Do You Enjoy Horror?

When I was eleven years old, my overtly religious mother refused to let me watch Halloweentown. I thought this was insane, because it played on Disney Channel, which I knew couldn't play anything too crazy. As soon as I started going to my friends houses, we would stay up late watching horror content. When I was a teenager, my father didn't really care what I watched. I consumed hours of content of American Horror Story, watching it each week when new episodes would drop each Wednesday and watching older seasons over again all of the days in between. I remember wanting to be like Violet, the main character in the first season of American Horror Story: Murder House. I followed Taissa Farmiga on all social media platforms and used to spend so much of my time scrolling through Tumblr looking at pictures of her in AHS, pictures of Evan Peters who was Tate in the show, and romanticized them entirely despite their overwhelming disfunction.

Personally, I enjoy thrillers and anything with a good jump scare involved, though what I enjoy the most are the types of content that leaves you just a little bit psychologically distressed, thinking about and contemplating what happened for the rest of the evening. That is what I am hoping to create with my own writing. My mom tells me that the horror genre is not good to consume or watch because it causes you to have dark thoughts. Despite the religious controversies between us, I do somewhat agree with that. I have to create space and time when I plan on consuming certain types of content, because it can be very distressing or emotionally draining to watch. So the question is then... why watch it?

As humans I think we wonder about what the absolute worst is that we could do to one another. What the most unfathomable scene is that another human could conjure up and write, how dark the human psyche can go. I think that evokes a curiosity that causes someone to want to consume horror and graphic content, because it is something accessible that causes a sudden and severe emotion.

People consume horror content because they enjoy the adrenaline rush, they're drawn in by morbid events or images, they're fascinated at the artistic vision behind it all, etc.. I wonder if the a constant influx of graphic images, whether gruesome or disturbing, could impact someone's emotional state negatively overtime. This may be controversial to say as a horror fiction writer obviously wanting to promote my own writing and share it with as many people as possible, but more than anything else I want you as a reader to take an emotional account of how my writing or other content makes you feel. Is it too much? Does it bring up uncomfortable thoughts and feelings? I encourage you if it does to perhaps take a pause and switch up what you're watching or reading to reset and remind yourself that you are safe and okay, whole and healthy. Remember, this is the first time in human history that we have had such constant access to the flow of information regarding crimes, horror films, TikToks about serial killers and murdered victims, and it is completely valid to need a break or to take a step back from these types of content.

I hope that this week you're able to check in with yourself, and if you have the time perhaps you should journal whether you are a writer or not. It's good to gather your thoughts into one place, for me it often feels like such a relief to get it out somewhere. Like I don't have to continue to remember every detail of every thought. Like I have it stored away somewhere important. Make every day special in some way, because you deserve to celebrate each day you wake up and get to live another day.

Love,

Court