Bumps in the Night: Why We Love to Turn Up the Terror

I think I was about 15 the first time I read Pet Sematary. I was terrified. I was grossed out.

I was totally hooked.

I remember holing up in the basement to watch the movie with some friends. It was ok. But nothing like the delicious thrill of the words on the page, and the invitation those pages offered into the macabre layers of my own imagination. Something about King’s brand of terror has never translated well to the screen… His art is language, and trying to force real, physical images around it just doesn’t add up.

In the years since, I have read all of King’s major works, and a few of his minor ones. I’ve also tried to get into other pretenders in the genre—Straub, Crichton, Rice—and they’re ok, but they just do not pack the same wicked wallop as the Master of Horror. There is something in his writing that is not only scary… it is also, somehow, deeply spiritual.

Maybe a connection to the other-worldly is what all of us seek, really, when we turn to the terror.  But, as most things that are mass produced, much of what we watch and read now is more guilty pleasure (Twilight), gratuitous violence (Jason, Freddy, et al), and/or a shared cultural experience (The Walking Dead, anyone?) I must admit, as much as I love a good scare… I hate shimmery vampires and angsty heroines, I abhor the blood and guts of slasher films, and—I’m fixing to lose some friends, but here goes—I DO NOT CARE FOR ZOMBIES. There. Said it. They’re stupid and gross.

No, I prefer my state of sheer terror with a side of moderate probability and/or complicated degrees of psychosis. Maybe that’s why I’m so picky about how my scares are packaged. Like… Poltregeist = yes, Scream = no. Twilight = NO, True Blood = sort of, Dracula = Oh HELL yes. I have managed to love that creepy-sexy vampire through several readings, multiple bad movie translations, and a college lit class where I learned way more about VD than anyone should ever have to learn in college. Yes, Bram Stoker’s Dracula is all about SYPHILIS, people, and it is still one of the greatest works of literature of all time.

Anyway. Maybe there’s no rhyme or reason to my rubric of good scares verses dumb ones. But maybe there is. Whatever your poison, there are some basic human impulses—and even some deep human longings—that may be answered in all that goes bump in the night.

1.  Horror offers perspective. Bills overdue? Boss being a jerk? Spouse forget your birthday? Hey, at least you aren’t being stalked by a deranged serial killer in a ski mask, or eaten by a giant spider! A good scary movie or novel makes your life seem kind of ok all of a sudden.

 2. Dust off the fight or flight reflexes. Most days, our lives are pretty low on adrenaline. Think about it—when’s the last time you were chased by a bear, or had to outrun a volcanic eruption, or fight a warrior from the next tribe over to keep your wife? Let’s face it…civilization has made us soft. And yet, evolution demands that we keep those survival instincts. Watching other people get chased by aliens/zombies/Randall Flagg.

 3. We need a way to process the dynamics of good and evil. Narrative helps us do that. In fact, the need to understand how good and evil play out in the world around us is why religion has lasted so long. If somebody can tell a good story that encapsulates a global view of theodicy—we are in. Terrified, but in. When you think about it like this—a well-crafted horror story is downright biblical.

4. We need to vent our demons. Tell the truth. Living vicariously through cinematic bad guys is the only thing that keeps you from running your SUV through the side of a Wal-Mart.

5. Bad guys are a little sexy. I don’t know. They just are. I’m sure my psychologist friends could writ e entire theses on why this is so, but all I know is that evil–when placed a safe distance from reality–has a certain appeal. Ask any woman who’s ever dated a biker. And also, isn’t Maleficent hotter than boring old Aurora? You know I’m right. It gets pretty lame, trying to be good all the time.

6. We are compulsive escapists. Reading about a dramatic end-times scenario or wondering if those stupid teenagers are going to survive the week at camp with a KILLER ON THE LOOSE… it is way more fun than watching YouTube videos of white cops beating up black teenagers. Or wondering who the Koch Brothers are going to buy into office next. Or letting ourselves read the latest study on climate change, or the death-dealing powers of bacon.

 7. We are desperate for connection with the holy. This is it, really. The real reason we crave the ‘otherness’ present in horror. We want to know there is an up there, an out there, a something bigger than and beyond ourselves. A good super-natural thriller leads us to believe that it is much closer than we think. For better or worse.

So… who’s your favorite demon? And what does it say about you? I’d love to hear about it. But I’ll be over here reading Dracula for the 18^th time, and hoping for a Halloween AMC marathon of The Stand. Don’t wait up.