Time to get spooky! Guest Erin Brown joins us for a terrifying delve into the abyss of horror. It’s been said that by Robert Bloch that “horror is the removal of masks,” and by Michael A. Arnzen that “horror’s power lies in seduction,” but what does that mean? The Genre Hustle crew discusses how horror slowly strips away the mundane and familiar to reveal greater and greater depths of terror. Horror has layers of dread, terror, and horror: the fear that something bad is about to happen, that something bad is happening, and the lingering disbelief that anything that bad could ever have happened. By putting pressure on each of these aspects, authors can manipulate the experience of the character and by extension, the reader. After all, in order to scare your reader, you must scare your character… Just remember to keep the lights on after this episode!

Works discussed include Hannibal and Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, His Face All Red by Emily Carroll, The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe, The Red Bow by George Saunders, The Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov, and Writing Horror and the Body by Linda Badley.

Karter’s horror zine Murder Park After Dark will open for submissions with the airing of this episode. Check genrehustle.com for details!