Joe Hill explores loss, grief and fatherhood in this short story.
For spooky season, Amazon Originals have released six Creature Feature short stories from big names in modern horror. Beginning with Joe Hill. Hill is known within the horror community for his own tales, such as Horns, The Fireman, and NOS4A2.
The Pram is a short story that is reminiscent of Stephen King, and you wouldn’t be mistaken for thinking this was a homage of sorts.
Willy and Marianne move to a farmhouse in a small town in Maine after the couple experience a miscarriage. While doing the food shopping for their new home, Willy is offered an old pram by the local shopkeeper as a makeshift food trolley. But the pram holds more than just this week’s groceries.
There are many positives that come with this story. The tributes to Stephen King (Hill’s father) bring back fond memories of King’s story Pet Sematary, another that explores grief, rage and the death of a child. It’s an exploration of Willy’s resentment and grief at the loss of their son. Something he was never able to experience because he was too busy caring for his wife.
Its sharp writing and descriptions bring you into Willy’s mind, seeing these feelings that he had locked away while he tended to his wife’s every need and neglected his own. As the Pram slowly unravels, these feelings come to the forefront. This look into Willy’s mind is well done.
But we are here for the scares in this horror short story, and they weren’t really what we would call menacing. It was a bit of a let-down. This might have been caused by the short length of the novel. The build-up within such a short story doesn’t allow the horror to grow or fester.
This is one story that would have been a lot better if it was a full-length novel or just more than its 57 pages. It would have given it time to explore its horror in more depth. It will leave you wanting more. Nevertheless, the themes are good and fans of Pet Sematary will absolutely like this one.
You can check out Amazon Original’s Creature Feature Collection on Kindle Unlimited.
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Verdict - 7/10
7/10