''The Cellar'' is a 1980 horror novel by American author

Richard Laymon Richard Carl Laymon (January 14, 1947 – February 14, 2001) was an American author of suspense and horror fiction, particularly within the splatterpunk subgenre. Life and career Laymon was born and raised outside of Chicago, Illinois, then li ...

. It was Laymon's first published novel, and together with sequels ''

The Beast House ''The Beast House'' is a 1986 horror novel by American author Richard Laymon. It is the first sequel to Laymon's 1980 novel '' The Cellar''. Plot summary Teenager Janice Crogan finds a diary belonging to a previous owner of Beast House, a local ...

'', '' The Midnight Tour'', and the novella ''Friday Night in Beast House'', forms the series known by fans of Laymon as "The Beast House Chronicles." ''The Cellar'' is an example of a

splatterpunk Splatterpunk is a movement within horror fiction originating in the 1980s, distinguished by its graphic, often gory, depiction of violence, countercultural alignment and "hyperintensive horror with no limits.""Schow, David J." by Gary Westfahl in D ...

novel, containing much extreme violence and gore, as well as adult themes including

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...

incest Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity (marriage or stepfamily), adoption ...

paedophilia Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty ...

, and

serial murder A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

. Laymon is often associated with this genre.

Synopsis

Donna, the book's protagonist, goes on the run with her daughter Sandy when she learns that her ex-husband, who molested Sandy for years, has been released from prison. After a car accident leaves them stranded in the small

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

coastal town of Malcasa Point, Donna and Sandy cross paths with Judgement, a mercenary hired to track down and kill the murderous creature that supposedly haunts a local tourist attraction, the Beast House. Judge's employer, Larry, is an elderly man who had a traumatic encounter with the Beast as a child. Over the years the Beast has been connected with various rapes and murders that have happened in the house.

Reception

Like much of Laymon's work, ''The Cellar'' has been controversial for its extreme content, especially in regards to its depiction of sexual and sadistic violence.http://toomuchhorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2011/09/cellar-by-richard-laymon-1980-its-sick.html, review of ''The Cellar'' by popular blog ''Too Much Horror Fiction'' It has also been dismissed by some critics as poorly written. In his non-fiction book about the horror genre, ''

Danse Macabre The ''Danse Macabre'' (; ) (from the French language), also called the Dance of Death, is an artistic genre of allegory of the Late Middle Ages on the universality of death. The ''Danse Macabre'' consists of the dead, or a personification of ...

'',

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

shows dislike of the novel: "There are haunted-house stories beyond numbering, most of them not very good (''The Cellar'', by Richard Laymon, is one example of the less successful breed)." (However, King would go on to praise Laymon's writing, a pullquote attributed to King frequently appearing on his novels: "If you've missed Laymon, you've missed a treat.") Nonetheless, the "Beast House" series, of which ''The Cellar'' is the first, has been consistently popular with Laymon fans, and warranted reprints.

Limited Edition

In 1997,

Cemetery Dance Publications Cemetery Dance Publications is an American specialty press publisher of horror and dark suspense. Cemetery Dance was founded by Richard Chizmar, a horror author, while he was in college. It is associated with ''Cemetery Dance'' magazine, whic ...

printed a limited edition hardcover version of ''The Cellar'' under . The new edition featured an

introduction Introduction, The Introduction, Intro, or The Intro may refer to: General use * Introduction (music), an opening section of a piece of music * Introduction (writing), a beginning section to a book, article or essay which states its purpose and g ...

Bentley Little Bentley Little (born 1960 in Mesa, Arizona) is an American author of horror fiction. Publishing an average of a novel a year since 1990, Little avoids publicity and rarely does promotional work or interviews for his writing. Early life Little i ...

, an

afterword An afterword is a literary device that is often found at the end of a piece of literature. It generally covers the story of how the book came into being, or of how the idea for the book was developed. An afterword may be written by someone other ...

by Laymon himself, and new artwork by Alan M. Clark. It also featured signatures from all three. The book was released in a Slipcased Limited Edition of 500 signed and numbered copies, and a Traycased Lettered Edition of 26 signed and lettered copies.

Links and references

Cemetery Dance official page for ''The Cellar''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cellar, The 1980 American novels Novels by Richard Laymon Debut fantasy novels Novels set in California 1980 debut novels