October Horror: Musings on Horror Movies

By C. Patrick Neagle

If you have a love for horror movies--for turning off the lights and curling up on the sofa with a bowl of popcorn and a cozy blanket and something frightening on the TV--then you'll want to read "October Horror". The author loves horror movies, too, and spent at least 8,000 words writing about his favorites (and his least favorites). There's humor, and maybe even some insights...maybe.

In six chapters, the author examines the sub-genres of horror that seem to be prevalent now, including Found Footage horror movies, Critter-centric horror movies, and Haunted House horror movies.

He also has a few thoughts (some of them scary) on remakes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Goblinbrook Manor LLC
• Release date: Nov 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301320943

C. Patrick Neagle

C. Patrick Neagle was born in a small town in Northern Missouri. As an undergraduate, he studied Criminal Justice and Photography at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri. Later, he received an MA in English from Missouri State University in Springfield. He has written over 300 essays on a variety of subjects (travel, humor, observations, and all of the above) that are currently being collected in his "Essays in Travel and Humor" series. He also writes a variety of fiction, including contemporary, absurdist, science fiction and fantasy, and horror. He has lived in Mexico, Sardinia, Alaska, and New Orleans. Currently, he calls the Pacific Northwest home when he is not teaching college-level English classes onboard US Navy ships.

Book preview

October Horror:

Musings on Horror Movies

by

C. Patrick Neagle

October Horror: Musings on Horror Movies

by C. Patrick Neagle

Published by Goblinbrook Press at Smashwords

Copyright (c) 2012 C. Patrick Neagle

Cover design (c) 2012 Pinned Eye Media

All Rights Reserved

Find out more about this author at Smashwords.com

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Table of Contents

Chapter One: The Ides of Horror

Chapter Two: Finding Horror

Chapter Three: Attack of the Creepers

Chapter Four: When Animals Attack, Then Eat You, Then Attack Some More

Chapter Five: Houses of Horror

Chapter Six: Rewound

The Appendix (or possibly liver) of Halloween

About the Author

Chapter One: The Ides of Horror

Every once in a while, I find myself teaching a college-level English class, and every semester that contains an October (and a few that don't), I ask my students at some point, What's your favorite horror movie?

The answers vary, and that's what the lesson is about: the assumptions we make when we ask certain questions. In this case the assumptions are: A) you like horror movies, B). you can pick a favorite, and, among others, but perhaps most importantly, C) we all agree on what a 'horror' movie is.

Some people will immediately head for the classics, the Canon of Horror: Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, or even Saw--the movies that everyone who knows anything about horror movies know about.

Other choices are trickier. Is Alien a horror movie, or is it science fiction? Does it matter if the ghost in the haunted house story is a reptilian alien that has multiple, many-toothed maws or that the haunted house itself is a spaceship?

Probably not. After all, the haunted house theme in horror movies isn't about the house; it's about isolation. The family moves into a new (and ridiculously affordable) home only to encounter horrors there while finding themselves separated from the rest of the world by being new