Rick Rawes

Sequels are hard, right? I mean, I’ve managed one so far (Avalon: Faerie Tales) and a trilogy (Hope & Fury, Fire & Water) – so I guess I’ve made it work. But it wasn’t easy. How do you do the same thing, while making its own distinct entity. Sometimes, I think it’s down to whether or not you knew you were getting a sequel when you wrote the first one. Not being subject to external publishing forces, I’m free to plan however many I like and write them as I do. So, sure, that’s made it easier.

Now with many horror films, sequels are decided on after the first one. Sometimes this makes for a continuation that feels like a fever dream (Halloween II springs to mind), while others are the same movie as the first one, done exactly the same but with a different set of bimbos and himbos (Friday the 13^th: Part 2). And sometimes, my personal favourite, they’re so bonkers or awful because they act like they never watched the first movie (The Exorcist II…the less said, the better).

This falls somewhere in between. I’ll walk you through five other inspirations from film and print that have inspired my horror leanings, just like the first one. And maybe I’ll make a point by the end. Maybe I won’t. Maybe we’ll venture into the surreal, or maybe we’ll reach…The End? Well, anyway, let’s dive in.

Book Three: The Ritual by Adam Nevill

Now, often I like to watch movies before reading the books they’re based on. I know, this seems opposite to the way it should be, but for me a two hour experience gives me one understanding of the story. Those two hours are often ruined if I’m anticipating parts of the book and constantly critiquing and comparing. But when I’m reading the book after having watched the movie, I’m not getting less – I’m getting more. The experience is slower, more thorough. That was how I approached the Ritual, following a random moment of ‘go on, I’ll give it a go’ on Amazon Prime Video.

Do both. Treat both as separate because they are. This book, a lads’ holiday of hiking in the Swedish wilderness encountering something beyond their understanding, is an atmospheric, layered horror that creeps steadily on you. As they’re stalked in the woods by the thing in the trees, so are you. But underneath is the steadily creeping horror of a different kind: that of time. It’s a book that encapsulates perfectly what it is to be a man in your thirties – you enter this part of life, friendships, relationships with the hopefulness of youth – only to realise that all along adulthood has stalked you – waiting to expose the cracks in a life that never was.

Since picking up this one, I’ve gone through a lot of Adam Nevill’s back catalogue and have to say for me, some of the peaks of modern British horror are within those pages. This was my first, but it shan’t be my last.

Film Four: As Above, So Below

Okay, so found footage horror films are everywhere. Like, more frequent than Starbucks and yet a heck of a lot cheaper. Some can be very enjoyable, some can be so low budget you can’t even see what’s going on and others are downright bizarre. As Above, So Below does something I never thought I’d say about a found footage horror movie – it reaches the ranks of a comfort movie for me.

Yes, there’s some characters which are more one dimensional. There’s plenty of bonkers moments that never get fully explained – the creepy singing ladies in the catacombs are one. There’s characters who are acting relentlessly towards a goal, despite the fact that there’s swinging hallucinations of dead bodies in front of them. It has all the hallmarks of a movie which is playing beat-for-beat the tropes of modern horror. Stupid decisions, almost criminal ignorance of supernatural events, arguments for arguments sake and a convoluted plot that literally leads us to the gates of hell.

And yet, for me, it works beautifully: the descent into the catacombs, the building claustrophobia, the adventure, the reward and the sting in the tail. The ridiculous need to continue filming even as they literally cross over into hell itself. And the final, haunting shots that still make my eyes hurt. And yet…every time, I can’t tell you truly what brings me back, but something does. Maybe I’m the crazy sorority girl walking into the darkened room on the anniversary of the sorority girl massacre?

Book Four: The Stand by Stephen King

I know, it’s a cheat to have two of the same author on this list, right? Nah, not if it’s Stephen King. And forgive me, I only did two. I could have done a top ten list for Mr King all by itself. Anyway, onto The Stand. Two TV adaptations, a cut and an uncut edition (stop sniggering), and several decades of a legacy to hold onto.

In short, it’s a story of the end of the world. A global flu epidemic that kills 98% of the population (or there abouts). It follows the beginning days of sniffles, through the collapse of society and finally spends the last third in the ultimate battle between good and evil forming in a brave new world. It does it through love, through hope and through sacrifice. It does it with the help of an old woman in Colorado, and a slick demonic force in Las Vegas. It does it with a sprawling cast of characters whose fates are not always so easy to predict.

When I first read this book, I was maybe thirteen/fourteen. I’ve read it many times since, and each time found something deeper. Despite the ultimate battle between good and evil that frames the narrative, the horror at the centre is that every single one of us is formed of good and evil. Every single one of us can hurt other people, intentionally or unintentionally. That God, if such a being exists, is cruel in his demands. But the actions he demands combat a greater evil. Or do they?

Film Five: The Exorcism of Emily Rose

The last movie on the list I saw in the cinema when I was sixteen and honestly it both scared the shit out of me and made me feel. As I’ve said before, horror is always served by this, the humour and the heart within it. You can make a whole cast of characters and slaughter them intimately and uniquely, and yet no one gives a crap because you don’t care about them. This is not one of those movies.

It doesn’t rely on jump scares – though there are a few. Instead, it gives us a story of Emily Rose – a young girl who (not really *spoiler alert*) dies following a failed exorcism. The main narrative follows the priest on trial for negligent homicide, and the fantastic Laura Linney as his sceptical lawyer. The story itself is told through flashbacks, those which portray the demonic events that led to said exorcism, and those which suggest the alternative, medical explanation for her condition. As such this is not a horror film which explicitly states the truth behind everything that’s happened.

It is a story of a girl. A deeply religious young woman, who had her whole life in front of her. It challenges the notion of what exorcism is and does for us. Unlike the Exorcist itself (another fantastic movie and book), it does not show us the devil in all his forms. What it does do, is present a story that is horrific and tragic both as a supernatural battle of wills…and more so as a story of a girl trapped by her own faith into a death that was unnecessary. And by the end, the question of what happened, is down to a matter of faith.

Book Five: The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

This was another book where after reading I went and hunted down all the author’s other works. I was initially drawn to it by realising that it included a gay couple. Then I read the book jacket and realised the story sounded kinda cool so why not give it a go. Then, like a breath of fresh air, I found a story that was increasingly dramatic and disturbing, wrapped in believable gay characters in horror. Imagine that, not gay best friends there for sass. Not predatory homosexuals designed to bring about disgust. Not tragic victims of psychotic clowns and small town bigots. Just gay people. Finally.

The book has a simple premise. A couple are staying at a cabin in the woods with their adopted daughter. Three strangers walk out of the woods and tell them that the world will end if one of them does not kill one of the others. Off you go. Thus begins nearly 400 pages of increasing tension, as a series of calamitous events make us question are these guys crazy…or not?

We are forgotten and maligned in the horror genre. I can’t claim that this book is the first one to just authentically represent people of other sexual orientations to the same degree as their straight counterparts. But it was one of the first for me. Of course, the fact that they’re a gay couple brings very little to the story – but just in case I need to reiterate it for people…that’s the point. That’s why it mattered.

To Be Continued?

Not this time! Well, I mean, I might have a hand pop up from the grave as a cash grab sequel promise that might never be made. But nah, actually I think for the Halloween posts this is it for now. We’ll move back onto our regularly scheduled programming/posts next time. I hope you’ve taken something away from this, even if only a single recommendation you’d like to peruse. You’re welcome!

Last time I asked you who the true monsters were? Is it obvious yet? Horror which works, which saturates to our bones does not come from without. Even in the beginnings of the genre, when monsters rumbled towards us, they were only ever projections of our own shadows on the wall. They lurked within the depths of the almost places, the borderlands between light and dark – just like the human soul.

We fear monsters because we know we create them. It’s in the selfish actions of a post-apocalyptic story as society collapses around it, it’s the fear of our own obsessions pushing us towards the very gates of hell. It’s the choice to sacrifice the world to keep our hands clean of known blood. To put our faith in faith knowing the horror it could cause. To go for a walk in the woods and realise how blatantly unprepared we are.

Maybe things do lurk in the shadows, real external threats to our safety and security. But maybe as we sit around the campfire, telling our ghost stories in the flickering firelight, under cold disinterested skies, we may realise the true monsters may not be escapable. They are watching with our eyes, they are thinking with our thoughts.

So, what do we do?

What can we do?

Rick Rawes
Leeds, West Yorkshire
31st October, 2025