by Stephen King
"It's the best set of electric trains a boy ever had," Orson Welles once said of making movies; the same can be said of making books and stories. Here is a chance to bust that tunnel vision wide open, bricks flying everywhere so that, for a moment at least, a dreamscape of wonders and horrors stands forth as clearly and with all the magic reality of the first Ferris wheel you ever saw as a kid, turning and turning against the sky. Someone's dead son is on the late movie. Somewhere a foul man--bogeyman!--is slouching through the snowy night with shining yellow eyes. Boys are thundering through autumn leaves on their way home past the library at four in the morning, and somewhere else, in some other world, even as I write this, Frodo and Sam are making their way toward Mordor, where the shadows lie. I am quite sure of it.
Ready to go? Fine. I'll just grab my coat.
It's not a dance of death at all, not really. There is a third level here, as well. It is, at bottom, a dance of dreams. It's a way of awakening the child inside, who never dies but only sleeps ever more deeply. If the horror story is our rehearsal for death, then its strict moralities make it also a reaffirmation of life and good will and simple imagination--just one more pipeline to the infinite.
In his epic poem of a stewardess falling to her death from high above the fields of Kansas, James Dickey suggests a metaphor for the life of the rational being, who must grapple as best he/she can with the fact of his/her own mortality. We fall from womb to tomb, from one blackness and toward another, remembering little of the one and knowing nothing of the other . . . except through faith. That we retain our sanity in the face of these simple yet blinding mysteries is nearly divine. That we may turn the powerful intuition of our imaginations upon them and regard them in this glass of dreams--that we may, however timidly, place our hands within the hole which opens at the center of the column of truth--that is . . .
. . . well, it's magic, isn't it?
Yeah. I think maybe that's what I want to leave you with, in lieu of a goodnight kiss, that word which children respect instinctively, that word whose truth we only rediscover as adults in our stories . . . and in our dreams:
Magic.
Afterword
In July of 1977, my wife and I hosted a gathering of my wife's entire family--a giant collection of sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, and millions of kids. My wife spent most of that week cooking and of course what always happens at family gatherings happened at this one: everybody brought a casserole. Much food was eaten on the shores of Long Lake that sunny summer day; many cans of beer were consumed. And when the crowd of Spruces and Atwoods and LaBrees and Graveses and everyone else had departed, we were left with enough food to feed an army regiment.
So we ate leftovers.
Day in, day out, we ate leftovers. And when Tabby brought out the remains of the turkey for the fifth or sixth time (we had eaten turkey soup, turkey surprise, and turkey with noodles; this day it was something simpler, nice, nourishing turkey sandwiches), my son Joe, who was then five, looked at it and screamed: "Do we have to eat this shit again?"
I didn't know whether to laugh or clout him upside the head. As I recall, I did both.
I told you that story because people who have read a lot of my work will realize that they have eaten a few leftovers here. I have used material from my introduction to Night Shift, from my introduction to the New American Library's omnibus edition of Frankenstein, Dracula, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, from an article entitled "The Fright Report" originally published in Oui magazine, from an article called "The Third Eye" in The Writer; much of the material on Ramsey Campbell originally appeared in Stuart Schiff's Whispers magazine.
Now before you decide to clout me upside the head or to scream "Do we have to eat this shit again?" let me point out to you what my wife pointed out to my son on the day of the turkey sandwiches: there are hundreds of different recipes for turkey, but they all taste like turkey. And coupled with that, she said, it is a shame to waste good things.
This is not to say that my article in Oui was so paralyzingly great or that my thoughts on Ramsey Campbell were so deathless that they deserved to be preserved in a book; it is only to say that, while my thoughts and feelings on the genre I've spent most of my life working in may have evolved or shifted somewhat in perspective, they haven't really changed. That change may come, but since there has only been a passage of four years since I originally stated many of my feelings about horror and terror in the Night Shift introduction, it would be surprising--even suspect--if I were to suddenly deny everything I had written previous to this book.
In my own defense, I'll add that Danse Macabre gave me the space to develop some of these ideas in more detail than I had ever been given before, and for that I must thank Bill Thompson and Everest House. In no case did I simply reheat something I had written before; I tried as hard as I could to develop each idea as fully as possible without beating it into the ground. In some cases, I may have done just that, though, and all I can do in such cases is to beg your indulgence.
And I think that really is the end. Thank you again for coming with me, and rest you well. But, being who I am and what I am, I cannot find it in my heart to wish you pleasant dreams. . . .
APPENDIX 1
The Films
Below is a list of roughly one hundred fantasy/horror films tied together by their time and their excellence. All were released during the period 1950-1980, and all of them seem to me to be particularly interesting in one way or another; if I may say so without sounding like an Academy Awards presenter, all of them have contributed something of value to the genre. You will find my own personal favorites marked with an asterisk (*). Special thanks are due to Kirby McCauley, who provided invaluable help with the list.
TITLE
DIRECTOR
YEAR
The Abominable Dr. Phibes
Robert Fuest
1971
*Alien
Ridley Scott
1979
Asylum
Roy Ward Baker
1972
The Bad Seed
Mervyn LeRoy
1956
The Birds
Alfred Hitchcock
1963
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
Dario Argento
1969
*Black Sunday
Mario Bava
1961
*The Brood
David Cronenberg
1979
Burnt Offerings
Dan Curtis
1976
Burn Witch Burn
Sidney Hayers
1962
*Carrie
Brian De Palma
1976
The Conqueror Worm
Michael Reeves
1968
*Creature from the Black Lagoon
Jack Arnold
1954
*The Creeping Unknown
Val Guest
1955
*Curse of the Demon
Jacques Tourneur
1957
The Day of the Triffids
Steve Sekely
1963
*Dawn of the Dead
George A. Romero
1979
The Deadly Bees
Freddie Francis
1967
Deep Red
Dario Argento
1976
*Deliverance
John Boorman
1972
*Dementia-13
Francis Coppola
1963
Diabolique
Henri-Georges Clouzot
1955
Doctor Terror's House of Horrors
Freddie Francis
1965
Don't Look Now
Nicholas Roeg
1973
*Duel
Steven Spielberg
1971
*Enemy from Space
Val Guest
1957
Eraserhead
David Lynch
/> 1976
*The Exorcist
William Friedkin
1973
The Exterminating Angel
Luis Bunuel
1963
Eye of the Cat
David Lowell Rich
1969
The Fly
Kurt Neumann
1958
*Frenzy
Alfred Hitchcock
1972
The Fury
Brian De Palma
1978
Gorgo
Eugene Lourie
1961
*Halloween
John Carpenter
1978
*The Haunting
Robert Wise
1963
The H-Man
Inoshiro Honda
1958
Horrors of the Black Museum
Arthur Crabtree
1959
Hour of the Wolf
Ingmar Bergman
1967
The House that Dripped Blood
Peter Duffell
1970
Hush . . . Hush, Sweet Charlotte
Robert Aldrich
1965
*I Bury the Living
Albert Band
1958
The Incredible Shrinking Man
Jack Arnold
1957
*Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Don Siegel
1956
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Philip Kaufman
1978
I Saw What You Did
William Castle
1965
*It Came from Outer Space
Jack Arnold
1953
It! The Terror from Beyond Space
Edward L. Cahn
1958
*Jaws
Steven Spielberg
1975
The Killer Shrews
Ken Curtis
1959
*Lady in a Cage
Walter Graumann
1963
Last Summer
Frank Perry
1969
*Let's Scare Jessica to Death
John Hancock
1971
Macabre
William Castle
1958
*Martin
George A. Romero
1977
The Masque of the Red Death
Roger Corman
1964
Night Must Fall
Karel Reisz
1964
*The Night of the Hunter
Charles Laughton
1955
*Night of the Living Dead
George A. Romero
1968
Not of This Earth
Roger Corman
1956
No Way to Treat a Lady
Jack Smight
1968
Panic in the Year Zero
Ray Milland
1962
*Picnic at Hanging Rock
Peter Weir
1978
The Pit and the Pendulum
Roger Corman
1961
* Psycho
Alfred Hitchcock
1960
*Rabid
David Cronenberg
1977
Race with the Devil
Jack Starrett
1975
* Repulsion
Roman Polanski
1965
*Rituals
?
1978
*Rosemary's Baby
Roman Polanski
1968
'Salem's Lot
Tobe Hooper
1979
Seance on a Wet Afternoon
Bryan Forbes
1964
Seizure
Oliver Stone
1975
* The Seventh Seal
Ingmar Bergman
1956
*Sisters
Brian De Palma
1973
*The Shining
Stanley Kubrick
1980
The Shout
Jerzy Skolimowski
1979
Someone's Watching Me
John Carpenter
1978
The Stepford Wives
Bryan Forbes
1975
Strait-Jacket
William Castle
1964
Suddenly Last Summer
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
1960
*Suspiria
Dario Argento
1977
* The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Tobe Hooper
1974
*Them!
Gordon Douglas
1954
They Came from Within
David Cronenberg
1975
*The Thing
Christian Nyby
1951
The Tomb of Ligeia
Roger Corman
1965
Trilogy of Terror
Dan Curtis
1975
Village of the Damned
Wolf Rilla
1960
*Wait Until Dark
Terence Young
1967
*What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Robert Aldrich
1961
When Michael Calls
Philip Leacock
1971
The Wicker Man
Robin Hardy
1973
Willard
Daniel Mann
1971
*X--the Man with the X-Ray Eyes
Roger Corman
1963
X the Unknown
Leslie Norman
1956
APPENDIX 2
The Books
Below is a list of roughly one hundred books--novels and collections--which span the period we have been discussing. They are listed alphabetically according to author. As with my list of films, you may not find all of these to your taste, but all seem--to me, at least--important to the genre we have been discussing. Thanks again to Kirby McCauley, who helped with the list, and a special tip of the hat to "Fast Eddie" Melder, who owns a pub in North Lovell and who put up with our wild talk until well past closing time.
Once again, I've marked with an asterisk (*) books which I felt were particularly important.
Richard Adams. The Plague Dogs; Watership Down*
Robert Aickman. Cold Hand in Mine; Painted Devils Marcel Ayme. The Walker through Walls
Beryl Bainbridge. Harriet Said
J. G. Ballard. Concrete Island*; High Rise
Charles Beaumont. Hunger*; The Magic Man
Robert Bloch. Pleasant Dreams*; Psycho*
Ray Bradbury. Dandelion Wine; Something Wicked This Way Comes*; The October Country Joseph Payne Brennan. The Shapes of Midnight*
Frederic Brown. Nightmares and Geezenstacks*
Edward Bryant. Among the Dead
Janet Caird. The Loch
Ramsey Campbell. Demons By Daylight; The Doll Who Ate His Mother*; The Parasite*
Suzy McKee Charnas. The Vampire Tapestry
Julio Cortazar. The End of the Game and Other Stories Harry Crews. A Feast of Snakes
Roald Dahl. Kiss Kiss*; Someone Like You*
Les Daniels. The Black Castle
Stephen R. Donaldson. The Thomas Covenant Trilogy (3 vols.)*
Daphne Du Maurier. Don't Look Now
Harlan Ellison. Deathbird Stories*; Strange Wine*
John Farris. All Heads Turn When the Hunt Goes By Charles G. Finney. The Ghosts of Manacle
Jack Finney. The Body Snatchers*; I Love Galesburg in the Springtime; The Third Level*; Time and Again*
William Golding. Lord of the Flies*
Edward Gorey. Amphigorey: Amphigorey Too
Charles L. Grant. The Hour of the Oxrun Dead; The Sound of Midnight*
Davis Grubb. Twelve Tales of Horror*
William H. Hallahan. The Keeper of the Children; The Search for Joseph Tully James Herbert. The Fog; The Spear*; The Survivor William Hjortsberg. Falling Angel*
Shirley Jackson. The Haunting of Hill House*; The Lottery and Others*; The Sundial Gerald Kersh. Men Without Bones*
Russell Kirk. The Princess of All Lands
Nigel Kneale. Tomato Caine
William Kotzwinkle. Dr. Rat*
Jerry Kozinski. The Painted Bird*
Fritz Leiber. Our Lady of Darkness*
Ursula LeGuin. The Lathe of Heaven*; Orsinian Tales Ira Levin. Rosemary's Baby*; The Stepford Wives John D. MacDonald. The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything Bernard Malamud. The Magic Barrel*; The Natural Robert Marasco. Burnt Offerings*
Gabriel Maria Marquez. One Hundred Years of Solitude Richard Matheson. Hell House; I Am Legend*; Shock II; The Shrinking Man*; A Stir of Echoes Michael McDowell. The Amulet*; Cold Moon Over Babylon*
Ian McEwen. The Cement Garden
John Metcalf. The Feasting Dead
Iris Murdoch. The Unicorn
Joyce Carol Oates. Nightside*
Flannery O'Connor. A Good Man Is Hard to Find*
Mervyn Peake. The Gormenghast Trilogy (3 volumes) Thomas Pynchon. V.*
Edogawa Rampo. Tales of Mystery and Imagination Jean Ray. Ghouls in My Grave
Anne Rice. Interview with the Vampire
Philip Roth. The Breast
Ray Russell. Sardonicus*
Joan Samson. The Auctioneer*
William Sansom. The Collected Stories of William Sansom Sarban. Ringstones; The Sound of His Horn*
Anne Rivers Siddons. The House Next Door*
Isaac Bashevis Singer. The Seance and Other Stories*
Martin Cruz Smith. Nightwing
Peter Straub. Ghost Story*; If You Could See Me Now; Julia; Shadowland*
