Halloween - The Mad House

In 2023, I reviewed The Scream Factory, the first of a three-book series of young-adult horror novels centered in John Carpenter's Halloween universe. The series was published by Berkley in 1997-1998 in paperback format and authored by Kelly Reno using the pseudonym of Kelly O' Rourke. Halloween is my favorite horror series and my family just recently gifted me a Michael Myers-themed coffee mug. It reminded me to read more of this series, so I grabbed The Mad House, the third installment of the series. 

As I mentioned in my The Scream Factory review, this series ignores the entire Halloween movie franchise aside from the 1978 film. In the town of Haddonfield, life goes on despite the masked serial killer, Michael Myers, vanishing after being shot by his doctor, Sam Loomis. In The Scream Factory, Myers appeared once again in the sleepy midwestern town, stalking and murdering teenagers at a haunted house attraction. At the end of the book, Myers once again vanished. 

While these books can be read in any order and are considered stand-alone novels, each book is set one year apart. The Mad House begins with the book's protagonist, Christine, recalling her school newspaper article, “Good-bye Friends”, as an emotional story about the lives and accomplishments of several students who were murdered a year earlier in The Old Myers Place. It's now late summer, and Christine is meeting a fellow student named Eddie for a planned documentary he hopes to shoot.

Eddie explains to Christine that he plans on shooting his film at Smith's Grove Mental Hospital, the place Myers escaped when he turned age 21. Eddie says the ghost of a deranged doctor, Ernest Blackwell, still haunts the abandoned hospital. In this book, it is explained that Blackwell would often treat Myers and conduct various experiments on him. Eddie hopes he can capture the ghost on film as part of a documentary documenting haunted places in Illinois. 

The bulk of the book's narrative features Eddie, Christine, and a handful of other young people spending the night inside the abandoned mental hospital. Of course, Myers is living there, huddled in the hospital's basement waiting for his next killing cycle. Through the book's second half, Myers methodically kills the kids in different parts of the building. Eventually, Eddie and Christine do find the ghost of Blackwell, but it's not quite what they imagined.

I'm trying not to completely nerd out and drown you in Halloween film mythology, but there are a couple of interesting things happening in this slim paperback. 

This novel is the only instance where a character named Blackwell appears. He is absent from the film franchise and the other novels. Also, I found it interesting that Halloween: Resurrection film (2002) used a similar idea of filming in a location central to Michael Myers' past. Like that film, characters are often attempting to record events happening so they can sell the footage to prospective studios and producers. The Mad House predates Resurrection by five years. 

Also, I loved that the author used a laundry chute in one of the chase scenes. This had been used effectively eight years prior, in Halloween 5 (1989). It's a type of homage (I think). Interestingly enough, Halloween: H2O also used a similar device to escape the killer, but instead of a laundry chute it was a dumbwaiter. 

I questioned whether Reno had watched Halloween movies before writing The Scream Factory. Reading The Mad House, I know she hasn't. In this book, she has Myers tying victims to a hospital bed and then torturing them with electricity. Myers never “toyed” with victims like that. Also, there' a strange description of Myers with a deformed head, a plastic mask, and a rotted face. I felt like Reno was confusing Myers with Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th). Reno also routinely has Myers voicing animal growls and howling to break free from a straitjacket. This isn't the Myers character. If I'm nitpicking, I'd also question Reno using “bullets” in a shotgun.

As a quick horror read, this is a very entertaining read. There's plenty of violence as bodies are impaled, stabbed, electrocuted, and run over through the book's 144 pages. There's also a side story of Blackwell's involvement with Myers and the atrocities that occurred at the hospital in years past. If you love a good horror story, then The Mad House is recommended. However, in terms of traditional Michael Myers characterization, this one is way off.

Halloween - The Scream Factory

The Halloween film franchise has been going strong for nearly a half-century. Who knew that a babysitter killer could spark so much interest from fans while simultaneously creating enough timelines and multiverses to compete with Marvel Comics. Depending on your level of fandom, you are just casually watching Michael Myers stalk his prey through 11 films (Halloween III doesn't count) or piecing together the various movies into separate timelines. For me personally, this is my favorite horror franchise and I watch the films religiously. In my mind, I've organized them all into various categories and timelines, but I've never bothered with the novels. 

In paperback format, there are novelizations for seven Halloween films and at least one fan-fiction novelization (Halloween 5 by Jake Martin). However, besides the novelizations, Berkley published three original paperbacks in the late 1990s – The Scream Factory (1997), The Old Myers Place (1997), and The Mad House (1998). These three novels, averaging 150 pages, were catered for young adults and featured Michael Myers doing what he does best – hunting teens in Haddonfield, IL. The books were authored by Kelly 'O Rourke (aka Kelly Reno) and aren't related to each other. These are stand-alone stories. This review is for The Scream Factory, the first of the three paperbacks. 

Ultimately, this novel only references events in the 1978 Halloween film. There is a mention of a body count, but it isn't correct. The book ignores any sequels, which makes it much easier to simply enjoy as a stand-alone horror novel. The knowledge that the Halloween film ended with Michael Myers being shot by his doctor and then disappearing is the only prerequisite needed. 

It's now 1997 and the small town of Haddonfield talks about Michael Myers as if he is an urban myth. The town's youth mostly designates the killer as a thing of legend, nothing more, nothing less. Myers hasn't been seen since 1978. High school student Lori Parker collaborates with her friend Sally to throw a large Halloween party in the basement of Haddonfield City Hall. The party, aptly titled The Scream Factory, will be a gathering of high school students and a local band (fronted by Lori's romantic interest). 

The events prior to the party leads to Myers appearance. In a series of murders, Myers begins killing some of Lori's friends and members of the town's staff. Myers is described as being covered in mud and having dirty hair, which brought to mind the imagery of “homeless” Myers in Rob Zombie's Halloween remake. Myers also does some things that are more in line with Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th), showing supernatural strength by dragging a large tree across a highway. But, at other times he is calling Lori on the phone and making bizarre noises or placing jack 'o lanterns at various locations (with a knife). Rather odd behavior that seems to contrast with the movie versions.

The Scream Factory isn't great, nor is it scary. But, I will state for the record that this is more of an “adult” horror novel than young adult in terms of savage violence and some gore. I'm not completely convinced this is a young adult book despite the clownish cover art. If you just have to consume everything Michael Myers, then by all means read this. Otherwise, just stick to the films, novelizations, and the occasional graphic novel.

Buy a copy of this book HERE.

The Secret Origin of Michael Myers? | Halloween Paperback Deep Dive

Halloween comes early on Paperback Warrior! In today’s video, I take a deep dive into the collectible 1979 Bantam paperback adaptation of Halloween by Richard Curtis and uncover the surprising mythology hidden inside its pages. While most fans know John Carpenter’s legendary film, this novelization adds an entirely new layer to Michael Myers’ story — including a six-page backstory that quietly influenced nearly every sequel in the franchise for the next four decades.

Join me as I compare the novel to the original film, explore the evolution of Michael Myers as a character, and examine how this overlooked paperback became one of the most fascinating pieces of Halloween history.

If you love vintage paperbacks, horror history, slasher films, and collectible movie tie-ins, this is an episode you won’t want to miss. Watch the video below or directly on YT HERE.

Disturbance on Berry Hill

Elizabeth Jane Phillips, better known as her pseudonym Elizabeth Fenwick, authored three standard detective novels in the 1940s. In the following decade, Fenwick changed her writing style to feature flawed and vulnerable characters placed into high levels of distress drenched in tight-knit suspense. Often, the setting is a confined space with very little wiggle room to escape the impending doom. 

Like Fenwick's A Friend of Mary Rose (1961), which traps the reader and characters in an attic to contend with a home-invasion plot, or The Make-Believe Man (1963), which confines the compact narrative into a different type of home-invasion suburbia, Disturbance on Berry Hill (1968) has a similar set-up. 

In Fenwick's taut narrative, which she had perfected by this point in her career, the thrilling mystery lies in a small cluster of upscale homes on Berry Hill, a sub-division that was carved out of a sprawling farm in rural Connecticut. These seven homes are mostly owned by affluent, middle-aged couples that fit the mid 20th century mold – husbands journey off to daytime employers and wives remain behind to keep the home fires well lit. But, on Berry Hill someone else is staying behind as well, stalking and menacing these prosperous homes and providing white-knuckle fright for the ladies. 

The novel begins with Maggie Leavis recounting a frightening incident that occurred while she was in the bathtub. From inside the porcelain safety, Maggie hears someone enter the home, walk upstairs, and then methodically stand outside of the couple's bathroom – knowing Maggie is inside. Before you think Michael Myers, Maggie explains that this intruder, who she thinks was a mysterious man, didn't come in the bathroom and instead simply knocked a picture off the dresser and then slowly left the home. The author introduces readers to Berry Hill in a really significant way. Maggie's testimony is bone-chilling. 

When Maggie visits her female neighbors the next day she hears similar stories. In one account, this mysterious man closed a garage door behind a woman and then stood outside as if he (or it!) was daring the woman to open the door. In another incident, a woman is grabbed from behind and squeezed. The attacker then simply runs off. There are a few similar things, like a birthday cake flipped upside down or seeing someone near the creek behind the neighborhood. 

The neighbors all meet one night to discuss the intruder/prowler and what needs to happen next. Should they call the police? Ignore the rather innocent pranks? After the meeting, their concerns are met with an appalling revelation – one of the female neighbors is found dead near the creek. When the police arrive they discover it was foul play. Whoever has been gently plaguing Berry Hill has now escalated their game into cold-blooded murder.

Disturbance on Berry Hill is the proverbial page-turner. Fenwick's approach to the book's first half sets readers on edge with these disturbing intrusions into the sanctity and lives of these well-to-do Connecticut residents. As their white-collar emotional fencing caves, the flaws and vulnerability begin to show. One elderly neighbor is contending with dependency while another couple is dealing with depression and inadequacy. There are also the obvious early dismissals of the complaints by most of the men, who are either too busy to deal with the intrusions or simply believe these are daytime fantasies created by bored housewives. 

Fenwick knows when to increase the pace, tension, and atmosphere for the book's second half. After the murder, fingers begin pointing, accusations are made, and there is a real unnerving, unraveling of the neighborly ties that bind. Someone in the neighborhood is, or knows, the murderer. Through Maggie's experience, the readers delve into the mystery and eventually discover the identity of the killer. 

While the ending left me slightly deflated, Disturbance on Berry Hill was an extremely enjoyable read. The characters, the setting, and the slow atmospheric march to the murder really highlighted the book's opening half. As the book sped to the finish, fans of police procedural crime-fiction will enjoy the investigation and interviews.

Overall, Fenwick continues to impress. If you are wanting to explore her work look no further than Stark House Press's amazing preservation. They continue to focus on Fenwick, and her contemporaries in Jean Potts, Ruth Sawtell Wallis, and Nedra Tyre to name a few (I'm pushing on them to reprint Amber Dean!). You can get Disturbance on Berry Hill as a twofer with her 1961 thriller Night Run HERE. 

Mike Shayne #65 - Last Seen Hitchhiking

Mike Shayne began his life as a fictional private detective in a 1939 novel written by David Dresser under the pseudonym of Brett Halliday. After about 50 novels by Dresser, the series was handed over to a number of ghostwriters including Robert Terrall, who also wrote the Ben Gates mysteries under the pen name of Robert Kyle. As Mike Shayne was nearing the end of his run in 1974, Terrall authored the 65th novel-length installment, Last Seen Hitchhiking, a book that takes Shayne to some very dark places.

Meri Gillespie is a 23 year-old grad student hitchhiking north from Miami - a mode of transportation she’s been using without incident since she was 14. She ignores news reports of a maniac killing female hitchhikers on Florida highways and takes a ride from a sour-smelling young man. Just her luck, he injects poor Meri with a needle rendering her unconscious in the passenger seat of his station wagon.

Meri awakens naked and strapped to what appears to be a gynecologist’s examination table with her feet belted into stirrups. The kidnapper explains that he is a med student seeking to use Meri in his own research involving human sexuality - specifically unlocking the female orgasm with an unwilling participant. If you’re gathering that this is a bit more graphic and extreme than Michael Shayne circa 1945, you’d be right. The scenes where Meri is forced to submit to her captor’s wishes are far more graphic than we normally read in vintage crime paperbacks. Consider yourself warned.

Before getting kidnapped, Meri had been banging her college professor (consensually), and the relationship had gone south. As Meri was leaving to hitchhike to an ex-boyfriend’s place in Fort Myers, she stole a valuable artifact of great academic significance from the professor who hires a female private investigator named Frieda to recover the artifact. The lady gumshoe quickly learns that Meri never made it to Fort Myers and brings Mike Shayne into the case suspecting foul play on the highway. After all, there’s a maniac in Florida snatching up female hitchhikers.

The Florida Highway Patrol has been notified of Meri’s disappearance, but it doesn’t seem like they’re doing much. Working as partners, Mike and Freida trace logical leads to see if Meri’s disappearance was a targeted attack by someone looking to obtain the valuable artifact that Meri swiped from the professor. It’s an interesting literary tactic because the reader is told in the opening chapters the precise awfulness that actually befell the young coed - making the normal investigation seemingly fruitless. How will Mike and Freida connect the dots to find the creepy sex-researcher holding Meri and the artifact?

The story regarding the sex-fiend kidnapper of hitchhikers was awesome. It was a fantastically perverted cat and mouse game. The subplot about the missing artifact was a distraction that felt like filler to me. It was a weird dichotomy to have Shayne so concerned about an archaeological treasure and be seemingly unconcerned about the missing hitchhikers for much of the paperback. Interestingly, Freida was one of the best female detectives I can ever remember reading. She far outshines Shayne in his own book.

Despite these reservations, I still thought Last Seen Hitchhiking was a pretty good Mike Shayne installment. I’ve always found Shayne to be rather generic, and this one was no different in that regard. The biggest asset for the novel was a villain who will really make your skin crawl, so this late-series installment is an easy, if not full-throated, recommendation.