Never By Night: Disturbing Passages Into The Unknown - SnowyWorks [Part Three]

NEVER BY NIGHT: DISTURBING PASSAGES INTO THE UNKNOWN, October 2024

Initially intimating that the highly disagreeable Jenna is probably going to be brutally murdered by some bald-headed maniac who lurks within the undergrowth of a children’s play park, Jonathan Chance’s script for “Respect Your Elders” does a good job in throwing its audience a disconcertingly dark curveball. True, the antagonistic teenager unsurprisingly soon meets a decidedly grim end at the Pit’s Rehabilitation Centre. But the manner of the rebellious tearaway’s demise is significantly different from what any bibliophile was probably anticipating, and resultantly ends the eleven-page plot on an unsettling high-note.

Indeed, many elements of this horror tale appear to have been introduced simply to cause its readers to feel uneasy - whether it be the increasingly large gathering of geriatrics surrounding the lone girl playing on a swing, Jenna seemingly being completely oblivious to her impending peril due to wearing a set of music-pounding ear-plugs, or the bubbling, bothersome chatter the encircling crones appear to be excitedly conversing in. Furthermore, at one point, some onlookers arguably might even fear it’s the young woman’s utterly impotent foster-carers who might be killed off, seeing as they’ve somewhat callously conveyed her to the “stay-cation” site and appear to be the only parents present within the caravan lot.

All of these well-penned possibilities continue to puzzle until the very moment when the antsy delinquent leaps from her swing, and encounters a death few would have seen coming. This shock is made all the more impactive when it’s revealed that the entire location is a well-guarded front for making its elderly occupants near-immortal, and that the purple-haired hothead clearly isn’t the first tiresome troublemaker to have succumbed to the coven's flesh-stripping sacrifice; “That’s another one down. I’m feeling younger already.”

Cleverly complimenting all this nocturnal wickedness are artist Ron Joseph and colorist Theresa Chechi, who together provide the story with a suitably quirky art-style and atmospherically dark palette. Of particular note though is just how well the visuals help sell Jenna’s anger and self-loathing through her physical movements. The girl has clearly given up on herself and resultantly appears to lash out at anyone offering her an alternative from the crime-laden future she’s resigned herself to.

Written by: Jonathan Chance, Illustrated by: Ron Joseph and Colored by: Theresa Chechi