Peter McCurtin--The Exterminator

[ripper]

Peter McCurtin--The Exterminator (Manor Books 1980)
Having recently viewed The Exterminator film I decided to re-read the Peter McCurtin novelisation, which I first read over a decade ago and couldn't remember too much about. It is a fairly brisk read and the basic plot follows that of the film quite closely, though there are some detail differences that I will come to later. The novelisation, like the film, begins with the Vietnam prologue, where John Eastland's life is saved by his friend, Michael Jefferson. Fast forward to 1980 and the two friends are working in a food processing and storage plant. The men disturb a trio of robbers stealing beer from the plant and beat them up. Later, the robbers, "Ghetto Ghouls," jump Eastland's friend and cripple him. Eastland tracks down the Ghetto Ghouls and deals with them, then goes on a vigilante rampage, wiping out street criminals and a mob boss, before the expected confrontation with the detective trying to catch him. There are no extra major action scenes, though those included are a little extended compared to their film equivalents, and there is rather a lot of dialogue, particularly in the first two-thirds of the book, including extra dialogue scenes not in the film. As mentioned earlier, there are some differences. In the film, the detective, Dalton, does not meet Eastland until he--Dalton--is at the hospital visiting a doctor girlfriend and sees Eastland after the vigilante has cut the cord to the life support machine of his crippled friend. In the novelisation, Dalton visits Eastland in his apartment shortly after Eastland has dealt with the Ghetto Ghouls. In the scene in the film where Eastland raids the "chicken joint" he frees the teenage boy who is being held captive there, whereas in the novelisation, the terrified boy (who is described as being eight or younger), kills himself with Eastland's knife when the vigilante attempts to free him. In the most famous scene in the film, when Eastland returns to the processing plant from the mobster's house, the strung-up mobster is lowered into the meat grinder. However, in the book, when Eastland returns he finds the mobster already dead of an apparent heart attack. I don't know why the changes were made. Perhaps McCurtin based his novelisation on an early script or maybe he deliberately made the alterations. The meat grinder scene is certainly far less powerful in the novelisation than its screen equivalent. Also, when the police are investigating the chicken joint raid, they are unsure about the young boy's death and obviously could attribute it to Eastland. All-in-all, I thought it was okay as a novelisation, though a little flat and it took quite a while to really get going. McCurtin ramps up the character development quite a bit and we get to see into the thoughts of many of the characters. However, I am not really sure if the extra development is warranted for this kind of book, compared to providing more action scenes. As I said, it is okay, but it doesn't inspire any quick re-read and I can see why it had faded from my memory after the initial reading. The film had a sequel, but I don't know if it was also novelised.