Traveling Vampire Show by Richard Laymon
Nov. 6th, 2011 08:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seriousficIs there anything more important in a horror story than the beginning? Not only does it have to establish character and set up the plot like any first act, but it also has to establish a tone of normalcy so that the later terror hits home, while also giving a sense of impending dread. Let's see how Traveling Vampire Show does!
So as we open, our three childhood best friends are going to see a traveling vampire show... man, I hate when they make you wait so long to find out what the title means... in Janks Field. It's the resident spooky scenery. A serial killer buried his victims there (okay) and animals are found ritualistically murdered on occasion (go on). But these things always come in threes, so what's next? A boxing match was held there, but there wasn't a parking lot, so when two hundred people showed up...
But when it came time to leave, all hell broke loose. From what I heard, and my dad was there trying to keep order (not on duty, but moonlighting), the logjam of cars was solid. So... a traffic jam. Not only were there too many cars in the first place, but some of them got flat tires from the broken bottles and such that always littered the field. A traffic jam, then?
Feeling trapped, the drivers and passengers, in Dad's words, "went bughouse." It turned into a combination destruction derby/brawl/gang-bang. Because of a traffic jam.
By the time it was over, there were nineteen arrests, It's a traffic jam. countless minor injuries, twelve people who needed to be hospitalized, TRAFFIC JAM. eight rapes (multiple, in most cases), IT'S A FUCKING TRAFFIC JAM and four fatalities. One guy died of a heart attack, two were killed in knife-fights, who brings knives to a boxing match? Eliot Ness? and a six-month old baby, dropped to the ground by its mother during the melee, got its head run over by a Volkswagen bug.
So, to sum up...
I mean, this is page 20. You've gotta ease into this stuff. And I know, it's an evil field, but there's this thing called subtlety. It's got to be at least plausible that pure evil wasn't involved. The Overlook Hotel influences a man to kill his family, it doesn't send in Godzilla to step on people. And this isn't even an urban legend, which I could've bought from teenagers. It happened two years ago! Okay, forget the vampire thing, I want to know what the hell is up with Gangrapeville. Geez!
So as we open, our three childhood best friends are going to see a traveling vampire show... man, I hate when they make you wait so long to find out what the title means... in Janks Field. It's the resident spooky scenery. A serial killer buried his victims there (okay) and animals are found ritualistically murdered on occasion (go on). But these things always come in threes, so what's next? A boxing match was held there, but there wasn't a parking lot, so when two hundred people showed up...
But when it came time to leave, all hell broke loose. From what I heard, and my dad was there trying to keep order (not on duty, but moonlighting), the logjam of cars was solid. So... a traffic jam. Not only were there too many cars in the first place, but some of them got flat tires from the broken bottles and such that always littered the field. A traffic jam, then?
Feeling trapped, the drivers and passengers, in Dad's words, "went bughouse." It turned into a combination destruction derby/brawl/gang-bang. Because of a traffic jam.
By the time it was over, there were nineteen arrests, It's a traffic jam. countless minor injuries, twelve people who needed to be hospitalized, TRAFFIC JAM. eight rapes (multiple, in most cases), IT'S A FUCKING TRAFFIC JAM and four fatalities. One guy died of a heart attack, two were killed in knife-fights, who brings knives to a boxing match? Eliot Ness? and a six-month old baby, dropped to the ground by its mother during the melee, got its head run over by a Volkswagen bug.
So, to sum up...
I mean, this is page 20. You've gotta ease into this stuff. And I know, it's an evil field, but there's this thing called subtlety. It's got to be at least plausible that pure evil wasn't involved. The Overlook Hotel influences a man to kill his family, it doesn't send in Godzilla to step on people. And this isn't even an urban legend, which I could've bought from teenagers. It happened two years ago! Okay, forget the vampire thing, I want to know what the hell is up with Gangrapeville. Geez!
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no subject
Date: 2011-11-07 02:55 am (UTC)The guy had a bigger obsession with rape, torture, and S&M than any writer I've ever seen. I seriously think he probably wrote "Agony in Pink" in his spare time.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-07 07:57 am (UTC)HA HA HA HA HA HOLY SHIT
... Oh, man, that takes me BACK.
I was on TELNET when I first read that.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-09 07:53 am (UTC)