Keean Murrell-Snape with his novel Occult 24/7. Photo: Supplied.
On Halloween 1989, a group of misfit teens are just trying to survive another night outside their local V-Mart — until a demon-worshipping CEO threatens to drag them into something far darker.
That’s the world Illawarra writer and filmmaker Keean Murrell-Snape brings to life in his new horror novel Occult 24/7 — complete with a Spotify playlist woven directly into the story.
Occult 24/7 began life not as a novel, but as a feature-length screenplay.
About 10 years ago, Murrell-Snape challenged himself to write a movie script every year “for the exercise and for the love of it”.
Over that decade he produced eight feature-length screenplays.
“Occult 24/7 was the last one I wrote and, when I was done with it and put it on the shelf, I just couldn’t let it go,” he said.
“I just loved the characters and the world so much.”
Within three to four months, he had transformed the script into a first draft novel, followed by about six months of intensive rewriting and all that comes with indie publishing.
The book tells the story of weirdos Audrey, Billy and Courtney who have no interest in saving the world.
They just want to spend another night hanging out on the curb of their local V-Mart, but Vass Enterprises new CEO Killian Vass, who is hellbent on making a deal with a demon that will give them the power to shape the world, might ruin everything.
Murrell-Snape traces the roots of Occult 24/7 back to his teenage years, when a girlfriend introduced him to American author Christopher Pike.
While RL Stine’s Goosebumps and Fear Street dominated YA horror shelves, it was Pike’s darker stories that most resonated and led him to start writing at age 13.
“I always preferred Christopher Pike because he wrote stories that were a little bit more adult for teenagers,” he said.
“They always had this edge to them – a bit more murder, violence, a little bit of sex – and these crazy plots.”
Murrell-Snape said that classic 80s “teen saves the world” formula heavily influenced his writing, including Occult 24/7.
He described the novel as “a love letter to all the things I love” – a kind of “kitchen sink” horror story where he throws in every idea that excites him, then challenges himself to weave the chaos into a cohesive tale.
That’s because he also doesn’t outline his stories.
“It was written entirely on the fly,” he said.
“I like writing myself into situations and then getting myself out of them, throwing in too many elements and figuring out how to make that work.”
While the book is horror, it’s equally steeped in nostalgia.
Murrell-Snape hosts the Weird Kid Video Podcast celebrating 80s VHS movies, and has built an online community of fans who long for the days of video stores and analog experiences.
He said Occult 24/7 was aimed squarely at Gen X and older millennials who remembered when “certain shows were on certain nights, movies opened on Thursdays, CDs came out on Tuesdays” – though a new generation was also discovering the era through 80s-inspired hits such as Stranger Things.
One of the most distinctive features of Occult 24/7 is its Spotify playlist, which is part of the actual fabric of the story.
He said he had always written to music, usually building a playlist that reflected the tone of whatever he was working on.
This time he went further and wove the songs directly into the plot.
In the book, a group of teens hang out at a convenience store where TVs constantly play MTV, with each song often setting scenes, or tying directly into characters and themes.
“Pretty much every track that’s in the mix tape at the beginning of the book, which is also the Spotify playlist, is integrated into the plot,” he said.
“There’s even this bizarre connection to Patrick Swayze’s She’s Like the Wind from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack – it basically becomes the theme song of my villain.”
The playlist is eclectic, ranging from Ozzy Osbourne and the Pixies, to Roxette and Cyndi Lauper, helping define characters’ personalities.
Released in January, Murrell-Snape said the response so far had been encouraging, with his podcast community having picked up the book, and copies already making their way overseas.
While he works professionally as a writer-director in commercials and corporate video, independently he has been making short films since he was 14, and he now writes, directs and produces across multiple formats.
He is involved in the Creative Wollongong Short Film Festival, where he directed a film about a couple grieving the loss of a child, and is working on the Hawks documentary Har’ Work – with Occult 24/7 written in spare moments between projects.
He’s already toying with the idea of a sequel, though nothing is locked in just yet.
Purchase Occult 24/7 and listen to the Spotify playlist.
