'Hot Splices features eight interwoven tales about the Film Addicts, the flicker freaks, the Cinephages - they devour film for the high, to connect to the art on the granular level...the bleeding perforations in their skin is just part of the game. There are five forbidden films, when run together, can induce madness, or release the Dark Gods that created them, speaking through the psychopathic director.
'There is a man on the run, with a lost movie that others would kill to obtain. He barely escaped with his life. There is a tower, once housing for students, now a crumbling, rotting monument to film history, and the men and women who returned to the tower, to die watching their favourite films. Beneath the tower, there lies something made of light and shadow. It does not love its worshippers...'
I used to struggle with reading when I was in my early teens, and had to have a lot of help at school to catch me up with my peers. It's kind of ironic that one of the things I struggled with most and didn't enjoy is now one of the things I love most in the world. Because I struggled to pick up a book and enjoy it I found much of my entertainment through films, and devoured as many as I could. Over the years I drifted away from cinema until it became an occasional indulgence, but I can still remember what it was like in my teens, watching three or four films a night, comparing notes with friends, and seeking out new and interesting things to watch. As such, I was able to understand to a certain degree the love and obsession with film that fills the pages of Hot Splices.
Hot Splices is a strange mixture of horror and the surreal, almost bordering on science fiction. The main narrative focuses on the search for five secret films from early cinema, hidden away for decades. Said to contain actual murder footage, and with the power to drive those who watch it insane, the films are a holy grail for fanatics. It's one of these fanatics, and his group of equally film obsessed friends, who sets out to bring these films together and screen the ultimate banned movie.
The 'haunted' films that can send you mad, and the spirit of their evil creator who is trying to break through into the real world, is trippy enough, but then the narrative adds Flixing to the mix. Flixing can only really be described a film fuelled drug trip, where you allow a single frame of film negative to dissolve on your tongue until the chemical mix sends you into an altered state. Flixing can enhance the experience of the films you're watching, can alter your moods and emotions based on what film they're from, and can even help you to enter the film itself. The true power, and nature, of the phenomena isn't explained in the book, and adds to the disturbing nature of the narrative.
It's never clear exactly what Flixing does, whether the characters are in some kind of drug addled stupor, or if reality is actually changing around them. This plays into the powers of the forbidden films, as it's not clear if the affects they seem to have are actually supernatural, or perhaps the results of the characters being in an altered state. Thanks to this strange mixture of supernatural, drug use, and a complex, jumping narrative, the book keeps the reader on edge throughout, always questioning what's real, and what might happen next.
To compare the book to the films that it clearly loves and wants to celebrate, reading Hot Splices reminds me of how it felt watching films like Videodrome and Jacobs Ladder. The book feels like a warping of reality, a descent into madness.
The book isn't just a great horror story, but a goldmine of references and shout outs for film fans, filled with insight into films from across multiple genre's and decades. Even without looking into Mike Watt's background it's clear that he's someone who not just loves cinema, but knows it incredibly well. Here's an author who's writing about something that he's deeply passionate about, and this translates onto the page. Even if you're not a huge film buff you'll find yourself drawn into the conversations the characters have bout the subject, fascinated by how deep their knowledge on the subject is, and how much you're learning about the subject.
One of my favourite parts of the book is the three short stories that are included after the conclusion of the main narrative. Connected with the main narrative through side characters or small events that are referenced, these stories can easily stand on their own, yet also manage to flesh out the universe in new and interesting ways.
Hot Splices is one of the more interesting horror stories I've ever read. It doesn't rely on monsters lurking in the shadows, or ghosts creeping around the periphery. Instead it creates a pervading sense of unease that keeps you unsettled. The book drips with atmosphere and manages to really mess with your head because of it. There's very few moments where you're not waiting for something awful or twisted to happen. Because of this near constant tension I found myself struggling to put the book down, and wanted to devour it as quickly as I could.
I'm still not sure what to make of the book, other than I really enjoyed it. I feel like this is a novel that I will find myself coming back to more than once, just to try and see if I can learn more about what's really going on. It messed with my head in the best way, and I think it's going to stay with me for a long while because of that. A stunning love letter to cinema and the art of film.
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