STEVE CARROLL WRITES

Those of us of a certain age have fond memories of the   heyday of the VHS movie rental market. There was nothing like going to the   local video rental   store on a Friday night and perusing the walls and shelves   trying to decide what movies we would watch into the wee hours. For many of us,   horror   movies were at the top of that list and in the 80s and 90s there was no   shortage of them to choose from. They typically starred unknown actors and we   didn’t care. I’m pretty sure Kevin Lucia is a kindred spirit to me in this   regard. The first clue to that conclusion is found in his novella,  Joey Leonard’s Last Horror Movie Marathon , which I reviewed a few months ago. That tale revolved around the closing of a video store and the protagonist whose life is upended by watching a certain cosmically-haunted videotape. The second clue is the fact that Lucia’s first full-length novel, The Horror at Pleasant Brook, nails the feel and emulates the basic structure of so many of those mo