American vs. British Horror

In the spirit of sweeping and unsubstantiable generalisations :

US horror emphasises sensation: appearance, imagery, objects, props, places
British horror emphasises relationships: trust, responsibility, affection, intimacy
Australian horror emphasises fate: luck, mischance, irony and fatalism

I wish I could comment on other horror but alas I'm not well enough read in it.

(with apologies to my british friends... none of whom read here...)

British horror has bad teeth.


Seriously, though, I think British horror tends to be a lot more atmospheric, at least what I've read. it depends more on setting the scene than having something jump out at you, and what does come after you usually crawls and creeps...

Ruv Draba said:

In the spirit of sweeping and unsubstantiable generalisations :

US horror emphasises sensation: appearance, imagery, objects, props, places
British horror emphasises relationships: trust, responsibility, affection, intimacy
Australian horror emphasises fate: luck, mischance, irony and fatalism

I wish I could comment on other horror but alas I'm not well enough read in it.

Click to expand...

Very interesting response. I'll have to read more Australian horror as I find the concepts emphasized interesting...

Classic Brit horror seems more atmospheric and builds slower, modern American horror does more splatter where you can see it and get hit by it.

Being influenced by the Brits had certain US authors dealing more with mood: for ex.HP Lovecraft, August Derleth, EA Poe.

slcboston said:

(with apologies to my british friends... none of whom read here...)

British horror has bad teeth.

Click to expand...

Yup, all those people with rotten teeth walking around fog filled cobbled streets - dodging the odd red bus & getting on the underground with all those men in bowler hats. All our routes home are guided by flickering lamps and the sound of bin Ben.

slcboston said:

Seriously, though, I think British horror tends to be a lot more atmospheric, at least what I've read. it depends more on setting the scene than having something jump out at you, and what does come after you usually crawls and creeps...

Click to expand...

Depends on who you've read. Ramsey Campbell's stuff is like this (Although his latest, Grin of the Dark, is virtually unreadable), but Shaun Hutson and James Herbert concentrate on the gore. Guy N Smith is just rubbish and people like Simon Clarke ceased to be interesting years ago. I stopped looking at the horror section years ago, and only occasionally dip in, but there appear to be very few British authors in amongst the endless rows of King, Koontz and Laymon and now rows of dreadful looking childish vampire/werewolf stuff. Oh, Graham Joyce published some excellent novels that were full of atmosphere. I have not seen Campbell's books in any of my local bookstores for years.

The small presses used to be filled with odd, eerie stuff, but that's all gone now - most of the magazines appear to have vanished.

Haggis said:

I'd have to agree with this observation. Much of what I've read focuses on the sea, or on old towns near the sea (which, of course should be no big surprise). Fruiting Bodies, a short by Brian Lumley is a good example of this.

Click to expand...

That's because anyone who's visited any British sea-side resorts knows the sheer horror of the places! Blackpool, for one...

I live as far away from the sea that you can get in the UK, and rarely see it.

Some Cornish towns look quite quaint - whitewashed cottages, but they're usually quite poor with no jobs out of season and dwindling industries and subsequent social problems. Some of the more recent Victorian resort have declined and are filled with boarded up buildings & derelict hotels (Morcambe, for one.) while others are thriving (Brighton). Then there's Blackpool - mile upon mile of 20th century ugliness.

And there's all those derelict piers.

Some inland towns are even worse - especially the "new towns" built in the post-war years. Grim slabs of concrete where people live, and equally grim slabs of concrete where they shop - all the style of the period long since gone. Shuttered up shops, no leisure facilities, dwindling jobs... all built around the car and as a consequence deserted and dead. One town even tried the ultimate "separation" of car and pedestrian and features a horrendous grid of freeways with a network of pathways weaving underneath them - all the houses are hidden behind Earth banking and each square looks the same. The centre of the town is one huge shopping mall and everyone walks in the same direction - from the car parks to the mall and back again.

The Landscape has changed a lot in recent years in many towns - a lot of old factories and mills swept aside and replaced by characterless retail parks and shopping malls - acres of car parks, dual carriageways, bland box buildings where the only access is by car, and there's no place for the local businesses. Traditional high steets - usually with centuries of tradition - have been destroyed.

Haggis said:

Any Aussie horror recommendations, Ruv?

Click to expand...

To be honest, I don't keep up on it much - a lot seems to be local short stories and flash. The Australian Horror Writer's Association would be a good jumping-off point for authors and magazines.

Probably the most famous horror story to have come out of Australia in recent years is Wolf Creek, which has a critical reputation for being remorseless if somewhat exploitative. It has (I'm told) the usual Australian fatalism in its plot. We seem to put irony and fatalism into everything.

Back in the more halcyon days of Lovecraftian roleplay, Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu saw a lot of Australian-authored Lovecraftian content, with names like Penny Love, Mark Morrison and many others.

Flapdoodle said:

The small presses used to be filled with odd, eerie stuff, but that's all gone now - most of the magazines appear to have vanished.

Click to expand...

The independent press fraternity is still going strong in the UK. We have (in no particular order) PS Publishing, Pendragon Press, Humdrumming, Screaming Dreams, and Elastic Press, as well as plenty of magazines (although most are online due to the prohibitive costs of actually printing one) such as Pantechnicon, Hub, Estronomicon, Murky Depths, PostScripts and the like.

The small presses are still out there. We just can't afford advertising

Troo said:

The independent press fraternity is still going strong in the UK. We have (in no particular order) PS Publishing, Pendragon Press, Humdrumming, Screaming Dreams, and Elastic Press, as well as plenty of magazines (although most are online due to the prohibitive costs of actually printing one) such as Pantechnicon, Hub, Estronomicon, Murky Depths, PostScripts and the like.

The small presses are still out there. We just can't afford advertising

Click to expand...

I think you just did.

SpookyWriter said:

I think you just did.

Click to expand...

Although admittedly I don't actually work for most of them

Troo said:

Although admittedly I don't actually work for most of them

Click to expand...

Good thing because I was suspecting the slush pile wasn't being handled by more than one person a month as it is...

Flapdoodle said:

That's because anyone who's visited any British sea-side resorts knows the sheer horror of the places! Blackpool, for one...

I live as far away from the sea that you can get in the UK, and rarely see it.

Some Cornish towns look quite quaint - whitewashed cottages, but they're usually quite poor with no jobs out of season and dwindling industries and subsequent social problems. Some of the more recent Victorian resort have declined and are filled with boarded up buildings & derelict hotels (Morcambe, for one.) while others are thriving (Brighton). Then there's Blackpool - mile upon mile of 20th century ugliness.

And there's all those derelict piers.

Some inland towns are even worse - especially the "new towns" built in the post-war years. Grim slabs of concrete where people live, and equally grim slabs of concrete where they shop - all the style of the period long since gone. Shuttered up shops, no leisure facilities, dwindling jobs... all built around the car and as a consequence deserted and dead. One town even tried the ultimate "separation" of car and pedestrian and features a horrendous grid of freeways with a network of pathways weaving underneath them - all the houses are hidden behind Earth banking and each square looks the same. The centre of the town is one huge shopping mall and everyone walks in the same direction - from the car parks to the mall and back again.

The Landscape has changed a lot in recent years in many towns - a lot of old factories and mills swept aside and replaced by characterless retail parks and shopping malls - acres of car parks, dual carriageways, bland box buildings where the only access is by car, and there's no place for the local businesses. Traditional high steets - usually with centuries of tradition - have been destroyed.

Click to expand...

Hey - that sounds like South Carolina! Seriously, though, it does.

SpookyWriter said:

Good thing because I was suspecting the slush pile wasn't being handled by more than one person a month as it is...

Click to expand...

Can't afford staff, either

Troo said:

Can't afford staff, either

Click to expand...

Good thing you found AW 'cause we's cheap labor in the SYW forums.

Troo said:

as well as plenty of magazines (although most are online due to the prohibitive costs of actually printing one) such as Pantechnicon, Hub, Estronomicon, Murky Depths, PostScripts and the like.

The small presses are still out there. We just can't afford advertising

Click to expand...

It's a catch 22 situation for the small press.

And by the way, Murky Depths is a print mag, not online - although, of course, they have a presence.

Lucifal said:

It's a catch 22 situation for the small press.

And by the way, Murky Depths is a print mag, not online - although, of course, they have a presence.

Click to expand...

Aye. That's why I said most are online. Terry's mag is an exception, and he's got a great team behind him helping get it out on time

As for cheap labour... MWUUHAHAHAHA! *cough* I mean... er....

The only two Aussie authors I can think of at the top of my head are Robert Hood www.roberthood.net/ and Terry Dowling www.terrydowling.com/

Terry is one of Australia's most awarded and internationally acclaimed writers of science fiction, fantasy and horror. They might be a good place to start.

Great thread. I've often thought about the difference myself.

I'm a big Neil Gaiman fan and found it very interesting that although "Anansi Boys" and "American Gods" took place in the US, the books still felt very British to me (and I mean this in a good way!) As if Gaiman wasn't entirely comfortable with American pop culture. On the other hand, Anne Rice's earlier vampire books seem vaguely European in style.

I think that it might come down to cultural attitudes. What we value, how we spend our free time, our worldview, etc.

Personally, I've always thought that the British as a whole are a little more reserved and grown up than we Yanks. But then again, I've never lived there...

Troo said:

The independent press fraternity is still going strong in the UK. We have (in no particular order) PS Publishing, Pendragon Press, Humdrumming, Screaming Dreams, and Elastic Press, as well as plenty of magazines (although most are online due to the prohibitive costs of actually printing one) such as Pantechnicon, Hub, Estronomicon, Murky Depths, PostScripts and the like.

The small presses are still out there. We just can't afford advertising

Click to expand...

I've got a few copies of Murky Depths, it's pretty good. I must check out the rest.

Doodlebug said:

Great thread. I've often thought about the difference myself.

I'm a big Neil Gaiman fan and found it very interesting that although "Anansi Boys" and "American Gods" took place in the US, the books still felt very British to me (and I mean this in a good way!) As if Gaiman wasn't entirely comfortable with American pop culture. On the other hand, Anne Rice's earlier vampire books seem vaguely European in style.

I think that it might come down to cultural attitudes. What we value, how we spend our free time, our worldview, etc.

Personally, I've always thought that the British as a whole are a little more reserved and grown up than we Yanks. But then again, I've never lived there...

Click to expand...

I think if you spent an hour in any British city/town centre on a Friday Night you'd realise how wrong you are!

Oh yes. It's like the young'uns these days revel in shouting obscenities and vomiting everywhere just to prove they're not reserved. It's charming, I tell you.