PR: In a very slasher movie-like setting, a guy stops by a motel, even though he was only "a couple of miles away from his destination."
Whether that was a sound decision or not, I suppose, depends on how many miles "few" means. I find it ludicrous to stop for the night when you're ten minutes shy from reaching your friend's house. Anyway, it's not that important.
There are about twenty pages of intro to the characters, who are a bit bland: the motel manager, who acts super shifty; a gay couple; and an American family referred to as "Mommy," "Daddy," and "Lydia," which was a bit uncomfortable.
There are a few mentions of blood-like substances to keep the theme, such as the contrast between the VACANCY neon sign and the rain, the redwood trees, and a few other things. There's also an almost abusive use of the word "lean" with five instances in just one page, and a surprising amount of swearing, but I suppose that's not very important.
The night begins, and with some "weird chanting in another language," everyone goes crazy, starts yelling, and banging on the windows and doors, only to realize they're locked in. Despite there being three or four mentions of how the walls are paper-thin, no one thinks of breaking them until almost the very end, but it ends in a pretty gory fashion. The "creeping crimson," a writhing mass of red (it's not very clear whether it's flesh or plant-based), engages in a tug-of-war with the MC, where the rag is the other family's little girl, Lydia. Yeah, she's halved by the monster.
The MC and his wife, in an act of desperation, ignite the entire room with bug spray and a lighter (good thing the MC's a smoker; and they say bad habits kill you). Although it appears effective to a certain extent, as the crimson cries in pain, it's not enough to make it recede. It's worth noting that the chanting gets louder as time goes by, and it's impossible to turn off. I'd like to say that the initial reaction to the weird chanting was a bit over-the-top, as only now is it loud enough to be a nuisance.
The MC manages to bust through the door, but his wife gets caught by the thing, fortunately dragging the clerk with her before he could stab the MC. He watches as the entire thing burns to the ground.
It's a rather sad ending, very unexpected. Although the monster is a bit clichéd, being simply an amorphous, all-consuming mass (like Goosebumps' "Monster Blood" or Stephen King's "The Raft" – turn over a rock, and a King tale will come out, I swear), the author manages to get the most out of it. Perhaps if he had attempted to put more lore into the summoning stuff rather than jumping straight into action, as he did, the story would be less enjoyable. The setting, trapped in a very small hotel room, certainly helps the danger mood, much better than the one before. "Gripping" one could say 7/10.
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| Tentive illustration by AI |
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