Michael McEachern McDowell (June 1, 1950 – December 27, 1999) was an American author best known for his work in the horror and mystery genres. He also co-wrote the screenplay for the 1988 film Beetlejuice. No less than Stephen King once described McDowell as "the finest writer of paperback originals in America today."
Born in Enterprise, Alabama, in 1950, McDowell quickly departed the South to attend college, where he received an M.A. from Harvard and a Ph.D. in English from Brandeis University. McDowell had a lifelong fascination with death culture, earning his Ph.D. with a dissertation entitled "American Attitudes Toward Death, 1825–1865," and kept a large collection of death memorabilia including infant coffins, mourning jewelry, and memento mori photography. He taught screenwriting for many years at Boston University.
Known for his intricately researched historical novels, as well as for his twisted take on the Southern Gothic genre often set in his old stomping grounds of Alabama, McDowell wrote profusely in many styles and genres and frequently collaborated with other authors, publishing more books under his various collaborative noms-de-plume than he did under his own name. An openly gay man, McDowell also wrote the Valentine and Lovelace mystery series about a cool-headed gay bartender and his flighty straight friend who solve murders together, set in Boston during the tumultuous 1980s amid real-life anti-gay rhetoric and the AIDS crisis. His other books, while not LGBTQ+-focused, often contain positive and unique LGBTQ representation. This is balanced by a propensity to write some truly unlikeable characters who often suffer gruesome fates.
McDowell himself was dismissive of his own work, describing himself as "a commercial writer" and stating, "I think it is a mistake to try to write for the ages." Nevertheless, when McDowell's out-of-print bibliography was republished by Valancourt Books in the mid-2010s, it opened the door for a popular and critical reevaluation of his work.
McDowell died of AIDS-related causes in 1999. His final novel, Candles Burning, was completed by Tabitha King and published posthumously in 2006.
His book Cold Moon Over Babylon was adapted to the film Cold Moon in 2016, starring Christopher Lloyd, with a cameo by Tommy Wiseau, of all people.
Works published as Michael McDowell:
- The Amulet (1979)
- Cold Moon Over Babylon (1980)
- Gilded Needles (1980)
- The Elementals (1981)
- Katie (1982)
- The Blackwater series (published as an omnibus in 1983)
- The Flood
- The Levee
- The House
- The War
- The Fortune
- Rain
- Toplin (1985)
- Clue (novelization of the film; 1985)
- The Wild Card series (a.k.a. the Jack and Susan series)
- Jack and Susan in 1953 (1985)
- Jack and Susan in 1913 (1986)
- Jack and Susan in 1933 (1987)
- Candles Burning (2006; completed by Tabitha King after McDowell's death)
McDowell's work provides examples of:
- Anachronic Order: The Wild Card series. The first book is set in 1953, the second in 1913, the third in 1933.
- Anyone Can Die: No one is safe in a McDowell novel.
- Asshole Victim: Between McDowell's propensity for introducing unpleasant characters and his love of cruel and unusual deaths, this happens quite a lot. Even the relatively innocent victims who just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time tend to be not-very-nice people.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: One of his favorite tropes to work with. Perhaps best seen in The Elementals.
- Bury Your Gays: Considering the high death tolls in McDowell's work, this trope is surprisingly averted, as invariably, the gay characters survive. This trope is played straight in the Valentine and Lovelace series, as the series takes place in LGBTQ-centered circles and the Body of the Week often belongs to a gay man.
- Canon Discontinuity: Certain fictional locations in McDowell's novels are mentioned in other works, but with no indication that anything ever happened there. A notable example is Pine Cone, Alabama, which was completely destroyed at the end of The Amulet but continues to be referred to as a still-functioning, occupied town in other works.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Known for writing quite a few of these.
- The Deep South: The Amulet, Cold Moon Over Babylon, The Elementals, and Blackwater are all set in Southern Alabama, where McDowell himself grew up.
- Matriarchy: Often related to Big, Screwed-Up Family above, McDowell's work often features intricate hierarchies of female power in which the males fall into subservient roles. Lest anyone mistake this for empowerment, the matriarchs are usually as corrupt and controlling as anyone else.
- Southern Gothic: Perhaps best-known for this genre.
- Sweet Home Alabama: Deconstructed. The version of Alabama McDowell writes about is not a place anyone would want to live in—and that's aside from the supernatural stuff. Almost every traditionally positive Southern attribute is examined and exposed for its dark, vicious, cruel, or oppressive qualities.
- What Could Have Been:
- McDowell was contracted to write ten books in the Wild Card series, one for each decade of the 20th century, but burned out after three.
- Candles Burning was published posthumously and was completed by Tabitha King, who admitted in the book's introduction that since McDowell left no indication how the book would end, she had to make up an ending as best she could, and that she wished she knew how it really ended.
- McDowell was originally tapped to write the screenplay for The Nightmare Before Christmas. Unfortunately, he was on a lot of drugs at the time, and his treatment was considered both terrible and unfilmable. He still got an "adapted by" credit, though, which means he contributed to the direction of the story but had no hand in writing the actual script.
- McDowell's original vision for Beetlejuice was a much darker film in which the Maitlands' deaths were graphically portrayed onscreen. Beetlejuice himself was written as a bewinged Fallen Angel who was an actual sexual predator (as opposed to the easily-rebuffed hornball that appears in the final version) who is out to murder the Deetz family instead of just scaring them away, and the film originally concluded with the Maitland ghosts reasserting control over their home while the Deetzes are miniaturized and forced to live inside the model.
