The New Fiction Collection 'A Hodgepodge Of Horror' Proves Author Tony Evans Is Indie Horror's Best-Kept Secret

Born into a hostile universe without any advance knowledge regarding the nature of existence, humanity has often turned to storytelling to understand its surroundings. Our collective cultural myths are a desperate attempt to derive meaning from the chaos ever-present around us, and though we’ve largely embraced the surefooted certainty of science in recent centuries, shades of our primordial past still linger. Urban legends and regional folk tales are modern remnants of the stories told by our ancient ancestors, passed down by word-of-mouth through ensuing generations, fictions meant to explain the truth of our reality.

In horror, more than any other genre, there’s unabashed respect paid to that lore of old: vampires, werewolves, zombies, demonic entities—all began as yarns spun by our primitive forefathers, and countless books, movies, television shows, comics, and video games have utilized those dark fables to scare audiences. One writer who understands the raw power inherent in such storytelling is Kentucky native Tony Evans, whose recent Dark Holler Press release, A Hodgepodge of Horror, is a fevered collection of eleven tales showcasing his fearless talent for exploring the shadows.

The father telling his son ‘A Bedtime Story’ is the reader’s introduction to both the book’s foreboding atmosphere and the nightmarish legend of Bloody Bones. Creepers crawl in ‘Katsaridaphobia’, a portrait of one man’s psychosis-induced insect infestation (or is it?), while a teenage boy new to town accepts a challenge from a local girl to venture into a haunted house in ‘The Dare’. An office worker who’s the celebrated guest at ‘The Annual Soiree’ thrown by his employer quickly learns the honor isn’t what he expected. Witty banter between the stranded city-slicker protagonists livens a bizarre encounter with the titular object in ‘The Donkey Tree’.

Latin American lore, bullying, and revenge intertwine in the chilling ‘Trouble Dolls’, which kicks off the book’s second half. A man lost in a blizzard finds himself at the mercy of a malevolent crone with an unusual assortment in ‘A Collection of Souls’. And a serial killer who’s made a devilish pact to slay ten women learns the hard way that he’s actually ‘The Final Sacrifice’.

A Hodgepodge of Horror is exactly what its title implies, a grab-bag potpourri from Evans’ previous short fiction collection, Better You Believe, combined with several never-before-compiled stories. There’s a cackling, ghoulish delight in Evans’ energetic prose that hearkens back to the Crypt Keeper in both his EC Comics and HBO television incarnations, and the obvious love the author holds for the genre shines through on every page. Themes of trespass and comeuppance abound, and his funny yet flawed characters are easily relatable, ordinary men and women with realistic faults striving to do their best in outrageous situations. And while each entry is worthwhile from a time-investiture standpoint, three pieces stand above the rest for their unerring, unnerving presentation.

Four friends find that a local legend is alive and deadly after they recite the words ‘Miss Molly, Miss Molly’ in a terrifying tale that channels Clive Barker’s classic Candyman films. A consultation worker and his partner find themselves literally ass deep in danger when they run afoul of ‘Big Daddy’, a backwoods bumpkin whose Bigfoot buddies provide all manner of perverse stimulation. But the crown jewel of this hodgepodge is none other than the collection’s final installment, ‘Fecesnura: The Demon Lord of Shit’, about a humiliated teen finding an unlikely ally in an infernal scatological monstrosity that’s by turns hilarious, horrifying, and gleefully gross.

With its stunning cover by Kristina Osborn and impressive book design from A.A. Medina, A Hodgepodge of Horror offers a complete package for fans, a collection of old-school, go-for-the-jugular fiction uncontaminated by pretense or needless posturing. Evans’ rustic stories rooted in Appalachian folklore reaffirm his position as one of indie horror publishing’s best kept secrets, and it’s for those reasons that I’m compelled to grant A Hodgepodge of Horror a thoroughly well-deserved 4 (Out of 5) on my Fang Scale. Perfect reading for a dark and stormy night.