Yes, grief is its own species of horror, a parallel but not sibling horror to slashers and monsters and such. Most horror is about the very near future, what’s just beyond the door, what’s at the bottom of the stairs, just around the corner. Grief ls rooted in time in the other direction. Grief can be horror because it’s rooted in time we can’t touch anymore, can’t stop anymore. We can only change our relationship with it, bond differently with its cause from here in the present. This is why grief feels so heavy. We’re always weak against it until we can let it go. While grief is often an explanation today, an excuse for guns and blades, for helplessness against adamant harm, it’s not like a hostile weapon. A weapon is a prop. Grief is a vine wrapping the internals of a story. Our story. One gun can be replaced by another but every grief is personal to its story. A gun can be returned to its shelf but grief can’t lose its oppression until we change its story in the present moment. Show grief without violence and you can see its roots. Show grief in violence and you only see its flowers.
one of my favorite recent posts of yours, really intriguing analysis and great examples to get me to remember how the mentioned films made me feel afterwards.
As a boy there was something appealing in being terrorized. I remember watching The Thing as a child before parents and movie makers considered the effects of violence on young minds, and turning to my younger brother only to see him (probably 5 or 6 years old,) with his coat over his head looking down his sleeve so he could close it off when it got too scary. But now horror feels like giving myself a beating. I can resist easily of it is just violence. But give me an engaging plot, like 6th Sense…I suspect we have a hidden gene that drives us as a species toward the unknown. We are pushed there and once we lock our eyes on it regardless of the pain, we cannot look away.
Thank you David! think you’re right: it’s not just about gore or violence, it’s about the pull. The mystery. A well-told horror story opens a door, and once it’s open, something in us wants to keep going, even if it’s uncomfortable. Maybe it’s curiosity. Maybe it’s compulsion...a very human, natural kind?
Yes, grief is its own species of horror, a parallel but not sibling horror to slashers and monsters and such. Most horror is about the very near future, what’s just beyond the door, what’s at the bottom of the stairs, just around the corner. Grief ls rooted in time in the other direction. Grief can be horror because it’s rooted in time we can’t touch anymore, can’t stop anymore. We can only change our relationship with it, bond differently with its cause from here in the present. This is why grief feels so heavy. We’re always weak against it until we can let it go. While grief is often an explanation today, an excuse for guns and blades, for helplessness against adamant harm, it’s not like a hostile weapon. A weapon is a prop. Grief is a vine wrapping the internals of a story. Our story. One gun can be replaced by another but every grief is personal to its story. A gun can be returned to its shelf but grief can’t lose its oppression until we change its story in the present moment. Show grief without violence and you can see its roots. Show grief in violence and you only see its flowers.
My god, Richard...um...this reads like a prose poem. I'm dead serious (pardon the pun).
one of my favorite recent posts of yours, really intriguing analysis and great examples to get me to remember how the mentioned films made me feel afterwards.
Thank you Tatiana! This means a lot💙💙
As a boy there was something appealing in being terrorized. I remember watching The Thing as a child before parents and movie makers considered the effects of violence on young minds, and turning to my younger brother only to see him (probably 5 or 6 years old,) with his coat over his head looking down his sleeve so he could close it off when it got too scary. But now horror feels like giving myself a beating. I can resist easily of it is just violence. But give me an engaging plot, like 6th Sense…I suspect we have a hidden gene that drives us as a species toward the unknown. We are pushed there and once we lock our eyes on it regardless of the pain, we cannot look away.
Thank you David! think you’re right: it’s not just about gore or violence, it’s about the pull. The mystery. A well-told horror story opens a door, and once it’s open, something in us wants to keep going, even if it’s uncomfortable. Maybe it’s curiosity. Maybe it’s compulsion...a very human, natural kind?
Yes, the pull…invention, discovery, curiosity, all in the face of possible suffering.
Very interesting analysis of grief in horror. I also feel like midsommer has a bit of this too!
Thank you Caroline!
I'm not even much of a horror fan but you analyzed this beautifully.
Thank you Keagan. What's your preferred genre, if any?
You know that's a good question. Top 3 would probably be sci fi, fantasy, and… historical (fiction or non-fiction).
My top spot is always a fight between good fantasy and great horror haha