INTERACTION

It's often said there's a gap (of creativity/ originality/ genre development?) between literary SF and screen SF, as movies & TV always lag behind books...

Do you think a similar, or the same kind of, thing can be applied to horror?
Is screen horror lagging far behind horror novels and short fiction?

_________________
Pigasus Press | VideoVista | The ZONE

Is this open to anyone?

My tup'penyworth: yes; most horror cinema nowadays relies on cliche, but the ironic thing is that horror is one of the most bankable genres when it comes to film, yet the mainstream publishers and bookchains tell you it doesn't sell.

Screen horror has the opportunity to be more directly visceral, I think, perhaps because a viewer is at the mercy of the director's pacing. With written horror a reader can take it slowly -- which might make it more or less scary depending on the story and style.

I watched Wolf Creek on TV recently (a recording I made some time around Christmas). That was scary, disturbing and unpleasant. But I had to admire the direction. I don't think written horror has ever given me the same degree of immediate reaction.

That's not necessarily a criticism -- they're different media, and they do different things.

_________________
PaulJ
The Rev Up Review
http://www.revupreview.co.uk
...or via iTunes (v4.9 or later)

Paul,

Have you read Jack Ketchum's THE GIRL NEXTDOOR or Peter Straub's BLUE ROSE? Both had just that level of impact on me.

Hmmm, interesting question.

Thinking about it, I have to say that as long as it's been done well, any kind of horror can scare me, though in regards to both films and books it's most often the genuinly creepy/spooky/crawls under-your-skin stuff that leaves the strongest impression. Your generic axe-wielding manic might make me jump every ten minutes or so, but he doesn't give me nightmares.

Ringu gave me nightmares. The dead stare of those twin girls in the Shining gave me nightmares (way more scary than Jack with the axe). The fiction of Ramsey Campbell gives me nightmares (there are stories of his that I number amongst my favourites, but which I have never been able to bring myself to reread).

But then we all have our personal fears, don't we? I once asked a friend of mine to name the scariest film she'd ever seen, and without even taking the time to think about it she named Watership Down. As tempted as I was, I didn't ask...

I think possibly just as many prose writers are influenced by film.

Personally I am not often physically scared by a book the way I am disturbed by a film. Similarly, I've almost never found a book funny, but I've seen plenty of hilarious films.

Scariest book I read in recently memory was LUNAR PARK by Bret Easton Ellis (SHIT!), and some of the stories in THE IMPELLED by Gary Fry and an anthology yet to come out, THE BRITISH INVASION.

I realise that readers/ viewers will have different rational/ emotional reactions to books/ stories than you would to films/ TV.

What I'm trying to get at here is the differences in content between print and screen.

Has anyone read much of the so-called 'hardcore horror' from the likes of Edward Lee, Gerard Houarner, Charlee Jacob, and others published by David G. Barnett's Necro?

I don't suppose filmmakers would ever be allowed to get away with much of that kind of extreme violence, even making indie movies... but it seems there's a growing small-press market for this material.

Can this stuff be considered (excuse puns) the cutting/ bleeding edge of horror fiction?

_________________
Pigasus Press | VideoVista | The ZONE

"Can this stuff be considered (excuse puns) the cutting/ bleeding edge of horror fiction?"

Please God let's hope not.