Ripped to Shreds - a retro-'80s horror graphic novelization

I am a HUGE fan of '80s horror/slasher flicks.  Ever since I watched my first Friday the 13th film on cable TV back in the early '80s, I was hooked.  As the years went by, I watched every slasher film I could get my hands on - Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Prom Night, My Bloody Valentine, Terror Train, New Year's Evil, Silent Night, Deadly Night, Happy Birthday to Me, Final Exam, The Funhouse, Chopping Mall, and the list goes on.  Some were great, some were good, some were bad, and some were just plain awful. The love of this genre has continued on till today, with films like Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Happy Death Day, Wrong Turn, and so on - but, honestly, nothing compares to the zany stories that made up those '80s films.  I mean, anyone who has ever seen the Sleepaway Camp films knows exactly what I'm talking about.  So, when I saw the Kickstarter for this graphic novel, there was no doubt that I was going to get it.

 

Ripped to Shreds is a love letter to fans of those '80s slasher films.  In fact, it was originally supposed to BE one of those '80s slasher films!  Ripped to Shreds is based upon a screenplay written by Michael Johnson, which was initially advertised to begin filming in late 1980.  Unfortunately, the project remained in what is affectionately referred to in Hollywood as "development hell" for three years, and ultimately it was scrapped, thought to become just another in a long line of "lost" slasher films never to be made.  Flash forward more than forty years later, and a collector happened to come across the one and only surviving copy of the Ripped to Shreds script - a copy that Apostrophe Comics has brilliantly turned into a beautifully bound, fantastically drawn, and superbly scripted graphic novel that captures the true essence of the film and the genre!  Adapted by Scott Alan Gregory (writer), Thiago Motta (illustrator), and Karla Aguilar (colorist), the graphic novel is the ultimate must-have for die-hard fans of 1980s' slashers!

 

The story is actually a mix of elements that would have turned out an amazingly great film!  An opening flashback to a campfire, where teens are getting drunk, and where three girls take off in a car, only to pick up a lone hitchhiker - a man who slashes them with his metal claw, causing them to crash - and only one girl survives!  Years later (the present - 1980s), another group of teens are around a campfire, talking about the legend of the clawed killer and the fatal car crash.  Some people believe if you drive that same road at night, the ghost of the murdered girls will appear in your car and force you off the road.  Needless to say, one young couple have to put the legend to the test - and they pay the price for it.

 

The two main characters - Madeline (modeled after Lauren Marie-Taylor from Friday the 13th, Part 2) and Richard (modeled after Russell Todd from Friday the 13th, Part 2) set about to uncover the truth.  Is the legend true?  Is there a clawed killer our there?  Or did their friends merely die as a a result of a freak accident?  Like any good slasher movie, there are any number of suspects - the suspicious gardener who is uber-religious and is keeping his daughter (the only survivor of that original accident all those years ago) captive in her own home; the juvenile crime detective, who seems to have an unhealthy interest in the investigation and the teens; or even that girl who survived the original crash, whose mind is now fractured.  Before you can say "booze, sex, and drugs," the bodies start to pile up, ripped to shreds by that deadly claw (hence, the title!), and Scott and Vickie ... er, I mean Madeline and Richard have to work harder to uncover the truth.

 

Fans will enjoy the ultimate revelation and backstory, as you learn the truth about what really happened all those years ago and who was really at fault for the death of those girls.  Madeline gets a fantastic final girl battle against the killer in a darkened house, wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around her (she was, after all, in the shower when the lights went out!).  I love the ingenuity the character uses to lure the killer into a deadly trap, so just when you think he has her, she turns the tables and kills the killer!  There is a nice wrap-up scene as Richard accompanies Madeline in the ambulance to the hospital, explaining to her the truth about the killer identity and why the murders were taking place ... only to get that one final shock at the end - a surprising twist that would have left the door open for a sequel (of course, that would have necessitated the first film ever being made in the first place!).  

 

The hardcover book contains no only the full adaptation of the script, but plenty of special features in the back to make you feel like you were enjoying a DVD / BluRay version of the story.  From an interview with the original screenplay writer, Michael Johnson, to interviews with both actors (Russell Todd and Lauren Marie-Taylor) about their involvement in the project, to production designs of the killer claw, as well as commentary about the overall production of the graphic novel, character design pages, and a cover gallery.   

 

This book deserves the greatest of all accolades for successfully bringing back a 1980s film in a format that is both visually and artistically pleasing, and will satisfy any fan's appetite for a "new" '80s slasher!

 

RATING:  10 mutilated bodies hanging upside down out of 10 for a true '80s classic - the perfect horror / slasher flick that, sadly, was never made!