror are cinematic fever
dreams in literary form, individually and collectively conveying the delirious
desire that overwhelms our senses and the deep dread that undermines our
spirits when confronted with the seemingly contradictory but essentially complementary
twin fates of mating and mortality. There is only one entrance and one exit in
this brief, beautiful horrific cycle of precious, ephemeral Flesh.
“Welcome
to the uniquely stylized, conceptually uncompromising world of Vihorror.”
Overall review
Vihorror! continues
to mine the dark, pulpy and neurotic vein of sex-media-horror-love-death that
informs much of Viharo’s oeuvre. Not only does Vihorror! maintain that
thematic consistency, it─in especially bleak, sometimes funny fashion─hyperfocuses
on it in a way that Vihorror! could almost be stripped of the label entertainment.
I say “almost” because the author has not abandoned his frakk-it-all, cinematic,
sometimes hallucinatory blender approach, he’s just scaled it back a bit,
compared to some of his recent works (e.g., his Mental Case Files trilogy). All
of the stories, some better than others (but never uninteresting), ably flesh
out the inherent, aforementioned values, images and action, and Vihorror!’s
intuitive, loosely linked stories flow in an intriguing and anthology-true setup.
This may be one of my favorite Viharo works because it shows Viharo creating
in mature, dealing-with-troubling-events mode, one that is not for prudes or
the easily offended, but for those willing to enter a sometimes uncomfortable, pulptastic
and R-sometimes-X-rated surreality.
Stories
“Dismember
Me”: A half-naked, panicked woman runs around a dangerous city, trying
to remember who she is and what happened to her. An entertaining, fast-moving,
adrenalized and nasty sex-and-violence work, it reads like a Fifties noir/Twilight Zone crossover episode, given how cinematic, brief and effective as it is.
“The
Lost Sock”: Mood-effective desperation, dread and eroticism and
surrealism highlight this pop-culture savvy and lust-crusty work about a
down-on-his-luck man trying to locate a missing sock. Excellent, Twilight Zone-esque work, this.
“Nightmare
Cloud”: A lonely man has wet, disturbing dreams about a nameless woman
whose ultimate nature is redemptive and damning. Atmospheric piece that effectively
shows the protagonist’s increasing desperation.
“Dead
Nudes”: A stripper heads into work, only to find that the club─with
music still playing─is empty, aside from one mysterious customer sitting at a
table. Good character-centered read, with an equal, tone-true mix of sleaze,
dread and realization. Not only that, it makes mention of a certain
ex-P.I.-turned-dog-walker!
“Mood
Massacre”: This one put me in the mindset of a sped-up Jess-Franco-meets-other-Seventies-sleaze-merchants
film. A woman goes on a rampage of sucking off men before shooting them to
death. Initially, I was not into this one, but second-half backstory
explanations and a great stuff-to-follow ending made it work.
“Slaughter
of the Senses”: An unnamed, bored female man-killer, who may or may not
have dreamed the events of “Mood Massacre,” has a threesome with a
waitress and a stranger, whose affiliations may complicate the man-killer’s
existence. This is an entertaining story that not only─possibly─links to the
previous tale, but maintains the X-rated, violent and over-the-top tone of most
of the stories in this anthology.
“Fleshpot
Orgy”: A demon, linked to the antiheroines of “Mood Massacre”/ “Slaughter
of the Senses” and “Nightmare Cloud,” wallows in the increasingly
cold comfort of 24/7 possession and nasty sex.
“Like,
Dig”: A sociopathic killer with acromegaly (physical disfiguration),
attacked by a strange dog, crosses paths with a certain
ex-private-investigator-turned-dog-walker. This has all the usual Viharo
touches: vivid lust, fetishism; gratuitous-for-some violence and love of movies,
music and books; world-weary and wandering characters; onomatopoeic swirls of
emotions and actions. But, like many of the tales in this anthology, it ties
them together in sometimes surprising, natural story arcs that do not feel
writerly.
One of
my favorite entries in this story collection.
“The
Fleeting Feeling of Forever”: A woman, stumbling under the weight of
her ennui and failing relationships, accidentally finds animalistic release.
Fans of Paul Schrader’s 1982 film Cat People are a good audience for
this story, loosely linked to “Like, Dig” and “Slaughter of the
Senses.”
“Claw
Marks on the Hourglass”: An ex-porn actress/stripper falls victim to
the resulting violence of her declining lifestyle. Another evocative mood-piece
work, this, linked to “The Fleeting Feeling of Forever.”
“Wet
Dreams of a Mermaid”: The clever, bloody, tone-shifting and oddly
fulfilling porn film mentioned in “Claw Marks on the Hourglass” is
described, reel by reel. This is an especially fun piece, and standout entry in
this anthology. If filmed, this quick, constant reality-shifting work would be
amazing and distinctive.
“Big
Bust at the Cha Cha Lounge”: An older, life-battered Vic Valentine
ruminates on all that he has seen and experienced, a summing-up of the
underlying themes of this series of stories.
“Hunt,
Kill, Feed, F**k, Repeat”: Five human survivors from different crawls
of life hole up in their post-humanity-wipeout resort, engaging in the titular
activities. Excellent, bleakly funny and final work in this intense burst of
tales. One of my favorite works as well.
