When I was in the fourth grade I had had four years to explore what the school library had in stock with very little turnover. I had read much of the science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and other genres and was looking for something else to capture my interest that was a little more mature then what was available.
I don’t know why, but at some point I picked up an R.L Stine novel and I remember being fascinated. I honestly don’t remember what the first book was, but a week or two later and I had exhausted all the Goosebumps novels that the library had.
There was something about reading characters interacting with horrific experiences that excited me. Reading about someone venturing into the exotic jungles of Beast From The East or trying to find a way to stop the strange substance in Monster Blood was more fascinating than a traditional fantasy or science fiction story.
Somehow the horror aspects of the story made things more compelling.
Personally, reading a story about a mother struggling to raise her daughter as a single woman would be incredibly boring, but add in a touch of horror and you have a fascinating book like The Exorcist by William Peter Blatley. At its core it’s about a single mother out of her depth while trying to keep her daughter alive as she’s becoming possessed by a demon. It’s still a tale about motherhood, but one that’s much more interesting.
I’ve noticed that horror has that effect on most stories. I’ve read tales about teenagers struggling with a terrible home life and bullies harassing them at school, but none kept me reading into the late hours of the night like Carrie by Stephen King did.
I was a fan of mystery novels like the Hardy Boys by Franklin W. Dixon and read them voraciously, but after reading The Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child I found standard detective tales were now boring.
I like horrific and dark tales as a reader because they up the ante of any story they’re involved in. Sure, tracking down your average serial killer is impressive, and the protagonist is certainly a brave soul for taking on that challenge, but tracking down a literal beast haunting the underbelly of a New York City museum that’s impervious to bullets? It takes an entirely different hero to tackle that problem and come out alive.
There’s also a sense of exploration in horror that other genres just can’t compare to. Everyone wants to explore the depths of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, but few fans would be interested in exploring the Forbidden Forest.
But to me this is what makes those places exciting, few people have gone there and few actually know what there is to see and experience. Sure, it will likely be terrifying and horrible, but it’s new, different, exciting, and in many cases you’ll be seeing things no one ever has or in some cases ever will. I imagine exploring the depths of the Forbidden Forest would be similar to the first explorers to venture into the Amazon forest.
This type of exploration fascinates me. I loved exploring the ruins of Lamanai in Belize as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and later with my wife. But that was with a town nearby, a car to get us there, and various park employees to watch over things. I couldn’t imagine exploring those ruins as a Spanish Conquistador knowing the river is teeming with crocodiles and the trees could be hiding an army of hostile natives. And I certainly couldn’t imagine being one of the Mayans wandering through the tall foreboding trees, knowing the jungle is full of various threats that could poison, eviscerate, or consume me and deciding it was a good enough location to put down roots and build a society.
There’s a big difference between exploring Mammoth Caves as a tourist in the 21st century with modern technology and exploring it for the first time with nothing but a handmade spear and a torch four thousand years ago.
Perhaps another draw of horror is that it has greater freedom to be imaginative. As both a reader and a writer I enjoy that horror stories aren’t limited in what they can do and what they can explore.
I would argue a scientist in a science fiction story has a much more limited imagination than a mad scientist in a horror movie because there are certain things they won’t do out of ethics, morals, or fear. A scientist trying to feed the world’s hungry by inventing an automated system, more drought resistant crops, or even constructing a giant biosphere in space is throwing out ideas that would be much cheaper and more efficient because he can’t rationalize making mankind unknowing cannibals like they did in Soylent Green.
By no means am I advocating cannibalism or any other sick and twisted practice advocated by various individuals in horror fiction, including those in my own stories, but there is something alluring, albeit scary, about an individual having unbridled creativity.
Many people would want to bring a deceased loved one back from the grave, but few would resort to cobbling together dead bodies like the poor soul in Mary Shelley’s book Frankenstein or by burying them in a cursed Indian burial ground like in Pet Semetary by Stephen King.
As a horror writer this gives tremendous power to dive into these uncharted waters. I can let my mind run free and pursue various avenues because there are no restrictions of ethics, morality, or common decency for the characters in a horror story. It’s also a lot of fun letting my mind wander dark paths it normally wouldn’t in the real world.
There’s a very strong sense of freedom acting out all the dark thoughts that pass fleetingly through my mind without anyone suffering the consequences of seeing those actions carried out in the real world.
I would never bring harm to another person in the real world no matter how annoying they may be, but I’m not opposed to having a monstrous cosmic being from another dimension rip apart someone annoying in one of my stories.
Then maybe the final reason I enjoy horror fiction, both as creator and consumer is that most stories already have darkness in them. It always fascinates me when people say they hate horror or dark stories and then reveal their favorite book is Lord Of The Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.
When their favorite book contains a cursed object slowly possessing and corrupting a young man, a demon roaming the halls of an underground mine, orcs turning cannibalistic whenever they’re hungry, wraiths stalking the main characters, the heroes of the story bartering with ghosts to fight their enemies, monstrous creatures from another land mowing down battalions of soldiers on horseback, a character with a split personality disorder that would frighten Mr. Hyde, and a giant spider who craves the taste of something other than orcs; I would argue that they are in fact fans of horror and just want it dressed in a more whimsical light.
I would also argue that a story cannot be interesting or compelling unless there’s something dark crawling in the background of the story. Many Hardy Boy mysteries start out with a kidnapping, murder, or theft, Harry Potter faced off against a being who refused to die and was willing to perform sacrificial rituals to stay that way, and even a children’s story like Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White was at it’s core the story of a pig trying to avoid being slaughtered and eaten by its owner.
The only reason these stories aren’t associated with horror is because on the surface they are light and happy. There’s little difference between the premise of Charlotte’s Web and say The Texas Chainsaw Massacre by Tobe Hopper and Kim Henkel, it’s just that Charlotte’s Web keeps the horror vague and in the background while The Texas Chainsaw Massacre brings it into focus.
Horror isn’t afraid to take a look at the darkness and see what resides there. Harry Potter only ventures into the Forbidden Forest if he absolutely has to because it’s a fantasy novel. If it was a horror novel the young wizard would be forced to cross through it or even live there.
It’s that exploration of the darkness, the intrigue of the unmentionable, the willingness to consider the unimaginable that makes horror so compelling for me. The heroes of horror stories are individuals forced into situations much more terrifying than any other genre can conjure up and I would argue that makes them stronger characters as a result.
By no means do I wish there was more horror in my life or in the lives of others. But there’s an immense pleasure that comes from opening a book, seeing the darkness that lies within, and from the safety of my own home, and the comfort of more than enough lighting to read by, diving into those twisting shadows alongside courageous fictional characters.
I like horror because I’m an explorer at heart, because it raises the stakes of the stories I read, and because it allows my imagination to run wild in ways that no other genre can.
If like me you enjoy exploring the forbidden, the unknown, and the unmentionable, then I hope the darkness I conjure up with my stories will be to your liking.
If horror isn’t your thing, that’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with living your life in the light, cheery worlds of happy stories, where the flowers always bloom and the sun is always shining. Just know that every light casts a shadow and if you ever find the shadows become more intriguing than the light, you’ll know where to find my work.