Headhunter, by Tim Curran, is the first
chapbook published by Dark Animus
Press and it’s quite an impressive
debut. The story — about an encounter
with evil in the deepest jungles of
Vietnam — is a knockout war fable and
a very satisfying tale of horror,
combining old school supernaturalism
with modern day shock. The cover art
by Les Peterson is simply gorgeous
(and he offers copious interior illos to
accompany the story). The bonus short
story in the back of the book — “Friday
Night Freak Show” — illustrated this
time by GW Thomas — is a lot of dark
fun, providing a well-earned comic
relief from the unflinching horror of the
novella in the book proper.
Tim Curran is fairly new on the horror
scene, but his work is appearing
everywhere in the small press these
days and everything I’ve read by him
has been genuinely good. If you
haven’t read him yet, and you’re
looking for a good war story, pick up
Headhunter and you won’t be
disappointed.
Headhunter is probably as much about
a mythic “devil that hunts heads” as it
is about the horror of the Vietnam
experience. And for all its spookiness,
every sentence in this book drips with
dark realism. The story rings so true to
‘Nam and yet it’s a fantasy story about
the dreams and nightmares of the
grunt soldier cast into the jungle. From
its grim “reapers” of green facepaint to
the Vietnamese legends and ghost
stories, this book jumps right into the
battlefield of fear.
Curran knows how to write
atmosphere. Headhunter will
decapitate you with its breathless
power. Tim Curran’s metaphors zing
like bullets past a Kevlar helmet — they
come out of nowhere and almost take
your head off. His characters sound
like they’ve been there, dug into the
muck of a war that nobody wanted. If
you only know Vietnam from the
history books, this novella will scar you
and I don’t think you’ll ever look at that
war — or any conflict — the same way
again.
Because of its unforgettable brutality,
this is not an easy novella to read, but
that’s also precisely why you must read
it. It’ll traumatize you and haunt you
long after you’ve put it down.
Headhunter is an important addition to
the literature of the Vietnam war — and
certainly to the horror genre. Tim
Curran will win a lot of fans with this
one. Headless, I now count myself
among them.