  Horror/Scary
This week: Edited by: schipperke
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| Hello from schipperke's this week's newsletter editor. This will be my last Horror/Scary newsletter and I want to thank all of you for reading our work, and for sending us submissions and comments. The editors DO read your comments and submissions, so keep sending them in! |
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In my last newsletter, I asked readers, "What is the most overdone theme for horror fiction or movies?" I received some answers, as highlighted in my Ask and Answer section.
What I found interesting, is most readers commented on the overdone themes in movies, but not in the horror fiction they read. I wonder if it is because more of us watch horror movies than read horror fiction?
As a reader, I find the themes of vampires and killer bugs to be the most overdone. I know, I know, there are lots of vampire fiction fans here on Writing.Com. However, after the string of vampire novels Ann Rice spewed out, the idea of vampires striking terror has gotten old. When I read about vampires now, all I can imagine is a dandified Tom Cruise on the lookout for nubile young boys....
I also find I get irritated when I read a great beginning of a horror story, like Stephen King's It, and come to the end, and find out what the protagonists are battling. The ending actually made me giggle!
I read reviews of a new book, The Ruins and saw the movie trailers. Bad idea to read reviews on Amazon, especially the one star reviews. Now I know what the book is about, and how it ends. Reviewers complained the plot was a rehash of many other plots, like Aliens, or The Body Snatchers (the remake, not the original). I even know what the 'monster' is, and I know it is not scary to me, but at least I think it is an original idea (the monster, not the plot).
Sad to say, but as I get older, modern horror fiction tends to leave me lukewarm. To get a goose pimple, I have to turn to the older writers, such as Poe, or Bierce, or explore new tales to me, such as Japanese or Korean horror stories. Psychological horror is still scary to me, probably because it is more hidden and devious than a rabid bat.
How can you, as a horror writer, not bore your readers to death? What can you do to make them need to read your story with all the lights on?
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I picked these stories and poems out for their senses of humor. Hard to find, nowadays, but always appreciated!
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She had a thing for spiders, the color red, the number 8, and college men.
#1219423 by Kotaro   |
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schipperke's Reader's Responses to Questions and Answers
In Answer to "What is the scariest book you have ever read?"
Alicia P  :RE: Scariest book I've ever read: Misery, by Stephen King. In this story your as trapped as the main character and literally feel that you too, are at the mercy of Annie Wilkes. Frightening!
And the commercial for Direct TV that ripped off the movie/book is even scarier!
billwilcox:I'm always a newsletter behind!
One of the scariest stories I've read in awhile is something new by Scott Smith. It's called 'The Ruins'...(soon to be a major motion picture) 
I will have to look for that book. The promo's for the movie look good, except I read the reviews on Amazon and I know how the book ends...Bad Schipperke!
In answer to the question, "What elements have been overdone in horror fiction or movies?"
zwisis: Schip, I haven't read much horror fiction lately, but I can tell you that I am FED UP with teenage horror films... you know the ones where something keeps attacking and killing cute cheerleaders. There's been a lot of them on TV lately, and the only thing scary about them is how these cheerleaders fail to realise what's about to happen. Don't they watch teen slasher films??? These films are not scary - they are boring and the characters in them are so stupid it's actually a relief when they get bumped off. At least it stops those silly screams of terror!
The whole point of those movies it to cheer for the undead, or for the computer generated monster! 
Lorie Boru : My answer to that is the slasher films like Halloween, Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, etc (although I love those movies). To me I know that in the end the killer will either die or die and come back in a sequel, thus leaving a few heroes and heroines alive to only kill them in the sequel. It's predictable. Nightmare on Elm Street to me isn't a slasher film because it's a psychological thriller. He's in your dreams, he's not out chasing you while you're awake so you're safe until the need for sleep arises, now you're screwed. That movie has always scared me since I was a child for that reason and maybe it was overdone with so many sequels, but to be honest some of the newly made sequels were pretty cool and scary. Scream was a good series of movies that was a great whodunit and I love those. I think what they need to bring back to the screen are the Hitchcock movies they were scary with a twist.
Well, I think you should submit a screenplay for Hollywood using your ideas instead of the worn out plots they seem to prefer.
Arakun the twisted raccoon  :I think the element that has been overdone in horror stories and especially movies is grossness. Grossing me out doesn't scare me at all. Giving a suggestion of what happened and letting me imagine the rest is more scary to me than shoving the blood and gore right in my face!
I agree. Maybe the movie makers are catering to children, although I think most kids are fascinated by gore, not repelled by it. 
GOOD BYE ALL, AND DON"T LET THE BED BUGS BITE!!!!!! |
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Horror/Scary: March 26, 2008 Issue [#2300]
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