Resident Evil Novelizations

When I was 11 years old, I went to my best friend’s house to play the first Resident Evil game on his playstation. I remember being blown away by the cut scene for the first zombie. The violence in this game was like nothing we had seen before. Unfortunately, the game was actually quite hard, so I never got past the first few zombies. It was only about a year and a half ago that I bought a pair of USB game controllers and went back and played the game through. It’s pretty clunky, but still enjoyable. Last spring, I went through all of the main games in the series up to and including Resident Evil 4. I really enjoyed the games, and I thought about doing a post on them here, but I don’t really want to get too much into video games. I was pretty happy to find out that novelizations had been written for the first 5 games of the series.

Resident Evil: The Umbrella Conspiracy – 1998

So the S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team, a group of soldiers disappear in the woods. A second team, the Bravos, including Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, are sent in to rescue the Alphas, but they find a mansion full of zombies and monsters. Chris manages to find one of the Alpha team, a girl named Rebecca Chambers. They figure out that a local pharmaceutical company has been performing atrocities in the name of science. The Bravos’ team leader, a lad named Wesker, is a slippery individual who seems to know more than he should. Things go horribly wrong, and a lot of blood is spilled.

Resident Evil: Caliban Cove – 1998

After escaping from the mansion, the remaining S.T.A.R.S. return to the city to find that Umbrella has convinced the public that the S.T.A.R.S. are dangerous criminals who caused a massacre. The S.T.A.R.S. vow to take revenge and head to one of Umbrella’s secret facilities in Caliban Cove. Unfortunately for everyone, this facility is run by a mad scientist with a plan to turn the entire human race into zombies. Rebecca Chambers is the main character here even though she only played a minor role in the first book. Caliban Cove is an original story. It was ok.

Resident Evil: City of the Dead – 1999

Resident Evil 2 is my favourite game in the series. The music in the main hall of the police station is my favourite. In this one Leon Kennedy, a rookie cop, shows up for his first day of work at Raccoon City Police Station. On his way he is attacked by zombies and meets Claire Redfield. Claire is the sister of Chris Redfield from the first book/game. Nearly everyone in the city has turned into a zombie, and Claire and Leon need to find a way out.

Resident Evil: Underworld – 1999

This is another original story. Leon Kennedy, Claire Redfield, Rebecca Chambers and some of the non-game S.T.A.R.S. from the Caliban Cove book break into another secret Umbrella facility. This facility has another mad scientist and a bunch of new monsters living in weird habitats. There’s also a dinosaur. The S.T.A.R.S. have to defeat each of the monsters. This one kind of felt like reading about a minigame that doesn’t actually exist.

Resident Evil: Nemesis – 2000

This is actually set a few days before the events in City of the Dead. Jill Valentine is back in Raccoon City. The streets are filled with zombies, and there is a giant monster stalking her to try to kill her. Resident Evil 3 was a bit of a disappointing game for me. The game play style was too similar to the previous 2 games, and while I did enjoy it, it didn’t feel as groundbreaking as other games in the series. The novel version was also a bit underwhelming.

Resident Evil: CODE Veronica – 2001

Claire Redfield still hasn’t managed to find her brother Chris, but has been kidnapped and imprisoned on a secret island. She breaks out, but this island is owned by Umbrella, so there is obviously an outbreak of their zombie virus, and everyone gets all messed up. There’s also a creepy mansion, and the “couple” who own the mansion are actually a creepy brother and sister. Chris shows up at the end, but so does Wesker. I really quite enjoyed the game of this one, but the novel was forgettable.

Resident Evil: Zero Hour – 2004

This is actually a prequel to the entire series. It tells how Rebecca Chambers ended up at the mansion in the first book/game. She was chasing down a handsome convict that turned out to be good, and the pair of them had to fight off a gross slug man.

The novels follow the games pretty closely, and while I was moderately entertained and comforted listening to the audiobook versions while doing household chores, I can’t imagine these having any appeal for people who didn’t enjoy the games. They don’t really add much to the story. There’s a mysterious character named Trent that shows up a couple of times, but despite the author’s best efforts, he never has much of an impact. Honestly, if you liked the games, these books are mindless fun, but otherwise steer clear.

There’s a new Resident Evil movie coming out next week. I went back and watched the 2002 movie a few months ago, and while I was decently amused, I didn’t bother with the sequels. The trailer for the new movie looks pretty good to me. I know there is some controversy over the fact that it isn’t a straight adaptation of the games, but I really don’t think that would work. I really liked the director’s other horror movies, so I am hoping to go see this new one in the cinema.

Things have been a bit choppy over the summer, but life has settled down again, so weekly posts have resumed. Next week’s post will be about some freaks.

John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos

I’m back. Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I was on holiday and dropped my phone into a pool, so I wasn’t able to log in to anything for a few weeks, and I’ve had pretty bad jet lag since I got back. The good news is I never stopped reading and have plenty to post about in the coming weeks.

The Midwich Cuckoos

Thanks to The Simpsons, I’ve had a rough idea of the plot of Village of the Damned since I was a kid. I only recently realised it was based on a book, and I remembered enjoying Day of the Triffids and The Chrysalids by Wyndham when I read them years ago, so I gave The Midwich Cuckoos a go.

This one starts off with an entire village being mysteriously knocked unconcious. 9 months after this, all of the women in the village give birth to weird children that all look and act the same. It turns out they’re psychic aliens or mutants or something, and they’re up to no good.

This one was more creepy than scary, but I quite enjoyed it.

The Day of the Triffids

I reread after finishing The Midwich Cuckoos because I knew I wouldn’t have much to say about that book alone. I genuinely did not remember how miserable this book gets. It’s awesome.

A dude wakes up after an eye operation and discovers that almost everybody else had been blinded. This scene reminded me of the opening of 28 Days Later. It turns out that movie was very much inspired by this book. So a few of the people who are able to see start trying to restart civilisation, and everything goes to Hell pretty quickly. I really liked this element of the book. The inherent selfishness of human nature is definitely the biggest threat to these characters. There’s also some sentient carnivorous plants with legs. This is an extremely enjoyable post-apocalyptic novel that blurs the lines between science fiction and horror. It reminded me a bit of that book Feral I read a few months ago too. I’d be shocked if Brian Evenson hadn’t read this one.

I’m actually going out of town again for another little while, but I have posts on freaks, zombies and a sinister statue coming up, so check back again soon.

Astaghfirullah! The Devil’s Quran

In 2011, the good people at Martinet Press were supposedly sent photos of a manuscript from some weirdo in Iraq. This lad had gotten his hands on a bizarre text titled The Devil’s Quran. The folks at Martinet got somebody to translate the text from Arabic, but when the translator was done, he was so horrified at the book’s contents that he beseeched Martinet not to publish the text. Obviously, they ignored his advice.

The first few pages are from the original Quran, but then shit gets weird. The book published by Martinet contains 10 Satanic suras (chapters).

Here’s a quick recap of each of the Satanic suras.

Sura 1.
This brief sura identifies Satan as the Master of the Throne of Fire and the first of all predators. It’s basically a Satanic mirror image of the first sura in the real Koran.

Sura 2.
Shaitan addresses the readers warning them to avoid the “blind one”. The blind one is Allah or Yahweh. Satan congratulates the Romans for executing Christ but then chastises them for later adopting his teachings

Sura 3.
Describes process of creation, the coming together of order and chaos. Satan claims that the forces of darkness and chaos must destroy all prophets of light. He claims to have destroyed Mohammad and orders the defilement of any sanctuary of light.

Sura 4.
Describes how Shaitan gave witchcraft to humans. Explains that a witch should have sex with anjmals in homage to satan and also piss on the books of the blind one. There’s some interesting suggestions on self mutilation. There’s another bit in here that suggests creating an image of god and then rolling it around in shit and burying it in a cesspit.

Sura 5.
Basically instructions on how to call up a succubus and the offerings to give to her. Also includes a bit on different astral demons that you can invoke.

Sura 6.
Describes afterlife for followers of Satan – lots of sex and weapons. Editor notes it’s more similar to Valhalla than Muslim heaven

Sura 7.
Basically instructions on how to serve Shaitan.

The enemy says, “the best of you us he that dies for Allah”
But your Lord says, “The best of you is he that kills in my name.”

Explains how to invite demonic spirits to possess your body
Followers of Shaitan are encouraged to steal from Muslims and to burn down their homes to be rewarded in the afterlife.

Sura 8.
Satan and God fight for the souls of many worlds. Mohammad had 12 wives but only allowed 4 for other men and none for Shaitan. Also, he had a 9 year old wife when he was a greybeard of 50. While it is claimed that Jesus was a virgin, it turns out he actually shagged many young boys.

“And he said, “make the little children come unto me”, and his disciples grew hot with shame.”

Apparently the Romans actually murdered Christ because he was a “bent pervert.”
Satanists are encouraged to deliberately cause conflict between Muslims and Christians.

Sura 9.
Satanists are encouraged to build shrines to demonic entities. A brief prophecy on Satan’s taking of the Earth is outlined.

Sura 10.
A brief pledge of devotion to the King of Night.

These suras are followed by 2 brief invocations of the Devil and instructions on how to wash yourself, pray to Shaitan and how to sacrifice living creatures for the Devil. The best piece of advice given is to anoint your own forehead with bodily fluid every time you use the bathroom.

It is unclear as to whether the original text contains the regular 114 suras on top of the 10 dodgy ones. Martinet’s book does not contain images of the original text, and it seems highly unlikely that it even exists. This book is almost definitely a ridiculous hoax. Compare the origin story of this book to that of the Owlswick Necronomicon. It’s almost identical. Honestly, The Devil’s Quran was quite disappointing. It definitely had entertaining elements, but the cover is so shockingly uninspired that it ruins the whole experience. If you’re going to write an edgy hoax that’s potentially going to offend a whole bunch of people, you need to go all in. The only acceptable cover for this book would have been a mean looking genie coming out of a lamp with a pentagram on it.

WereSatan – Infernal Hymns of the Sodomite Cultist

I posted about this a few weeks ago when the tapes came out, but my new music has been uploaded to the No Gleaming Light youtube channel, and I thought I’d share it here. I know most of you are here for the books, but if you like books about the Devil, you probably like music about the Devil too, so I proudly present you with the new demo from my WereSatan project, Infernal Hymns of the Sodomite Cultist.

Most of the songs were inspired by books I’ve discussed on this blog. Some books shy away from describing the Osculum Infame, so I thought I’d clarify what it really entails. The second song here is about my favourite ritual from Eliphas Levi’s Transcendental Magic, Its Doctrine and Ritual, the one where you have to disrupt a mass to communicate with the dead. The last track, The Harrowing of the Christ is about what happened to Jesus when he went down to Hell to save the souls of the good people who died before him.

I’m taking a few copies of the tapes with me to Ireland tomorrow, so email me if you’re there and you want a copy. (My gmail account is dukederichleau666.)

Hope you enjoy!

Hail Satan!

Agustina Bazterrica’s Tender Is the Flesh

I should be packing for my vacation, so I only have time to write a short post this week. Luckily enough, I devoured a particulary nasty novel earlier on in the week.

**Scribner – 2020 (Originally published in 2017 as Cadáver exquisito)**

This book has been on my radar for a few years. It seems to be considered a classic of modern horror. Somebody at work actually recommended it to me last August, and I’ve been meaning to read it ever since.

Tender is the Flesh is set in a world where it is now illegal to eat animals because of a virus, so people are eating humans instead. Factory farms are now filled with people instead of cows and pigs. The plot here centers around an employee in one of these farms. I won’t go into further detail because I reckon you’re better off not knowing much about what will happen.

I am happy to report that what occurs in this book is thoroughly bleak and upsetting. This is a massive bummer from start to finish. I loved it. I read the whole thing in a day. I’ve seen people complaining that it’s too much or that it tries too hard, but those people obviously haven’t read Cows. I feel like Bazterrica’s book is what I wanted Stokoes book to be. This novel is emotionally distressing instead of just gross.

I’m sure this book makes statements on the meat industry, misogyny and capitalism, and while I agree all of those things deserve to be critiqued, I know others more knowledgeable on those topics have already discussed them. As a horror novel, this was excellent. You should definitely read it. I plan on reading more from this author soon.

The Octopus Has its Tentacles around Trump’s Neck

The Octopus: Secret Government and the Death of Danny Casolaro

**Feral House – 2003 (Originally published 1996)**

Danny Casolaro was a journalist who worked for a small computer magazine in the 1980s. One day, his boss suggested that he write an article about the PROMIS software that had been put out by a company called Inslaw. PROMIS was basically database software that was designed to make it easier for lawyers to cross reference different cases and suspects. It was extremely powerful stuff in comparison to what came before it, and the United States Department of Justice bought the software. Some very sketchy dealings went down, and essentially the DOJ stole the software, edited it and began selling the edited version to other governments. The edited version was hacked so that the US government would be able to monitor what the new users were using it for.

Danny Casolaro started looking into the shady dealings regarding the PROMIS software, and the contacts and discoveries he made during this research led him into far shadier dealings. The guys who were responsible for stealing the PROMIS software were also involved in a bunch of other major political scandals. The guy who they had edit the PROMIS software, a very strange man named Michael Riconosciuto, also designed weapons and explosives for an arms company named Wackenhut on the lands of the Cabazon Tribe in California. Wackenhut was a bizarrely sketchy company set up by ex-high ranking FBI men, and its whole sordid history is worth looking into, but the events on the Cabazon land were really wild. Wackenhut basically took over the Cabazon’s land because there would be less interference from authorities on Native American reservation land. The organizers of this takeover murdered anyone who got in their way. When Michael Riconosciuto came out to publically denounce these events, he was immediately put in prison on drug charges.

The more Danny looked into this stuff, the more links he saw with other scandals, and he concluded that a small group of men were involved in Watergate, the October Suprise, The Iran Contra Affair, the collapse of BCCI, and several other scandals, potentially including the assassination of JFK and the cover-up of aliens. Danny named this conspiracy the Octopus because it had so many arms reaching in different directions.

After years of researching “The Octopus”, Danny went to West Virginia to meet with a mysterious individual who was supposedly going to give him some damning proof of the conspiracy. Before leaving on this trip, he warned his brother that he had been getting death threats and that if anything happened to him, that it would not be an accident. After a couple of days in West Virginia, he was found dead in a bathtub with his wrists badly slit. All of his research materials were missing. His family and friends found it very difficult to accept the idea that he had killed himself, especially after finding out that his body had been embalmed before an autopsy could be carried out. Many people believe that Danny was murdered for getting too close to the truth.

these are very deep and numerous wounds for a suicide

I’ve come across this story quite a few times over the last few years. I watched the Netflix documentary when it came out, and in truth, I did not learn very much from reading Thomas and Keith‘s book. A lot of it is actually very boring. The authors spend a lot of time hammering home cases that show that various government agencies are corrupt. Reading this kind of thing in 2026 is redundant. The US government doesn’t even try to hide that stuff anymore. Also, I’ve read quite a few books by these authors, and while I don’t buy many of their claims, their writings convinced me of the US government’s absolute mastery of disinformation campaigns. (Fred Crisman was a friend of Michael Riconosciuto.)

Casolaro may not have known exactly what was going on, but he was on the right track. There are rich and powerful men at work in America who rig things for their own advantage. The first edition of this book came out in 1996, and while there are plenty of new scumbags on the scene, quite a few of the degenerates discussed in this book are still kicking about. Donald Trump shows up briefly to buy a yacht off his buddy Adnan Khashoggi, a guy who famously sent a bunch of weapons to the Iranians. Haha. Robert Maxwell, father of child trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, also shows up in relation to the PROMIS software. He was giving it out to American nuclear facilities to get information for Israel’s nuke program. Another Israeli that shows up in here is Ari Ben-Menashe. Now this is just one name from hundreds that show up in this book, but it popped out at me because I had only recently been reading about this individual. At a recent event, Ari Ben-Menasche claimed that Jefferey Epstein had been recruited as an Israeli intelligence asset by Robert Maxwell. Maxwell had strong ties with Mossad. Apparently Epstein collected dirt on many influential people, including Donald Trump, to use as leverage in the future. Menasche claims that the Israeli prime minister has those materials relating to Donald Trump and that he is threatening to release them unless Trump does what he says with Iran. Honestly, it’s hard not to believe this given what’s happening in the world. I think most people who are paying attention have suspected something along those lines for a while now.

Danny Casolaro is dead, but the Octopus isn’t.

Richard Ramirez Stank Like a Sewer and Molested Children

Richard Ramirez was a real piece of shit. Of all the serial killers I’ve read about, this dude was the worst. The Zodiac Killer and Jack the Ripper were never caught, and the bizarre nature of their behaviour adds an element of mystery to the cases that makes reading about them genuinely entertaining. The Son of Sam was clearly mentally deranged, and while this doesn’t get him off the hook, it makes him easier to read about him objectively. Richard Ramirez was just a weird sicko. He murdered for the sake of murder, and clearly got off on torturing women. He was a piece of trash.

The Satanic element of his crimes is pretty interesting, but he doesn’t seem to have had any sincere understanding of or involvement with organized Satanism. He was just a brain-damaged rube who thought that it was cool to be evil.

The Night Stalker: The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez – Philip Carlo

I recently read The Night Stalker: The Disturbing Life and Chilling Crimes of Richard Ramirez by Philip Carlo. It’s a very in depth book that covers the crimes, Ramirez’s life and the lengthy court case that eventually led to him getting sentenced to death. If anything, it goes into a bit too much detail, especially with the court case stuff. That said, it was decently written, and it seems to be the definitive book on this case.

One thing I found interesting was the fact that the book does not mention all of the children that Richard Ramirez raped. It turns out that this dude was a rotten paedophile. He was never charged with these crimes because the prosecution were sure that he would get the death penalty for the murder charges and they didn’t want to have to call on the children he had molested to testify. I think that was a good call on their behalf, but it seems like an awful shame that more people don’t know quite how horrible this dude was. One of the big things that comes up when people are discussing Ramirez is the attention he got from his “groupies” during the trial and his incarcertation. He used to get fan mail from women who thought he was sexy. I wonder how many of them would have felt this way if they knew that he raped little kids. I assume the book shied away from this fact because he was never charged with those crimes and discussing them might leave the author vulnerable to claims of libel.

Well, the creep is dead now, so we’re safe to acknowledge the fact that he was a filthy, utterly stinking, child molesting scumbag who deserved a death far more painful than the cancer that ultimately took him. Seriously, this is a man who did not take care of his dental hygiene at all. He had a mouthful of festering cavities, and most of his surviving victims commented on his awful breath. His mouth reeked like a sewer. He also didn’t change his clothes, and he frequently shit and pissed his pants because of the dirty street drugs he took. This dude was literally lowest of the low, a smelly human toilet.

Maynard’s House – Herman Raucher

This had been on my radar for a few years. I generally avoid descriptions of books after hearing that they’re good, and apart from assuming it involved a house, I went into Maynard’s House with no idea what it’d be about.

A Vietnam veteran inherits an isolated house from another soldier. He returns to the States and takes up residence there. The house is clearly haunted, and his neighbours are quite weird. He falls in love with a teenage girl who may be a fairy. It’s hard to distinguish between supernatural events and the symptoms of his PTSD.

This book was great. It’s quite funny in parts, and the characters are interesting and believable. This is definitely a cut above a lot of horror novels from this era. Honestly, this was such a breath of fresh air in comparison to the last 2 novels I read. I actually looked forward to sitting down to read this one. If you haven’t read this, you should check it out. I always feel like I have less to say when I enjoy a book, but that’s ok because I have other news for you today!

Weresatan – Infernal Hymns of the Sodomite Cultist

A few months ago, I mentioned that I had been working on a musical project. I recorded 5 songs of ultra-Satanic death metal, and I am happy to announce that tape copies of Weresatan’s first release, Infernal Hymns of the Sodomite Cultist, are now available from Defiled Altar.

If A Man Gets Pregnant, How Does The Baby Get Out? – Rodney Hyde-Thompson’s The Alternative

I picked this up last week because I wanted a short horror novel to read and this looked the part. There’s a creepy dude with some devilly looking horns hovering above him and a comparison to Rosemary’s Baby on the cover. I started reading it without hesitation. I assumed it was going to be another horror novel about the birth of the Antichrist.

Nope. This is a book about a guy named Herman who gets pregnant. Well, his wife gets pregnant, but she doesn’t have any of the normal symptoms. The dude gets the morning sickness, cravings and mood swings. It’s implied that he has some weird psychological disorder that makes him believe he is pregnant because he is jealous of his wife. This causes a lot of tension between them.

**Sphere Books edition retitled Black Marriage**

This was a really weird book. It’s not really a horror novel, but I’m not sure what genre it actually belongs too. It’s far too boring to be a thriller or a fantasy novel, but it’s also far too weird to be a straight drama. The writing is dense, and I spent a long time wondering when things were going to pick up, but there’s never any proper explanation given as to what is going on. Also, none of the characters seem as surprised by what’s happening as you’d expect them to. At no point does Herman contemplate how he will actually give birth when the time comes. That’s the first and main thing I’d worry about if there was a bun in my oven. I’d spend hours a day stretching out my hoop in preparation. There is a Psycho style surprise ending here that is pretty horrific, but that horror lasts for 2 short paragraphs. The hardback edition of the book’s cover is far more suitable for this very odd work of fiction.

Honestly, the most horrifying part of this book was how much alcohol the mother drank while pregnant.

This Ain’t Your Dad’s Cabala: Gilles de Laval’s The Explicit Name of Lucifer

I remember years ago when I was starting out my occult studies, I read a book about Cabala. It was a load of shit. Since then, I’ve come across this nonsense a few times, but I generally steer clear of it.

I was perusing my library the other day when I found a slim volume called The Explicit Name of Lucifer. It looked like pretentious bollocks, but I’ve been going back and forth between horror novels and books about conspiracies for a few weeks now, and I had an urge to get Satanic.

So Jewish mystics used to believe that the letters of the Hebrew alphabet were actually living entities imbued with magical powers. The English alphabet is not quite as magical, and this is unfortunate as it’s probably the most commonly used alphabet by students of Western occultism. Most of us use English in our magical practice, but our alphabet is just a bunch of symbols that merely represent sounds. We want a cool magical alphabet, and we want ours to be edgy and alternative. If the Hebrew alphabet is made up of angelic beings, we want ours to be made of cool demons who have dreadlocks and nose-rings and wear slipknot t-shirts.

Most of this book is taken up with big pictures of the symbols that the author came up with to replace the letters of the English alphabet. He gives a little description of each too. Admittedly, these symbols are way sicker than the regular alphabet. These things look the way the singer from Korn sounds.

The author is a little vague on how you’d actually use these nu-letters, but I’m assuming you just write down your will’s true desire with these symbols and then set it on fire or something. I think the author may explain what to actually use them for in another of his books (which I will surely never read).

What he does explain is how to activate the script. This involves collecting a bunch of weird shit and mixing it together. One of the things required is the bones of a female child, so I reckon it’s fairly unlikely anyone has ever gone through with this nonsense. I get that the author wants to be dark and edgy, but I’m hoping that even the Cradle of Filth fans who read this crap will stop short of murdering (or exhuming) a little girl. The author named himself after a notorious child murderer too. What a dork.

Like I said, one the letters are activated, it’s not really clear what you’re supposed to do with them. This book is dumb and super lame. It truly reads like the ravings of a Marilyn Manson fan trying to scare their parents. Utter trash.