Title: Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories That Scared Even Me.
Author: Irvin S. Cobb, Basil Copper, Miriam Allen deFord, Gerald Kersh, Damon Knight, John Burke, Fritz Leiber, Nugent Barker (selected by Alfred Hitchcock).
Genre: Literature, fiction, short stories, horror, mystery, crime.
Country: U.S., England, Ireland, U.K..
Language: English.
Publication Date: 1913, 1926, 1935, 1939, 1940, 1949, 1950, 1953, 1954, 1957, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, and 1967 (this collection 1967).
Summary: A collection of
24 short stories and a
novel.
Fishhead (1913) by Irvin S. Cobb is set in the backwoods bayous of the American South and details Reelfoot Lake and its most infamous resident, an outcast freak called Fishhead. In
Camera Obscura (1965) by Basil Copper, a merciless money-lender visits an eccentric and views his strange camera, which displays a live image of the surrounding town reflected from high overhead, but when he refuses to show compassion, exits the house into a new, terrifying, and eerily familiar world. In
A Death in the Family (1961) by Miriam Allen deFord, a mortician finds a tragic and disturbing way to fashion himself a full and happy family, but his fantasy-world begins to crumble around him when he decides it is time for a final addition to their family unit. In
Men Without Bones (1954) by Gerald Kersh, a man believed to be mad by the locals wanders out of the jungles of Puerto Rico, and tells a fantastic tale of a doomed expedition, a discovery of a space-craft, and an encounter with humanoid, gelatinous-looking creatures of shocking origins. In
Not With a Bang (1949) by Damon Knight, on a planet devastated by nuclear war and a deadly virus, the last man alive tries to convince the last woman to "marry" him and continue the human race. In
Party Games (1965) by John Burke, a children's birthday party culminates in a gruesome twist ending when a disliked, creepy little boy is bullied to his limits.
X Marks the Pedwalk (1963) by Fritz Leiber describes a hellish, dystopian world in which pedestrians and drivers have formed violent, armed, competing factions. In
Curious Adventure of Mr. Bond (1939) by Nugent Barker, a lone traveler who, upon stopping at an inn, is forced to visit the inn-owner's two brothers' inns, as well, realizes too late the sinister nature of these strange siblings. In
Two Spinsters (1926) by E. Phillips Oppenheim, a detective stranded in Devoshire fields during a storm seeks shelter at a farm, but the spinster sisters who give it to him have dark beliefs and plans for the stranger that, to them, is not a stranger at all. In
The Knife (1951) by Robert Arthur, a weapon owned by an infamous serial killer, Jack the Ripper, possesses anyone who lays a hand on it. In The Cage (1959) by Ray Russell, when a nobleman discovers his wife is cheating on him, he decides to teach her a lesson in his castle's torture dungeons, but though his intentions are not as serious as he makes them out to be, unforeseen circumstances cause a horrifying turn of events. In
It (1940) by Theodore Sturgeon, a horrible monster rises from the muck beside a family-owned farm struggling to survive. In
Casablanca (1967) by Thomas M. Disch, a man and his wife are stranded in a increasingly-hostile to Americans Casablanca after U.S. is hit with a nuclear weapon. In
The Road to Mictlantecutli (1965) by Adobe James, a fugitive on the run in the Mexican desert comes across a strange monk and a beautiful rider and, unbeknownst to himself, has to make the most important choice of his life. In
Guide to Doom (1963) by Ellis Peters, a tour guide of a small castle addresses a visitor as he leads him to a place of a suicide, and tells his the dark story of its occurrence. In
The Estuary (1950) by Margaret St. Clair, a man makes a good living stealing from a ship estuary, but discovers too late he's not alone amidst the rotting decommissioned hauls. In
Tough Town (1957) by William Sambrot, a travelling salesman has a surprisingly bad and dangerous welcome in a small town he comes across. In
The Troll (1935) by T.H. White, while staying in an inn in Finland, a man comes across a terrible troll, whose true nature only he, however, can see. In
Evening at the Black House (1964) by Robert Somerlott, as a man visits a friend in Mexico and they suddenly find themselves under siege from unknown assailants, it turns out neither man is who he claims he is. In
One of the Dead (1966) by William Wood, as a couple moves into a new neighbourhood for a bargain, strange, dark things begin to happen around them and their neighbors. In
The Real Thing (1966) by Robert Specht, two men are trapped in an air-pocket in a sunken ship at the bottom of the ocean, and as their circumstances get more and more dire, the darkness inside them begins to take hold. In
The Master of the Hounds (1966) by Algis Budrys, a couple vacationing in a remote house meets their strange landlord, a concentration-camp survivor who keeps extremely well-trained dobermans, and quickly discover they may be his prisoners. In
The Candidate (1961) by Henry Slesar, a man gets approached with an invitation to a secret society of people who kills others with the power of suggestion and group-think, but it quickly turns out not to be an invitation at all.
Out of the Deeps (a reworking of The Kraken Wakes)** (1953) by John Wyndham is a
novel where an alien invasion begins with mysterious objects falling into the worlds' oceans, and ends with ecological and humanitarian disaster as the aliens get hostile and the water levels begin to rise.
**Refer to the title link for the original entry with quotes and information.
My rating: 7.5/10
My review:( Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories That Scared Even Me by VariousCollapse )
