This won’t be a long one – though I could go on about the genre – so it won’t be in a great amount of detail, but think of it like a sketch of my thoughts about the horror genre and why it’s so important to everyone, whether you’re a fan of horror or not.
Importantly, horror deals with fear. That doesn’t mean every piece of horror will scare you, or ignite your own fears. It is, however, an emotional genre. Some genres are defined by their settings or characters or plots, horror relies on the instinct all living creatures have; survival.
Survival can come in different forms, depending on the person and their circumstances. In life in general, survival might mean struggling through the daily grind, working to earn enough to pay bills and buy food but little else. Or it might mean living comfortably but being struck with a long-term illness, or even, for others, survival means nothing without thriving. In horror, we see different characters face different situations, but always with the possibility of death hanging over them. In romance, HEA (Happily Ever After) is a guarantee; in horror, survival is never certain.
‘Survival’ changes with the times, too. Think about your very first experience of ‘horror’ – not your first Stephen King book or watching Candyman late at night when you were too young to do so, but the first time you saw something fictional that filled you with dread. Or heard a story that had your heart racing – maybe it was when Snow White flees through the woods to escape her stepmother, or the first time you heard the story of Hansel and Gretel and realised the witch was eating children, or when Red Riding Hood arrives at her grandmother’s and, surprise, the wolf is waiting!
These stories all have something significant in common – not only are the protagonists all children, but they’re all about the dangers lurking in the woods. They’re about conveying the idea that these are unsafe places, places where people are injured or killed. They have a message, and they’re reflecting society’s fears back at them; dark, shadowed places away from ‘civilisation’ are dangerous and unpredictable.
Horror is a mirror; it holds up our fears, society’s fears, and forces us to pay attention. During times of economic uncertainty, haunted house tales emerge. We know how they go; middle class family finds ‘too good to be true’ house that would normally be beyond their means, but for some reason is being sold cheaply. Different types of supernatural creatures serve as representations, whether it’s the vampire as the ‘sexy, seductive foreigner’ or the werewolf as a metaphor for puberty, or how about zombies showing us the inevitability of mindless capitalism?
Horror feeds off society’s fears, and it’s just one of the reasons horror works so well, and why it’s so important. Through horror, we can work through the things pressing down on us, in a safe, containable space, and sometimes we can see the fears as irrational (especially if the horror in question gives us an element of ambiguity) or we can consider the implications and, perhaps, what we might do about it. The last year or so has seen an increase in parenting and birth focused horror coming from the US, and that should come as no surprise. But when we see the horrors of birth, the trauma and pain that can come from something parasitic growing inside you, the extremes horror takes these ideas to, it’s worth considering where these ideas come from, why they have increased, and why many might consider the idea of being pregnant and recoil from it.
Okay, this has got a bit longer than I like. But I’ll leave with this – if you are a horror fan, next time you sit down to watch a horror film or read a horror book, from any era, really pay attention and think about the influences. Consider what the creator(s) are saying, what sort of reflection they’re using, and what, ultimately, that piece of horror is saying about humanity. Sometimes the results can be incredibly interesting and surprising!
Unwrapping Words 