I think that allot of
the best horror writing tends to make good use of the “unwatched
world” idea. Certainly, the type of writing that I enjoy reading
does, and it branches out into other media like films and video
games, anything that is story driven. The unwatched world is
basically the stuff that happens when nobody is looking or even
present. It’s the writing equivalent of spinning around and around,
trying to see the back of your own head. The tricky part is that when
someone holds up a mirror so that you can see, it’s no longer
unseen or a mystery. Its a delicate balance to maintain.
It’s probably best
illustrated by an example. When I was a lot younger, I had a friend
who's mother had told him that when he closed his eyes at night, his
stuffed toys/teddy bears came alive and moved around the room,
protecting him from anything scary or creepy. As a side note, with
a bit of reversal, making the cuddly toys evil and giving them sharp
teeth and claws, could make quite a nice horror story. At the
time, I remember wondering if my own menagerie of teddies came alive
too. Then I got to thinking, how would you tell? Even if you set up a
camera to record your room at night, the room/teddies are still being
watched so nothing would happen.
I realised that allot
of the stories that grip me are the ones that use this aspect of “how
can you tell” type thinking, even if aimed at the most ridiculous
sounding of things. One of my favourite
films of recent years is Troll Hunter (a group of students follow a
suspected poacher, and are shocked to find out that he is hunting
trolls.) The film made good use of the idea that trolls cause a lot
of damage that is often put down to natural causes, but if you look
close enough and know what to look for, you can see that a troll did
it. A couple of examples from the film are knocked over trees on
windless nights, and a bridge spanning a river far below, having a
large chunk knocked out halfway across as an enormous wading troll
bumped his head. I like this kind of thing, where you can see a film
and then when you are out and about, see something like a fallen tree
and playfully think that a troll might have done it. For a few nights
after seeing the film, whenever I closed my curtains at night, I had
images of trolls crossing the valley behind my house, making their
migration somewhere else when no-one was looking. While not strictly
horror, it bases something fantastic inside the “real” world so
that it’s a tiny bit harder to separate the two once you’ve
finished watching.
I think there are two
types of unseen world events, the kind like my curtain pulling
example above, where things are happening but they aren’t
particularly close or threatening. Then there is the other kind,
which happen in your immediate vicinity and you might not realise. I
know a lot of classic style horror films use the “it’s behind
you” pantomime type scene, letting the audience in on the secret
while the poor victim on screen has to find out the long and painful
way.
If you are watching this type of film, or reading this kind of
book, or playing this kind of video game, maybe just pause and
wonder, “what's lurking behind me while my attention is elsewhere?”
