Jenifer

[cyberghostface]

Here's a short story from Creepy #63. For those interested this was made into an episode of 'Masters of Horror' directed by Dario Argento.

Warning: There's some gory stuff here as well as what I think is an implied rape scene.

The story opens with a man on a hunting trip hearing sobbing in the woods. He comes across a man with an axe over a bound girl over a log. He tells him to drop the axe or he'll shoot and, when he doesn't, kills him. Before dying, his last words are "Jenifer" and the protagonist realizes he was the one sobbing.



The authorities believe his story. Upon hearing that she is to be institutionalized, the protagonist (we find out later his name is Jim) feels pity for Jenifer and motions to adopt her. He brings her home to his wife and two kids, who are frightened by Jenifer's appearance. Jenifer's presence soon becomes a strain on the family which further escalates when she apparently bites the wife. She tells Jim that she'll take the kids and leave unless he takes Jenifer to the institution. Upon doing so, Jenifer begins to cry again, and Jim lies to his wife that the institution was overcrowded, and that he'll try again tomorrow. This never happens, and Jenifer ends up staying for the next couple of months.

Jim feels helpless as he can't bring himself to get rid of her. Finally, he finds the family cat drowned in the bathtub, which is the final straw for Jim's family.





He buries the body in a deserted field, sells his business and goes on the road with Jenifer. After a series of motel rooms, he eventually comes across a farmhouse where he lives with Jenifer in misery but unable to escape her hold on him. Later, he discovers that a child has gone missing and assumes the worst.

Comments

[doctor_spanky]

I remember really digging the movie version of this. The cat scene stuck with me a long time

This was a good Halloween post thx