CRUCIFAX

Rating:
Summary: Gruesome horror chiller.
Review: Ray Garton raised eyebrows in the horror community when he came onto the scene with SEDUCTIONS and DARKLINGS (a favorite of mine) but it was his third novel LIVE GIRLS that earned him cult status among fans and it is still reverred as one of the most frightening vampire novels ever written. CRUCIFAX was his paperback follow up to that novel and it proved him to be a leader among a new generation of horror authors. His work set a new standard in the genre, mainly involving in-your-face horror and gore (which later became known as the Splatterpunk movement, I believe.) CRUCIFAX is a kind of play on The Pied Piper story in a modern setting, but infinitely darker and more terrifying. The Piper in this case is a dark and dangerous man who insinuates himself in with all the bored and jaded and runaway teenagers in a CA town. A young man (who has a very complicated relationship with his little sister,) begins to worry about her when she joins what has become a cult of personality around the dark man. But the young man has no idea what is in store for him when he decides to rescue her. The man who holds her is evil incarnate. And not only does he have the power of psychic domination over the cult members, he commands a pack of wolverine-rat-like creatures that he uses on those who try to fight him... Garton's strengths are his characters and his passion. It burns in a clear, crisp writing style that makes for compelling reading. Keep in mind, however, CRUCIFAX is unapolgetic horror and things get very bloody. (In fact, there is an infamous chapter missing from this mass market paperback that apparently didn't make it past the editor and was later included in a small press "writer's cut" edition called CRUCIFAX AUTUMN.) When Garton does horror, (and he doesn't write enough of them for my tastes) there are few out there that can match him. Highly recommended.