Psychological Horror at its finest is horror as an abstract projection of the human psyche.

The best examples are Jacob’s ladder (1990) and the PlayStation 2 video game Silent Hill 2 (2001). While they do use delusion and/or hallucination like devices in their stories, they do more than just use them for shock value or to describe mental illness (usually in a negative light). Bringing up those very serious and alarming symptoms help question reality, but instead of being used to support supposed mental instability, it is used as a springboard to expand on the deep and intense feelings of their protagonists - to describe personal suffering.

When words fail to describe very real pain in life, the expression of our emotions is often better met through connection with art. When horror makes a point of illustrating intensity, it can relate internal conflict like no other. Suddenly the monster isn’t just a monster anymore, it can be say, the embodiment of a character’s resentment towards their father, or perhaps more vague still, repression incarnate. When other pieces of the story become connected commentary, as abstract as it may be, it can create a work of art that leaves an impression, makes you think, ignites conversation and can connect with people on a personal level. Do the two aforementioned titles do all those things? To varying degrees, yes, but is in no way as “good as it gets” as far as psychological horror is concerned.  It has yet to be developed in that aspect. The trick is to weave a coherent story, haunting enough to stand on its own, but have all the elements with which to be transform into something more profound for those who go looking for it.

Psychological Horror can be an important tool in expressing life’s otherwise difficult to describe personal horror, its ongoing torment and ultimately healing.

Psychological Horror can be meaningful.

Psychological horror can be art.

Psychological Horror has its place.

And needs your help

If you can - make it, promote it, read or watch it, write about and discuss it. Help it grow by sharing how it’s different from the other horror sub-genres.

Indulge when it finds you, and you may find yourself in it.

- Josh 

Ray Bradbury was quoted as once having said:

“If you stuff yourself full of poems, essays, plays, stories, novels, films, comic strips, magazines, music, you automatically explode every morning like Old Faithful. I have never had a dry spell in my life, mainly because I feed myself well, to the point of bursting. I wake early and hear my morning voices leaping around in my head like jumping beans. I get out of bed to trap them before they escape.”

I won’t get into what it is you should be feeding your creativity, because that’s a whole other future post and discussion. I’ll say that Bradbury above seems to cover everything, but other famous creative types would encourage a diet for your creativity based on media of substance (see H.R. Giger’s Frequently Asked Questions section on his website and scroll down to the letter addressed “Dear Aspiring Artist” under “When Should fans contact Giger’s agent” for an example). Shelve that for now…

But isn’t the title to this article misleading then?  No. That’s because the answer to the title question is yes. You have been feeding you’re creativity with all the things Ray mentioned above.

The part that’s worth highlighting in the paragraph is about the “waking up early to catch the beans” bit.  Because your Old faithful’s been producing. It just needs to be tapped.  Getting to the point where you feel like you can “Leap” out of bed to catch the jumping beans takes some practice and confidence. Trapping them too takes some skill. All the same, the morning voices are there, if you spend the time to listen to them.

Have you been creative today?
How can you be creative?

- Josh