In the opening pages of The Angel of Indian Lake, Blackfeet horror author Stephen Graham Jones dedicates the novel to Jason Voorhees, the killer in the Friday the 13th franchise. However, Jones isn’t referring to the hockey masked undead slasher who has slain dozens of promiscuous teenagers over the years, Jones’ dedication is meant for young Jason, before becoming the maniac butcher with a machete, Jason was the little boy who drowned in Crystal Lake. His tragic death sent his mother Pamela into a homicidal rampage seeking vengeance on those who neglected her disabled son. If only someone had swum out to save little Jason, none of the summer camp slaughter would have happened. It is that detail that Stephen Graham Jones emphasizes about slasher movies, at their core, these stories are about reversing injustices and righting wrongs. How past pain can cause turmoil when left unresolved.
The Angel of Indian Lake is the final installment in Stephen Graham Jones horror trilogy, which began with My Heart Is A Chainsaw. These novels feature Jade Daniels, the Native Final Girl obsessed with slasher movies. Throughout the series, Jade uses her nerdy horror flick knowledge to battle psycho killers wreaking havoc in her hometown of Proofrock, Idaho. Picking up four years after the second novel, Don’t Fear the Reaper, Jade is once again faced with more gruesome murders she reluctantly investigates, revealing another homicidal maniac resulting in a gory body count in true splatter film fashion.
This third chapter in the Indian Lake trilogy goes wildly unpredictable, pulling no punches while bringing the series to an emotional and heartbreaking conclusion. No longer confined to the slasher formula, this novel incorporates various elements of other horror subgenres, such as supernatural ghost stories and creature features. Like they said in Scream 3, all bets are off, anything and everything goes in the 3rd installment. The Angel of Indian Lake takes surprising detours of twists and turns leading to a chaotic final act. As usual, Jones does not skimp on the blood.
Occasionally, the narrative style can meander and feels like it rambles, even jarring. Instead of straight writing descriptive action, Jones gets inside the characters heads, making it less about the details and more of how the characters experience the events. This can be confusing but it also keeps the reader on edge, providing a more emotional approach to the storytelling. Despite the excess gore, there is a heartfelt sentimental layer to The Angel of Indian Lake. Discovering the genesis of what unleashed all of the town’s mayhem provides a sorrowful foundation to this series.
This time Jade is more mature, a little wiser, a little bolder, yet still riddled with anxiety and guilt, Jade feels like she’s the cause for all the massacres that befell her community. She has grown tired of quoting horror classics like Jaws, Bay of Blood, Silent Night, Deadly Night and Nightmare on Elm Street. No longer wanting to live in a slasher flick fantasy world, Jade wants this real life horror movie of hers to end so she can move on and find some peace.
Jade once admired the idea of the Final Girl. The last survivor of a horror flick murder spree, who rises to take out the masked killer at the film’s end. Usually symbols of strength and empowerment, Jade realizes that Final Girls have also experienced major trauma, suffering from PTSD, having lost all their friends, family and riddled with a lifetime of emotional distress. Like her heroes, Ripley from Alien, Sidney from Scream, Laurie from Halloween, and Ginny from Friday the 13th Part 2, Jade has weathered a storm of suffering, so much so that she doesn’t feel like she has the strength to be a Final Girl.
This is where Stephen Graham Jones shines, he crafts Jade’s inner voice with an intense dramatic depth of humanity. The Angel of Indian Lake is told from Jade’s perspective, the reader spends so much time with her, she becomes completely relatable. Jade doesn’t think she can live up to the perfect ideal image of the Final Girl. Jade is flawed and damaged, but it’s her imperfections that make her accessible, her very faults become virtues. Jade may not be perfect, but she is very human. Full of self-doubt and fear, yet still finds the strength to carry on.
It is that inner strength Jade relies on to combat the horrors of Indian Lake. Knowing the slasher movie tropes, she looks back into the town’s history and figures out the events that caused all the chaos in Proofrock. Like Jason drowning, which set off the murders in a dozen movies, Jade must get to the root causes to lift the town’s curse. Uncovering the seeds of trauma to address the pain and violence that grew from it all. Jade is trying to right the wrongs, bring justice and closure, for the town, for her friends, and herself. Ultimately, this final chapter in the Indian Lake Trilogy is about healing.
Trauma can be a tough burden when left unchecked, as it has been for so long in Indian Lake. This brings up the subject of generational trauma, as the history of Proofrock mirrors American Colonialism. Proofrock was built on Indigenous land, suggesting an underlying theme of how gentrification equals colonization, which has left a huge scar on this nation built on genocide and slavery. Like a masked killer seeking vengeance, slasher movies symbolize America’s past historical violence coming back to haunt them, disrupting the calm of their suburban smalltown comfort. Slashers are bringing their own sense of malevolent justice as revenge for the suffering they’ve endured.
In the previous novels, Jade used to fantasize about slasher movie retribution and righting wrongs in blood. However, after all she has been through, she no longer wants a masked maniac to come and save her from her chaotic life. She understands that these movie killers have a twisted sense of morality. Everyone has issues but not everyone is entitled to go psycho and take their pain out on the world. Horror movies may have been a sanctuary when she was younger, but after witnessing true horror, Jade chooses to right injustices without causing any more harm.
The violence of slashers is born from pain, rooted in despair. Stephen Graham Jones gets to the origins of the anguish that causes a mother like Pamela Voorhees to snap and seek revenge for her lost son Jason. As horrific as her actions are, the catalyst for her grief is still heartbreaking.
In horror movies, trauma creates the slasher who creates the Final Girl who must carry all that pain, and Jade realizes it is the Final Girl’s duty to put a stop to it all. Vengeance just leads to more heartache. Jade makes it her responsibility to stop the cycle of violence.
The Angel of Indian Lake is Stephen Graham Jones’ swan song to Jade Daniels. This final chapter in this slasher trilogy brings this series to a climactic and emotional close. It has been quite the fun ride, especially for horror fans who geeked out on all the meta slasher flick references and easter eggs sprinkled throughout the pages. Jones meticulously dissects the horror movie tropes and slasher rules while also breaking them and subverting expectations. Creating an entertaining gory slasher epic with a tragic and emotional core.
Of course, there is Jade Daniels, Jone’s most wonderful creation, a character with so much depth and intelligence, that she not only set a new standard for Indigenous Representation, but raised the bar for all characters in any storytelling medium. Her story arc throughout this series has been an inspiring journey. At times emotionally difficult, heartbreaking and terrifying, but she still managed to pack a sly sarcastic humorous wit while going through the horror movie trenches. And still, that young Native metal head punk outcast who loved slasher flicks managed to make it through it all. Jade Daniels is The Final Girl for a new generation. Let’s hope she finally gets some peace and enjoys a good smoke while gazing out over the lake. She deserves it. “Farewell and Adieu….Slasher Girl.”
