Chainsaw Terror - Hutson

[davidbanner]

Came across a copy of Sean Hutson's Chainsaw Terror for 5p at a local car boot sale. It's written under the pseudonym of Nick Blake.
Must say the whole thing's a bit grim - makes even stuff like Slugs seem tame.
Wasn't there a story behind Chainsaw and didn't the book get banned or censored?
Can anyone tell me?

[bushwick]

You struck gold there my friend! that book is worth heaps.

As I recall, this book was edited by the publisher due to excessive nastiness and re-issued as 'Come The Night'.

[noose]

This is from my recent interview with Shaun that appeared in The Paperback Fanatic #13

Johnny: What can you tell me about the development of Chainsaw Terror?

Shaun: The development of CHAINSAW TERROR was pretty straightforward really. My publishers at the time were Star/W.H. Allen and they wanted me to write the novelization of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, however, when they enquired about the rights the film company wanted too much money for them and they suggested I just write a novel about a nutter with a chainsaw instead. Being me I thought why limit him, I’ll give him an entire toolbox! The original idea was that CHAINSAW TERROR would be the first of a trilogy, to be followed by CHAINSAW SLAUGHTER and CHAINSAW BLOODBATH, which I would have been more than happy to write. This was at the height of the video nasty era and the M.D. of W.H. Allen (the late, great Bob Tanner) was more than happy for the books to be “literary nasties”. I certainly wasn’t complaining. My brief was to “go as far over the top as possible.” A maniac on the loose with power tools, fuck me I was in Heaven...

Johnny: I believe Star asked for major cuts to the novel?


Shaun: I wrote the book in fifteen days and I must admit I was very happy with it (massive violence and incestuous necrophilia, I think I hit new heights…). A week later I got a phone call from the publishers saying; “We didn’t realize that anyone could go as far over the top as you’ve gone, we’re going to have to cut it.” Bastards! Apparently what had happened was that one of the biggest book selling retailers of the time Bookwise (they used to supply all the service stations, Train station kiosks, newsagents etc.) had decided to ban it because it had the word chainsaw in the title. At that time, Bookwise were incredibly powerful (these were the days before the soul-less centralized buying the book business uses now that limits the publics choice to about 150 authors) but also very knowledgeable about product so publishers were shit scared of them and a book being banned would have killed it. It’s weird because W.H. Smith who were more conservative in their views didn’t have a problem with CHAINSAW TERROR even thought they’d later go on to ban my own novel DEADHEAD in 1994. So, CHAINSAW TERROR was re-jacketed and re-published as COME THE NIGHT with about 25 pages cut out. I had nothing to do with the editing. It was pretty savage with entire sequences cut out. That also fucked up any chances of doing CHAINSAW BLOODBATH or CHAINSAW SLAUGHTER too which was a shame.



Johnny: Is there any validity to the rumours of an unedited manuscript doing the rounds at one point? And do you still have it in your possession?



Shaun: The infamous uncut version has become something of an urban myth to be honest. I had a mate who ran a bookshop in Birmingham and he ran off several dozen copies of the original manuscript and sold them for seventy five quid each! I never saw any of the money and I never even had a copy myself. To this day I haven’t got an uncut copy. I’ve still got the synopsis, plans and notes though. I would love to re-write that book and put back all the really horrific stuff that was cut. If I ever win the lottery and have some time on my hands I might just do that, just for a laugh and for all the people who want to see the uncut version.

[davidbanner]

Thanks for that Noose.
It looks as though I managed to pick up a copy before the ban came into effect.
Ironically, I also have a copy of Come The Night - I must read them both. If anyone's interested I will post a comparison of what's missing/different.
Shaun sure cut loose (if you'll pardon the pun) on Chainsaw - if it had been a movie it certainly would have made the infamous DPP Nasties list.

[erebus]

Chainsaw Terror is an absolute riot I love it. When I met Shaun I got him to sign my copy.
Never read Come the Night so it would be great to see the differences.

[robertmammone]

May 29, 2010 16:27:19 GMT erebus said:

Chainsaw Terror is an absolute riot I love it. When I met Shaun I got him to sign my copy.
Never read Come the Night so it would be great to see the differences.

Could someone clear this up for me - Chainsaw Terror was released (I have a dim recollection of a reddish cover with a man wielding a chainsaw), then it was withdrawn, re-edited and released with that blackish cover with a face under Nick Blake?

[thecoffinflies]

I think it was originally Chainsaw Terror by Nick Blake, and reissued with a different title as a Hutson book.

It's the only Shaun Hutson book I've read. Am I to understand that his other books are not as much fun? (not as graphically misogynistically disgusting?)

[erebus]

Oct 3, 2010 11:20:37 GMT robertmammone said:

May 29, 2010 16:27:19 GMT erebus said:

Chainsaw Terror is an absolute riot I love it. When I met Shaun I got him to sign my copy.
Never read Come the Night so it would be great to see the differences.

Could someone clear this up for me - Chainsaw Terror was released (I have a dim recollection of a reddish cover with a man wielding a chainsaw), then it was withdrawn, re-edited and released with that blackish cover with a face under Nick Blake?

It was released in a cut form as COME THE NIGHT with a pair of eyes on the cover. The article a few posts up mentions it.

[franklinmarsh]

Yipes. Picked up a copy of Come The Night (a triple with those two dodgy sci-fi things) from the hospital on Saturday (with a pile of Graham Mastertons). Started last night. Crackpot gory opening with husband offing wife principally by hacking her up with a piece of shattered mirror before slicing open his own throat. Five years on and the son is living with the daughter. He's a bit odd, to say the least.

[franklinmarsh]

*Possible spoilers*

Yipes. The son, Edward, has carved up his sis with a meat cleaver, bunged the body in a cupboard, but kept her head in his bed. She'd admitted she was seeing a bloke from work and might just end up living with him. Zikes. Said bloke Mike after the previous evening's sex with sis, is a bit perturbed when she doesn't turn up for work the next day. He decides to go to her house to see what's wrong, and is let it by Edward, has his head bashed in with the business end of a claw hammer, and ends up in the cellar, where Edward has jettisoned his clothes and pulled the string on his chainsaw....I do hope this will continue as a collection of set piece bloody murders...even in the cut version...

[franklinmarsh]

And the next morning, the Old Bill turn up....but crafty loon Edward has called them to report his sister's 'disappearance' and act all cut up (sorry) about her going off, almost certainly with a man. In between Ed remonstrating with his sibling's rotting cranium, and getting ready for a night on the town in an attempt to pull a cracker and bring her back to the family pile and show the head just what she missed, we spend some time in seedy, saucy, neon-strobed Soho (Ed's destination apparently) with pulp stereotype Dave Todd, the crusading journo, on a horror and sleaze filled journey through West End cesspits, and the obligatory tart with a heart (Vicki) who finds herself falling for the rough but sensitive newshound, to her pimp's disgust. A distinct lack of dismemberment in last night's instalment, but a divertissement of the Sapphic kind.

[franklinmarsh]

Ed gets to Soho and after mooching around a jazz mag shop, and chickening out of a live show (he prefers the dead) encounters Penny and Amy, two ladies of the night who purely coincidentally are chums of Vicki. He shows them his huge roll of tenners, and Penny agrees to come back to his place, despite Amy's misgivings. Unfortunately for Edward when it comes to the crunch he can't get it on. He mentions his sister, and game Pen offers to put on a show with her to arouse him. As they approach another bedroom, she notices an awful smell, and then finds out Ed's sis only exists from the neck up. Before you can say 'gorefest approaching', she's tied up in the cellar and Ed's chainsaw is revving...
He rather stupidly gave his real name to Penny and Amy. When Pen doesn't return, Amy mentions the name to Vicki and Dave.The latter nips back to the newsroom, as the name has triggered something in his brain...his colleagues remember Ed's father as the man who killed his wife and himself - as Ed watched. One of the newspaper shutterbugs even has a photo of Ed and sis. Dave shows it to les girls and Amy confirms the man in the picture went off with Penny.
As she had a quiet night the night before, Amy's pimp aggressively forces her out on the street as (uh-oh) a familiar white Triumph Dolomite hoves into view and Amy is forced to go off with Ed after a century has been placed in her pimp's handss.
It's here that censorship must have taken place. Amy ends up the same way as Penny, but Ed has a power drill as a change from the chainsaw. As the whirring bit approaches poor Amy's eye, we jump to a blood soaked Edward pouring out his misogynistic rant.
Amy's failure to return has really spooked Vicki, who has been pondering her future on the game. Dressing down, she legs it from pimpland and ends up in Dave's bed.
Sleep claimed me as they were discussing how Ed must be involved in the girls' disappearance and how they were going to investigate him.

[franklinmarsh]

Just had a quick look round t'internet. Can't get a copy of CT for less than £100.00 at present. Oh well. Here's a French cover.

[bluetomb]

Fortunately, Chainsaw Terror and Come The Night as published differ only in title/cover, unless there were reprints of Come The Night further cut. First editions of both are 173 pages long, same chapter lengths etc. We have both at work.

[franklinmarsh]

Cheers, Blue. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I'm thinking I'm the only one here with the cut version. If they are the same I'd be made up. I'm quite enjoying Come The Night.