Survival-Horror der Extraklasse
So kann man guten Gewissens einige Romane des 2001 verstorbenen Autors Richard Laymon bezeichnen. Besonders zu Beginn seiner Karriere legte er eine Kompromisslosigkeit und Kaltschnäuzigkeit an den Tag, dass dem geneigten Leser fast schwindelig wird. Ich kenne fast alle Bücher von ihm, und auch wenn im Laufe der Zeit die schockierende (und fast schon nihilistische) Brutalität seiner alten Romane deutlich zurückging, so sind doch alle Bücher - für mich zumindest - eine sehr spannende und unterhaltsame Angelegenheit. Ein Wort der Warnung: in vielen seiner Romane fließt einiges an Sexualität mit ein (u. a. auch in Form von Vergewaltigung), was sicher nicht jedermanns (oder -fraus) Sache ist. Allerdings gleicht sich das wieder etwas aus, da seine Frauenfiguren extrem stark gezeichnet sind. Leider sind, soweit mir bekannt, nur wenige Romane des Autors auf deutsch erschienen, und selbst diese sind nicht alle zu empfehlen. Sein Erstling, THE CELLAR (dt.: HAUS DER SCHRECKEN), ist beispielsweise extremst zensiert (es wurde gleich ein ganzer Nebenhandlungsstrang weggekürzt!). Seine Schreibweise ist jedoch flott, mitreißend, und nicht allzu kompliziert, sodass man mit ein paar Englischkenntnissen problemlos in seine grausige Welt eintauchen können sollte.
Wer also auf Survival bzw. Bockwoods Horror á la THE DESCENT, THE HILLS HAVE EYES, WRONG TURN, CREEP, HOUSE OF WAX etc. abfährt, der sollte mal einen Blick wagen!
Besonders empfehlenswert: (Covertext kopiert von der 'Richard Laymon Kills' Website):
The Beast House Trilogy (The Cellar - The Beast House - Midnight Tour)
The Cellar: Visitors flock to see the Beast House with its blood-soaked corridors and creaky doors. Armed with Instamatics and video camcorders, these poor souls enter the forbidden house, never to return. The deeper the tourists go into the house, the darker their nightmares become. The men are dealt with quickly. The women have to wait longer...first they are tortured and sexually ravished. But the worst part of the house is actually beneath the haunted structure. There lies even a more terrifying presence waiting for its next victim. Don't even think about going into the cellar...
The Beast House: The waxworks were so realistic. Bodies torn and chewed. Blood blackly-encrusting open wounds. Flaps of skin hanging loose, clawed from the stripped, ripped corpses. Men, women, children, slaughtered, mangled... The old woman who showed them round was well-practised in her grim, money-spinning take of the mysterious beast that has killed and killed again. Of course it was all in the past and all nonsense. Anyone would agree to that. Until, trapped, they heard, then smelled and felt the white, night-time creature that had come, grunting and spittle-slicked, for their bodies, their blood.
The Midnight Tour: "The Beast House - legendary site of ghastly murder! See with your own eyes where the bloody butchery took place! Witness authentic reproductions of the Beast's ravaged victims in their actual death garments! Listen to the true story of the only known survivor of the Beast!" The sales pitch hasn't changed much over the years - except now you can listen to it on earphones as you take the audio tour of the house. But the taped tour only gives you a sanitized version of the horrific events that made the Beast House infamous. If you want the full story, you'll have to take the Midnight Tour. Saturday nights only. Limited to thirteen unlucky tourists. It begins on the stroke of midnight. Tonight the guide will show you every nook and cranny of the house. She'll tell you everything - including details too ghastly and perverse to be mentioned in daylight. But she might not be able to save you. Because this Saturday night, those on the Midnight Tour will be joined by an unexpected visitor. They'll be lucky to get out alive...
Midnight's Lair: Mordock's Cave is one of the wonders of the world: a place where thousands of sightseers every year take an awe-inspiring boat trip on a lake deep beneath the earth's surface and marvel at Nature's handiwork. But the darkness is also the home of things Nature never intended - things violent, bestial and obscenely evil. And when a sudden power failure traps a group of tourists underground, the unnatural creatures who dwell there emerge from the depths...
Funland: The seaside resort of Boleta Bay is not the carefree place it used to be. A series of unexpected disappearances has cast a dark shadow over summer pleasures. And holiday-makers are being threatened by a growing army of leering, foul-mouthed bums who have taken over the promenade. But now Boleta Bay is fighting back. Convinced that the down-and-outs are behind the abductions, a gang of local teenagers decide to wreak violent revenge. Led by the charismatic Tanya, the gang graduate from simple beatings to more sinister punishments. And as they grow more daring, their campaign leads them to the old abandoned Funhouse, where the real truth of the disappearances awaits them...
Island: From the journal of Rupert Conway, castaway:
"Today the yacht exploded. Fortunately all of us had gone ashore to have a picnic on this island, so we didn't get blown to smithereens. All of us, that is, except Prince Wesley..." Eight people take a yachting cruise in the Bahamas. They plan to swim, sunbathe and relax - then the boat blows up. Though they're stranded on a deserted island things could be worse: their beach camp location has fresh water and fire wood, and there's enough food salvaged from the wreck to last them out. Just one problem remains, as they wait to be rescued - they are not alone. In the jungle behind the beach there's a manic on the loose with murder in his heart. And he's plotting to kill them all, one by one...
Dark Mountain: Two families join forces for a camping holiday in the California mountains. It's meant to be fun - a break from city life, a healthy interlude in the hills amid the wonders of Nature. If only they hadn't pitched camp at Mesquite Lake, home to two of the wilderness's most terrifying inhabitants - an aged hag whose loyalty to the Evil One gives her gruesome powers, and her son, a depraved half-beast whose unnatural lusts even she connot control...
Darkness, Tell Us: It starts at an end-of-term party. Six college kids and a Ouija board. The board that Professor Coreen Dalton had hidden at the back of a cupboard and sworn never to touch again - not after Jake's death. And now here are these kids falling for the revelations of a spirit called Butler, swallowing its promise of a fortune hidden in the mountains. Not that Corie believes they would be stupid enough to head off into the wilderness on the say-so of a child's plaything. To embark on a two-day hike into the unknown where any foul danger may lie in wait to cut and slice and tear them limb from limb. But then, professor or not, Corie could be wrong...
The Woods are Dark: In the woods are six dead trees. The Killing Trees. That's where they take them. People like Neala and her friend Sherri and the Dills family. Innocent travellers on vacation on the back roads of California. Seized and bound, stripped of their valuables and shackled to the Trees. To wait. In the woods. In the dark...
[Blockierte Grafik: http://www.ains.net.au/~gerlach/midnight.jpg][Blockierte Grafik: http://www.ains.net.au/~gerlach/funland.jpg]
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Muss einer der Neuveröffentlichungen sein, die erst nach seinem Tod fertiggestellt wurden. Von seinen "alten" Büchern müsste ich eigentlich alle kennen.
