I’ve mentioned a number of obscure—sometimes very obscure—books and films over the years, and have gotten quite a few queries from readers about their availability. There is, however, one mention I made a decade ago that has inspired more queries than any other: an unproduced screenplay adaptation of Stephen King’s THE MIST, written by the late, great Dennis Etchison.
The point? That Dennis Etchison, who died on May 28, 2019, at age 76, may not be particularly well known to the public at large (I doubt we’ll be seeing too many obituaries in the major newspapers) but had an exceedingly large and dedicated following, and left a sizeable mark. He was a decidedly unprolific horror writer whose career, in his own words, spanned an “embarrassing number of years” (five decades, to be exact), during which time Etchison turned out dozens of short stories, eight novels (four of them movie novelizations) and a few screenplays, in addition to editing a number of standout genre anthologies.
It was the short story format in which Etchison shone the brightest, having been dubbed “the finest writer of short stories working in this field” by Ramsey 
Campbell. Etchison himself described his work as “Rather dark, depressing, almost pathologically inward fiction about the individual in relation to the world…” That’s an accurate summation of his stories, collected in THE DARK COUNTRY (1982), RED DREAMS (1984), THE BLOOD KISS (1988) and a handful of other books, whose ranks include classics like “The Late Crew,” “It Only Comes Out At Night,” “The Dead Line” and “On the Pike” (if you haven’t read any of those tales I strongly suggest you remedy that ASAP!).
What those tales had in common was highly erudite prose that evoked the spare and observant vibe of the “dirty realism” literary movement, and provided an extremely evocative portrayal of Etchison’s native Southern California. Indeed, the So Cal portrayed in Etchison’s fiction is as distinct and atmospheric a landscape as the Prague of Gustav Meyrink’s THE GOLEM. Etchison was also one of the very few writers of any sort who was able to write dialogue that captures how people actually speak, and he furthermore came up with some of the finest, most quotable one-liners in horror history: “He awoke to the sound of a chainsaw,” “The thing that shocked him was that he wasn’t shocked,” “I wonder what happens when the dreaming stops—or goes mad,” and Etchison’s arguable piece de resistance: “This morning I put ground glass in my wife’s eyes.”
As a novelist Etchison had problems. As is often the case with authors who begin their careers writing short fiction, Etchison never quite mastered long form writing. His first novel, 1986’s DARKSIDE, remains his best work in that form, capturing and sustaining the poetic charge of his stories, although the book is not without its issues. Of his follow-ups SHADOWMAN (1993) and CALIFORNIA GOTHIC (1995), both 
came off as clumsy and uneven to these eyes, and his final novel DOUBLE EDGE (1996) wasn’t much better.
Regarding Etchison’s movie novelizations, it seems they’re the writing for which he’s destined to be best remembered. That’s a mighty ironic state of affairs, as Etchison was one of the most vocal proponents of “quiet” horror writing and the “dark fantasy” label, yet the films he novelized—THE FOG, HALOWEEN 2 & 3 and VIDEODROME—were far from quiet in their approach. That hasn’t stopped Etchison’s HALLOWEEN novelizations (written under the “Jack Martin” pseudonym) from becoming two of the most sought-after movie novelizations in existence, even if their literary value is negligible at best.
Etchison also penned a never-filmed 1986 screenplay for HALLOWEEN IV (which is readily available online) and the aforementioned 1980s-era MIST adaptation, which was used for the audio version of that tale. Both scripts are solidly written but not exactly jump-up-and-down exciting, and failed to supplant the HALLOWEEN IV and MIST movies that got made.
From a personal standpoint I owe a rather sizeable debt to Mr. Etchison, who at a time when I didn’t know John Cheever or Raymond Carver from shinola first introduced me to literary fiction. I’ve admittedly found some of his prose overly mannered and pretentious, but the fact that I’ve continually returned to Etchison’s writing over the years is proof of its power. I actually made an attempt at replicating Etchison’s writing style on a ninth grade creative writing assignment—evidently I was successful, because I got an A+ on the paper and my teacher was moved to read it aloud to the class.
Etchison’s fiction has obviously been quite influential to me, with his debut collection THE DARK COUNTRY being my favorite of his books, follow
ed by DARKSIDE and the 1986 Etchison edited anthology CUTTING EDGE, a book that actually lives up to its name (and, in a further blast of irony, was a major text of the late eighties splatterpunk movement that Etchison frequently spoke out against). Furthermore, as a longtime So Cal resident, I’ve always appreciated his unsentimental commitment to the place; he’s one of the very few fiction writers who truly nails the layout and overall atmosphere down here.
Beyond those things Dennis Etchison, I must say, always came off as a really solid, no-bullshit guy (at least when he wasn’t pontificating about the evils of unquiet horror). No, I never met the man (outside a late eighties West LA book signing session) but based on interviews like this one I feel secure in my belief that he was a smart, honest and well-rounded fellow who fully deserved the (admittedly limited) success he achieved.