horror story | Lorelei By Starlight

One of my favorite new horror writers is Ania Ahlborn. One of her latest books is The Shuddering, in which a skiing trip goes badly awry for five friends. This book has all of the best horror elements – a cabin in the middle of nowhere, young people with relationship complications, and a forest full of monsters. Ryan Adler and his twin sister Jane take a last trip to the cabin that has been put up for sale following the break up of their parents marriage. The inclusion of Jane’s ex complicates matters, especially since he brings his new girlfriend. This situation works as a distractor from the fact that there is something weird living in the trees. Dark, humanoid, vicious monsters that are smart enough to figure out how to get into houses and seem to be interested in killing and eating all the humans around. Soon, Ryan and his friends are trapped in the cabin, surrounded by these horrifying creatures.

Ahlborn does a great job of pacing in this book – it reads very much like a horror movie, which makes this a hard book to put down. Her characters have a bit more depth than what we see on the big screen, which makes the backstory engaging. And, her monsters are different and very scary. I tend to want to describe them as demon-like, but in reality there is more a feeling of a dark fey element. They are like something ageless and amoral, just woken from a long sleep, and very, very hungry. Best of all, she leaves just enough questions unanswered to haunt you long after the book is done.

I first came across Ahlborn’s work when I found her book Seed at the library. This book has a similar dark, haunting, and almost mythical creature at it’s center, but this monster is particularly targeting Jack Winter. Jack was haunted – and hunted – by this creature as a boy, and after fleeing his home town years ago and thinking that he escaped it, his memories faded and he managed to convince himself that the creature wasn’t real. Now, he is returning to his hometown and something begins to menace his family. I think what impressed me most about this book was the sense of foreign evil – something never heard of before that was so focused and intent on one person, seemingly just picking them at random and then relentlessly pursuing them. The southern setting of this story enhances the atmosphere, and Ahlborn does a great job of pulling in the feeling of a small town. I enjoyed this book enough to make me keep a lookout for more of Ahlborn’s work, and I haven’t been disappointed yet.

There are two more books by Ahlborn that are currently available: The Neighbors and The Bird Eater (her latest). I enjoyed The Neighbors, but it was definitely more of a psychological thriller. I am currently reading The Bird Eater, and am enjoying it. It contains the small, southern town elements that I felt worked well in Seed, and has an interesting take on a family focused haunting. Ahlborn definitely delivers in her work and I continue to look forward to what she will do next!

Photo from filmofilia.com

Over the past few years I have gained a new appreciation for a paranormal horror story done well. For several years now, movies have tended to stray into what I call the “torture” zone, which is just not what I’m into right now. The Conjuring manages to blend two of my favorite more old-fashioned genres — a ghost story and an exorcism — in a way that doesn’t compromise the scares. All the basic components are there:

creepy old house — check
weird haunted toys — check
defenseless cute little girls — check
haunted history of murder and mayhem — check
plenty of “make you jump” moments — check

Creepy, haunted toys = good paranormal horror! (Photo by timeinc.net)

Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga play Ed and Lorraine Warren, two early paranormal investigators are called into help Carolyn and Roger Perron (played by Lily Taylor and Ron Livingston) when the farmhouse that they recently bought at auction turns out to have some severe paranormal issues. (Why does no one ever check the floor plans and history of these places when they purchase them?) The theme here is pretty standard – think Amityville Horror with some Poltergeist and The Exorcist thrown in. However, there are enough new turns and twists, along with some truly creepy and scary moments, that the movie ends up working just fine.

So, what made the movie scary for me? I think a lot of it had to do with the setting. The movie is set in the early 1970’s, which provides an interesting contrast relative to my life experience, and probably that of many others. This is the period was when I was a child, and there are a plethora of familiar images running through the movie, from the wood paneled station wagon, to the horribly loud patterned and mismatched clothing, to what I think were FireKing coffee mugs. All of these things created little nudges to my memory and represented a sort of nostalgic innocence, so having this setting disrupted by a haunting and demonic possession is especially jarring. I think that all of these little touches really nail down the setting and definitely pay off in the end. It brings back all of those old fears from your childhood: the dark basement, thinking that something is hiding in the corner of your room, and the freaky haunted closet.

The other thing that worked for me — and which always works for me — was the idea of something (not someone) grabbing your foot in the night while you are asleep. This was actually taken to new heights for me in the Paranormal Activity movies, but it always scares me. The Conjuring also uses an old game — the clapping game — effectively. This combined with the foot grabbing made me think back to the first time I read Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. That scene where our heroine tells her friend to quit holding her hand so hard, and her friend says that she isn’t holding her hand — it’s a total creep out.

So, be prepared for bumps and bangs, physical assaults, pop-up scariness, an interesting twist on the old ghost under a sheet, and unplanned exorcismic activity. The Conjuring definitely delivers.