Iskalde Grøss #2/1989

In "Det gamle skinnet," Carlton Webster, a wealthy man desperate to win Linda Stewart’s love, undergoes a series of increasingly extreme surgical transformations to shed his aging appearance—first his face and torso, then his legs—spending his entire fortune to become young and desirable. Though he finally looks the part, he discovers too late that Linda never cared for him at all, only for wealth, and has instead married George Booth, the man whose body once sustained Carlton’s new form.

In the isolated Glades, a grieving father retreats into solitude after his wife’s death in childbirth and the birth of a son with stunted legs and severe deformities. Years later, when a series of brutal killings shakes the region, the sheriff tracks the violence to the man’s remote cabin—only to be met with silence, a gun, and a quiet, unflinching presence. As the truth begins to surface, the man’s confession cuts through the silence, revealing a horror he can no longer deny.

In "Bank i bordet!", Henri Duval, a prisoner on a remote penal colony, makes a desperate gamble: after killing the governor with a poisoned dart, he plans to take his place in the coffin to escape execution and return to Paris. With the body sealed in a casket and the ship bound for sea, the fate of the man who now wears another’s face hangs in the balance.

In "Kurven," Vincent Cabez navigates a life defined by duality, burdened by a secret he carries in silence—a basket shielding the truth of his two heads. As one half grows increasingly violent and unruly, the other wrestles with a desperate choice: endure the inevitable or end it all before the darkness takes over completely.

In the haunting tale "Begravelsen," a young prince mourns the apparent death of his beloved nanny, only to witness a chilling sign of life beneath her stillness. As the king offers comfort with sweets and promises of a pony, the boy’s grief twists into something darker—his thoughts turning not to loss, but to what he’s missing. When he sees her move, his reaction is swift and final, driven by a sorrow that refuses to be soothed.

In "Dødsforelsket," Morton Macawber, haunted by the attention given to the dead, devises a chilling plan to steal the spotlight by taking the place of a wealthy man in his coffin. After disfiguring the victim to ensure a closed casket, he prepares to be mourned—only to find himself trapped in a fate far colder than he imagined, as the deceased’s final wishes lead to a fate no living man should face.

Willow Dree, a star whose image always eludes the camera, reluctantly joins fellow actor Brad Phillips on a secluded ski trip to escape the press. Trapped in a remote cabin by a sudden blizzard, the two grow increasingly uneasy as strange things begin to happen—especially when Willow’s reflection in the window starts moving on its own. When rescuers finally reach the cabin days later, they find only silence and a scene that defies explanation.

In the quiet dread of a curio shop’s shadowed window, Floyd makes a fateful purchase—a mummified gorilla’s paw for twenty-five dollars. That night, the paw lies on his nightstand, its presence growing heavier with each passing hour. By morning, it’s covered in bills, and the next day, it returns stained with blood—and one of his friends is dead. As the paw’s power reveals itself, Floyd realizes too late that every wish comes at a terrible price.

In "I en tynn tråd," Jacob Filburt, haunted by his cataleptic episodes, takes desperate precautions to avoid being buried alive—no embalming, a phone in his coffin. When a car crash triggers a fit and he’s presumed dead, he awakens in suffocating darkness, desperately trying to reach his wife, brother, and doctor. With each failed call, the air grows thinner, until his final, futile attempt to reach the operator coincides with a moment of global chaos—December 7, 1941.