aquietjune (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
aquietjune) wrote2024-05-10 10:59 pm
aquietjune) wrote2024-05-10 10:59 pm
Entry tags:
Summer of Horror Exchange Letter
Dear Summer of Horror Creator,
Thanks for creating for me! Whether you’ve been assigned one of my requests, you are a pinch hitter or you’re considering creating a treat for me, please know I very much appreciate it.
This is my first ‘dear creator’ letter, and given how much I love horror, I want to share a map of some of my favorite things in the genre (and whereabouts). Mind, you don’t have to know or like them all as well, please don’t feel overwhelmed! I just want to be able to convey a sense of the type of horror I vibe with, especially because subgenres are very useful… until they aren’t.
So, before I go forward with sharing my list, please remember: as long as it’s not in my DNWs, feel free to use any idea or style or element you like! My fandom-specific or request-specific prompts are also just that — starting ideas for stories and art if needed, take what you like, leave the rest; never feel obligated in any way to follow something that I said, and actually, I value you taking the opportunity of this exchange to share with me (and everyone) your ideas and your imagination a lot!
Thanks again, and let’s move on to my favorite things in horror, general and specific likes, and DNWs.
Mood and tone, first of all.
Mainly, there are two ways I go about it: on one hand, I like the weird and the eerie, things that do not feel quite right but on the side, ignored by most—what feels disquieting and uncomfortable, but not to the point of running away screaming. In this, I would consider most of the cosmic horror and psychological horror that I like. While the causes can be invisible, or barely noticeable, the consequences can be very very real — and I would put here the body horror as well as the violent horror that I like (consequences of a frayed psyche, etc.).
On the other hand, I really like loud, in-your-face, theatrical, and somewhat very openly farcical types of horror: the gory revenge plays, the bloody magic rituals, apparitions in haunted houses, exorcisms and other religious procedures. Hence, the supernatural, the folk and religious horror, and more than anything, gothic horror. I love decay and decadence.
I also like horror social satire and slashers, as well as home invasion horror (in terms of survival), and comedic horror.
Actual references now!
The story that scared me the most, ever, is Picnic at Hanging Rock: both the book by Joan Lindsay (1967), and the film adaptation by Peter Weir (1975).
More horror movies:
Suspiria (both Dario Argento’s 1977 original version and Luca Guadagnino’s 2019 reimagining)
Inferno (Dario Argento, 1980)
The House with Laughing Windows (Pupi Avati, 1976)
Don’t look now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973)
The Ring (Gore Verbinski, 2002)
Rosemary’s Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968)
Starry Eyes (Kölsch/Widmyer, 2014)
The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2016)
The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973)
Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)
Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983)
eXistenZ (David Cronenberg, 1999)
Excision (Richard Bates Jr., 2012)
Blood on Satan’s Claw (Piers Haggard, 1971)
Dans ma peau (Marina de Van, 2002)
Martyrs (Pascal Laugier, 2005)
The Blackcoat Daughter (Osgood Perkins, 2015)
Cigarette Burns (Masters of Horror series, John Carpenter, 2005)
The Scream Trilogy (Wes Craven 1996-2000)
A Cure for Wellness (Gore Verbinski, 2016)
Blood for Dracula (Paul Morrissey, 1974)
Tetsuo: the Iron Man (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1989)
Little Shop of Horrors (Musical, story, Frank Oz’s 1986 film…)
Murder Party (Jeremy Saulnier, 2007)
Funny games (Michael Haneke, 1997)
You’re next (Adam Wingard, 2011)
The Invitation (Karyn Kusama, 2015)
House (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977)
Horror authors that I love (with examples of titles I like):
Shirley Jackson (The Haunting of Hill House, Hangsaman)
Ray Bradbury (Something Wicked This Way Comes, Usher II)
Leonora Carrington (Short stories for horror but also The Hearing Trumpet)
Margo Lanagan (Tender Morsels)
Kelly Link (Stranger Things Happen)
Mariana Enriquez (Things we have lost in the fire)
Kathe Koja (Cipher)
Angela Carter (The Lady of the House of Love, The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman)
The Strugatsky Brothers (Roadside Picnic)
Edgar Allan Poe (The Fall of the House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum)
Is it horror?
Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966) (movie)
The Unicorn (Iris Murdoch, 1963) (book)
Sweet Days of Discipline (Fleur Jaeggy, 1989) (book)
Anime & Manga & Visual novels:
Umineko no Naku Koro ni (07thExpansion, Ryukishi07)
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (07thExpansion, Ryukishi07)
D.Gray-man (Katsura Hoshino)
Art
Dave McKean
Many Golden Age of book illustration artists (fairy tales illustrations between the 19th and 20th century) — mainly Kay Nielsen, Virginia Frances Sterrett, Harry Clarke, Aubrey Beardsley, George Barbier.
Women surrealists: Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, Leonor Fini
Salvador Dalí, Hieronymus Bosch, Caravaggio (always Caravaggio for a daily dose of horror!)
1930s magic realism
Andrea Kowch
What I don’t vibe with is mainly torture and gore as the main focus and often for the sake of itself (Hostel, Saw, etc.) and creature features (monster horror). Plus:
Stephen King’s writing and character types.
Mike Flanagan’s works.
General Likes:
Dream / Nightmare sequences
Magical realism
Kitchen sink horror
Surrealism
The weird and the eerie
Unreliable narrators, distorted perceptions of reality
Choral scenes
In-depth character studies
Non linear or fragmentary narrations
Friendships and familial relationships exploration
Canonverse and post-canon
World building elements
Slice of life
Heightened emotions
Hurt/Comfort
Angst and Fluff
Realizing feelings
Emotional breakdowns
Established relationship
Comedy and humor
Horror likes (as in: elements of horror):
Ghosts
Haunted Houses and other hauntings
Interdimensional spaces
Witches, not in the sense of humans practicing ancient, nature-adjacent forms of magic but more in the sense of the maligned kinds — not just pacts with demons but especially witches as (maybe?) former humans who are now agents of chaos often guided by their past traumas and histories.
Smut likes:
I usually ask for “no smut” but, in this case, I enjoy the thought of eros & horror together, especially where there’s urgency/haste in sex, loss of control, some messed up/twisted stuff going around (corpses nearby…), a certain discomfort (not devoid of pleasure though), dubcon too.
I like short, sharp, suggestive scenes, or scenes where the focus is on what goes on in the mind of the characters rather than in detailed descriptions of the physical acts.
Art likes
I enjoy “on-model” drawings for anime and manga characters but I appreciate personal styles as well.
I love graphic design for posters, advertisements, labels etc. especially vintage ones (1870s-1960s) (but 1970s-1990s is also great especially if the fandom calls for it!)
Vintage botanical illustrations and vintage fashion plates
Cartography!
Black ink on paper
Highly saturated, contrasting colors (=> i.e. I love the red and fuchsia or the orange and fuchsia combos)
Alien landscapes (also literally, as in lunar landscapes, but in general, desert plains, eerie steppes, solitary landscapes at night, etc.)
Heightened emotions
Anime and manga styles, Chibis
Art veering on the abstract and impossible geometry
Doodles and pencil sketch illustrations (à la Quentin Blake or more realistic too)
Common squicks I’m ok with:
1st and 2nd person narrator
Kids and kidfics
General DNWs
Permanent maiming (mutilation, loss of sight hearing other senses) of the requested (surviving*) characters
AUs with no ties to the original canon (yes to multiverses and character displacement)
Omegaverse
Soulmates
Reader fics
Unrequested gender identity and neurodivergence headcanons with explicit labeling
Ageplay, daddy kink, scat, emetophilia, watersports
Aging up characters to the age 70+
Terminal illnesses if not present in canon
Horror DNWs
Hopeless survival horror à la The Descent (Neil Marshall, 2005)
Art DNWs
Very explicit smut (suggestive is great!)
Very caricatural, “intentionally unpleasant” styles for faces
Fake social media posts
Intentional reproduction of Internet memes
(*) see request-specific DNWs for “permanent requested character death” DNWs, it depends on the fandom/characters.
Thanks for creating for me! Whether you’ve been assigned one of my requests, you are a pinch hitter or you’re considering creating a treat for me, please know I very much appreciate it.
This is my first ‘dear creator’ letter, and given how much I love horror, I want to share a map of some of my favorite things in the genre (and whereabouts). Mind, you don’t have to know or like them all as well, please don’t feel overwhelmed! I just want to be able to convey a sense of the type of horror I vibe with, especially because subgenres are very useful… until they aren’t.
So, before I go forward with sharing my list, please remember: as long as it’s not in my DNWs, feel free to use any idea or style or element you like! My fandom-specific or request-specific prompts are also just that — starting ideas for stories and art if needed, take what you like, leave the rest; never feel obligated in any way to follow something that I said, and actually, I value you taking the opportunity of this exchange to share with me (and everyone) your ideas and your imagination a lot!
Thanks again, and let’s move on to my favorite things in horror, general and specific likes, and DNWs.
Horror (a lot of things I love, and a couple I don’t vibe with)
Mood and tone, first of all.
Mainly, there are two ways I go about it: on one hand, I like the weird and the eerie, things that do not feel quite right but on the side, ignored by most—what feels disquieting and uncomfortable, but not to the point of running away screaming. In this, I would consider most of the cosmic horror and psychological horror that I like. While the causes can be invisible, or barely noticeable, the consequences can be very very real — and I would put here the body horror as well as the violent horror that I like (consequences of a frayed psyche, etc.).
On the other hand, I really like loud, in-your-face, theatrical, and somewhat very openly farcical types of horror: the gory revenge plays, the bloody magic rituals, apparitions in haunted houses, exorcisms and other religious procedures. Hence, the supernatural, the folk and religious horror, and more than anything, gothic horror. I love decay and decadence.
I also like horror social satire and slashers, as well as home invasion horror (in terms of survival), and comedic horror.
Actual references now!
The story that scared me the most, ever, is Picnic at Hanging Rock: both the book by Joan Lindsay (1967), and the film adaptation by Peter Weir (1975).
More horror movies:
Suspiria (both Dario Argento’s 1977 original version and Luca Guadagnino’s 2019 reimagining)
Inferno (Dario Argento, 1980)
The House with Laughing Windows (Pupi Avati, 1976)
Don’t look now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973)
The Ring (Gore Verbinski, 2002)
Rosemary’s Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968)
Starry Eyes (Kölsch/Widmyer, 2014)
The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2016)
The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973)
Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)
Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983)
eXistenZ (David Cronenberg, 1999)
Excision (Richard Bates Jr., 2012)
Blood on Satan’s Claw (Piers Haggard, 1971)
Dans ma peau (Marina de Van, 2002)
Martyrs (Pascal Laugier, 2005)
The Blackcoat Daughter (Osgood Perkins, 2015)
Cigarette Burns (Masters of Horror series, John Carpenter, 2005)
The Scream Trilogy (Wes Craven 1996-2000)
A Cure for Wellness (Gore Verbinski, 2016)
Blood for Dracula (Paul Morrissey, 1974)
Tetsuo: the Iron Man (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1989)
Little Shop of Horrors (Musical, story, Frank Oz’s 1986 film…)
Murder Party (Jeremy Saulnier, 2007)
Funny games (Michael Haneke, 1997)
You’re next (Adam Wingard, 2011)
The Invitation (Karyn Kusama, 2015)
House (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977)
Horror authors that I love (with examples of titles I like):
Shirley Jackson (The Haunting of Hill House, Hangsaman)
Ray Bradbury (Something Wicked This Way Comes, Usher II)
Leonora Carrington (Short stories for horror but also The Hearing Trumpet)
Margo Lanagan (Tender Morsels)
Kelly Link (Stranger Things Happen)
Mariana Enriquez (Things we have lost in the fire)
Kathe Koja (Cipher)
Angela Carter (The Lady of the House of Love, The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman)
The Strugatsky Brothers (Roadside Picnic)
Edgar Allan Poe (The Fall of the House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum)
Is it horror?
Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966) (movie)
The Unicorn (Iris Murdoch, 1963) (book)
Sweet Days of Discipline (Fleur Jaeggy, 1989) (book)
Anime & Manga & Visual novels:
Umineko no Naku Koro ni (07thExpansion, Ryukishi07)
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (07thExpansion, Ryukishi07)
D.Gray-man (Katsura Hoshino)
Art
Dave McKean
Many Golden Age of book illustration artists (fairy tales illustrations between the 19th and 20th century) — mainly Kay Nielsen, Virginia Frances Sterrett, Harry Clarke, Aubrey Beardsley, George Barbier.
Women surrealists: Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, Leonor Fini
Salvador Dalí, Hieronymus Bosch, Caravaggio (always Caravaggio for a daily dose of horror!)
1930s magic realism
Andrea Kowch
What I don’t vibe with is mainly torture and gore as the main focus and often for the sake of itself (Hostel, Saw, etc.) and creature features (monster horror). Plus:
Stephen King’s writing and character types.
Mike Flanagan’s works.
All kinds of things I like
General Likes:
Dream / Nightmare sequences
Magical realism
Kitchen sink horror
Surrealism
The weird and the eerie
Unreliable narrators, distorted perceptions of reality
Choral scenes
In-depth character studies
Non linear or fragmentary narrations
Friendships and familial relationships exploration
Canonverse and post-canon
World building elements
Slice of life
Heightened emotions
Hurt/Comfort
Angst and Fluff
Realizing feelings
Emotional breakdowns
Established relationship
Comedy and humor
Horror likes (as in: elements of horror):
Ghosts
Haunted Houses and other hauntings
Interdimensional spaces
Witches, not in the sense of humans practicing ancient, nature-adjacent forms of magic but more in the sense of the maligned kinds — not just pacts with demons but especially witches as (maybe?) former humans who are now agents of chaos often guided by their past traumas and histories.
Smut likes:
I usually ask for “no smut” but, in this case, I enjoy the thought of eros & horror together, especially where there’s urgency/haste in sex, loss of control, some messed up/twisted stuff going around (corpses nearby…), a certain discomfort (not devoid of pleasure though), dubcon too.
I like short, sharp, suggestive scenes, or scenes where the focus is on what goes on in the mind of the characters rather than in detailed descriptions of the physical acts.
Art likes
I enjoy “on-model” drawings for anime and manga characters but I appreciate personal styles as well.
I love graphic design for posters, advertisements, labels etc. especially vintage ones (1870s-1960s) (but 1970s-1990s is also great especially if the fandom calls for it!)
Vintage botanical illustrations and vintage fashion plates
Cartography!
Black ink on paper
Highly saturated, contrasting colors (=> i.e. I love the red and fuchsia or the orange and fuchsia combos)
Alien landscapes (also literally, as in lunar landscapes, but in general, desert plains, eerie steppes, solitary landscapes at night, etc.)
Heightened emotions
Anime and manga styles, Chibis
Art veering on the abstract and impossible geometry
Doodles and pencil sketch illustrations (à la Quentin Blake or more realistic too)
Common squicks I’m ok with:
1st and 2nd person narrator
Kids and kidfics
Do Not Wants
General DNWs
Permanent maiming (mutilation, loss of sight hearing other senses) of the requested (surviving*) characters
AUs with no ties to the original canon (yes to multiverses and character displacement)
Omegaverse
Soulmates
Reader fics
Unrequested gender identity and neurodivergence headcanons with explicit labeling
Ageplay, daddy kink, scat, emetophilia, watersports
Aging up characters to the age 70+
Terminal illnesses if not present in canon
Horror DNWs
Hopeless survival horror à la The Descent (Neil Marshall, 2005)
Art DNWs
Very explicit smut (suggestive is great!)
Very caricatural, “intentionally unpleasant” styles for faces
Fake social media posts
Intentional reproduction of Internet memes
(*) see request-specific DNWs for “permanent requested character death” DNWs, it depends on the fandom/characters.