Danse Macabre by Stephen King
by Stephen King
According to Stephen King, in order for horror to actually be horrifying it needs to touch us in some way, and it does so by finding the vulnerable points within us and applying pressure there. These points are psychological, such as mortality.
King also states that horror's aim is to reduce us to the child state, to make us feel as vulnerable as we did when we were children, when we took everything at face value and believed everything we were told or were presented with. He goes on to say that horror helps us to deal with our real life terrors, and that it also reaffirms life. When we are scared we know we are alive. But also being afraid helps us to examine what is important to us in life.
In Danse Macabre, King traces horror through the mediums of radio, TV, film, and novels around the mid-twentieth century. It examines the cultural causes for the popularity of various horror elements, styles, and themes. King discusses how radio and novels are scarier than TV because of format and the fact that through radio and novels the imagination is engaged to a greater extent. When the monster is shown it is far less scary than if it is kept hidden. Movies do an okay job at horror, especially when the suspense is drawn out and the monster is hidden. King says that horror shows us the cultural fears of a given time period.
Danse Macabre is a must-read for anyone who calls themselves a horror fan. It is a treasure trove of horror books, films, TV and radio programs, and specifically talked in detail about Shirley Jackson's The Haunting at Hill House and Anne Rivers Siddon's The House Next Door, both of which I hope to get to soon.
I would love to see a more modern version of this book that examines the 1980s to the present. I give Danse Macabre 4 stars.
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