• Extracts from:

• The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
• Carrie by Stephen King
• The Carver by Jenny Jones

• Interviews with:

• Jenny Jones – a Point Horror writer, who looks at how horror writing allows us to confront the evil within us.
• Celia Rees – another Point Horror writer, who discusses 'the disruption of the ordinary' in the horror genre.
• Kim Newman – writer and critic, who points out that the external threat in a work of horror can expose the evils within society.
• Ramsey Campbell – writer, who explores character and the way fiction allows us to face human characteristics that we would not usually wish to face.
• Stephen King – writer, who talks about fear and the creation of fear in the mind of the reader.

• A group of schoolchildren telling the urban myth of The Babysitter.

• Film clips from Halloween and Scream 2.

Texts and Film Extracts

[VCR counter numbers may vary slightly on different machines.]

00.45: The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe

The reading, which opens the programme, focuses on the central theme of the inherent evil within man. The horror genre is justified as a way of confronting and understanding this destructive influence: 'it enables us to envisage how we might behave under stress'.

01.37: The Babysitter

At nightfall, huddled around their Halloween fire, a group of young people listen to the story of The Babysitter.

03.00: The Tell-Tale Heart (continued)

In this extract, surrealistic camera work complements narration that offers a glimpse within the protagonist's mind.

05.22: Carrie by Stephen King

Two extracts warn of how familiar victimisation at school by peers may transform the victim into fighting back monstrously. Text and camera work together powerfully to internalise for the audience the dilemma from the victim's point of view.

Kim Newman comments on King's power as a writer. King explores everyday America by introducing a threatening external horror figure, who expresses the horror that is already present in society.

Stephen King discusses the effect he intends to produce in his readers.

10.45: The Babysitter (continued)

Suspense grows as the oral telling of The Babysitter develops.

11.35: Discussion

Jenny Jones talks about the importance of engaging with the central character. 'I love reading horror novels if I feel very involved with the hero or heroine... I want to feel they've been resourceful, strong, courageous.'

12.03: Halloween

Following the film clip's illustration of generic conventions and stereotypical characters, writers comment on the inner resources which the ordinary person can call upon to confront horror.

13.40: The Carver by Jenny Jones

The narration is accompanied by images of carved puppets hanging in a forest, and the commentary explores the idea that in horror fiction even inanimate objects can be imbued with some form of life, to great effect. Fear is discussed, and the cathartic effects of experiencing this fear via fiction or film are explored.

15.13: The Babysitter (concluded)

The Babysitter reaches a dramatic climax.

16.00: Scream 2

Two film clips exemplify how ordinary people in familiar, comfortable surroundings, cope with terrifying situations.

The programme concludes with an examination of the idea that these forms of horror are safe:

'You can shut the book or finish the film ...

It might help you understand your own nightmares as well.'