Lately it seems that every horror movie’s favorite location is not the scary forest, the spooky graveyard, or any other exotically terrifying place. Sure you get movies like The Forest or The Meg but these seem a little out of place when thinking of the horror location du jour: homes. Be it the suburbs, the family farm, or an apartment in the city, seems like evil these days prefers to knock on your door as opposed to it waiting for you to travel there. Makes sense, we are at home more than anywhere else except maybe work for some of us. So lock your doors and try not to think too hard about the real world possibilities, we’re having a horror stay-cation in this Horror Tuesday.
As I see it, there are directly two types of home-based horror: criminal or supernatural. Sure you can always end up with a vampire that likes stealing from people, but more often than not, it will fall in either category. The first category is your home invasion horror: bad people break in and try to kill and/or rob you of your stuff and the horror is all in that all too real threat of serial killers and others who do not care for your own well being in the least. This is your The Purge, Hush, Knock Knock, and The Strangers type of horror. They may be trying to say something else about the culture or human nature as well, but really it is about reminding people about how they could be murdered in the middle of their safest place.
Second is equally disturbing, which is the idea that something supernatural has invaded your living space. Be it some haunted object (like a toy) brought into the home or finding out far too late that your new home has a dark past that haunts it, these tend to have a lot of variety. Ghosts, demons, vampires, or some other supernatural force are trying to take over your home and now you have to find some way to fight them off. Whatever the creature is, those within the home have to come together to take it out, because otherwise, it will pick them off one by one or convince them to go after each other. With either situation, things will end badly.
So what can you do when various things come out of the woodwork to turn your house into a game of castle defense? Well, in terms of criminals, a gun or some kind of weapon is ideal. However, the problem with guns is that if you keep them locked up in a safe, you probably won’t have time to drag it out of the save, losing you time. If you keep it by your bedside table, the villain is likely to grab it and use it against you. Other weapons like kitchen knives, fountain pens, or even a rather heavy book (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is my recommendation) run the risk of how close range you have to be to use such improvised weapons. In a supernatural scenario, it depends on what creature you are dealing with and its folklore. Might need to ask the help of a priest if you got ghosts and demons around, but for the rest, it is a little bit harder to pin down.
But in either situation, there is the one thing that always can help: the cell phone. Calling 911 is always a good idea, especially if you can keep a level head and not just cry into the phone. Though really, in the moment, that might be what you do anyways. However, just like the gun, the cell phone has plenty of flaws. Namely dead batteries and getting smashed by the villain of the night. Dead batteries goes double for the supernatural as some can drain the batteries of electronics and look at your cell phone as a snack. Not to mention a cell phone ringing loudly at a wrong time will give away your location! Even with that, there is one last option: running. Fleeing the residence might be your best bet sometimes, but sometimes you can’t. The ghost decides to follow you to your next house, or the criminal catches you trying to flee. Maybe it is far too dangerous outside due to a snow storm? Lots of reasons not to risk running. Hiding might be wise too, but what if the person or thing finds you? More often than not you will have to defend yourself, but if you feel like it is do or die, leave a note so those you love know what happened and that you died like a hero. I always love that moment in Hush where she writes on her laptop as her last words:
“Died fighting.”
There is always one thing I’ve wanted to see explored though, and I don’t think I will until Halloween 2018 comes out: what happens after? After you’ve dealt with this horror invading your home, what is next? What happens when the ghosts leave and the dust has settled? I may write a story on it myself but I want to let you ponder it, and also the concept of the movie Don’t Breathe: where the perspective flips and it is instead criminals fighting against a serial killer home owner. Unfortunately it is still on my to watch list so it might be awhile before I get a closer look at it myself. In any case, let me know your favorite horror stories that take place at home and I will see you next Horror Tuesday.