Severin Films and Encyclopocalypse Publications today announced two new novelizations from author Brad Carter based on director Bruno Mattei’s ‘80s Italian genre classics Hell of the Living Dead (aka Virus) and Rats: Night of Terror. Carter consulted with screenwriters Claudio Fragasso and Rossella Drudi about their original big-budget visions for both films, which were unable to be realized for the eventual productions. Carter, whose previous Severin novelizations include Mardi Gras Massacre, Night of the Demon and Mattei’s Cruel Jaws then utilized Fragasso and Drudi’s ambitious initial concepts to craft two gore-soaked sagas that redefine modern novelizations.

“Brad Carter is a mad genius of movie novelizations,” says Severin co-founder/president David Gregory. “The scope and scale of Virus: Hell of the Living Dead is nothing less than James Michener with zombie carnage. Rats: Night of Terror combines post-apocalypse insanity with “nature amok” depravity for a monumental new sci-fi thriller. Both Bruno Mattei classics are now elevated from the Italo-Gore gutter to the loftiest of bookshelves.”

“Brad Carter is a master of his craft, transforming cult classics into immersive, expansive horror epics that fans of the genre will absolutely devour,” says Encyclopocalypse Publications president Mark Alan Miller. “These novelizations are like director’s cuts on the page – bold, inventive and endlessly entertaining. We are proud to share these books with the world.”

“Getting to be an official part of the Mattei/Fragasso/Drudi cinematic universe is a dream come true,” says author Brad Carter. “These books were written by a fan of Italian horror for fans of Italian horror, and I really wanted to deliver the gory goods. Hopefully, I succeeded.”

Virus: Hell of the Living Dead: Deep within the African jungle nation of Daroka, Marsh Industries’ biochemical research facility is developing a classified serum known as the HOPE Project. But in the lab’s Antares Module, where human test subjects are kept in locked cells, something has gone horrifically wrong. The dead are alive. Aggressive. Hungry for flesh. And the infection is spreading. Now a team of heavily armed American mercenaries, a French female journalist and a group of unsuspecting missionaries have all entered the plague zone. In a third world hellhole already engulfed by political unrest and corporate greed, can anyone survive a rapidly decomposing nightmare of uncontainable viral carnage? From Brad Carter – whose shark chomping, dick ripping, whore gore and vermin mating novelizations include Mardi Gras Massacre, Night of the Demon, Cruel Jaws and Rats: NIght of Terror – comes this guts-splattered apocalypse epic inspired by the original mega-budget screenplay vision of Claudio Fragasso & Rossella Drudi that eventually became the low-budget basis for Bruno Mattei’s zombie trash classic Hell of the Living Dead.

Rats: Night of Terror: Nobody knows exactly how many generations have passed since the catastrophic Event, leaving most of North America a wasteland roamed by the deformed, the doomed and the damned. But far beneath the poisoned terrain, an inhuman species of subterranean colonists has a plan to repopulate the planet. Their oily black fur glistens in the darkness. Their telepathic communication argues the details. Their long thick tails and razor-sharp incisors twitch with anticipation. And for a roughneck salvage team who has accepted a warlord’s lucrative offer to raid an abandoned city, what appeared to be an easy score is now a gore-spattered battle for survival that may breed the ultimate horror. From Brad Carter – whose killer shark, horny Bigfoot, butchered hooker and zombie apocalypse novelizations include Cruel Jaws, Night of the Demon, Mardi Gras Massacre and Virus: Hell of the Living Dead – comes this viscera-sprayed saga inspired by an original screenplay by Claudio Fragasso, Rossella Drudi and Bruno Mattei that became the basis for Mattei’s notorious trash classic Rats: Night of Terror.

Virus: Hell of the Living Dead and Rats: Night of Terror will initially be available during Severin Film’s annual Black Friday Webstore Event, which takes place on 11/29 from 12:01am EST to 11:59pm PST on 12/2 at www.SeverinFilms.com.