The Filthy Fifteen: Fifteen of My Favorite Gross/Hardcore/Extreme Horror Stories

During Tipper Gore's crusade against indecency in popular music, she and the Parents Music Resource Council came up with the "Filthy Fifteen". As with the UK's "video nasties" list and other such censorious lists, entries range from the utterly innocuous to the, "I'm vehemently against censorship but if you're going to be offended by something, it may as well be this."

Today I have my 'Filthy Fifteen' horror stories. These aren't necessarily the most extreme or graphic stories I've read, or the best ( "Red" by Richard Christian Matheson, "The Night They Missed The Horror Show" by Joe R. Lansdale, "Atrocities" by Lucy Taylor, and "Emerald City Blues" by Steven Boyett are all missing from this list), and there are a couple places where I swapped out stories that were a little duplicative of themes that already appeared here (apologies to Grant Morrison's "The Braille Encyclopedia" and Richard Laymon's "Mess Hall"). And I really am sorry Jack Ketchum didn't get a look in, but I find his most extreme stuff is better in longer-form work, whereas the short work of his I love tends to be less "extreme".

No, these are just 15 stories that leap to mind when I think of what I enjoy in "extreme" horror. I'm generally not going to be too graphic in the descriptions themselves, but if there's any subject matter that really bothers you, it's probably going to come up at least obliquely in these write-ups, so use your discretion. And if you're eating lunch right now, maybe just pop this into another browser tab and come back later.

1. "The Jajouka Scarab" by Graham Masterton

Synopsis: The quest for the Jajouka Scarab, an exotic insect the sting of which is said to cause exquisite sexual pleasure.

Why It's Here: Masterton's work always has an element of class, even if it's a little chintzy. It's fitting, given that he worked for Penthouse Magazine. All of those fake-classy names for men's magazines ("Club," "Swank," "Playboy," "Penthouse," etc.) conjure a world of the scandalous jet-set, and there's a similar sort of vibe in Masterton's stuff. This one is an outrageous gross-out that's nevertheless well-written and intelligent. Also, it will have you wincing the whole way through.

Where to Find It: First published in Masterton's collection Flights of Fear and in, oh dear, Grease Monkey: Tales of Erotic Horror. I read it in Stranger by Night, one of the many entries in the long-running erotic horror anthology series Hot Blood. This time, under the name "The Jajouka Penis-Beetle" (I wasn't kidding about the wincing).

2. "ICU" by Edward Lee

Synopsis: A bagman for a mob underground pornography racket finds himself in a strange hospital after a bloody shootout with the cops.

Why It's Here: I had to include a Lee story, but much of his really nutso stuff gets too cartoonish for me to really vibe with. This story is grittier and more grounded, and the most gruesome content occurs off the page. Which is not to say that he pulls any punches.   My first and favorite Lee story; this is practically burned into my brain.

Where to Find It: 999: Twenty-nine Original Tales of Horror and Suspense (ed. Al Sarrantonio) is the best place to find it, and you'll get a bunch of great stories in the bargain. It also appeared in The Best American Mystery Stories 2000 (eds. Otto Penzler & Donald E. Westlake), which amazes me, because while this is tame for Lee, it's pretty hardcore for a non-horror fan. Gosh, I really hope Westlake was the one who suggested this story. I could see it. 

I don't think it's been collected in any of Lee's own collections, but if you want a deep cut (heh heh heh) the original version (I think he wrote it for a writing class) called "The Blurred Room" is in Carnal Surgery. (Side note: Imagine being Ed Lee's writing teacher. You would have felt like the instructor in the first chapter of Francine Prose's Blue Angel, but every week). It's not as good, largely because it's not nearly as nasty.

3. "Martyrdom" by Joyce Carol Oates

Synopsis: A look inside an all-American upper-class relationship.

Why It's Here: In part, to prove a point: The "underground" has no monopoly on splatter and extremity. Oates is mainstream as they come, but this story eats most splatterpunk for lunch. This story leans into satirical excess, culminating in, essentially, the most notorious scene from American Psycho (I almost wonder if it weren't in part written as a response to that book, which came out a year before this story).

Where to Find It: Dennis Etchison's edgy, if uneven, Dell/Abyss anthology MetaHorror. Or do yourself a favor and pick up Oates' Haunted for a ton of great stuff. Datlow & Windling selected it for Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 6, too.

4. "All the Parts of You That Won't Burn" by Eric LaRocca

Synopsis: A man's hunt for a kitchen knife leads him to a twisted sadomasochistic society.

Why It's Here: This isn't as extreme as, for example, "Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke." Whereas that one is just a constant ratcheting up of the tension and unpleasantness, this is almost...enjoyable? It even takes a swerve into Richard Laymon territory for a surprise third act that I really liked.

The body horror is excruciating, the psychological manipulation is worse. And I think it helps that this story is a little more 'anchored' in some ways than other extreme horror with BDSM elements. Everyone has probably undertaken the gross, painful task of removing a piece of glass from their flesh at least once in life (I'm assuming you guys drop glasses as much as I do). LaRocca takes that unpleasant experience and whispers in your ear, "What if you shoved it in, instead?"

Where To Find It: This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances.

5. "Abed" by Elizabeth Massie

Synopsis: Mama Randolph is determined to have a grandchild. Even if her daughter-in-law is unwilling. Even if her son is dead.

Why It's Here: The one-two punch of the Skipp'n'Spector Book of the Dead anthologies is a high point of splatterpunk. Even by those high standards, Massie's story is hardcore.

Part of what makes it effective is that some of it is 'cozy:' We're in the country, and even though the dead walk and things are bad all over, life still goes on. This element of normalcy does two things.

First, there's the straightforward dissonance of it: We have a zombie apocalypse and yet we still have home cooking and wildflowers outside and we say our prayers. It conveys the sense of weird semi-normalcy that remains in Norton County even after the dead have risen (as an aside, I do enjoy stories where things are/have fallen apart, but society is still holding together in some ways). And Mama Randolph is this half-normal, half-horrible taken to the extreme.

The second thing it does is makes the horror more horrible: Part of what's brutal about this story is the fact that what's happening here isn't a one-time thing. It's happened to Meggie before, and it'll happen again (and, if it doesn't, it's because something worse is happening). You're trapped in this ongoing hell. Massie wisely realizes the repetition and the anticipation and the inevitability of Meggie's fate magnifies the horror of the, uh, climax (yeesh) itself.

And, yes, it does live up to the reputation. It's like the first time you see the 'splinter in the eye' scene in Zombi 2: You watch in horror as the 'bad thing' gets closer and closer and imagine just how bad it's going to be. Even so, part of you thinks, "They won't show that. They're not allowed to show that." Then, well, they do. And it's as bad as you imagined, and also worse.

Where to Find It: Still Dead, which you should buy in any event (it's actually better than the first volume, but get that one too while you're at it, okay?). If for some reason you don't want that (maybe you have Still Dead but some offended Puritan tore out those pages), you can pick it up as a standalone e-book for a buck. But why do that to yourself? Go ahead and seek out Southern Discomfort for more Massie mayhem, or Extreme Zombies (ed. Paula Guran). It's also in Necro Files: Two Decades of Extreme Horror (ed. Cheryl Mullenax) which also contains tales from some of the other luminaries on this list (Lee, Garton, Jacob, Masterton).

6. "'Yore Skin's Jes's Soft N Purty, He Said.' (Page 243)" by Chet Williamson

Synopsis: A gay illustrator of cowboy novels heads West to find love.

Why It's Here: Admit it, the very title makes you shudder. "Purty" is bad enough--one of James Dickey's many contributions to the English language is that, from the 1970s on, the word 'purty' immediately suggests backwoods sodomy. And the word 'skin' suggests even worse.  Williamson pays you off, with interest.

I've seen this story criticized as being mean-spirited and homophobic, and it is the case that the main character is the butt of the joke, but there's more to it. Jacques Lacan says that the only thing one can be guilty of is having given ground relative to one's own desire. And, in this sense, Eustace Saunders the unfortunate painter is a rigorously ethical psychoanalytic subject: He does not give ground relative to his own desire--he pursues it and follows the course it leads him, even if it risks his own annihilation. That is the whole purpose of his trip West--to truly live free and the way he desires to be. In his own stupid, doomed way, he's...heroic? Reducing the story to merely a sick joke undercuts the way it contributes to the important work of horror at the extremes in investigating limit experiences.

Where to Find It: Razored Saddles. Also can be found in Williamson's own The Night Listener and Others. And, of course, Datlow & Windling picked this one for Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 3.

7. "Next to Godliness" by Anne Abrams

Synopsis: A necrophiliac mortician struggles to adjust in the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse.

Why It's Here: Necrophilia is envelope-pushing content, sure, but that envelope's been getting pushed for a long time--there's "The Loved Dead" but I bet there's even older stuff. And, given that "Abed" is the first and last word on zombie sex, you'd wonder what a second story would have to do to make it on here. The answer is to go the other direction. The brilliance of this story is that it leans into what the internal sexual 'logic' of necrophilia might be, with the conclusion that all the things such a person loves about the dead would make an apparent necrophile dream scenario (zombies everywhere!) to be the opposite. It's a clever insight and a good character piece, and Abrams courageously, and even compassionately, leads us through a perverse mind. 

Where to Find It: Mondo Zombie (eds. John Skipp & Cody Goodfellow), essentially the third Book of the Dead. I've never read anything else by Abrams, and can't find any references to her, either, which makes me wonder if this is a pseudonym. I can't blame the author if it is--this is strong stuff to have your real name attached to--but it's a pity because this is an intelligent and effective story, clearly the work of a seasoned writer, and I wish I knew where to find more.

8. "One Flesh: A Cautionary Tale" by Robert Devereaux

Synopsis: A man and his father find themselves inhabiting the same body. Complications, hilarity, and surgery ensue.

Why It's Here: Gross and funny as hell. Mixes a high-concept premise with lashings of sex and gore, all held together by hilarious deadpan narration. Devereaux in general is my favorite writer of Bizzaro-ish fiction, since his stuff often hews just a little closer to reality than some of his peers, which gives everything more impact (see also: Bentley Little).

Where To Find It: Splatterpunks II: Over the Edge, the superior second volume of Paul M. Sammon's delightful and perplexing New Horror anthologies. Look past the sometimes agonizingly pretentious unrelated non-fiction material (Martin Amis interviews Brian de Palma! Jim Goad interviews Anton LaVey!) for a load of delights, some hard to find otherwise. It also classes up DOA II: Extreme Horror (eds. Jack Burton & David Hayes).

9. "Punishments" by Ray Garton

Synopsis: A man recalls his mutually abusive relationship with an older woman in his repressive religious community.

Why It's Here: It was either going to be this or "Sinema," Garton's other big contribution to the 7th Day Adventist splatterpunk stakes. And, I do like "Sinema." But it does too much, goes too big, gets too nasty, and it's too smug. It's gloating. This story on the other hand is angry and disturbing. It's also focused and has a dark emotional core. If you like Jack Ketchum you'll love this story.

Where to Find It: Hot Blood. The first one, which is also the best. Also in Garton's collections Slivers of Bone and Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth. And, uh, it was adapted into a comic book for Glenn Danzig's Verotika (which seemed to cherry-pick the Hot Blood series for material).

10. "Jerry's Kids Meet Wormboy" by David J. Schow

Synopsis: The epic showdown between morbidly obese, heavily-armed equal opportunity cannibal Wormboy and Reverend Jerry's congregation of zombies.

Why It's Here: The platonic ideal of the gross-out first wave of splatterpunk. Funny, edgy, saturated with a blood'n'guts response to the extreme cinematic violence that George Romero helped unleash. It's a righteous kick-ass shot-on-video zombie movie, but because the written word gives you an unlimited special effects budget, the carnage is limited only by Schow's imagination. Which is to say, it's not limited at all.

Where to Find It: Any self-respecting splat fan should probably own at least two copies of this: One in Book of the Dead, and then again because it was reprinted in Schow's collection Black Leather Required. It also shows up in Karl Edward Wagner's Year's Best Horror Stories: XVIII. And, if you just want just all zombies and nothing else, it's in Schow's collection of his zombie stories, Zombie Jam, the aforementioned Extreme Zombies, and Zombies: Encounters with the Hungry Dead (ed. by John Skipp...he really loves zombie anthologies, doesn't he?)

11. "Impermanent Mercies" by Kathe Koja

Synopsis: A photographer becomes an unwilling thrall of a boy and his (decapitated) dog.

Why It's Here: Koja's one of the queens of the splatterpunk/New Horror era. This is maybe my favorite of her stories, although it wasn't always this way. The first time around, I thought it went in too many directions and so diluted its provocations (I think I was expecting something more straightforward). Well, as often is the case, I was wrong. The polymorphous perversity of the story gives it power--it branches off into any number of unsettling directions, all while staying grounded in sensory and (ick) visceral detail. The ending is one of those great endings that entirely bypasses the consciousness to hit its target in the subconscious: You can't quite say what it is that's happening (and about to happen), but at the same time it's obvious.

Where to Find It: Another one where, if you're into the late 80s early 90s horror like I am, you'll probably have some duplicates. You can get it in Splatterpunks II, and then apparently Stephen Jones adored it because it shows up in both Dark Voices 3 (eds. Stephen Jones & David Sutton) and Best New Horror 3 (eds. Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell).

12. "Go, Go, Go, Said The Bird" by Sonya Dorman

Synopsis: A woman flees from cannibals in a post-apocalyptic nightmare.

Why It's Here: I like to pull some surprises when making these lists, so I wanted to go back in time and slightly out of genre for this one. This is like the prologue to Ketchum's Off Season, except even more stripped down and primal. For sheer bleakness and vague plausibility, it's up there with The Road, but with less hope. Jagged, impressionistic, terrifying, and taboo-shattering. A dangerous vision indeed.

Where to Find It: Dangerous Visions (ed. Harlan Ellison) is the only game in town. But you already own that, right? RIGHT?

13. "City of Angels" by Jay Russell

Synopsis: Slices of life in the goopy, drippy remnants of Los Angeles.  Emphasis on "slices."

Why It's Here: I don't think this is Russell's best story; it really is just pure gross-out. But I have a very soft spot for this because it nails a very particular sort of vibe: Late '80s early '90s LA-based nuclear meltdown. Reading this story feels like being 11 years old and playing Twisted Metal 2 and Duke Nuke 'Em all summer long. It feels like listening to a Carnivore album for the first time. It's edgy trashy post-apocalyptic sleaze in Los Angeles. It's a Plasmatics album cover fighting with a Toxic Holocaust album cover. The almighty Bleeding Skull review of 1980's bad-taste zombie kid-flick The Children describes it as "the type of modest trash-horror that is often idealized, but rarely actualized." That's this story.

Where to Find It: Splatterpunks: Extreme Horror. Sammon's first splat anthology suffers from the fact that most horror readers bold enough to venture in will already own the books that contain the majority of the best tales. Still, you should own it. Or you could go check your back issues of Midnight Graffiti.

14. "The Age of Desire" by Clive Barker

Synopsis: An experiment gone wrong releases an insatiable sexual deviant.

Why It's Here: Making an extreme horror list without a Barker story would be nuts. Really, just about anything from the Books of Blood would do, but Volume 4 is my personal favorite. What makes this one stand out isn't just that it's about a sexually-insatiable maniac (there are plenty of those in horror fiction, even before Barker entered), but that it takes the premise in very funny and very painful directions (that brick wall scene will never leave my mind). The only thing similar to this I can think of is Charles Platt's The Gas, which is like if J.G. Ballard wrote a book-length "Aristocrats" joke.

Where to Find It: Books of Blood, baby! Specifically, Volume 4.

15. "The Plague Species" by Charlee Jacob

Synopsis: The conquerors of a paradisical Balkan island come to rue their victory.

Why It's Here: A lot of writers who are influenced by Barker focus, I think, on the more obvious juxtapositions that make his early work in particular so compelling: Pleasure and pain, beauty and horror, sin and holiness, etc. All good stuff, but what makes Barker sing for me is just the beauty and power and description of the actual writing. That's what sells his horrors--with writing that intoxicating, you can believe the paradoxes of Barker's world are not just true, but necessary. 

"Okay, Gordon, but you just wrote about Barker above. What about Jacob?" Well, it's the same thing. This story is in some ways obviously indebted to Barker--the 'body parts going off on their own' and 'imperialists getting body-horror comeuppance' themes are straight out of "The Body Politic" and "How Spoilers Bleed"--but the less obvious debt is to the richness and beauty of Jacob's prose. These are words worth a thousand pictures. 

I chose this one to round out the list to make a point about the role of horror and the grotesque in the arts. Art has many functions, but one of them is extractive: The artist locates an aspect of beauty somewhere in life, cuts and polishes it, and puts it on display for the benefit of humanity. One of the important things that horrific, transgressive, and extreme writers and artists do is to go into the wastelands and war zones of human experience and do the hard work of digging gems out of minefields. 

Where to Find It: As far as I'm aware, The Darker Side: Generations of Horror (ed. John Pelan) is the only game in town. Trust me, it's worth it.

Awards Pedigree: 

Masterton's story was a 1995 Stoker preliminary nominee.

LaRocca's story was a 2024 Stoker and 2025 Shirley Jackson nominee.

Jacob's story was a 2002 Stoker nominee.

Williamson's story was a 1989 Stoker nominee, a 1990 World Fantasy nominee, and placed 28th on the 1990 Locus poll.