Horror Movies Seen As Pithy Life Lessons

• Phantasm: Don't have sex in a cemetery at night.
• The Night of the Living Dead: Frankly, just avoid cemeteries altogether.
• Dracula: Beware of illegal immigrants.
• Frankenstein: Early childhood education is vitally important to the development of a child.
• The Exorcist: Don't become a Roman Catholic priest: Low pay, high mortality rate.
• The Nightmare on Elm Street series: Don't take justice into your own hands, especially if it involves burning an alleged felon to death.
• The Friday the 13th series: Don't have pre-marital sex.
• The Hallowe'en series: Seriously, don't have pre-marital sex.
• Cujo: Have your pet regularly vaccinated for rabies and other diseases.
• The Omen: The Italian health-care system is a mess.
• The Invasion of the Body Snatchers: Home gardening can be a life-changer.
• The Day of the Triffids: Green energy is bad.
• Gremlins: Have your pets spayed or neutered.
• Pet Sematary: If you have young children, don't live close to a road.

Darker Companions: Celebrating 50 Years of Ramsey Campbell (2017)

Darker Companions: Celebrating 50 Years of Ramsey Campbell (2017): edited by Scott David Aniolowski and Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. : Excellent tribute anthology paying homage to the lengthy career of horror master and noted Liverpudlian Ramsey Campbell. Stephen King compared the experience of reading Campbell to being on LSD way back in 1981's Danse Macabre. 40 years later, Campbell continues to write -- and he'd been published for 17 years before Danse Macabre.  

The editors encouraged stories reflecting on Campbell's different periods, from his early Lovecraftian pastiches to later forays into X-rated horror, kitchen-sink dread, psychological horror, and many other modes. 

A couple of humourous, meta-fictional stories break up the often grim proceedings, none grimmer than Cody Goodfellow's "This Last Night in Sodom." The title is a nod to Soft Cell, the only soft thing about the story. All of the stories are good-to-excellent. Steve Rasnic Tem offers the closest thing to a pitch-perfect exercise in emulating Campbell's mature style. Other stand-outs include stories by Thana Niveau, Adam Nevill, Lynda Rucker, and Michael Wehunt. Highly recommended.