Incubus By Ray Russell

Incubus

By Ray Russell
1977 Dell
Paperback,251 pages

 

                Ray Russell will always have a place in my heart for writing the story ”Sardonicus” and adapting it for the screenplay to Mr. Sardonicus, William Castle’s 1961 masterpiece. That story first appeared in Playboy where Russell was the fiction editor. Fifteen years later, it seems that Russell may have drawn on some of the more salacious elements of his Playboy gig when he was writing this novel. Incubus is, as the Washington Star reviewed it, “not for the squeamish”.

 

                A series of brutal rape/ murders are terrorizing the small coastal California town of Galen. The victims have been torn apart down yonder, bludgeoned by a massive member and covered with semen. Well, yuck! Police investigations turn up nothing and the local doctor rules out many of his male patients as suspect because he knows they aren’t packing that kind of heat. Only Julian Trask, an anthropologist who is back in town (he was a Galen teacher) to help figure the crimes out, has an inkling as to what is happening. His theory is supernatural and is not taken seriously by most. Until there is no alternative. As in many books of the era, much Scotch is consumed throughout the proceedings.

 

                Sound sleazy? Sound perverted? It is both but Russell’s prose are so polished and readable that it really doesn’t read as lascivious as it sounds. It is a mystery story, trying to figure out just who the incubus might be. The cast of characters are all well fleshed out and while many are not very likeable, they still convey enough emotion that I got invested in them. Many of the adults seem like real prudes (BJs are the devil’s work!) and despite many strong female characters, a story like this can’t help but have a thread of misogyny going through it. The attacks are brutal, gory and disgusting and even locking up all of the women in protective custody (see what I mean?) doesn’t keep out the sexual evil spirit.

 

                In 1981, the book was adapted into a film directed by John Hough. Some key changes were made to the story making it stupid, like the incubus attacking males as well. Kind of makes the whole “male demon raping women to prolong its bloodline” part of being an incubus obsolete. The movie is lame, the book is great (if you have the stomach for it) and I highly recommend it to purveyors of putrid pulp.

Entombed By Guy N. Smith

Entombed
By Guy N. Smith
1986 Arrow Books
Paperback, 191 pages

 

                              

           Arrow, 1986. Art- Les Edwards                                             Dell- 1987. Art-?

                When I was a kid, my mum took me to Howe Caverns, a 150 foot deep hole in the ground in Schoharie County, New York. It is a massive underground cave with a subterranean river and there is a lovely tour that you can take. The rock formations are lit with beautiful colored lights, yet the scenery (and cool air) can feel a bit sinister. I loved it so much, I took my own kid there when she was 10 or 11. With that, I think I might have gotten a little more out of Entombed than I might have had I never been that far underground.

 

                Priest Simon Rankin has been questioning his faith after a failed exorcism. To clear his mind, he packs up with his girlfriend Andrea and heads to Cwmgilla in Wales. The town’s claim to fame is a retired slate mine that has been opened as a show cave, taking tourists down into the caverns for tours. Rankin wasn’t keen on taking the trip down but acquiesces to Andrea’s suggestion. While down there, he senses an evil presence, and it all goes to hell (quite literally!) from there. His faith, whether or not he knew it, is enough to shake up the evil in town.

 

                A kid wanders off and disappears in the mine. Workers going to look for him have the roof cave in and trap them. Mysterious children’s voices, visions, and Satanism all rear their evil heads. Andrea is demonically raped and possessed and Rankin’s faith had better be damn strong to fight the kind of nastiness that now runs rampant in Cwmgilla! The power to the mine is gone so nobody gets in or out unless you happen to know a spelunker. Luckily, Rankin does.

 

                Obviously, the claustrophobia is massive in this book. The scenes in the mine, with its uncharted depth and underground lakes is a labyrinth of dark, airless fear. There are many chilling moments of anxiety and agitation. That said, at about the three-quarter mark, the narrative started to slow a bit for me. But I never doubted that GNS would pick it back up and, holy shit, he sure did! The prose approaching the climax is amazing, especially when the Satanist group is gorging on the blood of a sacrificial victim. “Like maggots in a jar, a grotesque entwinement of all that was vile.” It doesn’t get much better than that.

 

                Obviously, if you have read the Sabat books, some of this might sound familiar. Rankin seems to be a tryout for Mark Sabat, whose first book came next from GNS. (The first publication of this one was from Hamlyn in 1982.) Both are ex-priests and exorcists, there is a violated church, a body exhumed for Satanic reasons and other similarities. Overall, Rankin is a more likeable hero than Sabat. As much as we all love our Hamlyn Horrors, hold out for any of the Arrow reprints to relish the amazing Les Edwards cover.

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.

Jill By Thomas St. Martin

Jill
By Thomas St. Martin
1979 Dell
Paperback, 271 pages

                I stepped out of my usual comfort zone for this one but I do love women-killing-men stories a lot, too. This book is really more of a whodunnit/ thriller than pure horror but I can heartily recommend it to genre fans. It delivers a good story and plenty of gruesome thrills.

 

                Psychiatrist Kelly Cohen receives a package in the mail containing a threatening note from “Jill”. And a real shrunken head. That explains what happened to the head of a murder victim the previous night. More murders occur, and more heads and threats get mailed to Dr. Cohen. It seems the dates of the murders match the dates of Jack the Ripper's murders back in 1888. “Jill” is no mere coincidence… this is a well thought out,  psychotic plan.

 

                The tale moves at a good speed because it’s obvious that Cohen will be Jill’s grand finale and there’s only about a month to solve the case if the murder date is going to match the Ripper’s again. The list of suspects is small but each character is fully developed and possibilities are painted into some of the characters. A dense backstory of one of Cohen’s former patients that he eventually “cured” is told in long flashbacks that are tragic, but exciting in terms of storytelling.

 

                Some bloodshed, a lot of sex (some of it uncomfortable), some misogyny (all of it uncomfortable), and interesting policework all hold this well-told story together. Just exactly who author Thomas St. Martin might be is as much of a mystery as who Jill is. St. Martin has no other books to his credit and the name is probably a pseudonym. The answer to this mystery is anybody’s guess but the answer to the question “whodunnit” in Jill is satisfying if not entirely surprising. (I looked past the red herrings and “got it” eventually, before the cops did!)

The Dogs By Robert Calder

 

The Dogs
By Robert Calder
Dell 1986
Paperback, 226 pages

This is not an easy book to read for the animal lover. It speaks of man’s inhumanity towards animals with an unblinking, cold, and clinical voice. Dog lovers will cringe. That said, it does have some satisfying passages and it is quite good, overall, if you can get past the impassive tone.

Dog experiments… creating superior pups. One gets out. Becomes stray, then a pet. Bites brat. Gets admonished.  Goes rogue. Leads dog pack. Kills. That’s the basic storyline and it goes along at a good clip right up to the end. It is at times predictable but delivers the gory goods where you’d want it. Some kids get maimed and killed too, as a welcome bonus.

There is an overlong side-plot about a dog-fighting ring that is the worst offender in the “humans suck” sweepstakes. Yes, I know these assholes exist and they sicken me, and this is where the unemotional prose irked me the most. It’s a very cold and gratuitous section of the book and the pay-off, when it finally comes, isn’t nearly as satisfying as I’d hoped for.

Yeah, every human character in this book is a piece of shit. Calder makes it clear that Orph, the main dog, is the hero. Calder knows a lot about canines (he even edited a tome of dog stories and essays, The Dog Book, under his real name Jerrold Mundis) and their place in the world of humans. Unfortunately, his bleak portrayal of Homo sapien really makes any sort of emotional tie between the two-legged and the four-legged main characters tenuous at best. Let’s face it, people do not deserve dogs.

I recommend the book with reservations. It is well-written and fast moving but it also serves as a reminder of how much the human race really sucks ass.

This review originally appeared in Midnight Magazine #8, July 2021.

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