By now it’s common knowledge that the original fairy tales of Mother Goose and the Brothers Grimm were far gorier and explicit before the likes of Walt Disney watered them down for the kid-friendly masses. R. Patrick Gates’ GRIMM MEMORIALS rather cleverly draws upon these stories’ horrific roots as a source for its own tale of outrageous terror.

Eleanor Grimm, a descendant of the Brothers, is an elderly witch who lives in a rundown crematorium in the middle of the woods. A part-time necromancer, she’s seeking immortality via a ritual requiring her to collect – and sacrifice – 13 virginal boys. She lures the youths by telepathically casting hallucinations involving various nursery rhyme characters. Under these visions meant to distract and disturb, Humpty Dumpty’s fall becomes a grisly spectacle befitting of a crime scene, Snow White is serviced by seven naked midgets and the dog of Old Mother Hubbard compensates for an empty cupboard by sinking its teeth into her.

Unwittingly drawn into this plot of madness and murder are the four (and a half) members of the Nailer family, newly relocated to the area – children Jennifer and Jackie, stepfather Steve and mother Diane, pregnant with child. Each is needed and thus used by Eleanor in her pain-racked, drug-addled bid for eternal life, with the children in particular placed in a modern-day Hansel and Gretel role.

Gates’ device of incorporating time-honored folklore and fairy tales into a truly twisted narrative is a novel one; otherwise, MEMORIALS would be rather routine and unmemorable. As it stands, though, it plays to many a childhood fear – from giant spiders to kidnapping – that often carry over into our adult lives. This results in some nightmarish scenarios, some of which are built for extreme horror, others wired for well-designed shocks.

Perhaps the best example of the latter is when – and even my mere spoiler can’t live up to the insanity of the printed page – Steve is seduced by a hot young thing in a bar; so engorged with desire, he takes her right there on a table in plain sight. The other bar patrons, however, see the scene as it really is: Steve boning the withered, wrinkled and altogether age-ravaged body of Eleanor, the witch. With situations like this, Gates out-Laymons Richard Laymon, unafraid to mix sex and violence for simultaneous revulsion and laughter. What Gates does best is provide a high body count and a high-concept story; what he doesn’t do well is write credible dialogue for the kids – a failing of most writers, regardless of genre. With all the carnage and its perverse ending, you won’t care a bit.

GRIMM MEMORIALS was first published in 1990 and has been out of print, but now has been newly reissued by Pinnacle in preparation for February’s release of the long-time-coming sequel, GRIMM REAPINGS, a preview of which you’ll find in the book’s back. And believe me, you’ll get there quick, because this is something of a real horror treasure – a novel that’s not widely known, yet should be because it doesn’t chicken out on any level.