Hellhole: An Anthology of Subterranean Terror

Hellhole: An Anthology of Subterranean Horror is an anthology of eleven deliciously terrifying stories, carefully selected and edited by renowned New Zealand Horror writer Lee Murray, with an introduction by James A. Moore. Each of the eleven stories weave together satisfyingly, despite topics varying from military research gone wrong, to an ancient book threatening to open a rift between this world and another.

While the situations within each story vary, each hold common threads: They take place underground, as suggested by the title; and hold neat, high-quality writing; although none stands exceptionally above its neighbour.

I am not a frequent reader of horror, but I still found myself able to enjoy this anthology. There were boring parts – fight scenes blurring together, or one too many descriptions of blood and gore – but for the most part, I was drawn along on a high action, suspenseful ride. The characters in the story felt like more than just plot devices, with just enough backstory fit into the short story format to let me get to know them – and, more importantly – want to know more.

I want to give a special mention to my favourite story ‘A Plague of Locusts’, by Michael McBride. As with the other stories, McBride matches if not pushes the standard of writing, with his tight prose – you can see hours of work have gone into line-by-line edits to make it as clean as his story is bloody. He brings a fresh look at the often-overused zombie trope: A fungus bred in an American Cold War programme... with the unintended consequence of zombie like mind-control. The story follows two timelines, the first detailing the creation of these monsters, and the second, years later, with a group of seismologists dealing with the consequences. While I could tell from the start that the group of civilian scientists would have to descend into the three-and-a-half kilometre deep hole, there was still enough nuance within this decision to keep me from boredom, and, as I had hoped, it ended on a punchy finisher: ‘Rana’s other eye opens and she bares her teeth. Sinks them into the soft flesh of the soldier’s neck. And drags him, kicking and screaming, down into the well.’

My biggest issue with this anthology was that none of the stories grabbed me by the throat and screamed ‘Wow’ in my face. At the start of Hellhole, James A. Moore builds the hype with an energetic introduction, describing his job as ‘riding on the coattails of excellence’, but story after story, I couldn’t find what had been promised. Now, don’t get me wrong, this anthology was good – good enough to have me following along, even as someone who usually steers clear of horror, but it just wasn’t great. The stories worked well on their own, and even better as a whole, but each one felt just like a horror short story. Nearly every protagonist was a soldier or a scientist pushing the boundaries of human knowledge, and nearly every villain was a hideous monster or the result of said scientists’ work. Nowhere did I read something new, even within ‘A Plague of Locusts’ that I mentioned above, it felt like the authors kept well within their comfort zones. I know it’s horror, but surely there’s another way to build that fear than yet another unspeakable monster from the depths tearing someone apart.

In summary, Hellhole: An Anthology Of Subterranean Horror, edited by Lee Murray was a well written collection of stories, and similarly well selected to complement each other. I think any fan of the genre would enjoy this book, but if you are not a superfan of horror, expect a lot of fairly unremarkable blood-letting and gore-spilling. And, I probably don’t need to say this, but if you don’t deal well with graphic violence, steer clear.