Randolph "Dilda" Carter

I don't know what to say about this. It was the unexpurgated edition. I suppose for it's time it was shocking, but it seems a little dated now. It is the lost cannibal tribe slasher cabin in the woods formula. I saw all the explicit grue, rape, sex, and pedophilia as just filler. A little less would have still gotten the message of how inhumanely we treat each other, and if you look at it it only drives the plot early on, after the initial attack; then it's thrill filler, ho hum. It seems that ol' Jack was up in arms about the bowdlerized version but I won't spoil the changes. He does talk about the great meaning of the novel and how the editors ruined it but I see only a little message about the random cruelty of the universe that wasn't such a big deal, and all the outrage mentioned above has little to do with it. It sucks to be attacked, captured, killed, cooked, and eaten by cannibals maniacs especially if they rape you first. Oh, and I don't need the recipe either.

All this said, the novel requires a huge portion of suspension of disbelief to swallow the entire premise of the story to begin with and the first half doesn't do much to develop characters other than Carla, so we don't really care about the ones that are left after Carla takes the dirt nap rather early on. The only real suspense is the assault and siege on the cabin.

I didn't really hate it in the end like I did Richard Laymon's The Cellar. because once the initial unbelievable premise is established Ketchum doesn't heap a bunch more unbelievable silliness on top of it.