A group of desperate student filmmakers break into Crawford Manor for an unauthorized night shoot. They have no choice. Their lead actress has quit. They’re out of time. They’re out of money.
They’re out of luck.
For Crawford Manor has a past that won’t stay dead, and the crew are about to come face-to-face with the hideous secret that stalks the halls. Will anyone survive…the NIGHT SHOOT?
Horror Book Review Blog: Night Shoot
I, too, was once a young aspiring filmmaker and night shoots were standard, whether intentional or just hard-pressed on time to meet a deadline. In retrospect, it was extremely fun, and even though a grade was held in the balance, we managed to pull through and get a passing grade. Elspeth, Robert (whose uncle is the owner of the Crawford Manor), and the company face a similar situation where they have to improvise in order to finish their student film. That improvisation involves having to break into the manor to finish. As one would imagine, this turns out to be a very bad idea.
Elspeth and the gang are not too keen on Robert Crawford’s directorial efforts of the past, often putting story and style by the wayside and placing the proverbial T &A to the forefront. Of course, this all makes sense in Robert wanting to replicate the sleepy horror films of the 1980s. Yes, in this sense, it makes sense. Elspeth, however, frowns on this and is in it only for the grade despite her disapproval. The film crew is granted access to the manor and is allowed to film for one day. As one would expect, things go awry, and all hell breaks loose as well as the fun.
It’s been a long time since I’ve had this much fun when reading a book. Night Shoot had a little bit of everything: laughs, thrills, chills, scares, the grotesque, and the good kind of cringe-worthiness. I laughed out loud on more than a few occasions and was also marveled by Sodergren’s descriptions of the horrors that befell our protagonists.
I sympathized with our main protagonist, Elspeth. Unfortunately, I really can’t say the same for the other characters as they were, for the most part, “bantha fodder.” In other words, they got what was coming to them, and there was little remorse for them. There was a lot to like with Night Shoot and, I’ll admit, I found it hard to put the book down. The first thing I wanted to do the next day was to continue reading. Yes, it was that kind of book. Sure, it is not a masterpiece, nor does it pretend to be, but what you can expect is a great time reading this gem.
It was clear that author, David Sodergren, was a fan of 80s horror movies by some of the dialogue, and the death scenes, and even poked fun at the genre by our heroin’s jabs at Roberts’s previous films and how bad they were. Many folks I know admit to watching said bad films and usually categorize them as “so bad, they’re good” movies. We, as horror fans, know that a lot of these movies are not good, but we appreciate them nonetheless. Sodergren further accentuates his affinity to horror in his afterword, where he describes the music listened to when writing the book. Some of the composers included the likes of Christopher Young (one of my personal favorites, Colin Towns (Full Circle), Elliot Goldenthal (Pet Semetary) Howards Shore, and Jerry Goldsmith. These are all artists and motion picture soundtracks that I thoroughly enjoy, and after discovering this after completion of my reading, I was able to appreciate it all the more!