Horror

"I will make this city an object of horror and something to whistle at. Every last one passing by it will stare in horror and whistle over all its plagues."

"“Jokes and horror work on the same mechanism,” said writer Ellis. “Tension and release. For me, it’s more of an instinct for what a scene needs, and listening to the characters speak."

"I was the first publisher in these United States to publish horror comics. I am responsible, I started them. Some may not like them. That is a matter of personal taste. It would be just as difficult to explain the harmless thrill of a horror story to a Dr. Wertham as it would be to explain the sublimity of love to a frigid old maid."

"Gynaehorror, as I will demonstrate, is horror that deals with all aspects of female reproductive horror, from the reproductive and sexual organs, to virginity and first sex, through to pregnancy, birth and motherhood, and finally to menopause and post-menpause. While my focus is horror film- the space in which such horror makes itself most visible, most fecund, even- this term is one that might be applied more broadly to connect visual representation and aesthetic expression to wider issues of sociocultural and philosophical analysis. This book offers a feminist interrogation of gynaehorror, but also offers a counter-reading of the gynaehorrific, that both accounts for and opens up new spaces within a mode of representation that has often been accused (and, in many cases, rightfully so) of being misogynistic. This is not to try to rehabilitate certain long-standing modes of imagery and narrative whose dominant register can, perhaps, be broadly coloured as anti-woman, but to explore the spaces between and within these modes that might offer more interesting ways of thinking through representation, cinematic expression, the reproductive and the nominally – and monstrously – feminine."

"Better an end with horror than a horror without end."

"The horror experience is most scary when the player really isn’t sure whether their character is going to live or die – death and survival need to be on a constant see-saw. If there’s a situation where you’re not 100% sure that you can avoid or defeat the enemies, if you feel maybe there’s a chance you’ll make it – that’s where horror lies. Creating that situation is vital. Also, I don’t want to just stand there shooting dozens of enemies. Die! Die! Die! I don’t have the energy for that."

"...murder, mayhem, robbery, rape, cannibalism, carnage, necrophilia, sex, sadism, masochism ... and virtually every other form of crime, degeneracy, bestiality and horror."

"72% of people report watching at last one horror movie every 6 months, and the reasons for doing so, besides the feelings of fear and anxiety, was primarily that of excitement. Watching horror movies was also an excuse to socialise, with many people preferring to watch horror movies with others than on their own. People found horror that was psychological in nature and based on real events the scariest, and were far more scared by things that were unseen or implied rather than what they could actually see."

"What is almost universally true of horror is that it’s been used as a tool to express social and political discontent for the marginalized since its creation. It’s a kind of popcorn propaganda that’s allowed writers and filmmakers to voice their anxieties while couching them in titillating narratives that would fly below any political censors."

"Horror is barely ever on the side of the powerful or the mean. The good writers and filmmakers of the genre can tap into our very real fears and follow them to their logical conclusions."

"Going all the way back to the twenties, the horror movies of the Silent Era with Lon Chaney, theres alot of twisted people. The monster was just a mutilated person. When people came back from World War I they came back without limbs. They came back in somewhat-living pieces."

"When I finally took my husband to see Pet Sematary a few months ago, I looked over during the film, and my husband had his hands over his face...it was too funny. Women are wired to give birth, so maybe theres something in us that makes us more immune to horror, films with girls in bikinis getting raped and killed make me angry, but a really chilling horror film where it really gets under your skin and like it really could happen, those are the ones I like."