First Edition (1985)
Rerelease Cover
First published back in March of 1985, British horror author Shaun Hutson’s novel ‘Shadows’ offered up a slab of paranormal horror sprinkled with lashings of textbook Hutson Splatterpunk.
At the Institute of Psychical Study within the outskirts of Oxford, a team of scientists, headed up by Dr Stephen Vernon, had been investigating all manner of psychic phenomena, ranging from hauntings to telekinesis. The team’s recent investigations had focussed upon the potential for the unconscious human mind to glimpse the future. To predict events that were about to happen whilst the subject was in an unconscious state.
Whilst the Oxford based scientists were using drugs to undertake their trials, a separate institute – the Metapsychic Centre located in Paris – were exploring the potential phenomena through the use of hypnosis. The two Institutes had been working together in collaboration on the project to hopefully get to world first revelation.
So far, both teams had made significant ground in their paranormal investigations. This was largely due to two key test cases who’d displayed strong signs of potential future predications. However, Dr Kelly Hunt from the Oxford Institute, was becoming increasingly concerned about their particular test subject. The man – Maurice Grant – had been experiencing a recurring dream in which he murders his own wife and ten-month-old baby. A murder and mutilation so savage, so vivid, that it was haunting every waking minute of his life.
Meanwhile, bestselling writer of paranormal phenomena – David Blake – had been spending time with celebrity psychic healer – Jonathan Mathias – as part of the research for his next book. Over the past five years, Blake had written five worldwide best-sellers, all concerned with different aspects of the paranormal. Nevertheless, in all that time, he’d not encountered anyone like Mathia. The man was an enigma, exuding a mixture of menace and benevolence. But there undoubtedly a power within him. Something which could not be explained or dismissed.
What Mathias said about his power was unlike anything Blake had ever heard before. He’d explained how there was a force inside all of us. The power of the shadow. The darker side of man’s inner self. Pure evil.
But what if someone could tap into that shadow? Control it. Allow the evil to run rampant. The implications were too terrifying to consider. For the world would never be the same again. The world would become one of violence and unrestrained, unrelenting evil…
Here we have a relatively early novel from the master of Splatterpunk, with a tale involving an escalating paranormal thriller laced with spatterings of hard-hitting Splatterpunk. Yeah, this is all familiar territory for Hutson, and here we see the author absolutely playing to his strengths with another such textbook offering.
Although plot-wise, it’s perhaps a tad more convoluted than some of Hutson’s other offerings. We have a rich cast of characters brought into the equation, along with two primary and parallel running storylines (the Institutes’ research alongside David Blake’s research into celebrity psychic healer, Jonathan Mathias). With the storyline that follows the Institutes’ research, this aspect is then further split between Oxford and Paris, creating a further subdividing of the story’s narrative.
We also have some further storyline threads woven into the fabric of the tale, for example with the tragedy that befalls Toni Landers and her nine-year-old son and the resulting impact that follows through much of the novel. Then there’s Dr Vernon’s wife being committed to a sanatorium six years ago, after she’s pushed to the verge of insanity. We also have the blossoming relationship between Dr Kelly Hunt and David Blake which takes us on one hell of a ride as the novel edges towards the finale.
Embedded with the tale are also a whole load of ‘James Herbert style’ mini vignettes to exhibit the beginnings of the inner shadow being unleashed upon the population. These short scenes are brutal as hell, depicting extreme violence upon the unsuspecting public. Hutson doesn’t pull any punches whatsoever with these scenes too. We have babies being viciously killed and mutilated, as well as victims sliced and diced in some of those most savage and horrific ways possible. If you’ve read Herbert’s ‘The Fog’ (1975), one of these vignettes bears an uncanny semblance to that infamous snip-snip scene!
However, overall, we have a story which plays with the idea of everyone having a dark side in them. One which most of us keep under control. However, that dark side – the shadow – can be exploited by others who can tap into it. Those who have the ability to override people’s morality, to let the pure evil take over their bodies.
Alongside this Hutson mixes in the phenomenon of Astral project, precognition, and projected hallucinations. However, in trying to keep you guessing with numerous unexpected twists, these psychic phenomena start to become a bit of a clumsy affair, culminating in a sort of sketchbook of concept more than a cleverly designed reveal.
Anyway, the story as a whole is a pretty darn engaging one. I’ll be honest, it does sag a tad around the midway point, although this is only perhaps for a handful of chapters, before Hutson starts pressing his foot down on the action accelerator once again.
Nevertheless, it’s certainly an entertaining story, packed with loads of twists and unexpected, (and often graphicly violent) events transpiring. However, compared with other Hutson novels, it’s probably not one that’ll remain all that memorable. I say this, because I recently reread the novel (thinking I hadn’t already), and honestly, it was really only when I got to some of the brutal scenes of maniacal violence, when it dawned on me that I’d previously read the book (okay, so some scenes did linger in the memory). Not that a second read spoiled the overall entertainment factor of the book, as I couldn’t recall any of the twists. But it’s just possibly not one that’ll stick out in your memory that much from Hutson’s back catalogue.
The ending though is a corker! Don’t worry, no spoilers here, but oh yeah, it’s Hutson through and through…to the novel’s very last word.
The novel runs for a total of 325 pages.
© DLS Reviews
