Sunday, July 20, 2025

REVIEW: Bad Dreams in the Night: Horror Stories (graphic novel) by Adam Ellis

Bad Dreams in the Night is a graphic novel collection of short horror stories. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This is a collection of 11 horror stories.

"Me and Evangeline at the Farm":

Initially, this reminded me a bit of Channel Zero's first season, Candle Cove, although it soon became clear that this story was very different. It was a little creepy, but the ending seemed to open up an annoying number of plot holes, unfortunately.

"Milk Door":

Person moves into a new place and accidentally uncovers a freaky "feature." Creepy, especially if you've ever lived in an older building.

"Butter Corn Ramen":

A double whammy of trypophobia and body horror. This one grossed me out more than creeped me out.

"Green Ribbon":

I loved the author's note on this one, mostly because I spent a good chunk of this story disliking the narrator.

"Forest Fruit":

This one made so little of an impression on me that I had to skim through it again while working on this review.

"Bus Stop":

Reminded me a little of episodic supernatural manga like XxxHolic

"Hangnail":

More body horror!

"Better Kate Than Never":

Very weird. I felt like this would have made a better longer work, with more space to develop the characters properly.

"Little House in the Sea":

Eh, it was okay.

"Murder Party":

Meh. Basically, an annoying person does something stupid, with a side of "true crime podcasts are gross."

"Viola Bloom":

Ellis made himself the main character of this one, which made even more sense after reading the author's note. I think this one and "Milk Door" were the creepiest of the bunch.

I've seen Ellis' comics online before and figured this would be a good read. Overall, I enjoyed it, although the stories were all pretty short and often felt a bit like illustrated creepypasta. 

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