Anyone giving a cursory glance to horror fiction today might think it's dominated by zombies, vampires and cod-literary mashups – tropes of supernatural fiction inserted into classic texts, with varying results. But a New Puritan-style mini-movement is gathering pace in the horror fraternity, one that plans to deliver shocks closer to home. It's time to cross the threshold and join the Campaign for Real Fear.
The Campaign for Real Fear is the creation of Christopher Fowler – author of many critically acclaimed urban horror stories and the quirky Bryant & May detective series – and blogger Maura McHugh. It was born out of McHugh's frustration with what she sees as the genre's failings to be fully representative.
On her blog Splinister, McHugh has twice blown the whistle on instances of perceived bias: in September, she pointed out that a British Fantasy Society book of interviews with horror writers contained no women. Last month, she highlighted the same issue with SFX magazine's horror special. Both of those rows are well-documented and led to widespread internet debate (and, to be fair, apologies and explanations from the targets of her ire). Now, with Fowler's support, McHugh seems to be focusing her energies on doing something positive about the situation. Setting out the Campaign for Real Fear's manifesto on his blog, Fowler writes: "Our nascent horror movement is beginning to grow... We're hoping to change the outmoded habits of the past, aiming for some positive discrimination leading to fresh new strands of writing that will benefit readers and publishers alike. The Campaign for Real Fear starts here." Both Fowler and McHugh were at the World Horror Convention in Brighton at the weekend, spreading the word.
Despite the talk of positive discrimination, the Campaign does not aim to address the imbalance in the genre by putting together an all-female anthology; rather, the idea is about celebrating diversity. "What are the horror myths for the 21st century?" asks their mission statement. "Sure, we all love our werewolves and vampires, but where are the new monsters for our age? Where are the characters that reflect the diversity in our streets and neighbourhoods? What are the stories that tap into the terrors of modern life? We want to read them, in 500-word bites."
Fowler has always been fascinated with "real fear" and his stories are littered with desolate tower-blocks, haunted council estates and nasty surprises in the fried chicken. On one of his early blog ruminations, which led to the launch of the Campaign for Real Fear, he recalled a truly terrifying anecdote that had not a supernatural entity in sight: "On the subject of diversity – and its lack – I was talking to a film director mate of mine who is making a film with a largely black cast, who was told 'Well, you've just lost a third of the world's sales.' Now you start to see what we're up against."
He and McHugh have teamed up with Black Static – the progressive and very classy dark fiction stablemate of veteran SF mag Interzone – which will publish the 10 best 500-word stories submitted to the Campaign for Real Fear.
The "competition", if it can really be called that, is aimed at everyone: hobby scribblers and pro writers alike. It will be interesting to see how diverse the final submissions are: the Campaign website says that after an initial rush of stories with a 50-50 gender split, there are currently more submissions from men than women.
The Campaign for Real Fear is gathering stories until 16 April. Rules are on the website, and if you're thinking that you couldn't possibly scare the pants off anyone in 500 words, then think on this from the Campaign FAQs: "I've been terrified by fewer words in a blog post detailing a rape, or a series of tweets from the middle of a war zone. If you can't scare us in 500 words today, you won't do it in 5,000 either."
