Finally got to reading this one! Really great exploration of a subject I usually avoid. But as you've pointed out, it's probably due to the over-the-top portrayal of Hollywood that it seems a pointless and mindless genre. The Monkey's Paw is definitely the unnerving type of mirror to self/inexplicable fear/revulsion at the uncontrollable that defines "proper" horror I think. Ray Bradbury's The Veldt is also like that IMHO.
These are some great distinctions! Well put. I especially appreciate the distinction between the classic horror and the "bad horror". Good horror can show us what evil truly is and the contrast with the Good and can teach us to value the Good. What does the bad kind teach the consumer? I have thought in the past that something that characterizes modern/cosmic/bad/film horror is not tension or even fear alone but rather despair: As you touched on toward the end, the demonic forces having their way where the protagonist is powerless to resist the horrific events. Imagine the movie scene where a character's mouth starts sewing itself shut or a haunted house where even the walls and floors could suck you in and kill you. These are tales where God's good order is removed from the world, and people can no longer trust in God's laws of creation to provide them safety from the demonic. The demons can do what they please with your flesh and sew your mouth shut. They can do what they please with the physics of the house to toy with you and kill you, or they can animate a doll and have it pursue you endlessly where there is no escape. If you could close the door on the doll and be sure that it was contained, it wouldn't be so horrific, but in the setting where God's protection is removed, then a closed door means nothing, and no matter what you do the doll will still come for you and will get you. So all the consumer's imagination is left with is hopelessness and despair amidst the tension. That kind of horror, whatever it should be called, I do not see much good in consuming, even if somehow the protagonists escape in the end, inasmuch as it is a story that trains the consumer's expectations to imagine demons having power that they do not have. Such a story/movie if done skillfully makes an impression on the consumer so that they imagine the same dark things happening throughout daily life, even if they know rationally that those things should be impossible under God's rule. But demons are real, and they would do these things if God let them. The Christian should not let demons have that kind of power over our hearts, nor should we train our emotions to despair of God's rule and protection. But good storytelling can show us the true contrast between the demonic and the Godly, and show us the need for and value of God's protection.
When the natural world betrays, and the horrified man flees, and the demons pursue - and if that man flees to the only sensible location to flee to, the fortress of the church - what happens in the story then will prove what kind of a man the story's author is.
To the healthy-minded individual, I think a very occasional pinch of the despair of cosmic horror (contained within a pagan character, naturally) can be a somewhat salutary thing for one's hope. To look back upon that dark path on which you once walked makes you remember to not take your current path for granted, and makes you remember that Hope is not nearly so weak as she appears.
So maybe the horrified man never makes it to the church. Maybe he's pulled aside by some other thing which promises safety, and doesn't deliver. Maybe the demons make him see demons inside the church as well as out, and in so doing deceive him from entering what a good writer will later reveal was the only way of salvation. Maybe the man despairs just before he makes it to the door, and a man from inside the church comes out and drags him in. Maybe he does make it inside the church and maybe the demons come in anyway. Maybe he clings to the altar and still dies. But maybe before he dies he sees the words "Whoever believes in Me, even though he die, yet shall he live."
Whether the Hope is in the story or out of it, the good Horror knows his duty and points to her.
Well said. I like those examples you gave! They paint a picture of Truth and inform the reader's imagination of how the world really works, both the dark and gritty side of demonic warfare and our own fallen condition as well as the light of the salvation in God that the demons cannot overthrow, as much as they will try to make us despair despite the truth.
Finally got to reading this one! Really great exploration of a subject I usually avoid. But as you've pointed out, it's probably due to the over-the-top portrayal of Hollywood that it seems a pointless and mindless genre. The Monkey's Paw is definitely the unnerving type of mirror to self/inexplicable fear/revulsion at the uncontrollable that defines "proper" horror I think. Ray Bradbury's The Veldt is also like that IMHO.
These are some great distinctions! Well put. I especially appreciate the distinction between the classic horror and the "bad horror". Good horror can show us what evil truly is and the contrast with the Good and can teach us to value the Good. What does the bad kind teach the consumer? I have thought in the past that something that characterizes modern/cosmic/bad/film horror is not tension or even fear alone but rather despair: As you touched on toward the end, the demonic forces having their way where the protagonist is powerless to resist the horrific events. Imagine the movie scene where a character's mouth starts sewing itself shut or a haunted house where even the walls and floors could suck you in and kill you. These are tales where God's good order is removed from the world, and people can no longer trust in God's laws of creation to provide them safety from the demonic. The demons can do what they please with your flesh and sew your mouth shut. They can do what they please with the physics of the house to toy with you and kill you, or they can animate a doll and have it pursue you endlessly where there is no escape. If you could close the door on the doll and be sure that it was contained, it wouldn't be so horrific, but in the setting where God's protection is removed, then a closed door means nothing, and no matter what you do the doll will still come for you and will get you. So all the consumer's imagination is left with is hopelessness and despair amidst the tension. That kind of horror, whatever it should be called, I do not see much good in consuming, even if somehow the protagonists escape in the end, inasmuch as it is a story that trains the consumer's expectations to imagine demons having power that they do not have. Such a story/movie if done skillfully makes an impression on the consumer so that they imagine the same dark things happening throughout daily life, even if they know rationally that those things should be impossible under God's rule. But demons are real, and they would do these things if God let them. The Christian should not let demons have that kind of power over our hearts, nor should we train our emotions to despair of God's rule and protection. But good storytelling can show us the true contrast between the demonic and the Godly, and show us the need for and value of God's protection.
When the natural world betrays, and the horrified man flees, and the demons pursue - and if that man flees to the only sensible location to flee to, the fortress of the church - what happens in the story then will prove what kind of a man the story's author is.
To the healthy-minded individual, I think a very occasional pinch of the despair of cosmic horror (contained within a pagan character, naturally) can be a somewhat salutary thing for one's hope. To look back upon that dark path on which you once walked makes you remember to not take your current path for granted, and makes you remember that Hope is not nearly so weak as she appears.
So maybe the horrified man never makes it to the church. Maybe he's pulled aside by some other thing which promises safety, and doesn't deliver. Maybe the demons make him see demons inside the church as well as out, and in so doing deceive him from entering what a good writer will later reveal was the only way of salvation. Maybe the man despairs just before he makes it to the door, and a man from inside the church comes out and drags him in. Maybe he does make it inside the church and maybe the demons come in anyway. Maybe he clings to the altar and still dies. But maybe before he dies he sees the words "Whoever believes in Me, even though he die, yet shall he live."
Whether the Hope is in the story or out of it, the good Horror knows his duty and points to her.
Well said. I like those examples you gave! They paint a picture of Truth and inform the reader's imagination of how the world really works, both the dark and gritty side of demonic warfare and our own fallen condition as well as the light of the salvation in God that the demons cannot overthrow, as much as they will try to make us despair despite the truth.
Wonderful! Unlike a thriller, this was even better reading it the second time, and extremely in-depth. Keep on keeping on!