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Some of the cringiest dialogue at the end of chapter 18.

Where Part 1’s ending had me feeling iffy, Part 2 (Witness to the Infernal) reminded me of the stronger parts of the story and had me eager to continue reading. I’ve seen the film so many times and find the original/expanded dialogue in this novel to be a bit overwritten in places. To anyone unfamiliar with the film, it may not bother you as much.

At the end of Part One (Darkness Unleashed), I’m warming up to author Christian Francis’ style and am thankful for the extended dialogue that might’ve been trimmed for pacing in the film, but some of the writing left much to be desired for me. It’s obviously been fleshed out from what was likely a 90-100 page script but IMO it could’ve benefitted from more quality passes. Under- and over-writing aplenty.

Chapter 3 was a bit more interesting. Love the new details on what Alex sees inside the stone. If some of the dialogue is verbatim to the script, it’s no wonder it was changed for the final film. It’s not terrible, just has a different flow and some of it is a little weak.

Chapters 1 and 2 are reversed in the film and I am guessing this is sourced from the original script so many lines have been changed (some of the film ones are better) and expanded. Not sure I dig the writing style. Can’t put it into words but not gelling with it so far.

The prologue feels like a combo of both over- and under-written. Like with the Silent Night, Bloody Night opening, kinda rolled my eyes a bit at some of the new material.

Pretty basic slasher lit. The unholy amount of times the word “just” is thrown in here grew to be very distracting.

While I won’t say this is the highest quality literature you will find, it is surprisingly well-written for a just-okay 80s slasher.

After years of anxiously waiting to read this, I have a feeling after chapter 1 that this will be a fun read

Chapter 11 opens with some of the most unexpectedly relatable reading I’ve read in quite a while; a personal trauma. So far, Muños has done an exceptional job fleshing this story out. I hadn’t put more than two seconds worth of thoughts into how twisted this movie is until I started reading the book. The perversion is lightly touched on in the movie but no shortage of it here.

A couple of takeaways so far: Grandpa is a FREAK here. Also the tragic events following Billy’s parents’ demises were so over-the-top that I found myself laughing out loud over that fact. If I didn’t know any better, Muños might’ve been a little inspired by the SNDN remake entitled Silent Night. It fits more in that movie than SNDN. Either way this novel may make you approach the movie differently now.

I can definitely see how this could make for an interesting movie with the right passionate crew behind it. Not saying I LOVE it but would definitely check out a film adaptation based on what I’ve read so far.