Can a comic book actually scare you? I mean, honestly, has there ever been a comic that you’ve read where after you’ve read it you’ve been legit spooked? I see a lot of horror comics out there these days. Seems like they’re heavy on the gore and light on the mind. Not all of them but most of them. I think an actual book can scare the bejeezus out of you because your imagination is way more powerful than anything in the Universe and can freak you out right into a therapy couch. For the record I’ve never been to therapy. No need. I’ve taken acting classes for several decades. Winning!
The last comic book that I can think of that actually had me a wee bit on the edge of my seat/creeped out was Wytches by Scott Synder with art by Jock which way back in 2014. You really have to be a master of building up suspense and of panel sequencing in order to derive some actual shrieks from a comic and Snyder and Jock did it. Thing was, once we saw what the Wytches actually were the fear factor kind of evaporated. Why? Because our imagination per usual was way worse than the drawn thing. Yet for six issues I think that was as horrifying as a comic could be.
Well Synder’s back to rankle your nerves with Night of the Ghoul. The Premise? Guy and his son travel down a dusty road to the middle of nowhere looking for an old folks home that has a resident who (goes by a different name now) supposedly was the director of a legendary horror film in the 40s that never saw the light of day. Of course it’s a masterpiece and of course the elements of the movie are real and part of the facility. Right off the bat I’m like, why the hell are they doing construction for a facility like this in the middle of nowhere? Good luck getting a pizza or meal prep boxes like Blue Apron out here. Amazon Prime would be absolutely useless and the wifi’s gonna suck. I’m already upset at the logistics. It’s horrifying but not life or death…well actually it’s ‘first world champagne problems’ life or death.
The father goes to interview the decrepit director while the kid hangs near the front desk and chats with his estranged mom. Predictably he decides he wants to leave just as his phone cuts out while talking to a cabby who says the location is not on GPS. Yeah, no way this kid was getting any re-frikkin-ception to begin with let alone a call to a cab company. So does this story take place today or is it from a recent timeline. Because if it’s today the kid would be totally sitting there on TikTok scrolling through jiggling ass tok toks and streaming himself while he posed with the creepy old people.
Another gripe I have is that the ‘footage’ of the film was destroyed or burned so throughout the comic you see it the final frame of some footage burnt at the edges. Yet it just picks up again at another point and then burns out again. Is it burnt or not? Film doesn’t burn in separate chunks and if it’s burnt what was salvageable is going to look like sludge. I get that you need to suspend disbelief but now I’m suspending the basic laws of wifi tik-tok UberEats and film footage???
There was a series that came out last year called ‘The Lot’. It was bit similar to this one in that a horror movie was shot that was never finished and never saw the light of day but it somehow profoundly affected all those who were involved in the production. A Production Assistant end up tracking everyone down and gets to the bottom of the sinister secrets. It was wonderfully drawn and the story, though not terrifying, was gripping enough to follow to the last issue. I can’t say this series matches the spine rattling intensity out of the gate that ‘The Lot’ did. I’m going to give Snyder the benefit of the doubt here but he’s on thin ‘burnt footage’ ice.
I actually began reading this late at night on Halloween with just my reading lamp on and the lights off. I wanted to give myself every opportunity to get scared by a comic book. Didn’t work. In order to prevent trick or treaters from knocking on my door which would drive my doggie absolutely bonkers I decided to get a large plastic bowl and fill it with candy. I figured, hey, let the sugar addicts sort the rationing out for themselves. The bowl lasted for a couple hours and then it got dark. Now THAT was frightening. Having to creep outside to retrieve an empty candy bowl with zero intention of refilling it. I had to time it perfectly. One small misstep and I’d be tied up to my couch while teenagers dressed up as characters from The Purge would be pouring my bags of coconut sugar down their throats and laughing at my pile of comic books. I’d say:
Hey, that Night of the Ghoul book is actually scary
They’d pick it up, flip through it and go:
Shouldn’t this kid be live streaming?
Then they’d live stream from their phone as they made me drive to Whole Foods for more sugar. I’d beg them to allow me to take my phone and they’d say no. Then all the Whole Foods Amazon Prime discounts wouldn’t matter. I’m shaking. Deeply shaking. There Snyder, there, that’s horror. Write that in Issue 2 and I’ll fork over another 5 bux a pop for however long this snoozefest goes.
Rating: 7.1
Verdict: Pull on Alert
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