I’m certain that various Sesame Street characters have been reimagined as horror icons over the years by various authors, illustrators and filmmakers. Big Bird from the Black Lagoon, for example, or Mr. Snuffleupagus, the invisible man. Elmo, the most upbeat moppet of them all, would make a great Chucky or Freddie or Pennywise. 

That’s what happens in Yuletide Horrors, Vol. 3, a recent anthology of holiday-themed hair-raisers. In a story called “Be My Friend, Pweese?” by Dustin Dreyling, Elmo (I mean, Wilmo) is reinvented as a frizzy green monster that looks like it came from a nightmare world at the bottom of the ocean.

As a Yuletide gift for a little girl, Elmo (I mean, Wilmo) is the ultimate Christmas present from Hell. Right out of the box, he attacks everybody in the Preston family. “Wilmo is going to eat your faces!” he screams in an unnerving cartoon voice. “Rrrraaagggghhh! Kill you now!”

During the assault, the little green fuzzball is surprisingly chatty and vulgar (“Wilmo will fuck your skull with his little hard pecker,” he says), but he still can’t ruin the Preston’s Christmas. “Watch your mouth,” cries the Preston matriarch as she takes a power drill to Wilmo’s face.   

A big chunk of Yuletide Horrors is dominated by a qualogy of stories by Christofer Nigro. Taking place during the holiday season of 1977, his series of interconnecting tales brings the classic Triad of Terror to a small midwestern town called Marksdale. 

In the first installment, Wilson Chambers is excited to join his relatives for a Christmas dinner. As a vampire he’s looking forward to a feast of blood and viscera  with a little sweet revenge for dessert. Embarrassingly, a slice of garlic bread gets the better of him. 

In the second story, a werewolf rips apart his extended family during a yearly reunion. Apparently everybody forgot that a full moon was lighting up the night sky. Writes Nigro: “It truly was the most wonderful time of the year.”

Next, Dr. Frankenstein’s latest reanimation project comes to town. Newly reborn, Brad Iverson was now a giant flesh golem looking for some long-simmering payback. “I wasn’t turned into a monster,” he tells his mouthy cousin, “I’m now a superior being—a superhuman. No longer do I have to suffer the bullshit of other people.”

The qualogy reaches its climax with a “Christmas Monster Mash, or Two Triads of Terror Come to Marksdale.” The multiple fights between the vampire, the werewolf and Frankenstein’s monster are the highlights of the third volume of Yuletide Horrors. It’s kind of like a sequel to House of Frankenstein. Like everything else I’ve ever read by Nigro, the story is an enjoyable jumble of influences drawn from pulp magazines, comic books and monster movies. 

[ Yuletide Horrors, Vol. 3 / By Christofer Nigro with Dustin Dreyling and Kevin Heim / First Printing: November 2023 / ISBN: 9798990366107 ]