This is a fairly decent set of stories. Anthology books are always iffy, some stories you will like, some you will not, and this one fits that same pattern. It is definitely like an 80s movie where some stories will be a tad on the cheesy side, and then once in a while you hit gold and really like one. There is a little variety in the content mix. It is a good book for a rainy day or late night reading before bed.

There are total 14 short stories which are set in 80's and every story revolves around movies/movie theaters.
Most of the stories are creature features.. And the other have werewolves,ghosts,serial killers and aliens...
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As it's an anthology I always used to have hope for the next/coming story and that is what dragged me to finish this book.Apart from 5 or 6 I couldn't even remember the other stories(I tried..)
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The only short which left me in awe is "Coming Attractions" by Stephen graham jones. That one was truly haunting and deserves a fivestar.
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I recommend this only if you don't have anything to read or if you're a hardcore fan of 80's horror.
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What I like is the narration,mention of so many old horror movies(added to my watchlist) and lastly the killer retro vibe.
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Thankyou Netgalley and Hexpublishers for providing me with an ecopy of this book in return for an honest review

I would like to say thank you to NetGalley, and Hex Publishers for my complimentary copy of "It Came from the Multiplex: 80's Midnight Chillers". I really enjoyed this book as it's essentially a love letter to the 80s horror movie genre. The book offers fourteen short horror stories focused on the movie theatres of our pasts. Going to the cinema has changed and this book takes us back into time when going to the Cineplex was an adventure in itself.

I enjoyed each story as they each had their own unique horror element. Readers were treated to aliens, ghosts, serial killers, angry Gods, monsters, and critters. All of the classic aspects of a great horror book. If you enjoy these types of stories, I definitely recommend this book. If you grew up in the 80s loving the horror movies of that decade you will also most likely enjoy this book.

I enjoyed all of the stories, but two in particular captivated my attention and were easily my favourites. They were "Creature Feature" by Gary Jonas and "Coming Attractions" by Stephen Graham Jones. I would also like to give a shout out to "Screen Haunt" by Orrin Grey, and "The Devil's Reel" by Sean Eads and Joshua Viola as I enjoyed these two stories quite a bit as well. I have a new list of authors that I have now added to my TBR pile.

The stories were campy, fun, and a little creepy. They weren't scary overall but I had a fun time reading them on my night shift none the less.

I loved everything about this book! The editors picked some awesome stories to throw together for this one, and it really brought me back to my childhood.

Even with the same theme, there was enough variation among the stories to keep it fresh from start to finish.

My favorite stories of the bunch were "Screen Haunt" by Orrin Grey, followed by "Invisible" by Mario Acevedo and then "Coming Attractions" by Stephen Graham Jones and "Late Sleepers" by Steve Rasnic Tem.

Among the pages you'll find serial killers, roaches, monsters, the religious fervor of the eighties, friendships, werewolves, popcorn, rashes, Come on in. The dark corner in the back is waiting for you. And who knows? You might just get lucky.

I couldn’t summarize this 80s horror movie inspired anthology better than the publisher, so I’m sharing that here. “Welcome to tonight’s feature presentation, brought to you by an unholy alliance of our spellcasters at Hex Publishers and movie-mages at the Colorado Festival of Horror. Please be advised that all emergency exits have been locked for this special nostalgia-curdled premiere of death. From crinkling celluloid to ferocious flesh—from the silver screen to your hammering heart—behold as a swarm of werewolves, serial killers, Satanists, Elder Gods, aliens, ghosts, and unclassifiable monsters are loosed upon your auditorium. Relax, and allow our ushers to help with your buckets of popcorn—and blood; your ticket stubs—and severed limbs; your comfort candy—and body bags. Kick back and scream as you settle into a fate worse than Hell. Tonight’s director’s cut is guaranteed to slash you apart.”

I enjoyed these stories immensely. The cover intitially attracted me (I’ll read anything with a vhs-inspired cover), and it accurately foretold the fun horror within. From old gods to demons and lost worlds in these theater, these stories will either take you back to the 80s or wish you had been there. One of my favorite stories was about elder gods trapped inside a movie theater, kept entertained with movies and snacks. Otherwise, they’d devour the souls of everyone on earth. Another was by master storyteller Stephen Graham Jones and invovled an urban legend about the space between the walls at the movie theater.

Whatever your particular brand of horror, as long as you’re a film nerd, you’re bound to find something you like in this collection. I glossed over some of the more bloody details of the slasher-esque stories, but the weirdness and lore of other stories more than made up for my squeamish moments.

This was a fun collection of horror short stories that were themed around classic 80s horror movies. This reminded me of the 1980s old B-rated horror flicks, as that is the feel that the whole book gives off. In general, though, I would say that the quality of the stories in this anthology varies widely.

I greatly enjoyed this compilation of stories and it was true to the theme of the book,

If you began reading and aren't feeling impressed, stick around; there are some hidden gems later on. This book was exactly what I had been looking forward to reading and helped me reminisce on old campy 80s horror movies/Elvira show.

Entertaining, nostalgic and horrifying, this is a great read for fans of 80s horror! My favorite story was Late Sleepers

Two things intrigued me about this It Came from the Multiplex - the cover and Stephen Graham Jones. After reading The Only Good Indians, I absolutely knew I would need to read SGJ again. In fact, his story in this collection was my favorite of the bunch. And the cover? Oh boy. I love the VHS look and the fun art of the cover.

This is a super short collection of YA and middle grade horror stories. Some I really liked, some I didn't like so much, and I couple I thought were really great. Those that I didn't like very much were generally a bit less focused, and too short to really get any kind of grasp on - they were over before they began. It's one of the reason I don't always like short stories, but sometimes I can enjoy them. The ones I really enjoyed gave me more of a Goosebumps vibe. I was inspired and my creative juices were flowing. These definitely made me want to get to writing my own short horror collection.

There's not too much more to say. These were fun and very mini stories that were enjoyable enough. I would've really loved to read these more so around the Halloween season, and that's when I would recommend them to you.

This was an awesome take on the creepy movies of the 80's. I love anything to do with the 80's and the cheesy horror flicks are at the top of my list. The list of authors alone should inspire any horror buff to read this book. The short stories are all a love letter to the horror of the 80's. So grab some popcorn, red vies, and a large coke and settle in for the gore!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. It was a very well-done horror anthology!! With any anthology, there are stories I loved and stories that missed the mark. I always average my ratings of the stories to get my overall rating for an anthology.

This was so fun! As with all short story collections, some stories stood out more than others, but by and large it's clear that this collection was compiled with a lot of love and respect for the genre: it's hokey at times, scary at others, and heartwarming in kind.

Loved this! Like with any collection of short stories some were good and some not for me. It transported me back to my childhood in the 80’s. Definitely recommend!

I'm transported back to my childhood when horror meant monsters. So totally 80's, creepy yet entertaining, I LOVE IT!

Some of these stories were really good and some were just ok.
I love the 80s feeling I got reading this and the cover is truly amazing!
Overall a good book!

4 stars for the entire collection. This is a SOLID horror collection and I gave five of the short stories 5 stars, so it was definitely a good time. Review to come!

Due to being a high school teacher, I often fall behind on writing reviews. Here are my initial thoughts.

Wonderful collection of short stories all centered around movie theaters. Every theater from a drive in to magnificent modern marvels. The stories are fun throwbacks and new twists on classic horror movie tropes. The different writers and quick stories make this a fast read that ends too soon. Well done to all those involved.

Super enjoyed this one! If you're fan of campy, B-rated horror movies from the 80s- this one will definitely be up your alley! Stephen Graham Jones knocked it out of the park with his story (as did almost everyone else)!

2.5 stars rounded up to 3 for Net Galley/Goodreads

I was really excited at the prospect of a collection of 80s horror-themed stories. I’m an 80s baby, and this is the stuff I grew up on.

Since I’m still trying to figure out how I want this new blog to look, bear with me while I try something a little different (again). No stars on each story, just an explanation of whether or not it worked for me, and stars at the end for the whole collection. Let me know if you hate this, please – I’m undecided and could use the help.

The Stories:
Introduction – Paul Campion
I have nothing to say about this. It was a fine introduction, but not memorable.

Alien Parasites from Outer Space – Warren Hammond
This story takes place at a drive-in, and revolves around alien parasites. I assume you already guessed that based on the title. Good job!

I didn’t love this story. It was written competently, but it just didn’t really grab me.

Return of the Alien Parasites from Outer Space – Angie Hodapp
This is a poorly fitted sequel to the first story. I say it is poorly fitted because there are some mental gymnastics required of the reader in order to figure out how certain alliances came to be.

Negative Creep – Alvaro Zinos-Amaro
A group of friends reeling from the death of one of their own are stalked by an unseen presence. Dammit, I didn’t like this one either. We are not off to a great start here.

Helluloid – Dayton Ward & Kevin Dillmore
Ok, I love the name of this one. It sounds like an 80s movie. It centers around a necromancer whose ritual awakens something. I was with this one right up until the ending, which I didn’t feel worked at all.

Seriously with this book…


Rise, Ye Vermin – Betty Rocksteady
Teen lovers try to escape their narrow-minded, shitty town. Finally a story I could get into. LGBT-friendly and filled with gross bugs!

The Cronenberg Concerto – Keith Ferrell
I thought this one was going to be right up my alley. They had me at ‘Cronenberg,’ but then lost me at the story. This is about a dude who has been performing weird rituals at video nasty showings for most of his life. Conceptually it was interesting, but there was something about the execution that left me wanting.

Creature Feature – Gary Jonas
A theater is all that stands between humanity and a bevy of Eldritch horrors.

This one was okay. I enjoyed it well enough.

Invisible – Mario Acevedo
A serial killer discovers that he’s not as unnoticeable as he believed himself to be.

I rather liked this one as well. Finally this book is starting to pick up!

Screen Haunt – Orrin Grey
A filmmaker makes a movie to honor her best friend who went missing many years before.

Yet again, this one was pretty good. Woo!

The Devil’s Reel – Sean Eads & Joshua Viola
The Devil in a multiplex. Not much more to it than that.

This one was pretty fun. I no longer want to yeet this book, which is great!

On the Rocks – K. Nicole Davis
Things get crazy at a showing of Howling II. You know, as they do. This one struck me as insanely funny because Howling II strikes me as insanely funny. And things don’t get crazy in the way you might think if you’ve seen that movie.

Sibyl Danning in werewolf porn - aka Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf
Coming Attractions – Stephen Graham Jones
4 young friends decide to hide out in a movie theater in order to see what goes on there after it closes for the night.

I don’t think SGJ is capable of writing a bad story. This one is a lot of fun.

Late Sleepers – Steve Ransic Tem
A college student has a shitty holiday at home with his family and decides to stop in for the last showing at the local theater before he heads back to campus.

I didn’t connect to this one at all. It was a well-written story, but I don’t feel like I really “got” it.

Special Makeup – Kevin J. Anderson
A Romani makeup artist uses “special makeup” on a difficult actor. Two things about this story bothered me. First, the dude’s name is Zoltan. Does he moonlight as a fortune-telling-automaton?

Second, he is repeatedly referred to, and repeatedly refers to himself as a “gypsy.” The former of which unfortunately works because of the time setting. Back in the 80s we were way less woke. But the latter is the one that really gets me. As far as I know, the term has always been considered by the Roma to be a pejorative term, so why the hell would he consistently refer to himself using a slur? I feel like the character read as having more pride in himself and his heritage than that.

It sucks, because it was otherwise a pretty good story, but that felt like a pretty big hurdle for me that kept knocking me out of the tale.

There were some hits, a few total misses, and a lot of middling stories here. The cover is great though, and honestly I would have probably blind-bought this if I came across it in a bookstore. If you are looking for 80s movie-themed stories, you should at least give this one a shot, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

I really enjoyed this book. It was very entertaining and made me very nostalgic for the 80s! I will be recommending to all of my friends who also grew up in the 80s

The cover is adorable and irresistible. I'm a 70's baby, and a child of the '80s. I even worked at a run-down, local video rental store in the VHS era. So reading the tagline of this anthology - 80s Midnight Chillers - of course I had to read it. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but this was definitely smarter than anticipated. I had to look up two words (lagniappe - small gift with purchase and zeitgeist - spirit of the age) in just the first three pages of the foreword. That's got to be a record, and I wondered at that point what I'd gotten myself into. What followed from there was a bit less cerebral, but a lot of fun. All of the stories revolved around the theme of 80's horror movies and were set in 80's style theaters or drive-ins. As is the case with any anthology, some were more memorable than others, and I thought the tension and my interest grew as I made my way through the collection. I really enjoyed the diversity of the stories and the authors. A quick and enjoyable read, especially for fans of 80's horror movies. Thank you to NetGalley and Hex Publishing for this galley in exchange for my honest opinion.