Splatter that punk?

After reading some non horror as of late, I have decided to jump neck deep into the gore and piss by searching out the cult like writing style of Splatterpunk. This extreme style of horror first come to the public eye in the 80's. The name Splatterpunk was coined by writer David J. Schow, at a convention describing a movement in writing at the time that went far beyond anything else that had come before it. It was hyper intensive horror with no limits. After a search on the internet I found a few books that were 'classed' as Splatterpunk, and more importantly these were books I might be able to get hold of. Now its unsure what really makes a novel extreme enough to be classed as Splatterpunk as the phrase has died out over the years so some might see these book as the real thing and some might not, its up to the individuals sense of gore and violence.

The first book I got was 'The Cellar' (1980) by the late Richard Laymon. Laymon built a following by cutting straight to the gore and sex. Unlike writers such as Stephen King. 'The Cellar' was his first novel and the first book in the Beast House trilogy. The book tells the story of a house that has a history of beast attacks and is opened up to the public as a museum of the macabre. We follow a mother & daughter on the run from an prison escaped lunatic husband and a couple of men who set out to tackle the house head on.

This is a short book 256 pages (paperback) so Laymon doesn't weight his writing down with character development. The whole book reads like a B-movie horror. Now that is not a bad thing, if you like your gore and sex upfront. The problem I found with the book was the balance of the two. Laymon focus's on the lunatic husbands actions, but its not the violence that he describes in detail but the paedophile acts he does. This was done to shock, and it does. But when it comes to the climax of the story and the downfall of the husband the reader is left feeling let down. The whole end seems rushed and the husbands demise is very poor as throughout the book you really want him to suffer the most horrible death imaginable.

I have also read the 3^rd book in the trilogy called The Midnight tour this is considerably longer then the other two books and its clear that Laymon had developed as a writer over the years. This time he tries his hand at character development but never really pulls it off as the characters seem hard and unreal. The horror is typical Laymon but again the end seems a mess of ideas and some of the action seems rushed.

I am at the moment reading The Woods are dark by Richard Laymon and I have to be honest I'm not really enjoying it. I can see how back in the early 80's this may have been a shocker. The trademark sex and gore of Laymon is there and I didn't expect anything less as this was his second published book and the one book that nearly killed his Career as a writer due to very poor editing by the publisher and very dubious cover art (see picture) 

These books may not be Splatterpunk but they do indeed contain some very gory moments. There are a number of other authors that have been put in the same vain, Shaun Hutson's Slugs and Jack Ketchum's Off season. Personally I don't find these books that shocking, mainly due to the fact that they were written so long ago and most haven't aged well. Much of the shocking material has now become a common occurrence in horror movies. If you really want a disturbing read that will entertain and is balanced look no further then the vampire novel Let the right one in by John Ajvide Lindqvist.