On the element of surprise, and getting hacked to bits

Not as frightening as a bloke with a seventies beard

We’ve been watching the Amytville Horror film this evening, in what is evidently a ploy by the BBC to get everyone in the mood for Halloween. I’m writing this blog instead of sitting with my hands over my eyes, as somehow having a laptop between me and the TV is going to stop me jumping. Similar to Blair Witch, but I’m not hiding behind the video camera. Personally, I think the most frightening thing about the film is the main character’s beard and dodgy haircut, which is going to give me nightmares for many a week to come.

It’s made me think about the horror genre, and how it’s easy in films to draw the viewer in and engage them. Cue scary music, a thunderstorm, and something jumpy turning up in a mirror somewhere, and you have all you need to make people terrified. When we write fiction, things are a little trickier. You have to paint the atmosphere through words rather than relying on props and special effects, but the principal is pretty much the same.

With writing, there is a set pattern too. We need to engage the reader by lulling them in to a sense of security, letting them in to the lives of characters enough to help them to empathise and ‘become’ them. Suspense is built by leading people along a set path, and then putting clues in the way for the reader to catch sight of. It’s a tricky technique to manage to put just enough information in there, without being too subtle or too obvious.

Some people do it perfectly. I have read a few Stephen King novels and each one has had me enthralled, thinking about the plot and the frightening parts after I put the book down. Which leads me to the question – which is better, films or fiction, when it comes to creating a great horror plot?

Books have something that a film can never have – the power to get readers to use their imagination when they read. This means that, in essence, less is more with a great novel. If something is left unsaid in fiction, we use our own knowledge and experience to embody the plot, meaning it becomes more ‘real’ to us. When Harry Potter fights Voldermort, a bit of us is in there with him, wanting him to win. When we read a great book, that has taken us along a path and made us invest a bit of ourselves within it, we are automatically empathic and ready to give a little of ourselves to make it come alive.

In films, if you don’t like the guy’s beard, you won’t empathise with him. I’m halfway through the film, and I don’t really mind if George (the main character) hacks his family up, because he’s not a great bloke. That may sound tough, but if I was reading the book instead, George would be good-looking, clean-shaven, and probably look a bit like my husband. Which means that I would be the heroine, as his wife. Which means that I wouldn’t be too impressed if he hacked me to bits.