Horror Show: Library Edition

Rock musician Greg Kihn obviously has tremendous affection for the kind of grade-B black and white horror films of the 50s that were turned out in record time by directors like Ed Wood and the early Roger Corman. In this first novel, he whips up a confection reminiscent of the Tim Burton movie Ed Wood--in which a Wood/Corman hybrid hangs out with a drug-addicted Béla Lugosi clone, a transvestite screenwriter, a Vampira clone, and various other oddballs in a lovingly detailed (wildroot oil on the hairdo, flash sport shirts, unfiltered Chesterfields) 50s Hollywood. The plot is thin, and is incidental to the characters and the mise en scene. Suffice it to say they get up to some hijinks involving desecration of corpses and a Satanist who can conjure up a Peruvian snake-god. Superficial, but highly amusing if you're in the right frame of mind. Horror Show is a nominee for a 1997 Bram Stoker Award.