| Author | Message | ||
     Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
Spoilers contained To help solve an argument, can you guys and gal's who've read this book give me some well worded reasons why it is a horror novel. according to some peeps I was chatting with about it, because there's no alien monsters or supernatural in it, it doesn't count as horror. My insistence that it's intended to shock, it contains scenes of massacres and eating dead babies, and has one of the most frightening characters in recent fiction in the nurse, and all those facts make it horror is not enough. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.106.220.19 |
I would agree with you - it's a striking, shocking novel and easily horror, amongst other things. Which probably doesn't help. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
Why should a horror novel only have monsters or the supernatural in it (I fucking hate that attitude)? Horror is an emotion; eating dead babies must surely provoke a reaction of horror. Unless you're mad, and that's another kind of horror entirely. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.108.128 |
Eating living babies, however, is completely acceptable. In fact, that's what I'm having for supper. Yum, yum. I love babies, but not sure I can . . . scoff the lot, as they say. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
Brain fried; overdosing on edits. But, hey, I just handed in the novel! Huzzah!! | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 212.49.212.18 |
The old argument about what constitues horror is as divisive as what constitutes 'real art'. | ||
| Tom_alaerts (Tom_alaerts) Username: Tom_alaerts Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.176.86.167 |
It is horror as much as the movie Saw is horror. Nothing supernatural in Saw yet most people would describe it as horror. Or you could consider both as really nasty thrillers. Myself, I am not that interested in genre taxonomy. But I do remember The Nurse as one of the scariest characters I ever encountered on paper. Mo Hayder has a certain talent for depicting nasty scenes convincingly... | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.179.157 |
I remember thinking Saw wasn't horror but gory thriller at one point. At least in respects to it's positioning as the 'Halloween' event movie. Halloween for me means ghosts, not grue. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.108.128 |
As I once said here, trying to put certain fiction in a genre 'box' is like knitting a sweater for Cthulhu. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.252.95 |
Here's something Japanese and that doesn't look like it fits in a box. E.g., it's horror, I think - but this trailer is pretty damn funny: http://www.criterion.com/films/27523-house I'm looking forward to seeing this... John, have you already?... | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
I have, and it's moderately amusing, but a bit self-conscious for my taste. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.122.209.76 |
Hi Craig - Yes, we both watched 'House' about a month ago. It was actually a bit too silly in my opinion. Even though there was some outrageous bloody bits and some nudity, so it presumably wasn't intended for kids, if came across as an oriental version of H R Pufnstuf or one of those other garish American kids' shows from the 1970s. I'd be interested to hear what you think, but at Probert Towers it outstayed its welcome. It does seem to be held in very high regard in some circles, though, which is presumably why Eureka have released it over here and Criterion are bringing out a US edition | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.5.0.131 |
That's too bad it's not that great! That trailer is wonderful, how it keeps getting more and more bizarre as it runs along... I was hoping the film might too, in a good way... still, Criterion does wonderful dvds - it's great to see a beautiful lush print of anything in their line.... |