The Dark Side of Hell

by Patrick C. Harrison III

"I don't typically do triggers for my books, but I probably should for this one. Then again, f*ck y'all."- PC3, author of 100% Match, Grandpappy, and this vile piece of workAfter a not-so-entertaining evening at a "haunted house," the Gibsons go about their unconventional routines on Halloween day. Little do they realize, the free passes to another haunted house experience they received upon exiting THE DARK SIDE OF HELL are tickets to the most horrifying times of their lives.

Genres: Horror, Splatterpunk, Horror Thriller, Audiobook

217 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 21, 2023

About the author

Patrick C. Harrison III (PC3, if you prefer) is an author of horror, splatterpunk, and all forms of speculative fiction. His current publications include GRANDPAPPY, A SAVAGE BREED, VAMPIRE NUNS BEHIND BARS, 5 TALES THAT WILL LAND YOU IN HELL, among others, and his works can be found in numerous anthologies, including AND HELL FOLLOWED and ROAD KILL: TEXAS HORROR BY TEXAS AUTHORS VOL. 4.

PC3 is the Splatterpunk Award-winning editor (with Jarod Barbee) of AND HELL FOLLOWED, and has edited several other anthologies. He is a freelance editor, having done work for notable authors like Aron Beauregard, Daniel J. Volpe, Mark Towse, Rebecca Rowland, and many others.

PC3 also has a FREE substack, in which he frequently does movie reviews and updates readers on his fiction. Check out pc3horror.substack.com.

Reviews

[Vicki Herbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

House of A Thousand Corpses...

THE DARK SIDE OF HELL
by Patrick C. Harrison III

No spoilers. 4 stars. The first time the Gibson family went to the Halloween haunted house attraction, nobody got hurt...

That night...

Driving through the moonlit woods, the kids (teens Mamie and Julian) asked: Are we lost? Then the sign came into view:

THE DARK SIDE OF HELL

A finger on a fake bloody forearm, lopped off at the elbow and nailed to an old oak tree, pointed the way...

Going to the haunted house had been Dad (Jim's) idea, and he was impressed with the props...

A bouncy, pitted gravel road led to an old, decrepit house decorated with cheap Halloween decorations and lights...

The place looked like a Gothic dump...

An old man was napping in a lawn chair on the old wooden porch...

On the left side of the house...

A pumpkin patch with pumpkins of all shapes and sizes...

Mom (Mona) asked the old man: How much for a pumpkin? The old man replied: They ain't for sale...

The family paid their entrance fee and went into the old house, finding more lame decorations...

The only somewhat scary decor was the fake blood splattered everywhere...

The family roamed the house from room to room while some jerk wearing a pumpkin mask randomly popped up to jump-scare them...

It was the Boones Farm of haunted houses...

As they made their way to the front door to leave, they saw a dead man lying on the foyer floor...

He was fat, naked, and dead...

He had been opened up autopsy-style and was lying in a pool of blood with flies hovering over him. One of his arms was chopped off at the elbow...

Suddenly...

The old man burst through the door, yelling: Surprise! Bet y'all thought The Dark Side of Hell was all horse sh*t 'til ya saw that guy...

Leaving the house...

Mom (Mona) saw a creepy scarecrow in the pumpkin patch she hadn't noticed before, and the old man gave the family free tickets to return on Halloween night...

This is definitely a story suitable for Halloween night. It has all of the elements: blood, gore, lights, decorations, a haunted house with pumpkin patch, and it even had candy corn. It reminded me of Rob Zombie's HOUSE OF A 1,000 CORPSES.

I didn't enjoy it as much as this author's 100% MATCH and GRANDPAPPY, but it definitely kept me interested all the way to the end and was never boring.

Warning to some readers: This book is extreme horror. Explicit sexual content, suicide, murder, mayhem, and abortion are all part of the story.

[Lia's Haunted Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

I honestly don’t even know how to review this book. It’s wild, unsettling, and wrong in all the best ways. I loved how not a single character was likeable—that’s all I’ll say without giving too much away. I shouldn’t have loved this book as much as I did, but here we are. Trying to explain it feels almost wrong. One thing’s for sure: I’m never eating hotdogs again. Oh, and I love Halloween.

[Ghoul Von Horror · Rating 1 out of 5]

TW: Language, drug use, toxic parent relationships, underage drinking, unwanted pregnancy, use of c-word, rape, death by suicide, smoking, gay slur, vomit, scat, molestation, etc

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:After a not-so-entertaining evening at a "haunted house," the Gibsons go about their unconventional routines on Halloween day. Little do they realize, the free passes to another haunted house experience they received upon exiting THE DARK SIDE OF HELL are tickets to the most horrifying times of their lives.
Release Date: October 21st, 2023
Genre: Extreme Horror
Pages: 215
Rating: ⭐

What I Liked:
1. Absolutely love the way the author writes
2. A story that deals with Halloween
3. Clever to name the characters after other indie books

What I Didn't Like:
1. Weaker story compared to others written by author
2. Characters unlikeable
3. Story felt generic and uncleaver
4. Boring

Overall Thoughts:
Right off the bat this family is horrible. I'd like to say if they die I'd be sad, but I'm kind of gunning for them to be murdered.

Oh, the pumpkins in the field are actually people's heads (maybe). Reminds me of Motel Hell where they plant the people with their head above the ground but cut their throats.

Seriously this family is terrible.

Wow Raven is such a "great" friend. She helped this guy wear an outfit so that he would be appealing to Mamie, just so she would sleep with him. How disgusting. Drop that friend in a second!

We find out Mamie is pregnant but in the bathroom at school she decides she would rather just die by suicide then deal with telling her parents that she's pregnant. I'm really not sure why she thinks her parents would make her keep the baby when she went through with the pregnancy.

On the other side of town we find out that Mona is actually a cam girl and she's preparing to do something special for Halloween. Her kids don't know that she does this but her husband loves to watch and get off watching her.

A cam girl using an iPad camera. Is this amateur hour? There is no way she's getting the quality she needs with an iPad camera. A real cam girl would invest in a camera or a great webcam. If she's doing this three times a week almost why wouldn't she have better equipment?

Mona says that the neighbor smiles at her while she's cutting the grass and that Mona will regret this moment that she didn't smile back, but why? The neighbor is killed right after that so it's not like the neighbor had survived and when Mona looked out the window she could have saved her but ignored her. I just didn't understand what that had to do with anything.

A poop diaper to the face - that's fun.

Jimmy is a piece of work. He's an addict who's also a doctor we also learned that he's cheating on his wife with a nurse. He's working with some local drug dealers. He writes extra prescriptions for them and they go cash them for opioids.

A van comes down the road at 50 miles an hour without even attempting to stop and hits a car in you're telling me there's not even a blemish on the van. That is literally so far fetched. Someone backed into my car at 5 mph and they pushed my door back so I couldn't even open my passenger door, so I couldn't even imagine what damage 50 mph would do to a vehicle

Julian decides he's going to shoot up the classroom because of chaos and a rumor that he and his sister are sleeping together. He knows she's pregnant. I found it weird that Mamie never once in her worry of being pregnant even thinks of the rumor and her being picked on because of it. She just is worried about her parents knowing.

Julian is a know it all. He knows his mom is a cam girl and has even watched her videos. Ew.

Things happening that I've read so many times; poop, vomit, rape, penis torture - boring.

The kidnappers take their phones but let Julian keep his backpack (without going through it) feels cheap in this scenario.

How did Colonel Granderson know that Julian was a school shooter if they just found out that he had a gun in the van? Also how did they know that Mamie was pregnant if they left the house right after they took Mona? Revealed that she had put the pregnancy test in her pocket and Colonel had saw it.

It seems silly to think that all this stuff happening and no police would show up to any of it.

So, just because Jim's feet are in place why can't he defend himself when she drops the chain on him? Plus how heavy was it that she's 5'5 and she was able to pick it up since she's 125lbs. And pick it up over her head but it's heavy enough to knock him out.

Some sentences didn't make sense. Lady Spermjacker pulls out a penis pump to which Jim thinks;
"Jim had seen them before, even bought one at a novelty store when he was in college, just to see what it would do, hoping like most guys that it would add a few inches of length and girth."
It seemed silly because saying you had seen one is quite different than saying you had used one before. The sentence starts off like he's only seen one before but then ends with that he had used one before.

Honestly I'm more than halfway through this book and I'm pretty bored. We get the same old things;
1. Please let me go
2. Why are you doing this
3. Please don't/stop
It all just weighs down the story in repetitiveness. Every character is going to say the same things in their selected scenes and it becomes boring.

Mukbang tells Julian that every member there in the family was taken from one of the other people that came on Halloween. If that's the case why are there so many people that still have their limbs and seem like they're still put together? It seems like all the damage that people cause in this family is taking body parts and torturing them, so why are these people so perfect in how they look?

Oh okay so now Mona is being told to suck on Spawns "nub". Ewww and uncomfortable. I'm assuming that spawn is a baby because he still doesn't have his teeth. Of course maybe he's just deformed and hasn't grown to size.

It's revealed that Mamie is the one that's going to be apart of the family. Not 100% sure what made her so valuable to them when she seemed pretty basic. I guess that's the trick of the story is that you would think Julian would be the one that would be inducted into the family, but really it's the one you wouldn't think would be. They do have to take her baby because apparently they take something from you before they let you join the family.

So, I guess they did take things from different people. Some people are missing pinkies and toes. Some people were raped with arms. I guess I just don't understand if they're the ones doing this torment on each other how are they able to be a family and not want to seek revenge on each other.

This whole time though it is driving me crazy because we never get an explanation of how Jim finds this haunted house. Also, we don't know why there's only so many people there that night when it's a week away from Halloween.

And suddenly Mamie's like John Wick. She's taking down three people around her and she's able to attack these people.

In the end she eats her fetus from her pocket and turns around to the scarecrow and the pumpkin patch, but was the point than of burning the house and killing everyone?

Final Thoughts:
I feel horrible. I have read 2 other books by this author and given five stars, they have all been amazing. Sadly this book was just not it for me. It felt like every other splatterpunk book out there. One of my favorite things about this author's writing is that he has a unique way of telling a story and adding so much going on that you would never guess why or how it's happening, but it's always so clever. This book didn't give me that. I feel like everything in this book was very generic and straightforward. It felt like every other splatterpunk book that's been written before. I wasn't impressed like I was with his other books.

I have been going through a reading slump so I thought this would be the book to snap me out of it. His other books were so well written and had a deep rooted story in it, but this book you never really get an understanding of what's happening. It's all just straightforward in your face things going down but no real story. I ended up just feeling bored with what was happening to the characters. The families are just not good people so I didn't care when they were being killed. There's also some plot holes that didn't make sense to me. Things happen for no reason. Characters do stuff that lead nowhere. I didn't understand why the people didn't kidnap the family while they were all in the same house together but instead waited till they had divided and it was more of a scene to get each character. I just don't understand why they didn't take the family in the beginning when they all woke up in the house on Halloween morning or before they woke up.

This book definitely won't stop me from reading other books by the author. Like I said I simply adore this author's writing but this book wasn't for me.

IG | Blog

[hannibal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Things that nagged me:
- no point to the brother’s storyline, and what’s the point telling the family what he was going to do if they couldn’t really do anything with the information?
- characters “saving info for later” for no reason
- first time I ever skipped a few pages due to Spawn and Mona
- did it really matter what the morality of the characters was like prior to their arrival? It did not impact the plot.

Anyway, if the book was longer, it could’ve been fleshed out a little better.

[Dead Inside · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Bringing it back up, Jim saw that it was a candy corn, caked in that off-white substance. I get the first bit, he said, then tossed it into his open mouth.”

This book was unhinged. I loved it.

[Bookaholic__Reviews]

For now, I'm not going to rate this. It's loaded with body mutilation, torture, extreme sex scenes, and overall just a lot. Normally, I'm alright with these things, but this time, it just seemed overly gratuitous... and there really was no reason other than to just be extreme? I honestly don't know if it's a me thing or not, and I don't want to impact this author negatively.

I think I would feel differently if I cared for any of the characters, but I didn't. I didn't connect with the story or the characters. They are literally all horrible. If that was the goal, then 10 of 10 nailed it.

The concept of the haunted house and the setting is something that I did enjoy about this particular story. I will still try another book from Harrison. And I truly feel that this book will resonate with other readers, I just think maybe it wasn't for me this time.

I would also like to mention that I did listen to the audiobook. I did enjoy the narrator. He brought life to these horrid individuals, I think his voice was perfect for this book.

[Sarah McKee · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the author Patrick C. Harrison III who brought us Grandpappy and 100% Match, now gives us a one hell of a new release.
Personally, I’m a big fan of haunted houses, but I think I’ll stay far away from The Dark Side Of Hell though.
This book is full of gruesome delights, but it does not take away from the storyline itself, and it’s full of characters that will absolutely make your skin crawl.
Let me tell you about Spawn. This little guy is what nightmares are made of, the descriptions and details of him are so vivid that when my cat brushed against my leg, I jumped from my seat and nearly had a panic attack thinking Spawn was right here with me.
I’m not quite sure if I’ll ever get over how I felt reading chapter 23.

[Danielle Yvonne · Rating 5 out of 5]

“They were brought to be active participants in some kind of sick Halloween party for psychopaths; rather they were the party favors…”

It’s no surprise that I’m a huge fan of anything PCH3 writes. What is a surprise is that I read this book December of last year, and just realized I never put a review up for it. 🫣

This is THE PERFECT book for Halloween. It’s definitely his most brutal and depraved story to date. Yes, even more than Grandpappy etc. I remember clutching my pearls many times the first time I read it. 😂

That being said, I loved it even more the second time around. It has the perfect buildup and then unleashes into an absolute fury of hell and sickening scenes. 😳

It’s not going to be an easy read for some, and it’s a girthy boy. But if you can stomach the depravity, you’re in for a real trick or treat. (Lame pun intended 😜)

[Paige Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

PC3 is a disgusting genius when it comes to crafting stories. This one actually made me gag a few times. The dinner scene in particular. oooooffff. This was for sure his most descriptive book. Lovers of this genre will absolutely devour this book. Word of advice... Don't read on a full stomach or during a meal. This story takes place during Halloween and all of the supernatural elements ultimately made this book for me. I love all things spooky and horror. The blood and gore is top notch too.

[The_5ft_reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one hell of a dark, brutal story. Every trigger you can think of lies in these pages, it's extremely excellently descriptive with characters that will haunt your dreams!

[Nick Scarbrough · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not your average spook house

I absolutely loved this book. I've had it in my tbr list for a while now and read it Dec 1st. I'm a little let down that I didn't read it on Halloween because it's the PERFECT Halloween story. Great work as usual by a master of his craft.

[SugarC · Rating 5 out of 5]

First off I tip my hat to you sir! You have written the most f*cked up book I have ever graced my eyes with. Thank you!

Every preconceived thought you have this book is going to be, throw it away because you will not be correct. Bringing characters to life is an understatement with this absolute diamond of a read! I felt like I was in a nightmare begging to be awoken by my alarm. Every scene was painted to perfection and I kept wanting more cringing at the thought it would come true. I refuse to give anything away because the details would get the review taken down immediately. If you have read books that make that bile in the back of your throat rise be prepared for it to finally erupt. Just do it so I'm not the only person going to Hell for liking this beautifully gory, twisted and insane book as much as I do!

On Kindle Unlimited at the time of this post.

[Charlotte Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jesus wept

Do yourself a favour and just read the damn book. Decide for yourself. But don’t read it if you are gonna cry like a big baby.

[E The Creepy Girl · Rating 3 out of 5]

PC3 does it again.

I’ll admit, I’m a huge PC3 fan. 100% Match and Grandpappy are in my top 10 favorite books, and I was expecting no different from his brilliant and twisted mind. Here we go.

So, at first, I wasn’t really fond of it. The diaper in the face thing kinda grossed me out, not in a good way. The turtle bit, okay weird. And the old lady, I mean, what? And the beginning felt a bit drawn out. I just wanted them to get to the haunted house already! Then, they did. As soon as they got in that haunted house, I was hooked. Honestly, I was not expecting this at all. I was more expecting a version of an extreme haunted house, but this felt more like a mix of a Halloween fan’s wet dream, and Urban Gothic. In fact, it felt like a more concise, more gruesome version of Urban Gothic, which I thought was just okay.

I’ll admit, I’m a sucker for a weird cast of villains. Give me a bunch of weirdos in a story with strange backstories and hobbies and I guarantee it’ll add at least half a star for me. Also, let’s not forget the cast of extreme horror Easter egg names, which was also a plus. It always makes me smile when I see authors paying homage like that. Makes me feel like they’re all in a secret little club, pointing finger guns at each other while onlookers watch in horror. It’s lovely.

The gore and gross out in this book was top notch, that “but then again, f*ck you” trigger warning is not to be taken lightly. It probably didn’t help I already was feeling a bit off, but damn this one made me squirm. I’m not a huge fan of the feces stuff, so that kinda knocked it down a few pegs for me, but overall it was above par compared to a lot of other stuff I read. Just all around fun.

PC3, baby, please make a sequel. I want, no, I NEED these weirdo’s backstories. What a vibrant a horrifying cast, perfect to scratch all those nasty itches in my brain.

3 stars.

Edit: every time I think of this novel I get yucky feelings so I’m lowering my rating lol

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

If extreme horror is your filet mignon, this is the perfect meal for you. It is possibly the most depraved piece of work by Harrison out there; no amount of trigger warning could prepare the reader for what goes on at the Dark Side of Hell, “the Boones Farm of haunted houses” (if that cheap wine came with a side order of candy corn and “c*nt rot”). Bonus points for his allusions to other splatter writers such as Beauregard, Bercy, and Morgan.

[Crystal Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phew, what can I say. This is brutal af, almost made me puke a few times. There are also elements that make it stand out from other extreme books. That is all I am going to say… just go read it, like now!

[Jessica Mays · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story was wild, gross, gory, and just FUN!!! PC3 is one of my all time favorite authors and this story involving a family being kidnapped on Halloween and being tortured HEINOUSLY..I loved it. PC3 knows how to make people sick. That dinner scene will live on in my memories forever

[Veronica ☠️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A week before Halloween, the Gibsons go and check out The Dark Side Of Hell. It's a haunted house but to them, it looks like a super cheap one and it sucked. That is until they get to the end and see a super realistic dead body. They leave and go back to normal everyday life.

Halloween rolls around and each of the family members gets a shocking surprise from some very familiar people wearing Pumpkin masks. This is going to be a Halloween they'll never forget.

On top of this being absolutely gross, this was a really fun read! The deranged family reminded me of the Firefly family or even the Sawyer family. That dinner scene was disgusting, but also hilarious lmao! I loved how each of the deranged family member names were some very popular extreme horror/splatterpunk names! Very fun touch! I'm curious to see if there will be more from this world with how it ended. This was disgusting, vile, and a super fun read! This one may make you gag!

[Kate Victoria RescueandReading · Rating 3 out of 5]

A family’s decision to go to a ramshackle haunted house has deadly consequences.

“The first time they went, nobody got hurt, nobody died, and nobody had any body parts lopped off or destroyed beyond repair. Nobody was really even scared until the end. The first time they went, that is.”

This was extremely unsettling and absolutely disgusting. I had to skip some of the scenes and I’ve even read a fair amount of splatterpunk stories. It was actually so nauseating at some points.

Mixing House of 1000 corpses with Halloween horrors, there are many scary elements mixed into the depravity and vileness. The characters were all very “unique” and surprising in their own ways.

I would warn other readers to prepare their minds and stomachs before cracking this book open.

[Stefanie Duncan · Rating 5 out of 5]

That was a little over 200 pages of wtffff lmao

I should've saved this book for Halloween but it ended up being my first book of this year... and boy it did not disappoint!

What first started out as a pretty messed up family that gets violently kidnapped into a Haunted House that they previously visited, then turns into a disgustingly gory survival fest. FYI: the name of the perpetrators will sound oddly familiar to those that read a lot of Indie Horror.

Enjoy!

[corks · Rating 3 out of 5]

The only reason why this book is getting a 3 star is because the gore was so good I almost had to “look away.” Other than that this book was utterly trash but in a weird entertaining way? The events were piled high on you back to back, so much was going on at once… so you were very overstimulated as the reader but you were engaged cause what the fuck is going to happen next? Lmao I’m a sucker for a crazy ass horror book but they just be plotless and chaotic 😂

[Laura Lougher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely my favourite of all he PC3s that I have read so far, felt like there was more of a story than the others although the gratuitous horror and absolute disgustingness was still very strong. I keep saying I don’t know how he thinks this vileness up, but I keep reading them, although with the Mother part I almost couldn’t continue. I can’t say I enjoyed it, felt like I might vomit at many times but I am en’gross’ed by the writing 🥴😳😱😂

[Catherine Adams · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book started out with some solid potential and then just got really wack! lol Super disappointed with this one.

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was unhinged and disgusting. I don't even really know what to say.. but I was so invested in wanting to know what happened next. I never once knew what to expect, so I'm giving it 5 stars for just being wild

[Makeila · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this so bad. Horror, Halloween, haunted house (all of my faves) but I’m thinking maybe extreme horror isn’t for me anymore. I did like the griddle scene & that’s about it

[Clariece · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read “The Dark side of Hell” by Patrick C. Harrison III and let me tell you this was the easiest ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I’ve ever given. This book got so outta pocket and unexpected. Like I thought I have read some wild shit. But this book does it 10 times over and then some. The things that happened to Mona the mom in the book. Were so fucked up I felt bad for her the most. It’s more than just extreme horror it has other elements as well but I won’t spoil. I definitely enjoyed the writing and multiple povs as well.

[Phrique · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Dark Side of Hell was on my list & thankfully I included it on my #roadtoWIlliamsburg playlist. This book definitely helped me save the little sanity I had left…with total cuckoo, utter batshit insanity in the best ways possible.

Quick synopsis:
A “wholesome” family absentmindedly visits an eery haunted house attraction, not realizing that they would be back, sooner than later. This time as the star attractions & possible new “hires.” Moral of the story: Don’t ever do anything or go anywhere, ever.

Where to begin. 🧐 PCH continues to be one of the best bang for your buck authors in the industry. If you were in line for depravity, body horror, disturbingly repugnant villains, and blood/guts; he would be the lunch lady handing out the huge scoops. A mental maximalist after my own heart, he jam-packs that all shit into his stories with heavy hands. If you are not down with the horror shits, don’t go trick or treating at his house. His characters are also next level in terms of…you don’t necessarily ache for them and their suffering. A couple of times, you’re like GOOD. Even some of his most twisted violent antagonists have heart-breaking backstories for why they are sawing that lady in half. 🥲 He’s just got that skillset that is so severely lacking and under-appreciated. So if you’ve never read PCH, you are missing out. I would def start with his Pocket Nasties. This one will probably overstimulate you, but like with the good shakes tho? Your call. Either way, go get you some Patrick C. Harrison III!

[Rainbeaux Harvest · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now, this was some good sh**!! PCH killed it with this one!

[Nemanja Vasic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Screw Trigger Warnings

Patrick eliminated the words trigger warning from his vocabulary to create the most disgusting and depraved splatterpunk book I have read thus far. Just when you thought he couldn’t get more disgusting he ups the ante and makes you wonder how in the world someone can think of such twisted stories. Absolute depravity from start to the brilliant conclusion. BRAVO Patrick, I look forward to reading more from you in the future!

[Cait · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jesus Christ