Welcome back to another exciting instalment of the What's Under The Skin blog.
So this time I wanted to address a question I'm usually asked, a lot. What exactly is Under The Skin? Besides being a clever title for my novel, it relates to the origin of the horrible monsters which inhabit the poor victims of the story.
To help get an idea of the plot, the story is set in the Cumbria town of Grayton. The town is in a military lockdown and very quickly the townspeople begin to turn in to violent, disturbing monsters. Enter our main characters. Now I’m not going to give away too much just yet, I'll save that for the coming weeks, so for now I wanted to give you an idea of what helped me forge the origins of these gruesome monsters and their disturbing appearance.
Might want to hold on to your teddy bears here...
Enter the inspiration...
The Necromorph
Well , I warned you. Now this horrifying creature is from one of my all time favourite sci-fi horror computer games, Dead Space. Named Necromorphs, there are handfuls of variations of these, one for every occasion.
Now Dead Space is set in space, far in to the future and these monsters are in ways like what the townspeople of Grayton become. Violent hunters. Thanks to a disgusting little guy who burrows it's way inside the victim, dead or alive, transforms them quickly from the inside out and within seconds you have a fight for survival on your hands. Their unknown origin is my favourite part and the fact you spend so long wondering what the hell is going on, while these vicious creatures relentlessly pursue you in the tight confines of space is just horror perfection.
10/10 would scare again.
There are a fair few inspirations from various other, fantastic sci-fi horror games, movies and so on that helped influence my story. Like the body shifting alien from The Thing (2011 version because I’m so hip and young) to me gave me so many Dead Space vibes and it's ability to be so disgusting, fast and deadly. And, impossible to fight. Perfect! Another influence comes from Hollywood and the Movie Life. This Ryan Reynolds killing beast (Sorry movie spoiler) or better yet alien, was a real surprise for me. Again another space setting but the alien is so clever. The alien starts off as an incredible small and feeble thing, drawing you in slowly before it decides it's hungry. And, well, the more it eats the bigger and stronger it becomes. The fact it's a save one human or save them all ending is truly a terrific twist.
Anyway, I hope I haven't put you off your lunch, breakfast, snack but you can't complain, you wanted to know! Keep an eye out for my next blog probably after the Christmas period.
In the mean time i'm going to continue writing and start laying the foundations for the sequel. So don't forget to sign up to my mailing list and be the first to get these blogs straight to your digital letterbox. Have a merry one and a happy new January!
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