Carlton Mellick is undoubtedly one of bizarro fiction’s biggest stars. If you’re familiar with his books, you can probably read a lot into the fact that, out of what is truly a very impressive body of work, “Apeshit” is one of only two titles sold by Deadite Press. In the book, Mellick takes a stab at writing a horror story. The result is a wonderfully twisted, brilliantly bizarre and sometimes sickening book that takes the classic horror movie premise into the bizarro realm and pummels it into a bloody pulp that refuses to die.
The book starts off with Desdemona, a rebellious cheerleader covered in butterfly tattoos and with a mohawk of ever-changing colors. Desdemona sets the standard for the characters that Mellick will introduce next: young, obsessed with the minutiae of high school living and romantically involved with someone in the group. The youngsters are on their way to a weekend of partying in a remote cabin in the woods with a good supply of liquor and a vast array of hidden agendas that the author will unveil throughout the story and that seem to get weirder as the action proceeds.
When the assembly of high school kids reaches the mountains, they’re greeted by piles of dead animals. Once in the cabin, the story turns into a bizarro version of the quintessential horror movie: something in the woods starts attacking the group. The grey things has hands that resemble lobster claws with embedded razor blades, moves too fast to be identified… and there’s more than one of it. What follows is a mixture of campy horror movie, perverse exploration of how atrocious human psyches can be and complicated fusion of love stories. The ending, which I won’t spoil for you, is as creative as the rest of the book and serves as an ironic twist that will surely get a chuckle out of any reader.
If you crave a wildly imaginative and thoroughly entertaining tale of fast grey humanoids with razor-claws that hunt a group of youngsters in a cabin in the woods, check this book out. When you do so, be aware of the following: Mellick will throw in a girl with an abortion fetish, someone chewing through their own intestines, maimed body parts, an impaled he/she, an incestuous pregnancy, a touch of homosexuality, a dash of rape, a lot of booze and a ton of other great stuff. I suggest you pick up a copy right now.
– Gabino Iglesias
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
