Certainly, many of those in attendance had already read Frankenstein and had come to the Lyceum to be “scared to death” while knowing that vivid nightmares awaited them in their sleep. This raises an important question-why are people so attracted to horror-related literature and films? One would think that the opposite holds true, meaning that such material should repel rather than attract. But this is not the case, due to the fact that horror continues to draw millions of people to the cinema to witness acts of utter perversion, violence, much blood-letting and madness in such recent films as What Lies Beneath (2000), The Sixth Sense (1999) by M. Night Shyamalan, The Descent (2005), directed by Neil Marshall and Marcus Nispel's 2003 remake of Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003).

According to many film scholars and historians, human beings, especially young males under the age of thirty, are attracted to horror for various reasons. The most common reasons are linked to social/cultural manifestations, such as feelings of power over dominant paternal figures which, for the most part, are absent in horror films and the reinforcement of masculine traits via film characters who control and manipulate to a great extent their female counterparts. Also, some viewers are attracted to horror because of the biological/chemical “thrill” that comes with being frightened which at times turns into a kind of addiction.

In this instance, the attraction to horror often evolves into an obsession which forces the affected individual, usually a young male, to return over and over again to the darkness of the theater, much like a person addicted to drugs. Patrick Gill, writing in the Journal of Film and Video, points out that teenagers in “slasher” films like Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) in Halloween, “are plagued by the presumed symptoms that result from broken homes (and) the screams provoked by the stalking monster (i.e. Michael Myers) are cries for help that go unheeded by adults,” a situation which is then transposed by the viewer into his/her own life, thus explaining why most teenagers are drawn to horror films in the first place.

But what is the true, underlying reason why people, regardless of their social/cultural backgrounds, are attracted to horror films and related material? The answer is quite obvious-it is the subconscious, primal desire, the deep-seated “imp of the perverse” to quote Edgar Allan Poe, to peer into the unknown and be terrified by the spectres that lurk in the blackness of the void. For horror screenwriters, it is imperative that audiences, as well as script readers/purchasers, immediately sense that something “unnatural” is running amok within the story which in effect will create a type of “fatal attraction” and force the viewer/reader to continue their excursions into the unknown.

The Psychology of Fear

Have you ever wondered how someone like Edgar Allan Poe wrote as he did long before the genre of horror even existed? By studying and life and times of this great American writer, considered by many to have been the first “terrorist of the imagination,” one can come to understand his extremes as a writer. Better yet, listen to what Poe himself had to say about the psychology of fear, first published in his Marginalia for June of 1849, four months before his tragic death: “The grim legion of sepulchral terrors cannot be regarded as altogether fanciful, but like. . . Demons. . . they must sleep, or they will devour us-they must be suffered to slumber, or we perish.”

Exactly what does Poe mean by this remark? “Sepulchral,” a reference to a mortuary or funeral, overflows with the terrors of the unknown as they relate to death and dying; “Demons” are obviously the foundation of this funerary terror, entities which must “sleep” and “slumber” in the darkness of death or else “devour us” with their terrors. In essence, Poe is metaphorically stating that if these “Demons” are unleashed, man will become submerged in the oldest emotion known to him, namely, a sense of unbounded fear.

In psychological terms, fear can be defined as “an intense emotional state caused by specific external stimuli and associated with avoidance, self-defense and escape” and together with joy and anger, it is one of the primary human emotions. As opposed to anxiety, fear generally refers to feelings created by tangible, realistic dangers which arise out of proportion to the actual threat or danger involved, meaning that fear is quite often unfounded with no basis in reality.

Overall, fear may be provoked by exposure to a traumatic situation or by observing other people exhibiting fear (i.e. an audience reaction to what is on the screen). The physiological changes that occur in the body include an increased heart rate, rapid breathing, tenseness or trembling of the muscles and increased sweating. Additional

characteristics of fear may be subjective or objective. The first includes a build-up of tension, apprehension, terror, panic and decreased self-assurance, while the second includes increased alertness and a concentration on or withdrawal from the source of the fear.

A well-structured horror script must certainly exhibit the ability to create and sustain a great sense of fear, usually through some form of threatening danger which stimulates the growth of tension and suspense in the viewer. For instance, a knife-wielding maniac, such as Michael Myers in John Carpenter's Halloween, serves as the basis for the danger which is increased and sustained as each victim falls prey to his murderous actions. Also, a traumatic situation, ideally one which builds slowly at first and then culminates in some type of violent or unexpected climax, can typically be found in many horror films and other cinematic genres. A prime example lies in the now-infamous “shower scene” in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho in which Norman Bates (Tony Perkins), dressed as his mother, can be seen as a silhouette through an opaque shower curtain as he slowly enters the motel bathroom, where Marion Crain (Janet Leigh) enjoys her bath in complete oblivion to what is happening.

Suddenly, the shower curtain is thrown aside, and Bates begins stabbing Marion repeatedly amid much screaming until she grabs the curtain, rips it away and partially collapses on the bathroom floor as blood swirls down the bathtub drain. Clearly, the fear in this scene is created by extreme trauma which forces the audience to feel apprehensive at first, then overcome with a lack of self-assurance and finally, react in panic as Bates stabs poor and defenseless Marion to death.

Thus, any horror screenplay that lacks the pivotal element of fear will surely fail to excite or terrorize the viewing audience and will most likely “bomb” at the box office. Unfortunately, a good number of current “horror” films do not exhibit the true elements of fear, for they rely instead on much bloodletting, extreme violence and perversity in order to maintain the interest of the audience. It should be remembered that an exceptional horror film, as well as the screenplay itself, must elicit a great sense of fear based on trauma, apprehension and decreased self-assurance and most importantly, the build-up of tension and suspense which in the end will guarantee that Poe's “Demons” have been successfully unleashed.

Non-American Horror Films

With the meteoric rise of Universal Studios in the early 1930's which produced such endearing and influential “horror” films as James Whales' Frankenstein with Boris Karloff and Tod Browning's Dracula with Bela Lugosi, cinematic horror was firmly entrenched as an American product and continued to be so into the late 1940's. But beginning in the mid 1950's, an aspiring British film company known as Hammer Studios produced a slew of Gothic “horror” films based on familiar literary models, such as The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Horror of Dracula (1958) and The Curse of the Werewolf (1961), all of which brought Hammer international fame and recognition as the premier “horror” film factory until its unfortunate demise in the late 1970's. At about the same time, a relatively unknown filmmaker named Mario Bava produced and directed a number of Italian terror films which greatly changed the face of not only horror cinema but also American horror filmmaking, one notable example being Black Sunday (1960), starring the beautiful and truly frightening Barbara Steele.

However, in today's cinematic world as it relates to the genre of horror, the focus is now on foreign/international horror films from such diverse countries as the Netherlands (Spoorlos, 1988, remade as The Vanishing in 1993), Denmark (Nattevagten, 1994, remade as Nightwatch in 1998), Norway (Fritt Vilt, 2006), Spain (Tesis/Thesis, 1996), France (Haute Tension, 2003), Mexico (Cronos/Chronos, 1993, and Espinazo del Diablo/The Devil's Backbone, 2001), Turkey, India, Malaysia, Belgium, Cuba, Greece, the Philippines, Argentina and Russia. Obviously, this brief list of films indicates that the horror movie industry has changed radically over the last fifteen years or so, due in part to the aftershocks of the new global economy which has created what some call a transcultural phenomenon. As Steven Jay Schneider observes, horror film models “from various geographical and cultural locations are more fluid and transnational than ever before,” especially during the 1990's which witnessed “the emergence of truly global film distribution cartels.” Thus, “every nation, region and culture is now influenced by forces outside its geographic boundaries,” a situation which has tremendously affected the context and content of cinematic horror.

In 2002, Kim Newman, writing in Fear Without Frontiers: Horror Cinema Across the Globe, assumed the then-accurate stance that “the dominant strains of any given genre (including horror) are American, with only the martial arts movie providing a non-American alternative.” Today, this statement is patently false, for horror cinema has expanded far beyond the geographic and “cultural” confines of Hollywood with its utterly predictable remakes (mostly of European origin) hampered by “Hollywood script doctors, assigned by the studios to help make the original films more accessible to U.S. audiences.”

Without question, the new source of horror cinema is the Far East with China, Korea and especially Japan as the leading contenders. Bryan Reesman calls this “J-Horror,” the latest trend in fright flicks which has “turned into big business for Hollywood.” Reesman adds that the films linked to Japan, “often shirking the blood and guts approach of slasher flicks and espousing a more psychological bent,” has reinvigorated American horror. Bill Mechanic, the CEO of Pandemonium Films, recently remarked that Japanese horror movies work much better than their American counterparts because “the horror comes out of nowhere,” a device strikingly similar to Alfred Hitchcock's penchant for terror bursting onto the screen when the viewer least expects it.

Some of the more popular and successful Japanese/Asian horror films include Masayuki Ochiai's Infection and Parasite Eve, Norio Tsuruta's Premonition, Takashi Miike's Audition which “finds its terror in the climax of a placid love story gone horribly awry;” A Tale of Two Sisters by Korean director Kim Ji-woon, dealing with “the horrors of broken relationships;” Hideo Nakata's Ringu (“The Ring”) which “blew the doors open on the trend,” and Three, a horror anthology directed by Kim Ji-woon, Nonzee Nimibutr of Thailand and Peter Chan of Hong Kong. In the words of Vini Bancalari, president of Elite Entertainment, these films, in addition to many others, “are shot so beautifully, you forget you're watching horror. . . It's like a horror/art film.”

Most definitely, for any horror screenplay purist/writer, it is mandatory that these Asian horror film classics, along with those produced by Hammer Studios and the Italian school of Mario Bava and Dario Argento, must be viewed at least once, for they will certainly shed new light on how to execute a proper horror screenplay, at least according to the Asian formula which now appears to be right on track. Without a doubt, today's Asian horror screenwriters truly understand how to structure and plot an effective horror script.

Creating Memorable Horror Characters

When Irish-born author Bram Stoker first sat down at his desk sometime in the early 1890's to start the opening chapter of a new literary project, the identity of his main character was most probably only partially formed in his mind, but at some point during the writing of this novel in the mid 1890's, Stoker decided that his antagonist had to be “a dark nobleman” with an unholy appetite for human blood which mysteriously led him (at least according to some scholars) to the legend of Vlad Tepes, the “Son of the Dragon,” a 15th century Transylvanian prince who allegedly dined and drank blood-laced wine amid the blood-curdling screams of his impaled Turkish enemies. Now, whether or not Stoker was truly influenced by the historical Vlad does not matter, for when this novel appeared on the shelves of booksellers in London on May 26, 1897, the reading public was introduced to a new literary character, one so powerful and unforgettable that his name, even after more than a hundred years, is still recognized all over the world and continues to instill terror and fear in the hearts of millions of readers and movie-goers.

This character is Count Dracula, the quintessential vampire, the “Lord of the Undead,” the “Prince of Darkness” and the main antagonist in Dracula (released in the UK as The Undead) who wrecks nocturnal havoc on the world of the living by seeking out innocent victims (voluptuous females, for the most part) for their warm and vibrant blood. The point here is that Stoker, who also served as acting manager and personal secretary for the great British thespian Sir Henry Irving, unwittingly created one of the most memorable literary horror characters of all time that ranks with Victor Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll (and Mr. Hyde) and Mary Shelley's “Creature,” the unnamed monster created from cadavers rifled from some long-forgotten graveyard.

This raises an important question-what exactly is it about Count Dracula that makes him so memorable as a literary/cinematic character? First of all, Bram Stoker did most of his writing during late Victorian times when it was still possible to create an original character simply by conducting research on obscure historical persons and events or by reading ephemeral novels and stories. In today's world, the ability to create an original character is heavily burdened by the absence of source material which has not already been read, studied and researched by scholars and other interested parties. In other words, a character like Count Dracula is memorable because he was drawn from a primitive, deep well of mythological ideas and representations, i.e. Count Dracula is an archetype, a symbol of man's deepest fears, the primitive “id” of his subconscious mind.

So how does the modern horror screenwriter go about creating memorable characters if this “primitive, deep well” has dried up? There are two specific solutions to this problem-first, one can “copy” or “borrow” characteristics and personalities from literary horror archetypes, or second, one can use the oldest writing tool known to mankind, namely, the human imagination.

The first method is undoubtedly the most common, due to the fact that screenwriters of horror, such as Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont (both wrote scripts based on Poe material for director Roger Corman), Jimmy Sangster (Hammer Studios), Milton Subotsky (Amicus/AIP), Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), John Carpenter and many others, have relied greatly on these archetypes with three leading the way-the vampire (Count Dracula), the “changeling” or “shape shifter” (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) and the pseudo-human being (the Frankenstein monster). The number of memorable characters that have been created using one or a combination of these archetypes is vast and stretches back many centuries; in Western literature, Beowulf is a prime example, circa 900 A.D. However, utilizing these archetypes does not guarantee that a character will become “memorable,” for many have simply faded into obscurity.

The second method holds much more promise for the horror screenwriter, especially when under the influence of the power and sustainability of the three major archetypes. It would be best to listen to the words of two giants of Western thought concerning their personal views on the human imagination-the Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung and American author of the macabre Edgar Allan Poe. Jung points out that “Without playing with fantasy, no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of the imagination is incalculable,” meaning that a writer seeking to create a unforgettable character must “play with fantasy” by visualizing in the mind, aided by the power of imagination. Poe's view is more cerebral and penetrating, for he asserts that “It will be found. . . that the ingenious are always fanciful, and the truly imaginative never otherwise than analytic.”

And there's the key word from Poe-analytic. Use the power of the imagination to analyze the key components of a character, such as motivation, desires, actions/ reactions to specific situations, emotional responses and physical appearance. Also, analyze the physical setting in which the character exists, for this can often lead to new insights and ideas. But most importantly, try to analyze yourself and then transpose that self via fantasy into the soul of your character. This is exactly what Bram Stoker did so beautifully with his arch-fiend Count Dracula, the world's most “memorable” bloodsucker.

As might be expected, today's horror films generally lack truly memorable characters, yet some have managed to overcome this by using either one or both of the solutions mentioned above. For instance, Darren Lynn Bousman's Saw II (2005) continues the sadistic and torturous activities of Jigsaw, the main antagonist who delights in placing his victims in horrifying life-or-death games; Alexandre Aja's High Tension (2005) involves schoolmates Marie and Alexia who are taken on a terrifying journey of survival at the hands of a sadistic psychopath; Eli Roth's Hostel (2006) relates the tale of two American college buddies vacationing in Europe, where they encounter an orgy of sex and drugs which evolves into madness and brutality, mixed with copious amounts of blood and gore, and lastly, Jonathan Liebesman's Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006) which details in extreme violence the origins of Leatherface and his family of murderers, first introduced by Tobe Hooper in 1974.

However, the main characters in these films, like Jigsaw and Leatherface, are conglomerates of older horror models and are based on forms of the three major archetypes, yet Leatherface, due to being created some thirty years ago, remains a rather memorable character for those who appreciate the “slasher” sub-genre. Thus, it seems that in order to create a memorable horror character, the screenwriter must know his genre better than his audience and be willing to walk that thin, bloody line between originality and duplication.

Learning From the “Masters of Horror”

Some years ago, director John Carpenter was asked, “What, in your opinion, makes a good horror film work?” His response cuts right to the bone-“What makes a good horror film? It has to have a good story and scare the shit out of you.” For the horror screenwriter, this little slice of advice is the central keystone for almost every good horror tale regardless of when it was written, be it yesterday or two hundred years ago when the Gothic tale was at its height under such titles as The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole and Ann Radcliffe's The Castle of Udolpho.

As an artist and filmmaker, John Carpenter obviously understands the power of great literature and how it can be manipulated to create enduring stories based on archetypes and the human imagination. Also, as one of the premier horror film directors and writers of the last thirty years, Carpenter seems to thrive on the power of fear and the unknown. One might ask the question, “How did John Carpenter get so good at scaring the shit out of people?”

The answer is that he learned from the masters, in this case, those writers which best exemplify the genre of horror and are most remembered for their contributions to horror/fantasy literature. These “Masters of Horror” (or perhaps terrorists of the imagination) include such icons as Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, H. P. Lovecraft, Sheridan Le Fanu (Carmilla), Algernon Blackwood, Robert Bloch (Psycho), Richard Matheson (Legend of Hell House) and Shirley Jackson (The Haunting of Hill House). But Carpenter also learned from many cinematic masters that preceded him, such as F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu), Alfred Hitchcock and Roger Corman. For today's horror screenwriter, several other masters play rather crucial roles, due to their on-going popularity and influence in horror literature and the cinema, a few being Clive Barker, Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper, Stephen King and of course John Carpenter.

In October of 1849, our first “Master of Horror” died under mysterious circumstances which to this day remains unresolved. Edgar Poe has long been considered as the originator of the “terror tale” and is credited with creating the detective story some forty years before Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. As a writer, Poe lived in absolute poverty (he was paid only $14 for “The Raven”), yet he somehow managed to write dozens of short stories, poems, critical notices, book reviews and editorials. His imagination, to say the least, was extraordinary and since he was a voracious reader, his literary output encompasses many genres, such as science-fiction, fantasy, the supernatural, crime, psychological horror and even comedic farce.

Poe is often described as the “Master of the Macabre” and has influenced virtually every horror writer/filmmaker of the last one hundred years. Some of his most memorable short stories include “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Pit and the Pendulum,” three tales that should be required reading for all aspiring horror screenwriters, due to their structuring, plots, characters, imagery and atmosphere. Also, Poe was a master at using literary archetypes for his tales which range from outright parody to utter madness and murder. For the screenwriter, a close reading of any of these stories will reveal the foundations of true terror which can then be used as a blueprint for creating truly “horrible” scripts.

Without a doubt, along with Poe, Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker are two of our greatest masters, for they created unforgettable and truly frightening horror archetypes, namely, the Frankenstein monster/Creature and Count Dracula. By reading Frankenstein and Dracula, today's horror screenwriter will immediately recognize traits and characteristics in these antagonists which have heavily influenced the creation of every major horror character in literature and the cinema since the mid 19th century. Some of these traits include a dark and menacing presence, an air of superiority, a complex yet intriguing personality and mysterious origins or background. But most importantly, these two archetypes possess forbidden knowledge, meaning that they are able to overcome death itself. For example, Count Dracula is “Undead” as a vampire, or better yet, as a living corpse; the Frankenstein monster/Creature is also “Undead” as a living, breathing dead man created by the alchemical arts of Victor Frankenstein. Thus, by emulating (not imitating) these two archetypes, the screenwriter can create effectively “horrible” characters that will “scare the shit” out of the audience.

The works of Lovecraft, Le Fanu, Blackwood, Bloch and Matheson should also be consulted if for no other reason than to understand how a true master “tells the tale.” Bloch and Matheson are widely considered as two of the modern “Masters of Horror,” due to lending their talents to such classics as The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957, based on Matheson's novel), Psycho, The Legend of Hell House (1973, based on Matheson's novel) and The Skull (1965, adapted from Bloch's The Skull of the Marquis De Sade). Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House (1959) stands as the penultimate “haunted house” novel of the last fifty years and is required reading for all those who appreciate fine writing and superb storytelling. This novel served as the basis for The Haunting (1963), directed by Robert Wise and is still regarded by many as the greatest “haunted house” movie ever produced in Hollywood.

Lastly, Stephen King, seen by his millions of fans as the one and only modern-day “Master of Horror,” has been writing horror fiction for more than forty years and his books have sold well into the millions around the world since the publication of Carrie in 1974. Most of his stories overflow with conglomerates of the three major archetypes and owe their success to King's emulation of the “old masters” like Poe, Lovecraft and Stoker. A close reading of King's best novels will reveal intricate plotting, a superb narrative voice and some of the most frightening characters created in the last fifty years. Thus, as one of our great masters, King has done extremely well and continues to influence generations of readers and screenwriters. Not surprisingly, some of the films based on his novels are now deemed as horror classics, such as Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980) and Salem's Lot (1979).

Director and voluminous author Clive Barker, one of our modern “Masters of Horror” and best-known for his Hellraiser films, once remarked, “It would be destructive, in my opinion, to make a (horror) movie or a screenplay that was blood and gore from beginning to end. There are certain movies out there like that (but) they leave me completely unmoved.” One may ask, why do these “certain movies” leave Mr. Barker feeling “unmoved?” Obviously, it is because the people responsible for making these films have not learned from the masters and have copied (imitated) proven formulas simply for box-office success. It all boils down to John Carpenter's motto that an effective horror film must “scare the shit” out of the audience through unadulterated fear and a pervading sense of the unknown while paying tribute to our “Masters of Horror.”

One of the best documentaries on the “Masters of Horror” as they relate to the cinema is Adam Simon's The American Nightmare (2000) which explores American horror cinema from 1968 to 1979, while also including several non-American films. Simon discusses six major films from this time period-Night of the Living Dead (1968), Last House on the Left (1972), Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974 version), Shivers/They Came From Within/The Parasite Murders (1975), Halloween and Dawn of the Dead (1979). Simon also includes some personal profiles of legendary horror genre directors like John Carpenter, David Cronenberg, Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper and George Romero and tosses in for good measure makeup wizard Tom Savini who describes how he came about creating his often extremely gory makeup effects based on his experiences in Vietnam.

A year later

I wrote two scripts that same year, and I'm still going. At first I wrote my script in word format, almost like a play setting, afterwards I let a friend of mines who is an inspiring actor read my script and he loved it. He told his friend who is a UCLA teacher in film and screenwriting about my script and gave it too him to read. The teacher loved the script so much that he donated me a copy of the profession Final Draft 7 software to convert my script in the proper format. I loved this new software so much that my new writing goal is to write five scripts a year, and in twenty years, I will have written a hundred scripts.

Opportunities in Screenwriting

Now your little hobby has become a skill. There are so many great opportunities for Screenwriters in this generation, and the best way to get your talents known is to join an organization like the American Screenwriters Association, OBS (Organization of Black Screenwriters, or a local WGA (Writers Guild) in your area. I joined the OBS and now I am in the process of writing for Tyler Perry's sitcom House of Payne as a freelance writer. For non- guild writers the pay scale can range to 7,500 per script, and in a guild the price is doubled. Not a bad living…in fact all Screenwriters whether those writing sit-coms, movies, or daily dramas are making well over six figures a years.

How to prepare yourself as a Screenwriter

Get a Writing Coach, or find a professional to read, and help you develop your material. Never let a family member or friend critique you. It is ok to let them read and have their opinions, but try to seek a profession and less personal opinion. I would recommend Vera Caccioppoli who works well with writers by helping them mature and develop into professionals. You can check her credentials on the IMDb, or her Hi-way-Haven website. Also if you are looking for a good reading material, I would advice you to read the Screenwriting Goldmine written by Philip Gladwin-a screenwriting guru. The most effective way to be prepared as a writer is to finish! Don't wait around for people to find you, if you have a talent bring it to light! In this day of age there are numerous areas to write in, but you can find success in the screenwriting genre. It's a new Hollywood, no longer do you have to wait to be heard…reach out and touch that untouchable sign, letting the world witness your energy, and erasing the old dogmatic barriers that seemed intangible. If you do that, you will truly change your hobby into a rewarding career in writing.