Jim Horlock's Novel 'Masks' Is Fast-Paced Ode To Slasher Movie Maniacs

For what is horror, really, than a story about evil of one sort or other?
—Halloween director John Carpenter, Fangoria magazine, March 2001

Critics of horror have long asserted that the genre glorifies evil. The argument contains at least a small kernel of truth; unique among storytelling forms, horror—in all its various iterations—almost uniformly places its narrative emphasis, not on the hero, but the villain. Saying that such a perspective glorifies evil, though, ignores a more obvious fact: that identifying with the villain allows the audience to safely and vicariously indulge sentiments of anger, revenge, violence, and other anti-social feelings that would be unacceptable to express in real life.

While this inversion of classic protagonist/antagonist roles may trouble pundits, dyed-in-the-wool horror hounds know the villain in any dramatic work, whether it be Shakespeare or Star Wars, is often not only the most compelling character—the one with the sharpest outfits, the best dialogue and the coolest gadgets—but perhaps the most important as well. The old adage holds true: any hero is only as good as their villain. After all, who would Theseus be without the Minotaur? Batman without the Joker? Dr. Loomis without Michael Myers?

One person who understands the true value of villains is Welsh author Jim Horlock, whose debut Grendel Press novel, Masks, explores the multi-faceted archetypes of the cinematic slasher amid the fast-paced backdrop of a sci-fi thriller.

Prolific serial killer Edward Stitch has been unwillingly drafted into a clandestine government project called the Mask Program. Detained with a group of other infamous mass murderers, Edward, known by his code name ‘Mr. Stitches’, is held in a secret maximum-security facility and released periodically by his captors on ‘missions’ to designated target areas with orders to slaughter whomever he finds in any way he chooses. To ensure the compliance of their killers, the Mask Program’s coordinators have outfitted each with personalized face-coverings that, if removed, will detonate bombs hidden within.

At the novel’s onset, Edward has just completed a routine killing spree in an apartment complex and is extracted by one of the Program’s paramilitary Spectre Teams. Once safely back at the facility, however, he’s approached by Dr. Leibling, the Program’s morally dubious head psychologist, with an unprecedented offer: to hunt down one of Edward’s fellow inmates, a supercharged, nigh-indestructible maniac dubbed Mr. Beast, who has somehow disabled his mask’s explosive, killed the Spectre Team sent to remove him, and escaped into the city.

Thus begins a deadly game of pursuit, with Edward following Mr. Beast’s trail of devastation, but all is not what it initially seems. Once Edward finds his quarry, it’s revealed that Mr. Beast is an ex-military man searching out his former comrades in an underground resistance movement intent on dismantling not only the Mask Program, but the totalitarian future government responsible for its creation. With the clock ticking, can Edward subdue Mr. Beast before his own bomb is detonated? Or will he join the resistance and gain answers to the questions he’s always had about his own mysterious past?

If Masks were a film, its high-concept Hollywood studio pitch would be ‘Freddy Vs Jason meets The Cabin In the Woods meets Suicide Squad’. The plot is a horror lover’s dream, speeding ahead at breakneck pace, rife with gory mayhem, fisticuffs, explosions, twists, turns, betrayals and surprising revelations. Horlock’s clear love of the genre shows on every page; his gleeful deconstruction of the various movie slasher sub-types is a self-referential wink-and-nod Easter Egg hunt allowing true fright flick fans a chance to imagine a world where Freddy, Jason, and Michael coexist alongside true-life monsters like Bundy, Gacy, and Dahmer. But the central idea of the Mask Program is only the outermost layer of a highly complex scenario that unfurls as the novel progresses, and each successive chapter divulges more about Edward and his fellow killers. Intriguing questions are raised that an entire series could be built upon—are Edward and the other Masks simple sociopaths, undead monstrosities, age-old creatures of myth, or some strange combination of each?

As a lead, Edward cuts a compelling figure. In traditional terms he’s wildly unsympathetic, and his nonchalant, unrepentant attitude about his heinous crimes could, in a lesser writer’s hands, alienate readers, but Horlock shrewdly balances Edward’s violent tendencies with a caustic, oftentimes laugh-out-loud sense of pitch-black humor. Readers are so firmly entrenched in his perspective that it would’ve been easy for the supporting cast to fade into the background, but careful attention has been paid to each killer in the Mask Program—the brutish Mr. Beast, the ninja-like Miss Malice, and the enigmatic Mr. Shadow, who just may be the first slasher of all.

For all of its entertaining high-octane horror hijinks, however, more serious ruminations exist beneath the novel’s surface. Horlock takes a deliberate stab at social commentary with the revelation of the Mask Program’s function as assassins of the government’s political enemies. Questions are also aimed directly at the reader: why are we as an audience drawn to movies, images and stories that terrify and disturb us? Is it merely the rush of the experience, or the fact that we can, at least temporarily, relate with the monster, the madman, the Devil, and in doing so find a hidden source of strength?

Whether one fully enjoys Masks will ultimately depend on an individual’s opinion toward slasher films. Devotees of the subgenre will likely derive more entertainment bang-for-the-buck from Horlock’s creation than those who aren’t, but the page-turning roller-coaster thrill-ride aspect of the novel should appeal to a wide cross-section of readers regardless of their cinematic tastes.

Masks easily earns a 4.5 (Out of 5) on my Fang Scale. I wish more books, horror and otherwise, were this exciting.