Body Horror

"The Stolen Body." Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) is a novelist famous for his horror stories, fantasy and science fiction. Although he was not famous during his lifetime, his work is now considered a classic of literature. Lovecraft's work has influenced many authors, including Stephen King, who considers him "the greatest craftsman of the classic horror story of the 20th century."

The time is the American Civil War. The place is Louisville, Kentucky, where a notable physician and professor at a medical school becomes in need of cadavers for student studies. Offering high wages for acceptable corpses, Doctor Theodore Finch hires an old ignorant and destitute man, Johnathan Brooks, and his young Christian wife, Theda, to remove the enemy dead from local battle fields. Upon the 31st of October, and during a full moon, the body snatchers, the doctor, and his students learn that the dead are not always at peace.

Bill and Karen Stevens were so excited to get to spend a weekend away from their children. Bill was the top salesman of his company that year and was awarded a weekend trip to any four-star hotel of his choice, compliments of the company he works for. Bill and Karen packed their belongings and said goodbye to their children and headed to the airport, to their destination. The plane finally landed and they were ready for a fun-filled weekend without their kids. Bill and Karen held hands as they approached the front desk of the beautiful four-star hotel....

The human form is familiar to all of us. We like limbs connected to bodies. Writers of the dark and macabre are not too concerned if that remains the case. Indeed limbs, or rather pieces of the body, sometimes are best written about when not connected. It’s one of our greatest fears. It quite rightly riddles us with a very unsettling feeling. So why then do we turn the page? We’re about to find out.

Todas las noches cuatro amigos se reúnen en una posada de Debenham. Fettes es el más reservado, poco saben de su vida pasada de la que nunca quiere hablar. Una noche, llega a la posada un reputado médico venido de Londres, el Dr. Macfarlane. El médico y Fettes parecen conocerse, pero éste se muestra arisco con el doctor y rechaza sus amables ofrecimientos.

Our greatest fears are of the unknown. Usually we think those fears are in front of us...or behind us. But perhaps the human body itself holds the greatest horror. What happens after death? Do our bodies have a new existence either in whole...or part? Will others seek to claim them and do unspeakable things? We don’t know. But our authors do. And they have the talents and wits to make these diabolical stories vehicles for horror, for terror, for the unimaginable....