SYNOPSIS
Four friends unearth a unique VHS tape that, when viewed, causes short-distance teleportation with euphoric after-effects, inadvertently launching a perilous trend.
As copies of the original tape are made, the results become less predictable and ultimately gruesome due to analog generational decay. Despite the danger, some will risk everything for just one more trip.
REVIEW
Thank you so much Shortwave Publishing and Alan Lastufka for sending me a physical ARC of this novella. All opinions expressed in this review are honest and my own.
Reading Teleportasm is a lot like reading a V/H/S entry. There’s a framing narrative with our main characters and in between we jump around to this videotape wreaking havoc across the USA. Despite this format, Teleportasm never feels disjointed and is endlessly engaging.
Within this novella, Joshua Millican milks this premise for everything its worth. What follows is a brazen display of imagination and grotesquerie that delivers on the chills and spills we’ve come to expect from Shortwave and the Killer VHS Series.
Millican very quickly establishes our main characters and each is well written and defined. He also gives us one of the most realistic portrayals of stoners I’ve seen in the written word, and as a stoner (it’s legal where I live) I really appreciated it.
The side stories, or vignettes if you will, play out like short stories and all of them are compelling and original. It’s never “oh, let’s see what happens if this type of person views the tape”, it’s always a unique situation and with a very unique outcome.
The violence and violent imagery in this novella is INSANE. The imagination on display here is outstanding, taking me back to the A Nightmare on Elm Street sequels or even Cronenberg. Disgusting, brilliant, can’t look away type of body horror and I am so here for it.
Teleportasm is another excellent addition to the Killer VHS Series and can stand proudly among its horror siblings, Melon Head Mayhem and Candy Cain Kills. Once again, this series has introduced me to an author who is now on my must read list and I can’t wait to see what Joshua Millican has in store for us next.
Leave a Reply