  Horror/Scary
This week: Edited by: schipperke
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No man needs a vacation so much as the person who has just had one. ~ Elbert Hubbard
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My pulse is racing and my stomach is in knots. I can’t eat anything solid and even a pizza fresh out of the oven doesn’t appeal to me. What is the matter? schipperke’s going on vacation.
Vacations can be a goldmine of inspiration for writing horror stories. Think about the possibilities with just the kinds of weather you could encounter while traveling, and the scary situations the travelers could find themselves in.
One time I was driving through the Catskill mountains on what I though would be a scenic short cut from the usual predictable highway route I usually take. I will never forget those hours spent on the twisty mountain roads enveloped in the thickest fog I have ever seen. Picture me in a rented car, on a two way road through the mountains with no barriers on the sides of the road except for enormous pine and oak trees. Imagine eighteen wheeler trucks traveling on the same road at breakneck speed. I can’t see the end of the hood of my car because the fog is overwhelming. I can’t see the painted lines in the road, or if there is a looming truck in front of me. It was like driving in a cotton ball. I went ten miles an hour top speed. It was the scariest driving moment in my life.
Next is the fear of being lost. I love to drive around a new place to see things off the tourist trap path. I ended up in Little Korea in LA, and in the middle of a melon patch in what I think was Oxnard, California. It wasn’t really scary, however, since the natives were friendly and set me on the right path.
However, I wonder if I had seen the latest horror vacation movies, I wouldn’t have been a little frightened.
Hosteland Wolf Creek are two fairly new horror movies based on vacations gone bad. Hostel deals with horny teenage boys looking for love in Eastern Europe and end up being tortured, and Wolf Creek is based on the true story of a backwoodsman/serial killer in the Australian outback. Both stories deal with being lost or broken down in a rural area and being gruesomely murdered.
This type of horror vacation movie seems to be popular and has trends. Horror vacation movies usually have an innocent family, a group of lusty teens, or a lovey dovey couple out for a fun trip. Along the way someone decides to take a shortcut (always a bad idea) or the car breaks down, in the desert or in the woods of the deep south. The poor vacationers end up in the hands of cannibals or inbred murderous backwoodsmen. Movies with this theme include The Hills have Eyes a cult classic, Dead End: “Take a shortcut and end up Dead”, Tourist Trap: a gas station in the desert (of course) is full of gruesome mannequins who come to life, and Savage Island: young couple goes on vacation on a deserted ? island and end up being attacked by backwoods squatters.
Now that the vacation summer season is in full swing, it’s time to start to think about using your vacation experiences as sources of horror writing. I would like to see something more creative than backwoods desert dwelling inbred cannibals, however!
As for my vacation, I’ll bring a sprig of garlic and my grandmother’s cross in the glove compartment!
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zwisis:Schipperke , thank you for reminding us about an aspect of the horror gene that is perhaps neglected. The Goth person seems to be more famous than the actual gothic stories these days, and I'm sure your newsletter will encourage more writers to tackle this theme.
I would love to read a modern gothic story as intriguing as "Cold Skin". Maybe one of our members could come up with one!
Wenston  :Hey Ship, thanks for featuring my story. 
You are welcome. I hope you got more eyes to your port, you deserve it!
Abominae :Great newsletter, I am fairly interested in gothic horror and this was a nice clarification for exactly what it is.I'm currently obsessed with H.P. Lovecraft and idolize his writing as a gothic horror writer, I just finished The Dunwich Horror and between that and The Call of Cthulu Lovecraft is definitely an influence on me now.
Lovecraft was an interesting man. You have to wonder where his mind came up with his stories! 
billwilcox:Schippers!
Loved your newsletter...I gothic just reading it...lol.
Ha Ha Bill!
Mavis Moog :This informative newsletter was very well researched and written. Thank you.
I always think of gothic novels having supernatural and melodramatic plots, often set in castles (preferably with dungeons). Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, is a typical example.
Part of the gothic story is usually some type of building with gothic type architecture, like a castle with a dungeon. Doesn't your new house have a dungeon?
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Horror/Scary: June 07, 2006 Issue [#1082]
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