Off Season is a horror novel written by Jack Ketchum and initially published by Ballantine Books in 1980.

[1] It was Ketchum's first novel[2] and was partially based upon the legend of Sawney Bean, which also inspired Wes Craven's 1977 cult classic horror film The Hills Have Eyes.

In 1999, the novel was picked up for re-publication by Cemetery Dance Publications and was released in an "unexpurgated edition" that featured some of the gore that Ballantine initially made Ketchum trim as well as his original, bleaker ending.

A group of six friends from New York City rent a house in Dead River, Maine for a weeklong vacation.

Hidden for years from civilization, a clan of cannibalistic, inbred savages stalk the area for whatever meat they can find.

The local sheriff is alerted to a woman having been found in the ocean with distinct, whip-like wounds on her back.

The Jane Doe is unconscious till the next day when she reports that she exited her vehicle to help a little girl who was wandering in the road past midnight.

Following the cannibals to a cave, Nick finds Marjie inside, badly beaten and partially eaten; Laura is butchered next to the fire.

Ketchum chose Maine as the setting based on his personal experiences, having spent two seasons of summer stock in Cape Elizabeth, where he found the terrain to be isolating.