Hino Horror 11: Gallery of Horrors
Posted: October 29, 2008 Filed under: Hino Horror Leave a comment »This will be short and sweet, just like all the stories in this volume.
Well, I like Hideshi Hino. A lot. I’m not going to lie to you. I liked this volume far more than I should have, but it’s the sort of thing I could see a lot of people easily disliking. To be fair, the stories are not that good. They are all based around simple ideas and play out over the space of a few pages. There’s not much to them. But they are pure physical horror tinged with humor, just like I like ‘em, so I still eat it up despite the fact this is probably not one of the better volumes of Hino Horror.
The title comes from the framing device, which is sort of like Night Gallery, except there’s a Vincent Price-looking narrator. Each story is based off a color and an initial painted image introduced by Mr. Price. My favorite was the green story, which was about a boy who was literally and figuratively a vegetable. The ending was surprisingly heartbreaking for what it was. I also kind of liked the red story, which was sort of abrupt, but had what I suspect was a cameo from the main character of Panorama of Hell, save he was weilding a knife instead of an axe (the story itself is about a little girl with an aversion for the color red and a repressed memory). The gray story, about a statue and a scientist, had an excellent premise, and would have been much better in an expanded format.
I can’t really comment too much on the stories themselves since they’re so short. The critique mainly comes from their shortness since there’s not much to them. They tell their stories well though, and they get across the bizarre idea in Hino shorthand in only a few pages, so they accomplish what they set out to do.
Meh. It’s good enough for me just by virtue of being Hino Horror.
