 If Camp Ghoul Mountain Part VI: The Official Novelization presented “only” the narrative of a nonexistent slasher movie, that itself would be a hell of a hook. The fact that it turns out to be something more complex elevates author Jonathan Raab’s latest work beyond what might appear at first glance to be just a gimmick. Indeed, for genre fans with a taste for tongue-in-cheek metafiction, this may well be the first must-read small-press horror novel of 2019. Taking a footnote-flooded page out of Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves, Camp Ghoul Mountain interweaves multiple independent narratives, each one taking place within its own separate, but not entirely self-contained, reality. To wit, what appears to be the main plot of the book (at least at first) is the story of the titular slasher flick itself: despite a long history of tragedy and violence, Camp Goose Mountain (known to locals by a decidedly more lurid nickname) is all set to reopen for the summer with a new batch of teenage counsellors, including good girl Penny, her hard-partying BFF Rhonda, and dreamboat jock Terry. They’ve all heard the legend of Henry the Horror, the bloodthirsty bogeyman who prowls the forest in search of victims, but only when the bodies start piling up do they realize there’s more to Henry than just whispers around a campfire. That’s just part of the larger story, however, and one that exists in a completely different reality from that occupied by Raab himself. Yes, even the book’s own author becomes a character within it, addressing the reader directly via both copious annotations appearing throughout and full-fledged chapters which periodically interrupt Henry the Horror’s stalk-and-slash antics to provide a “non-fictional” (wink, wink) behind-the-scenes look into the film’s troubled production, as well as into the conspiracy theories regarding secret messages encoded into the picture by director/stoner Monty Blackwood (shades of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and its attendant documentary, Room 237). Both narratives only get stranger the longer they go on. It turns out the Henry the Horror’s seventh outing is the black sheep of the Ghoul Mountain franchise, a puzzling retcon of previously established series lore similar to Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers or Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation. What starts out as a straightforward Friday the 13th clone quickly spirals out into a chaotic, hallucinatory mindfuck full of faceless black-robed zealots, flying saucers, police cover-ups, and talking animal heads. What’s more, the protagonists occasionally seem dimly aware that they are fictional characters and that many of their actions are not choices of their own, but rather necessitated by genre tropes (if Camp Ghoul Mountain VI was a real movie, it would’ve beaten Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, Scream, The Cabin in the Woods, and Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon to the punch by more than a decade). Meanwhile, in the “real world,” Raab uncovers obscure newspaper clippings, magazine interviews, censored YouTube videos, transcripts of convention Q&A panels, pages from a hand-scribbled New Age pamphlet, and even a Satanic Panic religious tract (all lovingly recreated within the book’s pages). Through these, he gradually pieces together the full scope of Henry the Horror’s cinematic legacy. Maybe not everything Blackwood filmed was special effects. Maybe he just happened to be pointing his camera in the right place at the right time. Maybe Camp Ghoul Mountain VI, or at least some of it, was real. Granted, Raab’s style might come off as too heavy-handed for some, even outright campy (no pun intended). He eschews the more straight-faced and subtle approach to horror that Danielewski employed in House of Leaves for something far more gleeful and pulpy. This is, however, perfectly in keeping with the subject matter; aside from a few notable exceptions, a large part of the charm of most slasher films comes from their utter disregard for restraint, elegance, or good taste. This is not the kind of humorless horror that quietly creeps under your skin after lulling you into a false sense of security. This is HORROR in all caps, one million-point font, blazing red neon lights, visible from space. Likewise, Raab’s choice to insert himself into the narrative might be off-putting to certain readers, especially as he delves deeper into the book’s more esoteric themes, not to mention their political implications. How much, one wonders, does the Raab on the page accurately represent the Raab of real life? This blurring of the lines is arguably Camp Ghoul Mountain’s most enticing element, but it may also be its most divisive. Even with the novel’s winking tone, one may begin to question how seriously audiences are meant to take it. The best answer may be “As seriously as you want to.” To quote Raab himself at the start of chapter 7, “Horror is fun.” Indeed, Camp Ghoul Mountain is a lot of things: a slasher film love letter, a paranoid conspiracy meta-thriller, a personal manifesto about the power of the horror genre as a whole. But what it is above and beyond all else is fun. Where House of Leaves sought to convey the dread and confusion that comes with slowly losing one’s grip on reality, Camp Ghoul Mountain Part VI captures the liberating joy that comes with willingly letting go, with rejecting consensus reality (if only temporarily) in favor of something more outrageous, more imaginative. If the horror genre can be compared to a roller coaster ride, as it often is, then this book is the equivalent of that moment when you put your hands in the air; a thrilling flirtation with the danger of being thrown to certain death, even as the safety bar holds you firmly in place. camp ghoul mountain part vi Camp Ghoul Mountain Part VI is one of the most infamous slasher-movie sequels of the 1980s. Known for its over-the-top gore effects, bizarre and psychedelic campground killer plot—and its legacy as a lightning rod for conspiracy theories concerning everything from UFOs and alien abductions to 9/11 and a secret cabal at the heart of world power. This book contains a complete, authorized adaptation of the infamous cult slasher movie as well as the secret history of the behind-the-scenes drama and high-strange events that inspired the filmmakers, complete with footnotes and autobiographical anecdotes. Camp Ghoul Mountain Part VI: The Official Novelization is a love letter to the horror movie boom of the 1980s and conspiracy theories of the 1990s—and, perhaps, a dire warning of the dark future to come. Who wants to go camping?   Comments are closed.
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