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Book Review: Grave Robbing Gets Macabre in ‘Rotters’

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Arriving at book stores earlier this month was Daniel Kraus’ “Rotters”, a macabre tale that BD’s Ryan Daley fell in love with.

Grave-robbing. What kind of monster would do such a thing? It’s true that Leonardo da Vinci did it, Shakespeare wrote about it, and the resurrection men of nineteenth-century Scotland practically made it an art. But none of this matters to Joey Crouch, a sixteen-year-old straight-A student living in Chicago with his single mom. For the most part, Joey’s life is about playing the trumpet and avoiding the daily humiliations of high school.

Everything changes when Joey’s mother dies in a tragic accident and he is sent to rural Iowa to live with the father he has never known, a strange, solitary man with unimaginable secrets. At first, Joey’s father wants nothing to do with him, but once father and son come to terms with each other, Joey’s life takes a turn both macabre and exhilarating.

Inside you’ll find Daley’s raving review.
Don’t look at the name, my father said, and I listened. It’s not a person, he insisted, it is meat spoiling inside a box. He ran his hands over the plot as if feeling for a pulse.

As young adult horror fiction has undergone its recent Twilight-ification into sooper-gooey love-triangle chick-lit, it’s understandable for the dudes to feel left out of the equation. Even the Hunger Games series–initially an ultra-violent tale of raw human survival–regressed into a foo-foo mess of girly quandaries. With the inevitable “Team Peeta/Team Gale” movie campaign to follow, we’re a long way from the glory days of Goosebumps, my friends. Which is why Daniel Kraus’ boy-centric Rotters, a gleefully grisly coming-of-age story, is such a welcome addition to the YA horror library.

After his mom is creamed by a bus, 16-year-old Joey Crouch is sent to Iowa to live with his estranged father. Spending his nights in a squalid cabin and his days being bullied at school, it’s a less than ideal situation for Joey. His secretive father is absent for days at a time, and on the occasions he makes it home–caked in dirt and smelling like rot–he ignores Joey completely. Despite his lack of official employment, Joey’s dad is known around town as the “garbage man”, and Joey is understandably ashamed.

Desperate to unlock his father`s secret, Joey hides in the bed of the pick-up truck one night. He’s jounced and jostled as his father navigates the truck down rough country roads, but finally the truck comes to a stop. His father takes a bag of supplies and is gone for a few hours. Upon his return, Joey emerges from the bed of the pick-up truck and snaps a flash photo:

Everything was illuminated in one instant of motionless clarity: individual blades of tall grass, bugs caught in the air like thrown pebbles, the mirrored surface of the truck, my father, his stunned expression, the handheld wire cutter, the sparkle of multiple jeweled rings, and, clenched in my father’s fist, wearing these rings, a severed human hand.

And that’s the moment that Kraus’ tale really kicks into gear. Joey’s father is an expert grave robber,
a member of a secret sect known as “The Diggers”, and Joey is eager to learn the trade.

Kraus writing is smart–never cute or condescending–and he adds authenticity by name-dropping the corpse-stealing practices of historical figures like Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo. From the dark descriptions of grave-robbing to the almost-too-accurate bully dialogue, Kraus has crafted an enjoyably morbid read, a literary horror novel rooted in the real. This guy can seriously write. It’s as good as Joe R. Lansdale’s The Bottoms–another excellent entry in the YA horror canon–if not better. The plot developments are revealed deliberately, at their own pace, but the pleasure lies in soaking up the vivid details.

4.5/5 Skulls

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Don Mancini in the “Early Stages” of Working On a New “Chucky” Movie!

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Chucky death

Everyone’s favorite killer doll is headed back to the small screen with “Chucky” Season 3: Part 2 on April 10, but are any further movies being planned at this time?

Created by Don Mancini, the “Chucky” television series remarkably plays around with existing elements from all previous films without disregarding ANYTHING from the past. From the original Child’s Play to sequels including Child’s Play 2, Bride of Chucky and even Seed of Chucky, it’s all one cohesive timeline that Mancini remains deeply committed to.

Of course, the most recent film in the Child’s Play franchise was the 2019 remake, to date the only movie in the saga that’s NOT part of Mancini’s vision. Is Mancini’s original incarnation going to spend his final days on TV, while another Chucky will be featured in the movies? It’s a question we’ve been asking ourselves for the last few years, and we may now have an answer.

Speaking with the Scream Dreams Podcast this week, Mancini revealed that he’s in the early stages of development on a potential new installment in the original Chucky film franchise!

new Chucky movie

CHUCKY — “Jennifer’s Body” Episode 303 — Pictured in this screengrab: Chucky — (Photo by: SYFY)

“Like anyone in this business, I want to do more things. At this point though if it’s only Chucky I’m totally cool with that,” Mancini explains. “I have other things I want to do. I’m working on a new pilot. I’m also, actually, in the early stages of working on a new Chucky movie.”

Mancini adds, “At this point, my goal is just to keep working.”

Outside of the aforementioned Child’s Play remake, there are to date seven installments in the franchise, with Cult of Chucky (2017) being the original franchise’s most recent film.

For now, Chucky remains a small screen icon. Don’t miss the premiere of Season 3: Part 2 on both USA and SYFY on April 10, with new episodes hitting Peacock the day after they air.

You can watch Don Mancini’s full chat with Scream Dreams below.

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