Sell Out. Why I Don’t Write Horror for Horror Fans

Sell Out

Why I Don’t Write Horror for Horror Fans

By John Shupeck, Jr.

Horror is meant to be scary. I will say that again: HORROR IS MEANT TO BE SCARY.

Now, scary can manifest itself in a plethora of ways. Chills running up your spine as you tiptoe through a pitch-black parking lot; panic because you can’t remember if you turned the oven off before going out for the evening; uncertainty as you lie beside your lover, wondering where it is they go every night at two in the morning and why the inside of your trunk smells as if something died in it. In that same vein, have you ever tried to close your eyes, only to be met with the vision of a possessed Regan Macneil staring down at you? The ol’ Exorcist gag. It works every time.

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Horror is meant to be scary. I will say that again: HORROR IS MEANT TO BE SCARY.
John Shupeck, Jr.

Inherently, Michael Myers is scary. Freddy Krueger, the child mutilating scumbag who is also probably a pedophile, horrifying. And, I don’t know about you, but I would rather not employ Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter to do the catering for my next Murder Mystery Book Club brunch. (Well, unless that old gossip Stella Hodgekiss decides to rear her ugly mug; isn’t Stella Hodgekiss just the worst!?) And yet, all of these characters are viewed as icons within the horror community. Cosplayers dawning bladed gloves at horror conventions. Children sporting Ghostface masks, running house to house and begging for candy every October 31^st. Serial killers, being idolized by kids. Not only do the parents allow it; they encourage it. Where did the fear go?

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As an author who goes gallivanting around the internet pretending to be a serial killer, I don’t see many people who want to be scared anymore. A lot of horror fans, sure. They can take all the blood and zombies they can handle and still come back for more. But to be challenged by the content we are consuming…to sit in the passenger seat of the car as it’s about to explode in a fiery inferno? I’m not seeing it very often. Which is a shame, because that’s the foundation horror was originally built on; that’s why we all became fans to begin with, right? The fear.

At the risk of losing the audience, I’d like to go into an odd, yet relevant rant to illustrate my point. Professional wrestling. Many of us over the age of 25 remember it in its glory years. Stone Cold Steve Austin barreling down to the ring and opening a can of whoop ass on anyone within striking distance. The Rock before he was a big action star, handcuffing a helpless Mick Foley and beating him over the head a dozen times with a steel chair. Hulk Hogan, coming down the ramp for the big save, only to drop his leg over the “Macho Man” Randy Savage and usher in a new era with the New World Order. People still believed then. Even though the business had been outed as choreographed and predetermined by that point, everyone still tuned in every Monday night to see what would happen. Who would defect from WWF to WCW? What new lows would Vince McMahon stoop to in order to maintain a dictatorial grip over his empire? Would Bill Goldberg’s winning streak end the next week, or would he manage to defy the odds yet again, solidifying his status as the most dominant figure in the profession?

Fast forward over twenty years later. WWE programming has become stagnant, with nonsensical storylines and wrestlers basically having the same match over-and-over again. There is a new promotion in town called All Elite Wrestling. They promise to take wrestling back to its glory years, giving lifelong fans what they want. To the diehard viewer, this sounds great, right? We can have our cake and eat it, too. We’re dictating the program now, because this is about us first, and everyone else second.

That’s where the problem lies. In conventional wrestling, good guys get cheered, the bad guys get booed. In fact, if the bad guy (or heel) does their job properly, people will outright despise them, tuning in to see the good guy (the face) give the heel their comeuppance. This dynamic is tailor-made for the casual viewer, giving them a basic story to latch onto and become invested in. However, this doesn’t gel well with a diehard fan. They know it’s all fake. They don’t want the performers in the ring trying to “work” them (emotionally manipulate the viewing audience into believing what they are seeing). The suspension of disbelief isn’t there anymore. It’s playing all the top hits while winking and nodding, letting the fans know they are in on the trick. To pull up the veil again…that means it doesn’t belong to the diehards anymore. The magic is back. The diehards are right back to where they started, just a “mark” sitting in the seats, wondering what’s going to happen next.

This dynamic is tailor-made for the casual viewer, giving them a basic story to latch onto and become invested in. However, this doesn’t gel well with a diehard fan. They know it’s all fake.
JOHN SHUPECK, JR.

So, let me ask you this: when is the last time a piece of horror fiction actually scared you? Furthermore, when is the last time you’ve allowed yourself to be challenged by the entertainment you consume? When is the last time Freddy Krueger was the bad guy, Michael Myers a silent Shape behind the bushes, Hannibal Lecter a legitimate madman who could rip your face off just because you looked at him the wrong the way? If something outside out of your comfort zone came along, would you be open minded enough to walk into the darkness again, not having a single clue where you’re going? You can watch old Ash Williams laughingly cut his possessed hand off with a chainsaw, sure, but could you sit through someone realistically doing the same thing without all the crazy camera angles and music playing in the background? Nothing else…just a stationary shot of a man, a chainsaw, and the end of his wrist. Bone and gristle flying everywhere, blood pooling around the blade as the tendons are severed. Suddenly, real or fake, the atmosphere has changed quite a bit.

In the course of playing serial killer self-help guru Dr. Jason Carson, I have been called many things by so-called “horror fans”: creepy, disgusting, disturbing—none of which were meant as compliments. A few of these people actually contacted the FBI and made reports about my promotional videos and podcasts. These same people messaged me after the fact. When asked why I was creating such content, I explained that I wanted to grab people’s attention; to scare them to the point they would look up the character’s name and purchase the book.

“Well, it didn’t work,” one viewer angrily chided me. “It just made you look like a psycho, and it made me believe you were really killing people.”

“Okay,” I responded. “But it compelled you to look up the name after the fact and discover the books. Wouldn’t you say I accomplished my goal?”

“No. It just came off as creepy and disturbing.”

So, to get this right, my HORROR-related content was “creepy and disturbing,” which led a fellow HORROR fan to contact federal authorities. Then, after this HORROR fan did her homework and realized what I was doing, she told me I was not accomplishing my goal of creating HORROR because she was so scared that she thought it was real? So, horror is fine, unless it scares the viewer? Sounds like a mark who got mad they were put back in the audience and tricked again.

To make it perfectly clear, I have no problem with the people who enjoy the crazier aspects of the genre. Hell, I’m one of them. I like having fun with my horror sometimes. However, there is a huge difference between Edward Lee and authors like William Peter Blatty or Shirley Jackson. Sometimes, it’s okay just to unwind and indulge in the outer limits. But, other times, I think it’s healthy to go back to the basics and remember that this stuff comes from a very real, very dark place, and we should allow ourselves to be scared again without all the over-the-top theatrics or constant nodding and winking.

The mainstream gives us fluff and popcorn fodder, while the underground provides excessive overkill in order to make the hardcore fans feel like horror still belongs to them. For me, I don’t care about being a part of one group or the other. In my mind, with all due respect, you’re all my “marks,” and my goal is to equally and ruthlessly terrify each and every one of you exactly the same. Yes, I do want to “sell out.” Not by dropping my standards or choosing one group over the other. Rather, I want to bridge the audiences by tapping into the same common threads: we all have limits, we all become uncomfortable when being faced with the unknown, and we are all scared of something. To me, that is having your cake and eating it, too.

Sometimes, it’s okay just to unwind and indulge in the outer limits. But, other times, I think it’s healthy to go back to the basics and remember that this stuff comes from a very real, very dark place, and we should allow ourselves to be scared again without all the over-the-top theatrics or constant nodding and winking.
JOHN SHUPECK, JR.

So, to harken back to my original point, we are now at a crossroads. World Wrestling Entertainment (the mainstream) vs. All Elite Wrestling (our community and comfort zone). WWE produces mainstream garbage, while AEW gives us what we want but excludes the crossover appeal. The super casual fan thoughtlessly tunes into the former, while the uber-hardcore fan avoids the former and supports everything done by the latter. But the fact remains: on either show, there is a ring, there is simulated violence, and there is a mutual interest in the overall subject. Can’t there be a middle ground, where the marks can be okay with being marks and the casual fans can enjoy the product without feeling overwhelmed?

That is the crossroads I stand at right now. I don’t have any agenda or group I’m trying to please. I want to write good stories, most of which happen to be horror themed. I enjoy being creative, but the majority, from either side, don’t want to accept what I am giving them. Can’t we just join as a group and enjoy hating what I and people like me have created, as it was meant to be? As I have illustrated, it’s okay to hate the bad guy and also be entertained by him.

-John Shupeck is a professional author with ten books under his belt. His most recent novel, Separating You: A Self-Help Book for the Lost, Lonely, and Psychotically Obsessed, was written under the pseudonym of Dr. Jason Carson and praised by Publishers Weekly for being “As entertaining as it is disturbing.” You can find this work at www.Godless.com

Can’t we just join as a group and enjoy hating what I and people like me have created, as it was meant to be? As I have illustrated, it’s okay to hate the bad guy and also be entertained by him.
JOHN SHUPECK, JR.