I’m genuinely surprised that it has taken me this long to get round to reviewing a Shaun Hutson novel again, especially since he was the author who got me into horror fiction in the first place. This was mostly thanks to finding a second-hand copy of his edgy 1988 splatterpunk novel “Assassin” on a market stall in about 2001-2. It was unlike anything I’d ever read before – a “video nasty” in novel form – and, to my thirteen-year old self, it was the coolest thing ever. Seriously, I have that one novel to thank for the numerous other novels I’ve read in the decades since.
Anyway, whilst I had planned to read and review either Hutson’s “Victims” (1987) or “Renegades” (1991) – and probably should have done – I was searching my old book piles and stumbled across a crumbling ex-library copy of Hutson’s 2012 sci-fi horror novel “X The Unknown”.
I bought this second-hand book back in 2018-20, probably around the time I reviewed “Twins Of Evil” (2011). Like that novel, this one is based on an old Hammer Horror film – although Hutson points out in his introduction that he has updated the setting to the early 2010s and used a bit of artistic licence. And, no, I haven’t seen the old 1950s horror film that this novel is based on.
Anyway, let’s take a look at “X The Unknown”. This review may contain SPOILERS.
This is the 2012 Hammer Books (UK) paperback edition of “X The Unknown” (2012) that I read.
Set in Buckinghamshire, a strange fissure has opened in some marshland. A soldier from a nearby military base suffers horrific radiation burns, but the radioactive source can’t be found. The hospital in the local town of Broughton Green starts noticing a sharp increase in cancer cases and foetal abnormalities too. It is up to Dr. Adam Royston, an American scientist working with the army, to work out what is happening and put an end to it…
One of the first things that I will say about this novel is that, if you’re totally new to Shaun Hutson, you’ll probably enjoy it more. Yes, the short chapters and fast pacing help to carry it and it certainly isn’t terrible. But, if you’re familiar with any of Hutson’s original fiction, then this film adaptation will seem like “Hutson lite”. He tries his best to add his famously cynical and gruesome brand of horror fiction to this story, but this doesn’t change the fact that it’s clearly an old 1950s sci-fi monster movie at heart. Again, it isn’t bad… but his original novels are just better than these film novelisations.
Far from the sort of cynical splatterpunk fiction or brutal crime thrillers that Hutson is famous for, this is a very prim and proper story where the military are the good guys, where old-school “men of science” save the day, where the monster is hidden from view for most of the story, where the “special effects” are low-budget and other 1950s-like elements like that. Yes, it’s ostensibly set in 2012 and there are mobile phones and references to both the Afghan War and the Fukushima disaster, as well as more modern dialogue, but the underlying “DNA” of this story is very different from the sort of gritty, cynical horror fiction that you’d typically associate with Shaun Hutson. But, if this is your very first Hutson novel, then you probably won’t notice this.
The horror elements are reasonable, I guess. Whilst there is less of the “gross out” ultra-gory horror that you’d typically associate with Shaun Hutson, he still manages to include at least some gruesome moments – but the main types of horror here are: radiation-based horror, body horror, medical/disease horror, pregnancy horror, tragic/depressing horror, sci-fi monster horror and old-school cosmic horror. Whilst I didn’t really find it to be too frightening, some scenes – such as the ones involving Claire – have a surprising amount of psychological/emotional detail, and the novel has a fairly depressing atmosphere at times.
And, yes, the monster design is pretty inventive – and I can see why Hutson might have wanted to adapt this old film into a novel – and there’s also a cool scene, set within the fissure, which is vaguely reminiscent of “Alien” (1979). Having not seen the original 1950s film, I can’t tell exactly how much artistic licence Hutson has used here but the monster – on the few occasions that it deigns to appear – is genuinely one of the more creative sci-fi horror monsters you’ll ever see. Even if the explanation for why it is there sounds hilariously goofy in only the way an old sci-fi horror movie could.
Earlier, I mentioned that the short chapters and faster pacing do a lot to carry this novel – and they really do. This is the sort of easily-readable novel, written in fairly “matter of fact” third-person narration, which an experienced reader can get through in about 2-3 hours and this probably helps to save it. Whilst the story does get a bit more compelling as it progresses, the more genteel 1950s-inspired elements means that it sometimes lacks the sort of gripping intensity that one of Shaun Hutson’s original novels would have. There was at least one time when I thought about abandoning this novel, during one of the less interesting parts, but instead decided that it was easier to just power through the rest of it.
As for length, this novel is 356 pages long. Again, short chapters and faster pacing help to make this novel feel shorter than it is. Which is a good thing. Again, it gets a bit more interesting later on but there are definitely more dull moments than you’d expect from a typical Shaun Hutson novel.
All in all, this novel probably wasn’t written for me. If you’re a fan of old Hammer Horror films or you haven’t read any of Hutson’s original stuff, you’ll have a better time with this one. I get what he was trying to do with this book, and that it was probably a nostalgic passion project. Even so, it’s just… weird… to read a 1950s-style story written by Shaun Hutson of all people. Yes, isn’t exactly “bad” but also just feels like “Hutson lite” in comparison to his original stuff. A lesser work by a great horror author.
If I had to give it a rating out of five, it would get a three.
