7 Days in Hell: A Halloween Vacation to Wake the Dead, by Iseult Murphy

 

ISBN: 9781688400634

Right along with serial killers, Satanic cults are a cultural fascination. Going back to Hammer films like The Devil Rides Out and Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby and other demon films of the 1960s and 1970s, to the various versions of Wicker Man, to the tongue in cheek cult classic (pardon the pun) The Burbs, to last year’s very intense limited series The Third Day starring Jude Law, there is something about goat-heads, goblets full of blood, and campfire cannibalism that draws our attention and keeps it.

Inspired by a real-life vacation with her sister and dog, Iseult Murphy drills deeply into the core of this zeitgeist to deliver a novel structured according to the title—with chapters broken down by each of the seven days (plus a bonus eighth), along with an illustration for each by the author. If you are a fan of Secret Window, you might find the illustration of the screwdriver as ominous as I did.

The main characters are twin sisters, Irene and Vicky—one a button-down teacher, the other an adventurous university student with an eye for the guys; a priest (who, refreshingly, finds bravery in his faith, which is rare; usually priests are in some kind of crisis in the face of evil); a mysterious local family; and, in town, an interesting array of mechanics, tavern owners, police, and citizens.

Like all stories in this genre, it is very much “stranger in a strange land”—the two sisters, on break from their schools, have booked a quaint country cottage outside of Dublin to relax and bond, along with a miniature schnauzer named Ronnie.

Almost immediately, the two sisters know something isn’t right, after an encounter upon arrival with two vicious dogs appropriately named Thorne and Pilot and the teenage daughter of a local with some strange physical and mental afflictions.

There are two other cottages next to the twins’, one of which is occupied by an American family from a small town in Wyoming: parents, daughter, and son.

Talk about strangers in a strange land; although, a few sentences of back story clue us as to the very legitimate and integrated reason for them being there.

As the story enters its second act, we are fully engaged with the twins, whose differences often lead them in opposite directions, an efficient way to introduce us to other characters. Another efficient technique is the twins’ Catholicism—at one point they call on the Archangel Michael, the most powerful of protectors—and their watching of horror movies in the cottage. Their discussions of these topics add texture and scope to the narrative core, as do the moments when Irene talks to herself as though she were in a horror movie, having watched so many she’s an expert on the tropes. And Vicky’s skill with throwing drinks on ex-boyfriends ultimately saves her soul.

The twins make mental analogs with other types of programs as well, including nature documentaries.

Through these devices, Murphy is able to deliver contextual information, like the history of the Celts and druids, without bogging down the narrative. Having the twins be practicing Catholics also give them some of the tools they need as they become the prey.

I mentioned the priest, whose name is Father McBride. He’s my favorite character. I’m partial to strong priests in horror stories because they are truly rare—most of them are in a crisis of belief either at the start of act one or when finally faced with genuine evil. Father M. attends to the villagers in the local parish and his early engagement with Vicky helps us invest in them both.

These visits into town also serve to implant the clues and write the IOUs that all well-crafted thrillers require. We are owed by the author nothing by the end.

To say much more is to give the story’s nuances away. Rest assured—you will be treated to all of the glorious tropes in the Satan-worship genre, and all of the foreshadowing that signals their approach. You will, to quote Irene, “see things that should not be seen and hear things that should not be said.”

Although we get a bit of the origin story of this village of the damned and some of its prominent families and practices, there’s still plenty of mystery that remains for future installments. I mentioned an eighth day. The Big Bad lives to fight another day, heading to the big city to do his worst even better, ala Interview with a Vampire and many other tales of horror. And, although it well preceded the recent Netflix sensation I Care A Lot, there is a similarity between these two that speaks loud and clear to the current cultural zeitgeist regarding evil people in positions of pop culture/self-help supremacy.  

The next book, 7 Weeks in Hell, is already available (the edition of 7 Days I read included the first chapter and the cover illustration) and the author says there will be eight books in all.

7 Days in Hell celebrates well this popular subgenre, giving us everything we want—Samhain, Celts, druids, and more. Although the story is at times violent—this is horror after all—even the most detailed descriptions are never needlessly “bizarro” or otherwise over the top, and are always wholly appropriate to the narrative.