Terminal Fright #12 Summer 96
The Journal of Traditional Haunts and Horrors
$5 from
Terminal Fright
P.O. Box 100
Black River, New York 13612-0100
Editor/publisher Ken Abner

Terminal Fright has grown over the past couple years to be the premier magazine supporting the art of the traditional horror story. Ghosts, graves, ancient curses -- you'll find lots of stories with these elements here. Slasher scripts and perverted sex you will not see very much of in Abner's choices. This is intelligent, goosebump horror. Issue #12 opens with a thoughtful bit of melancholic darkness from Brian A. Hopkins called "The Scissor Man." When a college professor is faced with the death of his wife, he finds he can see death -- the scissor man -- coming. He manages to stall the reaper, who then confronts him with some of the hidden secrets of his wife; and asks if the professor wants the scissor man to grant his dying wife the same look into the professor's heart. Even in a happy marriage, some thoughts and desires are best taken silently to the grave.

Rick Hautala tells a tale that I've seen cropping up over and over in the small press lately: while on vacation at an old childhood haunt, a man discovers the secret woman from his past that he has "forgotten" about until she stalks him. This one's told well, but it still feels awfully familiar.

Alan P. Smale offers a neat twist: what if you were able to go to "the other side" for a night, and play poker with other gamblers, not for money, but for pieces of each other's lives? It's an intriguing yarn about "The Game, and After."

Charlee Jacob, who seems to have a story in just about every magazine being released this summer, tells a wickedly vengeful tale of ancient Oriental curses in this issue titled "The Seven Ambers."

Kirk Wagner's "Dante's Breath" is either a tale of a war veteran's vision being opened to the horrors that stalk us unseen, or simply the story of a guy who goes homicidal nuts after serving in Kuwait. You decide. I just found the guy crazy and the story unfulfilling.

One of the most chilling pieces in this issue comes from Terry Campbell. When an artist finds a strange piece of "Stained Glass" for sale at an antique shop, his paintings begin to take on darker themes he doesn't remember painting. As it turns out, this glass is not only stained with dye, but with souls...

Another good yarn comes from Robin Spriggs. It's a Tales from the Crypt sort of cackler, with three sisters who awaken each night to help the circuitous suitor who once courted each of them remember his deeds. "Mr. Aberystwyth and the Three Weird Sisters" is a wonderfully cobwebby creeper.

The last two stories in the issue are from W.H. Pugmire and Ronald James, and deal with, respectively, werewolves and voodoo.

Once again, this is another fine issue of Terminal Fright.

Copyright © 1996 by John Everson. All Rights Reserved.