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Maybe I Do Like Scary Stories?
J. Patrick Conlon • Feb 10, 2020
Thoughts on Horror from J Pat
“You’re going to submit something to Scary Stuff?”
I remember both Jacob
and Nicholas
looking at me with raised eyebrows when I told them that I was going to submit a story for our first submission-based anthology. I’ve always had a very rocky relationship with the genre. Bad things happening to people for no reason gives me nightmares. Fiction was always an escape, a chance to slip into a world where heroes did heroic things, and evil always carries the seeds of its downfall. In horror though, most often the bad guys win. Even if the villains don’t win in the end, the heroes always lose for the majority of the narrative. That kind of story, which usually is supposed to fire your adrenaline and allow you to live vicariously through situations that you would never survive otherwise, just keeps me up at night and gives me anxiety.
Something funny happened though. I read through the submission guidelines, and it suggested to read Creepy
and Eerie
magazine to get a feel for the tone to strike in your story. I hadn’t read either before but I headed online to see if I could find some examples. What I found was an archive of the old eerie comics, and in reading through them I discovered a world of horror that I never knew about. It shouldn’t have been surprising that the genre is not body parts flying through windows and heavy gore, but if something was labeled as horror I would just take a pass. The few movies that I have seen that might qualify as horror (The Universal Monster movies, Resident Evil, Aliens) are not horror movies for me. They are all either black and white films from an era where the limits of special effects neuter the impact of the horror, or are action films that happen to use a few horror elements. So when asked if I would like to see/read/hear about horror, I would politely decline.
Scary Stuff, however, is an anthology built on the back of the spine-tingling tales of an older genre of horror. Where bad people are featured front and center and we do revel in their wickedness. These tales also almost always end with them getting what they deserve. For a horror-averse nerd like myself, this was something I felt I could dip my toes in. My story, Killing Time, was a blast to write. There are elements in the story that are horrific, and there are some people that don’t deserve what happens to them in the course of the story. The fun for me was in getting to write a character that is almost entirely despicable, selfish, and awful. My story is by no means the most horrific in the book, but for me, it was stretching outside of myself as an author. It was also an opportunity for me to realize that there are a lot of things about the horror genre that I do connect with.
The first thing I look for in a good horror story is a character that goes from being a victim to a hero. The best example that I can think of is Ashley Williams
from the Evil Dead series.
In the first Evil Dead movie, Ash is just the victim that happens to live till the end of the movie. You would not charge into battle with Ash leading your group. In Evil Dead 2, however, we get to see Ash transform from hapless victim into the true hero of what would become the Evil Dead Franchise (I’m counting Army of Darkness
as well as Ash vs. The Evil Dead
series). For me, in any good story, I need someone to root for. Horrific things can happen, but there needs to be someone who is fighting against the darkness. Deep down the hero’s journey resonates with me and I find that if that is a tenet of your story, there’s a good chance that I will be along for the ride.
The next, and last thing for me, is that the characters need to be flawed in some fundamental way that is exploited in the story. I can’t handle the innocent being butchered. Movies like Hostel, or the endless stream of home invasion movies of the last decade just cause me to change the channel. Gore for the sake of gore, or reveling in the wickedness of your villain is okay to a point, but if the story is merely a vehicle for the torture, it ceases being a narrative I can get behind. Evil Dead, in all of its incarnations, happens because people messed around with forces they should not have been messing with. The Necronomicon
is the true villain of the story, but it’s the actions of our heroes and victims that spur the action on. Hostel, by contrast, is about rich people getting to be sadistic to people just because they showed up and were unlucky. I realize that these types of movies have things that they are trying to convey behind the horror, but I can’t see past the gruesome to get at the commentary.
I guess what I am trying to say here is that for those out there that don’t like horror stories, don’t be so quick to discount Scary Stuff as an anthology you wouldn’t like. Speaking as someone who is normally outside the realm of the genre, I can truly say that the stories in this collection will do more to tingle your spine than turn your stomach. We have worked very hard to compile a list of stories that will thrill you and bring you back to the days of sitting around a campfire telling stories to one another. And if at the end of reading our collection you need to sleep a little closer to the fire, we’ve done our job.
There's something I recently realized about myself. It begins with an internal dialogue I had about dividing authors up into two types. The first type of author I thought about was the author, who is writing a story for you, the audience. It's going to be a story with certain expectations that make it a mystery, romance, or some other type of established genre. They know what you are looking for, and you are going to get it. I want to be clear; I am not bad-mouthing these stories. Many established writers can be unique and clever in their own right and still fit this idea, like James Patterson. The author can really put their own sense of self and cleverness into their story. Though, in time, this too can be expected by you, the reader, and becomes another binding. In the end, they are writing for you, and you are the final decider. Then, there are the types who are not writing for you. In fact, it has nothing to do with you. Yes, they hope you'll buy it. Yes, they hope you'll read it. Yes, they hope you'll love it. But in the end, none of that mattered in its creation, because it was never about you.
This upcoming Saturday, November 9th, Oddity Prodigy Production s will be launching an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign for our upcoming anthology “ Scary Stuff !” This is our very first crowdfunding campaign and we’re all pretty excited.
I legit cringe every time I hear that question, and as a hobby costumer (more on that later), I hear the question, nay, judgement, a lot. My humble beginnings as a child in love with playing dress up are fairly standard, but my journey to sleep-deprived costume fairy was fraught with side-eyes and etymology shade. If you’re even a little curious about the cackling voice you hear during our Oddity Podigy episodes, grab an over-sized mug of Earl Grey and I’ll rant a bit about why I’m here--both on this blog and in my hobby.
In September of 2018 I took a seat in a favorite movie theater in Fairfax, VA. I had a bottle of water, a bag of popcorn, and a whole lot of trepidation. I was there to see the new adaptation of Stephen King’ s seminal novel “ It ”. I saw the original It TV mini series as a kid when it aired and fell in love with it, even though I didn’t read the book till much later. It was a well told coming of age story, filled with fascinating characters, and a scary-as-hell Tim Curry as Pennywis e. The special effects are pretty dated, but otherwise I think the original holds up pretty well. It does a great job getting at the core themes of the book. Themes like friendship, loyalty, fear, bravery, and the sepia-tone haziness of childhood summers as puberty exploded our emotions in a million intense directions. When the lights came up in the theater, I had very much enjoyed the new film. I liked it more when I saw it a second time a few weeks later, but that’s almost always the way with adaptations. The first time through tends to feel more like watching a checklist than a movie. “Ok, so they did the scene with Bev in the bathroom, but they left out the deadlights? Huh.” The second time through I was able to take it in on it’s own merits. It certainly had problems but overall did a good job and made for a really entertaining movie. It also made a metric ton of cash, and so the sequel got fast-tracked. After enjoying the first one, I was very excited for the follow up.
In the ancient ritual of comic book fans everywhere, I made a trip down to my comic shop this past Wednesday. If you’ve followed Oddity Prodigy Productions at all, you’ll know that the shop in question was Captain Blue Hen Comics. It was a solid week of comics. The new issues of Shazam and Freedom Fighters came out, two books I’ve really been enjoying. There was an appearance of Naomi in Action Comics, which is exciting. The mini-series introducing her was a recent highlight. That’s not what I’m here to talk about however. One of the fun things that Captain Blue Hens does is ask a question of the week. They put it up on a board behind the counter and ask everyone who comes by to vote on the answer. This week’s question was “Who are the best superhero buddies?” As you can see in the pic, there are ten options.
Jake talks about the influence and power of Akira, one of the most evocative visual stories ever told in pop culture history.
A rundown of recent comics, TV and movies that the OPP bullpen is finding to be worth your time.
Scary Stuff submissions are in and now the fun begins for Oddity Prodigy Productions as they choose which ones to go with.
Midsommar is one of those movies that has the power and subtlety to put you on edge and then keep you there, even when you are not exactly sure how. Much like 1988's American Gothic
About eight years ago I wrote a novel called “The Change” and it’s the story of a young man growing up on his own in a world overrun by what are essentially zombies. The story delves into concepts of faith, living in a dangerous world, and rock and roll.