CANDLELIT CHRONICLES: HISTORIC HAUNTS

Monsters? Or SuperPower?

If you could create your very own monster, what would it look like?


What would it be called? What types of things would it do to scare people?


Where does the monster live?


Tell me everything there is to know about your


monster.





My immediate thought was of Dr. Victor Frankenstein's creation, but no. That's not going to fly. Too apparent. Of course, people are going to be frightened of something put together from spare parts. Also, humans are frightened and repulsed, unfortunately, by disfigurement (the Phantom of the Opera; Beauty and the Beast).


So I'm taking my page from beloved author H. G. Wells (yes, I'm a fan). I'm going to choose a “power” or “gift” that I've always longed (since childhood) to possess, and a quality of Horror that is always my chief criterion when “judging” a Horror story or novel.

INVISIBILITY

Yes, you read that correctly. In an era and a culture in which Celebrity, Youth, “Beauty” (as judged by who knows what?), and “ME ME ME LOOK AT ME ME ME” is the rule, this individual desires, praises, and sometimes accomplishes, INVISIBILITY.





Advantages:


You can overhear others.


You're not a target.


You can sneak up on people.


If you don't want a particular someone to see you, they won't.


Escape.





Now for Invisibility in Horror: those who are Antiques, like me, or those who are film buffs of 50's B-movies, like me, will remember the original “BLOB.” (1958) Remember that viewers (and characters-in-danger) never actually SAW The Blob, we only heard it (I'll never forget that sound); and what you can't see (humans are visual creatures, after all) is far more terrifying than watching, say, a skyscraper-size arachnid terrorizing a city. Okay, maybe not that example.

INVISIBILITY





Gotta Love It.


Gotta Own It.