Happy first weekend of Fall. Spooky season is in full swing and Halloween is just around the corner. I’m currently read “Mexican Gothic” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I’m about a third of the way through the story and so far it’s hitting all the right notes for my love of spooky atmosphere and gothic tropes. I’m hoping things carry through the whole story.
Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the novel I just finished. Luke Dumas’s “A History of Fear” comes out in December, yet I managed to score an advanced reader’s copy through a GoodReads giveaway. It’s premise sounded promising - a young man claiming the devil had made him commit a murder. I love a good murder mystery and the idea of supernatural forces intrigued me.
Sadly, the book didn’t live up to my expectations, falling into some of my least favorite horror tropes and setting off my social anxiety to the extreme. Overall, I didn’t find this book scary or horrific and everything is (purportedly) explained in an afterword.
Don’t get me wrong, this book has some good points. There’s an intense scene in a library that is excellently paced and thoroughly creepy, but this type of horror is rare. If the book had capitalized on those moments, I think I would have had a more enjoyable spooky experience.
I admit that I have my own standards for horror that don’t always align with what is popular or conventional.
For example, I really like creepy atmosphere and quiet moments in my horror media. This can allow for a bigger build up in a scare or paranoia. These moments without action give me time to reflect and think - or overthink - about what is happening. I still crave that release of buildup and tension, but a solitary character lost in a fog can be just as terrifying as a monster popping up saying “boo”.
I consider a story scary if it follows me off the pages of a book or the images on a screen and into my everyday moments. What would I do if my family was slowly starving and possibly being stalked by a witch? (The VVitch). Could I battle a button eyed version of my mother? (Coraline). Would I be able to find who the dead person is before dying myself? (Another). Could I defeat ancient Lovecraftian gods and save the multiverse without losing my mind? (Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem) What would I do if my town was suddenly possessed by spirals? (Uzumaki).
Honestly, only Junji Ito could make a spiral scary and he truly succeeds. The scene where the woman realizes that there is a naturally occurring spiral in her ear haunts me.
When I was little, I couldn’t handle a lot of horror. I had a reoccurring nightmare of Fidget from “The Great Mouse Detective” popping out (if you’ve seen the movie, y’all know the scene) and kidnapping me while I’m trying to find my way home. The movie (with horror veteran actor Vincent Price as the villain) along with “Scooby Doo Where Are You” were my introduction to horror. As long as the scary images were clearly separate from the real world, I enjoyed it (with maybe a nightmare or two).
And then one of my parents thought it would be an excellent idea to show young me “Arachnidphobia”. For some background, I thought spiders were the coolest before watching this movie. After watching it, I wanted nothing to do with the eight legged arachnids. Suddenly, there was no longer the barrier of animation for my young mind and the real world became a little less safe.
As I’ve matured, I’ve found that I still prefer some kind of barrier between me and my horror media. I much prefer ghost stories and creature features to serial killers and psychological thrillers. If my horror story is too “real”, the less I feel like I’m escaping into a story. Real life is full of terrifying things - many I can’t do anything about. The less plausible a scenario, the more likely I am to jump in without questioning the details of the plot that otherwise might cause it to colapse on itself. As soon as my brain can start poking holes into things, I become frustrated rather than entertained.
Again, this is just my opinion. And these preferences aren’t inflexible.
Once I figured out what was going on with the plot of “A History of Fear”, I became less invested and more annoyed with the author’s choices. I almost completely left the plot and instead powered through to finish the book and move on to a new one.
However, one movie that did scare the crap out of me was “Oculus”. In someways it has some similarities to “A History of Fear”, but only surface level. There’s an element of reality to “Oculus”. The story could be about the mental break down of a family. However, the lore and presentation of the movie creates a narrative that takes me out of reality and into the internally logical world the characters are navigating. I completely buy that the mirror is evil. I also buy that the family had a mental breakdown unrelated to the evil mirror. The fact that there’s no explanation that ties up the plot in a neat little bow and spoon feeds me the explanation is a plus. This movie loved rent free in my mind for weeks.
So did the book (and movie) “Coraline”. As did the manga “Uzumaki”.
Also, the less jump scares a movie or video game has, the better. I don’t have to worry about these too much in books and graphic novels since books don’t make obnoxiously loud sounds, but movies and video games love jump scares with unnecessarily grating noises. This is why I can’t do haunted houses despite loving the aesthetic and decorations - they’re too loud. Jump scares also don’t leave room for thinking. It’s an almost complete release of tension when they happen. Yes, “Oculus” has a few jump scares, but those weren’t the scenes that got under my skin. (No, that honor goes to the apple/lightbulb scene).
I’ve long since grown out of a need to line by bed with an army of stuffed animals to defend me against vampires and other nighttime terrors. My preferred horror stories have me buying into their internal logic and leave me with questions to mull long after I’ve finished the narrative. I prefer creepy quiet scenes mixed in with my horrific images. I want to escape into a story rather than be forced to live my reality.
Also the less jump scares, the better.
I gave “A History of Fear” 2.5 stars (rounded up to 3) on GoodReads. For all its flaws, I can see fans of true crime enjoying this book. As for me, if the paranormal is promised in my story, I want some really good, actually in the narrative’s world, paranormal stuff to go down.
What are some of your favorite horror media? I’ve listed a few of mine here, but this list is nowhere near complete. For one thing, “Dracula” is still one of my all time favorite horror novels (even if only the first part is truly horrifying) and the first time I mention it is this sentence.
Pleasant nightmares.
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Until next week.
