Halloween Haunts: The Horror We Share
Halloween Haunts: The Horror We Share
By Naching T. Kassa
Every time Halloween season comes around, I think of my dad and how he introduced me to horror. My mom, the kindest person I have ever known, wasn’t very fond of our favorite genre. She’d been terrified after seeing Psycho for the first time and lost all interest in anything that wasn’t Universal Horror or Kolchak the Nightstalker. My dad, on the other hand, had been a big fan of drive-in movies and had watched them as a teen in the 50s. I think I was three when he first showed me King Kong (1931) and five when he showed me Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein and Universal’s Dracula, Frankenstein and The Wolf Man.
He was a very responsible parent when it came to the horror movies of the 80s. During that time, when other kids were watching Fright Night and A Nightmare on Elm Street, my Dad showed me the Roger Corman films starring Vincent Price. If, by accident, we watched a really gory film, I might be sent from the room, so that I wouldn’t have nightmares or become too psychologically scarred. I dreaded being sent from the room. In fact, I was more afraid I wouldn’t see the movie than of the movie itself!
I still remember that wonderful evening when I turned fifteen. We’d rented a bunch of horror movies and one was especially bloody. I side-eyed my dad, waiting for the moment when he would send me from the room. To my utter shock, he allowed me to stay and see the entire movie! A whole new world opened for me after that. For the first time, my dad allowed me to pick horror movies from the local VHS rentals. Some he had seen and some he hadn’t, so it was a real joy to watch them with him. The funniest thing about watching horror with my Dad was that it made him hungry. Every time he saw a really gross scene, he’d crave some sort of snack. (He attributed this to the snack bar at those drive-in movies.)
My dad and I saw many great movies together. We watched Stephen King films like Salem’s Lot, Carrie, and Silver Bullet. We even watched A Nightmare on Elm Street and it became a favorite. My dad was very impressed with Amanda Wyss’ death scene. He’d never seen anything like it before.
Through the 90’s and 00’s, horror continued to be something my dad and I shared. We loved to discuss the history, the trends, the special effects and the new authors. It was no surprise to him that I became a horror writer. And, with his permission, I wrote a story about an incident which took place in his youth. That story, “The Sabbath City Ringer,” became my first publication.
I miss my dad every day, but especially on Halloween. He shaped my relationship with horror, and it’s become something I want to pass down to my own children. So, every Halloween, I show my kids Silver Bullet and tell them about their grampa, hoping it will bring them a little closer to the man they never really got to know.
Naching T. Kassa is a wife, mother, and writer. She’s created short stories, novellas, poems, and co-created three children. She resides in Eastern Washington State with her husband, Dan Kassa.
Naching is a member of the Horror Writers Association, Mystery Writers of America, The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, The Sound of the Baskervilles, The ACD Society, The Crew of the Barque Lone Star, The Beacon Society, The Sherlock Holmes Society of London, The John H. Watson Society and The Hounds of the Internet. She is the Talent Relations Manager at Crystal Lake Publishing and was a recipient of the 2022 HWA Diversity Grant.
You can find her work on Amazon. Look for her story, “I Won’t Die Alone,” in the Crystal Lake Anthology, Dastardly Damsels, edited by Suzie Lockhart.