No Laughing Matter: Horror Short Stories (Beyond and Within)

Dark fantasy, horror and weird fiction is not always about the gruesome or the gross out.It has long been acknowledged that the line between horror and humour is thin to non-existent.The sudden jump shock will often be greeted by nervous laughter with the release of tension, while some forms of comedy can generate unease in the audience (and not simply because it’s bad comedy).Clowns - ostensibly figures of amusement - provoke feelings akin to terror in some people; they even named a phobia after it: coulrophobia.Fear and fun are inextricably mixed. The writers behind such comedy classics as Inside No. 9 and Psychoville knew this all too well (as well as clearly being fans of the old Hammer and Amicus films, which didn’t hurt).Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit used death as the springboard to a well-loved play and film.The number of books, stories, films and comic books (think of EC’s Tales from the Crypt, for instance) which mix laughs and shudders is legion. And so it is with this antholog