On a cold October night, five people gather in a run-down motel on the Jersey shore and begin preparations to break into the Paragon Hotel. Built in the glory days of Asbury Park by a reclusive millionaire, the magnificent structure – which foreshadowed the beauties of Art Deco architecture – is now boarded up and marked for demolition. The five people are “creepers”, the slang term for urban explorers: city archeologists with a passion for investigating abandoned buildings and their dying secrets. On this evening, they are joined by a reporter who wants to profile them – anonymously, as this is a highly illegal activity – for a New York Times article.
Frank Balenger, a sandy-haired, broad-shouldered reporter with a decided air of mystery about him, isn’t looking for just a story, however. And after the group enters the rat-infested tunnel leading to the hotel, it becomes clear that he will get much more than he bargained for. Danger, terror, and death await the creepers in a place ravaged by time and redolent of evil.
Horror Book Review Blog: Creepers
In the early 2000s, I was in college, young, adventurous, and more daring than I am now. There was little fear of consequences for trespassing on private property, an abandoned, psychiatric ward, an old tavern, or a supposed haunted house. I discovered urban exploration, and, being an amateur photographer, I was itching to get some good photos inside these aged and decrepit establishments. I longed for the thrill and for coming home with fantastic images to show off to anyone willing to see them. Sadly, I never partook in any excursions for one reason or another mostly because I didn’t find any willing participants who wanted to participate in said adventures with me, and I was too chicken to do it on my own. It was no wonder that when I read the synopsis for Creepers (a slang term for urban explorers) that I was immediately sucked in and was guaranteed to prove myself right by not going on these excursions on my own.
The story is simple: a reporter wants to join a group of urban explorers to explore a historic, now-abandoned Paragon Hotel before the wrecking crew demolishes the building. Something routine to this experienced group of Creepers turns into a night of horror when, amongst the rat-infested corridors and tunnels, they learn that there is something more inside them, and they must elude whatever is there to survive the night.
Morrell is no stranger to adventure and thrills having penned First Blood (Rambo). This go-around is no different. Morrell again portrays the turmoil and anxiety that our hero in First Blood, John Rambo, went through while fending for himself against Sheriff Will Teasle and his deputies as they wage war against the sole drifter who was passing through town. They soon discover, of course, that they made a horrible mistake. In Creepers, our hero, Frank Balenger, is no John Rambo and is a reporter for the New York Times tagging along for a story and finds himself in a regretful predicament. He, too, like John Rambo, will have to face a “force of nature” and conjure his inner hero to survive and make it through the night.
Creepers personify dread throughout as well as a sense of high adventure and tension as our protagonists roam the dark corridors of the Paragon Hotel as they try to evade whatever it is that hunting them. The novel plays very much like a popcorn film would play where you can check your brain in at the door, sit back and enjoy the book for what it is – a fun experiment in terror with surprises around every corner that will leave you guessing who may or may not live to see another day. I had a blast reading Creepers and tore through the book in nearly one sitting. Is it a masterpiece? Not at all, but it is damn good, and again, a fun read that I may revisit sometime in the future.