It’s an interesting question. I love the Horror genre. I love other genres, as well- Science Fiction and Fantasy, in particular, but Horror is the one that I keep coming back to- and let’s be honest, Sci-Fi and Fantasy often blur the lines with Horror.
Looking at me, you might not suspect that I’m such a huge fan of Horror; I think people have a tendency to associate visual styles with the genre, and so, there’s an assumption that Horror fans are going to embrace some kind of gothic, death metal aesthetic, which couldn’t be farther from the truth, in my experience. Do you see people at Horror conventions dressed in such a way? Sure, but there’s a bigger majority, particularly among Horror creators, of people that are just dressed in casual street clothes that are pretty much indiscriminate from anyone else you might pass or talk to in your day.
That’s the category I probably fall into. I’m generally pretty positive, I like to make people laugh, and if I’m walking my son in the park, I like to pick wildflowers for my wife. How horrifying, eh?
So what draws a person like me to a genre like Horror?
Well, geez, where to begin?
TABOO
Perhaps it’s the taboo nature of Horror that first drew me in. I was raised in a conservative Christian household, and I can’t tell you how many times I heard my mom complain about the “evil shit” that I was reading, even from a young age (Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Goosebumps). There was an element of “forbidden fruit” to reading or watching horror, and what kid can resist doing something they know they’re not supposed to?
But, you might ask, how was I allowed to read such things in the house in the first place?
See, mine was a home where rules were enforced in a seemingly arbitrary (and often hypocritical) fashion. Power Rangers? No, I couldn’t watch that. There were evil monsters. Batman or Spider-Man? Yes, absolutely, because the superheroes were doing the right thing (nevermind the fact that they, too, frequently fought evil villains and monsters). Harry Potter? Dungeons and Dragons? Evil, because of the use of magic. Lord of the Rings? Absolutely fine (again, we’ll go ahead and ignore the common fantasy settings, the use of magic, etc). Pokemon? No, that’s an evil fad. Beanie Babies? Yeah, that’s a fad worth investing in, because they might be worth money someday (turns out, the opposite has happened, and old Pokemon cards kept in good condition are worth far more than an old Beanie Baby, even if you had that stupid plastic tag protector).
So, while Horror didn’t exactly mesh with my parents’ thinking, I think when it comes down to it, my parents were simply happy that I was reading, and saw the positive benefits of reading as an act in and of itself, regardless of what it was I read. It could also be that they didn’t know how to necessarily stop me… I learned how to read at a very young age (3), and by the time I was 6, I was regularly reading entire Goosebumps books in one sitting. I was allowed to choose books from the “big kids” section in our school library while the other kids in my class were just learning what sounds the letters of the alphabet made. Perhaps my parents believed that letting me read what I want would foster a love of reading (which it did), or maybe they gave up trying to get me to stop reading Horror when they realized I was going to find a way to do it anyway.
To be honest, I also think a large part of the reason I was able to read whatever I wanted was because my parents didn’t necessarily know much about the actual content in the books. In hindsight, there was definitely stuff going on in some of the adult books that I read as a kid that I either didn’t understand or maybe shouldn’t have been exposed to, but my parents were none the wiser because I didn’t tell them about it.
ADRENALINE JUNKIE
Another big part of my love of Horror is the adrenaline rush. I remember watching Jaws for the first time, simply because I loved sharks and it was a movie about a shark. I found out that it was based on a book and read Jaws for the first time when I was 8. I saw Carrie around the same time that I saw Jaws, but didn’t understand that it was supposed to somehow be a scary movie (in my defense, a lot of the themes of religious fanaticism went over my head, possibly because it was too mature of a topic for me to really understand at my age, and possibly because I recognized a more subtle version of religious fanaticism in my homelife).
But I could feel the blood pumping; the jump scares did their job and elevated my heart rate. For a kid who couldn’t stop running and jumping everywhere, who loved roller coasters and riding his bike or rollerblades down steep hills, this was the kind of rush I was always looking for.
As I grew a little older and started seeing more actually scary movies, it was that adrenaline rush that kept me coming back. Scream was the first Horror movie I really loved, and the commentary on typical Horror tropes made me want to watch more Horror movies so that I could understand the nature of the commentary. Did I need extreme blood and gore? A creepy monster? No, honestly, it was the thought of the possibilities of the paranormal that kept me awake at night, contemplating the existence of the soul, of ghosts, of monsters. I’d read enough to understand the difference between real and make-believe, but as a young Catholic, I believed in the nature of the soul, and if the soul existed, if the devil existed, then so too did ghosts and demons… maybe even monsters.
COMMUNITY
By this point, I was watching and reading Horror whenever I could- a lot of which happened at sleepovers, where the thrill of watching something my parents probably didn’t want me to kept me enthralled. That’s how I saw Alien and the original Tales from the Crypt (a fantastic anthology film from the 70’s with a frame narrative that’s potentially more haunting than it is scary, but which stuck with me long after we’d taken the VHS tape out and rewound it for the video rental store).
Horror was something that became a community activity for me. I’d take dates to see Horror movies (which was not always something that went over well). If I was going to a movie theater with friends, there was about a 50% chance I’d get us to see a Horror movie. I have distinct memories of seeing The Forgotten and The Grudge in theaters (and leaning forward to make the gasping ghost noise in the ears of the girls in front of me when the credits started rolling. Needless to say, I did not make any new friends that night).
For me, the new best part of Horror became talking about it. I had people who would talk about what we had just watched with a curiosity that matched my own.
HISTORY
Some of the books I read when I was about 6 or 7 were picture-book versions of the Universal Monster movies. The books used images from the movies themselves, and suddenly I had an awareness of black-and-white movies where people who had lived decades before I was ever born were writing and making Horror, and the audience was eating it up. These were monsters that had a true legacy, like Dracula and Frankenstein.
In middle school, I stopped Trick-or-Treating and started spending my Halloween nights watching Halloween marathons, until one year when VH1 did a countdown of The Top 100 Scariest Movie Moments. Finally, I had something of a guide to help me figure out what movies were worth seeing. Jacob’s Ladder went on my list. Cube was added. I started watching classics like The Omen and Psycho.
There are still so many that I haven’t seen, and every year, more Horror movies are released, but the pursuit of understanding the genre from a historical perspective has always fascinated me, as is the knowledge that the horrifying has been fascinating us for generations. Aspects of the Horror genre stretch back to ancient texts and myths, even!
ANALYSIS
At some point, in an English Literature class, we learned about symbolism and literary analysis, and my eyes were opened to layers of the films I loved that I had never before noticed.
Historical analysis of Texas Chainsaw Massacre? Absolutely, let me tell you about how it connects to the Vietnam War, the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, and the Government vs the Counterculture of the time period.
Drag Me to Hell? You mean the movie about eating disorders where the main character has several hands forced down her throat and throws up fairly frequently? That’s also the one where the main character is made to look innocent but also commits each of the 7 deadly sins during the film’s runtime. (By the way, it’s probably not a great idea to bring up the “eating disorder” analysis during a business dinner with a potential client. I can tell you this from personal experience).
Horror movies were no longer about monsters but about the mistreated people in society. Dracula is about the fear of immigrants (particularly Eastern Europeans moving into London). Jekyll and Hyde became a reflection of Bipolar Disorder (or perhaps Multiple Personality Disorder).
The more I read, the more I found, the more I watched, the more I saw.
WRITING
This brings me to my own creative pursuits. I’ve always loved writing, which, given my love of reading, is no real surprise. In elementary school, I wrote my first short Horror story, about a group of friends who come face to face with a vengeful ghost on Mischief Night. I eventually made a very low-quality short film when I was 12, and expanded the idea into a feature film script when I was 14.
Around the same time, I started reading every Stephen King and Chuck Palahniuk book that I could get my hands on. When I was 16, I had a teacher that required a new 1-page paper, double-spaced every Friday. As someone who always loved stories, I never limited myself to 1 page. Every Thursday night, I would sit down at my parents’ computer and start typing whatever story came to mind. Inspired by Stephen King, they were always Horror stories and inspired by Chuck Palahniuk, the stories generally stemmed from the thought of “Wouldn’t it be messed up if…”
I may end up revising a couple of those old stories and posting them here at some point.
I continued to write in college, often short stories, but I also began drafting a novel; it was an arduous process and I learned the value of outlining, something that I didn’t find necessary in short stories. I took some writing classes and had my style both praised and picked apart. I learned the importance of character development in long-form fiction.
In 2015, I had something of an epiphany and started on a new novel. I’ll certainly be talking more about it, but I’ve found that the Horror genre allows me to incorporate a number of my interests- unsolved history, mythology, and theology- into a fun and spooky style that explores some of life’s deeper questions.
So, why Horror?
It’s taboo. It gives a rush. It helped me form my own community throughout my life. It has a lot to say and teach about many aspects of humanity and uses fiction and metaphor to explore some of the darkest sides of our various beliefs.
But, most importantly, and long story short: It’s frighteningly fun.
Thanks for joining us here at Simply Shocked.
-Z
Categories: Blog
Leave a Reply