‘The Stepfather’ had plenty of material to work off of for this character. He’s clearly based on a real person: John List, one of the most notorious family annihilators in history.
Lighthouses are often said to be haunted. They certainly capture the darker side of one’s imagination—what would life be like in such isolated places? What kind of people would choose to live there?
Many of the stories are not simply recounting creepy happenings. The stories are about things that matter. They are often truly about real, raw emotions. Regret, grief, guilt.
‘I Remember You’ (Icelandic: ‘Ég man þig’) by Yrsa Sigurdarsdottir is heartily recommended if you want to white knuckle your way through 300-odd pages of terror.
Unlike accidentally summoning Hell Raiser or dream battling Freddy Krueger, home invasion murders have been played out horrifically in real life throughout history.
There were PSA films warning girls about all the horrible ‘unnecessary’ things that can befall babysitters. The films focused on girls learning ‘good judgment’ like not letting strangers into the house while babysitting. How helpful!
All things considered, the movie makes superb compromises between “we want to grow a garden of nightmares but without killing any kids.”
Kids like scary stories. Parents like to ban scary stories that kids like to read. This is a natural cycle of Americana.
The Blair Witch Project deeply understands a universal human truth, which is: Fuck The Woods.
These stories are ancient, have their own flavors of terror, act as morality tales, mirror real life problems and… well they’re also pretty fun to listen to.
