Review: ‘Night Of The Ghoul’ #3 Continues To Revel In Classic Creepiness

Continuing in the same vein as the first two issues, Night of the Ghoul #3 aims to capture some of that old-school Silver Age cinematic horror and recreate it on the page. And the splash page, with art from Francesco Francavilla, certainly does that expertly enough as forgotten and scarred director, T.F Merrit, points a choppy finger directly at the reader seeming to break the fourth wall, all the while staring with a fear in his eye. 

The source of his fear? Doctor Skeen, a leading practitioner at this horror hospital and a man who has more to him than meets the eye, clearly. According to Merritt, he is the eponymous ghoul of the series’ title. And eats the dead. Plus, he has a Van Dyke beard, so you just know he’s no good.

Meanwhile, we are given further clips from the lost, cursed film; a piece of art beginning to imitate real life. Scott Snyder expands and establishes the mythology of the ghoul, thereby making this monster more relatable. Not that any reader should relate to this ancient creature, but in giving it a backstory, it makes it more tangible and therefore more frightening. That and all iconic monsters need a good backstory, right?

Francavilla continues to sustain that classic Silver Age cinematic look by keeping to a minimalist pallet of colours when depicting contemporary scene while sticking with the grey tones for the clippers of film we witness. A film that hints a lot at the horror through dialogue, allowing the reader’s imagination to run wild.

Night of the Ghoul continues to be a slow build, tense tale of terror more in the tradition of classic horror and Gothic literature. A lost art form being given a second life by Snyder and Francavilla and out now on comiXology Originals.