Finally I choice ‘horror stories’ be the theme of my 3 taxtations. To be honest it is a large and difficult theme for me, because most of horror stories which I read are fragments, I didn’t have a record habit before. So I spent lot of time to find them with my memories and research them on the Internet.
1，Text-texts are the easy and common ways to record or create horror stories. A writer only needs one pen and one piece of paper(or the computer) to record or create the horror story. Most horror stories’ recreations are basic on the texts, Most important is, horror stories evolved from Gothic horror. Gothic horror formed in 18 century, it could be considered the ‘ancestor of horror novels’. The elements of Gothic horror are ‘Mysterious, gloomy and terrible’, which also can describe contemporary horror stories. I will categorize them into different contents with their representative writer.
a) Crime(Serial killers, psychological crime, kidnappers, etc.)- “The Tell-Tale Heart”(Edgar Allen Poe(January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) “1999 – Creepypasta“( Camden Lamont)’Jeff the killer ‘(created by. Sesseu )
b)Monster(Unknown organism, alien, artificial organisms )- ‘Frankesntain’ (created by Mary Shelley(30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851))’Slender Man'(created by Eric Knudsen) ‘It'(created by Stephen King) ‘Dracula'(created by Abraham Bram Stoker )
c)The hell (Demon, basic on religion)- Judaism (The Hebrew Bible), Medieval Christian demonology, Old Testament, New Testament,Islam,
d)Paranormal events (Ghost, people back from death, psychic power)-‘ The Shining’ (created by Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947)) ”
e) Doomsday （zombie attack, ）
2, Comics-As a kind of visual art, comics can express horror stories for audiences to read. Comics convert texts to pictures and dialogues, which help audiences to achieve the stories line in their minds. However, comics are drawn by people, which means the style of different artists will have a distinct visual feeling for audiences. The simile horror story is drawn by 2 different style artists, the visual effects will be different. Because most horror stories are basic on texts. I won’t categorize them into contents but the regions.
a) Japan-As a country that has high developed comic industry, Japanese comics creators lead a typical style of horror comics in Asia. However, one of the reasons that Japan can create their unique horror comics is their social atmosphere, people work under high pressure,, and most of them are full of serious grudge.
b) South-East Asia-Likes Malaysia, Thailand, or other South-East countries, their styles are influenced by Japanese style, but they also mix their personal culture in comics.
c)China-Although China has a long and deep history and traditional culture. Unfortunately, I seldom see interesting horror comics in my country because of some policy reasons, however, I still found some interesting horror comics in the past few years in China.
d)European and American area-Different from Asia, many European and American horror comics not only focus on ghosts, terrible crimes but also focus on artificial organisms. They will focus on visual shooting likes jump scared.
3, Films-Films are the new style way to express horror stories, as a kind of visual art, films realistically describe the horror story. Audiences can feel the terrible atmosphere through these plausible frames and experiences with protagonists to do the adventure. Same with the horror comics, I will categorize this kind of collection in different regions.
a)Japan: Same with its comics, Japanese horror films lead a typical style of horror comics in Asia. In Japanese horror films, demons have high and deep resentments. You won’t see too many bloody frames in Japanese films but the visual shooking may express serious ‘mental pollution.
b)Korea and other South East areas: Except for Japan, South Korea, and Thailand are 2 countries that make horror successfully in the Asian area. Likes Thailand, it makes many unique horror films because of its weird and special culture. Such as Rokurokubi,Kumantong,etc.
c)China: Because of the policy reason and censorship rules, the Chinese mainland doesn’t have good any horror films. However, in 70-90s Hongkong, there were lots of interesting and thriller-horror stories. Chinese religion ‘Tao’ was the biggest element in these films, in that period, many horror stories create with this traditional religion.
d)European and American Area: Same with China, many European and American countries create horror films basic on religion. Although the Bible records plenty of demons, many directors will focus on bloody serial killers or artificial monsters.
Collecting horror stories can satisfy my curiousty which forbidden in daily. In my country, we have serious restriction to manage art creations of ‘horror’. However, in my opinion. Horror stories not only focus on “terrible things”. But also satisfy human’s curiousty of unknown thing and this is the nature of human. Somebody may pay for their curiousy in seriously. I am not a bold people, but after reading horror stories I will learn something to caution myself.
Reflection: most of my collection basic on the secondary researches, I seldom skecth something about my feeling, like the reaction to horror stories. It is not enough.