Synopsis:
A collection of short stories by a preeminent contributor to “The Twilight Zone.”
Review:
Button, Button is an uneven bit of business, purporting to highlight the very best of Richard Matheson’s “Uncanny Stories.” Some are good, one is spectacular, but others have not aged well.
First, the good:
“Button, Button” exhibits a flawless “Twilight Zone” concept and execution. Apparently a Cameron Diaz movie based on it is coming soon. Seems like a bad idea to me. The genius of the story demands a smallness not readily translatable to the big screen.
“Dying Room Only” is a quick and dirty thriller with great atmosphere, but a weak ending.
“A Flourish of Strumpets” seems more suited to the talents of Shirley Jackson, with its priggish couple assailed by a gang of prostitutes with the tenacity of door-to-door Jehovah’s Witnesses. Jackson would’ve mined the story’s full Gothic potential. Matheson keeps it clean but I wanted more quirk.
“Pattern for Survival” is a funny little tale about a most successful author. It took me a few reads to get the joke, which is quite subtle but highly rewarding.
The not-so-good:
“Creeping Terror” takes an amusingly sociological look at the spread of Los Angeles. It’s written like a research paper, a gimmick that doesn’t do it for me.
The outstanding:
“Girl of My Dreams” is a noir version of a gothic premise: a young woman who can see how people may die, and her blackmailing boyfriend have a disagreement over a mark. I loved the tone he maintains throughout. This is the one I’d most like to see as a movie.
“Mute” is quite different than the other stories, lacking either a gimmick or a stylized tone. It’s the story of a young man who can’t talk, and the people who are trying to usher him into the world of language. Ferocious and mysterious, this is the story that most sucked me in.
, a grimly compelling fable about the perils of conformity. 
has the same air of mystery about it, but it’s a less successful work in my opinion. I read it a bunch of times as a kid, and revisiting it didn’t reveal any new layers. 