 Horror/Scary: June 04, 2008 Issue [#2425] |
  Horror/Scary
This week: Edited by: W.D.Wilcox  
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The Monster
In all horror stories, the best and most anticipated part is when the monster is finally revealed-when the author describes what the hideous terror from Hell actually looks like.
Unfortunately, this is usually where the reader has all their hopes dashed by some puny, humdrum description when they were expecting 'so much' more.
You know what I'm talking about. How many times have you read the most horrifying and suspenseful book ever, only to be let down when the monster is finally revealed?
This is the part where a good horror writer 'has to' shine. This is the part that has to really deliver to satisfy people that have grownup watching 'slasher films' since they were old enough to turn on the tube. Fantasy writers have their 'unimaginable lands' and 'magical creatures', but horror writers only have their scare, and their 'nasty piece of work' called, 'The Monster'.
Here is an example of what I mean. Remember, as in describing anything, you must use all of the five senses.
So walk with me through the crowding trees that welcome us into their dark, through the long meadow grass that ripples with the wind like a rolling sea, and makes the boughs of the evergreens strain a low mournful sound.
A path snakes down through the woods where there is an old graveyard. That is our destination, just up ahead, where a ghoul is awakening.
Listen.
Can you hear him?
He arises....
Our dim lantern reveals the demonically animated cadaver as it begins to claw at the dirt that weighs it down, scooping the soil aside with slow, stupid industriousness.
Then it sits up.
In the lamplight, you can see its oozing sores, the blood blisters that have burst and stream heavy, thick pus down its face and arms.
Its one good eye drifts towards us, watching intently from under its low, dirt-smeared brow, while deep in its torn throat, the corpse makes a shrill, wet, cackling noise that might be confused with laughter-the laughter of the damned. The sound has the power to transmute blood into ice water. Can you hear it? If Evil personified walked the earth either in the form of Satan or some other singular devil, this is surely its voice, wordless but malevolent, the voice of all that is not good-all that is not right.
The dead thing continues to gabble wordlessly, flinging dirt aside, limbs pulling free of entombment, squishing, grunting, scrabbling. It heaves its broken puppet-like body out of the shallow grave, and then stands.
The smell is overpowering, a noxious odor of pustulant, gangrenous flesh.
The corpse stops and gazes at us hungrily. Its face is only slightly swollen, though darkly empurpled, mottled with yellow here and there, a crust of evil green under its clogged nostrils. One eye is missing, while the other is covered with a yellow film; it bulges against a half-concealing lid that, though sewn shut by a mortician, has partially opened when the rotting threads broke loose. A couple of fingernails are still attached to the decaying hands, but they have turned long and black and look like the gleaming shells of fat, feasting beetles.
The creature continues to mutter senselessly, in a tone not unlike that of one in the throes of passion. Its arms and legs twitch spider-quick and without purpose, its hands quiver and jerk.
Then it comes forward with its chuckling noise and the scrape-thud of heavy footsteps.
I know that what makes a monster 'really' scary is not just the way it looks, but what it does to its victims-the horrendous and gruesome way it has in dealing out death. Does it rip out and eat your heart in front of you, or suck your brains through the gaping hole it makes in your head? Whatever it does, all of that should be part of the suspense leading up to the final description of your monster.
To me, the 'scariest' monster of all is the one that looks just like you and me-some psycho that is in need of a major brain overhaul. Then it's not so much what the monster looks like as compared to what kind of crazy crap is going on inside its head.
But that's for another newsletter.
Until next time,
billwilcox
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MONSTERS
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EMAILLLLL....
bazilbob
Submitted Comment:
Great idea for a newsletter; I don't think I've ever read one that actually deals with fear and the physical consequences before. (Odd considering this is a horror newsletter, but maybe I missed it last time!) I did think that you could have used a better example of media-made fear, you almost suggested that it's OK for us to carry on destroying the world. I don't think people should get stressed over it (I doubt many people do anyway) but you can still do your bit to stop the situation getting worse. I believe scientists are in conflict over whether we have a big impact on our environment or not, but it's not going to do us any harm to recycle and not drive everywhere, right? (Also, I think people are more afraid of the media presentation of terrorism, but that's down to the government. A society controlled by fear is, well, easier to control after all.)
sanu 
Submitted Comment:
Thanks for that, I really needed some peices to get ideas. Right now I'm reading, and still I loved the themes.
A thinker never sleeps 
Submitted Comment:
Great newsletter, and its all very true.
SantaBee 
Submitted Comment:
Two thumbs up, Bill. Great discussion about weaving fear into your stories.
zwisis
Submitted Comment:
Control of the masses... probably the ultimate fear. Have you seen the film "V for Vendetta"? That statement of yours brought that story to mind, probably because it's a variation on the dystopian world... a world ruled by fear. Excellent newsletter as always, Mr Wilcox! Or is it Comrade Wilcox? 
dmack
Submitted Comment:
Hello WD, I always look forward to your newsletters and you never disappoint me. Fear can be a terrible thing, but it can also be a healthy thing to have. I used to have a dreadful fear of elevators and escalators. So I always took the stairs and I was thin and fit. One day a well meaning friend decided he would help me get over my fears. Now I never take the stairs and guess what.
Be brave and have a nice day,
-Dmack
Nomar Knight
Submitted Comment:
You're awesome sir. Excellent article on fear, from the cool example in the beginning, to the facts on fear, to your pointing out Global Warming as a way to keep the masses under control. Good job! I especially liked that you ended it on a positive note. Well done!
nomlet 
Submitted Comment:
I've been taught to believe (and have gobs of scientific data to illustrate my point) that our bodies have the ability to heal themselves. That no matter what we do we are incapable of destroying our bodies. So face it, folks, our lifestyle choices are no more significant than a bunch of cockroaches crawling over the face of this world; and though we have every capability of ruining our health, we could not bring about the destruction of our bodies.
Wouldn't you rather be happy? Wouldn't you feel better if you woke up every morning and thanked God for another glorious and wonderful new day: not just a day free of fear and anxiety, but a day free of any sense of personal responsibility?
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Submitted Rebuttle:
I guess you can't make a nomlet without breaking a few eggs, huh?
Seriously, nomlet, you don't really understand what we're dealing with here. Our politicians--our government--our media--are masters of psychological torture. They keep us in a constant state of fear and despair. I even believe that they actually feed on our distress--our anguish.
Year by year, through the death and suffering and cruelty that they produce, they force 'goodness' and 'honesty' and 'truth' into an even smaller corner.
We live in a world that grows meaner and colder all the time, a world in which most examples for behavior for younger generations are increasingly 'bad examples'. Which guarentees that each new generation will be less compassionate than the one before it. Each new generation will have a greater tolerance for 'lies' and 'murder' and 'cruelty'.
I've got kids to think about. What will the future hold for my them? Sometimes I sit with my face in my hands, making a mask of my palms and fingers, and just cry.
You talk about personal responsibility? Where is the accountability and personal responsibilty of our leaders? I can't trust them to do what's right--I can't trust anything they do or say. I've been around the block a few times and have discovered that this is a cold and uncaring universe, either because God made it that way as a test to determine good souls from bad, or simply because that's just the way it is.
-billwilcox
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