Night Creepers

by David Irons

Seven strangers are asked to attend the funeral and will reading of the affluent Gregory Blitzer, a man who the attendees' only thing in common is the mutual hatred they had for him in life.

While at the funerals remote church setting, they soon find themselves trapped inside, unable to escape. Forced to open Gregory's coffin, they find no body inside, only a ragged torn out hole leading to the catacombs beneath the graveyard.

Something has been living underground, something that’s been spawning.

Something that's… hungry.

Night Creepers: You are what they eat.

Genres: Horror

213 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 12, 2019

About the author

David Irons was the kid who went to his room to watch and read horror when his relatives came round. It paid off. When he left his room, he became an award-winning filmmaker and writer living on the south coast of England. His films, colourful and stylish in design, have won awards at the Cambridge Film festival, Las Vegas VIFF festival, and LA Independent Festival for cinematography, editing, writing, and directing. '7 Winters Alone' - a sci-fi, horror short - was a winner in David Lynch's 2014 Short Film Competition.

In 2019 David had his first novel, Night Waves, published, followed by Night Creepers, Polybius, and The Bloody Tracks of Bigfoot in 2020 - 2021 from Severed Press. Since then, David has become a Splatterpunk award-nominated writer for his '80s summer camp slasher, 'Don't Go To Wheelchair Camp.'

The moral of this story is to be weird and stay in your room. It pays off in the end.

Reviews

[Peter Topside · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. This book was not anything like I imagined it to be. Not necessarily sure if that was a good thing or not. Don’t get me wrong, I liked a great deal of what happened in this story. There was some good action sequences, some really innovative and unique plot points, and great visuals for the various creatures and environments. To give you an idea, without spoiling anything, think of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom kinda bugs, but just a lot bigger and mutated into things akin to a Resident Evil game. And I loved the ending, as it was the best way to conclude this entire story. So my biggest criticisms here, which hurt the overall impact of the story were the characters and pacing. The characters were all just very typical, unlikable, and unrelatable. The author was focused so much on the underground mazes and creatures, with maybe one too many characters, and quantity took precedence over quality. On the pacing, it was sort of all over the place. This story took quite awhile to get going. And the very beginning and very end were probably the best overall portions of the book. The inbetween areas, even during action-based scenes, felt very elongated and tiresome. Much like with the characters, I feel like if David Irons just kept things a little more simplified, it may have remedied a good deal of the problematic matters. But, as I said earlier, there is a lot to like in here, but it was all unfortunately marred by some issues that could have been fixed with some further editing.

[Wayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really nice throw-back style horror story. House on Haunted Hill, the '59 one. I kept waiting for a William Castle gimmick like a buzzer on my seat or some giant bug floating at me. Seems that six people come together for a funeral and will reading of a man no one really liked. Throw in the innocent priest and seven go down in the catacombs of the church/funeral parlor to try and survive the dead man's revenge.

This one had nice blast's of gore to keep it moving along. Fun, if not stereotypical characters. I liked this book a lot and the only reason I did not give this five stars was that it was pretty easy to figure out what was coming next. I liked what came next, but I wish there was a little more twists and turns through the underground maze. To be honest, there was one shocker, I won't give it away, that I did not see happening toward the end that was different. Well worth the time.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exploring Underground Might Not Be A Good Thing!

Small backstory:

Seven people that were connected to a man named Gregory Blitzer end up at his funeral but things don't go as planned when they find out that Blitzer is not in his coffin and that underneath his coffin is a giant hole that leads to subterranean catacombs. They could not leave by the way they got in so they have to take the underground route, however that ends up being a mistake as what lies below is far worse than anything they could have ever imagined!

That is about all I can hand out with a small backstory so if you want to know more and are intrigued then go read this book!

Thoughts:

This was my first time reading this author and I was drawn right into the storyline as not too far in I was grabbed by the flow of the story. One thing leads to another and the author introduces a little bit of background on each of the seven characters. The story picked up pace more when the seven characters get to the funeral and then this book turns into a "twisted wild ride of insanity" after the characters end up underground!

The story picks up speed at that point in the book and it was off to the races as this book fueled my insomnia with so much action that I could barely put the book down! I read the last half of the book within about four to five hours as I just could not let it go! Giving this book five "Creepy Critter Twisted" stars!

[Tara Losacano · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a wild read and definitely not what I was expecting!! There were so many twists and turns and so much creepiness going on, it was a lot but I really enjoyed it. I got to know the characters, some likeable and some not, and I really became invested in what would happen to them. The creature reveal was awesome and totally creative! This was my third David Irons book and I'm a huge fan at this point! Can't wait to read more of his work. 4/5 creeper skulls 💀

[Dale Robertson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty creepy (especially if you don't like bugs) and claustrophobic. Also an interesting premise. The story kept me hooked as i was wanting to see what happened next.

I felt the book could have been cut shorter- bottom line is people are stuck in the same environment, which, from a descriptive point of view, needs to be worded differently to not feel repetitive. Unfortunately this did feel like that for me. Lots of filler words (characters repeating the same phrase- often in the same sentence, plenty of adverbs).

I also thought this was going to be mainly about spiders (which i hate! So decided to give myself a scare by reading it) so was pretty anxious throughout. Up until more of the story was revealed that is.

Overall, a decent, creepy crawly tale.

[Stephen Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

A creepy well told old school horror. Had haunted house elements, creature feature, fun over the tops characters. A good read.

[Erin Talamantes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was kindly sent this book by the author to read and review!
* The book begins with Jennifer as a child getting bullied by two other kids. They stuff her in a locker with spiders lurking in it.
* Jennifer gets herself out by finding a card and sliding it in the lock. When she gets out, she discovers that it’s a tarot card with a winking devil face.
* Fast forward, Jennifer is working for a man named Gregory Blitzer at his Funeral home and hates it.
* Alison is her manager, a very uptight woman who is also obsessed with their boss.
* Gregory Blitzer is not a nice man. Very egotistical and self-centered.
* Suddenly, Jennifer and Alison witness their boss get smashed to bits by a car.
* 7 people are asked to attend Gregory’s funeral and will reading.
* Each person hates him for different reasons.
* Kristi is the ex wife, she is extremely happy to be rid of Gregory. Their divorce was incredibly messy and she took him for half of everything he owns.
* Kelly is Kristi’s 10 year old daughter from another marriage and she’s just trying to keep her mom in check.
* Alison is probably the only person on the planet who doesn’t hate Gregory. She’s crying and devastated that such a “good man” is gone.
* Alex was Kristi’s lawyer for the divorce, who hated Gregory because of a deal that went sour 20 years prior.
* Matt was Kristi’s PI who was hired to dig up all the dirt he could find on Gregory. He’s not quite sure why he was asked to attend this shindig.
* Jennifer is surprised to be invited since her and Gregory’s relationship was not very good. But she goes anyway thinking she might get some money.
* Then there’s the priest who is the one that married Kristi and Gregory. He was asked specifically to do the funeral and the reading.
* They all arrive at this very remote and strange church, once inside they realize that there is no way out.
* Panic ensues and everyone is freaking out. Gregory’s coffin is opened, only to find that there is no body, just a hole.
* They decide to climb down the hole to find a different way to escape this church.
* They end up in the catacombs under the graveyard at the front of the church. However, they aren’t alone down there.
* This ensues a fight for survival.
* One let me just say with the name Night Creepers, I had a feeling this would involve bugs, but boy was I in for a surprise.
* Bugs are one of those things that I just genuinely HATE.
* Yuck, if you are afraid of bugs, this book will definitely get you.
* There’s also this really creepy nursery rhyme song thing that gave me shivers. It’s repeated several times in the book and each time I hated it (loved it).
* I love the style the book is written in. It’s very easy to read and I really enjoyed the plot, very easy to jump right in and get into.
* I loooove the 80s vibe that he has going on.
* The characters were very interesting. I had changing feelings about them constantly.
* Kristi comes off very rude, gold digger, narcissistic, but as the book continues I really saw a different side of her.
* However, there is one character that I hated pretty much the entire way through..cough cough..Alison.
* The ending....it’s hard because I really really liked the ending EXCEPT for one tiny tiny little part, if it hadn’t happened i would have LOVED it.
* I get why he did it, but I was still sad.
* Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The bug aspect really got me and I liked how different it was from the usual books I read. I would definitely recommend.

[Sam S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book.
Somewhat sci-f-remniscent in some ways.
I both liked and disliked the ending.
But overall, it was an interesting read

[Andy Hatchfield · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent story and characters but way too much wacky shit going on. Book would have benefited from simpler creatures and story elements.

[Bee · Rating 2 out of 5]

238

TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EIGHT
That's the number of times the word eyes shows up in this 173 page novella. That means, on average, the word eyes shows up more than once per page. To say it was excessive would be an understatement. I have some serious questions about the authors obsession with eyes, but I'm not sure I'd like to know the answers.

Eyes aside, this book just really didn't work for me. The writing was repetitive and overly descriptive which often was unnecessary and detracted from the story. The pacing was somehow incredibly slow despite how much was actually happening.It felt like this book took place over weeks, not hours. None of the characters were remotely likable, which made it really hard to care what was happening.

This one gets points for originality. This isn't your typical take on a creature feature and, while at times confusing, I really enjoyed this concept. There were some fun action/gore scenes and the claustrophobic, dark setting paired with the monsters made for a really horrific story. I just feel like this one could have used some serious polishing, and a few dozen less eyeballs.

[Hayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

have to say I really enjoyed being able to see such improvement in David Irons’ writing from this one to the 5⭐️ Graveyard Billy.

I give Night Creepers 3⭐️
Some of the paragraphs are repetitive and there are a few clunky lines, but there’s a really interesting gorefest inbeween. The characters are all so unlikeable that you won’t feel bad when events happen to them - reminds me of fun movies like Friday the 13th in that sense. But like I said, the improvement between the writing in this book and Irons’ later book is incredible.

[Andrea Stott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creatures yay

If you like monsters, if you like gore, this is the book for you! I love the creatures and I had a good time with the story. I am terrible at reviewing books but I really liked this a lot.

[BRANDON · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good solid plot, the antagonist was original even if it was a little strange, remained pretty same up until the end when it got a little nasty. The ending felt a little Deus ex Machina but it worked.

[Bellows reads quietly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Something has been missing in my life for some years now. Almost every weekend after a few bevvies and whilst waiting for our takeaway of choice to be prepared, me and some mates would pop into Blockbusters. We weren’t after the latest ‘Blockbuster’ we trawled the lower shelves. The most lurid cover or hyperbolic horror blurb was what we sort. Instant purchase if one of our favourite scream queens was a star. We got exactly what we wanted whilst sobering up and stuffing our faces with grease and calories. Unabashed entertainment.

I got the same feelings of joy reading Night Creepers.

Not entirely the creature feature I was expecting, it’s much, much more. Underground terror meets the body horror aspects of The Thing.

The story is quite straightforward. We’re following a group of diverse characters as their day gets ever more terrifying. Gory, satisfying deaths occur. In your minds eye you can see the pre-CGI effects in all their bloodied glory. The writing style has you racing through the book, by the time you reach the oh, so satisfyingly bonkers ending you’re breathless, smiling from ear to ear.

So, David Irons has given me my Friday nights back ( I know I can stream stuff, but just go with this) I’ll be reading one of his books on Fridays from now on. Woofing down a chow mein and wondering where my poster of Linnea Quigley disappeared to.