Dead Leaves (Book)
Written by Andrew David Barker
Published by Boo Books
October, 1983. Derby, England. The beginning of the “video nasty” era in Great Britain. And three teenage boys are in search of the Holy Grail of “video nasties”: The Evil Dead.
For 17-year-old Scott Bradley, unemployed, on the dole with his parents constantly on him to just “get a job!!,” life couldn’t look more dismal. But he has his mates, Paul and Mark, his booze, talking about girls, and his obsessive love for horror movies so there IS something to keep him going. And then he reads about The Evil Dead in a Starburst magazine, and his life suddenly has purpose – he MUST get his hands on a copy of the film which Stephen King christened, “The most ferociously original horror movie of the year.” But there is only one tiny problem – the British government, as well as a British housewife named Mary Whitehouse, led a ban on ANY film deemed unacceptable to the youth of the country. And The Evil Dead is at the top of the literal list the government and Whitehouse’s organization, The National Viewers and Listeners Association (NVALA), have compiled.
So, over the course of about a week around Halloween, the reader of this amazing novella is treated to the adventures and misadventures of these three teens as they race around the working class parts of Derby, doing whatever it takes to get hold of a copy of Sam Raimi’s masterpiece.
In the assured hands of writer/director (of the little-seen but brilliant film A Reckoning (review), starring Dog Soldiers’ Leslie Simpson) Andrew David Barker, Dead Leaves is a wonderful coming-of-age story, an ode to horror fans, and a delightfully funny as well as eye-opening tale of a period in British film history Americans cannot even imagine. Hell, some of the “video nasties” weren’t even finally released in the UK until just a few years ago!! The Evil Dead wasn’t released uncut until 2001!! Barker, in his Author’s Note, refers the reader to two documentaries about this era and the censorship that remained in effect for SO long! Both should be worth a look.
But back to Scott, Paul, and Mark and even Mark’s girlfriend, Lindsay, as well as Scott’s video-loving father; the Pirate Man who would come around Scott’s parents’ home to sell his dad films that might otherwise be unavailable but may not be classified as “nasties”; and Ray Ellis, the eccentric “underground” video store owner who MIGHT have a copy of The Evil Dead for the three boys but gets raided and arrested before they can take their pirated copy home to view. There are also the thuggish Peroxide and Teardrop, who have it in for Scott and pursue him (and beat the crap out of him) through most of the novella. All are well written and very believable characters. The city of Derby itself and the backdrop of the Halloween holiday also play memorable second fiddles to the main plot of the story.
I absolutely LOVED this story and wanted there to be MORE when I realized I had come to the end! Horror fans will also love Dead Leaves for all of its references to horror films, Stephen King, Shaun Hutson, Guy N. Smith, heavy metal British music of the era, and just the fact that this is a story written by a horror lover FOR horror lovers. At 146 pages, most readers can finish this book in one sitting (and then go looking for Barker’s other ode to the horror genre, The Electric, also published by Boo Books; review to come).
I, as a rabid horror fan – of both film and literature – cannot praise this novella enough. So just take my word for it, and order a copy from BooBooks.net, sellers on Amazon.co.uk, or as a Kindle on Amazon.com. You will want to re-read this book as soon as you close the last page. Andrew David Barker is a horror writer to keep an eye on (and maybe ONE DAY, horror fans will be able to see his film, which is amazing).
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