Saying "Hi" to the Monsters Under the Bed

Or how I learned to stop being afraid and love horror

Summer’s leaves die in a hibernal blaze of glory, the dry corn husks sway in the chill, moaning gusts, and the bleak clouds roll in at the end of the day, making the path for long shadows that conceal the things which go bump in the night—October is here.

This entire month I will be dedicating my weekly posts to discussions on the horror genre, primarily drawing on my experience and opinions as a writer and engager of such stories and media.

My copy-paste bio includes the line “writer of…cosmic horror”, however when I first started writing—in middle school and earlier—I couldn’t have imagined myself as someone who wrote horror, let alone even read or watched it. As a kid, I actively avoided most things “scary,” which included horror films, books, and the growing trends of spooky YouTube videos and internet memes. Even the smallest suggestion of something horrific in media kept me awake for nights after encountering it. Probably the creepier things I could stomach were Goosebumps books, but I was very choosy with those. I remember whenever my family went into Target looking for some movies for a rainy afternoon I’d keep my eyes down most of the time as to not look at any of the horror movie covers. The very existence of horror stories made me wonder about the things that were lurking around corners I couldn’t see past, in the shadows beyond the safety of nightlights, and in empty places.

Despite my aversion at an early age, however, there were small things that naturally drew my curiosity. Campfire stories, spooky tales told by my grandfather, and my imagination itself conjuring up ghosts and ghouls to haunt different spaces I occupied or visited. With each passing year, I found myself looking away less from horror on the screen, on the page, or simulated in real life as haunted hayrides or haunted house attractions. I still felt fear and didn’t admit to being a fan of horror, but the genre kept appearing in my life, either looming in the background like a shadow or surprising me like a jump-scare.

I made my first conscious decision to engage with classic horror literature during my sophomore year of high school; for Christmas, I received an anthology of Cthulhu Mythos stories, Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. I’d heard about Cthulhu and H.P. Lovecraft a few months beforehand and for some unexplainable reason I felt compelled to learn what it was about. At the time I was a bit young to understand Lovecraft’s thesis about cosmic horror and the different authors in the collection gave me conflicting impressions on what the mythos was “about.” Nonetheless, I felt like it was more well-done than the popular horror surrounding me when I grew up; there was genuine care and elegance put into the prose rather than cheap scares (at least in Lovecraft’s stories from this collection primarily) and just plain weirdness that the stories relished in unapologetically. It was my first introduction to weird fiction in general and ways of storytelling that cast aside normal conventions for something that made me, a reader and aspiring writer, wonder how far I could push the limits of my imagination by looking into my darker interests.

From there, my aversion horror officially ended. I wouldn’t say my fear went away as there have been pieces of horror media that have kept me up at night. Instead of regarding them with contempt as a would have when I was younger, however, I feel like any horror media that manages to scare the sleep out of me does its job exceedingly well. It’s a feeling I seek to emulate in my own writing, although I haven’t quite captured it just yet.

Consequently, being a horror writer and average fan of the genre, I’ve become inured to most of the scares that would’ve sent my younger self covering under my covers. As I’ve said above, I applaud horror that makes my skin crawl, keeps me awake, or just celebrates being a horror story. I wouldn’t say I “casually” engage with horror since it’s one genre I’m particularly choosy about—for every Exorcist there’s a bargain bin full of slasher sequels in the double digits or early 2000s horror movies with grimy cover art—but I do try to pick and recommend things that I think do the genre justice. Not every horror piece I like has scared me silly, but I still enjoy them for the ways they’ve told their stories.

Now, after over two decades of “running the gauntlet” through the horror genre, I’ve fully embraced it as something that is simply in my storytelling kit and an art form I can enjoy. Humans have been telling ghost stories for as long as storytelling existed, and horror exists in all mythologies of the world. It only makes sense to entertain the idea of finding the macabre, transgressive, and shadowy things lurking in the dark corners of the earth. It’s a forbidden fruit that many parents might bar their kids from tasting, and even kids who shy away from it can’t help but peak through their fingers to see what they’re missing out on. Horror has given me ideas for stories and ways of viewing the world itself that few other genres have accomplished; even in my traditional fantasy or adventure stories, I can’t help but add ghoulish elements to the mix. It is how I managed to finally turn off the nightlight and think, I guess the monster in the closet is kind of cool.

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Part of my posts this month will include personal horror recommendations to add to your watching/reading lists this month. Most of these are things I’ve recently found or are rather obscure (as to avoid the same old popular choices), or just my own two cents on horror I really like. If you’ve seen any of them or watch them based on my recommendation, leave your thoughts on them in the comments and share your own recommendations for this month!

1. Savageland (2015) — One of the best found footage horror movies (or horror movies period) I’ve seen in years, which I would even go as far as to say it’s better than The Blair Witch Project. I won’t give anything away other than say that it is a well-crafted film that left me awake for several nights afterward. Go in blind and watch it on YouTube here.

   

2. “Pigeons From Hell” by Robert E. Howard — S&S fans who follow me probably already know this southern horror classic well, but for anyone looking for a terrifying read this first week of October “Pigeons” should be your first stop. It has everything from ax-murders to a haunted house to obscure folklore and even mythos references! After you’ve read it (and you should read it first and Howard’s other horror tales here) check out the old TV adaptation from the anthology series Thriller, said by a fellow REH fan on the Whetstone Amateur Magazine of Pulp Sword & Sorcery Discord server to be “…the best adaptation of REH’s fiction to date.”

   

   (Above: Still from the Thriller adaptation of “Pigeons from Hell”)

3. The Greylock Tapes — One of the more recent subgenres of horror to hit the internet by storm has been “analog horror,” which is characterized through the use or imitation of analog media such as VHS tapes or ancient computers (one of the posts this month will be my thoughts on analog horror, but for a longer explanation this video gets the point across clearly). New England is one of my favorite settings for horror stories and the YouTube series The Greylock Tapes is another welcome addition to the canon of northeastern horror. It uses analog devices and its own lore to great effect, establishing such a good sense of verisimilitude that, when I first viewed it, convinced me I was watching something I shouldn’t have been. Not only is it a great analog series in its own right, but I would say it’s a great introduction to the genre in terms of recent entrants.

   

4. Dark Adventure Radio Theatre’s The Lurking Fear — A radio drama adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s story of the same name performed by the Howard Phillips Lovecraft Historical Society (HPLHS). This was my first exposure to The Lurking Fear as I had it playing on my car radio while I took a long trip through the central New England hills and forests. Needless to say, it was the perfect story to keep me company as I traveled the wooded backroads. There are very few creators that can improve on the already fantastic work of Lovecraft but Dark Adventure Radio Theatre never fails to make adaptations that surpass even the most diehard fans’ expectations. Fans of H.P. Lovecraft, classic radio dramas, and podcasts should definitely listen to this tale this month. The Lurking Fear is available on the HPLHS storefront here.

   

5. Ghostwatch (1992) — Few countries do ghost stories like the Brits and Ghostwatch is no exception. Sort of a predecessor to the found footage genre, this TV movie spooked the entirety of Britain, only ever airing once on the BBC on Halloween night, 1992. Taking the form of a live broadcast, Ghostwatch follows a crew from the BBC investigating an alleged haunting where things only get stranger as the night progresses. You can watch Ghostwatch on the Internet Archive here.

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Thanks for reading! Be sure to leave a like, comment your experiences with the horror genre and favorite Halloween staples (movies, stories, food, haunted house traditions, etc.), and spread the lore!

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