By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The adaptations of the Italian cult favorites are coming for Black Friday.
Severin Films, which is giving goremeister Bruno Mattei’s HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD (a.k.a. NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES) and RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR their North Ameican UHD debuts (among many other titles) on Black Friday, has also pacted with Encyclopocalypse Publications to release novelizations of the two films. VIRUS: HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD and RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR, both written by Brad Carter, will first be available exclusively during Severin’s annual Black Friday Webstore Event, which takes place from 12:01 a.m. EST on November 29 to 11:59 p.m. PST on December 2 at www.SeverinFilms.com.
Carter previously adapted Mattei’s CRUEL JAWS, as well as MARDI GRAS MASSACRE and NIGHT OF THE DEMON, for Severin’s line of paperback originals (for which–full disclosure–this writer penned the NIGHTMARE tie-in). Both books are based on the original visions of screenwriters Claudio Fragasso and Rossella Drudi, which had to be significantly pared down for budgetary reasons. The results are epic-length for novelizations: RATS is 492 pages and VIRUS is 692 pages! The synopses:
VIRUS: HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD: “Deep within the African jungle nation of Daroka, Marsh Industries’ biochemical research facility is developing a classified serum known as the HOPE Project. But in the lab’s Antares Module, where human test subjects are kept in locked cells, something has gone horrifically wrong. The dead are alive. Aggressive. Hungry for flesh. And the infection is spreading. Now a team of heavily armed American mercenaries, a French female journalist and a group of unsuspecting missionaries have all entered the plague zone. In a third world hellhole already engulfed by political unrest and corporate greed, can anyone survive a rapidly decomposing nightmare of uncontainable viral carnage?”
RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR: “Nobody knows exactly how many generations have passed since the catastrophic Event, leaving most of North America a wasteland roamed by the deformed, the doomed and the damned. But far beneath the poisoned terrain, an inhuman species of subterranean colonists has a plan to repopulate the planet. Their oily black fur glistens in the darkness. Their telepathic communication argues the details. Their long thick tails and razor-sharp incisors twitch with anticipation. And for a roughneck salvage team who has accepted a warlord’s lucrative offer to raid an abandoned city, what appeared to be an easy score is now a gore-spattered battle for survival that may breed the ultimate horror.”
“Getting to be an official part of the Mattei/Fragasso/Drudi cinematic universe is a dream come true,” Carter says. “These books were written by a fan of Italian horror for fans of Italian horror, and I really wanted to deliver the gory goods. Hopefully, I succeeded.”
“Brad Carter is a mad genius of movie novelizations,” says Severin co-founder/president David Gregory. “The scope and scale of VIRUS: HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD is nothing less than James Michener with zombie carnage. RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR combines post-apocalypse insanity with ‘nature amok’ depravity for a monumental new sci-fi thriller. Both Bruno Mattei classics are now elevated from the Italo-Gore gutter to the loftiest of bookshelves.”
“Brad Carter is a master of his craft, transforming cult classics into immersive, expansive horror epics that fans of the genre will absolutely devour,” says Encyclopocalypse president Mark Alan Miller. “These novelizations are like director’s cuts on the page–bold, inventive and endlessly entertaining. We are proud to share these books with the world.”
