First published back in September of 2016, Sean T Page’s novella ‘1975’ formed the nineth instalment within the ‘Year Of The Zombie’ series which saw a zombie story published (in ebook format) each month of 2016 from a variety of different horror authors. All twelve stories were later collected together and published within the ‘Year Of The Zombie’ (2018) anthology (which was also published in paperback format).
DLS Synopsis:
DLS Review:
DLS Synopsis:
The Ark was a sizeable bunker of seven floors, located beneath the concrete jungle of London. A top-secret facility where scientists had been pursuing the impossible quest for a dynamic cure to the most complex virus the world has ever seen – the virus that caused the dead to rise and hunger for living flesh.
Whilst around five million walking corpses ambled around the dead city above the bunker, the numbers of those below ground were gradually thinning out. At first the scientists had a plan – exhibited ambition, drive and a purpose. Now, eighteen months after the start of the viral outbreak, and those that ran the bunker were losing their faith in the what the scientists were doing there.
The scientists still had some five thousand cryogenically frozen humans in the Ark. Sleepers that were drip fed nutrient-rich plasma every six hours from a central tank in the cryogenic zone. Humanity’s supposed last hope.
Cole was one of the maintenance technicians within the underground facility looking after the mechanical and medical apparatus. When he first arrived at the Ark, Cole had thought he’d be pretty much indispensable. In fact, he thought most of the scientists and technicians would be.
However, over time the increasingly brutal and secretive quasi-military regime the guards enacted was making Cole question his safety. In fact, people seemed to be going missing all over the bunker alarmingly frequently. The numbers thinning by the day. And no one seemed to care.
Furthermore, Cole was also becoming increasingly convinced Captain Seaton wanted him out of the facility. It was a death sentence however it was presented. With all this shit going down, Cole knew he had to watch his back, because down in the Ark, no one can be trusted…
Well, this is a different one! Author Sean T Page offers up a strangely chilling psychological zombie horror, that’s less about the zombies and more about the mounting tension within the pressure-cooker environment of this bigass underground bunker.
Okay, so the whole zombie apocalypse malarkey is really just a device to put the characters into this tense situation. The presence of the zombies themselves is just to apply a wider threat, rather than to actually present any urgent danger to the characters.
However, it’s with all the accompanying eerie and downright sinister psychological horror where the novella really comes into its own. Honestly, Page absolutely knows what he’s doing with these unsettling little pieces to the puzzle, setting down nightmarish scenes designed to seep under your skin and mess with you.
For example – mannequins. Yeah, frigging mannequins! The buggers are creepy as hell in this oddly out-of-place setting. Like giant haunted dolls or something! Then there’s the casualness from everyone in the bunker when confronted with all those who are missing. The nonchalance of these folk, who’ve lived alongside each other for the past eighteen months, and yet they still don’t seem to give two hoots when someone disappears. It’s all a tad unnerving!
I guess you’d maybe say it’s somewhat akin to ‘Silent Hill’ with all that creepy imagery and constricted confines of the facility. Honestly, it’s nightmarish stuff, and the gradual twist Page delivers towards the latter sections of the novella works so damn well with it all. We’re talking grim and grisly discoveries which plummet us down into the dark depths of psychological horror. Yeah, it’s dark down there alright!
The novella runs for a total of 29 pages.
© DLS Reviews
