Remember how – before it bombed – HALLOWEEN III was intended to be the first in an annual series of Michael Myers-less sequels, each of which would be unrelated to one another except for taking place on that most sinister of holidays? Al Sarrantonio’s HALLOWS EVE could have been adapted into one of those sequels, and I mean that as a compliment.
In HALLOWS EVE – which came out last October, predictably – a man named Corrie returns to his hometown of Orangefield after vacating it suddenly a dozen years ago, following the murder of his mother. Still believed by local authorities to be the killer, Corrie left to escape demons – literal ones, who made his nightmares his reality. Sure enough, upon his return, his “friends” show up again, most notably in the form of a pumpkin-headed scarecrow who leaves his cornfield perch whenever he damn well feels like it.
That’s a terrifying image to be sure, as are Sarrantonio’s passages dealing with armies of hornets and a giant spider. But John, as the scarecrow calls himself, is not what he seems. Thus, the plot shifts wildly – almost too wildly – toward the realm of fantasy as Corrie confronts these dark forces for what may be the last time, on Oct. 31.
Up until this final segment, I was running right alongside the quick pace of Sarrantonio’s story, which accurately captures that small-town-in-fall feel that Ray Bradbury perfected. While the supernatural-heavy climax by no means wrecks the book, it’s departure from solid horror was a little disappointing. Still, HALLOWS EVE is not your run-of-the-mill horror novel, with Sarrantonio almost as compelling as an author as he is an anthologist.
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