TRANS-SCRIBE: Night of the Ghoul by Scott Snyder

Originally published on Set The Tape

As the title of this may suggest, Night of the Ghoul is a horror book, written by Scott Snyder, with art by Francesco Francavilla. Originally published digitally across six issues, Dark Horse republished the series last October as a three issue tale. Despite having been published twice before it’s possible that this book may have slipped under your radar, but with the new graphic novel release now is perhaps the best time to pick it up and give it a try.

Night of the Ghoul tells the story of T.F. Merritt, a film director from the 1930s. Already quite well known for his work, the director dropped off the face of the Earth following a studio fire that ruined the end of what was set to be his greatest film, Night of the Ghoul. In the modern day, film restorer and movie buff Forest Inman has stumbled across small parts of the film, believed lost forever. Having found the pieces in a back room at the studio he works at, he’s spent time piecing together the partially destroyed negative to try and salvage as much as he can. Having watched half of the movie, he believes it might be one of the best horror films of the era, if not ever.

Forest has become determined to track down the missing director and talk to him about the film, and hopefully find out how it was supposed to end. With the help of his teenage son, Orson, Forest has tracked Merritt to an odd, remote hospice facility where he’s being cared for under a different name. Posing as a solicitor, he manages to get in to talk to the dying director, but what he and his son find in that facility will change them forever.

Scott Snyder is a writer whose work tends to be either very well received, or absolutely hated. Even in the books of his I’ve read I’ve found them very divisive. Stories like Batman: Court of Owls is an enjoyable read that adds a lot to existing lore in fun ways, but then things like Dark Knights: Metal and Dark Knights: Death Metal seem to – how do I say this politely? – sh*t the bed completely. As such, going into this book I was very unsure of what kind of story I’d be getting from Snyder. But only a handful of pages into the book I realised that not only was it really good, but I’d been hooked.

The narrative does a fun thing as it skips between the real world and the rescued pieces of the Night of the Ghoul movie. The movie segments are really cool, presented in a sepia toned black and white way, with rough edges to the panels. When these segments end the pages begin to melt, with the damage to the negative coming onto the page, and the perforation holes becoming visible on occasion to remind you that these segments are from a movie.

Whilst both of these stories run together, and the parts of the film that we get to see don’t just work with the current narrative, but on occasion inform it, these segments would make for a really good story all on their own if the missing parts were included. Snyder has gone out of his way to not just create moments that work for the main narrative but feel like parts of a whole story.

But you shouldn’t ignore the main events of the story. Whilst the film segments slowly reveal the secrets and the lore, the modern day parts of the book have some seriously creepy moments. There are several scenes throughout where something so twisted and disturbing is happening behind the back of one of the characters that it makes your skin crawl. These are the kind of moments that would work fantastically well in a film medium, but Snyder and Francavilla do a hell of a job at translating these scares into comic form.

Speaking of Francavilla, the art on the book suits the horror tone well. In some ways the art feels very simple, as it doesn’t embellish moments with tons of detail, but it never feels simplistic or lacking. It manages to find this nice balance where you get tons of information whilst not over filling the page. It also uses shadows and darkness a lot, creating some bold images that convey tone pretty quickly. The palette also reflect this, with a minimal range of colours, and shadows and shade often being contrasted with colours that really make some of the moments pop off the page. Perhaps the only criticism I could find with the art is that the character of Orson is revealed to be fifteen during the book, but the artwork makes him look closer to twelve, and as such it does feel kind of jarring when his age is revealed as I’d been reading him as much younger.

Night of the Ghoul is, perhaps, the best Scott Snyder book that I’ve read in years. It manages to weave an interesting and engaging tale that feels very pulpy in places and really manages to capture that 1930’s horror feel. It has some genuinely creepy moments, and a narrative that will keep you guessing throughout. If you want a horror story that doesn’t rely on blood and gore, as horror comics so often do, this is an ideal read.