Category: Philosophy of Horror
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To Stephen King: I Agree
And to anyone else who might share in the sentiment he shared in an interview recently, that overall, the most frightening horror film has to be, for me, the original Night Of The Living Dead. “There has been an epidemic of mass murder, being committed by a virtual army of unidentified assassins,” said the news…
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Horror Literature and the Status Quo
It is my contention that horror is essentially a conservative, even reactionary, genre. There are exceptions, of course, that goes without saying. But at its core, horror is not progressive. The scary story story is meant to reinforce the status quo. Horror has its roots in folk tales and fairy tales. The purpose of those…
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The Sky Frightens
As I slowly (and I do mean slowly) eek out an episode here and there of In The Light Of… on Kindle Vella, I watch lots of YouTube videos for inspiration. What’s my story about? A friendly guy in the present day who helps people deal with UFO abductions. I’m trying to make the UFO…
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Horror vs Picture Books (or Good vs Evil)
When my old friend Jack Tyler invited me to join Threads That Bind, I hesitated. The truth is, it’s been a while since I’ve written horror. My writing career began with dark fantasy, dark steampunk, and gothic horror. I later edited the dreadpunk anthologies DeadSteam and DeadSteam II, contributing short stories to each. But since…
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The Thrill of Horror
Horror — an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust. The definition itself terrifies most people, while in others it invokes a deep fascination and pure ecstasy. Why are some people drawn to the horror genre? Are there peculiarities in the personalities of these people? Is it just the adrenaline released in our bodies by…
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What I Learned In The Pool (Of Blood)
Hey there! Hello from the wily lands of the splatterpunk subgenre. SO ripe, so fresh, so little known or understood. While I know many find this sub to be less than lovelerly, I, as a punk fiction indie author, am determined to write tales in all the punks. So splatterpunk and I had to find…
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Why Are Vampires Scary?
As a writer of vampire horror, I find it useful to take a look at what makes them an effective source of horror. This is not necessarily intended to be a definitive or exhaustive list. Also, just because I cite a book under one category doesn’t mean it won’t fit under other categories as well.…
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WORLD SPLATTER DAY
I am writing this on Monday afternoon, World Goth Day, in case you didn’t know. It’s an appreciation of the subculture and its music that began in the UK in 2009, and since the previous Saturday, yours truly has used it to continue shaking off the vestiges of social anxiety disorder by going out to…
Threads that Bind 