Post by sturgeon on Nov 25, 2020 22:25:03 GMT
This is a creepy tale about a man with a guilty conscience who is haunted by a wooden horse's head. It's strongly reminiscent of The Tell-Tale Heart or The Monkey's Paw (I'll leave it to the reader whether I mean the W. W. Jacobs story or the Simpsons episode). If I was being uncharitable, which clearly I am, I would say it's reminiscent to the point of cliché.
Cap such as this, if it doesn't do anything original (cf The Brass Teapot by Tim Macy for how to handle similar material with true originality), flies or dies on the quality of the writing, the unbearableness of the tension, and/or the subversion of expectations.
So... quality of writing? Check.
Unbearable tension? I feel there was room to make this much creepier. The stakes could have been higher.
Subversion of expectations? Nope. Example. As soon as the package arrived I knew it would be the horse's head, but there was a whole page 5 before we got there. Nevertheless, I was holding out hope that something unexpected would happen. I said to myself, if the shop wasn't there anymore when he tried to return the head, I'd spit at the screen - but thankfully that hack was dodged. However, the ending was rather on-the-nose: a supernaturally well-informed character telling our hero exactly what he was going to have to live with and why, and then the end just as it might have got interesting.
Don't get me wrong, this is fun horror, and I love fun horror. But, for me, there was no X factor to elevate it above everything I've seen before.
No from me.
Cap such as this, if it doesn't do anything original (cf The Brass Teapot by Tim Macy for how to handle similar material with true originality), flies or dies on the quality of the writing, the unbearableness of the tension, and/or the subversion of expectations.
So... quality of writing? Check.
Unbearable tension? I feel there was room to make this much creepier. The stakes could have been higher.
Subversion of expectations? Nope. Example. As soon as the package arrived I knew it would be the horse's head, but there was a whole page 5 before we got there. Nevertheless, I was holding out hope that something unexpected would happen. I said to myself, if the shop wasn't there anymore when he tried to return the head, I'd spit at the screen - but thankfully that hack was dodged. However, the ending was rather on-the-nose: a supernaturally well-informed character telling our hero exactly what he was going to have to live with and why, and then the end just as it might have got interesting.
Don't get me wrong, this is fun horror, and I love fun horror. But, for me, there was no X factor to elevate it above everything I've seen before.
No from me.
