The Crypt
For all things gothic, dark and creepy.
Things that go bump in the night.
(OK, this didn't turn out quite the way I expected. Check back later for something hopefully closer to what I intended.)
This page isn't dedicated to the true horrors of our world, but rather the romanticized,
fictionalized, literary and cinematic horrors. Click here for real world horrors.
So, just what are the things that go bump in the night, the stuff of nightmares, the things which aren't real (so we are told) but scare us anyway?
Frankenstein - that founding story of the science fiction genre about a scientist playing God, not just animating dead tissue but resurrecting the dead. But that's not really the scary part, certainly not in today's world, but perhaps it was the capacity for evil in Frankenstein, both the monster and the doctor.
Dracula - vampires in general, aside from the sexual subtext, have been portrayed as brainless creatures of instinct, an animal feeding to survive. Alternatively, they are creatures of power - power over nature and the elements, over their shape, over their victims and the other people around them. In Brahm Stoker's classic work, Dracula was a scheming, planning manipulator. He planned on moving to London, and set up multiple safe havens, and then took Mina for his own. The vampire is one of the three archetypes which define who I am, and represents Justice, or more accurately the execution of Justice.
Wolfman, Mummy, etc - the rest of the assorted monster stereotypes. in the realm of curses, these monsters run wild, uncontrollably pursuing their dark destiny. in a way, they can't control what they do, they act as they must, without thought, without emotion. If anything , they are the scary ones because they cannot be reasoned with. There is no mind, no logic, only instinct and action. These are the ones to fear in the night.
The X-Files - filled with all kinds of things to fill nightmares. Not just the usual aliens and even vampires, but liver and fat eating creatures, killer fungus and thousand year old glowing flies, mutations and abberations.
Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Tales from the Darkside, Monsters - entertaining shows about what happens in the shadows of life, things just around the corner from what we expect, tragic irony, poetic justice, the absurd and surreal brought to light.
These are the stuff of dreams, or nightmares, things which can scare us whent he lights are low, when we are alone, things we can laugh at when the sun comes up and friends come around. But when our defenses are low, when we think we don't need to look back, that's when these monsters and creatures creep in, tugging at us just out of the corner of our eye, whispering in our ear, their breath on our neck, their hand on our shoulder.
There is a pleasant side to all things which scare us, that quiet, smiling seductive side. That which panders to our individual conceits, that which makes us feel good about ourselves. It's the part which we want it to be. And that's the bait. Take it and you are hooked.
Then the facade falls. Gone is allure of the crypt and the mysteries it pretends to hold. Enshrouding fog becomes an enveloping, suffocating mist. Flickering candles casting a romantic spirit become a guiding light, teasingly out of reach. The darkness, which seemed so comfortable, so cool and pleasing, a shield against prying eyes becomes terrifying, chilled, and hiding its own secrets.
And the crypt which is part of my world is such a seductive place as this, and a place which has its own hidden secrets. It's darkness is like satin, intimately close, cool to the touch, enveloping. It's light is only that which is necessary to see, not intruding, not blinding, just a guide. The shadows are holding and hiding places. There are whispers of thoughts and memories. In the quietness and solitude, I can rest.