| As a Horror writer I've been often and | | | | for the life of me, I can't figure out why he |
| pointedly been asked why I write this stuff. | | | | had to make the thing out of several icky |
| It's not ever said directly, but it's always | | | | corpses instead of just finding one beautiful |
| there: Is there something wrong with you? In | | | | one and giving that one life. Anyways, the |
| my own defense, quite a few people enjoy | | | | monster runs away and then comes back to |
| reading this same stuff and even more get a | | | | haunt him and he has to destroy it.The |
| thrill out of watching it on the big screen. | | | | explanation for Frankenstein is that the |
| Just to hazard a guess, I'd say most people | | | | monster represents science and the Victorian |
| have in their life read a horror book or seen | | | | fear that science and progress had gone too |
| a horror movie. The question then becomes: | | | | far. Science, once the obedient servant of |
| What's wrong with us?My first occasions to | | | | mankind, had, like Frankenstein's monster, |
| hear horror stories was as a child in church. | | | | broken free and turned against its master - |
| I was told that there was a man in a red suit | | | | us. A hundred or years later this same theme |
| and horns who carried a pitchfork and watched | | | | is echoed in the movie The Terminator, only |
| everything I did and wanted to send me to the | | | | this time the science that breaks free is |
| worst, most horrible place ever if I did bad | | | | computer science. Computers, our formerly |
| things. Worse than this, I was told that | | | | docile servant, turn against us and band |
| there was something called 'original sin' and | | | | together to become one giant warlike mind |
| just by being born I was on God's crap list | | | | which for some reason or other decides that |
| and if I didn't repent for things I'd never | | | | all humans must perish throughout time. I |
| done, the man in the red suit would still get | | | | guess we had it coming to us.Vampires, |
| me. It didn't seem quite fair to me that my | | | | another popular monster, have represented the |
| little three year old wrong-doings could earn | | | | once prevalent infectious disease that used |
| me the same trip to Hell that someone like | | | | to regularly wipe out giant swathes of human |
| Hitler got.I was scared constantly. And that | | | | population. In modern times, Vampires have |
| was the point of those stories, to scare | | | | been reinterpeted to be kind of sexy, that |
| little boys into behaving as their parents | | | | is, they represent the dark sexual impulses |
| wanted them to.Fairy tales have the same | | | | people have inside themselves that they also |
| theme: Obey your parents, or bad things will | | | | think may destroy them. Vampire stories, |
| happen. I can't swear that I remember all of | | | | then, become our victory over our dark, |
| my fairy tales, but I do remember as a child | | | | forbidden desires. Which are represented by |
| being - probably - unreasonably worried about | | | | those sexy, sexy vampires.Sex is a constant |
| being eaten. For the time, being eaten seemed | | | | theme in the slasher movies. The Scream |
| about the worst thing that could happen to me | | | | movies brilliantly satirize this by having |
| and I looked warily at strangers trying to | | | | the teen-agers in the movie aware of the |
| evaluate in my mind whether they would try | | | | conventions of the genre they are living |
| and eat me. Fortunately, there were very few | | | | through, yet helpless to change them as those |
| cannibals in Wisconsin at that time. Jeffrey | | | | conventions become their fates. In the |
| Dahmer was one, but for the life of me, I | | | | slasher movies young girls fear of their own |
| can't think of any other Wisconsin cannibals. | | | | sexual maturity is confronted symbolically by |
| Oh, wait. Ed Gein - but that's it.Parents | | | | the slasher who represents teen-age boys |
| frightening their kids is one thing, but why | | | | through the menace of wielding the very |
| do people want to scare themselves? Did you | | | | Freudian penis/knife. You'll notice that the |
| ever wonder why you paid good money at the | | | | heroine that inevitably prevails in these |
| bookstore and at the movies for this service | | | | movies is the virgin who never succombs to |
| that your parents would happily provide you | | | | the temptation of sex and not coincidentally, |
| for free? Well, horror stories are about | | | | does not succomb to the slasher, either.My |
| fear, but it's not just about making yourself | | | | favorite monsters are the ones from the |
| scared - that alone is no fun. Horror stories | | | | Japanese monster movies, Godzilla, Mothra, |
| are about conquering your fear, and the way | | | | Rodan and, of course, Monster Zero. The |
| they do that is symbolically by creating a | | | | reason I love these monsters is that they are |
| monster that represents a fear and by having | | | | political monsters. Think about it: Godzilla |
| that monster defeated. Thus it helps you to | | | | is a giant, super-powerful radioactive |
| overcome your subconscious fear/Monster by | | | | monster who comes from over the sea who is |
| identifying with the destruction of the one | | | | created by radioactivity and then attacks |
| in the story. Works out pretty neat, | | | | Japan with that same radioactivity. Sound |
| huh?Here's how it plays out in a few familiar | | | | familiar? (Hint: It's America). All these |
| scenarios. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, was | | | | monsters from overseas are constantly |
| thought to the first real science fiction | | | | attacking Japan and being beaten up by the |
| book, although it really is a horror story. | | | | cohesion of the Japanese people.Now, the |
| In the story Victor Frankenstein discovers | | | | obvious question for me - being a horror |
| the secret of life - itself! As an experiment | | | | writer and all - is: What are the symbolic |
| he creates for himself a man sewn together | | | | monsters in my book, Breakfast with the |
| from cadavers and then embues it with life, | | | | Antichrist?Well ... I'm not telling.Steve |
| and then seeing what an awful looking | | | | Sommers is the author of Breakfast with the |
| creature he's created, he abandons it. He | | | | Antichrist. |
| does this because it looks so hideous, though | | | | |