Blaugust 2026 #7: A Journey Into Horror
I can count on less than half of one hand how many scary movies I've watched in my life...
When A Stranger Calls & Amityville Horror
Surprisingly, the less gorey one remains in my nightmares to this day, 20 years later. And I'm still checking behind doors when I enter a room...just in case!
I had watched Amityville Horror with a friend in high school at her house - no way my parents ever would have let me watch something like that.
I have a highly active visual imagination but worse than that, what I imagine, I can feel in my body. So, hearing about, reading, or seeing a disturbing scene, there are a few things that happen.
- I'll visualize it in my head involuntarily.
- Once I try to banish the visual, it keeps popping up in my head and I have to actively work to get rid of it. The worst is right before I fall asleep.
- I will dream about it.
- I can feel it in my body and it makes me physically sick.
- I will never be able to fully forget it for years.
I've tried all sorts of mind gymnastics over the years which has helped. This also goes for non-entertainment related horrors that stick in my mind, things that I have experienced, or heard about in real life.
And it's not necessarily violence that I have trouble with, it's sick things that people do to each other. Disturbing, abusive, torturous, twisted, sick things humans are capable of. The kind of things horror entertainment LOVES...
For what is horror but the exploration of the darkest most twisted parts of human actions and minds...
Sooo why am I getting into reading horror books then??
LOL I asked myself this question after reading 50% through Chuck Tingle's new Fabulous Bodies.
I don't mind exploring the dark corners of the human or non-human experience in some ways/areas, but the horror books I've read so far have been different and Fabulous Bodies made me think about my choices so far.
Fabulous Bodies has a character that is truly evil and twisted in what I've seen just in the first two events we've been through with him. The horror is in what he makes people do to themselves and each other. That's friggin scary stuff. Someone else being in control and you are powerless to do anything.
However, What Feeds Below - a horror of creatures and capitalism, I loved. Didn't mind it at all. Honey by Imani Thompson isn't a horror, but her offing evil men for justice? No problem. Snake Eater? The creepy sensation that builds up over time - ate it up. Someone You Can Build A Nest In? YESSSSS. Sure, maybe these are mild in the field of horror, but I think it's the type of horror that really gets me.
Fabulous Bodies is extra in the bloodbath and maybe this is part of why it's horrifying to me. This is a human making a choice to do twisted things. Whereas other horror books I've read, it's more about it being the nature of creatures rather than choice involved.
So humans making choices to harm other humans or animals in a sick and twisted way? NOT FOR ME.
Because moreso than my having nightmares about a fictional work - I will also think about the stuff in REAL LIFE that has happened. And I KNOW that it is happening across the world everyday, people doing sick and twisted things to each other. I'm not interested in living in or being reminded again and again of THAT. Or having nightmares that I can't get rid of of THAT. I have too many to keep at bay already.
But creepy supernatural stuff? Sure.
And yeah Fabulous Bodies involves someone who was dead and comes back to life so that's a bit supernatural, but after that Eddie's character does feel human, a bit too real.
There are different types of horror and I'm only just learning about the genre or field as a whole. I still can't WATCH any scary movies because having the visuals served up on a plate is too much for my brain not to forget lol It's very easy for a visual to sear itself in my head and then I can't get rid of it.
You might be asking at this point - so why are you getting into horror at all?
I probably shouldn't be! haha
Maybe for exposure therapy lol But then, I don't want to necessarily desensitize myself.
But I do reallllly enjoy an exploration of a wholesome type of darkness if that makes any sense. Like COSY HORROR. Or horrors that aren't really horrors to me. Or horror that's done in a way where it's not just for pure shock value - which is what I feel Fabulous Bodies is (at least the really sick parts). Where it's not a twisted choice by humans but the nature of something that might be terrifying or a bit scary.
And I guess we could dive into the point that some might make of well - maybe it is in human's nature? We don't have time for that today though!