A very entertaining cosmic horror novella with a humorous tone, gory bits and a surprising ending.

• Entertainment factor: ★★★★★
• Scare Factor: ★★★☆☆
• Gore factor: ★★★☆☆
• Cosmic horror factor: ★★★★★
• Original factor: ★★★★★

Joey Leonard’s Last Horror Movie Marathon is an original story that combines cosmic horror with existentialism, an identity crisis and with some gore, mystery, and dark humor. 

It consists of 133 pages.

Plot

Joey Leonard has worked the last twenty years as the manager of the video rental store, Showbizz Video in Clifton Heights. Now that the owner has passed away, Showbizz Video is closing as the last video rental store that survived the digital age. Joey is a real movie buff and every kind of horror is his specialty. That’s why, while all the VHS tapes and DVD’s are going to the public library, Joey has inherited all the horror movies. 

One weekend a month he has a horror movie marathon in his basement. When he opens the box of horror movies from the Showbizz Video and is searching for a nice movie to watch he stumbles upon a strange VHS tape with “Numero Vitae” written on it. First he thinks it’s a private tape from the owner, but decides to watch it anyway. On it is a strange room and someone is calling out numbers. Someone else starts to recite other numbers and another person starts to call numbers in another language, blending all the speakers and numbers together in an overlapping mumbling. Then he passes out. The next day he not only has a hangover, but he is starting to hallucinate really weird and scary things. Something is nor right with him or the tape. And it’s only going to get worse. 

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Short Review

Joey is a man in his forties, had a fiancé Beth, who broke it off, because she wanted him to be more than a video store manager, to meet his potential. But Joey was comfortable in this position. He was respected as the movie buff, the man to go to if you wanted a movie recommendation. He is well known, and he really found his place in Clifton Heights. Now that is suddenly all over. He’s not exactly depressed, but rather lost. He doesn’t know what to do with himself. His whole identity is taken away from him. 

That this particular life event collides with the find of the strange VHS tape, makes everything he is going to experience, his visions, or hallucinations, questionable. It makes him an unreliable narrator, because it could all be in his head due to stress. However there are a lot of clues that confirm the existence of this VHS tape and the strange influence of the tape. That makes this story a fun read because you get sucked in right away with Joey’s experiences while you keep wondering if it’s all true or not. The ending is the perfect example. It’s a great ending that has a big twist. 

I think the concept of number stations is a very fascinating idea. I already knew about them and the whole idea that it could have been spies, but that the stations are still transmitting with no use, or aliens or whatever theory you can throw at. I think it feels very elusive and mysterious. This concept is taken a step further and turned into a cosmic meta existential concept of creation. It’s a very original and creative idea and it’s smartly woven into this story, combined with Joey’s current situation. 

While maybe existential and cosmic, it’s also a very entertaining story with body horror, gore, other dimensions, a humorous tone and again, a big surprising ending. I also did love all the horror references and if you like horror movies as much as horror books, than this is is great combo. However I want to add that Dolls (1986), which is one of my favorite horror films, is an eighties film and not a nineties film (can’t help to being a horror geek myself).

Joey Leonard’s Last Horror Movie Marathon is a great short read that is compact, to the point and original with gory cosmic horrors.