The horror! Why scary stories stand the test of time
Monsters have haunted humans for centuries — and they won't stop scaring us anytime soon
The monster in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; the notorious count in Bram Stoker's Dracula; the frightening dual persona of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
All three characters were once simple ideas put to paper by 19th century authors, and have since been reincarnated countless times — for better or for worse — throughout popular culture.
Today, those villains share a special space in the cultural consciousness along with more modern monsters. From Freddy Kreuger to Jack Torrance, these frightening characters have left a lasting mark on the silver screen.
But why is society so morbidly fascinated with horror? The master of macabre, Stephen King, once famously wrote in an essay, "We go to frightening films for fun," and the "fun" comes from, "seeing others menaced, sometimes killed."
King says the mythic horror movie fulfills an unsettling task: it lets our base instincts free and realises our nasty fantasies, "and it all happens, fittingly enough, in the dark."
The intersection of fantasy and reality
But according to Vancouver-based horror filmmaker Ashley Fester, what makes scary stories so enthralling is how they tend to relate to our own lives.
"A lot of the time, people are afraid by tension. The thriller and the psychological horror [cross with] things in your everyday life," she said.
Fester says horror films scratch at a certain discomfort that can be universal. In Rosemary's Baby, for example, the lead character becomes fearful and disillusioned after an unexplainable pregnancy leaves her feeling isolated from the world around her.
Fester says the burden of fear endured by protagonists like Rosemary can reflect our own problems and emotions.
"Our own denial and grief manifest into things we consider monsters. Things that we can't control because we're not facing our fears."
'Sort of Shakespearean'
But the audience doesn't always identify with 'the good guy', at least not consciously, according to ghost-story writer J.J. Lee.
Every great villain or haunting ghost boils down to a tortured soul who cannot come to grips with the past.
"There's a past, deep, that drives the ghost in this new form," said Lee. "There's a back-story, and it's sort of Shakespearean."
Regret, remorse and revenge are qualities that many villains deal with, and the emotions are completely human.
"As a society, we are always dealing with the choices that we made in the past. And ghost stories are all about that, except manifesting it in a very direct way."
"I just love the creepiness of it all," said the writer.
The fun of the art
Lee says one of the most exciting things about creating horror stories is the ability to elicit a physical response from the audience; to send a chill up the viewer's or reader's spine.
But is there anything fun about sitting on the edge of your seat, nervously waiting for the next scare?
By tapping into our most basic fears, we're actually able to make light of them, according to the author.
"It's in the grappling with those big issues like death and what is beyond, and maybe it's giving us the opportunity to find that black humour — that laugh that's just a little bit nervous."
And it's that nervous laugh that might capture the essence of a scary story.
In his anaylsis of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, film critic Jonathan Romney succinctly characterizes the paradoxical enjoyment derived from freaky films.
"Horror cinema is an art of claustrophobia; making us loath to stay in the cinema, but unable to leave," he quips.
And like many great horror movies, Kubrick's film is a shining example of how a carefully crafted and haunting story, combined with tour-de-force acting and top-notch cinematography, can result in a timeless piece of art.
Love it or hate it, the horror story is here to stay, scare, and endlessly fascinate.
With files from CBC's BC Almanac
To listen to the full interview, click on the audio labelled: The Horror! Why scary stories stand the test of time
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