And a lesson on the horror of the blank page

I love scary stories. I have always loved scary stories, ever since I was four years old, stomping around my family’s A-Frame house in a handmade Ghostbusters flight suit and toy proton pack, muttering that I wasn’t afraid of no ghosts in a small boy’s approximation of a man’s voice.

That was a lie, of course. I was afraid of ghosts – why else would I be so obsessed with a movie about fighting back against said ghosts with science? I spent many a night awake, staring into the darkness of my room, wondering if there was a ghost there.

Most writers and lovers of the macabre are actually frightened of the things we enjoy. What would the point be otherwise? We face our fears to conquer them. We expose ourselves to death so we may find gratitude in being alive.

Death comes for us all. Best to make friends with it now.

Like Stephen King, I was born “With a love of the night”. Like Guillermo del Toro, I find “beauty in monstrosity”. I seek the sublime in the shadow cracks of reality and society.

So on this first day of October, I bring a gift for you, wrapped in human skin and tied with muscle and sinew. 

A Halloween Viewing List

For a long time, I have wanted to create a curated, annual list of horror movies for October, what the kids call “Spooky Season”. 

I always struggled with this goal, because of that bane of writers, the tyranny of the blank page. It was so much – thirty-one movies amidst an endless abyssal sea of choices both sacred and profane. Movies I hadn’t seen, movies I had seen. Classics, indies, wet new blood with their knives sharp. It was too much!

But in the spirit of the season, I have faced my fear. I have done it. Here is my 2024 list of October horror movies, ending with a screening of the 4K UHD of Halloween my brother Sean got me for my birthday this year, sorted by category and with a back-up film in case the primary choice proves too difficult to find.

Take it. Watch it. Swap out different elements if you dislike it. Embrace the night and make it your own.

What’s that, hypothetical reader? You came for a lesson? You want to know how I overcame my terror of the blank page that hung above my head like a guillotine, ready to sever my head from my body?

Three things: 

1. I filled the blank page in with something to get me started.

2. I stole from a writer I admire.

3. I implemented structure with the thing I stole.

Filling in the Blank Page

Any writer worth their salt knows about the tyranny of the blank page. The awful, existential horror that fills us when we open up our word processor and stare at that white, endless expanse of potential.

Trust me, if you don’t know it, you will. Give me Michael Meyers any day of the week. At least he’ll kill me QUICKLY.

The best way to fight back against that dread is to put something down. ANYTHING down. It will be terrible, and that’s okay. It has to exist before it can be good, and no one need see this earliest draft. 

Some writers call this a “vomit draft” where they simply vomit up the words. I like to vomit draft a few early scenes before I dig into my outline. It helps me capture the tone and the idea of what I’m trying to do before I step back to give it structure and meaning.

In this case, I knew I wanted to watch my fancy new UHD of Halloween this year. My brother had given me my first step, and that made it much easier. So I placed it at the end – Halloween night. 

Good Artists Borrow, Great Artists Steal

Or, as Quentin Tarantino allegedly put it:

“I steal from every single movie ever made… Great artists steal, they don’t do homages.”

The tyranny of the blank page’s power comes from the intimidating prospect of filling it all with wholly original words and images. How could one person come up with so much original thought?

Easy: we don’t.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, stands on the shoulders of those who came before them. Even you, hypothetical reader. It simply isn’t possible to be truly and authentically original, even if you tried. We’re all too influenced by that which came before.

You can fight this dark truth, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Down that route lies madness and personal suffering.

Instead? Embrace it. Don your darkest clothing and step out onto night’s Plutonian shore to steal from the greatest artists and writers who have come before you.

Don’t worry – they aren’t home. They’re out stealing as well. 

In my case, I stole the format for my list from Papa Meat, aka Hunter August Hancock: animator, YouTuber, and lover of nightmares. On a recent livestream,  he showed his upcoming October watch list, with different categories of horror movies represented.

I loved this idea. I’ve never been too attached to any one genre of horror movie. I love them all, and always want a tasting course of fear come October.

So I stole it.

Organization Will Set You Free

So spoke my culinary hero, Alton Brown. I need structure and organization if I want to stay stable. I can’t fly off to creative heights, touch nightmares, and grasp the dead hearts of my list if I don’t have a stable ground to stand on.

I didn’t copy Hunter’s rubric exactly. He repeated genres too much for my taste – I love all kinds of horror and wanted a fuller survey. But it was a skeleton I could build my monster off of. I already had a movie to build around too – my aforementioned UHD copy of Halloween. 

It was enough that I could get started. I copied his genres down – the ones I hadn’t thought of or wanted to include and added some of my own flair. Filmmakers I wanted to highlight this year or creative voices I felt could be served and noticed.

I will change it up next year. Highlight different countries, and focus in on other filmmakers. I definitely want to try sections for female-led horror, horror noire, and other underserved communities.

Conclusion

I love October. My powers are always at their greatest during spooky season. I hope you enjoy my curated Halloween list. Don’t feel bad if you can’t watch it all – I likely won’t. I want to catch the Substance in theaters. My wife and I will take in a haunted house or two.

And if you find the endless void of the empty white page threatening to swallow you again, don’t panic.  Take a deep breath. Look for something to start with. Steal it if you have to. Then build a skeleton with that.

You’ll be raising your monster from the grave in no time.