David Moody - Hater

(Orion)

HORROR TALE

The real story here isn’t one of hate, but of hard work and good fortune. Specifically, that of David Moody himself, the Halesowen author who has been self-publishing online and through print-on-demand for the best part of a decade, and was contacted by Hollywood after Hater’s very limited original release in 2006. Guillermo del Toro is currently producing the film adaptation, with Juan Antonio Bayona (The Orphanage) directing.

So what of Hater itself? Well, Moody makes no apology for his pulp influences, and nor should he. Take it as read then that this 28 Days Later-style tale of ordinary people becoming crazed with murderous rage and one family’s desperate attempts to survive is longer on plot than anything else. Characters are little more than ciphers and the prose is sometimes inelegant, but there’s something darkly charming about Moody’s hurtling, sadistic enthusiasm for his story.