Look Back in Horror Book Review

Prophecy by David Seltzer 

Published in 1979 

Eco horror; Creature horror

I first saw the poster for this when I was 9, in a beachfront bookshop, and I nearly died of fright on the spot. We went in there almost every day, and my 6-year-old brother and I would try not to look at the poster, fight not to look and then eventually have to look because it’s wonderful to be so scared when you’re actually so safe. Same with the giant Japanese spider crab (thank God quite dead) in the Durban Aquarium. We couldn’t not look, but then we’d cry because we’d looked.

It's a solid story, with a great monster (in the book, at least. At the time of writing, I haven’t seen the film. I’ve heard the monster isn’t so wonderful in that). An eco-horror with a plot rooted in reality: chemical pollution causes genetic mutation in wildlife … and that mutation is coming to get you.   

There’s a strong socio-political commentary in this story, with the people indigenous to Maine fighting to protect their land from encroachment by, and contamination from, a paper mill upstream. The injustice in the way the authorities paint them as trouble-making drunks is a horror story all of its own.

I love the sense of doom pervading the story. The setting is beautiful, lush, untouched – on the surface. But beneath lovely Nature, lies corruption real and metaphorical, and something both horrifically unnatural, and inevitable.

Verdict: Nowhere near as terrifying as the poster, but a great read.

Score: 3/5 angry mutations.

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