A group of desperate student filmmakers break into Crawford Manor for an unauthorised 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?A … survive…the NIGHT SHOOT?
A delirious homage to the slasher movies of the 1980s, Night Shoot delivers page after page of white-knuckle terror.
“Night Shoot is wildly entertaining. If you’re not laughing, you’re scared out of your mind. A final girl story people will be talking about for a long time.”
Sadie Hartmann, Mother Horror
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As Mr Sodergren mentions in his Afterword, his goal was to “Embrace the trash!”
Well, this is very well-written trash. The best kind of trash, written by an author with a solid grasp and love of blood-soaked slasher movies packed with titillation. This is a gory, night of survival with a hapless but enjoyable cast of student film makers (with some just begging for a messy comeuppance) trapped inside a dark, gothic manor with some hideously unpleasant residents.
Fans of Richard Laymon and his unsavoury ilk will get a kick out of this.
This book involves a families horrific secret, the family manor and a group of student filmmakers! The one rule of shooting at the manor was that they leave by 8:00pm. Well that doesn’t work out as this is titled “Night Shoot”! Folks, this is a good one! The ending threw me for a loop! I started reading David’s books because of Boris, now he has joined the “I will read anything he writes” category!
** A couple of Full Disclosure’s here before we start! The first is that Mr. Sodergren has become my main copy-editor on all of my works. He’s been instrumental in helping me and my writing. The second is that, while he does have a column here at Kendall Reviews, neither of the two disclosures have in any way influenced my review. **
Last year, the horror world was introduced to David Sodergren’s debut Novel ‘The Forgotten Island.’ It was a marvellous achievement for a debut novel and the characters and story were stunning. It easily made my top 10 year-end list and made a number of other year-end best-of lists as well. It was even awarded a stunning 5 skull review in Scream Magazine. This was first-rate story telling by a first-rate gentleman.
Now, in 2019, Sodergren returns and if we thought he was going to ease up, back off or rest on his laurels with the success of The Forgotten Island to fall back on, you can forget about that.
Sodergren has a gift for storytelling, for pacing, character development and for not filling space with useless words. He puts down what is needed and does it effortlessly. Throw in the amazing artwork that keeps the stylistic aesthetic of his debut and Night Shoot fires on all cylinders.
The entire book reads as David intended – a classic 1980’s VHS slasher, kill them all tale. It keeps the standard plot points to engage; amazing setting (ancient manor), boobs (lead actress/main character), and a gaggle of odd and strange characters. Then of course there is suspense, scares, gore and death. Plenty of gore and death.
This is one of those books that would be an easy rental for me back in the VHS days and I’d be now waiting for the Blu-Ray release to come out. It has nostalgia written all over in the best way possible.
We follow Elspeth and her college friends as they arrive at the writer/director’s Uncle’s manor. The group are filming a movie for their final mark in University and they’re filming a horror movie. Robert, the director has been given permission to film for the day, with one caveat – they must be packed up and gone by 8pm sharp. Not a second later. The Uncle doesn’t spend the nights there and will be locking it up at 8.
Well, of course, and no surprise to us horror fans, things don’t work out and the group sneaks back in after 8pm.
From there Sodergren flexes his writing chops and begins offing his characters in the best ways possible.
The ending left me stunned, saddened and infuriated, which is to say – he ended it exactly as it should’ve. I finished reading it about four days ago as of the writing of this, and I’m still wishing it would’ve ended differently, but glad it played out like it did.
Sodergren’s many hours watching movies continues to pay off and he framed the scenes fantastic and injected a bit of humour at a few key spots, which upped the emotional attachments to the various characters.
This is another home run for David and frankly, I’m already waiting to see what’s up his sleeve next!