This review first appeared on scifiandscary.com - the author provided a copy for review consideration
Taken on its own terms, ‘Night Shoot’ is a masterpiece. It’s a book that sets out to capture the low rent, slightly sleazy, blood-soaked vibe of 1980s slasher movies and it does this quite brilliantly. As a teenager, my friends and I devoured this kind of film and revisiting the sub-genre, albeit in literary rather than cinematic form, was a lot of fun. Like many of the movies that inspired it, ‘Night Shoot’ is brief, graphic and creepy in a way that’s hard to put your finger on.
The story is classic slasher fare. A group of young people (film students in this case), travel to a remote location (a run-down Scottish mansion), take their clothes off and get bloodily murdered. They’re at the mansion to shoot a low budget horror movie, a theme which David Sodergren has a lot of fun with. He uses it to comment on horror movie tropes and the motivations of filmmakers, and it provides a credible reason for the characters to put themselves in harm’s way.
Lesbian prop designer Elspeth is a strong lead and far more fully formed than most of cinema’s final girls. Her battles with the other members of the crew as the plot builds up to the first killing are entertaining. She’s refreshingly modern, and I was pleased that Sodergren took the time to build her character rather than relying on genre stereotypes. I was rooting for her by the end, which made the second half of the book a genuinely tense experience.
Anyone who was a horror fan in the UK back then will know that half the fun was the hunt to find these films in their full, uncut form. Following the Video Nasties moral panic of the early 80s many horror films were only available in heavily censored versions (if at all). ‘Night Shoot’ is definitely uncensored. It’s incredibly graphic and Sodergren delights in finding creative ways to dispatch of his cast. I won’t give away the identity of the killer, but I will say that the denouement is enjoyably creepy and dark. The book is never exactly scary, but it is horrifying and disturbing. If that’s your bag I think you’ll have fun with it.
‘Night Shoot’ is a success then, but maybe not one for everyone. It’s a fast-paced nasty that’s true to its inspirations whilst not being afraid to criticise them. If you’re a fan of 80s slashers, you’ll probably love it. If not, your mileage may vary, but it’s still a solidly written and enjoyable chiller.


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A well-written homage to the classic slasher film formula of a bunch of people getting stuck together somewhere due to unlikely circumstances and having to deal with some shadowy jerk wanting to pick them off one by one. ( )

NIGHT SHOOT is about a group of student filmmakers who are up against a deadline. Their shooting location, Crawford Manor, is only available to them for one day and they ran out of time before they could finish filming their movie. There is only one solution, break into the Manor and finish their movie, or fail the class. The group "borrows" a key and lets themselves back into the old house, but they aren't the only ones there and soon the blood and guts hit the fan.

After finishing THE FORGOTTEN ISLAND and NIGHT SHOOT, I can confidently say that David Sodergren is an automatic buy for me. I won't even need to read a book summary to know I'll enjoy his books. He writes like a seasoned pro even though his career is only two books old. I always love it when a book has me so engrossed that it makes me say out loud, "oh, girl, don't go in there" without any irony. NIGHT SHOOT did just that. While it's full of cliche after cliche Sodergren somehow makes it all feel fresh again. Sodergren is very good at writing female protagonists. He also exhibits skill when writing death scenes. This is a BRUTAL slasher with extreme violence that made me squirm. NIGHT SHOOT is not for the faint-hearted. Read at your own risk but definitely read it. ( )