The art of horror

To me, one of the greatest emotions I have ever felt (even during times when I thought I did not care to have very much) was fear. When I was no older than 3, I would cry at nights – due to a witch. I would cry to my parents about seeing her. This, I’m told, happened several times. I’m not sure about you, but I can’t imagine there are many 3 year old’s out there who can imagine something that specific and freak out over it as often as I had. Can anyone say freaky?  That, and one movie in particular (which I know that many 80’s and early 90’s babies can relate to fearing), were my earliest experiences with fear and the horror genre.

You might ask yourself, “well how can a life experience be considered part of the ‘horror genre’?”

Real simple – I see life as a form of art. To me, it is the ultimate form of literature. The ultimate art form. Life reflects the world in OUR heads (the art pieces that are drawn, or brought to by means of beautiful melodies, written in novels, and so on), which in turn – art reflects back with its own world.

Side note: That movie, which scared the living shit out of me, the movie which haunted me for the next few years after seeing it…that movie was Stephen King’s IT. I was a one-year-old child when I saw the images of Pennywise the clown. I also happened to see (some time after I saw the movie) a rubber clown near a sewer drain when I was out-and-about with my parents. True Story!

I ended up watching as many horror flicks as I could in my adolescence. I fell in love with slasher films from the 80s. I personally think Michael Myers and Pinhead are the top dogs of that genre. But I digress.

Let’s get back to the art of horror. Horror is something that embodies fear, does it not? Of course it does! Horror is something that lives around and in some cases, with us, on a regular basis. Just look on the news. From radical groups who shoot artist for portraying their god, to protestors who take it to the next level, to rapist and murders.

I find that people who don’t like horror novels, movies, and so forth fall under two categories: a) they don’t like to be scared, or b) they are repulsed and find that the horror art is the reason for all these terrible things in our society.

I don’t care if someone likes the genre I happen to love. Everybody won’t like the same thing. However, for the people in category b…I find them to be laughable. Here is my one supporting example: Was art responsible for violence before Edgar Allen Poe? The answer is, of course, yes!

I write in the genre of horror for a few reasons: 1) I love it! 2) I think I have stories that others will love as well and 3) It’s a necessity for me to write these stories.

I don’t think I am alone when I say this. But as a writer, I have millions of stories and worlds in my head. The characters who live in them – I want the world that I live in to know about them. Also, if I don’t write their stories down, I feel that I start to go a little nutty. If I go a day or two without writing, the stories end up building up, begging to come out. Begging to be written down. I know this applies for every genre. But I can’t speak for those who write in other genres.

All I know is one thing (without being disrespectful towards every other genre), I feel that horror is the greatest genre there is. It’s my personal opinion, but it’s something I have always felt a strong love for.