Why horror?

I don’t know about you, but I know there are people who assume that just because people like us like horror films and books that we must necessarily be sick people. That we somehow revel in the suffering of others, that we LIKE to see people on screen or on the page being knifed/dismembered/torn apart in a shower of blood. They question what sort of ‘thrill’ it is that we get out of that kind of ‘entertainment’ – if even they consider it entertainment at all. There are even some, no doubt, who would dearly love to see such things removed entirely from this world.

Well, I have news for those detractors – this world in general, and humanity in particular, is capable of far worse than anything a writer sitting at a computer would ever be able to think up. Just look back through history, and it won’t be too long before you’d come across numerous examples of horrendous cruelty and barbarity, perpetrated by homo sapiens upon their fellow homo sapiens. Take the Inquisition, for instance. If those torturers were around today, we’d call them psychopaths and murderers – and more to the point, they’d be practising their destructive ‘art’, not hypothetically on paper, but on real people. And, it appears, not think twice about what they were doing.

We have, apparently, become more civilised since those days, but people still kill each other, in every city, on every continent, every day. I get tired of reading in the newspaper about the constant round of death and destruction, the intolerance, hatred, belligerence and stupidity of mankind. Also, it seems that a large proportion of our society has sunk into a species of senile vacuity at best, where the things that are worth celebrating have now been marginalised as being irrelevant and that instead puerility is being touted as the new virtue. Plus there’s the horror of the everyday: anti-social behaviour, lack of respect for others, social maladjustment, paedophilia, racism and religious fundamentalism (of ALL varieties, NOT just Islamic). If I didn’t have those avenues of writing, or reading, or being able to watch a film, then all this would, inevitably, get on top of me. I see it as a necessary safety valve , especially if I’m reading others’ stories or watching some gory film.

I detest violence of any sort, but I do still feel anger, and if I bottle it up for too long, I feel that pressure building, and pressure will always seek an outlet. I think, in hindsight, that this kind of anger, and the pressure it inevitably engendered, contributed in large part to the stroke I had thirteen and a half years ago. Yes, I had my painting as an outlet back then, when I was seriously pursuing a career in art, and they tended to reflect to a very large extent the bottled up fury and disgust I felt (the colours I predominantly used were black and blood red – VERY angry). Painting no longer does it for me, however, mostly because I find the fiddly rigmarole of setting things up (plus the actual process of painting) to be such an almighty pain in the rear.

That vexed state of mind is best expressed through the medium of horror, or at least I think so. There are times when I wish I was a musician, but I have zero facility and talent in that direction. I could continue with the art, I suppose, but until I can get a permanent studio and set-up, then it’s a no-go for the reason cited above. So, I am left with the writing, and at least I know I have a modicum of talent with words.

And THAT’S why I write mostly horror – it’s a good platform on which to get out all those urges to go out and commit mayhem, and it’s legal too. So next time someone asks YOU why you write/read/watch horror, as them this: “What would YOU rather me do? Go out and kill someone, depriving a family of their mother/father/daughter/son/sister/brother? OR writing an entirely fictitious story about it, harming no-one?”

(I would also love to know why YOU write/read/horror – could be an interesting exercise in where people find their motivation to lean towards the macabre and blood-soaked…. please leave a comment here!!)