Strangely enough, I was the only one in the audience that had read any Edward Lee, even though I had not read The Bighead. I was fortunate enough to see The Bighead short film at 2014 Twisted Terror Convention in Sacramento in February and got to meet the director and some of the actors. (I believe, I have said that before.) Damn. Evidently, I am sicker than I think I am. I can’t help but wonder about myself…since I actually liked it (even though I did have to put it down and take several breaks while reading). If you are easily offended in any way, then you need to run, not walk, as far away from this one as you can.

There is actually a story in there somewhere but you need to wade thru the blood and pecker snot to find it. A back woods corn-hole F and torture fest. This one takes every taboo it can find and bumps up the WTF factor until you are dry heaving. This was southern gothic extreme horror executed quite competently, and for that it gets 3 stars.Įdward Lee has some serious, serious issues. This is very much an old, low-budget horror flick on the page, but Lee really showed that he knows how to put on a good scandal, and he did so in an entertaining and uncompromising fashion.

You have the whole gothic smorgasbord here: the confused bloodlines, the sacred and the secular casually intermingling, extremely messy rising action, and even old, abandoned churches! The aesthetics of the story were truly my favorite part. This truly was a novel of scandal and emotion, salacious as hell and with taboo-breaking philosophy to spare, and it even possesses a slow-burn aspect to match that literary lineage it pays homage to.

However, what really captivated me about this novel was the surprisingly accurate emulation of older, 18th century gothic works (Matthew Lewis came to mind the more I read it!). Usually, such texts are, more than anything, a cumbersome read for me, since extreme depictions of graphic violence usually read as ridiculous and humorous when overdone (and this certainly was those things on more than one occasion). That's how it was recommended to me, and that's what I got. This is a bizarre, exploitative tale of murder and all kinds of debauchery and assault imaginable. Here's my more in-depth YouTube review of this book!

The Bighead by Erik Wilson