Editor’s note: Two of the coolest things in the Severin Black Friday sale were the paperback 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.

I had the opportunity to discuss these books with Brad, as well as his love of horror films, what movies he’d like to adapt and so much more.

B&S About Movies: What’s your background in writing?

Brad Carter: My first novel, The Big Man of Barlow, was published in 2012. I worked at a steady clip after that, writing a novel per year until 2019, when the publisher I’d been working with went under. My other novels are (dis)Comfort Food, Saturday Night of the Living Dead, Only Things, Barlow After Dark, Uncle Leroy’s Coffin, and Human Resources. My goal for 2025 is to get those back in print. As far as film novelizations go, I’ve done Cruel Jaws, Night of the Demon, and Mardi Gras Massacre for Severin, as well as an as-yet-unpublished Phantom of the Mall. That last one got held up in some irritatingly boring bureaucratic red tape. Hopefully, 2025 might be the year it finally sees the light of day.

Before that, I majored in Creative Writing at the University of Arkansas. It was a great program, but not very open to genre fiction. Although I sort of resented that at the time, I appreciate it now, because it taught me to write without my usual crutches of blood and gore, ghosts and goblins. Now I’m free to write all the exploitative trash my heart desires.

B&S: Were you always a fan of Italian films?

Brad: I’ve been a horror fan for as long as I can remember, but I was in my teens before I got serious about exploring horror movies as works of cinematic art. That coincided with my discovery of Italian horror. My favorite movie was (and still is) George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, so seeing Dario Argento’s name in the credits led me to Suspiria. From there, I discovered Lucio Fulci. Then I went down the rabbit hole, and I’m still tunneling my way down. There’s an otherworldly quality to lots of Italian films that fascinates me. From the zombie gut munchers to giallo to cannibal movies, I love so many movies from that golden age of Italian genre film. Happily, there’s about a million of them. Every time I think I’ve reached the finish line, I discover another gem.

B&S: What was it like to get to see the original scripts for Rats and Virus, then have the chance to bring them to life?

Brad: Well, I never actually saw the full scripts. I’m not really sure if they even exist anymore. What I worked with was the original film treatments as remembered by Claudio Fragasso and Rossella Drudi. We corresponded pretty extensively about the original ideas for the movies, which were considerably larger in scope than what ended up on the screen. Had they been given a Hollywood budget, the movies would have been nearly indistinguishable from the final product. That’s why the books are so different from the films. Calling them film novelizations is almost inaccurate, because they bear little resemblance to the films. The ideas Rossella and Claudio conveyed were very broad and open-ended, so I had lots of room to expand on them and add in new material. It was a fun process. There were genuine sparks of creativity flying around.

B&S: Claudio Fragasso and Rossella Drudi, if they are known to Americans, are mostly remembered for Troll 2, which is seen as a joke at best. Has your experience of working on these books changed your opinion of their abilities?

Brad: If there’s a single searing indictment of the dire state of the American education system, it’s that kids these days don’t know more about Claudio Fragasso and Rossella Drudi. There is so much more to them than Troll 2.

Working on these books didn’t change my opinion of their abilities, because I never held them in low esteem to begin with. As far as Troll 2 is concerned, I challenge someone to make a film under similar circumstances and have it fare much better. Language barriers, a nonexistent budget, an amateur cast…not exactly an ideal situation for anyone involved. And say what you will about the movie, but it’s entertaining. For me, the cardinal sin in filmmaking is to be boring and unremarkable. There are loads of films that can be viewed as competent and even good by the standard metrics, but the vast majority of those films are also forgettable. I’d much rather watch Troll 2 than some Merchant Ivory snoozer or Avengers Part 100: Captain America Changes His Drawers or whatever the Marvel movie of the week is.

Believe it or not, Troll 2 wasn’t my introduction to Claudio and Rossella’s filmography. I came to know their stuff through their collaborations with Bruno Mattei first, and then movies like Zombie 4: After Death and Robowar. I didn’t get to Troll 2 until much later. I had the opportunity to meet Claudio and Rossella some years ago at a horror convention, where they were Severin’s special guests. Claudio was a bit annoyed that people only wanted to talk about Troll 2, so Severin’s head honcho, David Gregory, introduced me to Claudio and Rossella, saying, “This is Brad. He’s seen nearly all your movies.” A few hours later, I was sitting with them for a screening of Zombie 4: After Death. For me, it was one of those moments where I needed to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.  

So the short answer is no. I went into the project as a genuine admirer of Claudio and Rossella’s work, and if anything, that admiration has only deepened. Their filmography is like the cinematic equivalent of music by The Melvins or Napalm Death: it’s completely out of left field and truly compelling.

B&S: Without giving too much away, what’s something in the books that fans of the original movies will be surprised by?

Brad: I think they’ll be surprised by how completely different the novels are from the films that inspired them. I think they could more accurately be called “re-imaginings” rather than “film novelizations.” But I’d like to emphasize that the source material for the books is the same source material for the films. I definitely put my own spin on things and blew the storylines up to ridiculous proportions, but I stayed true to the spirit of what Claudio and Rossella originally intended. I’d like to think that the books stand on their own. Someone with no knowledge whatsoever of the films

However, I sincerely hope that fans of the movies appreciate the books as well. They were written by someone with a deep love for the material.

B&S: What was the biggest challenge when it came to writing the books?

Brad: The challenge with any film novelization is capturing the spirit of the source material without simply regurgitating the screenplay in a different format. People who’ve read my prior novelizations know that I’ve always had a pretty long leash when it comes to additions, changes, and expansions to the films. My approach has always been to consider what the filmmakers might have done had budget not been a factor in any of their decisions. So my Cruel Jaws is bigger than what Spielberg could have filmed. Night of the Demon and Mardi Gras Massacre also would have required much larger budgets if they had been filmed as I wrote them. This isn’t to say my versions are necessarily better, but a novel doesn’t really have budgetary restrictions. I don’t have to make the same concessions that filmmakers have to make. 

For these two books specifically, I saw my work as a kind of redemption for what Claudio and Rossella were forced to compromise. They had an epic vision, so I wrote a couple of epic novels. The only reservations I had involved how readers might react to something so different from the films. Ultimately, I had to put those fears aside and focus on writing something that would make Rossella and Claudio proud. If everyone but them hates what I’ve done, I’ll still feel good about my work. Of course, I’ll feel a hell of a lot better if loads of other people enjoy them too. Any writer who claims to not enjoy that sort of validation is a goddamn liar. But aside from my own ego, I’d love for these books to lead to other similar projects, and the only way that can realistically happen is for Virus and Rats to be somewhat successful. Encyclopocalypse and Severin both put a lot of faith in me by publishing these huge books without demanding any cuts. I hope the public’s reaction proves that their faith wasn’t unfounded.

B&S: Do you have a dream movie to novelize?

Brad: I’d love to have a crack at a big horror franchise like Evil Dead, Phantasm, or Friday the 13th. I’m not sure that’s a very realistic goal, however. After writing Virus and Rats, I’ve actually thought about how I might approach another entry in Mattei Fragasso Drudi Cinematic Universe. I could really do something with Zombie 4: After Death or Shocking Dark. Lots of folks in the Severin Films family have joked about me novelizing The Sinful Dwarf. To me, it’s not so much a joke as a challenge. In the end, my dream is to keep writing these sorts of books. It’s incredibly fun and the reactions to my novelizations thus far has been overwhelmingly positive. I’m grateful for any opportunity to keep doing what I love.