Abattoir #1 – Review

by Darren Lynn Bousman (creator), Michael Peterson (concept), Rob Levin (writer), Troy Peteri (writer & letterer), Bing Cansino (art), and Andre Pervukhin (colors)

The Story: Real-estate agent Rich Ashwalt finds himself tasked with selling a house stained by a horrific, bloody massacre. Enter Jebediah Crone, a creepy guy who seems weirdly eager to purchase the place…

What’s Good: I’ve often felt that the best horror stories are those that feel realistic in its setting and its characters.  The closer to reality, the more unsettling the injected disturbance is.  Abattoir seems to get this.

Main character Rich Ashwalt is a strong one if only because of his normalcy.  His marital discord with his wife feels natural, as it never comes close to reaching over the top histrionics.  There’s a sense of distrust, tension, and loss, but also love.   Similarly, Rich’s relationship with his daughter is tender and paints Rich instantly as a good father, yet it never veers close to feeling saccharine or picturesque.  In many ways, the same goes for his friendship with his work buddy Patrick, which, while their back-and-forth dynamic is fun to read, feels common.  All of this makes Abattoir’s world relatable.

This makes the more mysterious horror elements all the more menacing.  There’s a constant tension and a sense of something encroaching.  In some ways, it mirrors the tension in Rich’s marriage; it’s there, roiling beneath the surface and becoming increasingly anxious to break the surface.  The gory massacre that haunts the town’s memory plays a big role in this; it’s a bubbling over of the horror and insanity that lurks below all the every day normalcy of this setting and its characters and now, in Abattoir’s world, it continues to linger.  The town and its characters are forced to confront, and unable to forget, this ugliness, no matter how much they want to.  That, in itself, is quintessentially Gothic.