Review: The Frighteners by Peter Laws

Rating: 9/10

The Frighteners follows the quest of Peter Laws, a Baptist minister with a penchant for the macabre, to understand why so many people love things that are spooky, morbid and downright repellent. He meets vampires, hunts werewolves in Hull, talks to a man who has slept on a mortuary slab to help him deal with a diagnosis, and is chased by a chainsaw-wielding maniac through a farmhouse full of hanging bodies.

Staring into the darkness of a Transylvanian night, he asks: What is it that makes millions of people seek to be disgusted and freaked out? And, in a world that worships rationality and points an accusing finger at violent video games and gruesome films, can an interest in horror culture actually give us safe ways to confront our mortality? Might it even have power to re-enchant our jaded world?

Grab your crucifixes, pack the silver bullets, and join the Sinister Minister on his romp into our morbid curiosities.

Peter Laws’ “The Frighteners,” is a ridiculously smart yet approachable and irresistibly two-mates-over-a-pint-like exploration of human psychology and horror. Blending theory, the most unhinged personal anecdotes and contemporary media stories, Laws (who I knew previously as the host of the hit Youtube pod “Into The Fog,” and want desperately to be friends with) discusses everything from zombies to serial killers to video games to furries in his examination of why people like you and I have such a penchant for the macabre. 

As an avid consumer of the murkiest and most vile horror fiction I can get my grubby hands on, I have often pondered why that is something I’m so very drawn to. Laws clearly has a similar affinity, coupled with an archive-like mind, lined with the most macabre-filled filing cabinets- he rifles through them for us, all while asking why we love the grim and ghastly so. Why does the grotesque and gothic beckon? Why would I pick a Stephen King novel over a fluffy rom-com or a piece of literary fiction… everytime? “The Frighteners,” does not, nor does it set out to, provide one objective, concrete answer to this- there simply isn’t one. What it does offer however is a series of possibilities, reflections and confessions- and I found myself nodding and grinning and muttering “Exactly,” at least once every other page. 

There are various books that exist already on horror consumption and obsession, as well as the psychology behind it, although few I would argue are as charming, entertaining and easy to digest as “The Frighteners.” Laws writes academically but with the enthusiasm of a man holding a flashlight under his chin. Presentation aside, Laws does have an original perspective to offer in that he is a reverend. Christianity, as “The Sinister Minister,” quite rightly points out is packed with gore and gratuitousness, and from “The Exorcist,” to “Carrie,” is deeply entwined with all things macabre and horrific. The holy and horrifying bump elbows throughout the book’s entirety, but most memorably in the opening and closing chapters.

Speaking of, each section reads like a standalone essay, each covering a different aspect of our (presumably) shared love affair with the horrific, which is really rather fun. After each one concludes, you’ve convinced yourself that that’s the best yet, before discovering in fact, in a never-ending cycle, that he’s outdone himself again and the next one is your favourite. I’ll tell you a little about my highlights. “Wired for Fright,” is about fear itself- as a survival mechanism and a recreational drug. At one point, very interestingly, he posits that in broader society the adrenaline that saved our ancestors is going extinct, too much time indoors reading perhaps. “Zombies, Everywhere,” is a historical account of how today’s zombie came to be, and just how much we owe to George Romero. Laws later considers why the zombie is so well-loved in society, and why you might just catch yourself empathising with them. That’s followed by “Killer Culture,” in which Laws grapples with the morality of the “Murderabilia,” trade, and why we’re so obsessed, fascinated and perhaps even seduced by real, human evil.

I absolutely learned stuff. I came away with a head full of nasty, disturbing real life events and obscure bits of mythos and folklore, as well as knowledge of a spooky shop in York that I’d very much like to pay a visit. Laws supplies us with all of this in addition to the hundreds of references at the back, from which I will be compiling myself a reading list. Yes, it’s absolutely safe to say that “The Frighteners,” is an education. More than that though, it’s a recognition, a nudge, a conspiratorial wink, that will leave you feeling seen, understood and a little unnerved.