Michigan Basement

by Thomas Ligotti, Brandon Trenz, David Felton (Illustrator)

As a child, Jeffrey could see nachtwachers, or night watchers, moving in the corners of his bedroom -- and his mother didn't deny their existence ... While he managed to suppress his fear of the dark and what lurks there, enough of it lingered to direct him toward the study of anthropology under the sinister Dr. Rekalde, who assures him that reality is an illusion.

Jeffrey and his partner Jean, both struggling young academics, are drawn by Rekalde's oblique invitations to the sort of town all readers of Ligotti will recognize at once. Skinner is a crummy, run-down little place in the middle of nowhere, a place that seems barely real, and that hides a terrible secret: the night watchers.

For the Ligotti reader, Michigan Basement was nothing more than a rumor, a film script that may or may not have ever existed. Chiroptera Press is proud to bring to print for the first time, a missing piece of the Thomas Ligotti library, Michigan Basement. Our editions include a brand new Introduction by co-writer Brandon Trenz and art by Dave Felton.

Genres: Horror, Weird Fiction

212 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2024

About the author

Thomas Ligotti is a contemporary American horror author and reclusive literary cult figure. His writings, while unique in style, have been noted as major continuations of several literary genres—most prominently Lovecraftian horror—and have overall been described as works of "philosophical horror", often written as philosophical novels with a "darker" undertone which is similar to gothic fiction. The Washington Post called him "the best kept secret in contemporary horror fiction"; another critic declared "It's a skilled writer indeed who can suggest a horror so shocking that one is grateful it was kept offstage."

Reviews

[Jack Tripper]

Several times while reading this long-rumored, never produced screenplay, I felt a sense of déjà vu, as it seemed almost like a streamlined, Hollywoodized version of Ligotti’s classic novelette, “The Last Feast of Harlequin.” You’ve got your mysterious, unfriendly small town where a winter festival is happening, lots of creepy clowns, a longtime missing anthropology professor glimpsed in the shadows, etc. Then I read the intro by co-writer Brandon Trenz (I always save intros for last for fear of spoilers), and discovered that, yes, this started out as an adaptation of “Last Feast,” as back in the day a major film producer showed interest in making a movie based on it — which is crazy to think about — and gave Ligotti and Trenz first crack at the script. It didn’t end up happening, so the two authors ended up changing it into its own thing, while retaining elements of the original screenplay.

I’d imagine it’d make for a decent enough horror movie if done right, but on its own, and without Ligotti’s hypnotic, almost poetic prose (which is hard to get across strictly through dialogue and basic scene headings and such) it really just made me wish I was reading the original story. There was an intriguing mystery relating to the nature of the town and festival, as well as a handful of unsettling moments, but none of that inexplicable, slow-creeping dread and nightmarish sense of dislocation that “Last Feast” or their other unproduced screenplay, Crampton (originally written as an X Files episode), induced. Still, I’d say it’s worth checking out for the hardcore Ligotti fan, as it’s a neat little piece of lost history that’s finally seen the light of day.

[Curtis]

I can't afford to see Longlegs this weekend because I dropped $50 on this Ligotti movie.
It was worth it.

[Vicente Ribes]

Después de haber leido Crampton, el guión que escribió Ligotti para un episodio de Expediente X que nunca vió la luz pensaba que no vería nada más de este excelente escritor publicado pero Chyroptera press nos va sorprendido con este " Michigan Basement".
Se trata ni más ni menos de otro guión para una posible adaptación a film de el excelente relato " La última fiesta del Arlequin".
La verdad es que la adaptación obvia muchos aspectos lovecraftianos que me entusiasmaban en aquel relato pero es comprensible ya que eran difícil de adaptar.
El guión es como estar viendo una posible adaptación de Ligotti y aunque sea un terror mucho más televisable y adaptado a la realidad proporciona un buen rato.
La pena es que como vemos ya va quedando poco que rescatar del olvido de este escritor que últimamente se halla escondido y apenas publica nuevas obras.
Una verdadera lástima porque es uno de los mejores escritores de terror de este siglo.

[Christopher]

The original ideas of this were going to be an X Files one off episode script before being reworked into their own story. It very much reads like that stylistically and in terms of pacing. Ligotti's themes are ever-present, though Brandon Trenz's style is much more dominant in the writing.

If you are familiar with Ligotti's work you will not be surprised with the course of events, but seeing them in this unique presentation and style is an interesting and different treat.

[Lori]

This screenplay would probably make a decent mainstream horror movie, and I think therein lay the problem. I'm just not sure Ligotti translates off-page that well.

And, ugh, female characters hating each other for no reason (because we can apparently "just tell" when another woman is a "bitch" even when she hasn't actually done anything) and having pointless drama over a man that serves no narrative purpose. Not surprisingly, this story also fails the Bechdel test.

[Tobin Elliott]

Gotta say, while this is Ligotti, it's also Trenz and, after reading both CRAMPTON and now this, I feel Trenz adds a bit of a "commercializing" aspect to the standard Ligottian nightmare. I find that reading Ligotti on his own is like entering a really bad dream.

But reading a Ligotti/Trenz collaboration is a slightly different experience. It's still dreamlike, but it's a touch easier to grasp, a little more mainstream. The pros and cons can be argued, however, I just choose to run with it.

And, in this case, I enjoyed the hell out of this. It's bizarre, it's mostly unexplained, and there's a lot less clowns than the source material, but overall, this is a movie I'd enjoy watching. It's got a bit of a David Lynch feel to it.

[Alex Budris]

A nice addition to my collection. A spooky screenplay that was originally a treatment of the Ligotti story, Last Feast of Harlequin. The finished work was not exactly that, but there are certainly echoes of a strange town called Mirocaw. Instead of transforming into eldritch worms, everyone gets eaten by the shadow watchers, but the pervasive sense of the good guys not winning remains the same. So, appropriately dark, yet, for me, lacking the true scares of Ligotti's short fiction. The accompanying magazine, "Nighlands", issue number one, has an interesting article by Michael Cisco about the troubles of cinematically adapting a Ligotti story that is especially interesting after reading this screenplay, and also its companion volume, the screenplay Crampton.

[Samantha]

I picked up this book from Chiroptera Press based on the author (Thomas Ligotti) and cover alone. I turned this book over in my hands three or four times to carefully admire the art of Dave Felton. I felt like I was at a carnival on a fall night, perhaps more specifically, the carnival from "Something Wicked This Way Comes." A great start to a book.

Then I opened it up. And as I said, I went in blind to its contents. When I saw that it was written in screenplay format, my heart skipped a beat because that is not really my favourite way to read a story. However, I read the Introduction by co-author Brandon Trenz, and saw the effort and thought that was put into this gathering of ideas and I decided that of course I'd go through with it. The intention of this screenplay becoming a horror movie? Possible X-Files episode? How could I not venture on?

Then I discovered that my brain had zero issue with creating a visual in my mind with the cues and imagery put together on these pages. I guess I don't dislike reading screenplays after all. I was completely ensnared by the story about Jeffrey Haller, an Anthropology professor, and the creepy die Nachtwächter he saw in his bedroom as a child. With many allusions to clowns and what they're hiding, Jeffrey takes his girlfriend Jean to the small town of Skinner to try to find Jeffrey's former professor who might have some insight into the Nightwatchers. The town is eerie and its residents are disconcerting, and the winter carnival is coming.

I read this a lot faster than I anticipated. It was certainly devoured like a movie or horror TV show episode. I bet it could be a very scary one too. I think I'm giving this rating 4 stars because while I loved the tale, the art, and the writing, I do think I would have preferred this in visual media. Here's to Ligotti and Trenz finding someone to translate it to the silver screen!

[S.M.]

It's alright, nothing to write home about. It definitely reads like a horror movie script from the 2000s, in that it was a fairly lackluster and full of cliches (unlike the story it's based on). Who knows, maybe this will still get picked up by a director/film company that doesn't suck in the future!

[Jim]

5 stars for the quality of the limited edition and the introduction. 3 stars for the intentionally broad horror script.