The Wilds By Claude Teweles

The Wilds
By Claude Teweles
1989 Dell
Paperback, 213 pages

                Of course, the first reason that you need this book is to pore over Jill Bauman’s amazing cover art. If that doesn’t grab your eye, I don’t know what will. Some readers have complained that despite the cover, this is not a horror book, but I beg to differ. The events that the characters go through are horrific indeed and though this is mainly an adventure story, the horrors are very real. The back cover mentions Deliverance and Lord of the Flies and I can see both in here; humans trying to survive while nature kicks their ass.

 

                A couple of counselors take a group of teen and younger kids on an overnight hike into “The Wilds”, a section of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, to show them how to track and really get along in the wilderness. Gordon, a counselor, is back as the mountain expert, even after a fatal mishap the previous year. He has a lot to prove to himself. Del is a 15 year old who looks and acts older and thinks of himself as an unofficial counselor, though in reality he is still just a kid. Kyle is a moody kid who would rather just be left alone and has a love/ hate relationship with Del. And so the group ascends. What could possibly go wrong?

 

                The tension between Del and Kyle makes them split up going up the mountain, forcing Mr. Dugan, the man in charge, to go look for him and take a near fatal fall. And then Gordon takes a fall, leaving most of the kids to their own devices high up in The Wilds. No problem, right? Until an unexpected blizzard hits. Hey, it was June but up there, there’s always a chance of snow.

 

                Not everyone is going to survive. Each chapter (except one) starts with either Gordon, Del or Kyle’s name and we see things from their point of view and food runs out, hope runs out and nature has its way with them. Each of them has personal baggage that will weigh heavily on them during their ordeal. The smaller kids also worry about “Donner Man” thanks to a campfire story about the Donner Party and the cannibalistic results. The suspense, the tension and yes, the horror really ratchets up to eleven and you can feel The Wilds taking them in. I had the misfortune of reading this during a cold snap in May and I was shivering under the blankets.

 

                This is a top shelf struggle for survival story right here. Fathom Press reissued the book in 2025. Look for it with Julia Teweles as the author as she transitioned in 2007. I will be keeping my eye out for Teweles’ other horror book The Stalker (Zebra Books) because I liked this one a lot.

Demons By Guy N. Smith

Demons
By Guy N. Smith
1987 Arrow
Paperback, 184 pages

                Demons is the sequel to Smith’s 1980 Hamlyn Horror masterpiece Deathbell, which was a visceral, violent and very fast-moving read. This sequel isn’t quite as satisfying as the first one but that isn’t to say that it isn’t worth my giving it a massive recommendation. I was so enthralled with this book that I plowed through it in just
a couple of sittings.

 

                Ten years after the horrid happenings in the first book, the town of Turbury is all but a ghost town. Plans have been made to flood the entire area to make it into a reservoir. A group of kids are poking around the deserted town pre-flooding and rehang the toppled Deathbell in Caelogy Hall. What could possibly go wrong? Well, with each peal of the bell, madness and violence ensues. Even when the town is completely flooded, the bell still has its powers, making the entire reservoir a dangerous place.

 

                The book is filled with a number of excellent horror set pieces, especially when workers are attempting to move bodies from the Turbury cemetery to a new place of rest. Coffins and bodies fall from moving trucks, big machinery squashes people and vulnerable humans can’t control a thing. Meanwhile, Vicki Mason, returning from the first book, is attacked by a neighbor who is under the bell’s influence in a harrowing scene. Even the surrounding towns aren’t safe from the ringing of the bell.

 

                This book has all of the earmarks of GNS’s top-shelf work of the period. It is violent as hell, has a whirlwind romance that, even if it isn’t entirely believable, has a certain sweetness to it that offsets some of the grueling horror. The reservoir doesn’t keep its water and as Turbury reemerges from beneath the water, the muddy, dank left-over town is a thing of pure atmospheric horror. Add three hundred hippies, stir and you’ve got a set-up for a spectacular climax.

 

                Terry Oakes provides a beautiful cover, whether it actually depicts a scene in the book or not. Well, it sort of does. Then again, there is no mention of a demon in the book, either though I guess the Seekers of Silence, a Tibetan cult who worship the Deathbell, might as well be demons. While not quite as effective as Deathbell, this is still top tier GNS that will be on my deathbed’s bookshelf, filed next to the first one.

The Beast of Kane By Cliff Twemlow

The Beast of Kane
By Cliff Twemlow
1983 Hamlyn
Paperback, 190 pages

                Do yourself a favor and acquaint yourself with Cliff Twemlow (1933-1993). The best way is through the 2023 film Mancunian Man: The Legendary Life of Cliff Twemlow by Jake West. Twemlow was an actor, screenwriter, bouncer, musician and all-around creative dynamo. He wrote a couple of horror novels, too; this one and The Pike (reviewed here) and I’ve gotta say, the guy was a pretty damn good novelist.

 

                This one takes place in Kane, Canada, seventy miles north of Quebec during a cold and frosty winter. The Gordons want to get their son David a dog for his birthday, and he wants the massive, black Elkhound at the shop. His folks are nervous about the vicious looking beast and say no. No worries… the dog breaks out and comes to David on his own, selling himself to the family. All is well, it would seem, but the local priest thinks otherwise. He thinks the dog might be the devil himself, fulfilling an old prophecy. Even the family vet says the dog is a throwback that seems to have… human blood running in its veins.

 

                Of course, everyone thinks the priest is a crazy old sop. Until the local farm animals get decimated. Wolves are found mutilated. And then the good folks of Kane themselves start getting eaten by the local dogs. Even by the ones who were the victim’s pets! It seems old Elk is their evil leader and they do his bidding. This makes things sticky for the Gordons who really don’t want to crush their boy’s love for his pet. A pet that is using him as his familiar.

 

                This one moves along very quickly and Twemlow has a good grasp of small-town life in the Canadian heartland. The characters are all pretty believable and well formed and when shit goes down, you can feel what the townsfolk do. This book also points out that a drink of whisky will help you get over pretty much any hardship. Even death in the family and madness.

 

                No, it’s not a perfect book but it is a lot of fun at times, especially when the canine attacks are in full bloom. The gore is poured on nice n’ thick, the way I like it. A word of warning, however: there is a lot of doggie-death at one point that might have you reaching over the pet ol’ Rover a little more vigorously. But it’s nothing that two fingers of whisky won’t help you get through.

 

                Both The Pike and The Beast of Kane have been reissued by Severin Films and Encyclopocalypse Publications to coincide with the release of the Cliff Twemlow movie box set!

Bloodshow By Guy N. Smith

Bloodshow
By Guy N. Smith
1987 Arrow
Paperback, 207 pages

 

                A crumbling castle in the Scottish Highlands becomes the site of a horror lovers’ attraction, including the horror-themed Lochside Hotel and the castle’s dungeons filled with animatronic monsters. It sounds like the kind of place that my wife and I would love to visit. Mike and Kim Armstrong chose it for their honeymoon. What could possibly go wrong? Well, the long-dead, real-life Laird of Benahee’s evil spirit might still be around, looking to take out his ire on unsuspecting tourists, so there’s that.

 

                The Armstrongs meet very few people while there; it is the off-season. Oddly enough, the reporter and author that they do connect with both wind up dead, killed in grisly fashion. News of the deaths, of course, attracts macabre thrill-seekers as guests. Kim, for her part, doesn’t seem like much of a horror fan, easily scared and timid as she is. As reality and vivid visions blend under the Laird’s spell, she just wants to leave. Too bad a major hurricane is moving in, battering the hotel and castle, taking out electricity and phones and stranding the guests.

 

                It’s not as claustrophobic as it sounds but GNS does put the small cast through their paces. The Armstrongs face a never-ending line-up of horrors. The figures from the cheesy castle sets become all too real: the vampire, the werewolf, the cannibal and more. Kim faces the worst, not knowing if she has actually attempted suicide while in a dream and did she really give birth to that gruesome, toothy slug thing? The Laird’s mind-tricks are varied, gruesome, and always dangerous. A woman capable of exorcism and astral projection is present among the guests. Can she save the day?

 

                This one plows along at a very good pace. It is full of chilling set-pieces, and the gore level is respectably high. The second half of the book is non-stop build-up and gripping action as the reader barrels towards the climax. There is a surprising abundance of religious faith and God stuff in this book; far more than GNS usually offers, but I still score this one high on my Guy N. Smith scale of greatness. Despite a few potential misfires (the mostly neglected skeleton crew of the hotel and the kitschy monster figures on display) this one has everything I need for a few days of happy reading. The cover by Terry Oakes is both wonderfully lurid and kind of cheesy in its own right. Nothing wrong with that. Recommended reading.