Acolytes of the Dead
W.D. Gagliani and David Benton
JournalStone Publishing (September 12, 2025)
Reviewed by Andrew Byers
W.D. Gagliani and David Benton’s Acolytes of the Dead is a transgressive work of erotic horror that revives the mummy myth with a seductive, modern twist on ancient Egyptian secrets. This thriller masterfully blends archeological intrigue, shocking bloodshed, and kinky sex magick, delivering an unrelenting narrative that haunts long after the final page.
The story centers on disgraced Egyptologist Professor James Blackstone, hired by reclusive billionaire Alton Chambers to translate mysterious hieroglyphs from smuggled panels and ghostwrite his memoir. What begins as a lucrative gig for a failing academic spirals into a nightmarish descent into the Chambers family’s dark legacy of sex and murder. Beneath the opulent estate lies a reconstructed tomb housing “the Occupant,” a mummified entity that’s anything but dead, promising immortality through blood rituals and forbidden pleasures. Blackstone’s entanglement with Aton Chambers’ daughter and adult granddaughter ignites steamy encounters laced with supernatural dread that blur the line between myth and reality.
Gagliani and Benton excel at building tension through dual timelines: the present-day horrors faced by Blackstone and flashbacks to Chambers’ 1950s discovery of the Occupant’s tomb in the Egyptian desert. The prose is crisp and visceral, evoking Richard Laymon and Edward Lee’s raw intensity. Erotic scenes pulse with heat, serving the plot rather than purely gratuitous thrills. Here, sex magick becomes a conduit for the Occupant’s influence, exploring themes of power, addiction, and eternal life. Vivid imagery of violence, sex, and treachery fills this delightfully sleazy (in the best possible sense) novel.
This modern occult horror classic is a riveting, erotic feast. Engrossing, suspenseful, and terrifying. Frankly, I would have enjoyed if the Grand Guignol elements of the novel had been dialed up even higher. Acolytes of the Dead clearly demonstrates Gagliani and Benton are masters of intense, boundary-pushing terror. If you like explicit sex mixed with your horror, you should definitely check this one out.
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