BJ’s This or That | Writing Challenge
This or That Challenge: The Spooky Scary Springtime Edition
The Horrors… The Horrors…
It’s been too long since I last wrote a ToT challenge for Brett Jenae Tomlin, and JD Nealey had an exciting one last month featuring horror questions. Since I’m, well, an enthusiastically horror-adjacent writer, there are all sorts of bubbling thoughts to share about the genre. But first, if you love horror and would like to give JD’s questions a try, here’s the link!
If you do, be sure to tag me so I can read them too!
Once upon a midnight dreary, as I pondered JD’s queries…
Slasher or Supernatural?
Supernatural, definitely supernatural. I’m a horror fan of sorts, but it’s the fantasy element of it that enthralls me, the point of contact between the civilized sanity of our existence and the primal chaos outside it. The Gothic writers of the turn of the last century explored that very well, and Lovecraft built the cosmic horror genre around it. It isn’t just the fear I enjoy, it’s the sense of wonder and dark mystery. Slasher movies don’t have that.
Zombies or Cannibals?
Neither are terribly imaginative on their own, but zombies come closer to that sense of wonder and dark mystery since they aren’t human anymore and transgress the bounds of life and death. That transgression might not amount to much in practice, but the potential is there, while cannibals are just people who eat other people. No mystery there, just ickiness.
Vampires or Werewolves?
Oh, they both have potential! Vampires, I suppose, because they’re a little closer to that sense of dark wonder (that metric’s going to pop up a lot when it comes to my ideal horror story), but a werewolf could too with the right storytelling approach (make it less of a disease, more a literal curse). But they both could be supernatural, so I’m happy either way.
Humans or Aliens?
Well, they’re both rather mundane, but aliens at least have mystery going for them, especially if they’re something truly alien, something closer to the Old Ones of cosmic horror than gray men in flying saucers.
Witches or Warlocks?
They have some different connotations in modern language and fantasy, but since people were killed for being both in medieval times, I see them as siblings-in-arms. Still, there’s no warlock who can measure up to the Wicked Witch of the West, so the witches win this contest.
Jason or Freddy?
Freddy. Jason has a more sympathetic backstory, but it’s hardly relevant most of the time, and Freddy is a more human character with personality flaws like anger and arrogance. He can be outsmarted, which makes him a more interesting opponent, and he’s evil in a purposefully sadistic way that makes him more despicable. Jason’s more like a force of nature.
Summer Camp or Suburb?
Well, a summer camp’s closer to the dark forest that I love than a suburb, so we’ll say summer camp. But, and hear me out here, we could also skip the tents and cabins and go straight to the dark spooky forest!
Low-Budget or Blockbuster?
Either one’s fine. Low-budget horror has the potential to be more imaginative and take more risks, but it can also just be cheap for the sake of being cheap, and blockbuster movies can sometimes be imaginative too. It’s really just a matter of which particular movie is better.
Fight or Flee?
In my dreams, I flee, but with an exhilarating parkour style that makes it more thrilling than terrifying. In everyday life, I sometimes have a bad habit of being needlessly stubborn and defiant, so that might be more fight. But on the small handful of occasions that I encountered something that seemed genuinely supernatural, I ran screaming, so… flee it is!
Cemetery or Swamp?
Oh, cemetery. Swamps are wet, sloshy, and a chore to wade through. Whatever appeal they might have with the fog hanging low around the tree roots is more than outweighed by having to wear galoshes. But cemeteries are stark and beautiful, ancient and evocative, a sort of misty glimpse into the boundless nations of the dead. Just look at that picture!
Shrunken Heads or Skulls?
The only cinematic experience with shrunken heads I can recall is the ending of Beetlejuice, which was memorable but not what I’d call terrifying. Skulls are a more quintessential symbol of death, one that comes naturally with time and entropy, so they get my vote as a horror motif.
Machete or Chainsaw?
Neither? Chainsaws seem horribly painful, with the chain spinning and digging into everything, and while a machete would be cleaner, I suppose, it seems like the worst paper cut imaginable times a thousand…
Oh, wait, is this about what I’d want as a weapon? In that case, machete, since I probably couldn’t lug around a chainsaw for very long!
Hospital or Home Depot?
Spooky hospitals are better than a spooky Home Depot, but maybe a Home Depot would be better for finding weapons. Hospitals would be better for treating people, but I’ve never seen a hospital in a horror movie that successfully served that purpose. But I’ll vote Home Depot because it’s a unique setting, and because I’m having feelings, strange feelings…
Apocalypse or No Apocalypse?
Apocalypse if it’s imaginatively done. I don’t really need yet another zombie apocalypse where the Humans Are the Real Monsters, but something more spiritual or cosmic could be quite intriguing. One of the things that exasperated me about one of my favorite shows, Supernatural, is that the later seasons would usually end with some breathtakingly apocalyptic cliffhanger, only to be quietly resolved by the next episode.
Nightmare or Reality?
Reality, or, at least, the nightmare needs to have real stakes. Horror stories that turn out to be someone’s dream world bore me to tears. Yes, we’re all large and we contain multitudes, but I stopped being surprised by that Twilight Zone twist by the time I was twelve. Everyone has inner demons, that’s just life. Horror is when they become more than that.
Dungeon or Maze?
Hmm, mazes are more interesting. There are places to explore and a chance to escape. A dungeon is a more frightening prospect, but it doesn’t have that sense of mystery or wonder. It’s just an awful thing.
Radiation or Disease?
They’re both terrible, and neither is particularly mysterious nor intriguing. I suppose, from a horror perspective, a plague can spread and become a global pandemic while radiation can’t (at least, not on its own — if there’s lethal radiation all over the world, then a lot of other things must have gone very wrong to have brought us to that point). So disease, I guess?
Spells or Rituals?
They’re both very useful in storytelling! Spells are fun for fight scenes and conveying a sense of power: an arcane word, a fling of the hand, and the enemies go flying. Rituals are more involved, and they can be a little less intuitive because of all the obscure steps involved (what’s so great about eye of newt anyway?), but they can better express a sense of gravitas and potentially world-changing consequence. In a way, spells are for heroes and rituals are for villains — not because of their morality, but because the mechanics involved lend themselves to those narrative roles.
Skeletons or Ghosts?
Skeletons by themselves are just our remains: ghosts are what return from the dead with their unspeakable glimpses of things that would drive the living mad. But if the ghosts were to, say, haunt the skeletons…
Series or Standalone?
For honest-to-goodness horror, standalone is probably best. That way nothing is guaranteed: the story could end without everyone making it out safe and sound, or everyone dying, or the world ending, or anything else the story might call for. A serial story usually has to at least keep its world and protagonists available for the next adventure, so the danger’s fenced in. That isn’t to say serial stories are bad: the very qualities that make them weaker horror stories also make them better adventure stories.
And a BONUS Question…
Theater or Netflix?
For a true horror experience? Netflix, or at least being at home alone. Theaters are a communal experience: watching a horror movie in them can be very fun in its own way, and can even be frightening. But nothing quite compares to the creeping dread of watching a horror movie alone in the dead of night, turning the TV off, and then realizing that you’re now alone and getting ready for bed just like that victim did. And if you think “but this is real life,” well, that’s probably what they thought too…
Each week I’ll be posting a chapter from the Dreadful Desire erotica series, a collection of taboo, sometimes forceful — but never degrading — sexual fantasies. You can find links to my Medium stories in this handy compendium…
And now there’s a Dreadful Desires novel! The five-part supernatural romance The Fallen Sky is available in an omnibus edition that contains the complete erotic fantasy adventure. You can find it on Kindle and Smashwords!
