An old mental institution out in rural Pennsylvania is being
shut down because it’s physically a wreck-so bad that the top floor can’t even
be used anymore. The only patients left are the ones in the worst shape, in
solitary lockdown; the staff is down to a skeleton crew. It’s the day before
Halloween. A huge storm is brewing. When a new patient is brought in, he is
hallucinating badly- they assume. Our narrator listens for a while to the
nonsense being spouted by the surprisingly articulate Gary McCoy and decides
that this could be his ticket to publishing and a better job, his very own
Three Faces of Eve or Billy Milligan. Because McCoy has created an incredible
tale that hangs together pretty well.
McCoy is from a village in the woods that is unknown to
outsiders. The people there, all related, have been inbreeding for years to
create McCoy, who, as ‘The Preacher’, will be the gate through which the Old
Ones will come on Halloween night. The dimension of the Old Ones overlies our
own, and sometimes the dwellers can be seen, horrible creatures that long to
eat us all up. While the narrator tells the story from today, his tale takes
place in 1983, back before cellphones and GPS.
A quick trip to the area McCoy mapped out shows the narrator
and his fiancé, Dr. Deena Bierce, that McCoy is telling the truth about at
least some things. The ramshackle village exists, and the majority of the
dwellers show signs of inbreeding. McCoy’s father is outraged that his son has
been locked up and demands his return, threatening to come get him if he’s not
returned promptly. On Halloween night the half dozen staff still in the
hospital find themselves under assault by nature, villagers, and supernatural
forces.
The story is on one hand nearly laughable- the characters
make every mistake made in horror movies. I expected them to hide behind the
chainsaws. On the other hand, it’s scary as hell with a huge amount of tension.
Other than the narrator we don’t know who will survive. They are fighting
forces that seem insurmountable. Things keep going from bad to worse. Once I got
a ways into the story I couldn’t put it down. The author has managed to make
McCoy a sympathetic character. If you like B-grade horror movies, give this
story a read. Note: the story is graphically bloody. It’s not for the faint of
heart or weak of stomach.
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I received this book free from Library Thing in return for an honest review.
Neither of these things influenced my review.
Is there a woman who hears a noise goes down into the frightening dark basement alone - and wearing high heels? Have to have one of those if it is B grade horror movie.
ReplyDeleteDarla