Any poor soul straying too far from the party runs into the wrong end of a sickle, chainsaw, pick-axe, or ice pick. Cleats locks the gates, gathers his tools, and goes hunting. Watching from a tool shed is Cleats, the hideously scarred caretaker who thinks the cars contain his tormentors from six years ago. Nine teenagers venture into All Saints Hill Cemetery one evening in search of a quiet place to get drunk, stoned, and naked. Finally, in 1983, slasher fans received a gore drenched gift when Pinnacle Books published Stephen Crye’s Joyride. Slasher fans could get a quick fix from the occasional Halloween or Friday the 13th novelization but the market was painfully barren when it came to new slasher material. Anyone scanning paperback racks at the corner market were more likely to find novels about demon possessed houses, Stephen King rip-offs featuring evil little kids with psychic powers, or past-life-ghostly-romance crap. Horror fiction writers were slow to take up the slasher mantle back in the early 80’s even though celluloid stalkers were carving up hefty profits at the box-office.
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