First, we were curious to know what draws these horror experts to creepiness and the frightening.
"It started for me as a kid! I started reading very young with Goosebumps & Stephen King, and it snowballed from there," shares Christopher Higgins, aka Bearded Film Guy, host of the Beyond the Blood Podcast and horror and Blu-ray collector.
"The draw for me is the ability to face our fears safely. We know it’s not real and can’t hurt us, but we’re so attached to the emotional risk of the story, it still creates a thrill that sits with us long after we’re done absorbing the material."
Kayleigh Dobbs, horror author and owner of the horror book, movie, and game review website Happy Goat Horror, also tells Bored Panda that she became interested in horror during her childhood.
"I don't know for sure what first drew me into horror, but I think it's because scary stories have a tendency to champion the underdog. I've loved horror ever since I was a small kid - I was introverted and bullied quite a lot, and always felt lonely and like an outsider. I remember reading Matilda and really identifying with parts of her character (and I consider that a horror story from Matilda's perspective)," she says.
"There was a show called Are You Afraid of the Dark that I really loved because each episode always featured an ordinary kid a bit older than me, usually someone without many friends, who was overcoming some sort of evil, and I think I found that comforting. As an adult, I love horror for the same reasons, plus I truly believe that of all genres to read and watch, it gives us the most well-written female characters."
Even though we often seek fiction to live out our fears, sometimes reality can be much scarier, and the horror experts completely agree.
"For as scary as fiction can be, it’s never nearly as frightening as reality. There are trends in horror film cycles that coincide with real-world events (example: the rise in “torture p✭rn” after 9/11). People use the horror in fiction oddly as a safe escape from the terrors of the real world," says Higgins.
"That's another reason why I love horror so much. The real world is full of terror, and sometimes being immersed in a world full of zombies or ghosts is preferable. Emerging from Barrow after a 30-day siege from bloodthirsty vampires makes the real world feel not quite as threatening sometimes," Dobbs agrees.
For Higgins to consider something creepy or unsettling, it has to be grounded in reality. "People are always the scariest, no matter the creature you make up. Humans are capable of both beauty and terror, and while we hold as much faith in morality as we can, the people at the helm of the story, their involvement in the terror, is always the most frightening," he told us.
Meanwhile, Dobbs says, "For me personally, something is really scary if on first glance it looks normal, but on closer inspection, something is just a bit...off. Stories of demonic possession, body thievery, and changelings (eeeeee especially changelings!) tend to really frighten me. In general, I think the best, most effective horror gives you a protagonist you feel strongly about. That way, if the scary thing doesn't scare you, you'll at least be afraid for the character."
