What has Happened to Horror?

((((CRRREEEEEAAAAAK!, CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK." echoes from the staircase stabs at the heart of one lone girl. No doubt created by a madman.

Her tears blend with her sweat due to the humid attic. Deep breaths, slow and shallow. If she even moves, the old flooring and damp walls would tune her movements. She knows this due to the dangling metal hitting her back. She assumes it being a flat tool.

The echoes march off the stairs and onto the floor. She knows he can't find her. She is hidden in a place outside of peripheral and frontal sight. What else to do but wait until the echoes leave the attic.

left and right the echoes move. Is he looking for something? He seems still unaware of the girls presence. Does he need a tool? The girl can't tell. She can't see everything well from.....the wardrobe.

He doesn't know, that the girl is hiding in his own wardrobe. He doesn't even know she is....in his attic. So why.....is he in the attic?

The owner of the attic, finally lets his words escape. Words that permeats the attic with his soft yet haunting tone "Now where did i put that machete?"

"A machete?" the girl can't help but wonder if the metal behind her..is the tool needed to escape.

"Hhhhmmm. the wardrobe perhaps". the man feels certain.

His boot fitted feet sound the echoes once more, moving closer to the girls hiding spot. It is now or never for the girl. Can she fend him off? Will she try to plead for forgiveness? The more she questions the more her heart bleeds from the echoes of the madman's steps.

It is decided she will fight back with the machete behind her. She moves, sounded an alert to the madman. Her left hand already at the handle of the weapon.

"Now Lilith. I know it's been awhile, but don't be hasty when I bring you out"

The girl couldn't help but to pounder, "whose lilith".

"Don't worry master, my snack is already here with me."

A voice...from the weapon behind the girl? Then the handle was not a handle no more. But a hand...that held hers. And from her right side appears...a face of metal and rust. As if a cold air was about to whisper into her ear.

A whisper of death. ))))

What you just read was my attempt at making a scary short-story. Cheesy at best, but I made based on a line acted by Jack Black in the 2015 film Goosebumps, "There are three parts to every story. The beginning, the climax, and the twist." Or something similar to that. Which is a concept I strongly agree on. To me scary movies shouldn't just be about scaring people. It should be about bringing us into worlds that feeds both our curiosity and anxiety. But for the past few years, I've noticed horror becoming nothing but a montage of jump scares and CG monsters.

In defense jump scares are a necessary element in horror movies. Without them, audiences wouldn't be able to get the fight-or-flight adrenaline they paid for. But I'll say there must be a limit per movie. Especially when I want to know the world and story of the movie. As written in an article by Katie Rife and company(How to make a good horror movie: 9 lessons from the genre’s latest triumphs,AVCLUB,3/11/15) "Horror, like action, is a genre that relies heavily on the manipulation of formal elements—the control of perspective, for example, or the way editing can be used to create stretches of pregnant tension or sudden, expertly timed jolts."

For the next three days, I will be writing articles on different horror genres. They will focus on what I like about them, what I dislike and which are the best to my perspective.

And for all horror lovers. Just know that I"m kind of a pansy when it comes scary stuff, so don't be offended.