We don’t often review books here at Cinema Knife Fight, unless they have something to do with horror movies, so I thought I’d shine a spotlight on a novella that gives us a pretty interesting take on the Italian cannibal movies of the 1980s. You know the kind, the ones that played in grindhouses in Times Square at the time, with titles like CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (1980, directed by Ruggero Deodato) and CANNIBAL FEROX (aka MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY, 1981, directed by Umberto Lenzi). Precursors to the “found footage” horror movies that are so popular today, these flicks usually involved journalists or filmmakers going into jungles or rainforests to find primitive tribes long hidden from civilization, with gruesome results.

Adam Cesare’s TRIBESMEN is about a film crew traveling to a Caribbean island to make one of these movies, and the characters include archetypes like the sleazy Italian director (who churns these things out in a week), the hulking Italian movie star who can’t speak English, the American starlet who thinks this will advance her acting career, the heroin-addict cameraman and the hero, an African-American writer who is working on the script even as production is about to start. When they get to the island, things don’t go according to plan (or schedule), as spirits that haunt the island start possessing them and make them do awful things. A movie shoot turns into a fight for survival for everyone involved.

Cesare does a good job fleshing out the characters and making them sympathetic (for the most part; some of these characters are purposely unsympathetic), and knows how to ratchet up the scares. For fans of the original exploitation films, this book will take you back to those days of grindhouse goodies. Recommended.

TRIBESMEN was published by Ravenous Shadows and is available on Amazon, and the usual places.

© Copyright 2013 by L.L. Soares

Author Trisha Wooldridge talking with author Jack Ketchum. Photo by Jason Harris.

From left to right: NEHW Co-chair Tracy Carbone, actor Sean Whalen, and NEHW Co-chair Stacey Longo. Photo by Jason Harris.

Actor Sean Whalen and NEHW Director of Publicity Jason Harris. Photo by Stacey Longo.

The Women of Horror panel: (from left to right) actress Heather Langenkamp, author Tracy Carbone, author Stacey Longo, author Trisha Wooldridge, and actress Lisa Marie. Photo by Jason Harris.

The Women of Horror after the panel. Photo by Jason Harris.

Author Kristi Petersen Schoonover helps fellow author Trisha Wooldridge with her corset for Rock and Shock. Photo by Jason Harris.

Author Bracken MacLeod is so excited to be at Rock and Shock; his left hand can’t stop moving. Photo by Jason Harris.

Author Jack Haringa. Photo by Jason Harris.

From left to right: NEHW members Stacey Longo, K. Allen Wood, and Sarah Gomes. Photo by Jason Harris.

Authors Adam Cesare (holding a box of books) and Scott Goudsward. Photo by Jason Harris.

Authors Rob Watts and Kristi Petersen Schoonover talking at Rock and Shock. Photo by Jason Harris.

Candyman actor Tony Todd. Photo by Jason Harris.

Brian Anderson, of Waltham, MA., as zombie stormtrooper and Ghostbuster Travis Smith, of Providence, RI. Photo by Jason Harris.

Author Rob Watts talking with author Stacey Longo in the NEHW booth at Rock and Shock. Photo by Jason Harris.

The other table in the NEHW booth. Photo by Jason Harris.

Author Kristi Petersen Schoonover talks to Dr. Chris. Photo by Jason Harris.

Author Stacey Longo. Photo by Jason Harris.

Today we welcome Adam Cesare, author of the excellent novella Tribesmen (now out in paperback from Ravenous Shadows), sharing the storybook that started him on the path to all things dark and twisted.

When Blu approached me about divulging my “Essential” October Read, I was hesitant. Mostly because I didn’t have a good enough answer. I read voraciously, but I’m still very much a movie guy. When I want familiar, “comfort art” to get me in the mood for my favorite season, I reach to my DVD collection and pull down something like Halloween or The Monster Squad.

But that’s not entirely true. There’s one piece of literature that I’ve revisited multiple times in October. I may lose some hardcore horror cred for this, because it’s not Poe or Lovecraft or King: it’s a children’s picture book named The Tailypo.

Let’s back up. Remember story-time? Yeah, “let’s all go down to the school library for an assembly” story-time. That’s where I was first exposed to horror literature. It was October, of course, and the school librarian had selected a tonally-appropriate story for the season. Notice that I didn’t say age appropriate, because this thing scared the bejesus out of every kid at that assembly. Myself included.

I can’t remember the grade (either kindergarten or first, I’d guess), I can’t remember the librarian’s name, I can’t even remember where I was going to school at the time, but I do remember the book’s final line: “Tailypo, Tailypo, Now I’ve got my Tailypo.” I’m betting every other kid who was there does too.

The Tailypo is a picture book adaptation of an Appalachian folk tale by Joanna Galdone with illustrations by Paul Galdone. What’s great about The Tailypo is it’s, as far as I can tell, a pretty exact retelling of the story. This means that it’s Dr. Suess with a body count.

Most scary stories for kids wuss out in the end, preferring to leave tots with an “everything’s going to be okay” ending that undercuts whatever jolts the book may have provided. Not The Tailypo, which is the story of an old man’s encounter with a strange creature. The old man cuts off the critter’s long tail and eats it for dinner. Foolishly believing that his three dogs will protect him (spoiler: they don’t), the old man is harassed nightly by the creature. “Tailypo, Tailypo, I want my Tailypo!” is the monster’s repeated refrain, a line that gets creepier in direct proportion to how intent your school librarian is on frightening children.

This story stuck with me for a long time, until I was old enough to go seek out the book myself. The cutesy illustrations only serve to enhance the dark edge of the story, disarming the young audience before terrifying them with various implied-mutilations.

If you don’t have kids and have never read it before, I doubt it’s worth it to seek out The Tailypo, but if you have little ones that you want to indoctrinate into the sickness: there’s no better place to start. Just make sure they can handle it.

Adam Cesare is one of the most exciting new voices in horror. His latest novel, Video Night, will be released in January 2013 by Samhain Publishing.

More Essential October Reads

Epitaphs

Other NEHW members, who will be at the convention, are Ashleigh Homon, Adam Cesare, Bracken Macleod, David Price, Gene Munson, Jason Harris, Jack Haringa, Jan Kozlowski, Kelli Jones, Kristi Petersen Schoonover, Matt Bechtel, Patrick Rahall, Rebekah Murphy, Rob Watts, T.J. May, Paul Tremblay, Bob Booth, and Jennifer Yarter-Polmatier.

They will also be four panels that the NEHW members will be involved in. This is the second year the organization has been on different panels. This year on the Women in Horror panel members , Carbone, Longo, and Wooldridge will be joined by Heather Langenkamp of Nightmare on Elm Street fame and Lisa Marie of Sleepy Hollow and Mars Attacks! fame.

The other panels will be “Breaking into the Biz” with Harris, May, Bechtel, and Schoonover, and “Horror in the Movies” with Harris, Longo, Soares, and Macleod.

Over the past month I’ve been wracking my brain to come up with an appropriately fun and fierce way to promote this fun and fierce little book, and I think I’ve settled on something you’ll enjoy.

I own a lot of movies. Considering that this is the era of streaming media, some would say that I own too many movies.

One thing’s certain: I’ve got to do some spring cleaning and that’s where you folks come in!

From now until April 3^rd I’m going to be running a giveaway, where the prize will be a bunch of genre DVDs from my private collection. Let me be clear that these will be store-bought discs (some slightly used).

Here’s what you’ll win:

• One Grand Prize winner will get no less than three (3!) DVDs (possibly a Blu-ray too, if they’ve got the equipment) from my personal collection.
• One Runner-up will receive a single DVD from my stash.

Here’s how it gets even better:

• For every tenth person (not number of entries, but individual entrants) that enters the giveaway, I will add one additional disc to the grand prize pool and there will be another runner-up winner.

How to enter-

• The “no purchase necessary” option: For one (1) entry you can either mention this contest on your blog/website (leave a comment below with a link to where I can find it and how I can get in touch with you if you win) or you can send out this tweet, verbatim:

Vampires suck and zombies can bite me. Cannibals are the new hotness in TRIBESMEN by @Adam_Cesare http://amzn.to/xaaGfj

If you want to increase your odds of winning, you can pick up a copy of the book and enter in three more ways:

• For two (2) entries, you can purchase a copy of Tribesmen for your kindle or nook and then forward me your receipt to adamcesare [at] gmail dot com (replacing that at with an @ symbol).
• If you wanted to go for four (4) entries, buy the book through amazon, read it, and then leave a short, honest review for other customers to read. Someone who leaves a glowing review will get you just as many entries as someone who thinks that I’m mediocrity incarnate. Be honest and play fair!
• Not only do I stand by my own work, but I stand by the work of my fellow Ravenous Shadows writers as well. John Skipp has put together an amazing starting lineup, so you can also get two (2) additional entries into the contest if you buy any of the other books from the imprint.These are: Eric Shapiro’s The Devoted, Jan Kozlowski’s Die, You Bastard! Die! and Mikita Brottman’s House of Quiet Madness.
  

I will keep track of entries and use a random number generator to decide upon a winner on the night of April 3rd. This contest is open to everyone (even Brits and Canadians, the book’s available pretty much worldwide) with the obvious exception of my family and fellow Ravenous Shadows authors who are listed above (reviewing your own books sounds unethical).

Be sure to follow me on twitter @Adam_Cesare, because as more people begin to enter I may drop hints as to what kind of crazy crap the winner will be receiving.

GOOD LUCK!

Die, You Bastard! Die! & Ravenous Shadows Launch Today!

by Jan Kozlowski

You may not know this, but not only do I write (intermittently) about obscure films and books, I also write fiction.

In the past I’ve posted links to various magazines my work has appeared in, but this time things are slightly different. This time I’ve got a whole book all to myself and it’s being released as part of John Skipp’s new Ravenous Shadows imprint.

Tribesmen is a 30,000 word novella (meaning it will take roughly the same amount of time as a feature film) and it’s available right now for your amazon Kindle (or the Kindle iphone/android/PC app, if you’re not into the whole e-reader scene).

Here’s the official synopsis:

In the early 80’s – at the height of the ultra-violent “Italian cannibal” grindhouse film craze – a small international cast and crew descend on an isolated Caribbean island, hoping to crassly exploit the native talent.

But the angry, undead spirits of the island have a different, more original script in mind. And as horror after staggering horror unfolds, the camera keeps rolling. To the blood-spattered end…

If you read this blog regularly, it’s up your alley. But don’t take my word for it. Check out the incredible authors who were generous enough to blurb me:

“The best new writer I’ve read in years. Wonderfully lean prose and edge-of-your-seat thrills. Drop everything else and start reading Tribesmen.”

–Nate Kenyon, author of Sparrow Rock and Starcraft Ghost: Spectres

“Tribesmen is a gory and clever homage to those Italian cannibal flicks that we all love so dearly, but without the real-life animal cruelty! Highly recommended.”

–Jeff Strand, author of Pressure and Wolf Hunt.

“Sometimes everything goes wrong, in the best possible way. Think Snuff and Cannibal Holocaust meeting at a midnight movie. And then give one of them a camera, the other a knife.”

– Stephen Graham Jones, author of It Came from Del Rio, Demon Theory and The Ones That Got Away

There you go, that’s my pitch. If you’re curious but not sold, you can send a free sample to your Kindle (the first 1 and 1/2 chapters, I believe).

Check it out here and if you do pick it up, please consider writing a quick review.

Thanks for your time,

Adam

Update: if you are a nook user, the ebook is now also available at Barnes and Noble.