A grave state – an exploration of the horror genre today

Ever since I started reading horror in my teens, people have been declaring the death of the genre, yet horror novels continue to be written and published. You often hear of folk being nostalgic for the horror boom of the 80s, but really was that such a renaissance of the field? For all the great writers such as Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King, Dennis Etchison there were dozens upon dozens of terrible hacks riding the bandwagon, producing awful works packaged with images of demons ravaging women or dripping skulls. Nostalgia is a powerful force, but it often skews true vision.

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