Anatomy of a Horror Setting #2-1: A New and Magical Setting

Don't let the title fool you. If the idea of a magical setting, or more precisely a setting including magic doesn't sound very horrific, then just follow the next batch of articles and see how terrifying it can be. The darkest abilities and misuses of psychic powers are in some fashions just the tip of the heinous and gruesome iceberg compared to the depravity and stark evil of horror-based magic. The magic horror setting is also a much different animal than the psychic horror setting. The rules are very different and need to be worked up right from scratch. It may be a personal bias, but the first difference is that the setting should not include innate magic abilities. They're great in the realm of fantasy, however they represent a level of power not really conducive to the mood of terror.

Level of power, especially in certain veins, can also be damaging to the horrific tenor desired in a good dark setting. The more widespread and far-reaching magics have to be handled differently to avoid turning it into something too fantastical--in this sense kind of light--or too comic-book-like. It can be a fine line to tread. All of the right elements can be there for the horror, but on which side of the line the final product will fall is all about the execution. Sometimes it comes down to putting the right kind of flourishes on things, other times it requires a heavy limiting hand. As before it requires asking a lot of questions and picking the best answers to maintain the exact mood that the setting will require to convey what the story, book, game, or movie needs to have.

Some of the questions maybe can't even be articulated as questions, they exist simply as choices. Leading the pack is which schools or archetypal forms of magic will be a part of the setting. The smaller the scale of the setting in terms of what medium it is being created for the less kinds of magic will be required. It might be untrue though that the larger the scope the more will be necessary. A setting might only need one or two styles. There is something of a tangled snarl here. Inextricably bound up in the 'schools' of magic are the process types. These types are all about the requirements and procedures of creating magical effects. It is hard to decipher where one ends and the next begins. Form follows function in some examples and in others the function stands on its own.

Mood: leering.
Music: March of the Black by Queen and Dance of Death by Iron Maiden.

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Send in the Horror

...err... I mean clowns. Really, in the minds of many what is the difference between clowns and horror? Nothing. I am not one of the one's who sees the fear that clowns engender, but neither will I be one to dismiss is either. When all you need is some white paint, to spread lipstick too far, and people will wilt and/or wet themselves, who am I to not do it to them?

The name clown doesn't seem to hold much power. People need to see them to fear them. It is an interesting phenomenon. Luckily with some description they can be used in writing to frighten the reading audience. Perhaps the best use for a clown is when its presence is incongruous to the situation. Imagine this if you will. You sit at a stoplight with several other cars. Your vehicle sits right at the mouth of an alleyway. There is a scream and a figure comes running out of the alley.

If the figure is a man in jeans and a t-shirt even if he's covered in blood and wielding a knife then you feel as if you have just been witness to a horrible crime, a tragic event. Now imagine the same scene, except the figure coming out of the alley is wearing large red shoes and a yellow and white striped outfit, and has a white grease painted face with a huge red painted smile and wild crazy hair. Suddenly you have been witness not only to a crime, but also to a great horror that will haunt you for weeks to come, if you ever get over it. That is the power, the terror, of clowns.

One thing that can actually lessen the fear impact of a clown is to make it some kind of supernatural creature. Devil clowns are just never as scary as the real thing. For one thing they can never fit as many of themselves into a compact car as clowns can. Cannibalistic aliens that look like clowns can fit in the tiny car, but something makes them less scary than the human variety. It's a mystery, but it's as plain as the rubber nose on my face.

Mood: festive
Music: Rock 'N' Roll Junkie by Motely Crue and Hangar 18 by Megadeth.

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Monsters!

What is horror without its monsters? Nothing! Nothing I tell you! They are the things that go bump in the night (poltergeists aside). They are the manifestation of the unknown. Teeth, claws, strange abilities, oftentimes stranger origins. While there is much focus on the one's that are animalistic and simple predators looking to feast on parts of us, those are just the tip of the horrific iceberg.

There comes a point where one has differentiate between what is a monster and what is a demon, for instance. Some might argue that if it goes beyond that primal predator that perhaps it isn't a monster but some kind of higher being, whether it is an inter-dimensional traveller, an alien, or a demon. Each of those is kind of their own thing. All of them can be simply called monsters anyway, except where certain overtones of the demonic would be concerned.

So what of the monsters that lurk in the shadows and do their evil things from there? This brings up it's own point, that pretty much a monster must be evil to be a monster. Certainly the Fantasy genre has "races" that are considered monsters because of their appearance. While this idea of a species of something being a monster does carry over to horror on the other hand as Disney and its ilk would have us believe what makes a monster is its intent. I have to concur.

I am all for the eating, and the cat and mouse games of the hungry monsters, but I definitely prefer the thinking man's monster. They can have plans, and there can be manipulation and seduction—in this case of a power or results kind, though certainly Incubi and Succubi represent the sexual kind aptly—and there can be head games. The possibilities are legion and their terror bone chilling. So bump on, monsters!

Mood: smooth.
Music: Rock & Roll Saviours by Twisted Sister and Plastic Money by Twisted Sister.

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