Review by Frank Plowright
At a young age Graeme Connell, or Thumper, is exposed to an explicit horror film and thinks it’s the greatest thing he’s ever seen. So great, in fact, that when he’s sent outside he immediately picks up an imaginary friend resembling the film’s masked slasher Red Ennis, who remains a companion a decade later when Graeme’s at university. He’s also a member of a local film club who’ve finally got their hands on an incredible treasure, a legendary horror film no-one’s ever seen.
Obscure horror films is a topic that obviously delights John Lees and you’ll feel the love as the nods and winks topple out all the way through, with descriptions of gruesome scenes through the mouths of fans a special treat. Yet remove the explicit gore and some swearing and this could be a successful young adult story with a dose of magical realism. The cast are young, their emotions and reactions are realistic, and also pastiched is the early talkies concept of “hey, why don’t we do the show right here?” as Graeme convinces his mates the best way to replace a video no-one’s seen is to make it themselves. It updates the cliché because while Graeme’s mates need his encouragement to realise it, they’re more than enthusiastic fans, and they have one massive advantage when it turns out Red Ennis isn’t imaginary after all.
We learn about the friends gradually as while the preoccupations of the present continue, Lees dips back into the past, exploring the connections between Graeme and his mates. Despite their shared enthusiasm being something many people would consider appalling, Lees ensures they’re portrayed as normal, likeable people.
While that’s the intention, much of the execution is down to the artists drawing them as cheerful and happy, enjoying what they’re doing for the most part. Adam Cahoon is the most prominently credited artist, and indeed draws most of The Nasty, but a change of style beginning with the third chapter is obvious. It takes some research to find the small print crediting George Kamadias as drawing the opening chapters, and whatever the reason he didn’t continue, he’s the better artist, more imaginative, and presumably the designer of Red Ennis as well. Cahoon’s page layouts are functional, using head shots too often, and while by the end greater individual style is apparent, overall his cartooning isn’t as developed, although the use of slashed panels echoing the genre is clever.
At times Lees’ concern about technique runs out of control, and Graeme explaining to Meera how to pull a script together is more instructional than dialogue. The caricatured anti-horror campaigners would benefit from having a little more nuance to them for the sake of balance, and almost an entire chapter devoted to ‘footage’ is too indulgent. However, Lees gets the big moments right even if you’ll see some coming in what underlines throughout that horror films spark the imagination rather than breeding serial killers.
