Memorable horror: Journey into darkness

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It's time to revolutionize horror, by starting at the foundation of storytelling. Mythic structure's get used across modern movies, seen across ancient cultures and talked about a lot. So, you might have heard a reference to the hero's journey- which is a guideline for the through-line of your main characters. I'm going to delve deep into mythic structure to identify why horror requires it, so you understand the principles behind it. 

But, if you are like me, you want to integrate effective through-lines into your story without rigidity. Beyond that, most writing advice is typically: 'stick to the hero's journey' which if you look it up, is kind of complicated and has tonnes of steps to follow.

The reason the hero's journey is talked about is because it's a recognizable pattern. It is the storytellers guideline because it follows the internal/external patterns. 

The monomyth, as recognized by Joseph Campbell is defined: the story of a person (the hero) who suffers greatly and reaches an experience of the source of everything, later returning with powerful gifts that set their society free. 

"And where we had thought to slay another
we shall slay ourselves.
Where we had thought to travel outwards
we shall come to the center of our own existence." ~ Joseph Campbell

The hero/band of heroes, get aligned by their meaning of going on tough journeys of retribution. Their journey into terror or unknown shows them the meaning of existence.

The monomyth, is the recognizable 'shared storytelling' format throughout humanity's existance. It aligns us with LIFE, nature, earth, heart, joy, inner power, unified power and god.

To riff on Joseph Campbell's monomyth structure, I've got some monster ideas that are effective in antagonizing the heroes journey:

• A being that loves 'god' too much, to serve themselves only. 
• Entities and forces that mimic nature, to create life with limits (they want to be 'god')
• Evil forces that try to separate man from the earth, believing that humanity is their bane

These monsters represent the antithesis of the hero, refusing the journey's progression. God doesn't require religion, but rather an infinite source or just a brief summation of the meaning of life. In lovecraftian horror though, there is the blatant absence of god. This is a subversion of the pattern, and is still effective because audiences seek meaning even when there isn't meaning. 

But to subvert mythic structure, you need to implement subversion correctly. And this isn't as easy as it sounds, because it isn't as simple as ignoring the structure either. You need to fill your audiences in, before you toy with their expectations. 

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Therefore I recommend 'journey into darkness' over 'subversion'.

 

The heroes journey is about a character becoming whole. Instead of repeating the pattern, we can go inside structure more deeply. The 'becoming whole', is about internal power. By looking inside, there is  darkness.

The 'inner monologue' of a character/event going through the dark, their fears and internal worries are the most relatable thing to show in storytelling. By triumphing external terror, we expect to relate to the heroism. But that's rarely the case. Instead, we relate to the internal world more than beating the monsters.

Instead of 'monomyth' ~ which relies on one-ness with all things.

The easier structure to integrate into horror is to embody ~ 'The inward journey into the dark, to find their internal 'boon'.'

In horror, it's the job of the storyteller to make the return from the dark 'rewarding'.

The audience is expecting relief from battling or surviving horrors, threats...the internal journey doesn't need to be perfect, it can be raw and strange. Through the story, things should get darker and darker. Then, the main characters should be slowly mastering the dark. They master themselves in the process.

If you don't go dark enough, then it's likely that your story won't become that memorable.  

Getting to the darkest, most terrifying thing your threat/monster presents----the 'reward' the audiences seek will be internal for themselves. In fact, this is the main reason most advice to make horror narratives fall flat, is because they rely on passive media storytelling. 

If you remember, the hero/main characters journey, is simply a reflection of the audiences journey in life. So let's look at how to transcend passive into active, and make mythic structure work with less effort. 

REVOLUTIONIZING MEDIA

Letting loose on your story planning is relieving. Letting audiences bring back their own boon instead of character's boon cut's out a lot of hard work in trying to make a hero relatable.

We use scary masks, to not scare our audience...but to become part of the group. To belong. Take the scary mask off, and let your audience wear it. Let them belong.

All that's necessary here to make stories become more active is for you, the maker, is to 'go as dark, as deep as possible'. It's okay if you don't even make sense of it yourself, as the best stories are ones theat leave room for interpretation~ even for the author.

In games design, interaction plays a vital role in creating emergent narratives. The mechanics can also foster fear, and intrigue the player into the morality of the narrative. Both of these give agency to the player, making even more room for interpretation. 

So instead of, forcing a linear structure like the monomyth into the medium...Let the medium be the only method to represent the darkness. It's often said that horror is the genre of hope, that in the bleakest of situations there might be light in the dark. Let your characters become mirrors to the audience, as they grasp at hope. 

“Wolfman’s got nards.” ~ Horace, The Monster Squad. 1987

By exposing an invincible mythic creature’s vulnerability, it turns the entire fight to something that is deemed 'winnable'. Once the characters know that there is hope, that there is a chance they can survive the threat, the menacing terror is demoted to entertainment.

Life can feel incredibly hard if we dont see villains we can defeat. By letting light peak through the darkest of moments, you give agency to your stories. You give audiences hope.

In summary, focus on 'the journey into the dark' as mythic structure more than anything else. Let your characters deal with the darkness internally, morally and show as much as you can of the deepest fears of these dark times. In the end, reveal the light (even if its only to audiences). 

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