The Dionaea House

Possibly one of my favorite modern horror stories... Epistolary horror lit adapted to the World Wide Web... Gave me chills the first time I read it... And I'm not generally one for reading stories online.

The Dionaea House

Apparently the plan is to turn this unique gem into a movie, though I highly doubt that it'll translate as well as it does in its current format. The problem with adapting something like this to the big screen is that it resides within a certain branch of the haunted house mythos that is ultimately difficult to depict; the sub-genre of the possessed house. Think Amnityville Horror, Poltergeist, The Shining. I use the term "possessed house" to contrast to the hunted house sub-genre of the slasher, such as Halloween, Friday 13th, and even to a greater extent, Alien.

In the latter sub-genre, the House merely serves as a medium; a means to trap our heroes and provide our monsters with a vehicle in which to haunt, stalk, and kill. In the former sub-genre, the House is the monster. Unless you are an individual with a penchant for the supernatural, the former sub-genre generally requires a bit more suspension of disbelief. Sure, there are the elements of the supernatural in Mike Meyers and Jason, but it doesn't fully come to fruition until the later episodes in the series. And I am more likely to believe in the unleashed psycho-killer than I am in a possessed house (think the Simpsons' spoof in their first Treehouse of Horror).



GOD, I love the Simpsions; What ever happened to them?

But I digress...

I think that the modern possessed haunted house story is going more in the direction of Japanese horror artisans such as Takashi Shimizu, director of Ju-on (The Grudge) or Reincarnation, one of the "8 Films to Die For" in 2006. Sure, the "monster" still is the House, but the House takes the physical manifestation of its ghosts and skeletons (literally) that extends beyond the its walls for the purpose of pure revenge (and not just of the Indian Burial Ground type).

At any rate, I guess the point that you can find within this tangled web of ranting is that The Dionaea House is a quality read... Definitely check it out. 'Tis the season, aftere all.