Alongside film reviewing John Whalen (writing
as John M. Whalen) is the author of ‘hybrid’ novels where the western meets the
future, or the cowboy hero is just as likely to encounter vampires or monsters as
regular bad guys.
One of his favourites of his own novels is VAMPIRE SIEGE AT RIO MUERTO.
John
tells me bounty hunter Mordecai Slate is modelled on the characters LEE VAN CLEEF played in movies like FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE. Except, as Mordecai states: ‘Hunting monsters
is my business.’
A New Mexican ranchero hires Slate to
track down the vampire who ravished his daughter. Don Pedro Sanchez wants Kord
Manion brought back alive, so he can drive in the stake himself.
Slate captures his prey and comes up
with an unusual way to transport him back to Sanchez. Kord’s brother, Dax, and
his gang of vampire outlaws pursue. During the chase, Slate rescues a girl and
has to get her out of harm’s way.
The
climax in a desert ghost town, Rio Muerto, is like THE WILD BUNCH with the
addition of vampires!
WILLIAM
HOLDEN in ‘The Wild Bunch’ (1969)
Vampires
turn up out west as early as 1959 in CURSE OF THE UNDEAD.
‘Curse
of the Undead’ (1959)
The
Gorch Brothers of ‘Wild Bunch’ fame re-surface as vampires on TV in the ‘BUFFY
THE VAMPIRE SLAYER’ episode ‘Bad Eggs.’
A
ghost town shoot-out reminded me of western movies YELLOW SKY (1948)
and
THE LAW AND JAKE WADE (1958)
RICHARD
WIDMARK in ‘The Law and Jake Wade’
And
aliens (spiders this time) also assault a ghost town in the classic ‘OUTER
LIMITS’ episode ‘The Zanti Misfits.’
Reviews
of RIO MUERTO:
‘As weird
westerns go, this one is an instant classic…. If you're a fan of spaghetti
westerns or Hammer horror films, this book is for you.’
‘A dandy
yarn, a Western-horror mashup that could shoulder up to Stephen King and Louis
L’Amour with equal comfort, and yet maintain stature as a creature all its own…
Whalen doesn’t drop the reins of either genre: There are gunfights and fangs,
wagons and coffins, townfolk and bloody necks, and one fast-paced tale that
doesn’t turn in directions the reader might expect.’
‘A rip-roaring tale to be sure and - as usual - something
more. …the author achieves yet a new pinnacle of genre-bending suspense…his
cagey knack for fleshing out characters that may at first seem cliche is
especially notable….
the novel rolls out like a particularly gripping
film.'
Find it here:
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