Author: Glen Picotte
Genre: Horror
Publication Date: 1 October 2022
Pages: 78
Available As: Paperback and e-book
The Synopsis:
Kenny just had to get away. He was done with his old life, and as he walked he imagined his new one. Maybe coming to ol’ Charleston was always a part of the plan, or maybe he arrived there by chance, but no matter how he ended up there, stopping at that little pizzeria for a bite to eat may have been the beginning of the end of his life altogether.
The Review:
To Eat Their Own is the debut publication of Glen Picotte; a horror short clocking in at nineteen chapters, the story is a brisk, gore-filled romp that read to me like a nightmarish mash-up of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Hooper, 1974), The Fog (Carpenter, 1980), and Silent Hill (Team Silent, 1999). Told from the third-person, the story follows Kenny, a young man on the run from his past and some vaguely-defined mistakes and just trying to find a new place to settle down where nobody knows him. Throughout much of the story, Kenny is suffering from a number of ailments; he’s constantly exhausted, ravenous with hunger almost the entire time, and his body is a mess of strange aches and pains. To make matters worse, the rare times he does actually sleep he is tormented either by graphic and gruesome nightmares or the shadows of the life he’s trying to leave behind. There’s an air of mystery around Kenny; the author never explicitly goes into detail about what he’s trying to get away from, and we’re simply left following him at this particularly stage of his life as he tries to cobble together some kind of direction and purpose for himself, making him both a blank slate for readers to project themselves onto and giving him a mysterious aura that makes you wonder what happened to bring him to the foggy, desolate town of Charleston.
Charleston is more of a vague, ominous presence more than anything else; we only really visit a few prominent places in town (a pizzeria where Kenny briefly finds work, the local police station, and a horror house of a motel) but it comes to consume the tatters of Kenny’s life. Swamped by a thick and constant fog and sporting a twisted forest of gnarled and jagged trees, Charleston definitely conjures memories of the gothic, misty towns of H.P. Lovecraft and proves to be a place one does not simply casually visit on a whim. Indeed, Charleston initially seems quite welcoming to poor old Kenny; he’s offered shelter and even a job, but things quickly become suspicious when the specifics of his wages are vaguely defined before the story takes a dramatic right turn into the truly horrific when Kenny is set upon by the sadistic Mrs. Valentine and her blindly (literally and figuratively) obedient son, Jimmy. Subjected to a living nightmare, Kenny’s only thought is to escape; just as he’s running from the ghosts of his past so too does he simply want to flee the macabre trappings of Charleston with what little he has left. But the town and her warped inhabitants won’t let him leave so easily, and Kenny is forced to take a stand, possibly for the first time in his life, and discover a side of himself he never suspected.
To Eat Their Own was an easy read for me; the chapters, each carrying their own sub-title, are short and easy to digest and the author makes great use of his words and the story’s length to tell craft a mean and bloody appetiser of a tale. The story has the horror, appeal, and randomness of a nightmare; Kenny stumbles and is battered from one ghastly situation to the next, encountering allies and new obstacles in each chapter that force him back into town and to face another horrifying situation. The scares are built up nicely; at first, it’s the fear of the unknown and the strangeness surrounding Charleston and the behaviour of Roy, the overly welcoming and accommodating pizzeria owner. Then it seems like fatigue, paranoia, and hunger and causing Kenny to hallucinate, and then he finds himself being knocked out, tied to a chair, and at the mercy of an unnervingly polite psychotic cannibal. When describing scenes of extreme horror and gore, the author certainly doesn’t shy away; To Eat Their Own is awash with dismemberments, arterial spray, stabbings, gunshots, and all kinds of vivid and gory elements as Kenny is not only put through the wringer physically and emotionally but also gathers his wits to fight back against his tormentors.
Because of this, the squeamish need not apply here; while To Eat Their Own isn’t as graphic as some horror stories, it certainly contains a fair amount of splatter and uncomfortable situations, from torture to manipulation to more physical scenarios. As the story develops, the mystery of Charleston, its nature, and its inhabitants only becomes murkier not just from the oppressive fog but also the Lovecraftian elements the author weaves into the narrative. There’s an eldritch flavouring to the proceedings that really reminds me of some of Lovecraft’s shorts, which followed relatively mundane people suddenly enveloped in an aeons-old ceremony of gruesome, inescapable, and often unspeakable violence. While To Eat Their Own doesn’t jump head-first into Lovecraftian territory, it definitely dips its toe in there and the end result is an intriguing little bite-sized horror that left me both wanting to know more and happy to make my own conclusions. Overall, I quite enjoyed this twisted little nightmare; the pacing and intrigue were just right for me, the mystery and horror elements were well-balanced and depicted in shocking fashion, and the sadist in me enjoyed the bleakness of story so I’d absolutely recommend it to horror fans, or those seeking to branch into more obscure horror offerings.
My Rating:
Pretty Good
If you’re interested in checking out To Eat Their Own, and to learn more about Glen and his journey as an author, visit the links at the top of the page.
“To Eat Their Own” follows Kenny, a young man on the run from his past and who suffers from a near-constant exhaustion, hunger, and strange aches and pains. There’s an air of mystery around him; we never find out what he’s trying to get away from, which makes you wonder what happened to bring him to the foggy, desolate town of Charleston. Charleston is quite the vague, ominous presence; swamped by a thick fog and surrounded by a twisted forest, Charleston conjures memories of H.P. Lovecraft’s gothic, misty towns. Things quickly take a dramatic turn when Kenny is set upon by the sadistic Mrs. Valentine and her blindly (literally and figuratively) obedient son, Jimmy. Kenny’s only thought is to escape; just as he’s running from the ghosts of his past so too does he simply want to flee the macabre trappings of Charleston. But the town won’t let him leave so easily, and Kenny is forced to take a stand, possibly for the first time in his life, and discover a side of himself he never suspected.
“To Eat Their Own” has the horror, appeal, and randomness of a nightmare; the scares are built up nicely, escalating from the fear of the unknown to being at the mercy of an unnervingly polite psychotic cannibal. The author certainly doesn’t shy away from extreme horror and gore; “To Eat Their Own” is awash with dismemberments, arterial spray, and all kinds of vivid and gory elements as Kenny is not only put through the wringer physically and emotionally but also gathers his wits to fight back against his tormentors. Because of this, the squeamish need not apply here as To Eat Their Own” contains a fair amount of splatter and uncomfortable situations, from torture to manipulation to more physical scenarios. While “To Eat Their Own” doesn’t jump head-first into Lovecraftian territory, it definitely dips its toe in there and the end result is an intriguing little bite-sized horror that left me both wanting to know more and happy to make my own conclusions. Overall, I quite enjoyed this twisted little nightmare; the pacing and intrigue were just right for me, the mystery and horror elements were well-balanced and depicted in shocking fashion, and I enjoyed the bleakness of story.
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