Unmasking the horror phenomenon
Our love of horror isn’t a new phenomenon. As Dr Helen Marshall, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the School of Communication and Arts at UQ, explains, the earliest examples of the horror genre can be found in medieval times.
“During the 14th century, England and Europe were suffering through waves of outbreak of the Black Death. One of the texts from that period is called The Prick of Conscience, a real fire and brimstone treatise on how we ought to live our lives and how we ought to prepare for death,” Dr Marshall said.
“This is a kind of early horror literature. This is a way of thinking through what are the supernatural elements that might be affecting our lives, but also some of that work around what does it mean to be living in an uncertain time? And how do we prepare for our own death?”
Against the backdrop of the pandemic, Dr Marshall saw a compelling paradox in how we consume stories – where even in times of uncertainty, we continue to turn to horror.
“This was interesting coming into the pandemic more recently, because despite things feeling quite horrific around us, people were drawn to horror stories.
“People either turned away from horror entirely, or they were drawn to watching movies, like Contagion, which I think is really, really interesting.”
Just as life imitates art, Dr Marshall said that contemporary anxieties are often reflected in horror stories during specific eras. And more so, these scary tales serve society in more ways than one.
“Horror stories do different things to different people. In some cases, they act as cautionary tales; in others, they allow us to explore things that feel transgressive and gives us a safe space to do that,” Dr Marshall said.
“It’s also an experience that you have some control of – you can turn off the TV or close the book when you don’t want to engage anymore. But you can also share that experience with other people, and that gives you a better way of processing it.”
