Showing results by author "Jon Athan" in All Categories

After years apart, a group of estranged friends gather at a secluded cabin in the woods for a reunion party. Their celebration is interrupted when Chase Bowen—a mysterious, handsome young man—shows up at their door, wet, cold and stranded. Despite some reluctance amongst the guests, the visitor is invited into the cabin to wait for a mechanic.

While her parents attend a work party, eighteen-year-old Ella Romero is left in charge of her two siblings—thirteen-year-old Nicholas and eight-year-old Arianna—at their secluded lake house. In her usual fashion, Ella invites her friends to hang out while her parents are away, too. It was supposed to be an easy, quiet, normal night.

Andrew McCarthy grows concerned for his family after he catches a young man, Zachary Denton, photographing his daughter, Grace McCarthy, and other children at a park. To his dismay, Zachary talks his way out of trouble when he’s confronted by the police. He hopes that’s the end of it. Then he finds Zachary at a diner and then at a grocery store. He knows their encounters aren't coincidences. And just as Andrew prepares to defend his family, Grace vanishes.

Max Baker, a 31-year-old accountant, finds himself in a desperate situation after killing a prostitute in his hotel room. ‘I lost control of myself,’ he says. ‘I couldn’t get the thought out of my head!’ Panicking and unable to dispose of the evidence by himself, he calls on his long-time friend John Kasper for help. Kasper is horrified and hesitant to help at first, but he can’t abandon his friend during his time of need. Max’s family and future are at stake. Together, they devise and execute one plan after another, hopelessly trying to hide Max’s crime...

On their way to Las Vegas for a pair of bachelor and bachelorette parties, Colton and Lacey run into some car trouble. They find shelter at Motel Ace, located in Middle-of-Nowhere, Nevada. They’re welcomed by a quiet clerk and they meet a cast of interesting travelers. They expect a quiet, romantic night at a dingy motel as they wait for the mechanic. Then they hear the screaming in the other rooms. Then they see the clowns outside. In the blink of an eye, a peaceful night transforms into a battle for survival and a motel becomes a bloody battleground.

Keith Klein, a beat cop in the small New Mexico town of Montaño, sets out to find his missing daughters after they vanish on their way home from school. He enlists the help of Gerald Greenwood, an old friend and a private investigator. When their investigation stalls and desperation creeps in, Keith’s methods become unorthodox, illegal, and extremely violent. Meanwhile, Keith’s daughters, 14-year-old Carrie and eight-year-old Allison, witness horrors beyond imagination at the Wolves’ Den, a house in the middle of nowhere.

Nestor Castle—a bestselling, award-winning extreme horror author—has the perfect life, having transitioned from indie darling to mainstream success. Although he dislikes the limelight, he finds comfort cooped up in his lake house with his loving wife and healthy daughter. However, after announcing his next book—a departure from the horror genre—he finds himself targeted by a disgruntled fan who calls himself ‘Butterfly.’

While walking through the woods, a group of boys—Daniel Burke, Gavin Graves, and brothers Connor and Tyler Parker—discover an abandoned body.

Shawn Scott has the perfect life—a rewarding career, a nice house, a loving wife with a healthy baby on the way. But after running into an old acquaintance—a strange man named Aiden Anderson—his life is thrown into a terrifying tailspin. Aiden knows Shawn’s darkest secrets. And he wants to punish Shawn for his history of ruthless bullying by playing a special "game". Shawn must complete five challenges reflecting the bullying of their past, each one more disturbing than the last. If he fails or quits, his worst secrets will be revealed to the world—secrets with the power to ruin his life.

To the public eye, Vincent Campbell is seen as a controversial figure known for his bizarre behavior, offensive outbursts, and contrarian stances—on top of a number of legal issues. Unbeknownst to most of the world, however, he holds secrets far worse than derogatory remarks in his personal life. And when it catches up to him, he tells all to a forensic psychiatrist, Lorraine Lynch, who has been assigned to find out why he has done what he has done.

Cindy Moore, a morbidly obese woman with serious self-esteem issues, has struggled to lose weight for years. Hours of exercise and a nutritious but inconsistent diet have only led to disappointment and depression. On the verge of giving up on everything, her life takes a drastic turn when she discovers a ‘miracle’ diet pill that allows her to lose weight without dieting or exercising. The pills, however, come with disturbing side effects, including dangerous changes to her body, mind, and appetite.

No one saw it coming. It started with isolated reports of people kidnapping babies and blending them to drink their ‘essence’—a highly potent and highly addictive chemical compound found in infants. The phenomenon spread through social media, infecting other addicts. Cases of kidnapping and murder—femicide and infanticide—skyrocketed, leading to governments around the world to issue state of emergencies and strict shelter-at-home orders. But it was too late. Society had collapsed into itself.

Lovelorn: Unhappy because of unrequited love. Micah Watson is lonely. He spends his days writing books, delivering pizza, and searching for love. When he meets Mackenzie McKee at a diner, he instantly falls in love with her. He molds himself into the perfect man for her. But she rejects him - again and again. Tired of the pain and loneliness, Micah finds comfort in an online community full of misogynists.... On the internet, surrounded by anonymous provocateurs, Micah is transformed into a hateful, sadistic misogynist.

Twenty-year-old Angelina Navarro returns to her hometown of Goldbrush, Nevada—a remote village in the desert with a small but friendly community—after years away at a boarding school. She expects arguments with her mother after failing to return home immediately after graduating, but she is determined to get her thirteen-year-old brother, Gilbert, out of that dead-end town. Although she has an urge to give up and run off again at the first sign of conflict, Angelina decides to stay at the local lodge until she can resolve her issues with her family.

While attempting to abduct a teenager from her home, sadistic serial killer Victor Brooks meets his match: ten 9mm bullets. In a puddle of his own blood, sprawled across a stranger’s kitchen floor, Victor’s life begins to flash before his very eyes. He sees the living and the dead, peace and carnage, friends and foes, success and disappointment, love and hatred. He sees a life defined by rage, suffering, and despair. The light at the end of Victor's tunnel is red—red with blood. Jon Athan, the author of "The Groomer" and "Are Your Parents Home?

Vanessa Ramirez, a 28-year-old employee at a beauty salon, wants to leave Mexico for greener pastures in the United States with her children, 10-year-old Lucía and 5-year-old Joaquín. With cartel violence spilling closer and closer to her doorstep every day, she seeks the help of the local coyotes—people smugglers—but is unable to afford the rising fees for their services. So, she reluctantly turns to Mexico’s criminal underworld to fund her escape and finds herself intertwined with the cartels she was so desperate to avoid.

Zoe Doyle, an 18-year-old girl saving up for college and her first car, is working the night shift by herself at a secluded gas station for the first time. Her hopes for a normal night quickly diminish as she meets the local creeps, but she perseveres. Then she hears a news bulletin on a radio: A suspected serial killer undergoing a psychiatric evaluation has escaped from a nearby mental institution. Alone and afraid, her imagination runs wild. Is he coming here? Did I already see him? Is he watching me now? - she thinks. Unbeknownst to her, she’s correct.

After tragedy strikes their home, Frederick Chandler, a stern, irritable, and violent widower, pulls his teenage daughter, Sydney, out of school and locks her in his attic. He justifies his actions by claiming he’s protecting her from a cruel world while homeschooling her. But, when a new neighbor moves into the house next door and their teenage son, Seth, interferes with his plans, Frederick begins to tighten his grip on Sydney, and Sydney starts fighting back. Discipline and homeschooling quickly turn into abuse and lessons of violence.

The streets of Redwood, California, are being stalked by a brutal serial killer known as The Scattershot Slayer - a tall, lanky man who kidnaps and tortures his victims before creating grotesque pieces of public art with their mutilated bodies. Viola Santoro, a freelance journalist, is tracking Scattershot for her independent investigation in hopes of writing an exposé. After she unwittingly captures the serial killer's attention, she receives the scoop of a lifetime.

Bradley Anderson, known as Dr. Sadist, is a master of torture and a veteran director of snuff films at Deep Red Pictures - a studio owned by a sadistic entrepreneur, Mr. Snuff. He is paid handsomely for his work, he owns an expensive, secluded home, and he lives with a loving family. The problem? He loves his family, and he can’t stop his once-buried conscience from reawakening.