Monsters, Movies, and Mayhem

Anderson (Stake) assembles a fun, nostalgia-filled anthology of 23 original, lighthearted horror tales riffing on the movie monsters of both modern cinema and B-movie favorites. The majority of tales are short and snappy, like Jonathan Maberry’s fresh, surprising zombie story “Gavin Funke’s Monster Movie Marathon” and Karina Fabian’s playful “Josie’s Last Straw,” both of which hit the ground running and pack a quick punch. Fran Wilde’s “Welcome to the Underhill Cinema,” is one of the longer offerings, taking the time to settle in to a more weird and sinister register. Linda Maye Adams’s especially delightful “Alien Pizza” features friendly aliens so enamored with low-budget monster movies that they make one of their own. Every aspect of horror movie production gets its moment in the spotlight in stories featuring tortured directors (Kevin Pettway, “Love Your Mother”), ambitious PAs (Brendan Mallory, “Make Me a Star”), washed-up creature feature screenwriters (Sam Knight’s “Whoever Writes Monsters”), and, of course, classic cinematic monsters—vampires, werewolves, kaiju, gods, demons, and zombies all make appearances and are frequently given the opportunity to be protagonists instead of villains. The authors’ palpable love of supernatural cinema is infectious; horror fans won’t want to put this down. (July)