But what is so scary about a concept? It's just an idea, an idea can't make you feel fear, pain or confusion right?
Wrong young pack of meat, there are plenty of ways to create horror around a concept. Do you remember fairy tales, the ones that were told to you as a child, or perhaps, in newest generations, the one's you saw on TV or on a nostalgic youtube channel or remake for kids? The ones in which you a story only there to tell some warning, either moral, be good, don't be naughty, don't be greedy etc etc, or to not do something, generally local folklore to prevent kids from going to or doing dangerous stuff or being kidnapped. These kind of conceptual stories have been here since forever. Every generation has there own to tell. But how does this apply to horror?
Let's use a house intruder as a metaphor. You know there is someone in your house, you can feel them watching you from the bathroom door lock to the hallways that lead to the bedroom. It's a big house, but even though you grew up and took care of your siblings none of your parents or members of your family pay any attention.
They say "he is a teen".
"It must be a prank",
"he is in that fase where they want "privacy"",
"aren't you too old for an imaginary friend?", the intruder finds it fascinating, how easy this is
"maybe he went nuts " says your siblings who you took care of, "we've seen him beating some kid the other day, and he doesn't have any friends" , you thought this kid was the intruder, now no one believes in you. violent kid, a burden, not even your baby brothers want to back you up.
"honey don't you wanna talk with someone" and there it is, the rejection. Once again, this time not for your brothers but even concerning your own life. They don't care jokes the intruder by writing this deep within your arm with a knife when you were asleep, or drugged, you can't have fallen so hard to not have noticed this, specially 13 hours after and now this hurts like hell.
Every day, no matter how much you pleaded to your parents, to your teachers, no one would believe in you, almost as if they are enchanted.
And every night new scars would show up, writing mockery all over you, every time you locked the windows and barricaded the doors, searching every corner for that monster and prayers to any god listening, the thing violated parts of your skin you didn't even realise could be cut that deep.
At some point you didn't even feel pain anymore. There was no more blood to be drawn, your parent couldn't give a shit, you remember before when your mother was still alive, how even a small cut would make her lose her mind and hold you. Well she is dead now, there is that cunt on her place. Birthing all these little shits she can't even care for without you. "D o y o u t h i n k i t s f a i r ?" And it's the first time the intruder spoke, while you laid on bed in that sweaty afternoon. From somewhere invisible to the eye. You suddenly feel his sharp knife cutting an old wound he made a week ago right where she threw a shoe at you for not cleaning your room enough. When you could barely walk anemic. " A n s w e r " he presses it down further. " Stop. stop. please. no no. please" you got used to begging but the thing never responded until now. " T h e n y o u k n o w w h a t t o d o ." Releasing your wound, now back to blue and red, you suddenly a vision of a clean house, silent, without all that noise, all those people. Where somehow you could still live depending on her even if from the skies. No sound was heard again. There was only a knife, a severely bruised boy and silence.
Soooo, this little taste of a concept in horror, there is this kid, who is marginalized by society in general and his own family after the death of his mother, very Cinderella like, see the parallel with fairy tales, but with a horror twist. There was a mysterious intruder i didn't care to develop because the monster in itself existing or not, was there to convey a feeling, of deep loneliness and abandonment after and during violence, it or he haunted the boy until he cracked and went for vengeance, not the fair cute moral kind, but for what he felt. Some one had to save him from something, even if this someone was him, if were to elaborate this further, i could make the monster real, not a metaphor, it still haunts that house as the intruder, the kid won't be satisfied or won't be safe even after cause he will be even lonelier. And why is that concept scary ? cause it's too familiar from real life. We've all seen or been kids like that.
I might have done this in a too amateur way but there is a much better version of horror by concept available on youtube, The Mandela Catalogue. An analog horror web series by Alex Kister. They use elements like analog media and shitty quality with weird beings and religious imagery to create a horror based on this concept "what if something else is hearing all of your prayers?" , "What if the angels deceived you? ", " What if there are creatures that looks like us but are not us making everyone die by mere contact? ", as you see, betrayal, the creatures from this alternative universe psychologically torture their victims with the goal of assuming their identities as doppelgangers. The entire concept is explored very well throughout the videos with even some enigmas to solve to understand the whole picture.
a silent place with the fear of things that are too quiet and so the movie is almost entirely silent until that small crack that makes your heart get out of your mouth, and what happens behind the screen when a creature gets you, the survival, the constant watching over something so simple like accidentally coughing, crying, screaming from pain or laughing if you forget. The unknown alien creature scary as hell and the people you sympathize from the beginning.
