The Last Motel

(2002)

 

(LegumeMan Books edition – Out of Print)

The Lodgepole Pine Motel is the setting for nerve-wracking terror when a group of unsuspecting travellers find themselves trapped in a nightmare of violence and mayhem. Madge Fraiser is the kindly old owner of the rustic mountain hideaway, which, during one long night, will become awash with blood, as the guests are stalked one by one by a sadistic killer. Who will live to see the dawn, and who will learn that this is one motel where checking in can be murder? They only wanted to stay one night. But one night can last a lifetime at…The Last Motel.

Author’s Note:

When I wrote The Last Motel in 2002, my aim was to pay tribute to the horror movies I grew up watching and helped shape my love of all things horror; the grungy low-budget exploitation flicks of the ’70s and early ’80s such as Last House on the Left, Motel Hell and the early Friday the 13th movies. The book was published in 2005 by Biting Dog Publications and garnered some good reviews and a lot of die-hard fans. When the rights reverted back to me in 2009 I approached the good people at LegumeMan Books about publishing a new edition. We thought that we should have fun with it. We decided to create the new edition as if it was a movie tie-in to some old – and largely forgotten – Ozploitation flick from the early ’80s. So, we created a cool-looking cover, reminiscent of the classic low-budget posters from the b-grade horror movies of the ’80s. We created a back-story for the ‘production’ and an IMDB entry. Matthew Revert and I wrote and recorded a soundtrack. We even filmed a mock trailer and shot some photos to create lobby cards and a behind-the-scenes stills gallery. All in the  hope of fooling people into thinking there really was a movie released in 1981 called ‘The Last Motel’. Did it work? Probably not as much as I had hoped, but some people were convinced the trailer and production stills were real and searched in vain for a copy of the long-lost ‘movie’.

The latest edition of The Last Motel perfectly captures the atmosphere of those beloved grindhouse classics.Even if the movie never really existed, I hope you’ll still have fun with the book.

With that in mind, here is the IMDB page for the ‘movie’ THE LAST MOTEL: THE LAST MOTEL (1981)

And here is the trailer

– Brett McBean

 

(Biting Dog Publications edition – Out of Print)

A husband and wife…
A pair of petty criminals…
A young man…
And a perverse serial killer…

Strangers with seemingly little in common with one another, are inextricably linked through a series of macabre events. In one explosive night, these people’s lives will change forever. Their stories are all different, but their plans are all the same: Stay the night at the Lodgepole Pine Motel and leave the next morning. The only problem is that one night at the Lodgepole Pine Motel can be a lifetime.

The Last Motel was my first novel and was originally published in 2002 as a super-limited edition by Wild Roses Production. This was followed in 2005 with a limited edition hardcover and trade paperback by US specialty press Biting Dog Publications.

Blurbs:

“A thrilling read about fate, coincidence and murder. McBean pumps up the tension to unbearable levels, and then lets rip.”
—Tim Lebbon author of Fears Unnamed and Desolation

“Brett McBean is as brash and brutal as a young Jack Ketchum. He visits the dark rooms inside us all. The Last Motel is the first stop on his way to the top.”
—Scott Nicholson author of The Manor and The Farm

The Last Motel is fun; a thrilling, white-knuckled suspense read. McBean’s voice is one that should be heard – a hint of Laymon and Koontz, yet distinctly his own. Genuinely creepy stuff!”
—Brian Keene, Author of The Rising and Terminal

“Brett McBean’s The Last Motel is dark and gritty, relentlessly fierce but tempered with keen wit and characters so real you can hear them breathing. The book is a loving, bloody homage to an underappreciated genre and McBean’s writing compels you to keep turning pages even as you cringe. A book as hard to put down as Misery — I couldn’t look away even when I wanted to. The Last Motel makes the Bates Motel seem like a trip to Disneyland.”
—Tamara Thorne author of Thunder Road

“Brett McBean’s The Last Motel moved me to that level of horror rarely visited. He writes without a safety net and crosses all lines as he illuminates the true essence of fear. Mesmerizing and frightening.”
—John Paul Allen author of Gifted Trust

Reviews:

Feo Amante

HorrorScope

Tony Fonseca

The Zone

Horror Web

ScaryMinds

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