Monster Complex ™

View Original

Interview: Johnny Compton on DEVILS KILL DEVILS

Chris Well

When all hell breaks loose, you need a devil on your side…

For fans of Southern gothic horror, Johnny Compton’s Devils Kill Devils offers his trademark terror and dread to a new roster of monsters—angels, devils, vampires—and a heart-pounding race to save the world.

This time we offer an exclusive interview with Johnny Compton about his new monster novel Devils Kill Devils. Perfect for fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Certain Dark Things and Southern gothic horror, Compton brings his trademark terror and dread to a new roster of monsters—angels, devils, vampires—and a heart-pounding race to save the world.

Compton’s fascination with frightening fiction started when he was introduced to the ghostly folktale “The Golden Arm” as a child. Now a Stoker Award-nominated author, his short stories have appeared in Pseudopod, Strange Horizons, The No Sleep Podcast and several other publications. The Spite House, his debut novel, was released in 2023. His second novel is Devils Kill Devils.

In our exclusive interview with Mr. Compton, the author explains how Devils Kill Devils compares and contrasts with his previous horror novel, how his monster research impacts him as a storyteller, and how he manages to wrestle with both real-world monsters and those that are fantastical…

About Devils Kill Devils

Sarita’s guardian angel saved her from four certain deaths, but everything changes when he appears for a fifth time and murders her loved one in cold blood. In anguish and anger, Sarita realizes he may not be so angelic, after all.

Her search for the truth and lust for revenge pull her into the orbit of devils, vampires, demons, and the brave souls striving for justice in the monsters’ twisted grasps—and the megalomaniacal zealot engineering all the chaos has the fiercest grip of all.

To make it out alive and save the world in the process, Sarita will have to master her darkest impulses before they consume her entirely…

Find Devils Kill Devils on Amazon (affiliate link)

Monster Complex™ uses Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. (At no additional charge to you.)

Interview: Johnny Compton on DEVILS KILL DEVILS

Q: What inspired Devils Kill Devils? (How does it compare and contrast with your previous horror novel The Spite House?)

I’ve had the general idea of what happens in the opening chapter in mind for several years now. And I have also wanted to write a story about vampires leaning into older, more obscure lore and sources for a while as well. I felt like I could marry these two ideas successfully.

I also knew that a large portion of the book would take place in a relatively remote part of the Texas Hill Country, and during a drive through the area I came across Baby Head Mountain and Baby Head Cemetery, and I knew right away this place had to feature in my book.

Q: I’ve heard that you’ve studied a lot of classic monster fiction to create the vampires in this book. (Do you want to share the kind of stuff you’ve learned?) How has this study influenced you as a storyteller? Has it also impacted your standards for watching and reading new stuff?

I learned some fascinating things. Myriad ways of becoming a vampire, beyond being bitten, such as sacrilegious blood rituals. Different ways of stopping or killing vampires, such as burying them face down, or at a crossroads, cutting hearts out, using specific kinds of wood for stakes. Metal-mouthed vampires of certain areas in Africa.

Hopefully it helps improve my writing going forward. The dream is to get a little better with every story I write and let the research contribute to that.

As far as how it affects how I read and watch, it opens my eyes even more to what other people are doing in their stories that might be examples or evidence of unusual, interesting influences.

Q: Your fiction (so far) draws upon Texas as a location and its history. How much of your writing process starts with these Texas elements and builds your story around them... and how much starts with a story idea and Texas is just the best place to set it? How has what you’ve learned about Texas influenced your fiction?

Story usually comes first to me, followed by characters and then setting. From there I adjust as necessary based on the setting, what it means for the characters and then the story.

Texas has fairly diverse climates, landscapes and cultures, not to mention a complicated history, to put it mildly. It’s relatively easy for me, despite the long drives, to explore different parts of the state to get a good feel for the things I’ll be writing about. I don’t aim to write exclusively about Texas, but even the third book I’m currently working on will be set here.

After that, who knows? Well, I do, but I’m not saying yet.

Q: The protagonist in Devils Kill Devils wrestles with racism and bigotry—so she faces both real-life monsters and the fictional kind. How do you mix in both real-world and fantastical monsters in your writing?

I think it’s important not to shy away from the realities of prejudice when you’re writing about characters who are likely to face it given their background and situation.

Having said that, while it comes up, I think that, similar to The Spite House, it’s present but without taking center stage in Devils Kill Devils, although to an extent it gets repackaged as a bit of a metaphor in how our ultimate villain feels about humankind. Still, for this story, I just try to let it flow somewhat naturally toward the more compelling horror, and hopefully underscoring how simple-minded and pathetic bigotry ultimately is along the way.

Find more Johnny Compton online

More from Monster Complex

See this gallery in the original post