When New York photographer Rebecca accepts an assignment in the dark twisted wilds of England’s South Coast, staying alone in her employees isolated country cottage, it’s obvious that good things are not about to happen. Sinister shadowy beings are pursuing her through the shadows and the few locals she meets seem eager for her to leave. Before long, Rebecca finds herself at the centre of a centuries-old mystery involving the vindictive souls of murdered men, with one particularly terrifying soul waiting for her in the nightmarish eyrie…
The Eyrie is a deliciously nasty twist of English gothic, proving that comic books still have a tremendous power to chill when the script and art are both pitched exactly right. Thom Burgess (writer) and Barney Bodoano (artist) have done some exemplary work. It’s a cinematic piece, and Burgess knows how to turn all the familiar folk horror tropes to his advantage – the lonely roads and windswept countryside, the isolated cottage, the grey-faced locals who either warn the heroine away or give her just enough information to be unnerved (but not quite enough to save herself), the skewed scarecrow with a deeper shadow watching from over its shoulder, and the barely glimpsed creatures menacing Rebecca (and the reader) from out of the monochrome mist, just outside of vision. It’s a simple tale, and horror fans will know all the beats, but it’s still eerily effective. Burgess takes his time and uses his dialogue sparingly, while Bodoano’s disorientating pointillist style ladles on the atmosphere. When Rebecca finally realises the trap closing around her, it’s a genuinely unnerving moment. There’s a real chill to these pages, like the stalking horror is preparing to launch itself out of the frame and into our real world, which makes this a wonderful choice for midnight reading. Just don’t forget to leave the lights on.
THE EYRIE / WRITER: THOM BURGESS / ARTIST: BARNEY BODOANO / PUBLISHER: BIG CARTEL / RELEASE DATE: TBA JUNE 2017
