THE INTERSECTION OF MENTAL HEALTH AND HORROR, Panel Report, StokerCon 2024, Saturday 1 June
By Lee Murray
Trigger Warning: This article addresses issues mental illness.
Trauma. Anxiety. Depression. Psychosis—the Venn diagram where horror and mental illness meet at times seems a perfect circle. This panel will examine the role that horror can play, both in its consumption and creation, in providing a relief from mental health stressors and the implications for writers. Moderated by Mark Matthews, with panellists Justin C. Key, L.E. (Lauren Elise) Daniels, Mo Moshaty, and Mercedes Yardley.
Matthews introduced the topic stating that while the work of the HWA has concentrated on writing techniques for reducing stigma around mental illness, he wanted to turn the focus of the panel to whether horror was good for our mental health. Is it, as Guest of Honour Jonathan Maberry says, “Better out than in”?
Panellists gave a brief summary of their interest in this topic with Mercedes M. Yardley saying she is a big advocate for mental health as mental illness has impacted generations of her family, including her grandmother who had shock treatment and her great grandmother who died in an asylum. Mo Moshaty, a cognitive behavioural therapist, also noted a family history of mental illness. She said having experienced trauma as a child, she now uses horror as a means of personal catharsis. Ace (Nzondi) Antonio Hall also mentioned a family history of mental health, including a sister with Alzheimer’s, but as he pointed out, while many people may have mental illness, we cope with it in different ways and to different degrees. L.E. Daniels, author of Serpent’s Wake who has complex PTSD herself, said that after studying psychology she had hoped to write an adult fairy tale to address the unconscious wounded child. To that end, she worked in homeless shelters, and taught creative writing to veterans and seniors, working with people and building trust and confidence in the hope of unpacking the milestones of grief and trauma. Finally, Justin C. Key, a writer and psychiatrist who insisted that he was a writer first, said he loved to help people navigate their mental health issues and find their own story as it can be healing to read and write stories.
Matthews quoted the character Kurtz from the 1979 movie Apocalypse Now, who said: “…you have no right to judge me. It’s impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror… Horror has a face… and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared.”
Key explained that when you watch and read horror there is a level of control since part of our brain is aware we are in a safe experience. As a therapist, he notes that while a video of real events can be triggering for his clients, a movie which features those same events doesn’t always have the same effect. Consuming horror allows us to take control of the fear and emotion, tapping into it in that safe space.
Daniels noted that different things help her to unwind, including chilling out to Hannibal. She said when watching or reading horror you have control over the experience and can check out when you get that moment of insight that the material is not good for you.
Hall suggested that when you are exposed to something that is weighing on your mind, it can inspire writing in a way that is therapeutic, stating, “You heart should be so buried in horror, that in order to find your soul, you must write.” He gave an example from his own experience saying when faced with an unruly special needs child early in his teaching career, he was about to react when a guard pulled him over and mentioned that the child had lost her mother the previous day. Hall said you never know what other people are going through. Writing and watching horror can help us to cope.
Moshaty agreed with Hall’s point, saying that suffering begets art and art imitates life. She said writing and watching horror gives us a sense of control: we could find ourselves in story, face the horror, and work our way out. As a reader it can be comforting to read/watch through our pain; it can help us process. Whatever media you’re consuming horror follows us home. For example, drama teaches women to check the back seat of the car, and to turn on the lights on the way to the bathroom in our own homes. It teaches us how to survive, or not.
Matthews said studies suggest that people who watch horror have higher resilience compared to those who don’t. Yardley, who had just taught a class on writing from trauma for HWA’s Horror University, said participants of that course acknowledged that creating or consuming horror helps us to process events and ultimately makes us resilient. She said that watching horror offers shared kinship with others in a way other experiences can’t, and she gave the example of repeated showings of 911 footage, of someone jumping out a window onto a car, impacting us more than say watching a comedy movie. Consuming horror in a safe environment means horror writers may be better adjusted than writers of other genres. Picking up on Yardley’s point, Moshaty recalled that as a child when the Challenger shuttle exploded, no one talked about it. The same applied to the Columbine shootings. She gave a recent example of when an active shooter appeared at a school, authorities did not bother to lock down another school less than a block away.
Matthews said horror writers have the finest hearts and are both resilient and fragile, claiming that he writes because there is a scared little boy inside him, not because he wants to scare other people. He quoted author Joe Hill, who once said, “Horror is not about extreme sadism, it’s about extreme empathy.” Matthews then asked the panellists which film or book had helped them through (including their own).
Moshaty said Jennifer Kent’s film The Babadook 2014 showed her that as a mother / woman it was okay not to be perfect all the time. She said many women can relate to being unprepared to take care of another human being while still retaining their own sanity. She said the film gave her permission to be herself. From her own collection Love the Sinner, she said the short story “A Battle Between Boys” addresses the lack of attention to mental illness of soldiers after they come home from war. Where people might appear fine, they could be privately struggling. Yardley also cited The Babadook as being significant for her. Her work, Darling, tells of how a woman tried to kidnap her child in real life.
Hall said Octavia Butler’s Fledging spoke to him, since as a four-year-old, he was separated from his siblings and taken to live with his grandparents. Hall said he related to the isolation in the book. In his own work, Lipstick Asylum, he addresses the collective trauma of women in his family (isolation, mental illness, abuse). Writing the work has helped him to process, and his own children to understand him better.
Daniels’ said her list might include TV56 creature-feature movies from her childhood because she loved raging monster horror, claiming they provided healthy expression for submerged aspects of trauma. Titles she cited included the film Alligator, The Handless Maiden, and Titus (Shakespeare). She cited EV Knight’s “The Flanagan Cure” (American Cannibals) as helping her to understand how she might support family members through addiction trauma, which also coping with its impacts herself. Other books she noted were Annihilation by Jeff Van der Mer and her own novel Serpent’s Wake. She pointed out that while in the therapeutic model it can be terrifying to open the box to investigate your trauma, even when we know we have already survived it. She spoke of the Greek definition of catharsis and recovery through societal experience and expression.
Key said as an only child he was anxious and scared of death, but he found refuge in books like the Goosebumps series, and later in Stephen King’s It and Pet Semetary. His favourite stories involve child protagonists, since you are the most vulnerable as a child and you have your whole life to process events. He mentioned losing a cousin, killed at 25 when Key was just 17, and the different life paths they had chosen to take, leading to question why he was still here. He realised he had a chance to rewrite life, make it right in some way, and take control of the story. He cited “The World Wasn’t Ready for You” the titular story in his collection, which addresses his fears as a father trying to raise black children in a world that see them as a threat, and how writing that work had helped him to deal with his anxiety.
In parting, Matthews said we look to horror to address issues of collective shame through connection. Daniels said we want to be able to say ‘this is what it feels like’; that emotional truth is what it’s about. Hall said it was important to do your research because we don’t know what we don’t know, while Moshaty reminded writers to write from a place of care not caricature.
Key Takeaways:
Creating and consuming horror allows us to address our fears in a safe place, to process, and to take control of the narrative. It can show us a way through and offer resilience.
We never know what people are going through, even though outwardly they may seem okay.
Horror can engender compassion, care, and shared connection / bonding.
Bios:
Mark Matthews is the author of novels such as All Smoke Rises, Milk-Blood and The Hobgoblin of Little Minds. He is also the Shirley Jackson Award-nominated editor of Lullabies for Suffering, Garden of Fiends and Orphans of Bliss. Reach him at WickedRunPress@gmail.com
Mo Moshaty is a producer, international lecturer, and writer in the horror genre. Her Rondo Classic Horror Award-winning short film, 13 Minutes of Horror: Sci-Fi Horror, co-produced with her team, Nyx Horror Collective, found its home on streaming giant Shudder Channel along with its predecessor, 13 Minutes of Horror: Folklore. Lecturing on trauma within horror cinema, Mo’s analysis has been featured with universities and film festivals in the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Berlin, Mexico, and Canada. Mo’s literary work can be found in 206 Word Stories by Bag O Bones Press, A Quaint and Curious Volume of Gothic Tales, Love the Sinner by Brigids Gate Press, The Encyclopocalypse of Legends and Lore Vol.1 by Encyclopocalypse Press and Clairviolence: Tales of Tarot and Torment Vol 1 by Spooky House Press.
Mercedes M. Yardley is a whimsical dark fantasist who wears poisonous flowers in her hair. She is the author of many works including Beautiful Sorrows, Pretty Little Dead Girls: A Novel of Murder and Whimsy (now available as a graphic novel with art by Orion Zangara), and the Stabby Award-winning Apocalyptic Montessa and Nuclear Lulu: A Tale of Atomic Love. She is a two-time Bram Stoker Award winner for her realistic horror novella Little Dead Red and her magical surrealism short story “Fracture.” She was a Bram Stoker finalist for her short story “Loving You Darkly” and for her Arterial Bloom anthology, for which she was editor. Mercedes lives and creates in Las Vegas with her family and menagerie of battle-scarred, rescued animal familiars.
Justin Key’s stories have appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Crossed Genres, and KYSO Flash, as well as in the revolutionary children’s iPad application, FarFaria. He held a writing advice blog for several years at Scribophile.com and worked as a professional health blogger and content editor at WellnessFX while applying to medical school. Justin’s medical training richly informs his writing, and the power of story and narrative allows him to connect with patients on a deeper level. Justin lives in Los Angeles with his wonderful wife, two sons, and daughter. Even as a full-time Psychiatrist, he finds ample time to write. Just don’t ask him how he does it; he wouldn’t be able to tell you.
Ace Antonio Hall: Named after King Acemandese from Kemet, Africa, Nzondi (Ace Antonio-Hall) was born Acemandese Nzondi Hall in Queens, New York on July 4th. Nzondi received his BFA from C. W. Post, Long Island University. In 2006, Nzondi quit his job as a Director of Education for the Sylvan Learning Center to learn how to write novels. In 2013, his debut novel, Confessions of Sylva Slasher, was published by Montag Press. His science fiction/horror work, Oware Mosaic is the 2019 Bram Stoker Awards® Winner for Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel, making him the first African-American to win the prestigious award in a novel category. Nzondi is also a two-time Honorable Mention winner of the Writers and Illustrators of the Future Award.
His non-fiction book, Lord of the Flies: Fitness for Writers shares his weight-loss tactics he used for optimal health and fitness, and his YA zombie novel, Lipstick Asylum (The Girl Who Could Raise the Dead), were both originally published by Omnium Gatherum Media. His award-winning novel, Oware Mosaic was relaunched by Crossroad Press in 2023.
E. Daniels is an American author, poet, and senior editor living in Australia. Her novel, Serpent’s Wake: A Tale for the Bitten is a Notable Work with the HWA’s Mental Health Initiative, written for adults navigating post-traumatic stress disorder. Lauren is an Aurealis Award-winning editor and finalist, editing over 130 published titles, and she an Australian Shadows Award finalist for her poetry. “Silk” is her first Bram Stoker Awards® nomination.
The HWA Mental Health Initiative Charter can be found here: https://horror.org/mental-health-initiative-charter/
