Now Read This: “Creatures of the Night: Vicious Vampire Tales” (2024)

“Creatures of the Night: Vicious Vampire Tales” combines three novellas that breathe new life into the enticing world of the undead.

Whenever I see a new movie or book that promises a new vampire tale, I always wonder what I will find. Will it be a classic elegant, aristocratic, Ricean vampire or a more zombie-like vampire truer to the original lore?

Crystal Lake Entertainment’s latest anthology, Creatures of the Night: Vicious Vampire Tales (Dark Tide 17), offers three original and gripping novellas, each delivering an intriguing adventure and a different take on vampires.

Simon Clark’s novella, From the Bloodred World of Vampyrrhic: Return of the Blood-Feeders, combines romance with action, adventure, and horror.

Clark’s story starts with three simple sentences that create suspense: “I met her in March. Fell in love with her in April. Lost her in June.”

Karl had relationship troubles until he met Magenta, a waitress at the Station Hotel. As he settles into the first satisfying relationship he’s ever had, tragedy strikes. Vampires attack Magenta, but they’re not the elegant kind. Karl tries to save her, but she’s carried away through a tunnel in the basement.

Clark creates an intriguing mystery with a tale combining classic horror, mythology, and action-adventure.

Karl suffers a severe head injury during the attack. His memory is impaired and his personality is altered. He finds himself under police scrutiny. The unreliable narrator keeps the reader’s mind turning as quickly as the pages. The vampires have a unique backstory creating a new mythology.

Clark’s tale is gripping, compelling, and action-packed, with an unpredictable ending.

The action, adventure, and romance continue with Kevin J. Kennedy’s Perspective.

Kennedy’s tale is told from the perspective of an unnamed narrator, a young man having a difficult time in life. He suffers from depression and self-esteem issues. As he begins to pull himself out of it, he crosses paths with Samantha, a woman who catches his eye at the gym. After he sees two men bullying her in the parking lot, he intervenes, and his life changes forever.

Once transformed, his life goes from hum-drum to exciting. Eventually, Samantha and the narrator settle into a stable life—for vampires. One day, a dead body shows up on their door, and shortly after, a note with an address. What they find is a mysterious house with a seemingly never-ending stairway way.

Kennedy’s action-packed scenes kept me on the edge of my seat.

He doesn’t skimp on gore. While he crafts an effective action-adventure story, he also can be poetic and philosophical at points. His story is allegorical as the narrator reflects on his life-altering experience at the end.

Gord Rollo’s Beneath Still Waters is a gripping underwater combination horror/adventure story.

Rollo incorporates Native American mythology to craft an original, intriguing, and suspenseful horror story.

After a catastrophic event plunges the Red Spruce Gypsum mine underwater, the small town of Beckley, Nova Scotia, Canada, decides to make it into a lake. Two years later, Red Spruce Gypsum Mine officially became Red Spruce Lake. Townspeople who go to the lake for a relaxing dip begin to go missing. The authorities investigate, and the gruesome murders start to pile up. They wonder if it is a psycho killer or something else… something that lives within the depths of Red Spruce Lake.

I couldn’t help but think of Jaws and The Creature From the Black Lagoon.

Overall, Rollo knows how to build tension and craft an eerie atmosphere. When he sets up his scenes, he invites the reader into the character’s experience, creating sympathy and building tension as we know what will come. Rollo’s story does have an original twist incorporating lore never before used in a vampire tale—as far as I know.

Rollo’s underwater horror tale presents a fresh and original take on vampires. His novella is a page-turner that will keep you guessing. Who or what is lurking beneath Red Spruce Lake, and what does it want?

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Each tale in Creatures of the Night: Vicious Vampire Tales is masterfully crafted, nuanced, and action-packed.

I recommend checking out this riveting collection if you love vampires or want something different to curl up with at night.

Creatures of the Night: Vicious Vampire Tales (Dark Tide 17) is available from Crystal Lake Entertainment.