There is a very specific brand of twisted-logic dread that Marcus Kliewer conjures up better than pretty much anyone else in the genre space today. If 2024’s We Used to Live Here taught us anything, it’s that while home is where the heart is, it’s also a far more fluid – and subsequently all the more unpredictable and unsettling – concept than one might expect.
His latest novel, The Caretaker – set in the same universe but very much a sui generis standalone work – publishes tomorrow, April 21. The new book doubles down on architectural anxiety and, as is to be expected based on the author’s previous work, The Caretaker once again ingeniously upends familiar tropes, which blurbsmith extraordinaire Clay McLeod Chapman – never prone to exaggeration – is calling “quite possibly the ultimate ‘don’t go in there’ novel, offering up an apocalyptic final girl for the ages.” Need we say more?
The Caretaker centers on Macy Mullins, who, desperate for work and money, responds to a job posting for a three-day caretaker gig on the Oregon Coast. What seems like a simple, short-term assignment (albeit with a whole bunch of curious instructions) quickly spirals into a nightmare as she discovers a malevolent presence lurking on the property. Trapped by the wilderness and facing an incomprehensible evil, Macy may be the only one who can stop it from spreading.
Universal Pictures also just stoked anticipation for the book with confirmation that the long-gestating film adaptation of The Caretaker has finally found its director in David Bruckner (The Night House, Hellraiser [2022]). Sydney Sweeney is pulling double duty on the project as both star and producer. Michael Bay and Brad Fuller are also producing via their Platinum Dunes banner’s first-look deal with the studio. Scott Glassgold will produce through 12:01 Films.
To celebrate the release of The Caretaker, CinemaChord’s Howard Gorman sat down with Kliewer to dissect the “rules as rituals” that underpin the book’s dread. This internal logic is reminiscent of cult touchstones like Gremlins, The Ring, and It Follows, where rigid structures feed the protagonist’s own spiralling compulsions. They also discuss the book’s arsenal of narrative tricks, all cleverly engineered to provoke a visceral reader response, as well as the strength of Macy’s narrative voice. So vividly rendered is the character that – even with the aforementioned high-profile film adaptation on the horizon – the character never collapses into the inevitable image of Sydney Sweeney. And, of course, we couldn’t resist poking the hive to see what secrets Kliewer was willing to reveal about the planned adaptation.
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