Review by Eddie Generous
All Through the House is a modern horror flick in a long list of horror flicks that I DNF’d about five minutes in—this despite that one of the lead actors is from the same county where I grew up. All Through the House novelization, however, is a book worth checking out.
The story is semi-predictable…if you’re a horror head. It seems to nod at classics: Sleepaway Camp, Black Christmas, The Burning, Pumpkinhead II, that one Tales From the Crypt (comic, movie, TV) with the escaped mental patient dressed as Santa. Tying these tidbits together really works for a book where it might come off as derivative in a movie. It’s a slasher, so plot surprises are really only necessary in a finale, the rest is putting characters through the ringer. This followed that well-trodden path, and rung the characters were.
The pacing is quick, which keeps the blood pumping from gushing gash after gushing gash. The writing is accessible and clear—though the varied dialogue tags and sheer volume of exclamation points kind of drove me up the fucking wall—there’s no bogging down with bloated prose or the kind of masturbatory wordplay that’s now seemingly mandatory in mainstream releases. You ask me, horror lit is at its best when it isn’t trying to show the world how smart it is.
If you’re looking for something fun and bloody, written with ample opportunity for enjoyment, All Through the House by Joshua Millican, based on the screenplay by Todd Nunes, offers a straightforward escape, harboring the power to entertain from beginning to end. So, as the snow begins to fly and Santas start appearing on lawns and in windows…perhaps even in your own home, All Through the House from Millican and Encyclopacaylpse Publications is a good option, good enough that you might want to buy a second copy to stuff into someone’s stocking this Xmas.