2022 Horrortober Killer Reading List

Happy Horrortober to all the Hellions far and wide! I woke up early on this rainy October 1st morning and watched the Italian horror classic, DEMONS. Nothing like a little insane gore to start your day. Not to mention a helicopter crashing through a movie theater ceiling. Last year I watched 65 movies during Horrortober. Who knows what will happen this year? Other than the tried and true flicks I always watch like THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL, HALLOWEEN, IT FOLLOWS and THE FUNHOUSE, I plan to add movies like THE RELIC, PRIMAL RAGE, THE BOOGEYMAN and THE BROOD to the mix. Plus, I have a stack of new Blu-rays in my room I had stashed for this month.

Speaking of rainy days, every year I save up special books to read for Horrortober, and this year is no different. Though with the Mets making the playoffs, I might not have as much horror time as usual. So, here are the books on my TBR list for this Halloween season. I’m curious to hear what’s on yours!

Right after DEMONS ended, I dove into this one that I’ve been dying to read. Sager is one of my current favorites and never disappoints.

Casey Fletcher, a recently widowed actress trying to escape a streak of bad press, has retreated to the peace and quiet of her family’s lake house in Vermont. Armed with a pair of binoculars and several bottles of bourbon, she passes the time watching Tom and Katherine Royce, the glamorous couple living in the house across the lake. They make for good viewing—a tech innovator, Tom is powerful; and a former model, Katherine is gorgeous.

One day on the lake, Casey saves Katherine from drowning, and the two strike up a budding friendship. But the more they get to know each other—and the longer Casey watches—it becomes clear that Katherine and Tom’s marriage isn’t as perfect as it appears. When Katherine suddenly vanishes, Casey immediately suspects Tom of foul play. What she doesn’t realize is that there’s more to the story than meets the eye—and that shocking secrets can lurk beneath the most placid of surfaces.

This mockumentary-style dark comedy recounts the grisly events surrounding the terrible slasher flick THE ROOFER, remembered only because an obsessed fan tried to reenact the murders as they played out on the screen. When the same theater shows the film twenty years later, will the warnings that this is a really, really bad idea be justified?

It’s been almost a year since Makani Young came to live with her grandmother and she’s still adjusting to her new life in rural Nebraska. Then, one by one, students at her high school begin to die in a series of gruesome murders, each with increasing and grotesque flair.

As the body count rises and the terror grows closer, can Makani survive the killer’s twisted plan?

Eligos is waiting…fulfil your destiny

1941. In the dark days of war-torn London, Violet works in Churchill’s subterranean top secret Cabinet War Rooms, where key decisions that will dictate Britain’s conduct of the war are made. Above, the people of London go about their daily business as best they can, unaware of the life that teems beneath their feet.

Night after night the bombs rain down, yet Violet has far more to fear than air raids. A mysterious man, a room only she can see, memories she can no longer trust, and a best friend who denies their shared past… Something or someone – is targeting her.

“Think you’re hardcore? Think again. If you’ve handled everything Edward Lee, Wrath James White, and Bryan Smith have thrown at you, then put on your rubber parka, spread some plastic across the floor, and get ready for Ryan Harding, the unsung master of hardcore horror. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. Harding’s work is like an acid bath, and pain has never been so sweet.” – Brian Keene

“Enjoy the tour, friends. Enjoy the gang-bang. You may need psych drugs afterwards, you may need an air-sick bag and a steam shower, but I feel confident that you will be provocatively moved by this book.” – Edward Lee, from his introduction

Genital Grinder collects the most sought after and most extreme fiction from the diamond in the puke – Ryan Harding.