Sometimes coming home isn’t always a good thing.
Creative Staff:
Writer: Joe Brusha
Artwork: Allan Otero
What They Say:
Urban legend tells of a satanic cult that performed rituals in the Ohio woods at the turn of the century. The rituals became more and more disturbing and eventually led to the ultimate evil … a human sacrifice. Legend states that the cultists were so successful that they opened a portal that leads directly to hell. Now, twenty years later, the last surviving victim of the cult has returned, but something immensely evil has arrived as well … an entity known only as the Shadow Man.
Content (please note that portions of review may contain spoilers):
Sandy and her husband John are coming back to the family home that she left more than twenty years ago. Her family died in a car accident and she had been living with relatives until she inherited the house. But, she remembers nothing of her life here and the memories she now has are coming back in a jumble. However, when they volunteer to help find some missing boys near a system of drainage tunnels called Satan’s Hollows in the nearby forest, her attitude about this place begins to change. Before she was unconcerned about her past, but now, all that are coming back are the bad feelings she had about the town.
Blue Ash was the place she grew up until she was three, then everything changed when she lost her parents and sibling. She left her home but now that she has returned, a flood of troubling recollections are haunting her with shadowy figures and bizarre rituals. The urban legend about Satan’s Hollows is about a cult who used to occupy the labyrinth under the woods and perform forbidden ceremonies to summon vile creatures. That may have been in the past, but the locals still warn their children to stay away from the area. However, the curious still venture forth to explore the passages to see if the myths are true, never knowing that sometimes there is a shred of truth in those old stories.
In Summary:
Writer Joe Brusha has crafted a wonderfully luscious, silently eerie tale reminiscent of classic horror, particularly the stories of H. P. Lovecraft. Everything in this narrative reminds me of his writings, especially the themes of humans becoming servants or seeking a boon from inhuman creatures and of course, characters being in a generational debt from that same monster. Hopefully many other underpinnings from this genre will appear in future issues, but this marvelous tribute to a master of horror is further reinforced by the setting of Blue Ash, Ohio – where the real centre for this urban legend originated: Satan’s Hollow. To be able to establish this series within that locale helps to cement the environment within reality, giving credence to what will most likely be a retelling of small town lore. A close-knit community will probably have gossip mongers, which will lead to rumours and with that, the best ammunition for someone who once lived in the area who now returns – Sandy will be in all the whispers at the neighbourhood dinner. I just hope that this brilliant way to spread the word will come true to open up the story even more.
But what really gives this story the over the top spook factor is Allan Otero’s artwork. When you look at that cover and see that Zenescope has labeled this title For Mature Readers, you know that they will give him free rein in creating the most hauntingly delicious scares that he can imagine! And to set the mood he uses that horror plot of two young boys entering a creepy tunnel … we know that something is going to happen – and Otero does not disappoint. His devastating usage of shadows, The Blair Witch Project signature concept of filming their encounters and the brilliant method of skillfully mixing light and dark in the same images, nothing has left these pages without a tinge of darkness. Even in the daylight scenes, he gives everything an overcast tone, signalling that something ominous will be coming in the near future; this totality of an ever-present shade looming over the story gravitates everything towards Satan’s Hallow and encompasses the whole with the suggestion that something is stalking everyone in the shadows. It leaves us with an ethereally delicious presence which will not leave even when we are through reading the book.
Satan’s Hallow appears to have all the hallmarks of a brilliantly nostalgic classic horror film with the right amount of fright to give us the chills without the gross out factour which the current generation of films deem necessary to sell their material. Brusha and Otero have launched us into this world with a suggestible beginning and let’s hope that the trend continues with the rest of the series. But how can we rest peacefully when we know that the Shadow Man might be waiting for us the next time we go into a dark room? That is just a chance we’ll have to take until next month.
Grade: A
Rating: For Mature Readers
Released By: Zenescope
Release Date: March 30th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
