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otterno11's review
3.0
[3.5] The third of four titles in the "Lairs of the Hidden Gods" anthology series of Lovecraft inspired fiction from Japan, "Straight to Darkness" offers more unique cosmic horror tales in English for the first time. With awesome cover art drawing from the four seasons, this "autumn" entry includes some very interesting takes on the "Cthulhu Mythos." Like any anthology, there is a mix of ideas, and while I can't say I really enjoyed all of them, there is some neat, scary stuff in here for devotees of Lovecraft. The translation in a few of the tales were a bit stilted, but for the most part, I feel that they come through with all of their spookiness intact. Some were traditional pastiches such as Kida Junichiro's "Keepsake of the Grandfather," in which a family heirloom from the South Pacific brings strange and unwelcome attention in 1930s Japan, while others, such as Takeuchi Yoshikazu's "She Flows," take an entirely mundane but bleak look at pair of young women trapped in the soul numbing ennui of contemporary Japan (not Lovecraftian in style, but Lovecraftian in spirit, perhaps?).
My personal favorites were Sano Shiro's "Horror Special," which deals with strange goings on at the filming of an adaptation of the "The Dunwich Horror" for Japanese TV and Aramata Hiroshi's "The Road," in which a Japanese tourist in Providence, RI, encounters ghosts from Lovecraft's life. "C-City," by Kobayashi Yasumi, just might be the best interpretation of Cthulhu in the modern world I've seen yet.
My personal favorites were Sano Shiro's "Horror Special," which deals with strange goings on at the filming of an adaptation of the "The Dunwich Horror" for Japanese TV and Aramata Hiroshi's "The Road," in which a Japanese tourist in Providence, RI, encounters ghosts from Lovecraft's life. "C-City," by Kobayashi Yasumi, just might be the best interpretation of Cthulhu in the modern world I've seen yet.
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