First published back in November of 1982, Shaun Hutson’s now cult classic pulp horror / splatterpunk extravaganza entitled ‘Slugs’ burst onto the horror scene; jumping onto the popular ‘creatures vs mankind’ bandwagon after the unprecedented success of James Herbert’s debut novel ‘The Rats’ (1974).
The novel resonated with this newly formed gore hungry audience; perfectly capturing the over-the-top splatter elements and outrageously preposterous premise required to set the novel above the multitude of similarly themed publications that were saturating the market at the time.
The novel was later followed up by the sequel ‘Breeding
Ground’ (1985) and was also adapted into the 1988 B-Movie monstrosity of the same name, directed by exploitation-master Juan Piquer Simon.
DLS Synopsis:
Pensioner, Ron Bell, had returned home after a heavy session drinking. Stumbling around his house, he’d crashed into his coffee table before toppling to the floor in a drunken heap. As his prone body lay on the floor, unconscious and unmoving, they took their opportunity and moved in for the kill...en masse...hungry to devour their victim.
The following day local Council Health Inspector, Mike Brady, made his way to Ron Bell’s home with the local bailiff, Archie Reece, to report on the unacceptable state of the building. However, after arriving at the property, they discovered that the pensioner won’t be doing much more with the building cleanliness. For upon breaking in to the property they find his mutilated corpse on the property floor, the bloody remains surrounded by a bizarre shiny substance.
Elsewhere, with the sun beating down on the town of Merton, Harold Morris decides it’s a good day for a spot of gardening. As he pulls on his gardening gloves, a searing pain shoots up from his gloved hand. Removing the glove, he watches in horror as his hand is slowly being eaten away by a number of thick, black-bodied slugs. At the sound of his screaming, his wife comes running out to find Harold’s hand almost entirely consumed by the flesh-eating slugs. Barely conscious, Harold knows he has one option left – his wife must severe his hand at the wrist, to rid himself of these carnivorous beasts.
As reports start coming in around Merton of the strange attacks, the local authorities don’t know what to believe. And then Mike Brady himself is attacked by one of the giant slugs. After the disturbing encounter, Brady sets about trying to investigate what the hell is going on with these aggressive black slugs. But as he finally starts his investigation, all of a sudden, the attacks are everywhere.
The slugs are breeding and their numbers are growing. Now the idea of flesh-eating slugs is no longer something to be ridiculed – the threat is real. And all of a sudden, nowhere is safe from the slithering black beasts that hunger for flesh...
DLS Review:
DLS Review:
Hutson in his early years was full of enthusiasm for over-the-top pulpy splatterpunk, delighting at the prospect of butchering a bunch of hapless victims in the name of horror fiction. The author’s utter love for conjuring up scenes of carnage and stomach-churning splatter is evident throughout these early tales... ‘Slugs’ a prime example.
We begin the novel with the usual cardboard cut-out characters that frequent the pages of the average Hutson novel. Fine, we can live with that. After the initial attack on our unconscious friend, Ron Bell, the pace of the story is teeth-grindingly slow for a novel of this nature. Admittedly this does help in some way to build up some degree of tension and suspense. However, we know what’s coming...we knew this just from reading the one-word title of the novel. As such, mounting up the suspense is only delaying what we’re here to read. It kind of unnecessary and because of that, a tad frustrating.
Nevertheless, in an attempt to keep the novel moving along, Hutson throws in a few tantalizing slithers of slug attacks, in short, quick-fire successions, until finally he’s had enough and just lets all hell break loose with his literary love for splatter.
We begin the novel with the usual cardboard cut-out characters that frequent the pages of the average Hutson novel. Fine, we can live with that. After the initial attack on our unconscious friend, Ron Bell, the pace of the story is teeth-grindingly slow for a novel of this nature. Admittedly this does help in some way to build up some degree of tension and suspense. However, we know what’s coming...we knew this just from reading the one-word title of the novel. As such, mounting up the suspense is only delaying what we’re here to read. It kind of unnecessary and because of that, a tad frustrating.
Nevertheless, in an attempt to keep the novel moving along, Hutson throws in a few tantalizing slithers of slug attacks, in short, quick-fire successions, until finally he’s had enough and just lets all hell break loose with his literary love for splatter.
The slug attacks are savage and unrelenting from here on. Hutson avoids any hint of campness or suggestions of black comedy, as he throws in all he’s got with a surprisingly gripping and intense storyline. To actually pull off a serious(ish) horror novel with giant black flesh-hungry slugs on the rampage as the plot is certainly no small feat.
Furthermore, once the novel gets going, it really fucking gets going. The attacks are unrelenting, each one depicted with such a gore-hungry glee that you can’t help but become wrapped up in the madness of the splatterpunk carnage.
As the novel begins to show the very first signs of getting a little on the repetitive side, Hutson decides to call it a day and throws together an unforgivably weak ending. As unimaginative and uninspired as the ending may be, it does however sit with the overall pulpy enjoyment of the tale. It’s not going to get you hanging on to the edge of your seat...it’s not going to leave you breathless and thirsting for more...but what it does do, and it does this very well, is entertain the reader from start to finish. And for that I will most certainly salute the author.
The novel runs for a total of 208 pages.
© DLS Reviews
Other ‘Slugs’ instalments:
- ‘Slugs’ (1982)
- ‘Breeding Ground’ (1985)
