Ivo Torello
Predatori dall'abisso

“The best weird novel in many years”: this is how Pietro Guarriello described Predators from the Abyss by Ivo Torello at its release in 2012. Since then, a lot of water has flowed under the bridges regarding weird fiction in Italy, where recently new publishing houses have emerged devoted to a genre that remains niche. As Andrea Vaccaro aptly writes in the introduction, Predators from the Abyss was a sort of trailblazer, a turning point (albeit not immediately perceptible), an Italian work, weird, with a Lovecraftian stamp, imbued with a sense of wonder capable of speaking to today's readers, winning over both the public and critics”. With the subsequent novel The House of Shells Torello sought new paths, abandoning (at least partially) the route traced with Predators from the Abyss, but this doesn't mean he disowned it. It's no wonder that now a new edition is released (still by Hypnos Editions), revised and expanded, and also, in large part, rewritten. Practically a new novel. I had a good memory of the book, although perhaps (paradoxically considering my tastes) I had preferred The House of Shells. But now that I have reread it, I must say that we are facing a work of absolute level in the realm of weird and Lovecraftian cosmic horror. Perhaps it is precisely the experience of the subsequent novel that has further matured the author so much that the final result seems superior to the first draft. The volume presents itself differently right from the graphics: the illustration by the German biologist and philosopher Ernst Haeckel is replaced with that of the Swiss naturalist and doctor Johann Jakob Scheuchzer (1672-1733).

The story is set in 1890 in London and in Scotland in the Highlands. The tale begins in a gloomy and rainy London where Julius Milton, a penniless artist who sketches strange creatures seen at the British Museum, is obsessed with hallucinatory dreams that show him a mad reality. In these nightmares, he sees a phantasmagorical castle with asymmetrical towers, inconceivable monsters, and senses a chilly presence coming from the abyss of the cosmos. Impossible not to think of the legendary Wilcox, the young artist from The Call of Cthulhu. Wilcox, in his dreamlike "visions," saw the mad "Lovecraftian" deities which he then reproduced in his sculptures. Milton manages to solve the enigma of the castle with the help of a bookseller: the building indeed exists and is located in Scotland in the village of Kirsdale, in the Highlands. He then learns, through a newspaper article, about the death of Professor Renwick, a renowned paleontologist whose research in the peat bog of the Scottish locality had unearthed ancient fossils. At this point, driven by curiosity, Milton leaves London and decides to go to Kirsdale to try to exorcise his ghosts. Here he meets Thaddeus Walkley, a professor of zoology and "monster collector," who is also there trying to solve the case. The two begin investigating the unexplainable mysteries occurring: local cows and sheep are horrifically killed and mutilated by unknown creatures, and there are also victims among the local population found horrifically mutilated and emptied. The intrusion of the two into the villa of the late Renwick leads to the discovery of magic texts (including some well known to every "Lovecraftian" enthusiast). Further adding to the disturbing nature of the case is the existence of a painting in Kirsdale Abbey depicting an apocalyptic battle involving dragons that seem to come from other worlds. The painting, showing a comet that cyclically appears at intervals of years (as is happening in that year), foreboding a sort of Apocalypse, will be one of the keys to solve the enigma in which creatures that seem to come from beyond time and space infest the tranquility of Kirsdale. The village seems to all intents and purposes a microcosm in which a battle on a macrocosmic scale is being fought. The influence of the comet seems to drive the guests of a nearby psychiatric hospital (where Agatha, Professor Renwick's daughter, is confined) into delirium, causing them to have delirious dream activity. The supporting characters are nevertheless better outlined and deepened compared to the first version. In particular, the description of the customs and habits of the local rural population is very accurate and confirms how Torello is very meticulous in historical reconstruction. We also find new characters, including the girl Porcheria, possibly one of the most memorable ever created by the Genoese writer's pen. Still, I found the figures of Reverend Chalmers, who seems to have stepped out of a film like Prince of Darkness by John Carpenter, and also that of astronomer Burton Gill really well done.

Torello has recuperated, with Predators from the Abyss, the lesson of writers like H.P. Lovecraft and William Hope Hodgson writing a novel of cosmic horror. I believe that this novel would have been very much to the liking of the Recluse of Providence himself as it fully reflects his anti-anthropocentric philosophy in which man is an insignificant being faced with a largely unknown and incomprehensible cosmos where even science must acknowledge its limits.