I am thrilled to introduce you to Brandon McNulty, a wonderful author and
writing coach who grew up loving monsters, demons, and the thrill of a
great scare. Now he writes supernatural thrillers, horror, and other dark
fiction. He is a graduate of Taos Toolbox Writers Workshop and a winner of both
Pitch Wars and RevPit.
Brandon wrote a Halloween-themed guest post just for me and all I
had to do was ask. Thanks, Brandon!
You can find Brandon here:
https://www.amazon.com/Brandon-McNulty/e/B01N4B2SVZ?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1635099405&sr=8-1
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8184141.Brandon_McNulty
https://www.youtube.com/c/WriterBrandonMcNulty
Why I Hate Haunted House Stories
Think about the last
haunted house story you read or watched. Did a family move into their new home
only to discover doors randomly opening and strange noises escaping the attic?
Did the so-called heroes have to beg cops or paranormal investigators for help?
Did the previous owner commit a heinous sin that must be atoned for?
I’m a horror writer,
so it might surprise you to learn that I hate a popular horror trope: the
haunted house. Specifically, suburban haunted houses. Whether it’s a gaudy
mansion or a modest bungalow, I’ve seen too many.
In my YouTube video
titled: My Five Most Hated Horror Clichés, haunted houses
ranked #3 on my list (https://youtu.be/RfKB_HmiVqw). They’ve become a tired cliché for
two reasons: the setting and the setup.
The setting for these
types of stories is almost always a suburban home. I understand the logic
behind choosing a suburban home—it’s something many of us can relate to—but
when a setting gets reused countless times, it becomes too familiar. The more
familiar a horror trope becomes, the less scary it gets. And when horror fails
to scare (or at least thrill) an audience, it fails outright.
The solution is to
embrace the unknown, which is the one thing that has scared human beings back
to our earliest ancestors. Modern writers must construct a new, unpredictable
breed of haunted houses. Hell, it doesn’t even have to be a haunted house.
Try haunted airports, haunted grocery stores, or haunted rec centers. Try
stretching the idea of what a “house” is until new ideas arise like ghosts from
a decrepit cellar.
The other problem is
the setup for these types of stories. There’s nothing wrong with using plot
structure to build a story, but when the same elements and scenarios keep
appearing, promising ideas rot into clichés.
The good news is that
haunted house tales don’t have to be predictable. One of my favorites in recent
memory is the 2016 movie Don’t Breathe in which a trio of
thieves breaks into the house of a wealthy blind man who isn't as helpless as
he seems. It’s fresh and exciting and it
never feels clichéd thanks to its intriguing premise.
But for every Don’t
Breathe, there are entire neighborhoods full of uninspired haunted mansions
that storytellers keep building. If you’re a writer, don’t be afraid to design
new types of haunted houses. And if you’re a reader, make sure to pay those a
visit.
