There was a time spoilers weren’t such a big deal to me. Like, recently. Now, when it comes to trailers, sure … I’ll watch them. Much of what they show isn’t in the film, unless it’s one of those trailers that spoils the whole damn thing in two and half minutes. I’m an IMDB junkie, always looking up actors and directors to see what else they’ve done. I don’t think doing that is a spoiler, especially if it leads you away from the film to other projects. I read reviews, even spoilery reviews, and it used to not be a big deal.
Until lately.
Something changed, can’t really put my finger on it, but yep, something’s definitely different. Now, I kinda don’t want to know anything about the film. I tend to spend too much time online anyway, and my usual stops are the movie sites where it’s easy to get lost in a OMG there’s more pictures from _________ out now, let me save them all to my hard drive rabbit hole from which there is no return. But lately, nope … I don’t want to know. And if I, the guy who typically doesn’t mind spoilers, doesn’t want to know, then that means we’ve cranked up the entertainment hype machine to full-throttle and there’s no stopping it now.
I read a review of Midsommar today, and though it wasn’t exactly spoilery, I came away knowing more about the film than I needed to, and that’s kind of bugging me. And hey, I get it. The film releases in a few weeks, the sites need hits, the film needs buzz, it’s all perfectly fine and dandy. I could have not the read the review and been none-the-wiser, so I place the blame directly on me.
But the headline did its job. The clickbait worked. It sucked me in and I couldn’t help myself.
I fell for the HYPE.
And man, I love the HYPE. I get hyped up about the HYPE. It’s that sticky sensation in your brain that makes you feel like you’re going to explode in anticipation. It’s that I want it now feeling and once it grabs you in a stranglehold, there’s not much you can do other than wait. The waiting part sucks so bad. We live in an inpatient world, and we’ve all grown inpatient and it’s hard to keep it together when there’s so much HYPE everywhere you turn. I know I’m not alone in this because I just saw Max Booth III tweet about it.
The HYPE machine is real.
There’s really not a point to this post. Well, maybe just the realization that the HYPE is a good thing until you read past the point of no return without any spoiler warnings deep into kinda spoilery territory. Again, it’s my fault. I could have clicked the back button. Totally responsible.
But you knew I’d fall for that headline, didn’t you?
But here I am. Decided to knock the dust off this old thing and start blogging again. Don’t know how long I’ll be back, or if this will be a regular thing. I’m going to be 52 years old next week, so at this point in my life I think I’ve earned the right to not do things if I don’t want to. Not that I feel old. Actually, I feel great.
Vibrant.
Alive.
And occasionally young.
I’m thinking of blogging once a week, maybe more, maybe less. Who knows …
Things I’m really excited about
Midsommar and The Lighthouse.
Two films, both sophomore efforts from their directors, both of which I am huge fans of. I can’t wait, but I will have to wait, because I loathe the movie theater experience. Too many people, talking, cellphones, sticky floors, though honestly my local theater has come along way in making the experience more comfortable. Nothing beats my widescreen TV and surround sound home theater experience. I’ll wait, unless my anticipation gets the best of me.
The Fearing by John FD Taff.
I don’t know much about this book other than what John told me and Michael on the podcast, and what others are saying about it, and I want to keep it that way until I get it in my hands. I know it’s supposed to be post-apocalyptic, dealing with our fears unleashes on the world, and dammit, that’s some heavy-duty shit right there and I am so down for it.
Mindhunter (Season 2).
There’s a lot of shows on TV I’m looking forward to watching, but this one is driving me crazy. Fortunately, there’s a lot of stuff I NEED to watch to tide me over in the meantime.
Growing Things by Paul Tremblay
Speaking of In the Mean Time … Tremblay’s got a new short-story collection hitting really soon and this. is. going. to. kick. everyone. in. the. teeth.
Enough for today. It feels like everyone is watching me now.
It’s easy to confuse horror and suspense. Both are labels publishers use to let readers know more about the books they sell, and both accurately define the flavor of the story within the pages. Obviously, there’s a lot more too it than just labeling. Horror is an emotion, a paralyzing sensation of dread in the face of overwhelming danger. For readers, horror is what we feel for the characters of the story, our emotional response when they square off against the evil ‘thing’ that wants to destroy them or their loved ones. Suspense is when we are uncertain of the outcome of our decisions. We apply for a job, then wait on pins and needles for the call of acceptance of the job. Writers know this feeling all too well whenever we submit stories for publication. When you read something suspenseful, there’s a degree of uncertainty from the character’s choices that makes you worried about the outcome of their decisions.
This is what makes the story scary.
“But Bob, isn’t the monster scary?”
The monster can be scary, under the right circumstances. But usually, no … the monster isn’t what’s scary. The horror isn’t the monster. Suspense it what makes the story scary. For suspense to work, several things must happen first, early on in the story, all the way to be big reveal, that will determine exactly how scary the story is, and if your monster can send shivers down your reader’s spine.
Compelling Characters
We see this one thrown around a lot, but what does it really mean? Characters in stories are never real people, even if they are based on a real person. They are only the pieces we need to let our minds fill in the blanks. A little description, some personality and attitude, perhaps a nasty habit or two. All of these things can make a great character, but if the reader doesn’t give a damn about the character, then none of that matters. They have to care about the character, a lot. That’s worth repeating, in bold and italics, all caps : READERS HAVE TO CARE ABOUT THE CHARACTERS, A LOT. It’s the most important thing. If your reader doesn’t care about your characters at all, it doesn’t matter how grotesque or evil your monster is, the fact remains … the story isn’t scary.
Planting Seeds
Okay, so let’s say we have a compelling character and a kickass story. How do we make it scary?
Suspense, that’s how.
You can’t just start throwing suspense around in a story, you have to build it, and build it carefully or it will lose it’s impact. Crafty writers begin early, planting seeds in descriptions of settings, even woven into dialogue, often without the reader ever knowing the seeds of the characters conflict is written before their very eyes. Thomas Harris, author of Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs, (I mean if you don’t know who the fuck Harris is by now) is the master of suspense. When the FBI have Dr. Lecter in custody and he decides it’s time to leave the confines of his cell, we know he’s going to kill those officers, and we know it’s going to be gruesome. We also know, in the back of our minds, that he’s going to escape, we just don’t know how. That fear we feel when reading those scenes isn’t horror, it’s suspense. The horror doesn’t come until we see how he’s escaped, and then there’s just a little bit of horror and a whole lot of suspense. We’re even more uncertain of the outcome, and horrified by what Lecter did to get out. Harris does this by planting seeds early on, with Dr. Chilton telling Clarice what Lecter did to a nurse once when he complained of chest pains, by the cat and mouse game Lecter plays with Clarice as she plies information from him, all interspersed with the hunt for Buffalo Bill. All of the pieces are there, just lovingly scattered through out the pages so deftly that when taken out of context, they appear insignificant, unnecessary even.
Another master of suspense is Ira Levin, author of Rosemary’s Baby. Levin’s trickery comes from his mastery of dialogue, both inner and outer. As Rosemary works out the puzzle Hutch gave her about the witches coven, we get to see her work out the anagram in her head, using Scrabble pieces as prompts. Little pieces of this puzzle have been placed in the story all along, we just haven’t put it all together yet. As Rosemary’s discovers the truth, so do we, in real time. Strangely enough, as she works this out, Levin allows us to put it together in our minds first. He lets the reader win, increasing the tension because now we know something Rosemary doesn’t know yet. We want her to figure it out faster, because time is running out. Time is never on our character’s side whenever they are in danger. Using time against the character is a great way to create tension. Rosemary needs the answers, and once she learns the truth, she must make her escape. Of course, the truth is much darker than we suspected, which leads me to my last point.
Skillful Misdirection
Yeah, it sure sounds like a cheap shot, but when it happens on a regular basis in pretty much every story, then it suddenly doesn’t sound so cheap. Back to Rosemary’s Baby, we see Rosemary’s discovery in real time, and she believes she, and her unborn child, are in danger from the coven. She believes the coven wants to use her baby for a sacrifice. Not only does this make perfect sense, it’s also not exactly what’s happening. Levin uses Rosemary’s beliefs to steer you away from the reality, which is close, but much, much worse. By restricting our point-of-view to her, we never really consider any other possibility, as we’re too busy worrying about how she’s going to get away from the coven. This is the part that’s scary. We’re worried about her and her baby. Levin builds and builds the suspense to a crescendo, so that when finally do learn the truth, it’s more horrible than we, or her, could have imaged. And that’s when we feel horror, because we care about Rosemary, we care about what’s happened to her, and now we are faced with evil.
Levin then pulls a double whammy on us by having her accept her fate in an ending that’s logical yet completely unpredictable, and he did it all without revealing the monster to us the whole time. There’s no grotesque monster to see, only creepy wordplay designed to shake us to our core.
Compelling Characters, Planting Seeds, Skillful Misdirection. These are grand concepts that take practice and time to master, yet once you learn to recognize those parts of your writing that do it right, it begins to come naturally. The best way to learn these concepts is to read the books you love, find the parts that that work, and break them down to see how they tick. You might even want to take scenes and re-write them, either as is, or with characters of your own, to see what makes them tick.
Understanding that suspense is what makes stories scary, and facing the monster is the characters emotional response to that fear, is paramount to writing truly scary fiction. Remember, it isn’t the monster that’s scary, it’s how our characters react to danger and the decisions they make that’s actually the scary part of the story.
Bored is probably too strong a word. Half of my vacation is gone, and though I’ve accomplished many of the goals I set for myself this week, there’s this feeling I can’t shake that one week isn’t enough time to do ALL of the things I wanted to do. For instance, getting back into playing Resident Evil 7. I’m a casual gamer at best. No, that’s not true. I’m terrible. I love the RE games, but my playing style sucks. My usual status is: no ammo, no health, no hope. Why do I even get myself into these situations? I figure I might be ½ way through the game. The way I play is tedious. Checking out everything, yet I tend to miss things, like pulling the drain plug in the tub to get the thing to find the old shotgun to replace with the good shotgun so I can get out of the locked room to kill the monsters. I’m thinking I need the shotgun, especially since every time I turn around there’s a case of shotgun shells sitting on a shelf. No matter how careful I am, I always find myself in a corner with an empty gun, teetering at the edge of death, fighting a monster with a fucking knife, and running only gets me into a room with more monsters.
So what have I accomplished? Well, today I recorded a podcast in the wee morning hours, also known as the time of the day when Michael David Wilson has to eat dinner and turn in for the evening. There’s a fourteen hour time difference, with me in Texas and Wilson in Japan, so it makes the podcast schedule quite interesting sometimes. But this is what we do, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I cut Mom’s grass, which is a chore, but a welcome one because I get to think about stories while I’m working. I think it’s the monotonous repetitive motions of pushing the mower up and down the yard that sets my mind at ease. An overactive imagination and always thinking I saw something in the corner of my eye definitely helps. I’ve worked out many difficult fiction scenes cutting grass.
Scarecrows. Have I told you how much I like scarecrows? They creep me out big time. Of course, there’s the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, which is one of my favorite movies, and there’s nothing about that character I find particularly scary, and I never will. But when it’s dusk, and the shadows are long, seeing a scarecrow in a field scares the crap out of me every single time. Not that I live in any part of the country that has fields with scarecrows. I remember reading a novel by Thomas Tessier called Phantoms, and if memory serves me correctly, it featured a scarecrow. Definitely a book I need to revisit soon. I plan on writing something about scarecrows fiction wise soon, but for right now I’m just creeping myself looking at images of shadowy figures in fields. We write the scary shit to face our fears, and for some reason I’m scared of scarecrows.
Mastodon. New Album. Good stuff, my main jam.
Also, Me and That Man. Holy shit this album is good.
I started reading Ill Will by Dan Chaon. I’m not that far into it, but so far so good. Probably not a good idea to start reading this book when I have sooooo much other stuff to read. I finished The Endless Fall by Jeffrey Thomas, probably one of the best damn collections I’ve read in a while. Holy shit, this book is good. Review forthcoming, tomorrow I believe. And yeah, I realize that saying tomorrow is pretty dumb. By the time you read this, the review may already be live at This Is Horror. Also reading two books by Bracken MacLeod; a collection releasing real soon, and a forthcoming novel. Good stuff.
I plan on trying to finally watch Seven Samurai while I’m off. I’ve never seen it, but heard it is magnificent, <<<<Get it? Magnificent? I’ve got one episode of 11/22/63 on Hulu left, but I’m needing something else to watch long term with lots of seasons. This is why I’m not watching shows like Better Call Saul and Fargo right now, because I know they’re good, and I’ll just binge them and get upset that I have to wait until next year to get my fix again.
(I just checked, Better Call Saul has two seasons up at Netflix now. Oh boy.)
Ray Donovan is coming back soon, and you can bet your ass I’m watching it.
So let’s just say that writing fiction lately has been much like pulling teeth. Unless I have a deadline, there hasn’t been much drive for me to put a story together. Non-fiction wise, most of what I write gets published. Most, not all. I may be an editor, but I also have an editor, two of them as a matter of fact, and occasionally my ‘great ideas’ are nothing more than fully formed rants that should never see the light of day, much less a page on the internet where things have a way of lasting forever. The articles that are published have deadlines, and I usually meet them for timely placement on the schedule.
Since I have no fiction contracts right now, or an agent to push me along, it’s all up to me to get it in gear. Unfortunately, I let myself get lazy. My get it in gear got up and went. I started working on some short-stories for projects that haven’t even been announced yet by the powers that be, and won’t be until they are damn good and ready. But each time I sit down to write, the words barely flowed. Sure, there have been good days, but for the most part, nothing…nada…zip.
So I went in search of Inspiration. Funny thing, this inspiration. I was tying it together with this other thing called Motivation, which are not the same thing. One can cause the other in either direction. Motivated people can inspire. Inspiration can bring about motivation. While I was thinking I was looking for this elusive Inspiration, what I really was seeking was Motivation.
Inspiration is EVERYWHERE. Really, it is, just open your eyes. The strongest determining factor for inspiration is being receptive. Watching movies and TV series while not writing isn’t inspirational with blinders on. You’re looking for something you’re probably not going to find, the proverbial needle in a haystack. Think about love and relationships. When you’re single and looking, every woman becomes a potential partner. There’s this nasty desperation that oozes from your pores, and women can see it. They can smell it on you. They sense it, fear it, and you remain single no matter how hard you try to make yourself available. But when you least expect it, when you’re not even ‘looking’, you might meet a woman and there’s a mutual attraction. You strike up a conversation, one thing leads to another, and soon you find yourself in love. It happens, it’s real.
Finding inspiration is the same thing. If you’re looking for it, you probably won’t find it. You are blind and cannot see what is plainly right before you. Think about all those times when you’re staring at the listings in Netflix, flipping through page after page of shows or movies you want to watch, but you won’t watch because it’s just not what you’re looking for. Do you even know what you’re looking for? At this point, if you’re a writer and seeking inspiration, unless you find something you really, really want to watch, you’ll find yourself with a hand cramp from holding the remote when you should have been writing. The same goes for books, even music.
What you’re really seeking is motivation.
I recently watched a film I’d been wanting to see, but just hadn’t caught it yet because of my intense search for inspiration. In my mind, this film was going to be just glorious eye candy to entertain me. After a really crappy day at work, I was in no mood to write, or even be inspired, so I took the opportunity to watch something I knew would be nothing more than a damn good time.
Boy was I wrong.
Just like a single guy looking for love, as soon as I stopped ‘looking’, I was blindsided by this film. At first I though it was inspiration, but that makes the concept sound like something you can just put in a bottle and buy at Walmart. Hey, if that was the case, then I wouldn’t be here, right? No, what I witnessed wasn’t inspiration, it was something inspiring motivation.
And oh man, did I ever need some motivation.
Some old ideas converged in a hot mess in my brain, and I was able to see how to put them together. The film wasn’t supposed to inspire me, but it did. I don’t know how, but the scenes reminded me of something in my stories that I really liked at one time, and showed me how they could come together in a way I never realized before.
(By the way, the film was John Wick, which if you haven’t seen it by now, don’t be like me …watch it, it’s good.)
Inspiration led to motivation. This thing I’d been looking for was right before my eyes the whole damn time. And now, I finally understand exactly why my search for inspiration was such a failure. Sharing this is my way of motivating those looking for inspiration.
You’ve got to be receptive, even when you’re not looking.
“I want you to use your peripherals!”
You want to know the truth about motivation?
It’s inside you. It’s always there. Sometimes it gets buried deep where you can’t find it, but it’s still there. Like Will Christopher Baer once said, (paraphrased):
“ … if you want to be a (…) writer, … then you have to be able to turn it on and off like a faucet. I don’t care if you had a shitty day and you’ve got a hangover and a rash on your ass and your life is crashing down around you—you better start typing. If you wait around for that state of grace, you’re fucked.”
And he’s right. Don’t look for inspiration, open your eyes, your mind, and your heart, and allow yourself to be inspired. Use what inspires you to harness the motivation lying dormant inside.
You already have motivation, you just need to flip the switch.
In 1991, Dell Publishing launched a very ambitious line of books called Abyss. The first Abyss title, The Cipher by Kathe Koja, is now considered a classic in the field of horror fiction. Perhaps it leans itself a more to the Weird, but nonetheless, Abyss wanted something different than the haunted houses and evil children filling the books on the shelves. The idea was to be different, and in that, they succeeded masterfully. Called ‘Cutting Edge Horror’ by the industry leaders, the idea was that sometimes, horror doesn’t need a reason. Sometimes the reason was psychological, or perhaps so personal that it took getting to know the characters in the story to understand exactly what was happening to them.
There were many great titles in the line, from Brian Hodge (Deathgrip), Dennis Etchison (Shadow Man), Melanie Tem (Wilding), and Michael McDowell (Toplin) to name a few, and if you haven’t indulged in these classics, they’re not hard to find at your local amazon link. The main thing about the line was this horror was different, at least different enough for the fans and writers to take notice. Cerebral yet accessible, emotional and personal, these writers knew how to set their hooks in you with stories that refused to let you go.
The cool thing about what happened at Dell is that the mindset, the desire to reach beyond the tropes of the genre, has never left us. We still crave horror that isn’t the same old same old. Sure, we like vampires and werewolves and zombies and ghosts, and that’s fine as long as you’re bringing something new to the table. When it comes to page, horror fans are some of the pickiest readers out there. It’s when film gets in the picture that the average viewer comes into play. Those that don’t read, watch, and the average film goer loves a good horror movie. People might bitch and moan about sequels and prequels and reboots, but the average ticket buyer cares not, for ultimately they want to be entertained. So what if it’s another Freddy Krueger movie? Jason’s died what…ten, eleven times now? Just serve that stuff up and they’ll butter their popcorn with it. As long as it’s easy and accessible and doesn’t require much thought, they’re in.
And therein lies the issue. For horror to continue to maintain it’s ability to scare us, it must evolve and change. It’s got to roll with the punches, and the punches keep on coming. It must be, in film and the page, Cutting Edge. This means more cerebral, thought provoking films, as well as stories that reign in the darkness from the furtherest edges of the cosmos. It’s difficult to deny films reverse influence over the horror fiction industry. Same goes for comic books and graphic novels. Just as much as the way comic books have shaped how many of the more popular television series are shown on the screen, horror film heavily influence writers, and vice versa.
Our world now is full of uncertainty. The unknown is horrifying, as our imaginations concoct the more lurid and outlandish scenarios, which are then etched in stone on our brains. Paranoia rules the day. Society’s fixation with image and self creates its own strange demise … what if I don’t matter in the grand scheme of things?
Yes, what if it doesn’t really matter? What then?
These are questions we really don’t want to answer, so we turn to horror. Not for answers, but to escape the tension of worry. For horror to remain relevant, it must face the hard questions, which means staking out new territory, to scare in ways no one has been scared before. Films like The VVitch, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, I am Not a Serial Killer, just to name a few, try to set this new stage with stylish flair and exceptional storytelling. Surely, no one is going to like all of the films like these films, everyone has their own tastes. But not liking the film is vastly different from complaining that you ‘just didn’t get it.”
Maybe, there wasn’t anything to get. Writers aren’t going to spoon-feed you all the answers. They assume you’re smart enough to know what you’re getting into. Writers, directors, and producers have a vision when it comes to the films they want to release. The same goes for fiction writers. These stories are personal, and not just to the characters. They don’t care if you ‘get it’. They don’t care if you can even understand it. They don’t need to explain everything down to the last detail. They’re not going to dumb-it-down for you just to make you happy.
A recent release, The Monster, received undue criticism because some viewers wanted to know more about the actual monster in the film, as though knowing everything they could about the beast was paramount to their enjoyment of the film. Sometimes, the unknown is more scary. It’s not necessary to know all the details. Usually, the horror can be more effective by not knowing, by not understanding. Christopher Nolan’s film, Inception, is made infinitely more entertaining by not knowing exactly who’s dream we are actually in, a feeling Nolan even remarked that he was unsure of as well, and he directed the damn film.
There’s much to say about horror fiction that defies definition and reason. There are some writers that acknowledge they don’t have all the answers to their stories, which is why they wrote it to begin with. They weren’t seeking answers, just closure to a perplexing issue. Things happen to us in real life that defy explanation, rational or supernatural. They same is true with fiction, especially horror fiction, more so with weird fiction. We should come away from a compelling story with more questions than answers, yet fulfilled by the promise of experiencing something that scares us, something that pushes through all the mental numbness we’ve constructed to save us from ourselves.
Horror fiction and films should expand our horizons while maintaining relevancy. If that means crafting works that may leave some fans scratching their heads, then maybe there just wasn’t anything ‘to get’, perhaps it just wasn’t their cup of tea. Either way, the genre is going to continue to change and push the boundaries, maybe now more than ever before. As much as there is an argument for accessibility, there’s also strong pushback from creators to craft the stories they want to tell without commercial interference. That’s the kind of balls it takes to make films and books today. So often, we find the best experiences coming from the independent studios and the small presses. That’s because they care about the writer’s vision, they care about the characters, and they care about the story. They know the face of horror is changing, and somehow they manage to roll with the changes. It is inevitable. Don’t be left behind to choke on the dust.
So what exactly is Obscuradrome? It’s a made up word that means dark arena. That’s what I hope to do with my fiction, create a dark arena, a space where nightmare and reality fuse. Just in case you were wondering.
This is my space on the internet, and I’m going to really try to hit this space at least once a week this year. Yeah yeah, I said that last year too, so I wouldn’t trust me either. Things change, but if there’s one thing I must do this year, it’s write more. 2016 was good for me fiction wise, but like Miss Jackson asks…what have you done for me lately?
Well lately…
I watched this amazing film called The Autopsy of Jane Doe. Before I get into talking about this film, a quick word from SPOILER ALERT.
I’ll do my best to keep it at a minimum, but consider yourself warned. Ah shit, who am I kidding…there’s major spoilers here, so enter at your own risk.
Father and son morticians receive a late night Jane Doe. We already know the body is from a house where everyone pretty much killed each other, so there’s this piece of the puzzle sticking out that we get preoccupied with fairly early on. We’re supposed to fixate on this information, because it is important to the story, just not in the way we need it to be important at the time. Skillful misdirection here, sneaky sneaky. I’ve seen enough films to pick them apart with the best of them, but hey…they got me with this one, because I was immediately trying to figure out what the hell happened in that house. It’s not that what happened isn’t important, because it is. We don’t need to spend too much time thinking about it because we’re about to see it repeat again in a different setting and new victims.
The son, Austin Tilden (played by Emile Hirsch) is a reluctant coroner. His father Tommy (Brian Cox) wants him to step into his footsteps, but you can tell Austin just doesn’t have his heart in it. He wants to help his father because the old man is all alone, but he wants to escape with his girlfriend Emma (Ophelia Lovibond) and have a life of his own. Just as Austin and Emma are headed out for a night on the town, the sheriff arrives with Jane Doe, played by model Olwen Kelly, who wins the Dead Girl of the Year Award hands down. Austin ditches Emma to help his father determine the cause of death of the beautiful corpse.
The exterior examination of the body provided clues that immediately sent my neurons into overdrive. Austin first wonders why the dead girl’s waist is so much smaller in proportion to the rest of her body. They find peat under her fingernails. But there’s no peat where the movie is set; it is typically found in the Northeast US New England area. Right there, my Spidey sense was tingling strong. I went into this film as blind as possible but after viewing the red-band trailer, I was convinced it was about a witch. I still wasn’t sure at this point, but the clue about her disproportionately small waist (from wearing a corset…very popular fashion apparel worn by the ladies during the time of the Salem Witch trials) and the peat from New England SCREAMED witch. Okay, that’s cool. One of my favorite films last year was The VVitch. A witch in modern times? Well, let’s see what they do with this.
I’ll admit there was this twinge of disappointment at first. I was thinking … really, this whole set up was about a witch, and now she’s going to come back to life and do witchy things, cackling like a banshee and flying around the room … but I hung in there, hoping they didn’t string me along for a ride. There was this Silent Hill vibe with the staticky radio station and the channels switching around, but I weathered it out.
So glad I hung in there, because when the shit hit the fan…man, did it hit the fan. We get blown out lights, total darkness, dead bodies suddenly alive in the morgue, and two men who just want to get the fuck outta there as fast as possible.
I was right about what was going on, but so so wrong about the approach. Director André Øvredal (Trollhunter) had other plans for this story. Instead of diving head first into a gory kill-fest, he kept the story small and tight. Physically, most of the action happens at the morgue, and with a very small cast, an excellent way to build dread and claustrophobic conditions. There are other dead bodies in the morgue as well, including one unfortunate bastard who got his face blown off by a shotgun. These are used to perfection later in the film in ways that other directors would have screwed up rather quickly.
The really cool thing about this film is how even though you may figure out what Jane Doe is, your never really find out who she is. There’s this sense of mystery about her that goes until the very last shot. By not fully knowing her, she captivates our attention. Another point is that even though you eventually know what she is, as the story unfolds you actually get a little excited because the director took such a time-worn trope and turned into something fresh. Seriously, once I fully understood she was witch, I got pumped up, because I knew I was in good hands with the director.
We only see feet under the door, shifting bodies in the darkness, but just enough to scare us. There are several scenes that could have gone way over the top with the gore, but they managed to keep all of that to a clinical level with the autopsy scenes. We’ve got risen corpses walking around the morgue, the power out and the thundering rain, and Austin and Tommy just trying to get the hell out of there, and here comes old shotgun face, slowly creeping down the darkened hallway. The tension is super high here, and there’s nothing scarier than anticipation. We never see a clear shot of what remained of the corpse’s face, and we don’t need to see it. The director let us fill in the blanks with our imagination, knowing he could never substitute the power of our own nightmares. That’s a massive amount of trust in the material and audience reaction, so major kudos to Øvredal for pulling it off. With an ax as their only weapon, the guys get in the elevator, which isn’t work, to escape the risen dead horror walking down the dark hall. Tommy steps out an strikes with ax. Unfortunately, Jane Doe is playing tricks with their minds, and Tommy sinks the ax into Emma, who somehow made it back into the morgue. She dies from her chest wound, the latest victim of the witch.
If there was one bad part of the film, it was the awkward time after the elevator scene where our main players fail to hit the emotional mark of Emma’s death at the hands of Tommy. I could go on and on about this, but I’ll spare you the details only to say that there would have been a lot more freaking out at that point. It seemed as though there was a little emotional turmoil at what happened, then a simple shrug and, hey, let’s get back to escaping the morgue. Who’s to say how anyone would react to that, but I think they missed the mark here.
Other than that bump in the path, The Autopsy of Jane Doe was a solid, delightful, horror movie that seriously creeped me out with genuine scares, a little gallows humor, and tension that rides all the way to the county meat-wagon at the end of the movie. Especially when the radio in the van starts playing that song we first hear in the morgue. Oh man. Good to the last drop, or toe tag.
If this is what we can expect from horror films in 2017 and beyond—smart, skillful stories with captivating characters we give a shit about—then I’m down. You can’t have scary without compelling characters, and you’re just not going to find that with the Hollywood movie machine, who insist on churning out prequels and sequels and reboots and re-imaginings and spin-offs just because it’s a good financial move. The indie horror market is ripe and thriving, and from the looks of it, will be in that position for a very long time.
Every few months, someone jumps on their soapbox on social media, lamenting the ‘Death of Horror’. They’ll tell us the genre is dead, that it’s never going to be like it was in the ‘way back when’ days, that today’s writers just don’t know how to scare people anymore, that publishers aren’t interested in promoting horror, that there are too many subgenres, that the genre is being watered-down, dumbed down, that it’s over, kaput, finished.
Utter hogwash.
The ‘Horror is Dead’ statement is just not true. Despite all the naysayers with their prophetic claims of doom, the Horror business is thriving, and has been for a long time. Are the big 5 publishers not releasing as much of it as they have in past? That’s debatable, but for the most part it looks like that is the case. Small presses have done an excellent job of picking up those titles and marketing them directly to the audiences that crave them. Has the self-pubbed indie market damaged the Horror genre? Again, questionable. Big name publishers release books that aren’t very good all the time, and there are many, many noteable, excellent writers working the self-pubbed arena like nobody’s business.
As a lifelong fan of horror is all its forms and sub genres, reading, watching, drawing, and writing it, I embrace all the shapes of the genre with open arms. The genre continuously surprises me, mostly in good ways with stories I read that impress me with their attention to detail, story, and characterization. It’s obvious that most of horror’s practitioners love the genre.
There are no reluctant horror writers.
Whether Weird Fiction and Cosmic Horror are actually sub genres of Horror are not is also debatable, but for me, it really doesn’t matter. It’s an argument that’s pointless and never ending; a much better time waster is just reading a damn book. Am I right?
So here I am, 49 years old, a lifelong fan of Horror, and people are still bickering about the genre when they could be enjoying it. Though I’ve only been published for about ten years, and spent as much time away from writing and submitting, I’m still a nobody with a lot to learn. My fanhood only gives me a glimpse of the realities of the business of Horror, but based on my own experiences, I can state, with the utmost certainty, if you’re of the like mind to claim Horror is dead, you’re dead wrong.
I’ve lived through the days when writers had to send their manuscripts through the post office and wait months for the rejection. I’ve rubbed shoulders with the writers, editors, and publishers of the genre back in the ‘way back when’ days in real space at conferences. My one-on-one pitch sessions with editors at conferences didn’t end with publications, but with certain insight to the industry, knowledge you can’t buy in stores. The mass-market paperback boom, which probably produced more crap than quality, was when I cut my teeth on horror, reading the books that would shape my own writing. My fiction publications have lead to me co-hosting a horror podcast and provided me with a forum of sorts to spread the word of Horror throughout the world.
And yet, there’s so much to learn, a thousand lifetimes of knowledge so massive that I’ll never even be able to scale down past the tip of the iceberg.
If the This Is Horror inbox can be used as small barometer of the state of horror, then that’s where one can check the pulse of the genre. There are so many books being published right now we can’t possibly review them all. Whenever open calls open for anthologies, inboxes fill up fast. Hell, Gamut, which focuses on all forms of dark fiction, fills its monthly quota of 300 subs in less than 24 hours. If TV shows like AMC’s The Walking Dead, Supernatural, Penny Dreadful, and Stranger Things—just the tip of the iceberg of horror on TV—are any indication of the state of horror, then that should give you a clue. They’re practically shoving it in our faces. You can add Outcast, The Exorcist, and Bates Motel to the list as well, and we’re still just scraping the surface. Surely there are TV series and movies, and of course books, that are mundane and boring, but the shift in excellent quality horror products out there makes anyone who claims horror is dead look completely out of touch with what the genre has to offer. Writers like Jack Ketchum and Ania Alhborn are using thrillers to scare people out of their minds, providing serious proof that horror is often right in front of eyes, closer to real life than we ever dared imagine. if we would only crack open the spine and turn the pages to find it.
All genres experience periods of ebb and flow, and no one really knows what the next big thing is going to be. Right now, horror fiction is flowing, and the genre has never looked better. Sometimes disguised as Weird, or Cosmic, often hiding in the pages of Bizarro and Noir, the ability to scare people comes not from the label on the spine of the book, but from the pages within, the dynamics of the characters, and how they deal with terrifying circumstances beyond our imaginations. We read these kind of stories because we crave the excitement, the suspense, the thrill. Some of us want gore, others prefer horror by implication, and it’s all out there, just waiting for us to experience it.
But Bob, if Horror is so big right now, why aren’t the big publishers putting it out?
If you’ve been checking the bestseller lists looking for Horror, you’re not going to find a lot of it. Publishing is a fickle business not known for taking chances. Small press has stepped up to the challenge, now publishing books for everyone’s tastes. But then again, if the only Horror you’re reading is Stephen King, that’s your own fault. Even the Master reads other people’s books. Writers like Paul Tremblay and Stephen Graham Jones are making great strides with the big publishers. Small Press leaders like Laird Barron, Jeremy Robert Johnson, Matthew Bartlett, Damien Angelica Walters, Mike Griffin, S.P. Miskowski, John Langon, Scott Nicolay–to name a few–are the rising stars you should be reading. Perhaps if more readers would read these books by writers that are changing the face of horror, those small presses could become larger presses.
Well now Bob, you’re right…there’s lots of horror. But lately it seems horror is all this watered down ‘quiet’ horror…what does that even mean? Folk Horror? Cosmic Horror? I’m afraid to even read it. I just don’t think it’ll be scary.
Wait a second…you’re telling me you’re afraid to read…horror? If you’re afraid to read some new horror, or a sub genre you’re not familiar with, then maybe horror isn’t for you. Everyone has different tastes, just like everyone tastes a little different…he he. You can’t knock something if you’ve never tried it. If you’re a writer making this awkward claim, then sit your little butt down and WRITE the horror you’d like to read. All that complaining about something you’re unwilling to try or learn anything about is pointless, and frankly, a waste of everyone’s time.
With so many genres and subgenres of Horror, it’s easy to find something you like, whether it’s supernatural, gothic, weird, cosmic, whatever. There are differences and similarities across genres, as with anything. The one thing I keep seeing online is people shitting on other’s parades about things they like. If you don’t like something, great, but trampling and trolling others because they do like it is stupid and pathetic. I won’t tolerate it, and no one else should either. Just let people like what they like and move on. If you’re one of those ‘Horror’ writers claiming the death of Horror just because you don’t like ‘Weird’ fiction, or its writers, you’re part of the very reasons why you think the genre is dying. That kind of thinking leaves no room for experimentation, or progress, or change. And yes, the genre has changed. It is changing, and will continue to change, regardless if you want it to or not. If you’re not careful, it will change so much you’ll find yourself running behind it, choking on the dust. Change is nothing to fear, as it is inevitable as death and taxes. If the genre is changing, it’s because more people are molding it to their own styles, crafting stories that are capturing more and more readers imaginations.
Audiences and readers yearning the next big thing in horror should not fear stepping out of their comfort zone to find it. Of course, that’s why they’re seeking it in the first place, to escape the real life fears that paralyze us on a daily basis. But if we keep an open mind about all horror has to offer, often you’ll find it in the least likely of places.
No my friends, Horror is not dead. It’s huge right now. If you’re writing it, ride the wave and keep on producing those stories that gnaw at the back of your mind. I can’t wait to read them. If you’re just reading it, just open your eyes, and your mind, and keep looking. You’ll find it, I promise.
Counting down to the most awesome of days, Halloween, reminds me of all the reasons why I love summer. I can certainly do without the oppressive Southeast Texas heat that’s coming my way. Blistering days, so hot you can see the heat shimmering off the road. Sunburn and aloe. Gotta keep my shades close by.
For some reason, when I think about Summer, I think about all those deserted, abandoned places in Texas, which leads me thinking about Fall. I love Summer because it can only lead to Fall, which is actually my most favorite time of the year. Summer’s good, but Fall is where it’s at for me. It’s a vicious cycle, but one that I love. I grew up in a small town, and watched it grow into a vibrant community through the years. I’ve never been one for the big city. After a recent trip to San Antonio with my publisher to promote Mojo Rising at the San Antonio Book Festival, I know there’s no way I could live in a big city. Visit, stay a few days? Sure, no problem. But live there, with all the hustle and bustle, the traffic issues? No way, it’s not for me. Strangely, those that grow up in a small town often long to find a way to get the hell outta there as fast as they can. There’s got to be something bigger and better in the big city, right? Maybe, but I guess I’m just settled in the small town life, and it suits me just fine.
Which leads me to a book I read recently by Stephen Graham Jones.Mongrelsis a coming of age story about a teenager growing up raised by a family of werewolves. His grandfather was a werewolf, his mom, his aunt, his uncle … all werewolves. Jones spent a lot of his early life on the run, much like the family in his novel. Surely he knows the small town life better than most, probably on a more epic scale. Moving to place to place, constantly changing locations and friends, life becomes one big roving small town. He mined from his own life to write a beautiful coming-of-age novel that goes way beyond the dark fantastic into territory reserved for the most transcendental of stories.
To say it has inspired me is an understatement.
I was going through my folders hunting up an old story to clean up and submit for an anthology, and found an even older story that could really use a director’s cut version. Expanded, deeper, richer, scarier, with more substance – more meat on the bones – more story. What I originally wrote is good, but it’s really just a drawn out scene, a piece of the puzzle, and I can’t stop thinking about it.
Strangely, it’s not the werewolf parts of Stephen’s novel that inspired me to work on this story. It’s that small town, summery feeling. The long, drawn-out days, playing baseball, riding bikes, popping firecrackers, and the nights coming earlier and earlier, drowning out the sun, that gentle nip in the air at night, the shadows getting longer and longer, signaling the arrival of Fall.
The coming of Halloween.
I’ve been thinking about this story without even realizing it, before reading Mongrels. It started because I wanted to write about another story, which I’m sure I’ll get to one day, but not right now. When I created the playlist for that story, using songs from the early 80′s during that time when the Urban Cowboy was dancing with his Sissy to You Shook Me All Night Long at the local dive, sawdust on the floor and pop rocks in your pocket, I knew those songs were meant for another story, how they really didn’t fit with what I originally had in mind. That tried to mess with my head, but I refused to let it.
You have to let things gel, to take hold of your imagination after the dust settles. And as badly as I need to be working on something right now, I know better than to give myself another false start. I know what works for me to get the story on the page, or at least I know what worked last time. This time, the music is more personal, allowing my obsessions to mingle with memories. Write what you know means writing about the things you’ve experienced and how they shaped you and the people in your life. And when obsession meets memory, that’s were the story is…the sweet spot.
(This article originally appeared at Revolt Daily)
You’ve gotten your first publication and you are on top of the world. First, let me congratulate you. Whether it’s just a short-story or a novel, your first publication is a very special event you will remember for the rest of your life. Cherish this moment, it’s all about YOU.
But hey, now it’s time to get to work. That story isn’t going to promote itself. You’ve got to use your connections to make new connections, deeper connections…stronger connections. Hopefully, you’re not already blowing up Facebook and Twitter every thirty seconds letting your fifty followers know you just published your first short story, again. Trust me, they know by now, and if you’ve been real annoying, they probably wish they didn’t know.
If you’ve been doing things in moderation, those new social media connections will come, but it does take a little time. As long as you are keeping yourself out there without getting blocked by friends in the process, you will make connections that could possibly open doors for you.
Or maybe not. Depends on how annoying you are.
Let’s say you write Horror fiction. You’ve made a few connections from some authors you admire, but there are tons of writers who are your idols, your inspirations, and they are just out of your reach. You follow them on Twitter or Facebook, see they are active, and you just can’t help yourself.
You decide it’s time for a mass Friend Request.
Their friends will now be mine.
Whoa there, Trigger. That’s not exactly how you do it. Remember all that stuff I said earlier about how these things take time? It really does take time.
How much time? Well, like my dad used to say, “How much time you got?” I don’t have a lot of friends on Facebook, even less followers on Twitter. It’s not about quantity, it’s about quality. About half of my friends are people that I’ve actually met in person. The others are authors, artists, publishers, editors, and agents. I break these friends down into three categories: Personal, Facebook Friends, and I Can’t Believe They Accepted My Friend Request. Let’s examine each of these in a little more detail.
Personal: People you know, or have physically met. Classmates, friends, coworkers. You can send them a private message on Facebook or Twitter and get a reply back. These people are usually in the contact list on your mobile phone as well.
Facebook Friends: People you have never met in person. You met them through social media. These could include authors you met through cool writing forums like LitReactor. If you’ve published in an anthology, then by all means reach out to the other authors in the Table of Contents, especially if they are up-and-comers like you. You have something in common, and it’s time to share.
I Can’t Believe They Accepted My Friend Request: These are your idols, your inspirations. You feel a special connection when you read their stories. You searched their name, and you’re quite certain it’s actually your idol writing all those posts in the newsfeed and not some website manager. If you write Horror fiction, some names might include Ramsey Campbell, Peter Straub, Robert McCammon, Joe Lansdale, even Clive Barker. And on those lonely nights, your mouse hovers over the + add Friend button. Anticipation leads to procrastination; to click, or not to click. Clicking means you’ll be on pins and needles waiting for a confirmation. Not clicking means you’ll never be able to tell them how much you love all their books, and maybe, if they have some time, they will chat back and forth in private message bliss. And maybe, just maybe, you and your idol could be like real friends.
Don’t click that button.
Why? For starters, most of the big names don’t have personal Facebook profiles. They have Pages. So yeah, definitely click the LIKE button, that’s what it’s there for. They want you to click the LIKE button. And if that’s the case, that means they do NOT want you to send them a Friend Request for their personal profile. It’s not because they aren’t nice people. It’s because they have a private life they don’t want you to be a part of.
What of those authors that don’t have an Author Page? Their public profile is just hanging out, flapping in the wind, just aching for your Friend Request.
Again, don’t click that button.
Why? First, think about what you’re doing. Sure it’s Facebook, so it’s no big deal, right? That depends. Perhaps it’s better to examine what might happen if you click the button.
1. The request will be ignored. This is going to happen 99.9% of the time. This is how that author deals with it. They don’t know you, you have no friends in common, so basically, who the hell are you?
2. See #1. above.
What if you have friends in common? This is when good judgement comes into play. Let’s say you have less than three mutual friends. That’s like saying you have no mutual friends, so that’s a big negative on clicking the button. Same with ten, fifteen, or even twenty mutual friends, but I will say that the more mutual friends you have with your idol, the more likely they will accept your request. If you and your favorite author have about 50 mutual friends together, there is a high likelihood they will accept your request. Again, use common sense and good judgement. If there are more than 500 mutual friends, go on ahead and accept their friend request…you’ve got some good connections and you are going about it the right way.
The best way to grow your connections is to promote the work of your peers. The best way to piss off your peers is to expect them to promote your work as well. Why wouldn’t your friends want to help you out? People are people and some of them are not really that nice.
Reality sucks.
Here’s a newsflash, and you’ll hear this one again: They owe you nothing. So why promote their work? I promote the work of my friends and peers because I LIKE what they are doing. I like their stories, and feel others need to read their stuff. I might write stories of my own, but I was a reader and a fan way before I started writing, and I’m always going to be a reader and a fan, so promoting my friends stories is second nature for me. I expect nothing in return. I’m not suggesting that this be your mentality when pimping your Facebook friend’s books, but I will tell you that if you expect nothing in return and do it for the love of the work and the writer, you will sleep better at night.
So, if you start promoting and tagging your favorite writer on Facebook, they might be your friend? Probably not. Depending on how popular the writer is, your little tag might be lost in the mix. Remember that Facebook reaches far less people than they want you to think, and Twitter is a complete mess. If you keep tagging the author in hopes they’ll notice you, then you’re annoying, and they’ll block you, or send in a complaint. Same with Twitter. Don’t let the fact that Clive Barker got you blocked on Facebook for thirty days be your claim to fame.
If and when one of your favorite idol writers does indeed accept your friend request, don’t get yourself unfriended. Remember common sense, remember good judgement, remember they don’t owe you anything. Take some time to check out their profile. They’ve opened the door and invited you in, so take a little tour. Read the posts on their newsfeed. See if others are posting just a bunch of “Shadowland changed my life” or “Are you going to write a sequel to Swan Song” threads. As Ramsey Campbell is known for saying, ‘avoid what’s been done to death’, and apply that principal here. Research this stuff. If you must post a comment, keep it short and sweet and original.
My advice: don’t post a comment at all. Chances are they will not reply, and if they do, that still doesn’t mean you two are best buds now. But if you must post something, be courteous and keep it short. And by all means, do NOT send them a direct message with the link to your story so they can read. That will get you unfriended so fast you’ll wonder if you ever sent the message at all.
Think of it like one of those Direct TV Commercials.
Tim just published his first book. When Tim promotes his book, he makes some good connections with social media. When Tim makes good connections, his favorite writer accepts his friend request. When Tim’s favorite writer posts about a timely news worthy event, Tim gets carried away. When Tim gets carried away, his favorite writer insults Tim. When Tim deletes the post, he discovered his favorite writer shared a screen shot of it. When the screen shot goes viral, everyone thinks Tim is a douchebag. When Tim is a douchebag, his Father calls him wanting to know why he’s such a douchebag.
Don’t be a douchebag.
There are some writers that are very open on Facebook, or at least appear that way. Again, good judgement is paramount to nurturing a relationship with these supercool and approachable people. Just because they are friendly doesn’t mean they’ll read your story, or answer any questions you have. They don’t owe you anything. They’re not going to read your story anyway, because of legal reasons and all that, so don’t even go there.
Did I mention that while you’re trying to make all these fantastic connections that you need to be promoting your own work, and more importantly, writing the next big thing? Finish that story, edit that novel, get it published and promote again. Do interviews when asked, accept friend requests, promote the writers you admire, and help your peers. You’re too busy to ask for anything in return and you’re a fan anyway, so it comes naturally to you. Just keep on keeping on, as they say. Eventually, you will look up one day and realize your friend list is growing, and your connections, your real connections, are helping you out at well. That’s a good feeling. Keep up the good work and always remember, there are fans, and there are fanatics.
