By MICHAEL GINGOLD
We’ll learn more about the title character in this prose adaptation.
Encyclopocalypse Publications has announced it will release a novelization of the 2008 shocker DEADGIRL on May 6. Written by award-winning author Bridgett Nelson, it expands on the film, which was scripted by Trent Haaga and directed by Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel and attracted both praise and outrage upon its original release. The synopsis: “When two high school misfits–bound by boredom and adolescent hunger–ditch class to slip beyond the rusted doors of an abandoned hospital, they stumble upon a gruesome secret that will shatter their innocence and test the limits of their sanity: a woman, stripped bare and chained to a table. She’s abandoned. She’s beautiful. She’s dead… or is she?… DEADGIRL is a grotesque coming-of-age nightmare that peels back the skin of innocence to expose the raw, throbbing horror beneath. You can look away. You can tell yourself it’s only a story. You may deny what it reveals about you. But DEADGIRL will still be there—waiting.”
“The performances were top-notch, the storyline compelling,” Nelson says of the movie. “But it was the Deadgirl herself, this long-abandoned young woman in the dungeonlike sub-basement of a mental health facility, that crept into my brain and took up real estate. For years. Who was she? How did she get there? What was her story?”
Says Haaga, “This is fundamentally a morality play with some uncomfortable gender politics in it–the Deadgirl is a thing that comes out of nowhere and interrupts the dynamic and reveals hidden truths. I already told my story, and the fact that someone else wants to play in that sandbox is a great indicator of its validity. I’m flattered and honored that my little screenplay that I thought no one would ever make has taken on a life outside of the cinema.”
Encyclopocalypse will publish the DEADGIRL novel in both trade and mass market paperbacks, as well as an e-book; pre-orders are now open here. “When Bridgett approached us about making this happen,” says Encyclopocalypse managing editor Sean Duregger, “I thought her approach was interesting and something worth exploring. Love it or hate it, DEADGIRL has never failed to spark conversation. I think Bridgett took Haaga’s wonderful script and brought it into the literary world expanding and enhancing the original story the way all the best novelizations do.”
The book additionally includes forewords by lead actors Shiloh Fernandez and Noah Segan, along with an original short story by author Jeff Strand. “What Bridgett has done is humanize a character whose humanity was stolen,” Segan says. “In doing so, she added a new layer of horror, but also one of sympathy.” Adds Fernandez, “I believe this novel will resonate more powerfully today as society grapples with increasingly polarized debates about ethics, consent, and the essence of human nature.” In addition to the Encyclopocalypse site, DEADGIRL will become available for advance order on Amazon, Barnes and Nobel and other on-line bookstores within the next two weeks.
