There was a time when the major publishers had no qualms about aiming firmly for the more low-brow aspects of horror. "It's horror, damnit", I can imagine a sweaty, maniacally grinning publicist saying to a crowded boardroom, "so let's give them horror! I mean twisted shit, the sicker the better. Mwuhahahahaaaaa!". And then cut to the crowd, who are revealed to be a hoard of gibbering bald men in stained suits, giggling into their notepads as they scribble down their ideas with insane glee.
Or something very like that.
And I guess it worked for me. Like a lot of horror fans, I have to acknowledge that I have a slightly twisted dark core that is buried deep, deep beneath my calm civilised exterior, that can peer into the (at least fictionally) horrific and not look away. It very often relishes the frisson of horror that trickles down my spine. It relishes the anticipation of that feeling. So for me these covers worked. They certainly made me have a second look.
The best of them showed technically superior commercial craftmanship. The most effective of them, for me, showed a vaguely human visage combined with something gross. My wife likes to read some of my horror novels, and she supplies what I call my "cringe test". If the cover was gross enough she would visibly cringe, but would still be interested in reading it as long as she could fold a piece of paper over the cover.
So here they are, seven cringe-worthy selections form my book shelf.
(Note: these are in chronological order)
Shock! by Richard Matheson
(Sphere Books, 1979. Author copyright:1961)
This bloody 1979 cover seems more than a little over-the-top for an author like Matheson. And that's an awful lot of blood for a head that already looks dead. Nevertheless, my very-early-teens self was suitably impressed. This was the first of three volumes, and features short stories that were all written in the 1950s.
The Pariah by Graham Masterton
(Star Books, 1983)
Mictantecutli, the Mexican god of the dead, is the source of evil in this book. I can't remember the exact relevance of the cover, but when a book involves the walking dead I guess any old gross-out corpse will do. An enjoyable piece of entertainment from Masterton, but with a very rushed ending.
Shadow-Eyes by Kathryn Ptacek
(Arrow Books, 1986. Author copyright: 1983)
Freaky demonic eyes, plus a shrieking man with what appears to be blood spurting out of his sockets - effective! Ptacek was married to the talented Charles L. Grant (1942 - 2006) and is an excellent writer in her own right.
Goat Dance by Douglas Clegg
(New English Library, 1990. Author copyright: 1989)
Yes, I've posted this cover before, but it deserves another posting. Even without the mutation of the individual on the cover, the thing trying to pull its way out of its mouth is freaky enough.
The Giant Book of Terror, ed. Stephen Jones and Ramsey Campbell
(Magpie Books, 1994. Content copyright as 1992, 1993, and 1994, as from Best New Horror 3 and Best New Horror 4)
This strikes me as the most over-the-top of this horrific gallery. Nasty. The story selection within is excellent, featuring the likes of Clive Barker, Poppy Z Brite, and Robert McCammon, and many other top-notch horror authors.
Dead in the Water by Nancy Holder
(Raven Books, 1995. Author copyright: 1994)
Behold... the fish-man! A bizarre piece of altered photography adorns the Raven edition of Holder's Bram Stoker Award-winning novel. Other editions offer a distinctly more sedate cover.
Dark Terrors, ed. Stephen Jones and David Sutton
(Victor Gollancz, 1995)
On the face of it, this is probably less freaky than the other covers. But there's something about clowns, y'know? Especially skeletal ones that are proffering their freshly plucked eyeball. This was the first volume of the Dark Terrors anthology series, and features excellent stories from the likes of Peter Straub and Ramsey Campbell, and many excellent "new voices" as well.
So there you have it. There are a lot of others I could have posted, but I think these are the "favourites", for want of a better term. Will we ever return to the days of books from major publishers displaying their horror origins up front with such gorey abandon? Putting aside the lack of horror from major publishers, in these politically correct days it doesn't seem likely.
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