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The Woods Are Dark

Richard Laymon

Start date: April 1, 2025

Finish date: April 30, 2025

Discussion: Group Reads 2

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Apr 04, 2025 Pisces51 rated it liked it

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THE WOODS ARE DARK [May 28, 2013] By Richard Laymon
My Review 3.5 Stars

First, this kindle version of Laymon’s cult classic represents a reissue of the author’s second horror novel in its entirety. A butchered version of the book was released in 1981 to the “horror” of the author. Laymon had reluctantly made revision after revision at the demand of his publisher, but overall did not feel horrible when it went to print. That quickly changed when he saw the cartoonish Cover Art and read the garbled THE WOODS ARE DARK [May 28, 2013] By Richard Laymon
My Review 3.5 Stars

First, this kindle version of Laymon’s cult classic represents a reissue of the author’s second horror novel in its entirety. A butchered version of the book was released in 1981 to the “horror” of the author. Laymon had reluctantly made revision after revision at the demand of his publisher, but overall did not feel horrible when it went to print. That quickly changed when he saw the cartoonish Cover Art and read the garbled text. It was quickly evident that the publisher had made additional edits at their own discretion which rendered the story not making sense much of the time. In short, his novel had been “butchered” just as surely as most of the characters in his horror classic.

It comes to us now in all of “its gory glory” due to the persistent and diligent efforts of his daughter to tackle the near impossible task of putting “Humpty Dumpty” back together again. It does not escape me that I just reviewed a sensational novel by a promising author who died in the prime of her writing career at age 59 and on the same day I am writing a review of the legendary Richard Laymon’s horror classic “The Woods Are Dark”. The author, due to his premature death at age 54, was not alive to see his promising second book restored to his original content and available to a new generation of fans.

Let’s get another thing out of the way. I was thrilled that Splatterpunk Horror Book Club “leaned toward Laymon” in the April voting for Group Read of the month. Thank you, guys!

So, let’s talk about “Only fools stay in Barlow, the town the Devil built, when night falls and “The Woods Are Dark”. I have wanted to read this particular book since I became interested in reading works by this true icon of horror. It has been on every Top Ten List I have seen, and its position as a cult classic is solidified for sure. Some have made comparisons of the novel with Wes Craven’s “The Hills Have Eyes”. Well…maybe, but then once we “go there” with a family of mutant cannibals there is invariably the usual pastimes of murder and mayhem, and certainly plenty of folks to eat, and no I don’t mean “invite over to have dinner”.

The restored original novel contains 255 pages, and if I had not just looked at the Amazon description, I would not have guessed it was that many pages. I believe I read it in two installments deliberately to divide my reading time. This is one of the great things about Laymon’s novels, namely that they are so compulsively readable that it is easy to read an entire book of average length in one sitting (or in my case leaning since I am a nighttime reader). Speaking of Amazon’s description (yes, I know I am digressing) the book’s genre designations are “Occult Fiction”, “Supernatural Thrillers” and “Psychological Thriller”. Are you kidding me? Can anybody say hardcore horror? My first status update read “… there isn't anything more exciting than a half dozen regular folks stopping at a town during a road trip and being abducted by a group of low life dirtbags and hand delivered to a large population of illiterate, inhuman and extremely violent cannibals. Laymon delivers the action and the gore, like on a conveyor belt on high speed it's comin' at you!”

I could be more detailed of course. It is in fact a harrowing narrative of the horrendous trials by terror of a teacher named Lander Dills, his wife Ruth, and his daughter Cordie “with beau in tow” Ben. But let’s not exclude the two intrepid hikers besties Sherri and Neala who are the first outsiders nabbed by the ruthless townsfolk. There is a surprise addition to the aforementioned group, but I figure it is a spoiler. Let’s just say a man who resides in Barlow participates in an unheard-of positive manner with the strangers passing through, or I should say who attempted to pass through. The core strength of this novel is simply not in the area of rich character development. Its brute strength is in its unapologetic portrayal of violence, sexual depravity, and one of the big taboos cannibalism. The plot is actually not that complex when one considers that the life and death of the town’s “sacrifices” simply amounts to trying the hell to survive another minute, then another 5 minutes, rinse and repeat. The book is a crowd-pleasing shock fest. I would have loved buying a paperback of this propulsive hardcore horror tale when I was a kid.

The one area of refreshing originality which was of intense interest and amusement to me was the personal journey of one Lander Dills. I loved his spouting off lines from the classics and memorable quotes from famous figures in history. Lander devolves into a Rambo clone only a crazier, more sex-crazed one. Lander should have spent his vacation in this dark forest of savage rage and scantily clad young women. He fit right in after a while slaughtering unwary hillbilly cannibals (the Krulls). Lander was my favorite character in the book, and if I think about, his was not an impossible leap. It is amazing to me that the editor who butchered Laymon’s final draft excised Lander from the entire plot.

I might note that the author throws in some “extras” to spice things up, like a lethal adversary of the Krulls in the woods and “The Devil”. I enjoyed this read a lot. The reason that I rated it 3.5 Stars instead of higher was simply because of its barebones feel with blood and gore, plus lots of sex of course. This was my fifth Laymon novel I believe, and I enjoyed the others significantly more due to character development and other plot devices. It seemed disingenuous to allot a greater number of stars for this installment. In no way is this a criticism from me, and in fact I view it as a premonition because his subsequent novels showed his iconic talent realized.

REALLY ENJOYED THIS ORIGINAL, UNCUT VERSION OF LAYMON’S SECOND HORROR NOVEL

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Oct 01, 2022 Charlene (Char)🍁☕️📚 rated it it was amazing

Traveling gone wrong

I always enjoy reading a Richard Laymon book! This book is about 2 set of groups that goes on a trip that becomes a night to survive. This book is a must read.

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Apr 01, 2025 Alan rated it liked it · review of another edition

Read for the April group read for the Splatterpunk goodreads group. Back with Laymon, this time with his "restored and uncut" manuscript of The Woods Are Dark. In its original form this is the novel that Laymon blames for stalling his career in the US. The cuts, changes and the original artwork were to blame. This pressing the artwork isn't much better, the formatting is pretty bare bones but at least we are getting the novel as close to its original concept as possible thanks to the work of Kel ...more

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Jan 13, 2025 Rachel Mavis rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Rounded up. Like 3.8. Kept my attention but some pieces of the story were really dumb and some felt unnecessary to the plot but over all a fun gory time

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