WHAT IS HORROR?

Horror is the real. The realization. It´s the fact you have to face; the killer before you, teeth bared, knife raised. The deas spouse on the floor. It´s the sagging flesh in the mirror and the kid running for the ball, oblivious to the track you see coming. IT´s the bug crawling out of your car. It´s the nazis in power.
What´s the difference between `horror´and `terror´? Horror comes after. Terror is the suspense, the fear. You worry about something awful that could happen. `What´s that sound?´`Where is my baby?´`My boyfriend?´`what is that itch?´`That bump?´These things terrify you. the panic starts, the dread. Terror is what´s lurking behind the door -the promise of the pain. and the horror is your fear realized. Horror is the promise fulfilled.
Horror as art and entertaintment has been with us since the beginning. Since cave paintings of the lions and tigers and bears. What are the last days of Christ but a horror tale? One of carnage, injustice, brutality, and, finally, the afterlife. The Bible, the Koran, the texts of ancient China and Japan -all have elements of the horrific and the spiritual. of man´s most painful endings and worst fears made manifest. They are reminders that the very real, very tangible end is always just around the corner.

"We will give it to you good. We´ll give you your money´s worth". ¨We are going to fuck with you, kid. And if we don´t, then we ripped you off. But if we succeed, then you get brought to a place you´ve never gone to before. We´ll take you further, harder, better than you have ever been, and we´ll spoil you for the next one, who´ll have to do it even harder. Even faster". Step right up. We´re going to take you around the world. As hard and as fast as we can. Just the way you like it. That is why you are reading this, right?


Jonathan Penner/Steven Jay Schneider