In the rush to legitimize our beloved corner of literature, we sometimes forget that horror can just plain entertain. A theme or message is a plus, of course, but a cracking good story and action may trump literary pretensions by pushing the pedal to the metal and going for the ride. It's like a water ride versus a leisurely train trip—both can excite passengers, but in different ways and in differing quantities.

Edo van Belkom (Six-Inch Spikes, Death Drives a Semi) knows high concept and turns it to his advantage in two recent, entertaining short novels. In Scream Queen, Ike and Erwin Gowan, low-budget horror movie director brothers (think the Coen Brothers with less resources and no respect) get the opportunity to produce a reality show in which six camera-armed contestants try to "survive" a haunted house rigged with gags. It's Big Brother in Hell House! That's not all that's rigged—not all of the four bombshell chicks and two studly guys who have to "explore" the house and "audition" for a horror movie role without being scared out the door are what they seem. Of course, the house is truly haunted and the requisite parapsychologist hired to provide "mumbo-jumbo" makes the expected pronouncements—once blood is spilled in the house, the spirits will come to life and demand more death. When the parapsychologist is dismissed as a quack, havoc ensues.

Jody Watts is our protagonist, a wholesome contestant with a fear of ringing phones. Each contestant has such a fear, because the Gowans planted appropriate gags throughout the house before sealing them in. Unfortunately, their special effects are overshadowed by the Amityville-type house, leading to a series of excellent set piece deaths amidst the hokey dialogue of the reality show. It would be easy to dismiss Scream Queen as low-budget, if it weren't for the sly skewering it delights in—skewered are cheesy movie moguls, cheesy reality show producers and the networks who salivate at the potential low cost/high ratings, as well as the greed and shamelessness that fills out reality show casts with hopeful losers and wannabe celebs. Indeed, it's these jabs that make Scream Queen resonate a bit as commentary. Of course, it could just be the beheadings. Lying somewhere between Richard Laymon and Tamara Thorne, van Belkom serves up the same winking funhouse horror with simple gusto.

Blood Road develops more of an edge from the beginning, both stylistically and thematically. A more traditionally dark tale of horror that befalls innocents, it concerns a semi-driving vampire and the latest in a line of hitchhikers he has picked up and attempted to bleed dry. Amanda is a waitress who decides to leave her own "bad situation" in which an abusive boyfriend, a has-been minor hockey star, seems bent on drinking and gambling away what's left of his pride. Unfortunately, one of the truckers who picks her up is Konrad Valeska, a non-stereotypical bloodsucker who seems to have hit upon the best method of draining strangers throughout Canada. As clever as that might seem, it would of course be more clever if he hid the bodies, rather than leaving them at the side of the highway! Still, he must present enough of a target for sharp-nosed Constable Sharpe of the local constabulary to home in on. And Amanda is not a quiet victim. Blood Road ("The route of all evil"!) tingles with well-paced grue and action that leaves questions behind like the white lines on asphalt. The author knows his trucking and he again proves that high concept and several well-drawn protagonists make for compelling reading. The cinematic possibilities for Blood Road (and Scream Queen) seem to be built right in, resulting in the kind of drive-in fare we all loved as kids. And there's a lot to be said for the lovable, go-for-the-jugular horror romp van Belkom delights in offering.