Characters start recalling that they sort of remember that they've been here and done that, but can't pull it all together. The third chapter (and the shortest) is the most self referential and most annoying. It's sort of hard to follow, and annoyingly Spielbergian. Kind of like a big bucks Hollywood sequel that goes on too long ( Terminator II: Judgement Day?, Aliens?). The second chapter, which takes place at a hospital, recalls, very broadly, Halloween II and Alien (and I don't really want to get onto the slippery slope of influences here, since they are Legion in this book). Jones does a fine job with this, since I felt he retained the core personality of each character. To recreate that, Jones opted for two more chapters, but with a wrinkle that has (in an inexact Rashomon way) the various characters (many of whom had died in the previous chapter) showing up again, but with their roles redefined, shifted, etc. But horror franchises such as Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street are sequel driven. Overall, I liked it (I would have probably given it 4 stars), and would have been content with Jones' stopping at this point. (I loved the flying blue Oz monkey on the frozen TV screen.) Family secrets, things in the air, and murder, all take place. A bunch of medical students head out to a secluded house (in a Halloween snowstorm) to check on one student's sick mother. The initial entry in Demon Theory is the best. Jones could easily be a script writer for John Carpenter or Wes Craven. And I'm talking about on a level that gets right down to dialogue, gesture, pacing, everything. (I'm not a big fan of that sort of horror, but I do recommend the documentary.) What comes quickly evident is that Jones' familiarity with the horror genre (especially when it comes to films) is encyclopedic. Before reading this book, I was somewhat prepared - or fortified, by watching on Netflix streaming, The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film.
It's structure is three-panelled, with each section representing a sequel for a horror film (1970s - 1980s). It's much easier to read than the other (highly praised) horror experiment, House of Leaves (which I've never been able to finish).
As a "novel," it's an experiment in form. Stephen Graham Jones' Demon Theory initially seemed a hard book to rate.
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