First published in July of 2024, Mark Morris’ novel ‘That Which Stands Outside’ offered up a thick slab of Scandinavian folklore horror set on a cold and remote Nordic island.
It was late at night and Todd Kingston was making his way home through the wet London streets when he came across the young woman being robbed by two thugs. Todd did what he believed anyone in his position would do. He stepped in and tried to fend off the robbers’ attack. A valiant attempt which sees him beaten half to death on the cold, wet pavement.
Three weeks later and Todd’s out of hospital and enjoying a meal with the woman he rescued – Yrsa Helgerson. Ever since the mugging, the two have been getting on very well. In fact, a relationship was gradually blossoming between the two. And then Yrsa’s mother dies.
Yrsa and her mother were never close. Nevertheless, Yrsa decides she should attend the funeral back at her homeland. A small island located a small distance off the shores of Iceland. An island called Eldfjallaeyja.
Todd decides to join Yrsa on her trip back to her homeland, to provide emotional support if nothing else. Within days the two are crossing the turbulent waters, with the mountainous island looming ahead of them. As far as Yrsa can see, nothing has changed on Eldfjallaeyja since she left for London all those years ago.
In the old and decaying harbour, a couple of dozen fishing boats bob in the dark water. The sparse town is as dead and vacant as ever. Life there feels stagnant and devoid of anything other than mere survival. Seeing the island again after all these years confirms to Yrsa that leaving was the right thing for her to do.
However, Yrsa’s return is not a welcome one. From the moment they set foot on Eldfjallaeyja, the islanders show resentment and hostility to the pair. Yrsa claims they’re all superstitious. Blaming them for believing she’s not what she appears to be. That she’s something else.
When she was a young child, Yrsa had fallen into the island’s underground caves; trapped there for three days with no food or water. Since then, the islanders believed her to be a child of the Jötnar. Her flesh corrupted by the ancient Nordic dwarves said to wreak havoc and bring chaos.
But Yrsa has differing memories of her childhood ordeal. In the dark depths of The Devils Throat, she swears she saw something else. Something that if real, will change their lives forever. Was it all just feverish hallucinations brought on by stress and dehydration? Or was there really something lurking in the dark depths of the Volcanic island’s caves…
Oh, how I love a horror story that embraces strange and creepy folklore. This novel from Mark Morris is absolutely and quintessentially that. It’s a story that’s wholeheartedly embedded in Nordic folklore, whilst the superstitions and customs of the inhabitants of this remote Scandinavian island purposefully set down an uneasy and unfamiliar backdrop to the escalating ancient horror that gradually unfolds.
From the surface, similarities can invariably be pulled with the likes of ‘The Wicker Man’ (1973) and Lovecraft’s ‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth’ (1936). In fact, during the course of the tale, Morris’ characters jokingly reference Robin Hardy’s film, along with the legendary scene in The Slaughtered Lamb from ‘An American Werewolf In London’ (1981). Indeed, Morris doesn’t shy away from embracing these blatant cult horror parallels, but instead heightens the situational backdrop to fully bring out that constant blanket of uneasy oppression.
An absolute key element to the success of the novel was undoubtedly with Morris painting a vivid picture of the island, and perhaps more importantly, the islanders themselves. In this, Morris has absolutely excelled. The bitterly cold, wet and weathered island is projected upon the reader from the very moment the pair set foot onto the island’s shoreline. In fact, not since reading Michelle Paver’s novel ‘Dark Matter’ (2010) has a Nordic island felt so cold and hostile as it does here.
But what of the horror? Well, in this quarter, Morris does not disappoint one bit. Yes, we get somewhat distracted by the hostilities of the locals. Whispered warnings to Todd about his girlfriend being “not who you think she is” and that “you are not safe”. All this invariably helps to that constantly mounting sense of unease.
Then you have the fleeting glimpses of someone, or something, lurking in the shadows. Short, squat bodies briefly glimpsed one minute then gone the next. Does it escalate from there? Holy shit, does it! I have absolutely no plan to throw down any spoilers here, so just take it from me, this thing builds and builds, then suddenly, all hell is unleashed.
In fact, as I ploughed through the last hundred pages or so it reminded me of the ambitious and downright explosive horror finales of the author’s earlier work – most notably ‘Toady’ (1989) and ‘The Secret Of Anatomy’ (1994). The sheer scale of escalation alone gets you gripping the book and desperately churning through those final handful of pages. This really is some fucking intense, adrenaline-pumping horror that Morris has unleashed on this remote Nordic island.
Ultimately, what you have with ‘That Which Stands Outside’ is a novel packed to the rafters with page after page of creeping, eerie horror that escalates to something more action-packed and intense than you would have ever envisaged. It’s a tale rooted in a guardedly whispered folklore, which seeps into your pores with a constant feeling of uneasiness. With something that’s not quite right. Something cold and hostile. Something ancient and evil.
Damn this is a good read.
The novel runs for a total of 359 pages.
© DLS Reviews
