The Frighteners by Peter Laws

The Frighteners: Why We Love Monsters, Ghosts, Death & Gore by Peter Laws
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - in and out over 3 days

Pages - 320

Publisher - Icon Books

Source - Bought at horrorcon

Blurb from Goodreads

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.


My Review

Peter Laws is a minister who just happens to love horror, that in itself perks your attention, it isn't something you hear every day to be fair. Laws delves into horror, the movies, themes, actual true events, his experiences and how he came to embrace the genre he loves despite his "day job".

I really want to go visit Transylvania after reading this, he went for a big birthday and describes what the place is actually like, the people and things to check out. Just from reading about it, the crosses everywhere, you could totally envision it, I really want to go and check it out, the place of so many movies/legends/stories.

He takes us on a journey of some of his favourite movies, what it was that allowed his to embrace his love of horror rather than give it up as he did with so much with his faith. He also chats about how folk react to him when they realise he is a man of the cloth. From hunting down legends of a werewolf, speaking to folk who genuinely believe they transform, examining true horror acts from humans, how kids and adults process some of the most atrocious acts, it is a really interesting read.

The book has a few places he has visited and at the back of the book he references things mentioned that you can check out for further reading. I think it is a book I will go back to as there are quite a few movies and things mentioned new to me that I won't remember off the top of my head. For fans of horror who want something a wee bit different I recommend picking up a copy of this, 4/5 for me this time!

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