Sharpshooter Terror

Brian G. Berry is a contemporary horror, science-fiction, and action-adventure novelist that specializes in trash fiction. He has multiple series titles featuring stand-alone books like Slasherback, Chatter from the Tomb, and Splatter Madness. My first experience with Berry was his excellent Chopping Mall novelization, published by Encyclopocalypse Publications before being pulled from shelves for internal discord between the author and publisher (story HERE). In a recent interview with Berry, he suggested that one of his better books is Sharpshooter Terror, an installment in a series of stand-alone novels titled VHS Trash. I stepped into the crosshairs for a closer look.

Berry's ode to the VHS era places Sharpshooter Terror in the 1980s. In flashback scenes readers learn that Alan LaRue served in the Vietnam War in 1968. As a Screaming Eagle of the 101st, LaRue grew into the perfect soldier with a lack of obedience to skill set. He was fast-tracked to Recon School, joined Command and Control, and carried the war on his back in black ops missions hunting and assassinating NVA forces. After years of battle rattle, LaRue is eventually outnumbered in a firefight and is killed. But, that was just the beginning. 

LaRue's body is now a part of Project Night Stalker, a type of Universal Soldier program to create super troops impervious to emotion. Program. Assign. Kill. But, in a freak accident LaRue is dumped into the small rural community of Ashbury with scrambled programming that places every citizen on his kill-list.

LaRue's opponent is a man named Olson, an armed hunter seeking revenge for the death of his family. Mixed into the carnage is a type of First Blood scenario with the military working with the town's police force to try and bring in their man. There's cat-and-mouse tactics, lots of gunfire, and plenty of over-the-top violence. I appreciate that beyond the gory madness there's a really good narrative that should appeal to fans of 80s and 90s men's action-adventure paperbacks. Also, kudos to Berry arming LaRue with the .44 Ruger Redhawk with optics, the same legendary firearm used by Martin Stone in the glorious post-apocalyptic series The Last Ranger.  

Berry is an unrestrained author that charges into his literary lunacy Hellbent on shocking his readers. His writing style mirrors the 1980s cult cinema – those movies that went straight to VHS boxes hoping rental stores found enough sickos to rent them. We're talking about movies like Combat Shock, Deadly Prey, Escape from the Bronx, and The Last Hunter. I spent a good portion of my Dad's union pay renting these movies so I can appreciate Berry's homage with VHS Trash. Sharpshooter Terror is essentially one of these films in book format - the spillage of blood, brains, and bones on every page. 

Get your copy HERE.