"Horror is not a genre, like the mystery or science fiction or the western. It is not a kind of fiction, meant to be confined to the ghetto of a special shelf in libraries or bookstores. Horror is an emotion."

--Douglas Winter



If you're a creator of horror, science fiction, or fantasy entertainment you've no doubt encountered artistic discrimination at some point in your life, and if you're a fan of those genres you've no doubt been the target of dismissive attitudes. You know, that snobbish attitude people show toward "This Thing of Ours," be it horror literature, cinema, TV or music. Most of us learn at a very young age that there are plenty of people out there who not only dislike horror, but have no interest in learning if there's more to the genre than meets their eyes.

When I was in elementary school, I didn't get along with my first grade teacher. In an effort to cross the chasm between us, I drew a picture of my favorite monsters for her: all those creatures from the Aurora glow-in-the dark monster model kits. I felt I had used my artistic ability as a force for good; I wanted to be a uniter, not a divider. But Miss Waite returned my gift covered in red ink: "Next time draw a party picture." Now I don't pretend to have been the smartest child in the world, but even at that tender age I grasped that the establishment had no use for my obsession in life; that some teachers, who should be ecouraging their students' imaginations, are instead doing everything they can to stifle them; and that I had to become good and stubborn if I wanted my personality to survive in such a system. Nearly four decades later, here we are.

Back in the 1970s, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert launched their first movie review show, SNEAK PREVIEWS, on PBS (Remember Spot, the Wonder Dog?). For a kid living in a town with only one movie theatre, at a time when families were waiting for HBO to reach their neighboroods, this show was a great window into a much wider world, where movies were analyzed and appreciated for artistic and intellectual merits. I loved Siskel & Ebert, but we had a falling out: in 1980, after the success of HALLOWEEN, FRIDAY THE 13TH ushered in the era of slasher cinema. Harlan Ellison--no slouch in the criticism department--dismissed slasher films as "knife kill" movies with no artistic merit. Phil Donahue and his audience of housewives attacked horror films at least once a year, and they took far greater pleasure in attacking slasher films specifically, because a legitimate argument could be made that some of these films were genuinely anti-female, or as Siskel once said, "a violent reaction to the feminist movement." But Siskel & Ebert took it a step farther: they declared war on horror films, and initiated a write-in campaign agaisnt Betsy Palmer, the poor actress who took the role of Jason Vorhees's murderous mama in an obscure little film hoping to make a few bucks. Then FANGORIA declared wr on Siskel & Ebert. And in the middle of this, the MPAA declared war on gore effects. What a time it was!

A few years ago, after moving back to Buffalo from New York City, I attended a local convention in Niagara Falls called Eeriecon (named after Erie County in Western New York). Spooky name, isn't it? Eeriecon bills itself as an annual convention for "science fiction, fantasy and horror." Oh, boy! I got a vendor's table and everything. Here's how the day went: entire families came up to my table with plastic smiles right out of THE STEPFORD WIVES. The father would say, "Hi, I'm Bob, this is my wife Barbera, and this little fella is Bobby, Junior. Welcome to Eeriecon. We HATE horror!" I fled after about two hours (to be fair, I've also hung out with horror writer friends who were just as dismissive of Sci-Fi fans; fandom is clique-ish by nature).

The story goes that the horror literature boom of the 1980s imploded because publishers and authors who despised horror started churning it out en masse to capitlize on the success of Stephen King and Peter Straub. The market became glutted with inferior crap, just as the straight-to-video indie horror film became glutted around the same time, and horror lit languished for years, with shelf space and advertising budgets reserved for those rarefied names: King, Koontz, Barker and Rice. That's where the small press came in, rescuing authors who couldn't get their horror material published elsewhere, and charging readers an arm and a leg for pricey Limited Editions (greed always seems to be the primary factor when horror trends spiral downward). Mainstream horror lit has been clawing its way back, though far slower than horror films have. In fact, the recent horror film boom seems to have had no impact on horror publishing; these can be very different audiences.

Another story goes that the slasher films and cheesy "latex films" of the 1980s are to be blamed for readers' perception of what horror is today. I think this line of thinking is bullshit; people know the difference between a movie like TERROR TRAIN and a Sarah Langan novel. Horror films are huge business again (although surely it's time for the current cycle to peter out). Blockbuster's shelves are loaded with straight-to-DVD horror flicks no one's ever heard of, usually with really cool box art that has nothing to do with the really bad movie inside. Horror lit seems to be doing quite well, even though many of the large publishers still treat their titles like redheaded stepchildren. And new small presses continue to pop up. So the material is out there. The readers and viewers are out there. The challenge is to make the audience aware of the product that's worth seeking out, and that's Fear Zone's primary goal.

Of course, different people have very different tastes. Mario Dominick covers very obscure indie horror films aimed at a niche audience. Cinema Knife Fight covers movies showing at your local multi-ples. Norman Rubenstein writes about small press publishers like Delirium and Earthling. J.G. Faherty is launching a new column devoted to Leisure paperbacks. The list goes on and on. I'm proud of our diversity.

But that snobbish mainstream dismissal of horror entertainment persists, and that's where we all come in. As the owner of a movie theatre I once managed said, "You have to educate the customer." Some of the people who look down their noses at horror would be surprised--and would probably laugh out loud--to learn that snobbery exists within the horror community, too. There are plenty of people out there who consider themselves arbiters of what is "good horror" and "bad horror"--I call these folks members of the ascots-and-cigarettes crowdonly their opinion matters. It's the same dichotomy that has always existed between artists and art critics.

I actually think it's a good thing that there are people in our community who believe that they have higher standards than the rest of us; again, it points to the diversity that exists within this expansive genre. In the end, I guess it's every horror fan for himself. We all like horror for different reasons: for its metaphoric nature; its subversive attitude; or simply for a good scare. There's a rebellious nature to horror that Bob, Babs and little Bobby, Junior aren't supposed to like. Although I have hope for Junior--he kept sneaking back to my table to watch SLIME CITY.

So try to turn your snobby friends on to a good horror novel, movie or DVD that might not have heard of but you think they'll appreciate. Show them that no matter what your flavor is, there's plenty to choose from. Maybe you'll convert them. If not, don't worry about it.

But never let the bastards get you down!