Review by Doug Gibson
There's a passage in Frank Dello Stritto's new novel, "Patron Saints of the Living Dead," (Cult Movies Press, 2023), where our protagonist, Brent Marassas, dining with friends and acquaintances, begins to chat with an elderly lady, Madeline Short Parker.
Brett is on a quest his father sent him on shortly before dad, whom he calls "Papa," died. His father, raised without a traditional family, wants to know who his father was. A private investigator has uncovered some answers, and they lead toward the supernatural. Voodoo, zombies, living death, regeneration of life, raising of the dead, attempts to subjugate or control others via zombie-like efforts.
Based on what Brent has learned, his father's origin likely derives from one of 13 scientists who were involved in research that mixed science with supernatural, life with death, and power with subjugation.
One of those scientists was Assante "Murder" Legendre, the villain of the classic 1931 horror film,"White Zombie." And Brent soon learns that Madeline Short Parker is the bride Legendre turned into a zombie for a short while.
The now-elderly Madeline (the book is set more than a generation ago) recounts her horrifying experience as a virtual slave to Legendre, and the atrocities inflicted on her.
Through more than 500 pages, "Patron Saints ..." takes us through a journey of history, culture, books, newspapers and several score of genre films to weave a compelling tale of a man meandering his way through zombie, voodoo, crime, death, murder, mad scientists, and more, to find his roots. Dello Stritto has done this before, with novels about the traditional Universal monsters (Frankenstein's, Dracula, The Wolf Man), Carl Denham's "legacy" of giant apes, and the Mummy film genre.
(I digress to note that I have helped proofread for style and grammar, nearly all of Dello Stritto's books. However, proofing is not the same as reading for pleasure, and I have read a second time all of these books prior to review.)
"Patron Saints ..." shows the maturity of the author's skills, as it weaves the coincidences a protagonist needs to encounter-by-chance (or fate?) dozens of surviving characters of films. From New York to New Orleans, to the Carribbean, back to the East Coast, through the United States, into the Intermountain West, to California and back to the Carribbean, every plot twist and scene sequence seems natural. The narrative flow works.
This is important because "Patron Saints ..." is a novel that readers unfamiliar with the voodoo/zombies' films genre can easily get into and enjoy. That's not to say his other works are lacking, but this one impressed me as a very enthusiastic recommendation to my family members and friends who -- unlike me -- haven't watched 1,0001-plus genre films.
However, genre fans will revel in how the plot moves from film to film and to characters we've enjoyed watching in theater or on screen. There are so many. They even include Carl Kolchak, the Night Stalker reporter. Readers in the know can spend time guessing the films that enter the plot; or the film producers: Monogram, Producers Releasing Corporation, '50s low-budget studios, the Halperin Bros zombies films, the film "Freaks," TV show episodes boomers loved, blaxploitation chillers from the '70s, and so on.
Even Indiana Jones is mentioned in the novel, as research for Brent, who peruses an old academic journal of Henry Jones Jr.'s adventures in northern India -- in the "Temple of Doom" -- with the Cult of Kali Ma. Dr. Jones narrowly escaped a fate that put him in a "black sleep," ... Alive but like a nightmare," ... only able to follow the commands of high priest Mola Ram. (1)
There is one passage where Brent and his lady companion visit the decrepit home of the Incredible Doctor Markesan (from TV's "Thriller.") Our protagonist meets a survivor of that episode, who seems barely alive. He claims the house empty and that those sounds on the second floor are just the house being old. This was a passage that gave your reviewer goose bumps while reading.
Also, as in his other books, "Patron Saints ..." is full of film stills presented as historical artifacts -- either press or found -- that provide readers glimpses of the characters in the pages. Also, film scholar Dello Stritto has done impeccable research, providing art of practices described in the book, such as dissection, the work of grave robbers Burke and Hare, and even a 16th century print of a plague of uncontrollable dancing.
Although Dello Stritto's topic is zombies, he makes it clear that there are no "Romero-inspired" flesh-eating zombies in the novel. The book is an attempt to reclaim the zombie genre to its roots, in films such as "White Zombie." From Dello Stritto's Notes to Readers:
"Like Voodoo, zombie (or "zombi") is more complex than portrayed in popular culture. The original meaning was a spirit or ghost, but in the Caribbean and in popular culture a zombie is the living dead, an animated corpse. Before the mid 1960s, western popular culture portrayed zombies in their traditional role, as toiling in plantation fields or sugar mills, as the mindless slaves of their overseers. For the past half century, zombies in popular culture have been portrayed as hordes of carnivorous, infectious fiends. That recasting perhaps, is the unkindest cut of all.
"But zombies do exist."
I end this review with a fun, memorable anecdote. I re-read this novel recently on vacation in Hungary, where our family owns a Soviet-style condo.
One day we visited the city of Pecs, which is only about 36 miles from the Croatian border. It was a hot day, and I took a brief time out under trees in a park. While reading, I came to page 363, where it tells more about the history of the three "Legendre" scientist brothers.
It reads: 'Richard Marlowe and Paul Renault, the younger two of the Legendre brothers, both attended the University of Pecs in Hungary."
Indulge me, but it just seemed really cool, and unique, to be reading that passage in a park in Pecs Hungary. I think I can easily claim to be the sole reader with that experience ... so far.
1) In the 2023 film, "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," Dr. Jones says he was previously "tortured by voodoo," forced to drink the blood of Kali.
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