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Friday the 13th: Hell Lake

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Friday the 13th: Hell Lake
AuthorPaul A. Woods
LanguageEnglish
SeriesFriday the 13th
Release number
2
GenreHorror
PublisherBlack Flame
Publication date
9 August 2005
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (Paperback)
Pages393
ISBN9781844161829
OCLC61477161
Preceded byFriday the 13th: Church of the Divine Psychopath 
Followed byFriday the 13th: Hate-Kill-Repeat 

Friday the 13th: Hell Lake is a 2005 British horror novel written by Paul A. Woods and published by Black Flame.[1][2] A tie-in to the Friday the 13th series of American horror films, it is the second in a series of five Friday the 13th novels published by Black Flame and focuses on undead killer Jason Voorhees escaping from Hell to resume his killing spree on Earth.[3][4][5]

Plot

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Wayne Ricardo Sanchez, a Satanist who committed rapes and murders throughout Florida, is executed and condemned to Hell. On the lowest level of Hell, Sanchez befriends and forms a telepathic bond with undead killer Jason Voorhees, whom Sanchez corrals into leading him and thousands of other damned souls up through the other layers of Hell and to a portal that drops everyone in Crystal Lake, Jason's old hunting ground on Earth. Most of the resurrected criminals, including Sanchez, disperse throughout the United States, but Jason remains in Crystal Lake, preying on students of the nearby Forest Green University. Trey Leblanc, one of the only African Americans enrolled at Forest Green, becomes a suspect in the murders, partly due to racial profiling, and rallies the university's remaining students into leaving in defiance of Sheriff George Casey. Paul Christos, a misanthropic nihilist who idolizes Sanchez, nearly falls victim to Benjamin Weilman and Harold Lawrence, a pair of snuff filmmakers who were among those who escaped from Hell. Trey, his ex-girlfriend, Shawna Black, and their friend, Gretchen Andrews, combat the duo, killing Lawrence before encountering Jason, who kills Weilman. The trio escapes from Jason, who loses his hockey mask in the melee, only to be arrested by Sheriff Casey and the National Guard.

Jason, having donned a welding helmet and acquired a machine gun, teleports into the prison the students were remanded to and goes on a rampage through it, narrowly missing Trey and Shawna. The pair go in search of Gretchen, who has been taken in by Trey's lawyer, Diane Miranda, and her colleague, Edward North, who is secretly one of the fugitives from Hell, a serial date rapist named Charles Westenhaus who overdosed his own diabetic mother with insulin and now seeks to consolidate power over the other Hellions. Fearing Jason and Sanchez's influence over him, Westenhaus uses hypnotic drugs to interrogate Gretchen about Jason, which results in Gretchen being possessed by Jason's deceased mother, Pamela. Trey and Shawna reunite with Gretchen, saving her from Jason, who skinned Sheriff Casey and wore his flesh as a disguise to get to her and Diane, the latter of whom was bisected by Jason.

In Miami, Christos, having met Sanchez, assists him in murdering a family before they are confronted by Santo Alicante, another escapee from Hell who had been sent by Westenhaus to assassinate Sanchez. Sanchez murders Alicante and Christos and is himself killed by a mob that recognizes him as the "Daytona Beach Devil Boy." Elsewhere, Jason attacks the refugee camp Trey, Shawna, and Gretchen had joined and kills Shawna. Trey returns to Crystal Lake, which Jason is lured to by Gretchen channeling Pamela. Trey sacrifices himself to send an electric shock through the lake, which incinerates Jason and opens a gateway to Hell that sucks in all of the surviving Hellions, including Westenhaus. Gretchen, burned and disfigured by the electric shock, is admitted to a psychiatric hospital, where she has a vision of Jason in Hell.

Reception

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Mark L. Miller of Ain't It Cool News enjoyed the book's premise, kills, and exploration of Jason Voorhees's psych, but also opined that the writing suffered from "show, don't tell" and that the plot was "a bit fan fic-y" and unfocused, concluding, "there's a lot going on in this book and only some of it works."[6] Nat Brehmer of Wicked Horror felt that, while the novel did have an intriguing beginning, developments like Jason wielding an assault rifle and replacing his trademark hockey mask with a welding helmet gave the impression Hell Lake was a case of author Paul A. Woods "just not wanting to write about the character and bitterly doing it anyway."[7]

References

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  1. ^ "B-Books Bring Movie Killers to the Written Page". classic-horror.com. Classic-Horror. 6 December 2004. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
  2. ^ Stephen Jones, ed. (2006). The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 17. Constable & Robinson. Introduction: Horror in 2005. ISBN 9781845293154.
  3. ^ Beverly Baer, ed. (2006). What Do I Read Next? 2006: A Reader's Guide to Current Genre Fiction, Volume 1. Gale. p. 251. ISBN 9780787690236.
  4. ^ Gilliand, Blu (13 July 2018). "If Books Could Kill: Jason Voorhees in Print". cemeterydance.com. Cemetery Dance Publications. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
  5. ^ Collins, Brian (30 September 2022). "Biblical Boogeymen, Holy Ghosts, and the New Demonology: A Review of Three Recent Books on Religion and Horror". Journal of Religion and Film. 26 (2): 7. doi:10.32873/uno.dc.jrf.26.02.10. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
  6. ^ Miller, Mark (13 May 2016). "AICN HORROR celebrates Friday the 13th with Friday the 13th: Hell Lake Novel! Tickled Advance Review! Plus High-Rise! Regression! What We Become! Vampires! The Boy! The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane! America's Deadliest Home Video! Sheep Skin! Scream Season One! & The Survivors!". legacy.aintitcool.com. Ain't It Cool News. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
  7. ^ Brehmer, Nat (3 January 2017). "Mr. Voorhees Goes to Washington: The Nine Weirdest Things Jason Has Done Outside the Films". wickedhorror.com. Wicked Horror. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
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