Don't Turn Off The Lights

My grandmother once asked me; “Why do you write all that God-awful stuff? People are gonna start to think that you're some kind of mental patient”.

I should be so lucky.

If I was a mental deviate, the things I write would never get written. In the mind of a lunatic, the ravings that I come up with would be considered mundane. Believe it or not, writers of the “dark side”, people like Dean Koontz, John Saul, Shirley Jackson, Peter Straub, Nathaniel Hawthorn and (of course) the immortal Stephen King, are every bit as sane and normal as the ultra-conservative, so-called “Moral Majority” (no offense to the late Jerry Falwell or his flock intended) who are constantly trying to condemn their works as sick, perverse or a negative influence on an impressionable public.

First of all, these great stories of suspense and terror are most certainly not intended for those who are missing the necessary filter that constantly reminds them of the difference between reality and fiction. In a fit of great personal grief and a misplaced sense of responsibility, Stephen King had all copies of his early Bachman novel Rage removed from the shelves of every bookstore and library in existence over the debacle that took place in Columbine. A novel, regardless of its contents, is not a loaded gun.

Several years ago, I was working on a story that had a passing similarity to some of the early Bachman novellas. I was talking over the basic rundown of the story with my father and told him I had reached a bit of a stumbling block. I told him I was researching to figure out a carbon-based compound (like graphite or the like) that could be shaped into something roughly the size and shape of sugar cubes. I wanted to have a character take them and drop them into a chimney in the middle of the night, killing all the residents of a house by carbon-monoxide inhalation. My father's advice was to allude to the creation without definitive process or exact elements. When I asked why, he, in his infinite “Dad wisdom” replied; “Because there are some sick-assed fuckers out there, and that may just be the knowledge they need to pull off what you wrote, and whether you did this or not, you would have some degree or responsibility for the deaths of some innocent people. A writer, a filmaker, a television producer or anyone who introduces some kind of idea or scenario to the public is inviting an opportunistic nut to try it at home, no matter how sick it is”.

Yeah. Dad was a smart one. I miss him a lot.

The real point of this little rant is that although the media in all its forms, whether it be movies, books or even television, have made a practice out of a cathartic presentation of what society has come to think of as “monsters”. Lots of box-office revenue has been collected scaring the dog shit out of audiences because they plop down hard-earned cash in the enjoyment of being scared. Very few horror fans take the time to ponder the real psychology behind these aberrant freaks of nature and supernatural beings.

I'm here to tell you, friends and neighbors....its all real.

That's right. You can stop reading right now coming away from this thinking that the cheese has slipped off my cracker, but I still contend that all of those Midnight Madness creatures are very real entities.

Now, mind you, there really isn't any such thing as a blood-sucking undead creature who stalks his targets in the night that can be held at bay by a crucifix and put to rest with a stake through the heart. But there are vampires. Think about the underlying message. A vampire, by lore as well as by popular belief, is a purely sexual creature who overwhelms his/her victims and drains them of their life force through taking their blood. What else is this than your everyday, run-of-the-mill rapist? This monster, and that's what a rapist is, stalks prey weaker than himself, overtakes his victim, and drains them of their identity, their self-worth as well as any amount of empowerment they may have held dear.

There also is no such thing as a cursed man who shape-shifts every full moon, losing control of all his humanity to chase down and consume whatever type of target he may fixate on. There is, however, werewolves among us. They're all around us, in fact. Doubt it? Log on to the internet in whatever state you live in and pull up the sexual offenders listings. There it is, pictures and all. Most of which are there due to perversions and harm that has been exacted on children. Oddly enough, most Old World werewolf lore showed that these lowly creatures had a particular hunger for “stealing babies” and picking their bones clean. And if there is any such thing as a monster in this modern age, that would be it. Period.

George Romero, in his black-and-white classic film from the late sixties re-introduced the idea of an all but forgotten danger to the human race. He told us that by either some kind of viral outbreak, nuclear holocaust or even just some unexplainable supernatural phenomenon, zombies were something to be feared in the utmost. They are mindless, flesh-eating, super-strong shells that used to be perfectly normal humans that have been reduced to something without mercy, reason or a single spark of humanity.

Now, any logical human is going to either cheer for the monsters or chew their nails for the sake of the hero running his ass off trying to survive the onslaught, but sooner or later, no matter who wins, the credits are gonna roll and the audience walk away talking about the parts they liked and the parts they didn't. Make no mistake about it, though. Zombies are indeed a fact of life. Think I'm kidding? Ponder for a moment those that you interact with every day (especially in the corporate world) who have been so brainwashed by the system that they are willing to destroy anyone in their way to meet their own base ends. On the streets, its the gang member who has so married themselves to the dogma of the group mentality that pulling a gun or a switchblade out and wasting a total stranger on the command of their superior becomes an act devoid of any conscience or remorse. In between the slums and the penthouses, the lower and the middle classes are just as subject to this same disease. It takes on the guise of drug addiction, alcoholism, overworking and all of the other self-destructive activities that people are convinced that they can't live without. Yes, I'm even referring to cell phones, I-Pods, Blue-tooth, laptops and every other piece of modern technology that has engrained into our society that people “just can't do without”.

Then there are dragons. Ancient literature is littered with stories about those demonic lizards who would terrorize kingdoms until their all-wise monarch would find that one fearless knight endowed with the Divine might to best the creature. Whether it was St. George, Galahad, Lancelot, or even Arthur himself, one would go forth and defeat the creature, bringing peace to the countryside. The peasants rejoice.

Of course, the closest thing that science has been able to find to these mythic creatures was the dinosaurs that died out eons before the first humans walked the earth. However, in this modern age, dragons do walk among us. Well, not really among us. Its more like they look down on us. When you study the characteristics of these horrible beasts, you see a strangely similar reflection in the form of despotic tyrants that enslave, starve and even commit genocide on those that they are supposed to govern. Truly, these can be seen throughout modern history like Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Kim Jong-Li, Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini. These were the obvious examples. Some of the most vicious and ruthless ones can be found much closer to home. The Oil Cartel has turned our society into heroine addicts replacing the morphine-based drug with their own product. They had robbed the people blind and have achieved a level of power so acute that even the American government can't get it under control. And speaking of the government, the a fore mentioned historical tyrants can be referenced by citing that a time would come when “emergency power” would be assumed by them to avoid a state or martial law “for the sake of the people”. Of course, after this power is usurped, it is never abdicated. Our own government, for the sake of battling terrorism, have imposed “The Patriot Act”. In not so many words, it has allowed the powers that be to literally wipe their collective asses with the Bill of Rights. Due process has taken a back seat to an immediate and final strike on anyone who is suspected of anything out of the ordinary. Our homes, our possessions, our private practices, and even our persons (like getting overly frisked in airport security) have ceased to have any importance or significance. In case anyone's interested, Ben Franklin once said; “Anyone willing to sacrifice personal liberty for the sake of security deserves neither”. Who among us will step forward with that same Divine might to slay this creature?

There is a flip side to this coin, but don't get too excited. It has its own pitfalls. For every Dracula, there is a Dr. Van Helsing. For every Wolfman, there is a Lawrence Talbot. For every Mr. Hyde, there is a pacifistic Dr. Jekell. Don't laugh, but for every Darth Vader, there is a Luke Skywalker. There are heroes and heroines out there who have dedicated their existence to fighting the evils that Man has exacted on this planet...but they are only human. Mother Theresa, Mahatma Gandhi, The Dali Lama, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Pope John Paul...all perceived, for the most part, by the public as warriors on the side of righteousness. Being human, as they certainly were, they had their dark sides as well. Granted, they spent their lives suppressing or ignoring that part of them that lead them from their heroic deeds.

Think on this for a moment; perception is everything. The good that these iconic figures did was only as good as perceived in the eyes of those they helped, or in the eyes of those they fought and defied trying to make the world a better place. In the sight of those people, these warriors of light were as evil as the pit of hell itself.

So, in conclusion, when you finally hit the stop button on the DVD player, or walk out of the theater, or finish the last page of that awesome hair-raising novel you just spent a week getting through, you can smile and remember that it was just a movie or a story. Go to the fridge and grab a drink, tuck the kids in and kiss them goodnight, put on your pajamas and get comfortable.

Just remember...its all still real.

Don't turn off the lights.