By MICHAEL GINGOLD
Who would have thought that a couple of Italian B-flicks running between 95 and 105 minutes could spawn prose adaptations of just under 500 and 700 pages? Brad Carter did, and the author whose novelizations of Bruno Mattei’s VIRUS: HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD (a.k.a. NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES, pictured above) and RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR drop this week spoke with RUE MORGUE about the process.
Severin Films, for which Carter previously adapted NIGHT OF THE DEMON, MARDI GRAS MASSACRE and Mattei’s CRUEL JAWS to paperback, and Encyclopocalypse Publications have teamed to issue the VIRUS and RATS books. The duo will be initially available exclusively at Severin’s website during its Black Friday Webstore Event, running from 12:01 a.m. EST on November 29 to 11:59 p.m. PST on December 2. The 692-page VIRUS and the 492-page RATS were based on the original visions of screenwriters Claudio Fragasso and Rossella Drudi, which couldn’t be achieved on the movies’ budgets.
How did you first become a fan of Mattei’s films?
I’d always loved horror movies, but when I came to the end of my high-school years, I went down the Italian-horror rabbit hole. My favorite movie was–and still is–Romero’s DAWN OF THE DEAD. I saw Dario Argento’s name in the credits, and one thing led to another. Shortly thereafter, I was watching any Italian horror film I could get my hands on. When the first DVD boom happened, I was discovering dozens of movies every week.
My first exposure to Bruno Mattei was HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD. I was bowled over by how utterly insane it was in its approach to the zombie subgenre. After that, I discovered RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR. Those two are still my favorite Mattei films, which is just one of the reasons these novelizations were such a big deal for me. I came to know the Claudio Fragasso and Rossella Drudi filmography through their association with Mattei. When Severin brought them over for Texas Frightmare Weekend some years back, I was pretty starstruck, which doesn’t happen to me very often. I certainly didn’t imagine I’d be sitting with them during a screening of ZOMBIE 4: AFTER DEATH a few hours later, but there I was. When the convention wrapped up, I got to take home the banner that Severin made for Claudio and Rossella’s table. It’s still hanging in my office. While I was writing these two new novelizations, I felt like they were looking over my shoulder. It was a hell of a motivator.
Author Brad Carter.
What sets these movies apart from other Italian horror?
I’ve heard Mattei’s films described as being like live-action cartoons, and I think that’s accurate. Logic may go out the window, but the movies are never boring. They prioritize pure entertainment over everything else. It’s a gonzo approach to filmmaking that puts them beyond criticism by the usual metrics. There’s an otherworldly quality to a lot of Italian horror, but it gets taken to extremes in a Mattei film. Anything can happen in one of his movies, and it usually does, often all at once.
How did you first get the gig adapting CRUEL JAWS for Severin?
My friend Max Meehan recommended me to David Gregory as someone who would be interested in taking a crack at film novelizations. I was already a working author with seven novels under my belt, so I had the right CV for writing horror. I was in Severin’s orbit, just from hanging around the table at conventions and talking David’s ear off. He might have given me the gig just to shut me up! The idea got tossed around over some beers at a horror convention, and I figured it might just be drunk talk, but here we are, five novelizations later.
As I remember it, there was a list of titles David was considering for the novelization treatment, and CRUEL JAWS was on there. We both thought it was the strongest candidate, since people love sharks. I hadn’t read a ton of novelizations, so my frame of reference was pretty small. I hit up Jim Kunz, who’s making a documentary about them, for a few recommendations. I plowed through those just to get an idea of what was involved. After that, I just took my usual approach to anything I write: make it fun to read and keep the writing quality as high as my abilities allow.
The CRUEL JAWS book as well as Severin’s Blu-ray got pulled from release, allegedly because Universal objected. Any thoughts/details about that?
I think we went into it knowing there was a possibility that the movie and book wouldn’t be on the market long. It’s a controversial title–which, if I’m being totally honest, was another motivating factor for adapting it over some of the other titles on David’s list. It was definitely a bummer how the whole thing went down, but happily, the book is now back in print in a new edition from Encyclopocalypse. I try to make sure each of my novelizations can stand on its own, so I think it will continue to find an audience.
Are VIRUS: HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD and RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR the first time you’ve been able to consult with the filmmakers you’re adapting?
I once did a novelization of a certain late-’80s horror film that was based on the original script rather than the finished film, so I was in contact with one of the screenwriters for that one. I’m not sure if I’m even at liberty to disclose the title, but I’ll say the final product was a bit of a Pauly Shore vehicle. I’ll bet people can connect those dots without much effort. For a bunch of really boring bureaucratic reasons, that book never saw the light of day, although I’m holding onto the slim hope that it will eventually be published. So far, no dice. If people enjoy my other novelizations, I’m sure they’d love that one too.
How was the collaboration with Fragasso and Drudi?
Once we conquered the language barrier, it was smooth sailing. My Italian isn’t anywhere near fluent, so getting everyone on the same page required an interpreter early on. Working with them was a dream come true. Like I said, I was a bit starstruck when I met them, and I never imagined that one day we’d collaborate.
We did the whole thing through e-mail correspondence. Some of that made it into the forewords for the books, just to give the reader some insight into the process. In addition to being true heroes of Italian cinema, they are two of the nicest people in the world. I really hope we can meet up in person again.
How much of these books is based directly on the original screenplays, and how much is your own invention?
I should probably clarify that the books were based on film treatments rather than full-blown scripts. I never actually saw a full screenplay for either movie. What I had to go on was Rossella’s descriptions of her initial concepts and ideas for the movies. They were fairly broad ideas, so she left a lot of space for me to bring in my own material. In the afterwords of both books, I give something of a breakdown of who came up with what. If I had to quantify it, I’d guess it was close to 50/50. A lot of it involved taking her very broad concepts and making them work in the context of a novel.
Were there any key scenes from the movies that you didn’t use in the books?
I don’t think I left out any key sequences. Part of my process for writing novelizations involves watching the film and taking notes about where the big beats are. If there are iconic images or lines of dialogue, I make sure to keep them intact. I’m sure someone will be disappointed that their favorite part of the movie didn’t make it into the book. I hope they forgive me.
How did you preserve the films’ B-movie spirit in the books while giving them an A-level scope?
It was just a matter of respecting the source material enough to give it my full effort. I love these movies, so I never considered giving the project anything other than 100 percent.
I approach a novelization the same way I approach my original fiction. I hate the idea that only literary fiction is allowed to have quality writing. It’s just snobbery. Lots of people in writing workshops will dismiss genre fiction out of hand, as if there’s no way someone writing about zombies or monsters could possibly turn out decent prose. That’s elitist nonsense. Horror fans aren’t a pack of illiterate dumbbells. They deserve to have books that don’t insult their intelligence. People have to let go of the idea that books that are fun to read and books that have quality writing are mutually exclusive concepts.
Do you have any favorite sequences from each book?
For VIRUS: HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD, I like the scene where the journalists and the mercenaries first meet up in the abandoned African mission. There were a ton of moving parts in that chapter, and it was a bit of a juggling act. There were lots of big setpieces and different points of view. It was tricky to navigate and still keep everything moving at a swift pace.
RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR has plenty of scenes involving the humanoid rats in their subterranean city. I thought it was funny to portray their society as being more advanced than that of the humans on the surface of the planet. It was a bit tricky to convey the telepathic communication between the humanoid rats, but I’m happy with the way those scenes came out.
How was it working with both Severin and Encyclopocalypse?
Working with Encyclopocalypse has been a very positive experience. As far as indie publishers go, they really have their stuff together. They’ve been nothing but supportive. There are a lot of sharks in the small-press world, and it’s nice to know that there are also some real professionals. I look forward to working with them in the future.
As far as Severin goes, I’ll put it this way: I had the company logo tattooed on my arm before I’d done any work for them. Not many people get to say they have their dream job, but I actually do.
Were there any restrictions, self-imposed or otherwise, on writing these two books?
The only restriction I’ve ever given myself is to never let the quality slip, no matter what the subject matter is. I bring my A-game to any project I take on. If my name is going on the cover of the book, it has to be up to standard.
When David was first discussing these two books with me, the word “epic” came up over and over again. That became my guideline when I started writing. VIRUS is an especially big book. When I started to see that word count swell, I had to check and make sure that my version of epic wasn’t excessive. I think it took balls for Encyclopocalypse to publish it without cutting it to bits. It’s a doorstop of a book, but I made sure that it wasn’t long for the sake of being long. That said, it was a book that easily could have been even longer. Believe it or not, there were some ideas that I actually left on the cutting room floor.
Severin has always given me a very long leash when it comes to making changes or adding my own material to novelizations. As I’m fond of saying, nobody has ever told me “no,” so I just keep doing my thing. CRUEL JAWS was my first novelization, and I added characters and subplots, even changed the ending. Once I got away with that, I felt comfortable trusting my gut instincts.
I love to tell the story about how I figured out my approach to CRUEL JAWS. That movie is pretty PG-13, which isn’t really on brand for Severin, so David asked me to sleaze it up. I took him at his word and gave it some teeth. I gave NIGHT OF THE DEMON and MARDI GRAS MASSACRE the same treatment, which is saying something when you consider some of the nastiness in the source material.
What do you have coming up?
I do have two more novelization projects coming up, but nothing has been announced yet, so I can’t give any details. They’re a bit of a departure from my usual material, so it will be a fun challenge to see how my style works in that context.
My goal for 2025 is to take some steps toward getting my back catalog in print again. I wrote seven novels for a publisher called Post Mortem Press prior to my first novelization; that company is sadly no more, but I’d like to have those books available to readers again, especially since my audience has grown considerably over the last five years.
I also have a completely finished crime novel that I’d love to get out there. It’s an Elmore Leonard/Joe R. Lansdale-style book, so a little different from what I’ve done in the past. The few folks who’ve read it say that it’s some of my strongest writing, so we’ll see what happens with that.
I’m a working writer, so I try to stay busy. I’m always open to new projects, and I work fast, so I’m comfortable having a lot on my plate.
Do you have any dream movies to adapt into novelizations?
Too many to mention! I could see myself doing something fun with a giallo, and I’d like to see if I could write one even more outrageous and convoluted than the source film. Beyond that, just taking a glance at the Severin catalog, I see plenty that I’d love to tackle. It has almost become an in-joke with some of the Severin folks about how much I love THE SINFUL DWARF. I think I could really do something with that one. BURIAL GROUND would be fun. I’d jump at the chance to do another novelization from the MFDCU–the Mattei/Fragasso/Drudi Cinematic Universe. I’d love to give the epic treatment to Claudio’s ZOMBIE 4: AFTER DEATH and SHOCKING DARK. There’s a lot to work with in those movies.
But really, I’m willing to tackle just about anything. I’ll keep knocking them out as long as people want me to. I’m excited for whatever comes next.
