Satanic Panic: A Homage to 1980's B-Movie Horror

by Daniel P. Coughlin

Satanic Panic, a mass hysteria created in the nineteen-eighties, has returned to a small college town in the Midwest. Ritualistic murders and the presence of the occult have bled below the surface of the town in the form of icy accidents and other coincidences. And when three lifelong friends find themselves on the radar of a killer-and leader of a satanic cult-they must fight for what's good without being seduced by the evil that possesses their campus.

Genres: Audiobook

259 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 17, 2019

Reviews

[Simon Logan]

The story really only kicks in towards the very end of the book and by that point I'd pretty much lost interest, having had to sit through 200 pages of misogynistic adolescent sex fantasies in which all women want to be treated like porn stars. First thinking about having a threesome, then talking about having a threesome, then having a threesome (which involves more conversation than the average dinner party), then talking about having *another* threesome and planning for that threesome ... and ... and so on.

One positive is that I didn't guess the killer's identity (but then I rarely do) but other than that I'm struggling. The writing wasn't atrocious but it wasn't great either- the dialogue, however, was truly awful. In fact, it was only the stilted and overly-formal dialogue that bore any relation to 80s B-movies, in this case a badly-dubbed Gialli or Jess Franco movie, only without their endearing nature.

[Sea Caummisar]

This book just wasn't for me. That's not saying it's bad, it's just wasn't something that I enjoy. If I hadn't been given a review copy (riddled with typos, and I understand that. It's a review copy. I'm sure in the published version they caught the difference between there and they're and their), I probably wouldn't even have finished it. But it was my understanding that this book had extreme gore ( it didn't). It also says b homage in the title. Sounded perfect. I should've loved it. I love b horror
First, let's recap the story. You have a masked man, known only as the killer ( until the end) that drowns people. (Just not enough gore for my taste when that's what I'm expecting). So by drowning drunken college kids, he s supposed to be causing some mass panic . Meanwhile, the killer has his sights on 3 college kids, all lifelong best friends who start having 3 somes. He vowed to torture them, but I wouldn't call this torture.
So I kept reading, waiting for gore. The killer threatened cannibalism and skinning people, but that doesn't happen. What we get at the end is a long drawn out action scene of first fighting.
30percent into the book, I actually re read the blurb to make sure I had the correct review copy. I thought I had accidentally gotten some erotic love story or something. It was all college sex.
So anyways, 4 drunk college kids had drown in this town. Which is supposed to cause a panic. But when not 1 but 2 of the main characters are threatened by a cult wearing devil masks following them in a van , brandishing weapons ( and one of the cult members actually axed another cult members in front of one of them) they did nothing. If the town would have been in a panic, I would have thought at least one of the main characters would have called the police or would have at least told their friends. Anything to protect themselves. If men in devil masks follow me in a dark van and threaten to drown me, like the other 4 deaths in the news, I would at least tell someone. They tell nobody and continue with their sexual adventures.
Maybe it's just me. There was not enough violence to distract me from plot holes like there were in the couple of other books I received from this publisher.
There were more things that didn't make sense to me. Like a guy being pulled over by the police. The book said he had been brutalized, his face was bloody, and his lip was the size of a caterpillar. (The cop didn't notice) I get it, the cop was crooked, but if I was a murderer and the cops were trying to pull me over while I was bloody, I think I would just drive away. ( I wouldn't pull over like this dumb guy did and just hand him my licence) There's many more scenes like that. This book wasn't for me. But if you like light violence and pages and pages of college sex, then you might like this book

[Jonathan]

This seems to be a bit closer to the campus culture and problems of campus culture that Black Christmas (2019) was trying to do. There are areas where it could be better, with stronger commentary and better atmosphere. But it is well paced, fairly intelligently written, and acts as a pretty good homage for the 1980s horror movies (whether psychologically based slashers or spiritually based horror in general).

[Tim]

Another crazy ride from Daniel.

[Chase Bouzigard]

This book is just horrible. The characters are all deplorable. The story is over dramatic.