The Catcher’s Trap

Meant to highlight a young man’s progression from timidity to heroism, this stilted and preachy horror story is chock-full of gross-outs but short on substance. Andre Campos is quiet and shy, and has been struggling with depression. He resolves to get out and meet people, but meeting Roman at a bar was the worst thing that could happen to him. Roman and his odd friends invite Andre to a party where clothes are being shed like snakeskins and people don’t look quite right. After an unsuccessful attempt to escape, he wakes up in a parallel dimension. His captors tie him to a pole, lash him with a whip, and rape him before putting him to work as a slave picking flowers that are said to offer eternal life. What follows is a series of set pieces involving torture and debasement, until Andre attempts to start a revolution. Andre’s first-person narration feels awkward, as if he were speaking aloud to someone rather than to himself, and the lack of nuance in the storytelling is stark. (Nov.)