The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre is one of my most highly anticipated novels of 2025. And from one of my all-time favorite authors no less. Some horror novels announce their intentions with subtle dread and slow-burn atmospheres. Others crash through the door, bloodied knife in hand, and dare you to look away. The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre is very much in the latter category. Philip Fracassi has written a brazen and brutal horror novel that does not rely on gimmicks. He wrote something memorable, biting, and very poignant. Let’s talk about it.
At first glance, you may think: a massacre in a retirement home? Surely The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre is written for shock value or some other attention-grabbing themes. Yet, from it’s very first pages, it is clear the Fracassi has carefully crafted this story, exploring the expectations of aging, vulnerability, and what we “deserve” as we get old. What place do we hold? Where do we belong?
Teens and twenty-somethings have long dominated the slasher genre’s body counts. But, here, the cast is largely elderly residents of The Autumn Springs Retirement Home. The reader is forced to reconsider both typical dynamics of slasher fictions itself and our own assumptions about fragility and resistance. Fracassi challenges us to think outside the norm.
The setting itself – the retirement home – creates the atmosphere. The pastel walls and faint scent of disinfectant poorly hide the fact we are really in some kind of institution. An institution where one is supposed to go until you die. Fracassi is not shy about weaving in commentary on the dwindling visibility of the lives of these elderly folks. Forgotten by families, written off by society, and forced into a form of dependency on others. This backdrop adds layers of tragedy that deepens the horror, making the impending violence all the more unsettling. The home dials up the tension and feels like a pressure cooker before the first drop of blood spills.
The narrative shifts into high gear once the killing begins. The assailant is introduced with chilling efficiency. Their motives are unclear, though their brutality leaves no doubt as to the stakes. It is life or death for these residents. The murders themselves are graphic, unapologetic, and drawn out with cruel inventiveness that brings to mind classic slashers of the 70s and 80s.
What keeps the novel from sinking into pure violence is the sharp contrast between the gore and the humanity of the victims. These are not nameless, one-dimensional characters destined for slaughter. They are widows, veterans, and grandparents, each dynamic and with enough backstory to make their dangerous situation and potential deaths sting. In contrast, it makes their survival attempts all the more thrilling.
This brings us to Rose DuBois, our final girl. The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre‘s beating heart. Her determination to find the truth, meanwhile keeping herself alive, injects the novel with genuine heroineism (yes I made up that word), subverting the “final girl” trope with a “final grandmother” who refuses to be underestimated. Her backstory and musings give the novel emotional depth, written and delivered, flawlessly.
What is particularly impressive is how Fracassi balanced tone. On one side, the book revels in excess. It is violent, outrageous, and gleefully morbid. On the other side, it never loses sight of its core theme: the horror of invisibility and living long enough to be discarded by society. The killer becomes less of the villain and more a manifestation of the disregard the world shows to the elderly. That allegorical undertone elevates that carnage beyond shock value, giving readers something to chew on long after the blood has dried.
Stylistically, the prose is brisk and cinematic. The action is portrayed with clarity, each murder described with just enough grisly detail. The quieter scenes are also where the writing shines. The juxtaposition of tender, aging humanity and violence occurring in the shadows is this book’s greatest strength.
Thank you to Tor Nightfire for sending me a review copy. It is one of many in this year’s explosion of what I like to call “horror with heart”. The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre publishes September 30th, 2025. Pick it up wherever you buy your books! Also P.S. – This book has already been optioned for film adaptation! Make sure you keep an eye out for it.
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Philip Fracassi is the author of the novels Don’t Let Them Get You Down, A Child Alone with Strangers, Gothic, Boys in the Valley and The Third Rule of Time Travel. His upcoming books include the novels Sarafina and The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre. Other work includes the story collections No One Is Safe!, Beneath a Pale Sky (named “Best Collection of the Year” by Rue Morgue Magazine and a finalist for the Bram Stoker award), and Behold the Void (named “Best Collection of the Year” by This Is Horror). He is also the author of several novellas, including Sacculina, Shiloh, Commodore, and D7. Upcoming film adaptations of Philip’s short stories include Fail-Safe and Altar.
Images Courtesy of Tor Nightfire
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