DEMO REELS and ARTHOUSE MADNESS
Vince A. Liaguno
2/25/2025
Raw Dog Screaming Press
Reviewed by Brian “Skull” Lewis

Hey there horror fans, it’s your old pal Skull returning from the grave to clue you in about a most excellent collection of dark verse from Bram Stoker Award winner, Vince A. Liaguno! Just released by Raw Dog Screaming Press, Demo Reels and Arthouse Madness is a rollercoaster that’s ready to take readers on a wild ride through the dark side. So, buckle up buttercup, and hang on tight!

This a great collection of diverse dark verse that delivers a funky movie house vibe with its fan letter to horror flicks. “Summer Camp, Parts I and II” is a great example of this with playful verse about all the crazy goings on at camps we’re familiar with through the magic of cinema. “Epoch Rewound” transmits images of the 1980’s into our heads, the ones now referred to as “Pop Culture” but to those of us who were there, we were just walking though the endless malls, using lots of hair spray, and playing Trivial Pursuit. Many of the poems in Demo Reels and Arthouse Madness are about deep topics, but Liaguno presents them artfully, mixing in clips of pretty things to camouflage the horror chattering across dusty screens in musty abandoned theaters.

“Chatroom Hustler” opens the show by launching us into the dark side of online sex. “Ghosts of the Disco” transports us to the 1980’s dance clubs of NYC pumping with the sparkling, simmering, sexy intoxication of being out in a safe space. Unfortunately, the hot sweaty sex gives way to paralyzing fear and chilling terror in the 90’s. There’s a killer on the loose that’s silent and deadly. It doesn’t discriminate, but many neighbors do. This poem is followed by the sad and sweet, “Awaiting You” where a lover waits for their missing partner as the place they’re waiting is slowly revealed.

“Maternity Ward” is a poem that hit me like a well-aimed kidney punch and I’m pretty sure there are many readers like me who will read it and feel a sharp “click!” as it locks into place. Liaguno achieves the perfect blend of abstract and specific, so that he can be telling your story, too, of a parent you wanted to love and feel loved by. Instead, we ended up tossed along the wayside, only to be greedily snatched back up again by someone who refused to let us go and be ourselves. They often said, “I’m only trying to help/protect you!” but didn’t know how or were twisted by previous life experiences and maimed us instead.

Did you ever play the license plate game as a kid? Your family’s on a road trip and the adults tried to keep us busy by having us look for plates from each of the 50 states. New York and Pennsylvania are pretty easy, Louisiana a lot harder, and whoever sees an Alaska plate gets a candy bar! Liaguno plays a similar but much darker game with us in his poem “Missing Adults” where every license plate is a clue along with the back of a milk carton description. Winning this game is not for the faint of heart because connecting the clues brings about a chilling conclusion you can’t unsee once it’s in your head.

So, there is your peek into the darkness, my friends! Damaged Skull Writer and Reviewer’s rating of Demo Reels and Arthouse Madness-a collection of dark verse by Vince A. Liaguno is a blazing FIVE STARS. This is a fabulously cool collection that showcases Liaguno’s ability to mix big handfuls of pop icon imagery into his work without it seeming forced. You come upon it as you’re reading along, feeling that tingle of recognition, but not seeing the whole picture yet. So, we continue walking down that dark city street until everything hits us with the fizzing pop of celluloid burning and a brilliant flash of the marquee lights, changing everything forever.

To purchase Demo Reels and Arthouse Madness, please visit Raw Dog Screaming Press at: www.RawDogScreaming.com They have a lot of excellent titles available, including: Fever Dreams of a Parasite by Pedro Iniguez, and Beyond The Bounds of Infinity a diverse Lovecraftian horror anthology edited by Vaughn A. Jackson and Stephanie Pearre, which is amazing. Check out my review!

To learn more about award-winning poet, writer, anthologist and editor Vince A. Liaguno, please check out his site: www.vinceliaguno.com and be sure to dig the mind-blowing book trailer featured there! Vince is also on Facebook: www.facebook.com/vinceliaguno , Instagram@vinceliaguno, Goodreads, and Twitter/X

About your reviewer:

When darkness falls Brian James Lewis transforms into his undead alter ego, Skull, and burns the midnight oil reading and reviewing recent arrivals to his lair, the Skullcave. You can catch up with him on social media at: https://facebook.com/DamagedSkullWriterandReviewer where he’d really appreciate some follows to get more exposure for Indy horror writers and presses!

You can also find him on: X/Twitter@skullsnflames76

And we’re also on Goodreads and leave reviews on Amazon under the mortal’s name Brian James Lewis

Until next time, be well, stay safe, and keep reading independent horror!

Vince A. Liaguno