This has been my favorite style of horror lately. Any horror-ish or adjacent genre recommendations that share this concept would be appreciated as well.
For anyone who doesn’t know what I mean, it may be simpler to provide examples than to try explaining it myself.
Danielewski’s House of Leaves may be the most well-known example of this. It’s the book that really got me fixated on “environment as antagonist” as a concept in horror.*
*Here I should specify — supernatural or non-mundane horror. Stephen King has a book about a young girl getting lost in the woods in which the environment could be seen as the antagonist. But it is not an active aggressor as we see in House of Leaves.
The Left Right Game is a podcast that fits this precisely. Travelers delve deeper into a new world by following specific directions in their vehicles, and the further they get the more hostile the world becomes toward them. Wasn’t a fan of the ending but the overall concept was chefs kiss. It’s based on a series that was posted on r/nosleep which I have not yet read.
A Roadside Picnic is another book I really adore. It intersects with the idea i’m going for in some ways, although the Zone is too passive or indifferent. It is a dangerous place, but it is what it is and does what it does regardless of anyone’s presence within it. Whereas in HoL and TLRG, the behavior of these environments is very much pointed at those individuals who venture within it.
This shows up in video games as well. I’m thinking of the Backrooms games and I was sort of getting these vibes from Control, although I didn’t enjoy the narrative enough to play long enough to really learn much about “The Oldest House”.
That’s what’s coming to mind at the moment. Hopefully that provides a framework for the sort of horror concepts I’m searching for?
Thanks so much!
by bench_wizard