It's that time of year again when Jack o'Lanterns and ghouls start appearing in people's yards. The supermarkets are full of big bags of tiny candy. And Sy Fy runs their 31 days of Halloween (some of the shows and movies are better than others, but I'm glad they stuck with the tradition).
I like horror and I like scary books. I think I've outgrown gross-out stories and never liked the hack-and-slash ones. What keeps me riveted to a good horror book is the mounting tension and the knowledge that yes, something really bad is going to happen.
Two of my favorite titles are Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House (1959) and Richard Matheson's Hell House. Read back-to-back, the two make for an interesting parallel reading. Jackson's house is much less gruesome than Matheson's, but not any less chilling. The characters who enter Hill House want to uncover its supernatural elements. Dr. Montague searches for proof of supernatural activity. He sends out letters to all known psychically talented individuals to join him for the summer, but only two young women--Theodora and Eleanor--accept the invitation. The heir to the estate, Luke, plays their host. As the novel progresses, poor fragile Eleanor starts to hallucinate--or perhaps she is truly in touch with the ghosts of Hill House--and finds herself in precarious and dangerous situations (running to help a ghost child and waking to find herself in the greenhouse perched on a rotting walkway feet above the ground). The house's affect on Eleanor grows more dangerous and the others finally convince her to leave, but because she's either convinced herself of a responsibility to the ghosts or she really is being changed by Hill House, Eleanor changes her mind at the last second to dire consequences.
Hell House (1971) starts out being gruesome and doesn't let up for a moment. A physicist, Dr. Lionel Barrett, is paid to prove to a dying millionaire that life doesn't end with death. He sends the scientist to the Belasco House infamous for the gruesome and perverse history and a previously failed investigation where all but one person survived. Armed with cold scientific method, Barrett and his wife are joined by a famous Spiritualist and mental medium (Florence), and the only survivor from the previous attempt, Benjamin Fischer. The house is, indeed, haunted and Florence becomes convinced she must aid a lost soul. Her obsession turns dangerous, and even after Barrett's psychic energy cleansing machine is activated, the strange malevolent forces continue to work their havoc on the team. Fischer is the only one to finally use his talents to end the destruction in a very cinematic ending.
Both of these novels have been made into movies. The real story lies with the characters and how their backgrounds contribute to their mania. Both stories have a voice of "reason", someone who insists on a reasonable method for solving the problems. Both have fragile female characters, although Florence seems misguided rather than emotionally unstable. Both endings have their satisfying moments--I would have been dissatisfied had all party members escaped unscathed--although Hell House is more graphic.
I caught the series premiere of American Horror Story; lots of early reviews and write-ups talked about how "scary" it was. I wasn't scared. Intrigued, curious to see where it goes and how the characters react, and yearning to learn the backstory. But not scared. It's a haunted house story. And those never turn out well. Inevitably, I want to know which of the characters makes it out alive, or what's the tipping point that forces them to flee or destroy their house (for this TV family is the symbol for starting over). Were there "shocking" moments? I guess--images of dead kids appearing behind the mom, a bully getting attacked by something that may or may not be there, the appearance of a half-burned man in the yard. The really "scary" characters are the failed-actress neighbor played by Jessica Lange, who snoops around the house stealing, and the teenaged boy patient, Tate, played by Evan Peters. Curiouser and curiouser.
The one thing about horror I've noticed is how important the characters are to the story. Their internal thoughts, their hopes and dreams, their nightmares, their weaknesses and desperation. All of that messy glorious stuff makes a horror story truly stick; we have to care about the characters enough to be affected by their terrifying situation. And their internal issues are usually more complicated than we first realize. The Haunting of Hill House, Hell House and even American Horror Story all delve deep into the characters. Fantastically horrific stuff.