Thursday, 22 May 2025

Nightmare Abbey 8

  


The latest edition of Nightmare Abbey is as strong as its predecessors, which is heartening. Editor Tom English continues to attract first-rate talent. Many of the writers in this, the eighth issue, will be familiar to ST readers. But before I pick out a few highlights of the fiction, let me mention how solid and entertaining the non-fiction is. There’s an excellent overview of that classic The Black Cat by John Llewellyn Probert, an interview with Ghostwatch and Gothic writer Stephen Volk, and John V. Navroth continues his aborbing history of US horror comics.

‘A Legend of the Ile de St Anselm’ by Steve Duffy is, as we’ve come to expect, a slow-burn tale of weirdness that lingers in the mind. The setting is a frequently fog-bound isle off the French coast, reached by a tidal causeway. A retired psychiatrist is approached by a man with an unusual problem, and the doctor agrees to take the case. The story this special patient tells is one of strange dreams and stranger realities. It’s an atmospheric tale with a good twist.

Steve Rasnic Tem’s ‘I Forget What I Was Going to Say’ is oddly similar in theme thought very different in approach and style. The first-person narrator tells of a strange and disturbing phenomenon that is fogging the minds of millions. But is the menace real at all or a product of ‘mass hysteria’? I often feel the world is going wrong is some hard to define but awful way, and this story suggests that Tem feels the same way.

‘The Ancient Groves’ by John Llewellyn Probert is altogether more traditional in its account of a man and his dog who go for a walk in the woods. I was surprised by the turns the tale took and quickly found myself rooting for the dog (and his owner). Quite traditional in approach, this one reminded me of Blackwood and Benson, authors who grasped the potential for horror in the seemingly passive and picturesque English countryside.

In ‘Localism’ Helen Grant conjures up one of the most enduring legends of Scotland – that of strange, aquatic beings who are notoriously tetchy if humans encroach upon their realms. This is also the story of a surfing resort with a huge artificial lagoon and wave machine. Some things do not mix. It’s a detailed and – at the end – bloody tale. All good messy fun.

I expected to be impressed by Sean Hogan’s ‘After and Before’, given his sterling record on two excellent films – The Devil’s Business and the Bordelands. I was not disappointed. Hogan evokes a grotty holiday village on England’s coast and a couple taking a break from the mundane pressures of a rickety economy. Instead, they find a different kind of escape – or is it captivity? An excellent tale, full of atmosphere and nicely understated.

If you haven’t already discovered Nightmare Abbey, you should give it a try. It’s probably not trying to be the Weird Tales of our time, but it’s coming pretty close in my estimation. I suspect we will see even greater things emerge, quite possibly blinking and wriggling in the unaccustomed light of day, in future issues.

 

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