Offspring

Offspring

The story behind the gruesome legend…

 

It shocked horror fans everywhere – Jack Ketchum’s Off Season, the brutal and harrowing story of an inbred family of cannibals in present-day Maine. Some reader were horrified, others outraged. Yet no one could put the book down. An instant cult classic.

 

Now the legend lives on.

 

A new generation of terror.

 

The local sheriff of Dead River, Maine, thought he’d killed them off ten years ago – a primitive, cave-dwelling tribe of predatory savages. But somehow, the clan survived. To breed. To hunt. To kill and eat. Now the peaceful residents who came to Dead River to escape civilization, are fighting for their lives. And there’s only one way to do it:

 

Unleash the primal savagery lurking in their own hearts.

Стервятники (“Vultures”) (Off Season and Offspring) (Russia)

Translated by Vyacheslav Shutov.

 

From a 2017 Interview with Darker Magazine (in Russian):

 

Readers in Russia know you mainly from the rather messy-made edition of «Vultures» [Off Season] and «Stai» [Offspring].The nineties were a paradise for horror lovers in Russia, although most publishers wanted to spit on copyright, high-quality covers / translations, etc. What do you think about this book? Did you receive any money for it?

 

Not a cent. These books were stolen by the editor of a magazine…and sold without my knowledge. Then one day I received this book in hardcover by mail, on the cover – a frightened man in the form of either a New York policeman, or the pilot of a Nazi attack plane, surrounded by zombie-like creatures. There was no return address, so where she came from, I don’t know.

Offspring (UK)

The local sheriff of Dead River, Maine, thought he’d killed them off ten years ago – a primitive, cave-dwelling tribe of predatory savages. But he failed. Somehow the clan survived. To breed. To hunt. To kill and eat. And if the peaceful residents of Dead River are to survive, they too must unless their primal instincts. For blood…

Offspring

Jack Ketchum’s ferocious first novel, Off Season, met with a lot of controversy when it was originally released in 1980. Nobody had ever seen a book with quite so many teeth before. But sales of over 250,000 paperback copies made this first-time novelist a major force in the horror and suspense genres.

 

Now Offspring, the sequel to that Off Season, written ten years later, has been released in this exclusive hardcover edition. Just when you thought the horror of Off Season was vanquished in their first outing, The Family lives on…continuing to terrorize the coast of Maine. And their zest for life, and for yours, continues on in that good old Family tradition. 

Offspring

The local sheriff of Dead River, Maine, thought he had killed them off ten years ago – a primitive, cave-dwelling, tribe of cannibalistic savages. But somehow the clan survived. To breed. To hunt. To kill and eat. And now the peaceful residents of this isolated town are fighting for their lives….

 

Offspring

Movie tie-in edition.

 

The local sheriff of Dead River, Maine, thought he had killed them off ten years ago – a primitive, cave-dwelling tribe of cannibalistic savages. But somehow the clan survived. To breed. To hunt. To kill and eat. And now the peaceful residents of this isolated town are fighting for their lives…

Offspring

The local sheriff of Dead River, Maine, thought he had killed them off ten years ago – a primitive, cave-dwelling tribe of cannibalistic savages. But somehow the clan survived. To breed. To hunt. To kill and eat. And now the peaceful residents of this isolated town are fighting for their lives…

 

 

Offspring 30th Anniversary Edition

The 30th Anniversary edition of Offspring includes the 1991 novel, a 2004 Author’s Note, The 1991 essay Back to the Stew Pot: On Offspring, an excerpt from the screenplay, a collection of film images, two interviews, and more. 

 

Contents

  • Foreword by Thomas F. Monteleone
  • Offspring
  • Afterword: Back to the Stew Pot: On Offspring (1991 Essay)
  • Offspring Script Excerpt
  • Offspring Film Images
  • Introduction to Interviews by Michael D. Noble
  • Two Interviews with Jack Ketchum  by Michael D. Noble
  • Life Among the Cannibals: Reflecting on 35 Years of the Dead River Series – 2015 Essay
  • Author Bio

Offspring (film)

THEY HUNT IN PACKS. THEY FEED ON FLESH. THEY PREY ON INNOCENCE. Back with a vengeance and an insatiable appetite for human flesh…THEIR TIME HAS COME AGAIN. Based on the acclaimed novel and adapted for the screen by best-selling author Jack Ketchum, Offspring follows the survivors of a brutal flesh-eating clan that has resurfaced in the once sleepy town of Dead River, Maine. The locals are in for a rude awakening when they realize it’s the same pack that the sheriff thought he’d killed off a decade ago. Just when they thought the nightmare was over, theyre about to discover that the fight for their lives has only just begun.