Joey Comeau to "fix" Bible Camp Bloodbath

BLOT: (29 Aug 2011 - 01:38:37 PM)

Joey Comeau to "fix" Bible Camp Bloodbath

Taken for what it is, a novellete or novella [it is about 70 printed pages so I am not sure what that would be] published and freely readable as a series of blog entries, Bible Camp Bloodbath is a one and half thumbs-up effort, a good little horror romp that adds little to the genre* but only takes up an hour of your time (give or take half an hour). By the time you get to the $6.99 Amazon Kindle Version (which I read), it has lost about half a thumb, went to fair. The fun little romp does not quite justify its price tag. Sure, you get some gruesome, varied kills. Sure, you get some dark pleasures out of it, a little bit of humor and some frights. But you find yourself having to ignore a degree of almost surreal inconsistencies** and also a general lack of all the things that could have been added: camp activities, deaths a bit more situated to the environment, lusty rumpus among the hot and bothered and de-parented thrust into the backdrop of a fully formed weirdness that can come out of Bible Camp in general, and so on.

Perhaps the biggest mistake that Comeau makes, outside of wasted opportunities such as when three girls and the main kid, Martin, sneak out at night to see a comet—an event that surely could have led to more than simply having them find some bodies and then fleeing the killer like everyone else—and just generally introducing kids the bare minimum needed to kill them off, is that he starts the book off with a bittersweet edge—a troubled boy and his half-broken woman-girl mother teaming up against the universe—and then he effectively forgets it. Even with a couple of vignettes into his mom's life as a horror effects artist, the initial couple of chapters are practically forgotten except as sprinkles of salt in the bloodbath and only at the end does Comeau seem to remember and, with a nice punch, call back to it. By then, though, that whole sub-plot feels like another novel tried forcing its way in. And this is such an interesting Chekhov's Gun, too. You have a kid who knows the basic of horor effects running from a splatterhouse and not once does he even try to use it? I can forgive not making proper use of the zip-line, though that hurt me as well, but setting up the horror-fx angle and then not indulging in it? Come on!

Well, today I read that Comeau has plans to correct his novel in an upcoming edition. What this exactly entails, and whether people who purchased the first edition will get any sort of coupon or such, I do not know, but there are some interesting things to read in his post about it:

I am fully behind these statements, in that the book makes for a killing spree and even a gore fest but, by focusing more on the killing and less on the feeling, it loses a lot of its horror and momentum. More feeling will only make it a stronger horror novel, not a weaker one. In its current form, it runs headlong into the inevitable but it never gives you the feeling that other outcomes could exist. If all those kids were meant to die there, had no chance, then how can you fully appreciate the act of them dying? I think Comeau is on the right track. Hopefully this redux will give us more: more camp, more kids, more counselors, more background, more delight, more terror, and more gore [hey, a gore-fan can dream, right?].

For now, grab some popcorn and your favorite beverage and run over to the blog I linked above and have yourself a dash through the original version. It won't take very long and you can read it in bursts if computer screens are not quite your reading friend. Then, like me, wait to see what else comes out of it and have hope that it will be awesome.

* The focus on killing children as the primary victim is a rare beast, but in a world where a popular best seller is all about putting teens through killing games, popular even amongst teachers and moms, the game is not particularly unique. I much more enjoyed the double scene with the [first female, then male] hot camp counselors both realizing the same peeping tom is watching. Both of them decide to give the little pervert a show and made for a cute little subversive pair of moments.

** Amongst others, the number of kids and counselors at the camp drops to a minimum once the bloodbath starts, which helps to explain how these things went unnoticed, but brings up others: the lack of witnesses running around is more than passed by the issue of having only a dozen people...people notice when someone goes missing.

Horror

OTHER BLOTS THIS MONTH: August 2011