October being … well, October, I spent a lot of time watching and reading horror stuff, much of which wasn’t actually on my to-read/to-watch list. We’re talking new horror comics, some old horror comics, and at least one novel that I grabbed from the public library.

But I did knock a few things off the list and I thought I’d give each of them a quick look.

Thinner by Stephen King. A great concept of a novel. Guy gets cured by a Romany man whose wife he killed with his car. The curse? “Thinner” and what happens is exactly that. The chapters are a countdown of pounds as he loses more and more weight and then becomes obsessed with finding the man and trying to reverse the curse. I liked this one, although it’s definitely problematic as King uses Romany stereotypes (and uses “gypsy”, although that was way more commonly used back in the early 1980s). But the main character’s family dymanic is well portrayed and the suspense is palpable throughout the book. It’s a keeper, although I promised my sister I would send it her way, so Donate.

The Outsider by Stephen King. I haven’t been very into much of King’s recent work and have instead been working my way through his classics. But I saw this at the library sale at the beginning of October and grabbed it. I’m very happy I did. If you haven’t read it, the novel centers around a man who has been accused of a grisly child murder, but he has an airtight alibi. Could he have been in two places at once? Well, it’s Stephen King, so there’s definitely something up. The novel is more of a crime novel than a horror novel and King created a great character in Holly, one of the investigators trying to crack the case. Plus, it has a very satisfying ending. This one’s going in the box with Thinner, so Donate.

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty. So I’ve seen the movie–I actually own it on DVD–but had never read its source material. My library had a copy, so I checked it out. What it first proves is that William Friedkin did an outstanding adaptation of the novel. The book itself adds more characterization to both Chris and Father Karras, mainly because Blatty uses an omniscient point of view. Plus, there is a subplot that I don’t think made into the movie that involves the housekeeper/handyman Karl. Overall, it’s well worth the read.

The Crucifix: Blood of the Exorcist. I got sucked in by a cool-looking “poster” on Kanopy. That should tell you as much as you need to know about this. It’s not a very good movie, but what really bothered me is that it could have been the opposite. The plot is about a couple who has moved to his ancestral home in the Scottish Highlands after losing their son in a terrible accident. The husband comes upon a skull that has a spiked crucifix through it. The wife becomes possessed by the spirit of the viking warrior whose skull that happens to be. The performances are solid, the effects are well-done, but the script borrows so much from The Exorcist, I was rolling my eyes. Plus, it’s only 90 minutes long, so there’s no real chance for characterization or building up all of the pagan/viking lore that surrounds the story. So yeah … it needed another 30 minutes. Skip.