Return of the Space Horrors

In space no can hear your spleen!

Watching Stargate Universe's opening two episodes I was struck by the thought once again how frightening space is. It's as dangerous as working underwater and because of the much greater distances involved help is that much further away if not entirely out of the question. This is just as a matter of the man versus nature plot, though it must be further extended to include machines as a part of nature, making it man versus his environment. The nature of your location is consistently deadly, but only failure of your safety devices, your ship included, can end your life in most situations. It can be debated back and forth whether the meteor punching a hole through your ship or the ship's then unsustainability is the cause of your death. There is also the matter of which is more likely to be dealt with, preventing the meteor strike or repairing the damage.

Back when Star Trek: Enterprise premiered the first season seemed to be very horror oriented with a lot of panicked what is that quickly followed by how many are dead now and look what it did to him/her. Space was a very scary place because of the aliens, so many of which were menacing, and well, alien--admittedly they could always go more alien and you would in your own setting. This is what it is all about after all. Back in the Anatomy of a Horror Setting when I covered science fiction horror pairings, options for your setting considerations, I covered how the horror of aliens works and relies on fear of the unknown. Nothing is more unknown that creatures that have never previously even come into contact with anything you know. Different biology, different outlook, different beliefs and the only similarity an expectation that the universe is dangerous.

Of course you don't have to go out into space to end up on the receiving end of its horror. Lots of times the aliens come to Earth and wreak havoc. This is one of the least well done kinds of horror for some reason. Too often they end up leaning too heavy toward the science fiction or worse they fall back on a deus ex machina to extricate the protagonists, and the entire planet, from the alien threat, which is entirely non-conducive to horror. These are not bad movies or novels, in some cases far from it, but they do not fit the horror mould. Consider how much more horror there is a hopeless situation, or better yet one with only a small glimmer of hope in the form of great determination and likely sacrifice, weighing your own morals versus the freedom or even survival of your species. That's not just great horror, that's exciting storytelling.

Mood: spacey.
Music: Isle Of Avalon by Iron Maiden and Headswitch by Bruce Dickinson.

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Anatomy of a Horror Setting #4-5: Brave New Horrors

There is another popular time setting for fantasy stories. It borders somewhat on the modern, but only as a matter context--it’s a matter of scale. It is also a time setting that is conducive to horror. This makes it only fitting that it is a good time period within which to set up horror fantasy works. It is the Victorian horror fantasy period. The Victorian Age is the same as the Industrial Age within enough leeway for the purposes of creating a setting. Any discrepancy is lost due to the fictional aspects dealing with technology in the setting. Even the fantasy elements will pull the setting away from true. There is still some need to watch for anachronisms though. Any anachronisms should be on purpose and fill a horror need, or be part of one of the fantasy tropes.

The Victorian era has an automatic built-in horror meme. It was a time rife with the exploration of not only the physical world, and the mechanical world, but also the spiritual world. It was a high time for mediumship. Séances came into fashion in a big way--it actually peaks late in the period so real, historical time, gets manipulated as part of the fantasy requirement. This same era also believes extensively in the fae, faeries, and the Seelie Court--as far as existing settings in this time period are concerned. Again, this is another built-in source of possible horror. Monsters and unholy creatures are never out of style in any horror setting and will tend toward the fantasy aesthetic more than a modern approach. Magic also tends the same way as the monstrous and infernal.

The Industrial Revolution brought about several kinds of horror from the mundane, to the science-fictional. This makes for an exceptional number of elements and variants that enhance the setting options available even as it further blurs the genre lines. The time period was one of exploration in many senses. The usual focus of these settings is the British Empire, whether the location is in Britain, or abroad in such places as North America, Africa, India, Australia or elsewhere. The British explored all over the place--as did the French and Spanish--and claimed whatever places they could. On the home front the exploration was in science and mechanics. Machines hardly imagined before became reality and made massive changes to the world.

Music: All the Money in the World by Black Lab and Inside The Machine by Bruce Dickinson.

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Anatomy of a Horror Setting #4-4: After All, A Small World

Perspective bears a relationship with scale in regards to the setting when considering the story’s location as the specific setting compared to the overall setting. To clarify, the places in which the story takes place are an important factor in horror beyond the world-building concerns of the setting. The creation of a fantasy horror story or setting can hinge on the change from the overview perspective to the immediate perspective of the characters involved. The key word to consider is immediate, immediacy. Horror can only benefit from a sense of immediacy, of urgency. Certainly it begins with and even capitalises on foreboding and a sense of impending doom, but without a follow through it plays itself out. This is where the line between setting and location comes in.

The following is an example of using the location to determine localised setting conditions. A village’s viceroy sends word to the capital that a monster is killing his people. The King dispatches some knights to deal with the menace, but it is winter and a snowstorm blocks the only pass that leads to the village/province. The local setting goes far enough to set up part of the plot in this example. The location portion of the setting involves details such as terrain, weather, and the types--or lack of--of characters available. The setting’s influence on characters, and those limitations are the bread and butter of the horror. Those pesky knights will be limited to the local garrison, which could be as few as three knights, locally trained, and of little experience. They are also likely to be the first to fall.

The example also demonstrates one factor that is new to the discussion--but not limited to the fantasy setting per se. It is the factor of time that is determined by the setting. The menace carries on from the first attack through the long couriering of the message to the capital, on through the extensive wait for the King’s knights. Isolation is a strong factor in a horror fantasy setting. To keep this so take instant magical communication off of the table. On the flip side consider prophetic dreams and the factors discussed for clairvoyance in the psychic horror setting. They need not be psychic powers, but can be the visions of priests and oracles, or the fodder of prophecies. The information gleaned from these visions can have timing that is faster or slower than the regular channels as needed.

Music: Mountain Song by Jane's Addiction and Limelight by Rush.

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