Month: May 2025

I like the narrator’s adaptation: Ian Gordon, who does a whole lot of these for HorrorBabble, has a great voice for it and some really good technique.

In this particular “reading”, he speaks as a narrator that is actually speaking to *you*, about what he (the character himself) knows.

There are also some sound FX in the background as he “tells his story” to – literally – *you*, which I find an enjoyable and unusual contrast to the story itself.

But enough of this gay banter.

Gordon is a decent voice actor as well as someone with a naturally gifted-for-this-sort-of-story voice, at least in this audiobook.

An interesting short horror story to relax to with a nice cup of tea.

After about a nine and a half minute intro as described above, the story switches to being the titular Pickman himself talking to the narrator, offering to show him some rather “strong” works of art that he has come up with in privacy…works deemed a bit TOO strong for the “common man”.

Then it switches back to the narrator, who seems to be a bit disturbed by his own story, and “puts the kettle on” before resuming his story to the visitor. That would be you, again.

He begins to describe the pictures that he sees when he first arrives at Pickman’s secret location: not-quite-human, hideous figures with faces terrible to behold.

He is ushered into the next room of Pickman’s “works”, and actually screams at what he sees on the walls.

The narrator pauses in his narration as he himself becomes more and more disturbed and scared by his own tales as he describes himself as HAVING been at seeing the horrific art.

The slowly-getting-worse effect is a bit boring, but I think that’s because it’s so common for Lovecraft.

The narrator talks about screaming again as the WORST, most HORRIBLE portrait is revealed by Pickman…a portrait he sees as so close to reality so as to BE reality.

Pickman himself, then, appears afraid as well as the narrator as he seems to hear something scary…he tries to dismiss it, though, and summarily ends the “tour” as if things are just fine.

That was the last time the narrator ever heard of Pickman.

He reveals that he took a photograph that had supposedly been one that Pickman had taken of a background from which to work on his next painting, but discovers – he reveals to you – that it was in fact a picture of that last room itself, and of a hideous being that was being painted, from reality itself.

Good, solid story. And you havta love the ending.

Grade: B+

While sitting on a tomb in a burial ground (for some reason), the narrator is mocked by a friend for his “illogical” and “superstitious” beliefs, which arouses anger in said narrator.

They discuss “The Unnamable”, which of course isn’t named.

The narrator makes (what he considers) an intelligent, logical argument for the existence of things beyond the bounds of human perception/conception/imagination both in physical and spiritual form.

In making this argument, he cites quite a few “sources”.

It’s a pretty boring discussion, really…at least by two-thirds of the way through.

Why? Because it’s SO common for a Lovecraft story, an argument that hints at “unnamable”/”indescribable”/etc… things at GREAT length without the buildup building up to anything.

After about 16 minutes in, it starts to hint at some kind of…action. Resolution. ANYTHING.

Then, when it’s almost done, a whole sh1tload of things just HAPPEN. Maybe. Kind of.

I mean, if this was the first work of an unknown writer, my interest would be piqued.

But it’s just SO redundant of so many Lovecraft tales that have almost exactly the same formula. Lots of buildup, lots of wordiness, lots of uncertainty, more buildup, and then things happen – or maybe they don’t – and it becomes a matter of “Was it real, or Memorex?”

When he does it right, he can make it unusual and creepy enough to be impressive and enjoyable.

What he DOESN’T, it turns out like this: A competent but colossal waste of time.

I mean, the story is basically just a textbook of “How to write an H.P. Lovecraft story”. All competence, no inspiration.

Like a segment from the Monty Python Flying Circus ‘How To Do It’ sketch. Thanks, H.P., GREAT idea!

And I LIKE him, at least in theory.

Grade: D-

First-person narrator is revealed as a disgusting, horrible person pretty much right from the start.

Interesting from the beginning, reminiscent in some ways of ‘Herbert West-Reanimator’, which preceded its original publishing.

No “resurrection” here, though…strict grave-robbing, though the narrator may be offended by such a slight.

The original publishing contains the first mention of H.P. Lovecraft’s famous fictional novel, the ‘Necronomicon’.

Two men have a self-made “museum” of dug-up corpses, and are troubled by the recurring baying of a hound when they add an amulet discovered in one of their “adventures” to it.

Eventually, one is torn to pieces, apparently by some sort of flying dark thing only barely seen by his companion as he comes to the site of the killing.

The remaining man hears the faint baying of some unknown hound after burying his companion, terrifying him into leaving his home (with the amulet, destroying the rest of his treasures).

Despite this, he hears and “feels” what he believes is the Hound stalking him.

He attempts to return the amulet to the grave from whence he found it to avoid being killed next, but on his way there the amulet is stolen from him.

Travelling finally to the grave, he digs desperately at it in an attempt to somehow “placate” whatever force he had disturbed/violated in his grave robbing.

When he digs down to the old coffin, however, he finds that things are not quite as he had anticipated/hoped.

It’s not very Lovecraftian, unfortunately. I mean, it’s creepy and disgusting, sure, but it’s more a monster movie (story) than a slow descent into insanity. A bit too plain for me.

Inspirational Quote: “…leering sentiently at me with phosphorescent sockets and sharp and sanguine fangs yawning twistedly in mockery at my inevitable doom.”

Grade: C-

It’s all build-up. And it’s not his best build-up.

Very wordy, with some good descriptions that H.P. seems to pull from nowhere with ease.

But…it’s all build-up.

A relative waste of time compared to some of his best work. ‘In The Mouth Of Madness’ may pull its description of forms tumbling upward toward reality from here, or may not. In either case, it’s better to watch/hear Linda Styles read it to you from Sutter Cane’s new book than listen to it here.

Perhaps a necessary short story to introduce the IQ and the Cthulhu mythos properly, but otherwise it’s fairly safe to skip it.

Inspirational Quote: “That is not dead which can eternal lie; and with strange eons even death may die.”

Grade: D