FOUR DECADES OF TERROR: JOE R. LANSDALE'S THE ESSENTIAL HORROR

While Joe R. Lansdale writes in many genres, he established himself mainly with short horror fiction in the early eighties. However, as with anything involving his work, even genre won't box him in. His collection, The Essential Horror demonstrates this.

We see his skill at combining the western with horror. "The Hoodoo Man and the Midnight Train" follows an apprentice gunsmith and black magician drawn into the decades long battle with his master's nemesis. He skillfully draws mood out of the setting. We also a story of his wild west supernatural fighter, The Reverend Mercer, defending a Stagecoach style microcosm from a wendigo in "The Hungry Snow." With most writers who cross both these forms, one simply becomes set dressing for the other. Joe has the understanding of both to give each a. full voice in their interaction.

He deftly applies his trademarks humor to most of the work here. Sometimes he uses it for misdirection in "Folding Man", a carload of teen boys are chased by a group of nubs they mooned, The initial funny immigary slowly falls as they come to encounter the title character. Sometimes he continues the humor even as the situation grows worse as in "Mister Weed Eater".Using something that actually happened to him as an inciting incident., Joe serves up a story about an average slob whose good deed goes more than punished when he helps out a blind man hired as a groundskeeper by the church across the street. It would have been difficult to be not be funny with his his most famed story, "Bubba Ho-Tep" where and elderly Elvis teams up with a black man who thinks he's JFK to fight the mummy terrorizing their East Texas rest home. While there are several laugh out loud moments, it's impressive how the author wraps an entertaining creature feature around a touching meditation aging. I was surprised in my re-reading how little was changed when Don Coscarelli adapted it into film.

Like many authors in horror, he uses the genre to address social issues. "Love Doll: A Fable "takes on misogyny with a man's sex doll coming to life and turning the tables on him. His memories of some people he knew having a problem with an African American hero in The Night of the Living Dead prompted "Night They Missed The Horror Show" about a harrowing night some young men spend up against some violent racists. he never overshadows the impact of these stories with preaching.

I was happy to see the inclusion of my personal favorite "On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks'. Written for a George Romero tribute anthology, it follows a bounty hunter in a world of the undead and his capture as they become prisoners of a weird church involving sex-crazed nuns and zombies. Completely irreverent, it's with both low and high brow humor, pulp action, and gross outs that put a young Peter Jackson to shame. It's part Romero, Gold Medal hard boiled, spaghetti western, and all Lansdale.

There are many oher chilling yarns in The essential Horror. Other standouts are the hard boiled fusion of Lovecraft and the robert Johnson legend in "The Bleeding Shadows" (another favorite) and two chilling short shorts, "My Dead Dog Bobby" and "Dog, Cat, and Baby". Not only do you get a sense of breadth of Joe's writing in the genre you get a sense of how he uses it to slice into the human condition. With Joe, it's sometimes difficult to tell the monsters from the normal folks.