I love to read and write smart horror. On of the marks of what makes horror “good” in my mind is the ability to take something common place and make it into something truly horrific. (For more on what I and some others think make for good horror check out Mike Plested’s podcast episode “Horror Comes To Get Published”.) Two examples popped into my mind this morning on the way into work and gave me the title of this post.
I don’t think you can google “chainsaw” wihtout getting hits referring to the 1970’s chainsaw massacre franchise or its remake. Tobe Hooper’s creation set the tone for many horror stories to come. The chicken scissors reference comes from a series of stories by Scott Sigler. In Infected, Perry Dawsey uses them to cut off some very tender bits of himself to stem the tide of an alien virus. Since using the kitchen implement in his stories, his fans all cringe at the mention of them.
Horror is certainly full of unique characters and implements of destruction. Freddy’s glove is a one of a kind item, but seeing a hockey mask or a creepy doll is going to happen with greater frequency. If you can tie a visceral reaction to that everyday object then you’ve succeeded in creating something that your audience can’t get away from.
What mundane object or situation has an author “ruined” for you?
My mom was talking about the alleged true story of Sybil once when I was a teenager, about how the girl recounted her mother’s abuse of daily ice-water enemas and kitchen knife rapings. For a long time after that, I couldn’t look at a steak knife without cringing. Still, even just typing it here gave me the creeps in a way I haven’t had for years. Thanks, Scott. Thanks for dredging up childhood horrors. 😀
It’s my pleasure Jenny!
I am sure people are going to make fun of me for this but I just don’t care any more. When I was in my early teens I stayed up late one night and watched Maximum OverDrive. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091499/) Up that movie. It was creepy as all get out, and afterwards I remember sitting on the couch all alone, in the living room being afraid to get up and go turn the TV off. It was not the devil trucks or really anything else I think was meant to be scary, it was the fact that everything was turned against the humans, and the fact that why did it any why was totally unknown. What would my TV do to me if I try to turn it off. To this day, when it is late at night and the house is dark, I don’t like to touch electrical devices. Yeah I know silly stuff, but you asked.
Christine scared the crap out of me, Jeff. So I won’t cast any stones.