Shadow of the Valley of Death

Shadow of the Valley of Death is Effie Lalumiere's newest zine, combining digital collage, poetry, fragmentary narratives and hometown folklore into an angst-ridden encapsulation of the violence and depravity at the heart of Montana culture.

The zine is structured as a field guide to the fictional city of Hellvalley MT, based almost entirely on the real city of Missoula MT. It is also structured as a film about an emotionally disturbed 17-year old boy who is obsessed with the image of the Montana Vigilantes, and uses it to escape from the turmoil of his abusive surroundings. 

Every night, he leaves his mom's apartment and roams the streets of Hellvalley, fantasizing about killing vagrants and experiencing intrusive visions of forest fires. One night, he meets a cowboy in a black hat, whose mere presence in the boy's mind begins to unravel his deepest sexual and violent urges, and sends him on a nightmarish spiral of revenge that threatens to destroy them both.