Horror is not one track. The genre encompasses myriad styles, from unsettling ghost stories to real-life monsters (aka humans). At the “What Are You Afraid Of? An Indie Horror Comics Roundtable” panel at NYCC 2024, the panelists shared their brand of horror and listed a tons of movies, books, and more every horror fan should have on their list.
The panelists were Tate Brombal, Soo Lee, Michael Walsh, and Che Grayson. Moderated by Harley Salbacka of Tiny Onion, most of the chat centered on what scares the creators. The clear winner was grief horror and very human, personal stories that cause fear, anxiety, and despondency.
Panelists for Tiny Onion’s horror roundtableEach panelist agreed that drawing from their own stories and cultures is a great starting point for creating a good tale. Lee, whose book Carmella: The First Vampire with Amy Chu should be on everyone’s horror list, gave deeper insight into how the Eastern perspective of storytelling and horror in particular differs greatly from what Western stories often center on.
“I feel culturally Asian people love horror,” Soo explained. “It’s one of the most important genres. I watched it with my mom growing up when I was way too young. No one would cover in my eyes. I would watch American horror with my dad, like Leprechaun, but Asian horror was so gruesome back in the ’90s. My mom and I would just be like, ‘let’s watch something fun and scary.’ It was like a bonding moment. It was weird. I even watched Rocky Horror with her when I was a kid. She was very open to that stuff. But horror has a big connection to Asian culture because we use it as a cultural reference. It’s also socioeconomic and political, especially with the struggles of Korea back in the day, because it’s a very newly developed country in terms of where they are economically. They use a lot of that to bring into the horror genre. It’s like spooky, whatever, but it’s very psychological-based.”
So if you are wondering what to watch, here are some must-haves from the panel (note how many classics are on there!):
- Bride of Chucky
- Alien
- Ginger Snaps
- I Saw the Devil
- The Fly
- Talk to Me
- Drag Me to Hell
As for reading…
- Pen Pal
- Infidel
- The Fisherman
- Out
English (US) · 