More proof that Candy is bad for you
Synopsis
A slasher sequel that picks up immediately where the first book left off with the festive killer coming to town on Christmas morning to punish a parish full of sinners.
Review
Candy Cain Kills Again: The Second Slaying is the sequel to last year’s bona fide slasher hit Candy Cain Kills, and the fifth entry in Shortwave Press’ riotously fun and continuously inventive Killer VHS series.
Last year, Brian McAuley introduced us to a new holiday-centered villain to sit comfortably in the annals of holiday horror; Halloween might have Michael Myers but Christmas has Candy Cain, the red-and-white-striped pajama-wearing unstoppable villain who uses all manner of Christmas-themed tools to wreak extremely bloody havoc while spouting a perverted mix of Christmas carols and biblical verse. In my review I called it a masterclass in slasher fiction and I meant it; it got all the basics right: character, great kills, inventive villain.
Like all good sequels, this is bigger, bolder and my god is it gorier. But McAuley is not just a slasher master, he is a pioneer, and while Candy Cain was an exercise in doing all the basics marvelously right, in the sequel he has skipped the easy route and gone full meta, throwing in several original curveballs, making this an intriguing companion not just to the original but to his meta slasher novel Curse of the Reaper. Like Stephen Graham Jones and the rest of the modern slasher crew, McAuley is innovating, and the result is tremendous and tremendously fun.
I won’t spoil the plot should any readers here wish to inhale the first one – and the first one really should be read (it’s nice and short, go do it now) although McAuley does throw in a gleefully sinister and festively themed opening set of verses that works as a recap for those who do wish to dive in (or those like me who needed a reminder). It sets the tone nicely for the warped Christmas morning festivities to come (this takes place immediately after the original’s Christmas Eve nightmare) and when I say warped, my god, these slasher kills are gleefully disrupting and described in viciously elaborate detail. Each one is an event and you will picture them in your mind’s eye more than any mind should ever have to bear witness too. Best kills of the year? Has to be in contention.
Among the meal-evacuating kills is the same pleasingly authentic and sparky characterisation that helped the original stand out. The survivors of the last one are just as memorable and in one character’s case darkly witty as before, although this tale is all about Candy Cain and that’s as it should be.
This is also a novella that screams its risk-taking and originality from the rooftops (literally, in one case). We live in a brilliant age of slasher risk-taking and meta twists, so it’s not so crazy to see some curveballs thrown our way, but from very early on there is a choice of narration that completely upends the book and makes every kill a true experience. As the protagonists seek to flee the unstoppable slaughter of Candy Cain, they also discover backstory to the villain, and this is builds up to another beautifully original curveball that elevates this from slasher-done-brilliantly to refreshingly original and surprisingly moving bloodbath. McAuley took risks here, and they paid off.
Overall, Slasher Master McAuley has once again produced an essential gift for your blood-soaked stocking this Christmas, and what a risk-taking, original treat it is.
Candy Cain Kills Again: The Second Slaying releases November 12 from Shortwave Press. You can also buy it direct from Shortwave here
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