A slasher with eighties vibes, girl power and gruesome cannibalism.

• Entertainment factor: ★★★★★
• Social factor: ★★★★★
• Girl power factor: ★★★★★
• Gore factor: ★★★★★
• Slasher factor: ★★★★★
• Eighties vibes: ★★★★★

Benny the Cannibal King is an entertaining slasher that goes back to the eighties and has something to say. It’s not just about final girls, but about girl power, feminism and friendship. And of course bloody gory kills, a night of survival and a creepy supernatural killer that seems to be unbeatable.

It consists of 164 pages. 

If you want to read more book set at Halloween, you can choose from my List of Halloween Horror Books. Here you can find a broad variety of genres from slashers to comedy.

Plot

In 1953 Blackwood Mercy Hospital burnt down to the ground. 41 Bodies were found, 5 children and 1 adult went missing. Now in 1987 Gabrielle has to live with her grandmother in a cul-de-sac that is turned into a little community for the elderly. 

Three girls, Sierra, Desiree and Jesse invite themselves to Gabrielle’s house for a Halloween party, because Gabrielle’s grandmother is away for a few days and Gabrielle is home alone. They want to tell each other ghost stories. And one particular ghost story that is related to their town Blackwood. The legend of Benny Rose, a cannibal who eats children. 

But the three girls plan on doing more than that. They want to prank and scare Gabrielle with the help of Sierra’s boyfriend Paul and his friend Adrian who are dressed as Benny Rose to attack the girls. However when it’s Gabrielle’s turn to tell a ghost story, it’s a very personal story and the three girls already regret the prank they want to pull. It’s too late to warn Paul and Adrian, but a far more bigger and deadly problem is about to hit them.

That night they find out that the legend of Benny Rose isn’t a legend at all but very real. With the only way out flooded by the river, there is no escape. They try to get help from the neighbors but they act a bit strange and don’t seem to want to help them at all. Now the four girls have to work together to survive the night and to defeat Benny Rose the Cannibal King. 

Continue reading below this announcement.

Short Review

While it starts out with three mean girls who are bullying the new girl, we get to know all the girls better rather quickly and they are not really mean at all in their hearts but troubled themselves with their own problems. It quickly turns into a girl power slasher, with strong girls, willing and able to fight and determined to live. 

The survival part is a great thrilling read. You really root for the girls, while it feels like there’s no way out. They have to run, hide and fight and come up with some smart solutions to stay alive. But the biggest question is who is Benny really and how they can defeat him. Slowly they unravel the mystery of Benny and what it has to do with 34 years ago. And why he roams this neighborhood in particular and why the neighbors are acting so strangely, hostile even. 

The element of the cul-de-sac with its elderly residents also stirs up the fight between the young and the old. Between old outdated ideas of what women or girls should be and how they should act and modern feminist ideas of women standing up for themselves, girls who can fight and speak for themselves. It’s an interesting and powerful element that has an important message that becomes very visceral at the end. 

The ending isn’t only very original but also very gruesome and gory. It isn’t what you expected and these final girls are both creative and pretty courageous. It results in the most horrifying ending that they could have ever imagined. 

Benny Rose the Cannibal King is a slasher mystery that mixes gory kills, cannibalism, an eighties vibe and the young against the elderly and lots of girl power, loyalty, bravery and friendship.