Why We Embrace Fear: Peter Laws’ The Frighteners

Remember when you were small?  You’d be out with your mother or father and ask questions like “Why is the sky blue?”, or “Why does it get cold in the winter?”, as well as “How do magnets work?” and “How do they figure out the load limit on bridges?”  With respectful nods to both ICP and Bill Watterson, these were real questions I had as a child, and I’m sure you did, too.  Then, of course, when a pet had moved on (or your cat killed a jackrabbit), you asked “Why do things die?”  Maybe your parents sat you down and had a discussion about death.  Maybe they hemmed and hawed and didn’t say much.

These questions come to everyone as children.  It’s part of our natural curiosity about the world around us.  However, as we grow older, we start to ask different questions, even as we’re pursuing other activities, such as riding roller coasters, going to a haunted house at Halloween, or finding an interest in the paranormal.  We rarely ask ourselves why we do these things. We just do them.  Even as teens and adults, there are questions we rarely ask, because part of us fears the answers that might come.  This brings us to the central question of The Frighteners, a question that I’ve never heard a child ask.  “Why do we sometimes enjoy being scared?”

Reverend Peter Laws, a Baptist minister, has been fascinated with the gruesome and macabre since he was young.  As he now writes about horror movies for The Fortean Times, it’s safe to say that it wasn’t just a passing phase.  He asked the question of himself, and through experience and research, wrote this book, which takes us on a journey through western culture’s ‘fascination with the macabre’, through the lens of his personal experiences and interviews with others who have immersed themselves in the shadowy world of the weird. 

At one point, we’re introduced to some of the more notorious examples of the fear business—people specializing in ‘murderabilia,’ that is, the people who both collect and sell items belonging to or created by famous killers.  Peter even handles a bit of Charles Manson’s hair at one point.  But the people themselves are just, well, people.  They’re no more likely to commit a crime than anyone, but they’re fascinated by the dark side of human nature.  It’s just one step past watching serial killer documentaries on Netflix, and those are some of the most popular shows.  Murderabilia isn’t about admiring the killers—it’s about being fascinated by them.

Throughout the book, Peter goes werewolf hunting, gets chased by zombies, and throws in a bit of ghost hunting and horror movie watching for good measure.  As we accompany him on this travelogue of terror (which sounds like a great, lost Hammer film), he treats us to insightful passages about the role of the macabre, violence (real and imagined), and just why we, as humans, like to be scared.  He points out that we’re attracted not to the sensible, brainy Dr. Jekyll, but to the brutish, violent Mr. Hyde…we’ve always been fascinated by the macabre, it’s just that, with the advent of comic books and cinema, suddenly people were writing essays about how bad it is for you.  Laws argues (successfully, I think) that it’s just a part of being who we are, staying on high alert, and even briefly discusses what I call the roller-coaster theory—we go on the ride or watch the film or read the book or buy a John Wayne Gacy painting because, while it gets our adrenalin pumping, while it evokes our fight-or-flight response, ultimately we’re safe.  The ride ends.  The lights come up. The killer is long since dead, or serving a life sentence.  We enjoy fear because it speaks to something primal in us, something that is often ignored or pushed aside in the modern world.

Peter Laws has written something very special—an entertaining, funny book that still finds time for serious reflection on our culture.  This is easily the best book I’ve read this year.  5 out of 5 armchairs.