I’m not sure if I could write horror, it’s the thing that would keep me awake at night. Before zombies there were the vampire movies. I expect truly terrible if I watched now but for a preteen they were terrifying! There must have been a run on them one summer during the holidays as I remember my cousin and I being addicted!! We’d squash into a single chair for safety, and squeal every time the undead appeared. On those nights, I imagine little sleep was had by all.
And sorry I have to ask, but why didn’t the pregnant wife bleed out??
I have similar memories from childhood! My cousins, my brother and I watching in the evening “V: The Final Battle”, about aliens invading our planet to steal our water. Plus, other horror films. A few days ago I re-watched one I hadn’t seen in 40 years, “The Evil Dead”, and it was so campy and low-budget… only a 10 year old would be scared of it, haha!
About the pregnant wife… my subconscious is as unpredictable and full of plot holes and 80s teen slashers! 😉
Unfortunately, I was unsupervised in the 80s and allowed to check out any horror film from the video store that I wanted! What has been interesting for adult-me is revisiting them now and seeing how "punk" they were in their execution and not scary at all, actually.
I also wonder how we were allowed to watch vampire movies, couldn’t have been much older than 11 or 12 at the time. I’ll have to see where I can find them again
I also remember Christopher Lee as Dracula - again in the early 1970's, we were obsessed. I have a recollection of a movie where the vampire was a very appealing young man who drew people to him and then killed them but have no idea what the film was called or where it was made. A mystery to be solved. I'd like to give my inner rage an airing - maybe will come with the project I'm working on with Karla.
horror is not usually my genre (to write or read) AT ALL!
Well, I tried... you've certainly got a gripping story there... writing in first person is a great relief, letting the reader know that you got away to tell the tale...
Horror is a weird one for me - I'm naturally drawn to other genres ("Pride and Prejudice", for example, is one of my fave books). But I was exposed to a lot of horror as a kid and teen and I think it answers something to me, which I need to explore further, and it definitely crops up a lot in my dreams.
that makes sense, when it comes to you in your dreams...
I was a subscriber to Masterclass for a few years, and took all the courses by writers (all of them famous and successful). One of the teachers (i can't remember his name now) specialised on 'Horror for children' as a genre, which horrified(!) me at the time. I did his class anyway, since there is always something to learn... He claimed that 'for children horror is funny', which I couldn't related to, because children in my immediate orbit (including my inner child) would get nightmares from reading or watching anything to do with horror... but of course it can also be a way to process the horrific stuff that's going on at other levels of reality.
Could the author be R.L. Stine? I’ve never read him but I’ve seen some video clips on YouTube where he discusses his work and methods.
That’s interesting about horror being funny for children… I think there was an element of that for me! One of my dreams, for example, was for someone to take me to the cemetery at midnight because I was sure I’d see lots of ghosts - and this was probably influenced by too many Scooby Doo cartoons! (This horrified my family, however, who were all devout Catholics from a very small town and full of superstitions!)
yes, that's the one! I haven't read his stuff either.
he seems to be very successful (and I think his wife is also a publisher and his editor)
I had (and still have) a hard time relating to this horror = funny narrative. Aren't there other ways to have fun? For me as a 'hypersensitive human specimen', anything (scene, image, story) that is scary stays with me for years... I've had enough traumatising stuff happen in real life, so I prefer to process and resolve that rather than fill my mind with fictitious trauma, which has the same unpleasant effect on my nervous system and makes me dissociate (= not funny!)
I’m not sure if I could write horror, it’s the thing that would keep me awake at night. Before zombies there were the vampire movies. I expect truly terrible if I watched now but for a preteen they were terrifying! There must have been a run on them one summer during the holidays as I remember my cousin and I being addicted!! We’d squash into a single chair for safety, and squeal every time the undead appeared. On those nights, I imagine little sleep was had by all.
And sorry I have to ask, but why didn’t the pregnant wife bleed out??
I have similar memories from childhood! My cousins, my brother and I watching in the evening “V: The Final Battle”, about aliens invading our planet to steal our water. Plus, other horror films. A few days ago I re-watched one I hadn’t seen in 40 years, “The Evil Dead”, and it was so campy and low-budget… only a 10 year old would be scared of it, haha!
About the pregnant wife… my subconscious is as unpredictable and full of plot holes and 80s teen slashers! 😉
I love that your subconscious is filled with 80’s slasher films. I do remember V - it had its day in the sun
Unfortunately, I was unsupervised in the 80s and allowed to check out any horror film from the video store that I wanted! What has been interesting for adult-me is revisiting them now and seeing how "punk" they were in their execution and not scary at all, actually.
I also wonder how we were allowed to watch vampire movies, couldn’t have been much older than 11 or 12 at the time. I’ll have to see where I can find them again
Were they those classic Hollywood vampire films? Do you remember who was in them?
As classic as 1970's American Vampire movies go... my cousin and I both loved and feared Count Yorga Vampire and its sequel <<https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20733-COUNT-YORGA-VAMPIRE?cxt=filmography>>
I also remember Christopher Lee as Dracula - again in the early 1970's, we were obsessed. I have a recollection of a movie where the vampire was a very appealing young man who drew people to him and then killed them but have no idea what the film was called or where it was made. A mystery to be solved. I'd like to give my inner rage an airing - maybe will come with the project I'm working on with Karla.
That sounds like a great idea!
horror is not usually my genre (to write or read) AT ALL!
Well, I tried... you've certainly got a gripping story there... writing in first person is a great relief, letting the reader know that you got away to tell the tale...
Horror is a weird one for me - I'm naturally drawn to other genres ("Pride and Prejudice", for example, is one of my fave books). But I was exposed to a lot of horror as a kid and teen and I think it answers something to me, which I need to explore further, and it definitely crops up a lot in my dreams.
that makes sense, when it comes to you in your dreams...
I was a subscriber to Masterclass for a few years, and took all the courses by writers (all of them famous and successful). One of the teachers (i can't remember his name now) specialised on 'Horror for children' as a genre, which horrified(!) me at the time. I did his class anyway, since there is always something to learn... He claimed that 'for children horror is funny', which I couldn't related to, because children in my immediate orbit (including my inner child) would get nightmares from reading or watching anything to do with horror... but of course it can also be a way to process the horrific stuff that's going on at other levels of reality.
Could the author be R.L. Stine? I’ve never read him but I’ve seen some video clips on YouTube where he discusses his work and methods.
That’s interesting about horror being funny for children… I think there was an element of that for me! One of my dreams, for example, was for someone to take me to the cemetery at midnight because I was sure I’d see lots of ghosts - and this was probably influenced by too many Scooby Doo cartoons! (This horrified my family, however, who were all devout Catholics from a very small town and full of superstitions!)
yes, that's the one! I haven't read his stuff either.
he seems to be very successful (and I think his wife is also a publisher and his editor)
I had (and still have) a hard time relating to this horror = funny narrative. Aren't there other ways to have fun? For me as a 'hypersensitive human specimen', anything (scene, image, story) that is scary stays with me for years... I've had enough traumatising stuff happen in real life, so I prefer to process and resolve that rather than fill my mind with fictitious trauma, which has the same unpleasant effect on my nervous system and makes me dissociate (= not funny!)