THE DARK DOOR #1

TITLE - THE DARK DOOR #1 

EDITED BY - CHRIS COTE

GENRE - PULP HORROR & WEIRD FICTION | ART | MUSIC 

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN - CANADA 

A5//78 PAGES/BLACK & WHITE/PAMPHLET 

PRICE - £10.60 + SHIPPING FROM IllAdvisedRecords

Created very much in tribute to the old pulp horror fanzines of old, musician Chris Cote presents "The Dark Door" issue 1, a creepy Canadian collection of terrifying tales, poetry, artwork and playlists. Selling mainly cassettes on his Etsy page, IllAdvisedRecords, this is his first foray into zines, with two issues published so far. 

The stories are all of a high standard, putting many mainstream horror anthologies to shame. The tales are accompanied by vivid, disturbing artwork which adds a whole other dimension of horror thrills. Some of the writing flirts with Lovecraftian themes, others have a touch of dark humour, (especially "Ten-Legged Spider" by Austin Thomas) though most of the stories are of the shock ending variety; the long poem "Voices in the Hall" by Thomas Stewart evokes the hinted terrors of Edgar Allen Poe, but there is plenty of body horror elsewhere for fans of that genre, too.

Threaded throughout the zine are a couple of entries from "The Dark Dictionary" which explain the concept of "Exploding Casket Syndrome" (when the gasses in corpses cause the body to swell up and the coffin to explode) and the "Ifugao Death Chair" ritual of the Philippines. They supply a short, squirmy thrill and I assume it will be a regular ongoing feature. As an added bonus, playlists of music, just right for musical accompaniment whilst reading the zine, are available via printed QR codes, with short bios of the creators, on the IllAdvisedRecords YouTube channel. The first two issues are currently in stock at the Etsy store, plus a four-issue subscription option is also available. Crisply printed and produced, "The Dark Door" is highly recommended for horror fans looking for sophisticated, disturbing fiction.