It began with monsters. A religious monster-boomer, I couldn’t get enough of these scary creatures as a child. For some reason they made me feel happy, secure. With the real monster of parental alcoholism lurking outside the door this is perhaps understandable. Growing up I soon learned that these were childish things—religion was adult. And very serious. Always trying to be a good boy, I followed the trajectory to seminary and then further study. Monsters had faded. I still liked them, but seldom encountered them and acted disinterested if I did. Fortunately I came out of it. Probably it was being ousted from academia that awakened what had once been my reality. That, and I’d learned that some academics—mostly in religion departments—were now studying monsters. Monster may I?
Maybe a decade ago, I’d read, I thought, just about every academic book on monsters. Then the slight shift of focus from monsters to horror films started. You see, movies are often where we learn of monsters. There weren’t too many academic books on the topic, and the internet sites I found often lacked depth. (Although a shout-out is due to Horror Lex here, if you’re not visiting, you should be. And of course, Horror Homeroom.) Editors, you have to understand, are for some reason discouraged from writing books. I’d been noodling away on the ideas behind Holy Horror for years. Suddenly it occurred to me—I could write a book on monsters from an angle unused before. (Later I discovered an academic had written an article on the topic, but seems to have dropped it after that.) Writing about horror is really my sublimated love of monsters arising. And they do rise.
Of course, those who know the religious Steve, still trying to be the good boy, are confused. Our culture has poisoned the well for horror, I fear. Not everyone likes slashers. I personally don’t care for them. A quiet haunting is more my style. Still, what’s available on Hulu or Amazon Prime often dictates what I see. If you’re going to write about horror movies you have to read about them. Lately that’s driven me more toward film department studies. That’s the thing about curiosity—it never rests. There are always doors to open and rocks to turn over. And books to read. There’s no end to it, kind of like a good scary movie. Like a monster you have to cross boundaries to learn anything. Religion has its monsters, and denying that will only lead to complications.
