It is no secret that Brain Keene is responsible for getting my back into reading horror. I never have given any of his books a bad review, and with each novel he writes; his work seems to be getting better and better. He has written several zombie stories that are all unique and original, and has even written a surprisingly great novel about giant earthworms taking over the earth. He has written some great scary novels like THE RISING, and GHOUL, and heart-touching novels like TERMINAL. When it comes to giving every reader a good scare, he has more or less succeeded. None of his work is more frightening than his latest novel, URBAN GOTHIC, a horror story that puts the reader in total darkness along with the characters in the book.
URBAN GOTHIC starts with an average generic, unoriginal, horror story beginning. Six collage age kids (three couples) are on their way home from a rap concert in Philadelphia when one of them, Tyler, wants to stop off in a bad part of town outside the city to pick up some marijuana. While trying to find the location, they end up getting lost and Tyler’s car breaks down. They try to fix the problem but are approached by a group of black youths who question why a bunch of white kids is in the ghetto this late at night. Intimidated by their presence, Brett, one of the people in the car, screams a racial slur at the youths and runs away. His friends, scared by how the youth will react, also run as well, and the youth give chase. The group decides to make a run down a dark road and hide in an abandon house, the door locking behind them. Little do they know that the house they are in has a history of not letting anyone out alive, and that there are people living in the bowels of the house that are not very friendly when it comes to visitors. The group of black youths is not mad at them; they are just trying to warn them to stay away from the house. The story becomes one of madness and survival as the house come alive and consumes any unwanted guests.
The reason why some many horror films and movies fail to be a success is because they are always just about the blood and guts and nothing else, the stories are always the same and they all seem to have the same fate. Keene takes that “a bunch of kids get lost somewhere” concept and makes it original. He succeeds in doing so while also throwing in some important social issues and breaking stereotypes.
Keene puts a story together that breaks barriers as to what we think about people who live in the slums and ghettos of the world. Most middle class suburban folks think that every man, women and child living in these parts of the cities are either car thieves, drug dealers or prostitutes, that their kids will grow up to the same, and that no one cares about one another. I may be giving away a bit of the books story, but the community of this bad part of the city are the ones who come together to combat the evil that has plagued their community for decades.
Besides the elements of social issues and breaking stereotypical barriers with his characters, Keene puts us in a world that you would not want your worst enemy to witness. The six characters are put though such torture, such hell in a matter of hours that, as a reader you start to lose hope that they will ever get out of this house alive. The evil that is in the house are mutants that seem otherworldly, they have no sense of remorse for their prey or each other. They are evil incarnate. Full of trickery and carnage. Their environment is just as warped and twisted as they are. The element of darkness however is what makes this book so fearful. The reader is constantly reminded that the whole book takes place in total darkness and that only light the characters have to see around is their lighters and the glow of the screens is from their dying cell phones. It is just one of those books that stays attached to your hands, no matter how scared you get while reading it, you just want to find a way out of this house and help the characters in the story escape with you.
Once again, Keene has given the horror community a story to praise, one that scares the shit out of us, and takes the hope of survival away. Whatever you do, do not, I repeat do not sneak a peak at the last page of this book. Right down to the last sentence, you’ll be surprised by how the books ends, or if the nightmare will ever end. This is Keene at his best, and it seems he has only just started.
– Horror Bob
- 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
