Dee Snider’s Strangeland gets the novelization treatment

With the release of Strangeland in 1998, writer/star Dee Snider and director John Pieplow introduced us to Carleton Hendricks, a.k.a. Captain Howdy, a man who would log into internet chat rooms with the intention of luring teenagers over to his house so he could put them through torturous body modification “coming of age” rituals. On the film’s audio commentary, Snider promised that viewers could fully expect to see a multi-installment Captain Howdy franchise. Unfortunately, a sequel has never been made, despite Snider trying to get the project set up with multiple companies over the years. He was still holding on to hope as recently as 2017… but while we wait to see if Strangeland 2 is ever going to happen, we do finally have a new piece of Captain Howdy entertainment to enjoy, as Snider has teamed up with author Christian Francis to write a novelization of his original Strangeland screenplay! The book will be reaching shelves on October 22 and is available for pre-order on Amazon.

Francis has written a lot of novelizations recently, including Session 9, In the Mouth of Madness, The Gate, The First Power, and the Maniac Cop trilogy.

With a page count of 248, the Strangeland novelization will tell us the following story: The Internet was supposed to connect people. For Captain Howdy, it’s the perfect hunting ground. Behind the screen waits a sadist who lures teenagers into his world of ritual piercing, body suspension, and unrelenting torment. To him, pain is truth. Flesh is canvas. And his victims are masterpieces. When Detective Mike Gage’s daughter disappears, the hunt leads the police into a nightmare of needles, hooks, and cages. A carnival of body modification ruled by a madman who believes he’s a prophet. But Howdy isn’t just another predator; he’s a believer, and his gospel is written in pain. Strangeland drags you screaming through the shadows of suburbia into a world where torture is transcendence, horror wears a human face, and salvation may come too late. Welcome to Captain Howdy’s playground. Once you enter, you don’t come back the same.

I’ve really been hoping that Snider would get to make Strangeland 2 someday, as I feel that Strangeland is one of the best, most underrated and underseen horror films of the ’90s. I look forward to seeing how Snider and Francis have fleshed the story out on the page in the novelization.

Will you be reading the Strangeland novelization? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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