Let me first state that I am a fan of the horror genre; I love thrillers, horror, all of it. Every blood drenched word.
Richard Laymon has never even spoken to a woman. Never, not in his entire life has he ever even observed how women interact with each other. I would bet he is an only child. His portrayal of five adventure seeking women is plastic and unbelievable. These are professional women, a model, a film major who records everything for posterity and works at Universal, a PE teacher, an English major with a PhD in Chaucer and a married woman with a college degree and an inheritance. None of them have been in prison or the military or in any other occupation to give them the skills to do what they decide to do after one of their numbers is killed by a "hillbilly" in the woods of Vermont. Do they spend time really searching for their lost friend? No. Do they spend time looking for the lost car keys, so they can get the heck out of there? No. Instead, they hike off into the woods convinced that Helen was kidnapped. When they are directed back to the lodge and do find Helen, naked, slaughtered with a knife still stuck in her belly do they find the missing car keys and leave? No. Do they put their clothing back on and hike out of the woods? No. They decide to hunt down the killer of Helen and "gut the bastard." For all these women know, the woods are teaming with backwoods people. What, do they plan to kill them all?
Not believable, not on any level. I am from a fairly street smart, rough, up bringing. I just don't buy a fashion model and an assistant film director, along with a Chaucer major suddenly getting a rabid desire to kill everyone in sight. None of them have enough testosterone to do the job. And the kink and weird sex that Laymon throws in must be his fantasy. These young, fairly nice looking, fairly prissy women running around in various states of nakedness carrying a tire iron, an old blunt knife and an old, stolen shot gun as weapons is laughable. The first thing they do is plug the shotgun barrels with mud and soak all the shotgun shells. I wouldn't pull the trigger, they'd be safer to use it as a club.
And the cat fights between these women! Why are they still friends? God, I'd have gladly gutted the wise cracking, pain in the butt, Finley by the end. Pure Hack, of no entertainment value, avoid it.
I will be avoiding his work in the future.
Half a star.