Fortunately, the tale takes an unexpectedly refreshing turn about halfway through, as the house begins to reach out to them, affecting their lives in terrifying and inexplicable ways and they're forced to return to confront the evil that resides there in an attempt to get their lives back. With two main protagonists and a solid supporting cast, it is from the onset a well written, spooky ghost story, but were it to remain that way, nothing to write home about in the realm of fresh and new creations in the horror genre.
The stay in the house goes off without too much trouble and, barring a few super creepy events and shocking jump scares that could be chalked up to character imagination or trickery perpetrated by the show's producer, it isn't until they're departing the next day that it begins to become obvious that the house is probably far from finished with them. In Kill Creek, four authors from various subgenres of horror take part in a publicity stunt designed to hopefully help reignite their faltering, in some cases stagnating careers, agreeing to spend the night in the infamous Finch House on Kill Creek. But digging further into Thomas' background reveals that he's an experienced screenwriter, having penned multiple scripts for TV movies and series and, as such, is likely a hardcore veteran when it comes to location and mood and the importance it holds for the success of any story, whether it's film or literature.
So, color me surprised when newcomer Scott Thomas hit the horror scene with his debut novel, Kill Creek, and manages to utilize the trick with exceptional results. It's a technique that I find endlessly fascinating when handled well, but I also think that it most likely takes no small amount of experience and expertise with the written word to be able to pull it off.
Books like Lee Thomas' seminal works Down on Your Knees and The Dust of Wonderland and Chris Kelso's Unger House Radicals would fall flat were it not for the authors’ masterful ability to manipulate the environment such that it becomes, if not the most important, a crucial element in the storyline. I've read a lot of stories lately that do an incredible job integrating the setting into the story in such a way as to make it a palpable presence, an antagonizing character if you will.
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